An apparatus comprising an integrated circuit having (i) a number of regions each pre-diffused and configured to be metal-programmed and (ii) a plurality of pins configured to connect the integrated circuit to a socket. A logic portion may be implemented on the integrated circuit (i) configured to implement integrated circuit operations and (ii) having one or more I/O connections and one or more supply connections. A first group of the pre-diffused regions are metal-programmed and coupled to said I/O connections. A second group of the pre-diffused regions are metal-programmed and coupled to the supply connections.

Referring to FIG. 1, a number of programmable logic devices (PLDs) are shown. A PLD can include field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) 10 and platform (or structured) application specific integrated circuits (platform ASICs) 12. For performance reasons, FPGAs implementations run with a higher supply voltage (i.e., VDD1) than the ASIC (i.e., VDD2<VDD1) for a particular process node. Since the FPGA 10 runs with a higher voltage, applications using the FPGA 10 have higher power consumption and need better heat dissipation capabilities. Although the platform ASIC 12 can be configured to physically fit in the same socket as the FPGA 10, conventional ASICs are not normally "drop in"compatible due to the power supply voltage mismatch.
It would be desirable to implement a method and/or apparatus for distributed relocatable voltage regulators that allow replacement of an existing FPGA with a platform ASIC without implementing external parts or other board level modifications.

Distributed relocatable voltage regulator


The invention relates to a setting mechanism for a timepiece movement, including a setting gear train, a winder rod adapted to be moved from a first axial position termed a running position to a second axial position termed a setting position, a sliding pinion adapted to be moved from a first axial position in which the sliding pinion is disengaged from the setting gear train to a second axial position in which the sliding pinion meshes with the setting gear train, and a lever interengaged with the sliding pinion and adapted to pivot, when the winding rod is moved from a running position to a setting position and vice versa, in order to move the sliding pinion from the first axial position to the second and vice versa. The setting mechanism further includes, according to the invention, a device for immobilizing the setting gear train. This immobilizing device includes first and second immobilizing arms and an immobilizing wheel interengaged with the setting gear train. The first and second immobilizing arms are adapted, on the one hand, to the interengaged with the immobilizing wheel in a configuration termed locked in which the setting gear train is immobilized and, on the other hand, to be disengaged from the immobilizing wheel in a configuration termed unlocked in which the sliding pinion is free from meshing with the setting gear train. The immobilizing device includes to this end a locking/unlocking lever interengaged with the sliding pinion and adapted to cooperate with the first and second immobilizing arms in order to pass from the locked configuration to the unlocked configuration and vice versa when the winding rod is moved from a running position to a setting position and vice versa.

When setting the time, the hands must be able to turn easily, because of the action of the winding rod, but must also be driven securely when the watch is running. A friction system is generally provided for this purpose in order to guarantee easy adjustment of the time whilst ensuring reliable driving of the hands by the finishing gear train when the watch is running.
One well-known friction system is indenting, which consists in adjusting the cannon-pinion on the rod of the centre pinion to obtain "coarse rubbing" to enable setting without driving the finishing gear train. To this end, the thickness of the cannon-pinion is reduced in the middle and it is pinched by means of a tool dedicated to this purpose so as to form a projection that presses against a conical cut in the rod of the centre pinion.
However, indenting is a dedicate operation that demands rigorous control to be sure that the value of the torque generated by the friction between the cannon-pinion and the rod of the centre pinion is the optimum value. Actually, too low a friction torque can, in the event of shocks, lead to movement of the hands due to their out of balance. Moreover, too high a torque can cause deterioration of the setting gear train (sliding pinion/setting wheels/timer) or of the finishing gear train (centre/mean/second/escapement) during setting.

Setting mechanism for timepiece movement


Respiration monitoring equipment comprises, in one embodiment, a medical face mask (2), adapted to be located adjacent, or to cover a patient's nostrils and/or mouth; a transducer (7) adapted to be impinged by the patient's inspired and/or expired breaths, being sensitive to the presence and/or absence of a respiratory air flow, and being capable of emitting electrical signals in accordance with the presence and/or absence of a respiratory air flow; and a monitoring unit (9) electrically connected to the transducer (7) and responsive to the presence and/or absence of signals emitted by the transducer (7), and including means of triggering at least an alarm signal in the circumstances of non-detection of respiratory air flow within one or more predetermined parameters. Another embodiment provides for “cordless” monitoring, with a transmitter unit (11) at the face mask (2) and a receiver (12) at the monitoring unit (9).

Sleep apnoea is a major hazard in people of all ages and much innovative thinking has gone to develop various techniques for detecting the occurrence of apnoea. Many complex proposals have been made in efforts to provide suitable equipment. One example is described in EP 0484174, relies on battery power, on contacts and on other components that are subject to failure. Also, the possibility of using the piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties of PVDF (poly vinylidene flouride) films for developing transducers to sense the presence or absence of breathing, is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,311,875 which uses the PVDF film to sense the temperature differences between the inspired and expired breaths, and WO 97/05824. It is not known, however, whether any proposals have progressed beyond theory or experimentation.
Respiratory rate is one of the most important physiological parameters. It is a component of most medical and nursing records and is used in many clinical scoring systems. Extremes of respiratory rate indicate the need for urgent intervention. Even today, in the case of non-intubated patients, the measurement of respiration rate is based on human observation alone, although this is known to be highly inaccurate.
Pyroelectric sensitive transducers incorporated in a face mask can be used to provide a quantitative measure of the respiratory rate in an easy and affordable manner. Furthermore, suitable circuitry for a respiratory monitor incorporating a PVDF sensor is described in our co-pending Patent Application GB 0201095.7.
As breathing could be wholly nasal, wholly oral, or part nasal and part oral, with changes between the modes, particularly during sleep, a problem for all workers in the field is optimum creation of a transducer to ensure that the patients' breath, if breathing, will always impinge upon the transducer, so obviating any false reading.


The improved thermal recording apparatus using a thermal head comprises an image processing unit which receives image data from an image supply source and which performs sharpness compensation and other image processing jobs on the received image data to construct data for the image to be recorded thermally and thermistor for measuring a temperature of the thermal head, wherein the image processing unit changes the coefficient of sharpness compensation in accordance with the temperature of the thermal head. The thermal recording apparatus can sufficiently reduce the drop in image sharpness due to an increased temperature of the thermal head and, optionally, the drop in image sharpness due either to an increased recording speed or to a reduced gamma value of the thermal material or to both factors to ensure the consistent production of unblurred, high-quality images.

This invention relates to the art of thermal recording apparatus using a thermal head.
Thermal recording materials comprising a thermal recording layer on a substrate such as a film, which are hereunder referred to as thermal materials, are commonly used to record the images produced in diagnosis by ultrasonic scanning.
This recording method, commonly referred to as thermal image recording, eliminates the need for wet processing and offers several advantages including convenience in handling. Hence, the use of the thermal image recording system is not limited to small-scale applications such as diagnosis by ultrasonic scanning and an extension to those areas of medical diagnoses such as CT, MRI and X-ray photography where large and high-quality images are required is under review.
As is well known, thermal image recording involves the use of a thermal head having a glaze in which heat-generating elements for heating the thermal recording layer of a thermal material to record an image are arranged in one direction and, with the glaze a little pressed against the thermal material (thermal recording layer), the thermal material is relatively moved in the auxiliary scanning direction perpendicular to the main scanning direction in which the glaze extends, as the respective heat-generating elements of the glaze are heated imagewise by energy application to heat the thermal recording layer, thereby accomplishing image reproduction.
Not only the thermal recording apparatus but also various other image recording apparatus including laser printers and plate-making apparatus are adapted to perform sharpness compensation in order to produce high-quality, clear and well modulated images by means of edge enhancement for improved image sharpness. In practice, however, the sharpness of recorded images is affected by various factors which, in the case of thermal recording, include the temperature of the thermal head, the recording speed (auxiliary scanning transport speed) and the gamma value of the thermal material used. Stated specifically, the image sharpness deteriorates with the increasing temperature of the thermal head (heat-generating elements) and with the increasing recording speed (the speed of movement of the thermal head relative to the thermal material) but with the decreasing gamma value of the thermal material and the recorded image will look blurred if these phenomena occur. More specifically, as for the recording speed, the image sharpness in the auxiliary scanning direction deteriorates with the increasing recording speed, and the image sharpness in the main scanning direction deteriorates with the decreasing recording speed, and the recording image will look blurred, if there phenomena occur. Among others, the increase in the temperature of the thermal head is most influential in the sharpness of the recorded image.
The reduced sharpness of the recorded image will lead to the deterioration of the quality of finished images and can be a serious problem in applications that require the recording of high-quality images. In the above-stated medical applications, images of particularly high quality are required and the reduction in sharpness is an obstacle to the viewing of the correct image, potentially leading to a wrong diagnosis.


