Methods and apparatus for systems having deployable elements according to various aspects of the present invention comprise a system including a deployable surface and an adaptive actuator including a polymer foam. In one embodiment, the system comprises a vehicle including a deployable wing comprising an exterior surface. The exterior surface may be adjusted by adjusting the shape, size, position, and/or orientation of the adaptive actuator.

In some structures, it may be desirable to selectively adjust the surface characteristics. As a basic example, most aircraft wings include flaps, which may be engaged to modify the drag and lift characteristics of the aircraft. Additionally, projectiles such as cruise missiles often include adjustable control surfaces to modify the trajectory of the projectile in flight.
At the other end of the spectrum, the entire wing may be configured to adjust. For example, the Grumman F-14 Tomcat features a variable geometry wing design. This variable geometry wing design provides the F-14 with one aerodynamic surface configuration suited to low velocity as well as another configuration for high velocity. A mechanical system controls the disposition of the wings. Mechanically adjusting the control surface, however, disrupts the airflow, reducing aerodynamic efficiency and undercutting the benefit of the functionality.
Various other schemes for extending and dynamically changing wing and control surface configurations have been developed, but have various limitations. For example, many systems can only extend a relatively small amount before reaching a mechanical limit. In addition, many such systems create uneven airflow surfaces.
In addition to in-flight surface adjustments, an aerodynamic system may require an in-flight surface geometry which would be inappropriate for storage and/or launch of the system. For example, in projectiles which are fired from a tube, the internal geometry of the launch mechanism may place constraints on the use of canards. As such, canards are sometimes configured to stow inside of or flush with the projectile for deployment after launch. As with mechanically adjusted wings, deployable canards are generally actuated with mechanical systems, reducing reliability and increasing cost.

Methods and apparatus for adjustable surfaces


The present invention is directed to an improved disc-catching device. A member shaped as an inclined plane for purposes of attaching the chains of the disc-catching device is provided. The particular shape of the inclined plane member allows the top link of the chain to more easily slide inwardly when the chain is impacted by a disc. This arrangement allows the disc-catching device to more easily absorb the energy of the disc making it more likely that the disc will stop and drop down into a catch-basket rather than being deflected away.

My past inventions of Disc Golf disc-catching devices, U.S. Pat. No. 4,039,189; U.S. Pat. No. 4,461,484; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,792,143 have focused on the need to provide technology to catch the ever-improving disc design. According to many of my disc golf buddies who freely criticize my previous inventions and are even freer to point out areas of required improvement, the pendulum has swung away from heavier, faster projectiles to discs that fly, weigh less, and are easier for recreational player's to control. This presents a unique problem to disc-catching devices that must now catch a disc weighing 150 grams or less compared to 180 grams. A single piece of energy absorbing material such as a chain needs to gently absorb the forward motion of the disc, as well as the spin of the disc to avoid a rejection. As the energy of the disc moves the chain, the disc will impact at least one other piece of chain, and, more than likely, two more pieces of the outer ring of chain. If the energy of the disc exceeds the mass of outer chains, the disc will then encounter as many as two lengths of inner chain, which absorb the final energy of the disc that then drops into the basket thus completing the hole.
Another phenomenon encountered by the disc is how many links up from the bottom ring the disc impacts the chain. If the total weight of one length of the chain is 263.5 grams (21 links), each link up increases the mass by 12.6 grams; therefore, the mass of the chain increases as the disc hits higher and higher until it hits the second or third link from the top. These links have their movement restricted by the hook that the chains are attached to. As a result, a lighter disc will not have the mass sufficient to overcome the mass of the chain and will bounce out, be rejected.
Observations of discs being thrown into our catching devices have shown a distinct pattern of successful catches and rejections that indicate that discs that have a weight of 180 grams are almost always caught from three links to the bottom of the chain and rarely caught by link number two and almost never caught by the top link. Discs of 150 grams or less, unless thrown at excessive speed, often miss a catch down to link number six or seven and are generally caught down to link number ten and almost always caught by link number fourteen and always caught by the last seven links.


Systems, devices, and methods for generating signatures for an image obtain an image, estimate a spectral image of the obtained image, calculate one or both of a detection component of the image and a residual component of the image, wherein the detection component of the image is based on the spectral image, a spectral-power distribution for a specific illuminant, and spectral sensitivities of a detector, and wherein calculating the residual component of the image is based on the spectral image, the spectral power distribution for the specific illuminant, and the spectral sensitivities of the detector or, alternatively, based on the spectral image and the calculated detection component, and generate an image signature based on one or both of the detection component and the residual component.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to colorimetric and spectral material estimation.
2. Background
Human beings, as well as digital imaging systems that mimic human vision, capture chromatic signals that can be represented by device-dependent red-green-blue ("RGB") values or device-independent tristimulus values ("XYZ") under specific illumination conditions for a standard observer, resulting in a set of parameters that indicate lightness, hue, and chroma. These illuminant-dependent, observer-dependent color encodings estimate how the human visual system perceives color, as well as how different areas of a scene are encoded as an image by a digital imaging system. Although trichromatic systems give good estimates of the appearances of objects in a scene, they suffer from metamerism, which is a phenomenon in which two different physical stimuli result in identical sets of tristimulus values when integrated with either illuminant spectral-power distribution, detector spectral sensitivities, or both.

