A slip conveyor assembly (10) having a plurality of slip conveyors (11 to 16). Each slip conveyor (11 to 16) has a tray (18) providing a conveyor surface (20) along which product is delivered. The trays (18) are arrangeable and caused to reciprocate so that product may be conveyed in either longitudinal direction, with at least two of the trays being arrangeable to provide a gap (32) therebetween to provide for delivery of product from the conveyor assembly (10).

In the packaging of snack foods as well as other products it is not uncommon for a considerable number of packaging machines and their associated weighing apparatus to receive product from a conveyor assembly. Such a packaging machine is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,917. Typically, the conveyor assembly will have gates along its length with product taken from each gate and delivered to an associated one of the packaging machines. These conveyors with their gate assemblies are complex. Accordingly they are generally expensive, difficult to maintain and in particular difficult to clean. This is a major issue where the product is a food.
A known type of conveyor is a slip conveyor. A slip conveyor includes a longitudinally extending tray with a surface along which the product is conveyed. The tray is longitudinally and in some instances also vertically reciprocated (oscillated) to cause the product to move from an upstream position to a downstream position on the tray. It is known to use slip conveyors in series. The trays are located so that the upstream end of one tray is located beneath the downstream end of the next adjacent upstream tray so that product is conveyed therealong. Product is removed from the conveyor assembly by displacing one of the trays so that there is no longer an overlap. Accordingly product then falls between the two adjacent trays. Such arrangements overcome the need for gates. However these arrangements have a number of disadvantages including positioning of the trays where there is a significant number of trays arranged in the assembly. In particular, if a number of trays are activated, appropriate gaps between adjacent trays may not occur.
Slip (vibratory) conveyors are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,042,643, 5,494,151, 5,777,232, 5,804,733, 5,865,297, 6,044,710, 6,206,180, 6,318,542, 6,374,985 and 6,457,577, as well as U.S. patent applications 2002/0125109 and 2004/0112715 and Australian patent application 2005225102.
The conveyors described in the abovementioned USA patents and patent applications do not address the abovementioned problem associated with assemblies including a plurality of trays (conveyors).


A biological optical measurement apparatus including an applied unit having plural light irradiating probes for irradiating an object with light and plural light detecting probes for detecting light returning from the object, and worn by the object, a measuring unit for measuring the amount of light detected by the light detection probes, a two-dimensional image constructing unit for constructing two-dimensional topographic images from the measurement result of the detected light amount, and a monitor for displaying the two-dimensional topographic images, is further equipped with a three-dimensional image constructing unit for making the two-dimensional topographic images correspond to measurement positions and superposing the two-dimensional topographic images in order of measurement time to thereby construct a three-dimensional image, the thus-constructed three-dimensional image being displayed on the monitor.

In a conventional biological optical measurement apparatus, an intensity signal of detected light is displayed as a topographic image on a two-dimensional display screen representing measurement positions. The topographic image is created by measuring a time integration value (or time average value) of a relative variation amount of a measured hemoglobin concentration and linearly interpolating a value between respective measurement points (for example, see Patent Document 1).
Patent Document 1: JP-A-9-19408

Biological optical measurement apparatus


An implantable lead includes a distal portion carrying a tissue-stimulating electrode having an outer surface and an inner surface, at least a portion of the outer surface of the electrode being adapted to stimulate cardiac tissue. At least one of the surfaces of the stimulating electrode includes an overlay of a sulfonated thermoplastic elastomer/rubber for minimizing adhesion and tissue ingrowth while passing sufficient electrical current to stimulate the tissue. The overlay may comprise a coating, film, tube, sleeve or other encapsulation. Sulfonated block copolymers of styrene-ethylene-butylene-styrene (SEBS), styrene-ethylene-propylene-styrene (SEPS), styrene-isoprene-styrene and styrene-isobutylene-styrene are effective to inhibit the formation of thrombus at the shocking electrode. In addition, when these copolymers absorb body fluids, they swell and infiltrate the interstices of the electrode coils thereby inhibiting tissue ingrowth. Furthermore, such materials, while non-porous, are conductive and thus do not impede the flow of electrical current at sulfonation levels above at least about 30%, with the optimal level residing between about 40% and about 70%. Although the above-described sulfonated block copolymers are preferred, other hydrogel-like materials may be employed including p-HEMA (polyhydroxymethacrylate), PEG (polyethylene glycol) acrylates, and cross-linked PVP (polyvinylpyrrolidone), and polyurethane hydrogels.

An automatic implantable cardioverter defibrillator (AICD) or implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) detects ventricular fibrillation and delivers a series of countershocks of sufficient energy to terminate the fibrillation. Such an ICD utilizes an electrode system either attached to the outer surface of the heart by means of a large surface area patch electrode, or inserted transvenously into or near the heart. Such an ICD system may be combined with a pacemaker function.
Transvenous defibrillator leads for correcting ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation include uninsulated, helically wound shocking electrodes, formed of round wire, and rely on direct contact between the electrode and tissue or blood within or near the heart to deliver electrical energy to the heart.
The shocking coil of a chronically implanted, transvenous defibrillator lead poses two significant, yet different, problems. First, because the surface of a helical shocking coil is contoured and has a large area, it tends to encourage tissue ingrowth, that is, the growth of tissue into the interstices of the exposed coil windings. This tissue ingrowth can make removal of the lead difficult and in the event of post-op infection can present a significant risk to the patient in the event removal of the lead is required because of an uncorrectable device malfunction. Extensive surgical intervention may be required with a concomitant lengthy recovery time. Secondly, transvenous defibrillator leads with shocking electrodes formed from round wire and inserted within the superior vena cavae have a tendency to encourage the attachment of red blood cells and platelets (thrombus). More specifically, the high energy densities can produce instantaneous temperatures high enough to denature surface proteins, damage platelets and alter cell membrane potentials to such an extent as to initiate thrombosis. A lack of hemocompatibility as described can result in emboli which pose serious risks, the accumulation of thrombus at the shocking electrode being potentially damaging to the patient since these can lead to a decrease in blood flow, infarct or stroke.
It is known to coat or otherwise cover a helically wound transvenous defibrillator electrode with an electrically conductive polymeric material for inhibiting tissue ingrowth, thus reducing the risk to the patient in the event removal of the lead becomes necessary. One such material is PTFE, a porous, biocompatible insulating material that becomes conductive as body fluids penetrate the pores. The small pore sizes, however, tend to inhibit tissue ingrowth.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,090,422 discloses an ICD lead including an endocardial helically wound electrode covered with a thin coating membrane of biocompatible porous material relatively inert to bodily fluids. The material is preferably constructed of a polyurethane foam or other biocompatible, relatively soft polymeric material that can be produced within the desired range of pore sizes. Particular materials that are disclosed in the '422 patent include woven, porous polyurethane and porous polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) used with a wetting agent or with a modified surface. The '422 patent proposes materials having an average surface pore size less than about 15 to 20 microns to ensure a dissection plane which precludes significant tissue ingrowth yet allows the penetration or passage of bodily fluids thereby reducing the electrical resistance and minimizing ohmic losses in the system.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,480 relates to an implantable cardiac pacemaker lead covered with an insulating sheath made of porous PTFE instead of the more commonly used silicone rubber or polyurethane. The sizes of the pores are selected to combine high flexibility with sufficient imperviousness to body fluid. The insulation can have areas of varying porosity along its length. For example, in the vicinity of the electrodes, areas with large pores serve to ensure that this part of the electrode will grow in after the implantation.

Thrombus and tissue ingrowth inhibiting overlays for defibrillator shocking coil electrodes