Plastic films are prevented from being peeled off from each other at a joining portion. A composite film has superposed external and internal films and is superposed with an additional body. The films and the body are joined with each other to form a first joining portion between the films, and a second joining portion between the internal film and the body. The first joining portion has a first joining width and includes first outer and inner edges. The second joining portion has a second joining width and includes second outer and inner edges. The first or second joining width is adjusted such that the first joining width is less than the second joining width, with the first inner edge formed outwardly of the second inner edge.

For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2007-238129 discloses a plastic bag used as an internal bag received in a bag in box. In the internal bag, a composite film is composed of external and internal films opposed to and superposed with each other, to have opposite end portions. The internal bag includes two of the composite films opposed to and superposed with each other. A process is then performed to join all the films with each other at the opposite end portions so that first joining portions should be formed between the external and internal films, a second joining portion being formed between the internal films, to make the plastic bag which is used as the internal bag. The external and internal films comprise plastic films.
In this case, the external and internal films are subjected to an impact load when dropping the internal bag so that a stress must be concentrated on the second joining portion formed between the internal films. The internal films may therefore be peeled and separated off from each other at the second joining portion, resulting in break of the internal bag.
The same is true of the internal bag received in the bag in box of Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2011-235933 and Japanese Patent Publication No. 3324953.
By the way, it is usual when joining all the films with each other that a heater is pressed against the external and internal films to heat seal and join all the films with each other. In addition, it is practicable to irradiate laser-beam between and onto the external and internal films, welding and joining all the films with each other. See Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-255461, Japanese Patent Publication No. 4404288. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. S60-157842 and Japanese Patent Publication No. 4104073.
A handle may be formed of the composite film composed of the external and internal films.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a plastic film joining method, which can keep the plastic films from being peeled off from each other at a concerned joining portion.


A filter includes, in a filter body, a filter unit in the general form of a wheel with, for local contraflow circulation of a cleaning fluid through its filter element, a circulation unit to which a pipe is connected. The pipe is an inlet pipe of the cleaning fluid and, on the other side of the filter unit to the circulation unit there is locally interposed in the filter body an interceptor plate, with, connected laterally to the filter body, between the filter element of the filter unit and the interceptor plate, a pipe which is an outlet pipe for the cleaning fluid. Applications include heat exchangers in which solid cleaning elements circulate, for retaining and recycling the latter.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns filters of the kind including, in a filter body adapted to be connected to two successive sections of a pipe of any kind, a filter unit in the general form of a wheel extending transversely in the filter body, rotatable about the axis of the body and including a filter element which extends globally across the cross-section of the filter body, with, on one side of the filter unit, for local contraflow circulation of a cleaning fluid through its filter element, a circulation unit which extends along a radius of the filter unit and to which a pipe is connected.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Filters of this type have the particular advantage of a small overall axial size which enables them to be inserted, like a simple collar, into the pipe to be equipped, even in a congested environment, their filter body being then formed of a cylindrical shell with the same diameter as the pipe.
They are used to intercept debris or other solid elements of the most diverse kinds.
One of them is described in particular in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 143,634 filed Jan. 13, 1988 and granted as U.S. Pat. No. 4,814,076.
In the above U.S. patent the filter is in a pressurized pipe which in practise is an inlet pipe of the installation concerned, the latter having to be protected from debris, detritus or other solid elements conveyed by the corresponding flow.
The cleaning fluid circulation unit is disposed on the upstream side of the filter element in this disclosure and is therefore a suction unit.
The pipe to which this circulation unit is connected is thus an outlet pipe for the cleaning fluid.
Accordingly, the cleaning fluid is taken directly from the flow in which the filter element is immersed, that is to say the flow which, conveyed by the pipe concerned, passes through this filter element.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,589,898 issued Feb. 4, 1997. it is proposed to dispose a filter of the same type on the outlet pipe of the heat exchanger in which solid cleaning elements circulate to constitute an interceptor device adapted to retain the solid cleaning elements so that they can be recycled.
The above filter then includes two circulation units disposed on respective opposite sides of the filter unit, one on the downstream side of the latter in the direction of the outgoing flow and the other on its upstream side, and are in corresponding relationship to each other, each of them being connected to a pipe, one to an inlet pipe and the other to an outlet pipe for the corresponding cleaning fluid.
In the above U.S. patent application the two circulation units employed are both horns, i.e. frustoconical troughs the cross-section of which decreases from the periphery of the filter unit to its axis.
This disposition, which avoids the need for suction, is globally satisfactory, in particular with reference to the relatively small overall axial size to which it leads in U.S. Pat. No. 4,814,076.
However, a general object of the present invention is a disposition which advantageously further reduces this overall axial size.

Filter to be inserted into a pipe and heat exchanger equipped with a filter of this kind


A tile made of a tile body and, joined to a face thereof, a layer of damping material conferring vibratory energy dissipation properties on the tile.

In the field of acoustic enhancement, a distinguishment is mainly drawn between enhancement by acoustic insulation and enhancement by acoustic correction.
Acoustic insulation reduces the transmission of sound from one room to another, whether via the floor, the ceiling or the side walls. Acoustic insulation reduces sound of mechanical origin, such as impact or collision sound, and also airborne sound, as well as that generated by persons speaking or hi-fi systems.
Acoustic correction decreases the sound in the room where the acoustic source is located. Acoustic correction applies to sound of mechanical origin and airborne sound. In the case of sound of mechanical origin on a floor, this is referred to as acoustic correction of walking sound.
For several years, to provide acoustic insulation in particular against impact sound, floors have been provided with acoustic underlayers on which the tile type of floor covering is laid. It is known to use cork tiles for this purpose, or rubber based underlayers, which are in the form of tiles or consist of a leveling screed, or even underlayers based on generally synthetic fibers.
Patent application FR 2 361 515 proposes bonding polystyrene plates on the floor and then pouring a mortar screed comprising a mixture of cement, sand and rubber. Once the screed is dry, the tiling is placed on top of it.
Patent EP 0 413 626 B1 discloses a soundproofing tile having a hard surface in comparison with the covering to be laid such as tiling, and having an elastic reaction support on the opposite side. It comprises a dense and flexible layer of supercompressed fibers having a density between 60 and 200 kg/m3 which constitutes the elastic reaction support, and a layer of bitumen reinforced with two thin layers of glass fibers anchored respectively in each of the faces of the bitumen layer to constitute the rigid face of this tile, the rigid layer having a thickness of about 5 to 6 mm with a mass per unit area of about 10 kg/m2.
Document FR 2 693 221 proposes an insulation solution in the form of rolls. This underlayer comprises a main layer which is placed on the covering side and a secondary layer which is arranged on the opposite side, the floor side.
The secondary layer is a material based, for example, on a polymer of the polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyurethane rubber (PUR), polyethylene (PE), styrene-butadiene rubber (SBR) type, and having a thickness of between 0.1 mm and 5 mm, with a density not exceeding 800 kg/m3.
The main layer of the underlayer serves to provide the mechanical strength of the whole underlayer. Its constituent material is, for example, a synthetic polymer such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), or even a bitumen, but it may also be made from materials of natural origin such as wood fibers. This layer is relatively hard on the surface but remains sufficiently flexible to be rolled up so that the underlayer can be provided in the form of rolls.
However, all these acoustic insulation underlayers require specific systems to be installed, time-consuming application methods, and sometimes demand the involvement of professionals, in particular in the preparation of screeds which require knowhow and generate drying times.
In fact, whether for the artisan or the private individual who wants to lay his tiling himself, providing it with an acoustic underlayer, it is always desirable to reduce the laying time and to facilitate the implementation of the assembly.
It is an object of the invention to provide a solution that serves to install the tiling rapidly and simply, while conferring acoustic enhancement properties on the installed covering.
The figures are not to scale for ease of reading.