Systems and methods for colorimetric and spectral material estimation


A dual clutch having a flywheel comprising an inner conical surface and an outer conical surface, a first clutch comprising a first contact member that is axially movable along an axis relative to first and second transmission-side input shafts for engaging a first conical clutch disc connected to a first input shaft with the inner conical surface of the flywheel, a second clutch comprising a second contact member that is axially movable along the axis relative to the first and second transmission-side input shafts for engaging a second conical clutch disk connected to a second input shaft with the outer conical surface of the flywheel, a mounting means connected to a clutch housing of the dual clutch or to a transmission housing of a motor vehicle transmission, and, actuation means for moving the first clutch and/or the second clutch along the axis.

A dual clutch is arranged for coupling an engine-side output shaft to two different transmission input shafts arranged coaxially in relation to each other. A dual clutch has a first clutch and a second clutch, wherein both the first clutch and second clutch have a pressure plate that is axially movable relative to a counter-plate for engaging the clutch with an associated transmission input shaft. In addition, a co-rotating clutch cover is bolted to a second counter-plate which is then bolted to the first counter-plate. Also, an actuation means is axially fixed for moving the first pressure plate and/or the second pressure plate.
Dual clutch transmissions in motor vehicles increase overall performance by reducing the alternating time between gears within a transmission when compared to a single clutch system and increase engine efficiency by being able to more accurately select the appropriate gear within a transmission. Traditional single and double clutch systems use the same axial arrangement between the flywheel and clutch discs. In current dual clutches, the clutch discs are circular plates axially arranged with a flywheel, which is also a circular plate, and must have a greater force of friction between the clutch discs and flywheel than that of a force imparted by the rotational momentum of the flywheel. Conical surfaces can be used as the contact area between the flywheel and clutch discs to take advantage of the rotational forces developed within a clutch assembly. This is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,247,478 (Burtnett) where a flat, traditional clutch disc engages the flywheel and then a conical shaped clutch engages the first clutch in order to spin both transmission input shafts. Due to the first clutch and second clutch being in close proximity to one another, the heat generation within the clutch assembly could reach a critical level and cause failure of the device. In addition, power transfer to the conical clutch is transmitted from the flat clutch disc, which is still susceptible to slipping due to its means of engagement with the flywheel.
Another version of a conical clutch is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,126,760 (Eason) where a single clutch system is described. This patented invention includes a single conical clutch within the assembly that is driven by the flywheel and engages a conical surface axially arranged on an output shaft. The conical clutch disc is of spoked construction to allow for airflow through the clutch disk to prevent overheating. This spoked design arguably improves cooling of the clutch disk, but it limits the performance of the clutch disk due to a decrease in structural strength and prevents the assembly from being used in high load situations where cooling of the assembly would be a major concern.
Clutch discs are designed from low density, high strength material and contain the least amount of material possible to reduce their rotational inertia. A major downside of this design is that with a lighter clutch disc, there is less material to absorb and dissipate the heat generated by the engaging and disengaging of the clutch discs with the flywheel. This generation of heat can be detrimental to the operating efficiency of the dual clutch and lead to mechanical failure due to expansion and fatigue of major components including the flywheel, pressure plates, and clutch discs. To increase the safety factor of the major components, these parts are cast from cast iron, high strength steel, or aluminum due to these materials' superior heat dissipation properties and high strength. Cast iron, which is a less expensive and popular casting material for flywheels, is dense and heavy which increases the chance of slip between the clutch discs and flywheel due to the high rotational inertia generated.
Thus, there has been a long-felt need for a dual clutch, and, even more particularly, for a dual clutch having two conical discs engaged on opposite sides of a single flywheel for alternating gears in a transmission. There has also been a long-felt need for a flywheel having a base and a frusto-conical member emanating from and extending upwardly from the base.