The invention provides a discharging method by which charge can be removed readily, uniformly and efficiently from a surface of a working object even where the surface has a complicated charge pattern of a large number of small positive and negative charged portions present closely to each other at random in a mixed condition. A working object is passed between a positive and negative ion producing discharging electrode and an ion attracting electrode opposed to the positive and negative ion producing discharging electrode and having a face extending in a travelling direction of the working object and a perpendicular direction. During such passage, high positive and negative voltages are applied alternately to the positive and negative ion producing discharging electrode to alternately produce positive and negative ions. Simultaneously, a high ac voltage is applied to the ion attracting electrode to induce positive and negative potentials in the working object so as to attract the positive and negative ions produced by the positive and negative ion producing discharging electrode by the induced potentials of the working object.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a discharging and dust removing method and a discharging and dust removing apparatus for removing electric charge and dust from a working object in the form of an electric insulating member such as a plastic film, a plastic plate, a plastic card or a paper sheet or web while it is travelling.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various methods of discharging (removing electrostatic charge from) such a processing or working object as mentioned above are already known. One method of discharging a plastic film is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. Showa 63-301495. In order to allow discharging of a working object which is travelling at a high speed and eliminate reverse charging by over-discharging, the method involves two stages of discharging operations including high frequency discharging and dc discharging and also involves feedback control of the dc discharger. In particular, a travelling object in a somewhat charged condition is first discharged by high frequency corona discharging by a high frequency discharger. Then, a potential and a polarity of residual electrostatic charge of the travelling object after completion of such high speed discharging processing are detected by means of a potential detector, and the dc discharger is automatically controlled in response to the thus detected potential and polarity so that it may cause dc corona discharging, which has the opposite polarity to that of the residual charge and is to cancel the residual potential, to occur from the dc discharger to remove the residual charge by neutralization.
However, with the discharging method, since an expensive high frequency discharger must be used and a potential and a polarity of residual charge of a travelling object after high frequency discharging processing must be detected to automatically control the magnitude and the polarity of the voltage to be applied to the dc discharger by feedback control, the control system is complicated and a high cost is required for the entire discharging apparatus.
When a plastic film is fed under the guidance of a roller in a process of manufacture and working of the plastic film, since the plastic film repeats its friction with and exfoliation from the roller, charging (frictional charging) and electrostatic discharging (exfoliation discharging) are repeated. Further, where the plastic film is a film to undergo printing, the surface of the film is treated by corona discharging in order to change the quality of the same to assure a high printing performance. As a result of such frictional charging and exfoliation discharging as well as corona discharging processing, an invisible charge pattern wherein a very large number of small positive and negative charged portions having very complicated shapes are formed closely to each other at random in a mixed condition is formed on each of the opposite front and back faces of the plastic film in accordance with manners of charging and manners of discharging. FIG. 8 illustrates an example of such invisible charge pattern which was made visible by scattering toner powder (black fine particles) of the negative polarity, which is normally used with a copying machine or the like, on a surface of a plastic film immediately after exfoliation from a roller so as to cause the toner powder to directly stick to the surface of the plastic film electrostatically and then transferring the sticking toner powder image, using a copying machine, to a paper sheet to obtain the figure shown in FIG. 8. Black portions to which toner powder stuck were positively charged portions while bright portions to which no toner powder stuck were negatively charged portions, and the intensity of the black color represents the magnitude of the electrostatic potential there.
Even if it is tried to measure, using a potential measuring instrument, a charge potential of a plastic film which exhibits such a charge pattern in which small areas of positive and negative potentials are present in a complicated mixed condition, it is only possible to measure an average polarity and potential over a wide area, which depends upon the performance of the potential measuring instrument. In particular, since a small positively charged portion and a small negatively charged portion positioned in the proximity of each other exhibit a closed electric field and exhibit an electrostatically neutralized condition with each other on the surface of the film, such small portions have little influence on the measurement of the potential measuring instrument, and it cannot be avoided that the potential measuring instrument provides only a macroscopic result of measurement over a wide area.
Further, when a face of a film is discharged using a conventional discharger, ions produced by the discharger flow by a greater amount as the charge potential of the face of the film increases, but where the charge potential is low, such ions flow little. Accordingly, when small positive and negative charged portions exhibit an electrostatically neutral condition, no ions from the discharger will flow there, resulting in failure of discharging there.
However, according to conventional discharging methods including the discharging method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. Showa 63-301495 mentioned hereinabove, a polarity and a potential of charge are estimated from a result of such macroscopic measurement as described above, and charging conditions are decided uniformly in accordance with the thus estimated polarity and potential of charge (a voltage to be applied to a discharging electrode and so forth are set), and then positive and negative ions from a discharger positioned in a spaced relationship from a film are merely irradiated one-sidedly toward one face of the film. However, the opposite face of the film is left as an open face free from a grounding member or the like. Consequently, if the face of the film has such a charge pattern as described above thereon, then it has a large number of portions which have not been discharged microscopically. Consequently, even if a discharging step is performed repetitively, small uneven not-discharged portions remain to the last, resulting in deterioration of the quality of a product in which the plastic film is used as a material. For example, in the case of a product in the form of a film such as a magnetic tape wherein a magnetic material, a coating agent and so forth are to be applied to the surface of a plastic film employed as a base, it is impossible to apply such magnetic material or coating agent uniformly to the surface of the plastic film due to a discharge pattern. Or, in order to eliminate uneven not-discharged portions, a very high voltage must be used. In this instance, a discharging action of one of the positive and negative polarities is liable to become excessively strong, which may give rise to reverse charging (charging of the opposite polarity). Thus, an additional discharging step is required to remove the charge of the opposite polarity, which deteriorates the efficiency.
Such situations are not unique to those products wherein a plastic material is employed, but similarly apply to those products wherein a glass plate is employed (for example, a glass base plate for a liquid crystal display or the like).
Further, in order to remove dust or the like sticking to a face of a film in addition to discharging, also it is a common practice to jet air or irradiate an ultrasonic wave to the face of the film. However, where the film has such a complicated charge pattern as described hereinabove formed on the face thereof, dust or the like which sticks to the face of the film by a Coulomb force by charge cannot be removed uniformly.

Discharging and dust removing method and discharging and dust removing apparatus


The magnetic head comprises two magnetoresistance effect elements and a soft magnetic film connecting end portions of the magnetoresistance effect elements with each other. The two magnetoresistance effect elements and the soft magnetic film are arranged in series so as to form a single magnetic circuit, and a magnetic gap is provided in the side of a surface facing a magnetic medium. Magnetic flux from the magnetic medium is introduced into the magnetoresistance effect elements through the magnetic gap. An insulating material may be used to fill the magnetic gap.

The present invention relates to a magnetic head for use in a magnetic disc drive.
In recent years, a reproducting head consisting of a magnetoresistance effect element has been used with use of a hard disc drive or the like has been performed with a higher density. As for the magnetoresistance effect element, attempts have been made to adopt a spin-valve film or an artificial lattice film which generates a giant magnetoresistance effect due to spin-dependent scattering of conduction electrons. In addition, for the purpose of miniaturization of the entire head, developments have been made to an integrated magnetic head which combines a reproduction head comprising a magnetoresistance effect element and a recording head consisting of an induction type magnetic element.
In order to respond to a much higher density with this kind of magnetic head, it is required to reduce the flying height of the head from a recording medium as much as possible, and desirably to make the magnetic head operated in contact wit the recording medium. The lifetime of the magnetoresistance effect element, however, is expected to be extremely shortened due to abrasion when the element is in contact with the recording medium. Therefore, it is desirable to arrange the magnetoresistance effect element apart from the surface which faces the recording medium of the substrate of the reproducing head so that the magnetoresistance effect element might not have a direct contact with the recording medium, and to operate the head by means of a yoke for guiding magnetic flux from the recording medium. In this case, however, there is a problem that the reproducing sensitivity is reduced.

Magnetoresistance effect head in which a magnetoresistance effect element and a soft magnetic film form a single magnetic circuit


An emergency backup system, method and computer program product for backing up data on one or more computers located in an identified danger zone. When an emergency occurs, computers in the danger zone are connected to a network. The computers may be distributed at various remote locations. The protected locations each include a sensor for sensing an emergency situation and signaling the local computer of an impending emergency. The sensor also signals remote computers of the occurrence of the emergency. The computers may have been connected together over a network or, upon receiving an emergency signal, may connect together into a backup network. Local computers in the danger zone are connected across the network to remote computers with sufficient available storage to backup data from a connected local computer. The backup may be a full backup, a partial backup or a selective backup. The computers may include PCs, PDAs and servers. The network may be a LAN, a wireless network, a phone network or a WAN.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to disaster recovery and, more particularly, to disaster recovery for computer systems and methods therefor.
2. Background Description
During an emergency information stored, maintained or in use on a computer may be lost. Such information may be the result of days or even weeks of work and, therefore, may be very valuable. So, surge protectors are used to protect computers from a power surge. An emergency universal power supply (UPS) may be used to avoid losing data during a power failure. An UPS provides sufficient power to keep the system running after a power failure long enough to store data in nonvolatile storage located in the computer system and, then, conduct an orderly shut down. After the power failure, the data may be recovered, reloaded onto the computer and the computer may resume operation, where it left off prior to the power failure.
However, if an emergency arises that is more severe than a power failure, such as a fire, even the data normally stored in the computer""s nonvolatile storage may be lost, permanently. If the data is lost completely, it must be regenerated to recover from the emergency. Typically, regenerating the data may require redoing previously done work and so, regenerating the data may take as long as it took to generate it initially and at nearly the same cost.
Accordingly, there is a need for disaster recovery for computer systems.
It is a purpose of the invention to improve computer system disaster recovery.
The present invention is an emergency backup system, method and computer program product for backing up data on one or more computers located in a danger zone. When an emergency occurs, the computers in the danger zone are connected to a backup network The computers may be distributed at various remote locations. Protected locations are locations that include a sensor for sensing an emergency situation and signaling local computers of the pending emergency. The sensor also signals remote computers of the emergency. The computers may have been connected together over a network or, upon receiving an emergency signal, may connect together into a backup network. Local computers in the danger zone arc connected across the network to remote computers that have sufficient available storage to backup data from the connected local computers. The backup may be a full backup, a partial backup or a selective backup. The computers may include PCs, PDAs and servers. The network may be a LAN, a wireless network, a phone network or a WAN.