Tile for a covering with enhanced acoustic properties


A system and method for controlling input buffer biasing current include an input buffer circuit with an input current detector circuit configured to generate a plurality of discrete biasing control signals. At least one input buffer is configured to adjust the biasing current in response to the plurality of discrete biasing control signals. The plurality of discrete biasing control signals is generated in response to variations in biasing current of the at least one input buffer. The method compares a representative bias current indicator from a replica of an input buffer with a reference current to determine variations in biasing current of at least one input buffer. A plurality of discrete biasing control signals is generated indicating a configuration of a biasing control for the at least one input buffer. The at least one input buffer is biased according to the plurality of discrete biasing control signals.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to integrated circuits and, more particularly, to devices and methods for controlling biasing current of input buffers of integrated circuits over variations, such as voltage, temperature and process variations.
2. State of the Art
The first element of any integrated circuit data path is a data input buffer. Input buffers may be implemented in semiconductor devices using, for example, CMOS transistors which may be arranged generally in the form of cascaded inverters. Such transistors are sized to carefully provide high speed operations as well as to provide specific transition points resulting in the assignment of an input signal to either of a high or low logic output state. Designing an input buffer to meet various specifications generally requires a flexible design due to the variations in temperature, supply voltage and process variations. Because of such variations, the performance of an input buffer is often not determined by simulation but rather by the fabrication of an actual design.
Various input buffer designs for buffering an input signal prior to coupling that signal to other circuitry are well known in the prior art. Because of variations in, for example, power supply signal levels, a basic inverter-based input buffer may not meet specific design goals, an example of which is the centering of a trip-point or signal level at which an input signal will be designated as being of one of two logic levels. To specify a specific trip-point at which an input buffer characterizes an input signal as being of one of two signal levels, differential input buffers have been designed. FIG. 1 illustrates a simplified CMOS differential amplifier configured as an input buffer 10. Such a configuration with an inverter output generates a valid CMOS logic level. Common-mode noise on the differential amplifier inputs is, ideally, rejected while amplifying the difference between the input signal and the reference signal. The differential amplifier input common-mode range, for example a few hundred mV, sets a minimum input signal amplitude centered around VREF which causes the output signal, OUT, to change states. The speed of the configuration of input buffer 10 of FIG. 1 is limited by the differential amplifier biasing current. Generally, a large current increases the input receiver speed and decreases the amplifier gain, thereby reducing the differential amplifier's input common mode range. One shortcoming of the input buffer 10 is that it requires an additional external biasing circuit to generate the bias signal.
FIG. 2 illustrates an input buffer 20 arranged in a self-biasing configuration which does not need an additional circuit for generating a bias signal. Input buffer 20 is configured by joining a p-channel differential amplifier and an n-channel differential amplifier at the active load terminals. In input buffer 20, an adjustable biasing configuration is arranged which is potentially very efficient and fast at switching the input signal level to a valid output logic level. Self-biasing buffers and amplifiers are frequently utilized because of their simple architecture and fast switching speeds. However, as previously stated, the biasing current is very sensitive to power supply voltage, temperature and process variations. In one example (see FIG. 3), the biasing current may vary from 88 μA to 304 μA for each input buffer. For a device, such as a memory device which includes 16 or more input buffers, the total biasing current may vary widely, for example from between 3.5 mA to 12.5 mA, or over 300%, in the case of a DDR2 DRAM using 43 input buffers.
As an illustrative example, FIG. 3 illustrates a plot of input buffer biasing current variations over varying conditions for a conventional DDR2 (dual data rate) input buffer for a DRAM. FIG. 3 illustrates a graph 30 depicting variations in supply voltage with plots 32 and 34 and the plots are also a function of process and temperature variations 36–50. Each of the variations 36–50 illustrates process variations "FST" where "F" and "S" represent the speed nature (e.g., "F" for fast and "S" for slow) for the respective n-channel and p-channel devices when subjected to corresponding process variations. "T" represents temperature variations of the input buffer. As illustrated, the input buffer biasing current varies dramatically between process variations which include slow n-channel and p-channel devices at 110° C. with low supply voltage and variations which include fast n-channel and p-channel devices at −40° C. with high supply voltage. Therefore, there is a need for an improved input buffer circuit biasing arrangement which minimizes excessive biasing current over the various variation conditions.

System and method for controlling input buffer biasing current


There is provided a laminating apparatus laminating an object to be laminated in a laminating part which has a diaphragm on an upper side and a heater panel on a lower side, by melting a filler in the object to be laminated and pressing the object to be laminated sandwiched between the diaphragm and the heater panel, the apparatus including: a sheet conveying the object to be laminated placed thereon to/out of the laminating part; and a lift mechanism lifting up/down a support part capable of supporting the sheet from the lower side.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laminating apparatus particularly suitable for producing a laminated object in a thin plate shape such as a solar battery module.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, various developments have been made on solar batteries with the aim of effective use of solar energy. Further, beside crystal type solar batteries using single crystal silicon or polycrystalline silicon, various types of solar batteries have been contrived, such as amorphous solar batteries using amorphous silicon (noncrystalline silicon). However, since silicon itself in any of these crystalline and amorphous types is subject to chemical change and has low resistance against a physical impact, a solar battery module in which silicon is laminated with a transparent vinyl film, tempered glass, heat-resistant glass, or the like is generally used.
Further, for use as building materials, an integrated module and the like in which an exterior wall material or a roof material is integrated with a solar battery module have come to be produced in recent years. A method to laminate a solar battery module is to interpose strings (solar battery cells) between a vinyl film or glass and a back sheet via a filler such as, for example, EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate) resin, and melt the filler by temperature given by heating under vacuum.
Conventionally, as a laminating apparatus for producing such solar battery modules and the like, there has been known a laminating apparatus which laminates an object to be laminated in a laminating part having a diaphragm on an upper side and a heater panel on a lower side, by melting a filler inside the object to be laminated and pressing the object to be laminated sandwiched between the diaphragm and the heater panel (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-239144). In the laminating apparatus described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-239144, when the object to be laminated is loaded/unloaded to/out of the laminating part which has an upper chamber including the diaphragm expandable downward and a lower chamber including the heater panel, the object to be laminated is placed on a sheet and moved by the sheet.


A ferroelectric thin film element constructed by forming a first electrode composed of an alloy thin film of a Ni-Cr-Al system or Ni-Al system on a substrate and forming a ferroelectric thin film composed of a ferroelectric material having a composition having a spontaneous axis in the direction (111) and having a crystal orientation in the direction (111) on the first electrode composed of a thin film.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a ferroelectric thin film element constructed by forming a ferroelectric thin film on a substrate, for example, to a ferroelectric thin film element suitable for use for a nonvolatile memory, a pyroelectric type infrared sensor and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A ferroelectric thin film element using a ferroelectric material of a lead titanate system is applied to a nonvolatile memory, an infrared sensor and the like utilizing pyroelectric characteristics. This type of ferroelectric thin film element has a structure in which a first electrode is formed on a substrate, a ferroelectric thin film is formed thereon by a thin film forming process such as sputtering, and a second electrode is further formed on the ferroelectric thin film.
Meanwhile, in order to sufficiently exhibit the material characteristics of the ferroelectric thin film, it is necessary to make the crystal orientation of the ferroelectric thin film equal to the direction of a spontaneous polarization axis of the thin film. When the crystal orientation of the ferroelectric thin film is made equal to the direction of the polarization axis of the thin film, it is possible to, for example, reduce the volume change of the thin film in the case of applying alternating pulse cycles to the polarization, thereby to make it possible to prevent the fatigue of the material characteristics.
One example of the above described ferroelectric thin film element is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 162369/1987. This document discloses a structure in which a MgO thin film oriented in the direction (100) is formed on a semiconductor substrate, an electrode composed of Pt is formed on the MgO thin film, and a PbTiO.sub.3 thin film having a composition of a tetragonal system and having a spontaneous polarization axis in the direction of a c axis, that is, in the direction (001) is oriented in the direction (001) and formed on the electrode composed of Pt. Since the direction of the easy polarization axis of the PbTiO.sub.3 thin film is made equal to the crystal orientation thereof, it is possible to take out sufficient ferroelectric characteristics.
Some of ferroelectric materials such as lead titanate (PbTiO.sub.3 0 and lead titanate zirconate (Pb(Zr.sub.x Ti.sub.1-x)O.sub.3) have a composition having a spontaneous polarization axis in the directions other than above described direction (001), that is, the direction of the c axis. For example, in a composition of a rhombohedral phase of lead titanate zirconate, the direction of the polarization axis thereof is the direction (111). If a ferroelectric thin film element can be produced using such a ferroelectric material having a polarization axis in the direction (111), the selection range of materials used for the ferroelectric thin film element can be enlarged. In addition, in a ferroelectric thin film element for a nonvolatile memory, evaluation whether or not the adhesive properties between a ferroelectric thin film and a material composing an electrode are good affects ferroelectric characteristics caused by applying alternating pulse cycles to the polarization.
When an electrode composed of Pt is formed on a MgO thin film oriented in the direction (100), and a thin film composed of a material having a composition of a rhombohedral phase of lead titanate zirconate is formed thereon, it is impossible to obtain an element exhibiting sufficient ferroelectric characteristics as described in the foregoing prior art document. In addition, the adhesive properties between the ferroelectric thin film and the electrode is poor.

Ferroelectric thin film element with (III) orientation


A fluid flow plate includes first and second outward faces. Each of the outward faces has a flow channel thereon for carrying respective fluid. At least one of the fluids serves as reactant fluid for a fuel cell of a fuel cell assembly. One or more pockets are formed between the first and second outward faces for decreasing density of the fluid flow plate. A given flow channel can include one or more end sections and an intermediate section. An interposed member can be positioned between the outward faces at an interface between an intermediate section, of one of the outward faces, and an end section, of that outward face. The interposed member can serve to isolate the reactant fluid from the opposing outward face. The intermediate section(s) of flow channel(s) on an outward face are preferably formed as a folded expanse.