Emergency backup system, method and program product therefor


The configuration of a liquid crystal switch capable of reducing attenuation in an optical switch, and an optical reception device and an optical switch network that use this liquid crystal switch device are described. The liquid crystal switch device includes optical switches that perform ON/OFF switching of light beams by applying a voltage to the liquid crystal. The attenuation is further reduced by installing the ends of the optical fibers in depressions (or holes) that are formed in the substrate on which the switch elements are formed and in the liquid crystal encapsulation substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical reception device and an optical switch network that are used in a communication network or an interconnected network of parallel computers.
2. Description of the Related Art
An optical switch that uses liquid crystal is described in Reference 1: Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 273603/1993. In this optical switch device, a first waveguide unit is provided on one surface of a liquid crystal panel having N rows and M columns and a second waveguide unit is provided on the other side. The first waveguide unit has N branching waveguides each having one input and M outputs, the branching waveguides being arranged such that the M output terminals of each branching waveguide are directed toward optical shutters in the column direction of the panel without overlap. In addition, the second waveguide unit has M condensing waveguides each having N inputs and one output, the condensing waveguides being arranged such that the N input terminals of each of these condensing waveguides are directed toward optical shutters in the row direction of the panel without overlap. This configuration can provide an optical switch device that, compared to the prior art, enables a greater reduction of crosstalk, facilitates packaging, and facilitates handling of wavelength division multiplexed optical signals.
An image display device that employs ON/OFF control of light by means of liquid crystal is described on page 52 of "Technology of Reflective Color Crystal Displays" (CMC BOOKS Co., Japan, 3-1999).
An optical switch network in which optical switches are used to switch optical signals is expected to serve as a means for realizing a high-capacity network that cannot be attained by a conventional electrical network. So far, optical switches that take advantage of the electro-optic effect or acousto-optic effect of crystals such as lithium niobate and optical switches that employ semiconductor optical amplifiers as gates have been designed, and various configurations have been proposed regarding optical switch networks that employ these components (for example, Reference 2: Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 197078/2000)
When an optical switch network is constituted using, for example, optical switches that employ the electro-optic effect and acousto-optic effect of crystals such as lithium niobate or optical switches that use semiconductor optical amplifiers as gates, the volume occupied by the optical switches alone becomes considerable as the number of switches in the optical switch network increases. For example, a 1000×1000 switch matrix by switches measuring one cm square would require a space measuring 10 m×10 m if the switches are arranged on a plane. Accordingly, the switch devices and the optical reception devices and optical switch network that include the switch devices, would result in an extremely bulky construction.
To overcome this problem, liquid crystal may be used to constitute the switch matrix. The use of liquid crystal enables a minimization of the area of switch units to several tens of μm, and, since the use of liquid crystal facilitates integration, a substantial reduction in the size of the switch matrix. The size of the optical reception devices and optical switch network can be reduced correspondingly.
The above example that indicates that liquid crystal can be used in an optical switch device accords with the prior art. Although the concept of using switches that are constituted by liquid crystal arranged in matrix form to switch optical paths is described in the optical switch device that is disclosed in Reference 1, nothing is disclosed regarding the actual construction that enables ON/OFF switching of the liquid crystal.
On the other hand, the element configuration that enables ON/OFF switching of liquid crystal in an image display device that uses liquid crystal is described on page 52 of the above-described "Technology of Reflective Color Liquid Crystal Displays" by CMC BOOKS Co. Still, no example exists that mentions the method of installing optical fiber in a liquid crystal optical shutter.
However, the portion in which an optical fiber is fitted to a liquid crystal shutter in an optical switch that uses liquid crystal is an important technical point that strongly influences overall performance. More specifically, the positional relation of each of the end portions of the pair of optical fibers on the input and output sides has a major bearing on performance.
First, it is important that the end surface (the contact surface of the end surface when the end surface is curved) of each optical fiber be mutually parallel. If the end surfaces are not parallel, the beam that is emitted from the optical fiber on the emitting side will not be directed precisely into the optical fiber on the input side, with the result that even though a beam is incident, the beam will not be precisely propagated in the input optical fiber, resulting in a large attenuation of light.
Second, it is important that the optical axes of the optical fibers be precisely aligned. If the optical axes are not aligned, the beam that is emitted from the optical fiber on the emitting side will not be directed precisely into the optical fiber on the input side.
Third, it is important that the two ends of the optical fibers be as close together as possible. The beam that is emitted from an optical fiber is diffused, and separation between the emitting end and input end therefore results in the input of only a portion of the emitted beam, resulting in significant attenuation.
When considering the installation of the input and output optical fibers in a liquid crystal display device of the prior art, solving the above-described first and second points has been problematic, but added to these two points, solving the third point has been insurmountable. This is because the substrate for encapsulating the liquid crystal in a normal liquid crystal display device is incorporated in the substrate for forming the liquid crystal driving circuits, and decreasing the gap between the two end portions is therefore difficult when the liquid crystal display device is installed between the input and output optical fibers.

Optical switch device, and optical reception device and optical switch network in which the optical switch device is applied


A zoom lens system includes, in order from an object side to an image side, first, second, third, and fourth lens units having positive, negative, positive, and positive optical powers, respectively. The first lens unit includes one negative lens element and two positive lens elements, and moves during zooming. The zoom lens system satisfies the following condition:0.05<f1/(st1×ft/fw)<0.21.5<β3T/β3W<3.6where f1 denotes a focal length of the first lens unit, st1 denotes a distance between positions of the first lens unit at a wide-angle end and at a telephoto end, fw and ft denote focal lengths of the entire system at the wide-angle end and at the telephoto end, respectively, and β3W and β3T denote lateral magnifications of the third lens unit at the wide-angle end and at the telephoto end, respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to zoom lens systems and image pickup apparatuses including the same suitable for video cameras, digital still cameras, broadcast cameras, silver-halide-film cameras, and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recent image pickup apparatuses, such as cameras including video cameras, digital still cameras, broadcast cameras having solid-state image pickup devices and cameras used with silver-halide films, have high functionality and are of small size. Zoom lens systems serving as image taking optical systems to be included in such image pickup apparatuses are desired to be compact with a short total length and a high resolution.
Further, such zoom lens systems are desired to have a wide angle of view and a high zoom ratio.
In response to such demands, there is a known four-unit zoom lens system that includes four lens units, in which a first lens unit having a positive optical power, a second lens unit having a negative optical power, a third lens unit having a positive optical power, and a fourth lens unit having a positive optical power are arranged in that order from an object side to an image side.
As examples of such a four-unit zoom lens system, U.S. Pat. No. 7,333,274 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-50244 disclose rear-focusing four-unit zoom lens systems, in which a first lens unit, a second lens unit, and a third lens unit are moved to change the magnification while a fourth lens unit corrects variations in an image plane caused by the change of magnification and performs focusing.
Further, among such rear-focusing four-unit zoom lens systems, US Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0091460 discloses a zoom lens system in which a still image is obtained while the entirety of a third lens unit is shifted in a direction perpendicular to the optical axis.
In general, the size of a zoom lens system can be reduced by reducing the number of lens elements while increasing the optical power of each of the lens units included in the zoom lens system.
However, lens elements of a zoom lens system configured in such a manner tend to become thick because of the increase in the optical power of each of the lens units. Therefore, the total length of the zoom lens system may not be reduced sufficiently and correction of various aberrations may become difficult.
To realize a high zoom ratio, compactness of the entire zoom lens system, and satisfactory optical performance in the rear-focusing four-unit zoom lens systems described above, it is important to make appropriate settings for each of the lens units, including the optical power and lens configuration.
In the rear-focusing four-unit zoom lens systems described above, it is particularly important to make appropriate settings of the optical power, lens configuration, and moving distance of the first lens unit that moves during zooming, the lateral magnification of the third lens unit, and so forth. If these settings are not appropriate, it is very difficult to realize high optical performance throughout a zoom range while maintaining a high zoom ratio.

Zoom lens system and image pickup apparatus including the same


In crystallization of a silicon film by annealing with a linear-shaped laser beam having an ununiform width of the short axis of the beam, the profile (intensity distribution) of the laser beam is evaluated, and the result is fed back to an oscillating condition of the laser beam or an optical condition which projects this onto the silicon film, whereby a display device comprising a high-quality crystalline silicon film is produced. In the present invention, (1) the energy distribution of the linear-shaped laser beam is measured by a detector type CCD camera moved stepwise in the directions that its long axis and short axis extend, respectively, (2) a value obtained by dividing an accumulated intensity E in the long axis direction obtained by accumulating the detected signals in a direction parallel to the short axis by the square root of the width W of the short axis of the linear-shaped laser beam in each position in the long axis: E/√{square root over ( )}(W), is determined in all the positions of a cross section of the linear-shaped laser beam. Since a laser power which is suitable for lateral crystal growth of the silicon film has a close correlation with E/√{square root over ( )}(W), this value is used as an evaluation result mentioned above in the present invention.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display panel, and particularly to a manufacturing method for forming active elements formed on an insulating substrate constituting the display panel.
The present invention is suitable for manufacturing a display device using an insulating substrate with active elements formed in a strip-shaped poly-crystalline semiconductor film, obtained by reforming an amorphous or granular poly-crystalline semiconductor film formed on one of the main surfaces of the insulating substrate constituting the display device so as to expand crystal grains into a substantially strip-like shape by irradiating the film with laser light (also referred to as laser beam).
2. Description of the Related Art
In current display devices, which are so-called display panels and flat displays such as liquid crystal and organic electroluminescence display units, an image is formed by switching active elements (thin film transistor: TFT) of a plurality of pixel circuits consisting of an amorphous or poly-crystalline silicon film on a substrate of glass, fused quartz or the like with an insulating film interposed therebetween. A substrate on which pixel circuits are formed is referred to as an active matrix substrate, TFT substrate, or is simply referred to as an active panel or a substrate.
If peripheral circuit (hereinafter also referred to as pixel driver circuits and the like or simply as driver circuits) including a pixel driver circuit for driving pixel circuits can be simultaneously formed on such a substrate, a dramatic reduction in production costs and improvement in reliability are expected. However, when an amorphous silicon is used as a silicon semiconductor film (hereinafter also referred to as silicon thin film or silicon film) constituting an active layer of a thin film transistor constituting a pixel driver circuit and the like, the performance of the thin film transistor, of which typical example is mobility, is low. Thus, it is difficult to manufacture a pixel driver circuit and the like, for which high speed and high function are required, from an amorphous silicon.
In order to manufacture such a high-speed and high-function pixel driver circuit and the like, a high-mobility thin film transistor is required. To realize the high-mobility thin film transistor, it is necessary to improve the crystallinity of the silicon thin film. As a method for improving the crystallinity, excimer laser annealing has been getting a lot of attention. According to this excimer laser annealing (ELA) method, mobility is improved by irradiating an amorphous silicon film formed on an insulating substrate of glass or the like with an insulating film interposed therebetween with excimer laser so that the amorphous silicon film is transformed into a granular poly-crystalline silicon film.
However, in the granular poly-crystalline silicon film obtained by the ELA method, the grain size is about several tens to hundreds of nanometers. Thus, the granular poly-crystalline silicon film is deficient in performance to be applied to a pixel driver circuit or the like for driving a pixel transistor in a display device at a high speed.
As a solution to this problem, Patent document 1 discloses a method of forming so-called strip-like crystals in which a polysilicon portion is scanned and irradiated with a time-modulated continuous-wave laser beam (laser beam) condensed into a linear form (a rectangular form in which the width of the long axis is extremely greater than that of the short axis) at a high speed in the direction which crosses the longitudinal direction (long axis) of the linear form so that crystals are laterally grown in the scanning direction. According to this method, the entire surface of the substrate is poly-crystallized by the excimer laser annealing, and then only a region where driver circuits are formed is scanned by the above-mentioned laser beam condensed into a linear form in the direction which coincides with the current path (drain-source direction) of the formed transistor so that crystal grains are grown in the scanning direction (lateral direction) in the form of strips. As a result, the mobility is greatly improved by the absence of crystal grain boundaries which traverse the current path or by reforming the crystal grains into minute strip-like crystalline silicon. This method is herein referred to as SELAX (Selectively Enlarging LAser X'tallization) method.
In the SELAX method, to obtain a uniform strip-shaped crystalline silicon film, the laser beam is shaped into a linear form whose intensity distribution along the above long axis of the laser beam has a flat top and width of the short axis is reduced to a few microns. At this time, the width of the short axis of the linear-shaped beam is ununiform in some cases due to the influences of the lens aberration of the laser optical system and the like. Since there have been no techniques for quantitatively evaluating the beam profiles of laser beams which can deal with this situation, a variation in the crystal quality occurs. This is one of the factors that limit an improvement in the yield of the products. To mitigate the variation in the crystal quality in the SELAX step and to mitigate a decrease in the yield of the products, it is necessary to establish a method of evaluating the beam profile of the laser beam which has a direct correlation with the quality of the crystalline film, and to control the beam profile of the laser beam based on the evaluation.
An example of the documents which disclose known techniques relating to evaluation of the beam profile of laser beam is Patent document 2. Patent document 2 discloses the ELA crystallization, in which the beam profile of the laser beam is controlled by calculating energy density by detecting a part of the laser power and a part of the width of the short axis of the beam profile of the laser beam all the time and feedback-controlling a transmittance adjusting mechanism so that the energy density is kept constant all the time.
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-124136
[Patent Document 2]
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-102323


In one aspect, the present disclosure can be embodied in a method that includes dividing a Bezier curve representing a portion of a vector image to be rendered on a display of a computing device into a set of curve segments. Each of the curve segments is approximated using a circular arc from a set of circular arcs. An approximation error for each of the curve segments is determined. A spring constant is calculated as a function of the respective approximation error determined for each of the curve segments in the set of curve segments. The spring constant represents a relative magnitude of the respective approximation errors calculated for the approximated curve segments. The lengths of curve segments are adjusted based on the respective spring constant calculated for each curve segment in the set of curve segments.

The present disclosure relates generally to digital imaging and computer graphics, and particularly, to rendering vector image data on a display.
Bezier curves are parametric curves that are generally used in computer graphics applications to model smooth curves with a more simplified geometric definition. A Bezier curve may be defined using an equation or function based on the type of the curve and, thus, the number of control points defining a shape of the curve. However, the use of some Bezier curves may not be ideal for some graphics operations. For example, it may be difficult to calculate a relatively accurate distance from a given point in space to a Bezier curve, particularly with respect to a cubic or higher-order Bezier curve, an operation performed in various types of applications, e.g., applications for rendering vector graphics or tracking the movement of a pointer device between different points of a user interface. This is primarily due to the relative complexity of equations defining such Bezier curves. It may be possible to simplify operations involving a Bezier curve further by approximating the Bezier curve with one or more circular arcs, as the equations defining circular arcs are relatively less complex and thus, may require fewer calculations. However, as Bezier curves have varied curvatures that generally do not resemble circular arcs, the approximation of a Bezier curve or curve segment with a circular arc generally produces some degree of error that may need to be estimated, e.g., for purposes of generating more accurate approximations.


An elapsed time indicator (2), comprises an activator arrangement (25) comprising a fluid reservoir (20) and a conduit (22) configured to provide a predetermined flow rate of fluid (21) along the conduit (22). The elapsed time indicator (2) further comprises a visual display arrangement (18) configured to change appearance on exposure to the fluid (21). The conduit (22) connects the fluid reservoir (20) to the visual display arrangement (18). The activator arrangement (25) is configured to release fluid (21) from the fluid reservoir (20) in response to an activation event to permit the fluid (21) to flow.

Many products, particularly in the food and pharmaceutical industries, degrade, decay or perish over a finite lifetime. The rate at which such products degrade may depend on the environmental conditions. Accordingly, such products are often inserted into a container under controlled environmental conditions and the container is sealed so as to isolate the products from an environment external to the container and thereby keep the products fresher for longer. On opening such a container for the first time, the products contained within are exposed to the external environment and degradation of the products typically accelerates relative to a rate of degradation of the products when in the sealed container. Accordingly, it is conventional to specify both a shelf life for products contained in a sealed container prior to opening the container and a period within which the products should be used after first opening the container.
A problem with storing products in containers in this way is that, without recording the time of first opening a specific container, it is difficult to determine to what extent the products contained within the container have degraded and, in particular, whether the period within which the products should have been used after first opening the container has expired. In the case of food or pharmaceutical products, consumption of such products after expiry of the period within which the products should have been used after first opening the container may represent a health risk. Various solutions to this problem exist. However, the known solutions may be expensive to manufacture, inaccurate or unreliable.
For some applications, particularly in the oil and gas industries, it is also known that a device may have a finite lifetime or a predetermined service interval. The device may, for example, be configured for insertion downhole or for use in a subsea environment or the like. The device may comprise an assembly, a tool, a tubing string or the like. However, known methods of monitoring the time elapsed from activation of such a device may be expensive, inaccurate or unreliable.


A method of orienting a misaligned spray tip in a reversible turret of a paint spray gun by tapping the turret to rotate the tip until a key and keyway of the tip and turret are aligned. In one embodiment of the method, the turret is held in the left hand and tapped with the right hand to cause counterclockwise rotation of the tip. In another embodiment, the turret is held in the right hand and the turret is tapped with the left hand to cause clockwise rotation of the tip in the turret. Once the tip is oriented in the turret, an elastomer washer and hollow retaining screw are installed in the turret behind the tip to seal and retain the tip in the turret, and the turret is installed in the paint spray gun.