Fuel cells electrochemically convert fuels and oxidants to electricity. Furthermore, fuel cells can be categorized according to the type of electrolyte (e.g., solid oxide, molten carbonate, alkaline, phosphoric acid, or solid polymer) used to accommodate ion transfer during operation.
A Proton Exchange Membrane (hereinafter "PEM") fuel cell converts the chemical energy of fuels such as hydrogen and oxidizers such as air/oxygen directly into electrical energy. The PEM is a solid polymer electrolyte that permits the passage of protons (H.sup.+ ions) from the "anode" side of a fuel cell to the "cathode" side of the fuel cell while preventing passage therethrough of the hydrogen and air/oxygen gases. Some artisans consider the acronym "PEM" to represent "Polymer Electrolyte Membrane." The direction, from anode to cathode, of flow of protons serves as the basis for labeling an "anode" side and a "cathode" side of every layer in the fuel cell, and in the fuel cell assembly or stack.
An individual PEM-type fuel cell generally has multiple, transversely extending layers assembled in a longitudinal direction. In the fuel cell assembly or stack, all layers that extend to the periphery of the fuel cells have holes therethrough for alignment and formation of fluid manifolds. Further, gaskets seal these holes and cooperate with the longitudinal extents of the layers for completion of the fluid manifolds. As is well-known in the art, some of the fluid manifolds distribute fuel (e.g., hydrogen) and oxidizer (e.g., air/oxygen) to, and remove unused fuel and oxidizer as well as product water from, fluid flow plates which serve as flow field plates of each fuel cell. Also, other fluid manifolds circulate coolant (e.g., water) for cooling.
As is well-known in the art, the PEM can work more effectively if it is wet. Conversely, once any area of the PEM dries out, the fuel cell does not generate any product water in that area because the electrochemical reaction there stops. Undesirably, this drying out can progressively march across the PEM until the fuel cell fails completely. So, the fuel and oxidizer fed to each fuel cell are typically humidified. Furthermore, a cooling mechanism is commonly employed for removal of heat generated during operation of the fuel cells.
The PEM can be made using, for instance, a polymer such as the material manufactured by E. I. Du Pont De Nemours Company and sold under the trademark NAFION.RTM.. Further, an active electrolyte such as sulfonic acid groups is included in this polymer. In addition, the PEM is available as a product manufactured by W.L. Gore & Associates (Elkton, Md.) and sold under the trademark GORES-ELECT.RTM.. Moreover, a catalyst such as platinum which facilitates chemical reactions is applied to each side of the PEM. This unit is commonly referred to as a membrane electrode assembly (hereinafter "MEA" ). The MEA is available as a product manufactured by W.L. Gore & Associates and sold under the trade designation PRIMEA 5510-HS.
In a typical PEM-type fuel cell, the MEA is sandwiched between "anode" and "cathode" gas diffusion layers (hereinafter "GDLs") that can be formed from a resilient and conductive material such as carbon fabric. The anode and cathode GDLs serve as electrochemical conductors between catalyzed sites of the PEM and the fuel (e.g., hydrogen) and oxidizer (e.g., air/oxygen) which each flow in respective "anode" and "cathode" flow channels of respective flow field plates.
A given fluid flow plate can be formed from a conductive material such as graphite. Flow channels are typically formed on one or more faces of the fluid flow plate by machining. As is known in the art, a particular fluid flow plate may be a bipolar, monopolar, anode cooler, cathode cooler, or cooling plate.
In order to fabricate a fluid flow field plate, one known configuration utilizes two outer layers of compressible, electrically conductive material and a center metal sheet interposed therebetween. Such a design is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,527,363 to Wilkinson et al. (entitled "Method of Fabricating an Embossed Fluid Flow Field Plate," issued Jun. 18, 1996, and assigned to Ballard Power Systems Incorporated and Daimler-Benz AG) and divisional U.S. Pat. No. 5,521,018 to Wilkinson et al. (entitled "Embossed Fluid Flow Field Plate for Electrochemical Fuel Cells," issued May 28, 1996, and assigned to Ballard Power Systems Incorporated and Daimler-Benz AG). In particular, the outward face of each of the two outer layers is embossed with flow field channels. These embossed outward faces serve as the two major faces for the fluid flow field plate.
However, existing fluid flow plate constructions require disadvantageously large usage of material for their formation. Moreover, such fluid flow plates add undesirable weight to the fuel cell assembly. Thus, a need exists for decreasing material usage in fuel cell assemblies.

Fluid flow plate for decreased density of fuel cell assembly


A fuel injection controller calculates a fuel pressure-feeding start angle of a fuel pump as a valve opening start angle of a metering valve, which regulates a discharge amount, by adding a base angle and a feedback correction value. The base angle is calculated in accordance with a command injection amount and target fuel pressure based on a basic map. The feedback correction value is calculated based on differential pressure between sensed fuel pressure and the target fuel pressure. If an abnormality is caused in either one of two metering valves, the base angle is calculated based on an abnormal period map instead of the basic map. Thus, controllability of the fuel pressure is maintained high even when the abnormality is caused in a part of multiple pressure-feeding systems including multiple plungers of the fuel pump.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel injection controller applied to a fuel injection device of an internal combustion engine having a pressure accumulation chamber that accumulates fuel in a high-pressure state and that supplies the fuel to injectors, a fuel pump that pressure-feeds the fuel to the pressure accumulation chamber through reciprocating motion of multiple plungers, and a sensor that senses the fuel pressure in the pressure accumulation chamber, the fuel injection controller having a control device that controls the sensed fuel pressure to target fuel pressure by operating the fuel pump.
2. Description of Related Art
A known fuel injection device of this kind has a common pressure accumulation chamber (common rail) for supplying high-pressure fuel to injectors of respective cylinders of a diesel engine, for example, as described in JP-A-S62-258160. The common rail diesel engine can freely set a target value of the fuel pressure (target fuel pressure) in the common rail in accordance with an operation state of the engine and can freely control the fuel pressure supplied to the injectors.
A fuel injection controller performs open control of deciding an operation amount of a fuel pump based on the operation state of the engine or feedback control of deciding the operation amount of the fuel pump based on a difference between the fuel pressure in the common rail sensed by a fuel pressure sensor and the target fuel pressure to make the fuel pressure in the common rail follow the target fuel pressure.
However, controllability of the fuel pressure is deteriorated if an abnormality is caused in either one of multiple pressure-feeding systems that pressure-feed the fuel to the common rail with multiple plungers of the fuel pump respectively. The fuel injection controller performing only the open control sets the operation amount of the fuel pump on an assumption that all the pressure-feeding systems are normal. Accordingly, a fuel amount pressure-fed to the common rail falls short and the fuel pressure decreases when the abnormality is caused. As for the fuel injection controller performing the feedback control, the controllability of the fuel pressure is deteriorated due to a response delay in the feedback control immediately after the abnormality is caused. As for the fuel injection controller that performs both of the open control and the feedback control to improve the following performance of the fuel pressure to follow the target fuel pressure and control stability during a transitional period, the open control for improving the following performance during the transitional period cannot function normally because of the abnormality in the pressure-feeding system. As a result, the controllability is deteriorated.


Disclosed is a method for steering a vehicle to be parked in reverse into a parking gap where a nominal parking trajectory of the vehicle is determined by a control unit and where a steering angle of the steered wheels of the vehicle that must be set for negotiating the parking gap is determined on the basis of the nominal parking trajectory. The nominal parking trajectory (yB(x)) is determined on the basis of a position of the vehicle from two reference trajectories (yLower(x); yUpper(x)), and the reference trajectories (yLower(x); yUpper(x)) represent parking trajectories for parking, starting from different start points.

The invention relates to a method for steering a vehicle to be parked in reverse into a parking gap, involving a control unit determining a nominal vehicle parking trajectory and determining a steering angle of steered wheels of the vehicle to be set for approaching and reaching the parking gap on the basis of the nominal parking trajectory.
Moreover, the invention relates to a parking assist device suitable for applying the method.
A known method is to control vehicles automatically along a nominal trajectory into a parking gap detected beforehand by means of environment sensors. The nominal trajectory is normally preset in the form of polynomials or as a sequence of circular arcs and clothoid arcs, as disclosed for instance in German publication DE 199 400 07 A1.
Conventionally, the parameters of the nominal trajectory foreseen are computed starting from the start point. In general, this requires very complex computations in order—for instance on the basis of a high-level polynomial—to determine the nominal trajectory in such a manner as to ensure convenient approach to and reaching of the parking gap. The disadvantage here is that very complex and powerful computing units need to be used in vehicles to compute a convenient nominal trajectory. Therefore, one object of the invention is to reduce the computing complexity for determining the nominal trajectory for parking a vehicle.

Method for guiding a vehicle into a parking space and parking assistance device


A device architecture includes a spatially reconfigurable array of processors, such as configurable units of a CGRA, having spare homogenous subarrays, and a parameter store on the device which stores parameters that tag one or more elements as unusable. Configuration data is distributed using a statically reconfigurable bus system, to implement the pattern of placement of configuration data, in dependence on the tagged elements. As a result, a spatially reconfigurable array having unusable elements can be repaired.

Technological Field
The present technology relates to technologies for yield improvement for reconfigurable architectures, which can be particularly applied to coarse-grain reconfigurable architectures and other spatially reconfigurable architectures using redundancy.
Description of Related Art
Reconfigurable processors, including field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), can be configured to implement a variety of functions more efficiently or faster than might be achieved using a general-purpose processor executing a computer program. So-called coarse-grain reconfigurable architectures (e.g. CGRAs) are being developed in which the configurable units in the array are more complex than used in typical, more fine-grained FPGAs, and may enable faster or more efficient execution of various classes of functions. For example, CGRAs have been proposed that can enable implementation of energy-efficient accelerators for machine learning and artificial intelligence workloads. See, Prabhakar, et al., "Plasticine: A Reconfigurable Architecture for Parallel Patterns," ISCA '17, Jun. 24-28, 2017, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Configuration of reconfigurable processors involves compilation of a configuration description to produce an application graph represented by a configuration file, referred to sometimes as a bitstream or bit file. To start a process implemented using an application graph, the configuration file must be loaded for that process. To change a process implemented using an application graph, the configuration file must be replaced with a new configuration file. In spatially reconfigurable devices, such as a CGRA, the configuration includes defining operations of the graph using unit configuration files that set the operation of individual configurable units, spatially distributing the unit configuration files by placing them at configurable units within the array and routing the communications by configuring the interconnections among the configurable units to accomplish the graph, in a procedure that is sometimes referred to as "place and route."
In manufacturing of complex integrated circuits, it is difficult to avoid some manufacturing defects which can render parts of the integrated circuits unusable. So, redundant circuit elements have been deployed in some types of devices, such as high-density memory. In memory devices, redundant memory cells can be deployed outside the main array, along with supporting circuits to reroute access to defective cells to the redundant cells. This technique increases yield of the manufacturing process because defects that can be repaired do not render the devices unusable.
It is desirable to provide technologies to repair unusable elements in reconfigurable processors, and to improve the manufacturing yield of reconfigurable processors.

Defect repair for a reconfigurable data processor for homogeneous subarrays


Disclosed is a thin film transistor substrate which facilitates to improve output and transfer characteristics of thin film transistor, wherein the thin film transistor substrate comprises a thin film transistor comprising a lower gate electrode on a substrate, an active layer on the lower gate electrode, source and drain electrodes on the active layer, and an upper gate electrode on the source electrode, drain electrode and active layer, the upper gate electrode for covering a channel region defined by the source and drain electrodes; and a contact portion for electrically connecting the lower gate electrode with the upper gate electrode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device, and more particularly, to a thin film transistor applied to a display device.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A thin film transistor (TFT) is used as a switching element for controlling an operation of each pixel or a driving element for driving each pixel in a display device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) or an organic light emitting device (OLED).
The thin film transistor includes a gate electrode, an active layer, and source/drain electrodes. Based on an arrangement of the electrodes, the thin film transistor may be classified into a staggered structure and a coplanar structure.
In case of the staggered structure, the gate electrode and the source/drain electrodes are vertically arranged with the active layer interposed therebetween. Meanwhile, in case of the coplanar structure, the gate electrode and the source/drain electrodes are arranged on the same plane.
According to a channel formation method, the thin film transistor of the staggered structure may be classified into a back channel etched (BCE) type and an etch stopper layer (ESL) type. In case of the ESL type, an etch stopper layer is formed on the active layer so that it is possible to prevent the active layer from being over-etched. Owing to this advantage, there is the increasing use of ESL type thin film transistor.
FIGS. 1A to 1E are cross sectional views illustrating a method for manufacturing an ESL type thin film transistor substrate.
First, as shown in FIG. 1A, a gate electrode 20 is formed on a substrate 10, and then a gate insulating layer 25 is formed on an entire surface of the substrate 10 including the gate electrode 20.
As shown in FIG. 1B, an active layer 30a and an etch stopper layer 40a are sequentially formed on the gate insulating layer 25. After that, as shown in FIG. 1C, the etch stopper layer 40a is patterned to thereby form a predetermined etch stopper 40. The etch stopper 40 functions as a stopper for an etching process to be described later.
Then, as shown in FIG. 1D, an ohmic contact layer 50a and a source/drain electrode layer 60a are sequentially formed on the entire surface of the substrate 10 including the etch stopper 40.
As shown in FIG. 1E, the source/drain electrode layer 60a is patterned to form a source electrode 62 and a drain electrode 64. Under the condition that the source/drain electrodes 62/64 are used as a mask, the ohmic contact layer 50a and active layer 30a positioned underneath the source/drain electrodes 62/64 are etched to thereby form an ohmic contact layer 50 and active layer 30 with a predetermined pattern.
The etch stopper 40 is not formed at left and right sides of the source/drain electrodes 62/64, whereby both the ohmic contact layer 50a and active layer 30a are etched together. However, since the etch stopper 40 is formed in a region between the source electrode 62 and the drain electrode 64, only the ohmic contact layer 50a is etched therein.
However, because the related art thin film transistor is formed in a single gate electrode structure with one gate electrode 20, as shown in FIGS. 1A to 1E, it is difficult to achieve output saturation characteristics. In addition, there is a non-negligible gap between transfer curves according to voltages between source and drain of a thin film transistor within a subthreshold region, whereby problems of crosstalk or non-uniform luminance such as spots may occur on a screen. Especially, if the thin film transistor with the single gate electrode structure is applied to the organic light emitting device, a compensation capacity may be deteriorated.
Also, in case of the related art thin film transistor with the etch stopper 40, the thin film transistor is inevitably increased in size due to an overlay rule in between each layer. Due to the increased size of thin film transistor, an overlap area between the gate electrode 20 and the source/drain electrodes 62/64 is increased in size, to thereby increase a capacitance of the thin film transistor.

Thin film transistor substrate and method for manufacturing the same and organic light emitting device using the same


A process for generating a nitrogen-enriched gas from a feed stream of atmospheric air or a mixture of nitrogen which is not continuously supplied to a membrane system, which membrane system comprises a non-permeate side and a permeate side, and being more permeable to oxygen than nitrogen, which process entails feeding the feed stream side of the membrane, and recovering an oxygen enriched gas being recovered on the permeate side of the membrane system while a nitrogen-enriched gas is recovered from the non-permeate side of the membrane, wherein a feed back of nitrogen gas or nitrogen- containing gas having an oxygen gas concentration lower than 21% is supplied to the non-permeate side of the membrane system during at least a part of the period of time where the air feed stream is not supplied to the membrane system thereby avoiding any substantial retrodiffusion of oxygen through the membrane system from the permeate side to the non-permeate side of the membrane during those periods of time where the feed stream is not supplied to the membrane system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fast response high purity membrane nitrogen generator.
2. Description of the Background
Membrane processes are used increasingly to remove a desired single gas from a gaseous feed mixture. For example, such processes may be used to remove water vapor from a moist air feed to produce a dry air product. As water vapor is more rapidly permeated through the membranes than other gases, the non-permeate product has a lower concentration of water vapor than does the feed.
Membrane processes may also be used to produce inert gases from air, wherein the oxygen content in the feed air stream to the membrane is decreased by permeation from a high pressure side to a low pressure side. Generally, such membrane processes are advantageous due to their simplicity and ease of operation.
However, membrane processes used for the production of inert gases from atmospheric air are disadvantageous as they are generally non-responsive to variation in customer demand. For example, membrane nitrogen generators are presently used to feed customer lines where demand may diminish to zero several times per day.
When demand reaches zero and the feed air compressor stops, remaining high pressure feed air continues to flow across the membrane wall until pressures equalize. If the unit remains stopped for a considerable period of time, impurities in ambient air will eventually permeate back to the high pressure side of the membrane. When the unit is restarted in response to customer demand, back-permeated gas containing impurities will be first compressed by incoming feed air and then fed to the production line.
At present, production gas is vented to the atmosphere when the unit is restarted in order to avoid feeding polluted gas to the customer line. The venting either continues during a preset time delay so that production quality can be recovered or until the quality control meter indicates that the gas quality is sufficiently good. However, venting can lead to waste of costly gas and energy, particularly when low oxygen content and/or low dew point inert gas is produced.
Recently, a process was disclosed in EP 0,426,642 A2 for using a membrane gas separator in generally separating a portion of a first gas from an intermittently supplied gaseous feed containing a mixture of gases. In accordance with this process, the gaseous feed is fed intermittently under pressure through a membrane gas separator through one or more membranes through which the first gas permeates preferentially in comparison to other gases in the mixture to produce a non-permeate gas product which is discharged from a non-permeate gas side of the separator, wherein the concentration of the first gas is lower than in the feed mixture. Then, a gaseous purge stream is supplied to the separator when the feed mixture is not being conducted through the separator, with the concentration of the first gas being lower in the gaseous purge stream than in the feed mixture, whereby residual amounts of the first gas contained in the membrane of the separator are purged.
Notably, however, EP 0,426,642 A2 relates only to gas production in general or to the specific production of dehydrated air, and does not pertain to the specific production of nitrogen from atmospheric air or to the specific separation of nitrogen from oxygen.
Unfortunately, the variation in customer demand is particularly troublesome for the production of nitrogen. For example, if a "significant" period of generator use is considered, defined as the combined cycle duration of one period of production plus one period of generator down-time, generally the generator down-time may represent from about 1% to 50% of the overall total cycle.
However, in order for a backflush across the membrane to be acceptable to the customer on a cost basis as a means of preventing retrodiffusion of permeate gas across the membrane, the backflush must be a negligible volume of the gas produced by the generator, which means less than 10% of the overall volume of gas produced, and preferably less than 1%.
Further, while EP 0,426,642 A2 describes supplying a purge stream to the separator at times when the feed is not being supplied to the separator, the purpose of this purge stream is to remove residual water vapor to prevent it from being entrained in the non-permeate product when the gaseous feed is restarted, in order to improve removal efficiency.
Moreover, this purge stream is supplied to both sides of the separator with no distinction being made between permeate and non-permeate sides of the membrane.
Additionally, EP 0,426,642 A2 describes the use of either a primary pressure vessel alone or that in combination with a secondary pressure vessel. Generally, the primary pressure vessel is connected directly downstream of the non-permeate line via a check valve, whereas the secondary pressure vessel is connected to the non-permeate line on a side stream conduit via a flow orifice. Regardless of whether one or two pressure vessels are used, however, the function of the check valve is to allow relatively dry stored non-permeate product to bleed there through to the separator to purge residual amounts of water vapor contained in the membrane. Thus, when the compressor is cycled back on, the residual water vapor will not be entrained in the non-permeate product.
Additionally, EP 0,426,642 A2 neither describes nor suggests means for specifically feeding product gas to a high pressure side of a membrane in order to maintain a positive pressure on the feed inside thereof, particularly with a negligible loss of product gas, thereby avoiding back permeation or retrodiffusion of gas to the feed side of the membrane.
Thus, at present, gas generators in use are either for the production of gas, in general, or for dehydrated air, in particular, and are not generally constructed to address the specific problem of variation in customer demand in the production of nitrogen. Moreover, conventional gas generators often lose significant amounts of product gas by venting the same upon being restarted. Furthermore, such generators are generally incapable of being quickly restarted.
Therefore, a need exists for a membrane nitrogen generator which is capable of being instantly restarted after being down without venting of initial production, or without initial reduction of production volume.