This invention relates to the field of portable paint spraying equipment of the type having a high pressure, airless spray head assembly having a replaceable tip in a tip holder (which holder may be a reversible turret). More particularly, the invention relates to orienting the spray tip in the holder as is necessary in the process of installing a replacement tip in the holder.

Method of orienting a spray tip in a holder


A method and an apparatus for a duty-cycled injection locked oscillator is provided for frequency shift keyed (FSK) signal transmissions. The oscillator includes a resonance LC tank and a first switching device. The first switching device is coupled to the resonance LC tank and injects an initial current pulse with a predetermined pulse magnitude into the resonance LC tank. The initial current pulse also fixes an initial phase of the duty-cycled injection locked free-running oscillator in response to the predetermined magnitude of the initial current pulse to enable fast settling of injection locking and high data rate operation of the duty-cycled injection locked oscillator. The oscillator also includes a second switching device, such as a differential pair of switching devices. The second switching device is coupled to the LC resonance tank for injecting a gated periodic reference signal having a duty cycle modified to reduce power of the reference signal by approximately seventy-five per cent.

In biomedical applications, tethering wires impose significant restrictions on the subject under investigation and limits the free movement. Therefore, a wireless transmitter is usually preferred to send out electro-biophysiological signals. For example, in the neural signal recording of a free-moving live subject, the recorded signal could substantially differ from that of a movement-restricted subject. In order to have concurrent access to multi-channel information in neural signal recording applications, the required transmission data rate is approximately 100 Mbps with 100 channels, even when on-the-fly signal processing and time-domain multiplexing techniques are applied.
Power consumption is also a key constraint to wireless transmitters in biomedical applications, especially when the transmitter is implanted. When powered by a battery or by wireless telemetry, the transmitter is designed to consume low power to avoid frequent battery replacement or excessive exposure of live subjects to electromagnetic waves. However, high data rate communications is difficult to realize in a limited power budget environment. For example phase-locked loop based oscillators typically are limited to generation of low data rate signals and require high power consumption. In conventional transmitters for low power biomedical applications, power consumption may be reduced by employing open-loop frequency synthesis techniques, such as open-loop voltage controlled oscillators. Such techniques, though, result in the generated frequency being inaccurate and unstable over process, voltage, and temperature variations, making demodulation at the receiver side more difficult.
Low power yet accurate frequency synthesis can be obtained through known injection locking techniques. For example, a free-running oscillator will lock to the fundamental or harmonics of an injected reference signal under the condition that the targeted harmonic is within the locking range of the oscillator. The major benefits of injection lock LC oscillators include low phase noise and low power consumption. However, the use of injection lock LC oscillators is limited to low data rate communications, even though LC oscillators are preferred for better phase noise performance. One major problem with injection lock oscillators is the variable locking time, which could be as long as three microseconds.
In biomedical applications, frequency-shift keying (FSK) modulation schemes are preferred due to their inherent superior performance in bit-error rate (BER) and interference rejection. The problem of indefinite locking time, however, still exists. For FSK modulation, conventionally the reference signal is generated by hopping from one frequency to another.
Thus, what is needed is a method and apparatus for low-power transmission of signals at a high data rate. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the disclosure.

Method and apparatus for a duty-cycled harmonic injection locked oscillator

Agency for Science, Technology and Research


Methods, apparatus, and computer-readable media are provided for ensuring compatibility between an operating system and a BIOS redirection component. According to one method, in conjunction with the execution of the BIOS redirection component, a determination is made as to whether the operating system has allocated one or more resources of a computing system in a manner that indicates that a conflict between the BIOS redirection component and the operating system may occur. If the operating system has allocated resources in a manner that indicates that a conflict may occur, computing resources utilized by the BIOS redirection component may be preemptively released in a manner likely to eliminate the possible conflict.

Many desktop and server computer systems utilize a basic input/output system ("BIOS") to control various aspects of the computer system. In particular, the BIOS is commonly utilized to perform a power on self-test, to initialize the various hardware components within the computer system, to provide an interface between an operating system executing on the computer system and the hardware, and to perform various other functions.
One type of function provided by the BIOS in some computer systems, is a remote management function. In particular, some computer systems include the ability to redirect the text screen display of the computer through a serial (RS-232) connection to a remote terminal or terminal emulator. Keystroke input may be received from the remote terminal through the serial connection and provided to the computer system as if the keystrokes were generated locally at the computer system. This process of redirecting the text screen displays and keystroke input (referred to herein as "serial redirection") is commonly utilized by system administrators to administer remote server computers that may not be equipped with a display or a keyboard.
A BIOS redirection component program is responsible for transmitting the text displays to the remote terminal and for receiving keystroke input from the remote terminal. When utilized in conjunction with some 32-bit operating systems, the BIOS redirection component will be overwritten as the operating system performs its initial program load ("IPL" or "boot") and takes control of various system resources, including system memory. Overwriting the program does not cause a conflict within the computing system. However, serial redirection is no longer possible once the program has been overwritten. This is acceptable because most of the common functions performed using serial redirection (e.g. modifying BIOS settings, selecting boot devices, specifying boot options, etc.) have been completed prior to booting the operating system.
When a BIOS, redirection component program for performing serial redirection is used in conjunction with other 32-bit operating systems that provide a GUI, a serious conflict can arise. In particular, a serious conflict can arise that causes the computer system to crash when the operating system overwrites the system resources utilized by the BIOS redirection component program. In many cases, the conflict renders the entire computing system unusable. Because the conflict only occurs in conjunction with the use of certain operating systems and only when serial redirection is enabled, this conflict can be a very difficult condition to diagnose and can be extremely frustrating for a system administrator.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the present invention has been made.

Method, apparatus, and computer-readable medium for ensuring compatibility between an operating system and a BIOS redirection component


A communication module may include a communication ground layer. The communication module may also include a circuit board. The circuit board may be located proximate the communication ground layer. The circuit board may include a stitch layer. The stitch layer may be electrically coupled to the communication ground layer via a plurality of stitch layer vias. Additionally, the communication module may include multiple ground vias. The ground vias may be electrically coupled to a portion of the circuit board and to the communication ground layer.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described herein are not prior art to the claims in the present application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Communication modules, such as optoelectronic transceiver modules, may include various components that engage in the transmission and reception of optical signals. Some of the components may be housed within a shell of the optical transceiver module. Examples of such components may include a transmitter optical subassembly (TOSA) and/or a receiver optical subassembly (ROSA).
An optoelectronic transceiver module may include a transmit port and/or a receive port configured to optically couple to an optical fiber cable. Optical signals may be received and/or transmitted by the optoelectronic transceiver module via the optical fiber cable.
Optical signals received by the optoelectronic transceiver module may be converted to electrical signals. Conversely, the optoelectronic transceiver module may convert electrical signals to optical signals for transmission. During operation, components of the optoelectronic transceiver module may produce and emit electromagnetic fields, or electromagnetic interference (EMI), that may interfere with the operation of other components within and/or external to the optoelectronic transceiver module, particularly while the components operate at high frequencies.
The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one example technology area where some implementations described herein may be practiced.


A method for assisting a driver to locate a parking space includes identifying a user-selected destination with a navigation system of a first vehicle. While the driver of the first vehicle is being guided by the navigation system towards the selected destination, parking availability information is acquired from a first space allocation device (e.g., ticket vending machine), associated with a first parking zone. The parking availability information includes parking availability information for at least one second parking zone associated with a respective second, space allocation device, remote from the first space allocation device. The second parking availability information for the second parking zone(s) is communicated to the first space allocation device by at a respective second navigation system of at least one second vehicle. A parking zone is selected, based on the user-selected destination and acquired parking availability information transmitted from the first space allocation device.

The exemplary embodiment relates to identification of available locations and finds particular application in connection with a system and method for alerting a vehicle driver as to the locations of available parking spaces near a selected destination.
Navigation systems for vehicle drivers are now widely used due to the development of the Global Positioning System and applications able to compute a route from a local position to a selected destination. These systems are often able to propose alternate routes depending on user preferences and traffic conditions. If the driver wishes to park the vehicle upon reaching the destination, the driver will often search for a parking space at the destination and, if none is available, search nearby streets for an available parking space. This can be time consuming, especially when the driver is unfamiliar with the area and the parking spaces are mostly occupied. One solution is to employ an advanced navigation system to identify the closest parking location. However, such systems usually only have information on large public parking garages and parking lots which may be far from the selected destination.
There remains a need for a system and method which assist a driver in locating an available parking space which is close to the selected destination.