Fast response high purity membrane nitrogen generator

l'Air Liquide, Societe Anonyme pour l'Etude et l'Exploitation des Procedes Georges Claude


A first member is adapted to measure an electrocardiogram of a patient. A second member is adapted to measure a peripheral pulse wave of the patient. A first calculator calculates a pulse wave propagation time (PWTT) and a heart rate (HR) of the patient based on the electrocardiogram and the peripheral pulse wave. A second calculator calculates a cardiac output (CO) of the patient with an equation of CO=(αK·PWTT+βK)·HR, where α, β and K are coefficients inherent to the patient.

The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for measuring blood volume ejected by cardiac contraction, and a vital sign monitor using such method and apparatus.
In medical facilities, variation in the hemodynamics of a patient in an operating room, an intensive care unit (ICU), an emergency room, a dialysis treatment room or the like needs to be monitored continuously as long as possible.
Conventionally, monitoring of the variation in the hemodynamics of such a patient has been predominantly carried out by direct monitoring of a blood pressure.
In a living body, a cardiac output and a vascular resistance are regulated such that the blood pressure of the centrum is limited within a predetermined range.
Therefore, in order to know the variation in the hemodynamics of a patient at an early stage, it is not enough to only monitor the blood pressure directly, and there is a need to know cause of change in the blood pressure when the change in the blood pressure is observed. For this reason, there is a need to monitor a change in the cardiac output, in addition to monitoring the change in the blood pressure.
As methods of measuring the change in the cardiac output to monitor the variation in the hemodynamics of a patient, there are conventional methods such as a thermodilution method, a dye dilution method, an ultrasound method and the like, which will be described below.
First, the thermodilution method will be discussed. In this method, a Swan-Ganz catheter is inserted through a carotid artery, a predetermined amount of cold saline or cold glucose solution is introduced to a vena cava or a right atrium, and the cardiac output resulting from a temperature change is measured in a pulmonary artery.
Recently, another thermodilution method has been proposed in which blood is warmed through a catheter, and the cardiac output resulting from a temperature change is measured. According to this method, the cardiac output can be measured automatically at a regular time interval.
Next, the dye dilution method will be discussed. In this method, a predetermined amount of dye is introduced to a vein, and then the dye concentration is measured invasively or non-invasively in a part where the dye is uniformly diluted and thus the concentration becomes constant, so that the cardiac output is measured.
Next, the ultrasound method will be discussed. In this method, an inner diameter of an arterial blood vessel such as the descending aorta and the blood flow rate therein are measured transesophageally using ultrasound, and thus the cardiac output is measured.
The above-described conventional methods of measuring the cardiac output by monitoring the variation in the hemodynamics of a patient have the following problems:
The thermodilution method involves a problem in that the measurement is intermittent and continuous measurements are not allowed. Further, insertion of a catheter in the thermodilution method is highly invasive for a patient and involves a risk of infection and the like. Moreover, a skilled medical person is required to insert a catheter and to conduct the measurement. Recently, a method based on continuous measurements has also been developed in the thermodilution method, however, the method still requires insertion of a catheter, and the above-described problems in connection with the insertion of a catheter cannot be solved.
The dye dilution method also has a problem in that continuous measurements are impossible. Further, the method requires a skilled medical person in the measuring process.
The ultrasound method imposes a burden of stress on a patient because a transducer is attached transesophageally. Recently, a non-invasive measurement performed on the body surface has also been made available as a kind of the ultrasound method, but the continuous measurements are still impossible.
Considering the requirement for an aid of a medical person with advanced skill and the procedures being highly invasive for a patient, none of the methods described above can be conducted easily and continuously, and it is difficult to monitor the variation in the hemodynamics of a patient continuously at all times by these methods.

Method and apparatus for measuring blood volume, and vital sign monitor using the same


Provided are a computer program product, system, and method for client object replication between a first backup server and a second backup server. Objects are backed-up from a client to a first backup server. The first backup server generates metadata on the objects from the client and transmits the metadata to a second backup server, wherein the objects backed-up at the first backup server are not copied to the second backup server. A determination is made that the first backup server is unavailable after transmitting the metadata. The metadata at the second backup server is used to determine modifications to the objects at the client since the metadata was last generated in response to determining that the first backup server is unavailable. The client backs-up the determined modifications to the objects to the second backup server to backup.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a computer program product, system, and method for client object replication between a first backup server and a second backup server.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a data protection environment, the goal is to protect client data and backup the data on a regular basis. In a client/server backup model, the client comprises an application or host system that backs-up its data to a server or backup server. As part of a backup data protection scheme, the backup server maintains an inventory of the files contained on the client. After the initial backup operation, during a subsequent backup, also referred to as an "incremental backup", the client queries the backup server for its view of the inventory, and compares the sever view of the inventory with the client view of the inventory, i.e., client file system. Files which are new or changed on the client are selected for backup, and files which have been deleted from the client are selected for deletion on the server. Each incremental backup cycle performs this comparison to determine the work to perform.
Traditional incremental backup obtains the list of backup and expiration candidates by building comprehensive lists of local objects, and lists of active server objects for the file system being backed-up. The local lists are obtained by scanning the local file system. The server list is obtained by querying the corresponding server inventory for all active objects. The lists may indicate objects in a directory of the file system, partition, or other logical partition of the data. The two lists are compared, and candidates are selected according to the following criteria. An object is selected as a backup candidate if it exists in the local list, but does not exist in the server list. The object is also a backup candidate if it exists in both lists, but differs according to incremental criteria (for example, attribute changes, date and size changes). An object is selected as an expiration candidate if it exists in the server list, but does not exist in the local list.
Journal-based backup obtains the candidates list of objects to backup and expire by querying a journal service for the contents of the change journal of the file system being backed up. Change journal entries are cleared (marked as free) after they have been processed by the backup client and committed on the backup server. Journal-based backup is activated by configuring the journal service to monitor specified file systems for change activity. A Journal Based Backup (JBB) technique can avoid the incremental comparison for each cycle.
Another data protection technique is clustering, where two servers are used to provide high availability. Clustered servers may be in close proximity and may distribute the tasks over machines in the cluster to prevent hardware or software failures on a member machine from making a service unavailable. For example, a basic cluster might consist of two systems each running its own workload, but capable of taking on the workload of the other machine, should the other machine fail. In many clustering environments, the application and its data is made highly available, but the data itself may not be duplicated. In other words, in most cases, clustering helps achieve high availability of the application if a single machine goes down, or a network link is lost.
A yet further data protection scheme is replication. Replication makes copies of the data itself and creates a catalog or inventory of the data

Client object replication between a first backup server and a second backup server

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


The present invention provides an efficient and simple method and system for providing a customer with a service on demand.