Route computation for navigation system using data exchanged with ticket vending machines


The present invention relates generally to methods for generating plants having altered phenotypes, and to plants so generated and parts of these plants. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method for modifying a plant so as to produce a plant exhibiting an altered phenotype. Particularly useful altered phenotypes contemplated by the present invention include plants having altered tissue architecture. The present invention further contemplates genetic sequences capable of facilitating the modification of a phenotype of a plant and to sequences complementary thereto and to derivatives of the sequences. Plants and parts of plants, such as flowering and reproductive parts including seeds, also form part of the present invention. The ability to modify the phenotype of a plant may be useful for, inter alia, producing plants with more highly desired characteristics, such as delayed flowering, increased lateral branching, delayed senescence and the like.

Bibliographic details of the publications referred to by author in this specification are collected at the end of the description.
Reference to any prior art in this specification is not, and should not be taken as, an acknowledgment or any form of suggestion that this prior art forms part of the common general knowledge in Australia or any other country.
Recombinant DNA technology is now an integral part of strategies to generate genetically modified eukaryotic cells. The past decade of plant molecular biology has seen the identification and cloning of thousands of genetic sequences, of both genomic and cDNA origin, from hundreds of plant species. With the recent development of advanced rapid techniques for cloning and sequencing and the completion or near-completion of the sequencing of entire genomes, such as for example for Arabidopsis and rice, attention has been re-focused on to the characterization of isolated sequences and the elucidation of their in vivo function.
One approach for carrying out these studies involves the production of a range of mutant plant lines exhibiting loss-of-function or gain-of-function phenotypes, and the subsequent selection and characterization of the mutant phenotypes produced. Techniques are available for the genetic transformation of a number of plant species and for the modulation of expression of genetic sequences, such as by the introduction of sense and/or antisense copies of particular genetic sequences.
In recent work leading up to the present invention, the inventors sought to identify modified phenotypes having potential commercial interest. In accordance with the present invention, the inventors have now identified a genetic sequence capable of modification of a plant's tissue architecture. The plants so generated exhibit commercially useful traits.


Disclosed is a method and system for freezing a biopharmaceutical fluid which is hold in a disposable container. The method includes the steps of arranging the container on the heat transfer surface area, cooling the heat transfer surface area to cool the bottom surface of the container until freezing and forming a layer of ice or an ice block of biopharmaceutical fluid inside the container; dislodging the ice layer or ice block frozen to the container. The steps of cooling the heat transfer surface area and dislodging the ice layer or ice block are repeated until the container is filled with a matrix of frozen biopharmaceutical fluid and liquid biopharmaceutical fluid, the liquid biopharmaceutical fluid occupying interstitial passages between ice layers or ice blocks of biopharmaceutical fluid. The cooling is then maintained until the freezing of the entire biopharmaceutical fluid held in the container.

Preservation of biopharmaceutical fluids is important in the manufacture, use, transport, storage and sale of such materials, and in general in the medical field. Biopharmaceutical fluids are often preserved by freezing between processing steps and during storage. Similarly, biopharmaceutical fluids are often frozen and thawed as part of the development process to enhance the quality or to simplify the development process. When freezing biopharmaceutical fluids, the overall quality, and in particular pharmaceutical activity, of the biopharmaceutical fluids is desirably preserved, without substantial degradation of the biopharmaceutical fluids. More particularly, the freezing of liquid products can increase the stability of the product and thereby prolong the shelf life of those liquid products. However, the freezing of such materials has to be conducted according to stringent criteria in order to avoid any degradation of the biopharmaceutical fluid to freeze. In particular, the speed of freezing is an important criterion.
The preservation of biopharmaceutical fluid, particularly in bulk quantities, often involves, according to a first method, placing a container containing biopharmaceutical fluid in a laboratory freezer or blast freezer and allowing the biopharmaceutical fluid to freeze. Free or forced convection conveys thermal energy away from the container. Generally, the container is typically one or more liters in volume and may range up to ten or more liters. These containers may be stainless-steel vessels, plastic bottles or carboys, or plastic bags. They are typically filled with a specified volume to allow for freezing and expansion and then transferred into the freezers at temperatures typically ranging from negative 20 degrees Celsius to negative 70 degrees Celsius or below.
A second method which consists to place one or more walls of the container with an extended heat exchange surface that is cooled by refrigerant also exists.
Such methods are also called outside-in freezing process.
Such freezing methods do not allow a rapid freezing, in particular for container having large volumes and significant thickness. If the freezing is too slow, the active material may be subject to degradation from concentration gradient.
Actually, the above-mentioned freezing methods do not allow a rapid freezing of container having for example a cubical shape. More particularly such freezing methods do not allow a rapid freezing for systems having a large freeze path length. Indeed, with such methods, ice is at first formed on the walls of the container. The ice formation rate is determined by the overall heat transfer coefficient between the solid/liquid interface of the biopharmaceutical fluid and the bulk heat transfer fluid. The bulk transfer fluid is either air in case of freezer or refrigerant in case of heat exchanger. As the freezing process progresses, the rate of freezing falls because the resistance to heat transfer through the ice layer increases. In certain cases, the resistance to heat transfer through the ice layer becomes the dominant resistance and is the rate-limiting step.
In such cases, the only way to speed up the freeze in a container of given geometry in such an outside-in freezing process is to use lower and lower freezing temperatures. For example, cryogenic temperatures ranges are used. The cryogenic temperature range is from −150° C. to −273° C.
However, the use of always-lower temperature can become costly and even sometimes hazardous to operators.
Such speed problems are also addressed by adjusting container dimensions so that the freeze path length is relatively short, for example, the freeze path length is less than 50 millimeters. However, such solution has limits because for larger container volumes, the width and length of flat containers become unwieldy.
The specific properties of biopharmaceutical fluids have also led to the development of others containers specially adapted for freezing, for example having a slightly flared shape as described in EP 1,441,586. EP 1,407,302 describes another system that is particularly suitable for trapezoidal containers. Recently, an improved freezing system for bags was disclosed in WO 2011/063381.
However, to perform an efficient freezing with such systems, the containers must have specific shapes.
The publication US2007/0137842 deals notably with the problem of cooling biopharmaceutical fluid. The described system comprises a vessel in which a plurality of heat transfer surfaces is arranged.
The use of such system implies to provide a plurality of heat transfer surfaces. The structure of the system is complicated and the position of the heat transfer surface within the interior volume of the vessel implies the use of a vessel having a particular shape.
The embodiments of the present invention have objectives to mitigate the drawbacks discussed above.

Method and system for freezing biopharmaceutical fluid


A method of determining the thickness map of a film (14) overlying a substrate (14). This method includes illuminating (10) the film simultaneously from different angles and analyzing spectral intensity of the radiation reflected by each point on the film (14). The analysis is effected by collecting reflected radiation from the film (14), passing the radiation through an interferometer (16) which outputs modulated radiation corresponding to a predetermined set of linear combinations of the spectral intensity of the radiation emitted from each pixel, simultaneously and separately scanning optical path differences generated in the interferometer (16) for each pixel, focusing the radiation outputted from the interferometer (16) on a detector array, and processing the output of the detector array to determine the spectral intensity of each pixel thereof to obtain a spectral intensity distribution. Finally, the method includes further processing the spectral intensity distribution to determine the spatial distribution of the thickness of the film (16).