For many customers, purchasing sophisticated technical equipment like production machinery, industrial plants, turbines, generators, passenger trains, vehicles, home entertainment devices and many more, an important aspect of their purchase decision is the availability of a reliable, efficient and cost-effective after-sales service. Modem technology often requires highly specialized and educated service providers. So more and more manufacturers put much effort in offering after-sales services and many independent service providers are competing with them.
When a customer's technical equipment needs service, he or she usually requests a service activity, for example a regular maintenance procedure or a fault repair, from a service provider. Such service activities are often subject to a service contract between the customer and the service provider.

Method and system for providing a service on demand

Abstract: The invention is based on providing a plurality of interconnected technical devices with remote access. During operation of a technical installation including the technical devices, operating data are acquired, encrypted and stored in a operation database. Upon an explicit service request by the customer, at least one of the technical devices sets up a remote connection to a service center, preferably by using a smart card including Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) data for validating the smart card, where the remote connection is verified and the encrypted data stored in the operation database are read out and decrypted. Based on the decrypted data—which represent a current status of the technical installation—, a service activity is efficiently performed at the technical installation, either remotely or locally.


A console apparatus for an information processing system having a plurality of information processing apparatuses, includes a memory for storing messages received from the plurality of information processing apparatuses at a plurality of storage areas provided in correspondence with the plurality of information processing apparatuses; a message analyzing unit for analyzing the received messages to detect, as the states of the plurality of information processing apparatuses, a reply request by the information processing apparatus to an operator and an error occurrence of the information processing apparatus; and a display unit having a shared display screen for displaying the messages stored in the memory on the shared display screen at areas corresponding to the storage areas and for displaying among the states detected by the message analyzing unit the state of at least one information processing apparatus on the shared display screen so as to allow a recognition of the state at a glance.

This application is a continuation-in-part of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 848,930 entitled CONSOLE EQUIPMENT FOR INFORMATION PROCESSING SYSTEM filed on Mar. 10, 1992 in the name of A. Ueoka et al, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a console apparatus for an information processing system, and more particularly to a console apparatus for an information processing system capable of controlling a plurality of computer systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the range of applications to recent computer systems (information processing apparatuses) expands, a computer center with only one computer system is unable to meet user demands, and so a plurality of computer systems are installed at the center.
In such a case, console apparatuses numbering as many as the number of computer systems are installed. A control panel having lamps for indicating the operation state (such as error occurrence) of each computer is also provided and connected to the computer systems via private lines.
Installation of a plurality of console apparatuses forces an operator to patrol console apparatuses and periodically monitor the control panel, or requires an increase in the number of operators.
The former requirement leads to poor efficiency in operation management of computer systems and low reliability is also caused due to a possible check miss by an operator. The latter requirement is contradictory with labor savings systems.
Under such circumstances, a console apparatus capable of controlling a plurality of computer systems has been proposed, as described in Document (1) "Automatic Operation Support System by Personal Computer (V)--Console operation with Multi-window feature", Preprints of Lectures, pp.4-75, 76, the 42 (the first half year of 1991) National Conference of Information Processing Society of Japan.
According to Document (1) "Multiwindow-base Concentrated Console Function", a console function for a plurality of computer systems is realized by a single console apparatus by displaying a plurality of windows having the same number as that of the computer systems on the common screen of the console apparatus. An error display window is also given on this common screen to indicate a computer system which has any trouble.
Also disclosed in JP-A-1-96725 (Document (2)) is a console apparatus capable of controlling a plurality of computer systems of an information processing system, and displaying the operation state of each computer system on a window assigned to the computer system.
The console apparatus of a conventional information processing system disclosed in Document (2) displays both normal operation messages and abnormal operation or error messages as they occur, the error message being displayed in red. An operator is forced to always monitor the console apparatus so as not to overlook the display of a red error message.
It is necessary for an operator to respond quickly to a reply request message from a computer system, and to always monitor the status of all computer systems.
However, the "Multiwindow-base Concentrated Console Function" in Documents (1) and (2) does not disclose a means of responding to a reply request message. Although an identification of a computer system which has any trouble is indicated on the console screen, the status of other computer systems are not displayed.
Furthermore, in a conventional console apparatus, a window is not provided with an indication of to which computer system it belongs.

Console apparatus for information processing system


The invention relates to a corona ignition device for igniting fuel in a combustion chamber of an engine by means of a corona discharge, comprising an insulator, which has a continuous channel, a central electrode, which plugs into the channel of the insulator and leads to at least one ignition tip, a glass seal, which seals in the channel a gap between the central electrode and the insulator, and a housing, into which the insulator plugs. In accordance with the invention, the central electrode has a sealing face, which, together with a sealing face of the insulator, forms a seat, and an annular air gap that is open towards the ignition tip is provided in an end portion of the channel, facing the ignition tip, between the central electrode and the insulator.

The invention relates to a corona ignition device for igniting fuel in a combustion chamber of an engine by means of a corona discharge.
Corona ignition devices are an alternative to spark plugs, which ignite fuel as a result of an arc discharge. Corona ignition devices by contrast cause an ignition by means of a corona discharge and therefore have the potential of a much longer service life. Corona discharges specifically cause much less burn-up at an ignition tip compared to arc discharges.
Corona discharges at an ignition tip are generated by high-frequency excitation of an electric resonating circuit. The capacitor of this resonating circuit is formed by the housing of the corona ignition device and a central electrode, which leads to the ignition tip. The central electrode sits in a channel of an insulator, which closes the combustion-chamber-side end of the housing in a gas-tight manner. A glass seal is located in the channel of the insulator in order to prevent leaking of combustion chamber gases.
A frequent cause of premature failure of corona ignition devices is a dielectric breakdown inside the corona ignition device.


An injection head for rocket engines, in the combustion chambers of which one or more liquid propellants are chemically reacted to generate thrust, with a plurality of injection elements as well as with a distribution chamber arranged before these injection elements in terms of flow. The distribution chamber is divided into two chambers connected in series in terms of flow by means of a separator plate arranged at right angles to the longitudinal direction of the engine. The separator plate has a plurality of openings, each with a different flow cross section and with a defined direction of flow, wherein each opening is associated with one or more injection elements.

Locally greatly different flow and pressure conditions frequently occur in the distribution chamber arranged upstream of the injection elements due to the design, e.g., as a consequence of lateral admission through a line. Furthermore, high velocity components may occur at right angles to the direction of injection, i.e., highly unfavorable conditions may occur in the inlet area of the injection elements. The consequences are, among other things, a reduced propellant throughput, an unsatisfactory spray pattern, as well as deviations from one element to the next despite identical geometry. The consequence with respect to the engine is usually a loss of power, and harmful vibrations of the combustion chamber, nonuniform thermal loads/deformations, etc., may occur as well.
Such a rocket combustion chamber, which has an injection head with a simple distribution chamber (propellant collection chamber 4) supplied with propellant from one side, is described in, e.g., DE-AS 12 90 375. See especially FIG. 2 in this connection.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,194,012 pertains to the problem of a uniform velocity distribution in both distribution chambers of the injection head for the purpose of optimal cooling. The distribution chambers are divided into helical channels with adapted flow cross section pattern. This also has the drawback that high velocity components occur at right angles to the injection elements.
A rocket injection head, which is designed for high mechanical strength and uniform propellant distribution, has been known from DE-PS 977 508. Among other things, a plurality of radially arranged pipes, from which separate holes lead to every individual injection element, are provided for this purpose. When bearing the fact in mind that several hundred injection elements are present in large engines, it will soon become clear that the enormous expense of manufacture is not at a meaningful/acceptable ratio to the benefit. In addition, the many small, long channels lead to high and again locally different pressure drops. See especially FIGS. 2 and 3.


An electromagnetic induction device of coil type for charging and supplying power, the device comprises a split type electrical body (1) and a charging body (2); wherein the electrical body (1) comprises a first casing (11), a first charging circuit board (12) fixed inside the first casing (11), a chargeable battery (13), a load (14) and a first coil (15) connected with the first charging circuit board (12); the charging body (2) comprises a second casing (21), a second charging circuit board (22) fixed inside the second casing (21), a second coil (23) connected with the first charging circuit board (22), a charging plug (24) installed in the second casing (21); the said second casing (21) with a annular sleeve-joint portion (211) sleeved outside of the first casing (11), and the second coil (23) is arranged in the annular sleeve-joint portion (211), and when the electrical body (1) is connected with the charging body (2) in sleeve mode, the first coil (15) is arranged right inside the second coil (23). The device can supply power to a battery of an electrical apparatus by means of non-contact manner.