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for spectral analysis of images to determine the thickness of a thin film, and particularly for spatially resolving film thicknesses of a coating deposited over the surface of a silicon wafer or other similar materials (for example, a flat panel display).
Measuring film thickness by reflectance spectroscopy is well known: see for example P. S. Hauge, "Polycrystalline silicon film thickness measurement from analysis of visible reflectance spectra", J. Opt. Soc. Am., No. 8, August 1979, and the book by Milton Ohring: "The material science of thin films", Academic Press Ltd., 1992. In today's microelectronic device manufacturing processes, the uniformity of the deposited films over a wafer is gaining importance as time goes on, because a good uniformity insures identity among the finished product chips. The size of the chips is also decreasing, so that the uniformity tolerance is becoming stricter. In addition, to insure high yield (low rejects) and efficient (low cost) manufacturing, the wafer inspection requires higher automation, shorter time, higher accuracy, and wider thickness range.
As a result, the film thickness map of the wafer, as one of the many inspections done during the manufacturing, must be done accurately, fast, on a large number of points (test sites), and at a wide thickness range.
Today, film thickness mapping instruments are based on ellipsometry or on reflectance spectroscopy. Only the latter is addressed herein. As examples of prior art in this field we mention the SpectraMap SM-300 and the FT-500 of Prometrix. The spectra are measured point by point by moving the wafer on a translation stage, in order to complete one thickness map. This takes time, it requires high movement accuracy, because of the high spatial resolution required, and increases the wafer handling, which is practical only when the wafer is outside a deposition chamber (therefore it cannot be done in-situ). In fact, the fastest thickness mapping mentioned by present manufacturers of film thickness equipment is hundreds of points in a few seconds.
There is thus a recognized need for, and it would be highly advantageous to have a method and apparatus for determining the spatial distribution of the thickness of a film overlying a substrate, more quickly, with higher spatial resolution (more test sites), without the need to move the wafer with respect to the measuring instrument when going from a test site to another (higher accuracy, and less wafer handling with the potential for in-situ monitoring), and easily measure the widest thickness range possible.
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for mapping film thickness on Silicon wafers or similar substrates, which does not require moving the wafer (making the results faster and spatially more accurate, and potentially capable of being done in-situ), reaching tens of thousands of pixels in a few seconds (not hundreds as stated in the present commercial literature), and which has the potential to measure, in the same time as other potentially competing methods (mentioned below), a wider thickness range.
A spectrometer is an apparatus designed to accept light, to separate (disperse) it into its component wavelengths, and detect the spectrum. An imaging spectrometer is one which collects incident light from a scene and analyzes it to determine the spectral intensity of each pixel thereof.
The former measures the spectrum only at one point, therefore, with such an instrument, the wafer must be moved point by point relative to the instrument, and will have the above mentioned drawbacks of long measurement time and position accuracy.
The latter, i.e., an imaging spectrometer or spectral imager, can be of different types: a technology similar to the one used for resource mapping of the earth surface from airplanes and satellites could be used for film thickness mapping (see, for example, J. B. Wellman, Imaging Spectrometers for Terrestrial and Planetary Remote Sensing, SPIE Proceedings, Vol.: 750, p. 140 (1987)). However, this technique is based on grating technology to spectrally disperse the light: this brings the following drawback.
A grating has higher order diffraction: in order for it to be useful for spectral measurements, its spectral range must be limited by blocking the wavelengths outside a so called "octave" of wavelengths, for example 0.4 to 0.8.mu.; therefore an instrument based on a grating cannot have a wavelength range wider than one in which the ratio between the higher and the lower wavelength is larger than 2. This problem can be solved by measuring separately different octaves by rotating the grating to different angles, or by using several gratings simultaneously. However, these solutions increase the measurement time or complicate the instrument optics. The same problem is encountered by liquid crystal and acousto-optic crystal tunable filters. The importance of the wavelength range is related to the film thickness range to be measured by the instrument. In fact, as is well known in the optics literature, high precision film thickness measurements are difficult to obtain by reflection spectroscopy when the thickness t of the film is less than (.lambda./4)n, where .lambda. is the minimum wavelength of the instrument sensitivity range, and n is the refractive index of the film. Therefore, the wider the wavelength range to which the instrument is sensitive, the wider the thickness range that it can measure.
It is also well known (see, for example, the book R. J. Bell, "Introductory Fourier Transform Spectroscopy", Academic Press 1972), that interferometers do not have this limitation, and therefore can more easily measure a wider range of thicknesses.
Our U.S. Pat. No. 5,539,571, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety for all purposes as if fully set forth herein, discloses a method of analyzing an optical image of a scene to determine the spectral intensity of each pixel of the scene, which includes collecting incident light from the scene, passing the light through an interferometer which outputs modulated light corresponding to a predetermined set of linear combinations of the spectral intensity of the light emitted from each pixel; scanning the light beam entering the interferometer with respect to the interferometer or scanning the interferometer itself, to scan the optical path difference (OPD) generated in it for all the pixels of the scene separately and simultaneously; focusing the light outputted from the interferometer on a detector array, and processing the output of the detector array to determine the spectral intensity of each pixel thereof.
The above-referenced patent application provides a method and apparatus for spectral analysis of images which better utilizes all the information available from the collected incident light of the image to substantially decrease the film thickness measurement time, reach higher spatial resolution, and increase thickness dynamic range, as compared to other existing instrumentation. From here we can see how our method can give a thickness map of tens of thousands of pixels in a few seconds. Presently available detector matrices have 16,384 (128.times.128) pixels which are scanned at 1,000 frames per second (16 MHz). As a consequence, since each frame gives the separate and simultaneous information about the OPD of every pixel of the image (which is equivalent to the spectral information by Fourier Transform), at the end of a second all the needed spectral information is collected for all those pixels.

Film thickness mapping using interferometric spectral imaging


The inventive differential (57) Abstract: The inventive differential rotation speed transducer can be used for drives of general use machines and mechanisms. Said transducer relates to gears provided with intermediate members and comprises a wave generator and a transferring unit which is embodied in the form of coaxial cages (1, 3, 4, 5) mated to each other around a circle. Clutch surfaces are embodied in the form of periodical roller ways interacting with a chain of balls (2) on each clip along the trace of said circle. The cage (1) is linked to the generator and embodied in such a way that it affects rolling bodies in the direction selected from any directions on the plane of the axial section of the transducer. The unit comprising four cages is used for transferring increased power. Spaced in azimuth grooves are embodied on two cages which are oppositely disposed with respect to the chain of balls and mechanically connected to each other.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to motion transmitting devices with speed conversion and can be used for drives of general use machines and mechanisms. Said transducer relates to wave gears provided with intermediate members.
2. Description of the Related Art
The wave tooth gear is known (see "Reducers and motor—reducers of general use. engineering industry". Reference book/L. S. Boyko, A. Z. Visockyi and others.—M: Mashinostroyenie, 1984, pp. 22–29; RU No. 2019760). In general this gear consists of three basic members, which are: rigid tooth wheel, flexible tooth wheel and wave generator. Said wave tooth gears having the high transmission ratio (up to 1:350 for one step), however have low efficiency caused by losses of energy to deformation of flexible wheel and to friction between engaged teeth.
Friction between engaged teeth and losses of energy to deformation of flexible wheel are eliminated in wave gear with intermediate members, which are rolling elements. Here, a file of rolling elements (balls or rollers) serves as a flexible wheel of traditional wave gear. Radial wave gears with intermediate rolling members are described in patents RU 2029167, RU 2029168, U.S. Pat. No. 5,989,144. In said gears the wave generator being a cam produces a wave of radial moving to a file of balls. Devices in which wave generator is eccentric rotating disc or idler located on crankshaft and driven in rotation by said crankshaft, also relate to this type of transducers. Eccentric rotating disc or idler in said devices has cam side surface formed as a tooth profile with a radial direction of teeth (patents U.S. Pat. No. 4,584,904, U.S. Pat. No. 4,643,047, U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,323). Said speed transducers like to all mechanisms with eccentric members have asymmetric loading to shaft thereby causing beating and the increasing deterioration of details unless to apply balancing elements. In axial wave transducers with intermediate members the wave generator forces a file of rolling members (balls) in an axial direction. Such transfers may refer to as differently and have some differences in their designs (SU 559052, SU 1025941). Their general disadvantage is that balls during operating periodically lose continuous rolling contact resulting in significant decreasing in operating efficiency.
There are known so-called Sinusoidal Ball Drives which also can be related to wave gears with intermediate members (Ignatishchev R. M. <<General Information on Sinusoidal Ball Drives>>, <<Bulletin of engineering industry>>, 1986, No. 2, pp. 24–28). In cited article designs of "two-sinusoidal" and "three-sinusoidal" gears are offered in which no whole cam participates in eccentric movement but only rolling bodies that considerably reduces asymmetric of loading. A motion transmitting unit of "two-sinusoidal" gear consists of three in series members. Two outer members provided with cam surfaces in form of a groove defined by periodic curve on an azimuth. The intermediate member has openings for balls and carries out the function of planet carrier and a separator simultaneously. One of members with a cam surface is the wave generator. The groove of the wave generator may be either singly-periodic or multiperiodic. Proportion of the cam surfaces periods are depending upon number of rolling elements and submitting to the certain law. This principle is realized both for radial and for axial wave transfers. For radial "two-sinusoidal" gear there are developed several specific kinematics. Periodic grooves with a radial direction of a bend are executed on flat surfaces of disks faced each other, and a cage is realized as a flat ring with radial slots is located between them (see also SU 1019148, Ignatishchev R. M., the Mogilyov machine-building institute, 30.04.88). Weight imbalance in such gear is reduced, and it matters only for gears with the high torque because of large ball sizes.
For axial "two-sinusoidal" gear there is developed one kinematics (see also SU 825823, the same applicant, 30.04.81). A motion transmitting unit comprises three coaxial nested members. Cam surfaces are executed as periodic grooves with axial direction of bend on lateral surfaces of external and internal members faced each other, and the intermediate member has through longitudinal slots.
To increase the gear ratio the same author had developed, so-called, "three-sinusoidal" gear with axial moving balls (SU 1216498, 07.03.86). Periodic in an azimuth direction grooves are formed in each of members. For this purpose the intermediate cage is connected to the housing since periodic groove on it is through circular groove.
The designs patented by firm Synkinetics, Inc.(U.S. Pat. No. 5,312,306, U.S. Pat. No. 5,514,045, WO 94/18472, U.S. Pat. No. 5,562,564, U.S. Pat. No. 5,600,699, U.S. Pat. No. 5,722,910, U.S. Pat. No. 5,954,615, U.S. Pat. No. 5,989,145, U.S. Pat. No. 6,039,672, U.S. Pat. No. 6,125,711) and also the patent of U.S. Pat. No. 5,577,423 relate to "two-sinusoidal" gears. In the above speed transducers is realized a principle sinusoidal—ball gear above described.
Thus, sinusoidal-ball gears have the following advantages: high reduction ratio with compact structure, simplicity of a design and small dimensions at the high torque. A principle of configuration of motion transmitting unit of the converter, fixed in a basis of all above described designs, is closest to the offered invention. But setting-up of described design configurations of three consistently located details limits number of constructive variants of performance since the intermediate detail, namely separator, necessarily should have through slots. In such design depth of grooves and thickness of the separator are approximately equal each other and are ⅓ of rolling body diameter. The analysis of loads exerted on a ball shows that the force acting on a ball from grooves do not pass through the center of a ball and consequently have two components: radial and axial, thus only one of them performs useful work, and another only increases losses of energy by friction. Furthermore the points of application of these forces are edges of grooves that do not allow realizing point-to-point contact of balls to grooves. It causes the raised deterioration of balls and destruction of grooves in their edges by transfer of the high torque. As marked in article (Pashkevich M. F. The bulletin of mechanical engineering, 1985, No. 7, pp. 23–26), the weakest on durability a part of sinusoidal-ball gear is a cage. Increasing its thickness is impossible because of the point of application of the force on a ball is displaced from the center toward edge and useful component of force is decreased.
As a prototype of gear with radial wave moving balls is chosen planetary three-sinusoidal gear (SU 1276869, 15.12.86) which represents the speed transducer realizing a principle of wave gear with intermediate rolling bodies. Torque transmitting unit of this speed transducer consists of three disks at least two of which are coaxially each other. One of disks is connected to the wave generator and is driving member in this gear. Each of disks has a cam surface in the form of closed periodic groove bent in a radial direction and continuously contacting balls. The grooves of two disks are located on the surfaces faced to each other, and the groove of intermediate disk is located on its side surface. In the one of embodiments, in order to decrease slippage of ball, the wave generator's disk is connected to shaft through crankshaft, and a groove on it is annular groove. Torque transmitting unit of this mechanism is not mass balanced since balls are on different distances from an axis of rotation. Unbalance is even more increased in embodiment with crankshaft; therefore it loses the general advantage of sinusoidal-ball gear. In order to obtain high loading abilities it is necessary to apply special means of mass balancing, such as special cut at the bottom of a groove (see SU 1511495, 30.09.89.) or a v-shaped slot in eccentric disk. Furthermore to this "three-sinusoidal" gear all conclusions concerning to points of the application of forces and to the raised deterioration of balls and to destruction of groves made above are fair. Later the design of this "three-sinusoidal" gear was modified, since it was found out, that balls while follow simultaneously between crests and hollows troughs along of three grooves may deviate from the average angular positions thus causing deterioration of dynamics and even jamming in driving engagement. In order to eliminate these disadvantages, addition thin-walled cage with radial slots is entered between disks of torque transmitting unit which cage fixes balls at equal angular spaces from each other while they passage the critical points (see Ignatishchev R. M. "Three-sinusoidal ball transfer the Bulletin of mechanical engineering", 1987, 12, pp. 13–16). Such cage is no torque transmitting member, i.e. is non-loaded. At the same time, presence of the cage even more displaces points of application of forces acting to ball from an axis which pass through the centre of a ball, and thereby worsens distribution of forces.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a speed converter which is simplified in nature but is robust in transmission capability. It is a further object of present invention to provide speed converter design which is self-contained and multi-purpose similar to a bearing and which is adaptable to variety of situation. Invention results in development of the generalized basic design on basis of which it is possible to provide the various embodiments possessing general advantages: more compact and constructed of a minimum number of parts for its load rating, weight balanced, optimized load sharing among the torque transmitting elements, and also minimally possible useful volume of the torque transmitting unit allowing to use bearing seal and lubrication for life. On basis this design it is possible to develop a mechanism with the raised loading ability caused by of two-point contact of rolling bodies with grooves. The invention expands variety of designs and functions of wave gears thereby allowing to easily adapt the converter for any service conditions and to build it in the most various mechanisms. Speed converter according to the invention may carry out function of both a reducer and a multiplicator. Furthermore, speed reducer according to the invention is able to have with single input two ore more outputs or it is able to variable output in dependence of ratio of two inputs, and all these functions are realized in single torque transmitting unit, i.e. at one stage.