The structure of small electrical appliances such as flashlight and electrical shaver usually was designed for chargeable. In general, there are two methods of charging: one is by means of the power cable, the other is directly by charging plug installed in electrical appliances. The former needs to set a voltage-transforming device in the end of plug, the size of which is bigger and more copper wire has been use; the same problems as the latter, to sum up, the current chargeable electrical device sizes are larger and the costs are higher.

Electromagnetic induction device of coil type for charging and supplying power


An electrical connector includes an insulating body, and a first and second terminal groups located in the insulating body. The first and second terminal groups are formed by a material strip through integral stamping and tearing. Two neighboring terminals in the first terminal group and the second terminal group are staggered with each other in the vertical direction. The first terminal group includes a first differential signal terminal pair. Each first differential signal terminal of the first differential signal terminal pair has a first welding portion connected to the material strip, and a first contact portion exposed from the insulating body. The width of the first contact portion is greater than that of the first welding portion. The first contact portion bends downward and extends to form a pre-pressing portion. A space between the pre-pressing portions is less than a space between the first contact portions.

In an ordinary electronic product, and in particular in a notebook computer, a general purpose of product design is achieving the most variety of functions within a minimum volume space. Currently, electronic technologies are rapidly developing, such that the computer form develops from a desktop computer into a notebook computer which is small in volume and convenient for carrying. The notebook computers are widely spread at each corner of the society. When a user performs data or signal transmission or connects the notebook computer to another peripheral device, the user needs the so-called peripheral device interface, and a universal serial bus (USB) is used the most generally and widely.
The conventional USB 2.0 has technical problems such as an insufficient transmission speed and an insufficient driving and operating power. In the industry, the foregoing problems are solved by adding a row of USB 3.0 terminal group to the existing USB 2.0 connector. However, when this connector is in operation, and in particular, at a high frequency, a crosstalk unavoidably occurs between the USB 2.0 terminals and the USB 3.0 terminals, thereby affecting signal transmission quality.
The USB 2.0 terminals and the USB 3.0 terminals commercially available in the market are generally formed on different material strips separately through stamping, and then assembled or integrally formed in an insulating body. This technique unquestionably requires two groups of material strips. During material folding, two groups of scraps are generated, such that the material cannot be used economically, and the production cost is increased. Further, a large quantity of production time is consumed, and the production efficiency is reduced.
Therefore, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the art to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.

Electrical connector having terminals with contact portions wider than welding portions and bending downward


There is provided a method of synthesizing an organosilicon compound. This method comprises polymerizing, as a starting material, allyl-(4-alkynyl-phenyl) silane represented by the following general formula (3) in a solvent selected from methylene chloride, chloroform, carbon tetrachloride and 1,2-dichloroethane and under the presence of hafnium tetrachloride to obtain an organosilicon compound represented by the following general formula (1).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an organosilicon compound and a method of manufacturing the organosilicon compound.
2. Description of the Related Art
σ-Π conjugated organosilicon polymers are expected to be useful as a resist material or a conductive polymer material. As for the method of synthesizing the organosilicon polymers, there are known various methods, such as the Wurts polymerization method and polymerization method using an organomagnesium compound. Either of these methods however require severe reaction conditions and the employment of a large amount of metallic reagent. Furthermore, the structure of the substrate is subject to various restrictions. Additionally, there is a problem that a large quantity of unwanted waste may be created.

Organosilicon compounds and method of manufacturing the same

Abstract: (wherein R is a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms or a phenyl group, R's may be the same or different and are individually an alkyl group having 1 or 2 carbon atoms or a phenyl group, and n is an integer of 4 to 2500).


A wafer container includes a container body, formed by a pair of side walls, a top surface, and a bottom surface, on one sidewall of which is formed with an opening and on the other sidewall opposite to the opening is formed with a back wall, a supporting module being disposed on each of said sidewall for supporting a plurality of wafers; and a door joining with opening of the container body with its inner surface for protecting the plurality of wafers within the container body, the characteristic in that: a purgeable supporting module is respectively disposed between each side wall of the container body and the back wall, a long slot is further disposed on the side of purgeable supporting module facing the opening, and an air inlet is further disposed on one end of the purgeable supporting module for being connected to an gas valve, wherein the purgeable supporting module is formed by a plurality of supporting ribs vertically arranged at intervals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present field of the invention is related to a wafer container, and more particularly, to a wafer container disposed with inflatable supporting component for gas to form a gas flow in the wafer container.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The semiconductor wafers are transferred to different stations to apply the various processes in the required equipments. A sealed container is provided for automatic transfer to prevent the pollution from occurring during transferring process. FIG. 1 shows the views of wafer container of the conventional prior art. The wafer container is a front opening unified pod (FOUP) which includes a container body 10 and a door 20. The container body 10 is formed with a pair of side walls 10L and a top surface 10T and a bottom surface 10B adjacent to the pair of side walls 10L. An opening 12 is formed on one sidewall and a back wall (not shown in Figure) is formed on the other sidewall opposite to the opening 12. Wherein a plurality of slots 11 are disposed respectively on the pair of sidewalls 10L for horizontally supporting a plurality of wafers. The door 20 includes an outer surface 21 and an inner surface 22, and joins with the opening 12 of the container body 10 with the inner surface 22 for protecting the plurality of wafers within the container body 10. In addition, at least a latch hole 23 is disposed on the outer surface 21 of the door 20 for opening or closing the wafer container. According to the aforementioned, due to that the wafers are horizontally placed within the container body 10, thus, a wafer restraint component is needed in the FOUP to prevent the wafers from displacement or from movement toward the opening 12 of container body 10 occurring during the wafer transportation due to vibration.
FIG. 2 is a view of a front opening unified pod (FOUP) as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,736,268. As shown in FIG. 2, the inner surface 22 of the door 20 is disposed with a recess 24 and the recess 24 is extended from the top 221 of the inner surface 22 to the bottom 222, and is located between two locking components 230 (inside of the door 20). A wafer restraint module (not shown in Figure) is further disposed in the recess 24. The wafer restraint module consists two wafer restraint components 100, and each wafer restraint component 100 includes a plurality of wafer contact heads 110 to sustain corresponding wafers, so as to prevent the wafer from displacement or movement toward the door opening due to vibration occurring in the wafer transportation procedure.
The slots 11 on two sidewalls 10L of the container body 10 and the wafer restraint module on the inner surface 22 of the door 20 are used respectively for supporting and restricting the plurality of wafers within the container body 10. Friction between these supporting components and restraint components and the wafers easily occurs during the transferring process of wafer container and results in generation of particles. When particles are generated inside the container body 10 of wafer container, these particles may stay on the surface of wafers or pollute the wafers, which cause decrease of yield for later production of chips. Therefore, a material with wear-resisting property can be used for the design of supporting components and restraint components of wafer container to prevent from too many particles generated when supporting components and restraint components contact the wafers. As shown in FIG. 3, which is a sectional view of supporting module on two sidewalls of wafer container as disclosed in U.S. patent No. 2006/0283774. This supporting module is formed by a plurality of supporting components 500 vertically arranged at intervals, and the surface of supporting components 500 is coated with a layer of resin 501 of low friction for preventing particles from being generated due to friction between supporting components 500 and the wafers. However, since the layer of resin 501 according to the design is with a slope, the wafers can only be supported near the edges when being supported by the layer of resin 501. Thus when the size of wafers is larger, the wafers droop or sink more easily, which not only makes it easier for wafers to crack but also results in chips or damage to wafers more easily when the mechanical arm exports the wafers.
In addition, in some other designs, a blowout opening or an edge is provided inside the wafer container, for example, close to where the wafers and the above-mentioned supporting components or restraint module contact, for carrying particles generated due to friction away from the wafers. As shown in FIG. 4, which is a view of inflatable supporting module that can be disposed inside the wafer container as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,899,145. This inflatable supporting module includes a hollow main body 600 which is fixed to sidewall of container body of wafer container with a plurality of vertical supporting components 601 extending to the interior of container body for supporting the plurality of wafers inside the container body with upper surface 602 of supporting components. And the side surface 603 of the supporting components is a bar-shaped slit for gas of the interior of hollow main body 600 to be blown out from for preventing particles generated due to friction from forming on the surface of wafers. In the above-mentioned structure, since the bar-shaped slit is disposed on side surface 603 of supporting components 601, the supporting force may not be enough and displacement or overlapping of wafers may thus occur and cause more serious damages to wafers. Moreover, when wafers are carried by the upper surface 602 of supporting components 601, the contact area between wafers and supporting components 601 is fairly large, which makes it much easier for particles to generate. And since the length of the bar-shaped slit is about as long as wafers, the gas flow may be small or larger inflation equipment may be needed for providing larger gas flow to form effective gas flow. Therefore, an inflatable supporting module with a more comprehensive design is needed for being disposed in the wafer container to effectively prevent particles from generating and forming on the surface of wafers.

Wafer container with purgeable supporting module