Gear-bearing differential speed transducer

Abstract: Said unit being provided with greater number of cages, the additional links having other gearing ratios occur. A thin-wall separator provided with through grooves for displacing the rolling bodies can be introduced between the mating surfaces of the cages. Said separator is embodied in the form of an rotation surface provided with one or two reinforcing ribs and a swell arranged in the space between roller ways. The cage of the generator can be embodied in a coaxial form with respect to other cages and mounted in such a way that it is precessional. In order to extend the range of gearing ratios, the roller way disposed on the side surface of the cage is embodied in the form of a closed groove zigzagging in an axial direction.

Joint Stock Company Tomsk Transmission Systems


A vessel with bridging means includes an upright column, a gangway, a first hinge connection for hingedly connecting the gangway to the column, coupling means at or near a free end of the gangway for coupling the gangway to an offshore construction, and one or more gangway support organs. The column is supported by and connected to the vessel by means of a second hinge connection designed to allow the vessel to rotate relative to the column in a first rotation direction around an x-axis and in a second rotation direction around an y-axis, wherein the x- and y-axes extend substantially horizontal and orthogonal relative to each other. Positioning means are provided which comprise force actuators between the vessel and the column for swiveling the column around the second hinge connection relative to the vessel around said x- and y-axis.

The transfer of cargo from a vessel towards an offshore construction in general takes place with a hoisting crane. The cargo then for example is placed upon a pallet or inside a crate which hangs down at hoisting cables and needs to be put down at a loading platform which is positioned at a considerable height above the water level, in particular above the maximum expected wave height. If there is no crane on the offshore platform itself, then a hoisting crane of the vessel needs to be present. Such a vessel crane in general is a special (heavy) crane which is preferably capable of compensating vessel movements to a certain degree. The vessel movements in relation to weather conditions however still limit the use of such cranes. Furthermore the pendulum effect of the hoisting cables limit the weight of the cargo which can be transferred. Also this type of cargo transfer can not be used towards unmanned offshore constructions.
The transfer of people from a vessel towards an offshore construction in general takes place via a gangway as bridging element placed in between them. For example EP-1 315 651 shows a transfer system for positioning a telescopingly extendable gangway with a fixed and a movable gangway section between a vessel and an offshore construction. A hydraulic piston extends between the fixed and movable gangway sections and is able to adjust the total length of the gangway. The fixed gangway section is pivotally connected, around a horizontal rotation axis, to an upper end of an upright supporting column by means of a hinge connection. A hydraulic piston extends between the supporting column and the fixed gangway section and is able to adjust the angle of inclination of the gangway. The supporting column itself is rotatably mounted, around a vertical rotation axis, on the deck of the vessel by means of a turntable. Hydraulics is provided for adjusting the rotational position of the assembly of the column and gangway around the turntable relative to the vessel. The movable gangway section at its free end is provided with hydraulically operable coupling claws which are designed to be coupled to a substantially vertical gripping bar which is mounted to the offshore construction.
During coupling the vessel is sailed and maneuvered to a suitable starting position relative to the offshore construction. Subsequently the gangway by means of suitable steering of the respective hydraulics is swiveled/rotated such that it is directed towards a center part of the gripping bar. Then the gangway is extended until the coupling device is able to enclose the gripping bar. At that moment the coupling claws are moved from an open position towards a closed position. The closing is such that the claws still have the freedom to slide upwards along the gripping bar. As soon as an aimed coupling position along an upper part of the gripping bar just beneath a loading platform is reached, the coupling claws are moved further towards each other in order to fixedly clamp the gripping bar there. Finally, all the hydraulics for positioning the gangway are set free, such that the gangway is freely able to extend or retract, change its angle of inclination around the horizontal rotation axis, and/or change its rotational turntable position around the vertical rotation axis. The vessel then at the same time is kept in place by means of a suitable driving of thrusters or the like in dependency of satellite navigation. Thus no big forces are exerted on the gangway and the gripping bar.
A disadvantage with this known transfer system is that it is less suitable to transfer heavy cargo loads of for example 2 tons or more from the vessel towards the offshore construction and vice versa. In particular during heavy weather conditions this could easily result in too big forces occurring on the gangway and supporting column. This in turn would require the gangway and supporting column to be constructed relative strong and heavy. Furthermore a coupling under heavy weather conditions may be somewhat difficult. Forces which occur at the time that the gangway hits the coupling bar are difficult to manage under such conditions.

Vessel provided with a gangway supported by a 2-DOF hinged upright column, in particular a cardan