A horizontal goods transfer apparatus includes a horizontal fixed rail extending in the back-and-forth direction and being capable of mounting thereon a plurality of items in a row in the longitudinal direction. A back-and-forth movement rail is arranged to be substantially parallel to the fixed rail and is placed to be reciprocally movable in the back-and-forth direction. A reciprocating air cylinder moves the back-and-forth movement rail for a predetermined distance. A vertical movement rail is supported by the back-and-forth movement rail to be vertically movable and capable of being located at an upper position higher than the fixed rail and a lower position lower than the fixed rail. A flexible tube is placed on the back-and-forth movement rail and under the vertical movement rail to extend along the vertical movement rail. This flexible tube is inflated/deflated upon supply/discharge of compressed air, thereby vertically moving the vertical movement rail to the upper and lower positions.

The present invention relates to an improvement in a horizontal goods transfer apparatus for mounting goods on its elongated rail and intermittently transferring the goods.
As is known well, an example of the horizontal goods transfer apparatus of this type includes a conveyor that merely transfers goods and a flow-through rack that performs both transfer and storage of goods. Regarding the flow-through rack of these two examples, one shown in Jpn. UM Appln. KOKOKU Publication No. 2-31449 is filed by the present applicant as a prior art.
The flow-through rack indicated in this publication has fixed rails, vertical movement rails installed along the fixed rails to move upward/downward upon inflation/deflation of a flexible tube, and back-and-forth movement rails supported by the vertical movement rails to be movable back and forth with a predetermined stroke to move upward/downward together with the vertical movement rails.
An item of goods is placed on the fixed rails, and the flexible tube is inflated to move the vertical movement rails upward. The goods item placed on the fixed rails is lifted by the back-and-forth movement rails moved upward together with the vertical movement rails, so that it floats from the fixed rails.
Thereafter, the back-and-forth movement rails mounting the goods item thereon are moved forward by an amount corresponding to their stroke, thereby moving the vertical movement rails downward. Then, the back-and-forth movement rails are moved downward together with the vertical movement rails. The goods item is transferred from the back-and-forth movement rails to the fixed rails. As a result, the goods item is moved forward by an amount corresponding to the stroke of the back-and-forth movement rails.
The back-and-forth movement rails are moved backward to the original position, and the above operation is repeated, so that items of goods are intermittently transferred along the fixed rails.
In the conventional horizontal goods transfer apparatus having the above arrangement, however, since the flexible tube must move not only the vertical movement rails but also the back-and-forth movement rails together with the goods, the flexible tube must have a structure and a material capable of enduring a considerably large weight.
If a reciprocally driving means for driving the back-and-forth movement rails is also mounted on the vertical movement rails, the load that must be moved upward/downward by the flexible tube further increases. Members and structures capable of upholding higher pressures are required, leading to an economical disadvantage.


A method for data processing can include associating at least one descriptor dimension with a data item. The descriptor dimension can represent a scale between a first subject and at least a second subject. A dimension value can be associated with the descriptor dimension to quantify a relationship between the data item and the first and second subjects.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to the field of data processing, and more particularly, to a method of describing information for retrieval and utilization.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional search engines allow users to locate data items matching particular search criteria from within a collection of data items. Typically, a search engine matches a user specified query against an index of descriptors. Descriptors, sometimes referred to as metadata, provide a definition or description of data. Descriptors can be associated with data items, and thus, can be used to provide a searchable description for the data items with which the descriptors are associated. For example, the descriptors can be associated with various types of data items such as hardware profiles, data entries, multimedia files, documents, drawings, charts, spreadsheets, software objects, records, Web sites, Web pages, or any other electronic document and/or software component which may be part of a searchable collection.
Data items can be associated with numerous descriptors. Similarly, each descriptor can be associated with numerous data items. Descriptors commonly are specified as a single word or phrase. A single word or phrase, however, often does not relay the essence or provide a complete description of a data item. Associating the data item with more than one descriptor may not convey the degree to which the data item is related to each individual descriptor. In consequence, searching a data collection for data items matching the a particular set of characteristics can be challenging.
User specified queries typically employ selected keywords as search terms. The search terms can be weighted thereby placing more emphasis on particular search terms. Some search techniques implicitly weight search terms by assigning significance based upon the position of the term within a user query. For example, the first term specified in the user query can be assigned the highest significance while the last term of the query may be assigned the lowest significance. Other search techniques allow the user to directly specify the weight of search terms.
Research has shown, however, that users are not particularly skilled at determining the relative importance of query terms. One reason is that users frequently are not aware of the variety of descriptors which exist, or at least the extent of descriptors available, within a given document collection. Further, as most users seek information about unfamiliar subjects, users are likely to be unfamiliar with the terminology most suited and/or most often used in reference to the subject matter being searched. Hence, users may place great weight on terms which are irrelevant, and place little weight on terms which are highly relevant.

Method of describing business and technology information for utilization

International Business Machines Corporation


Systems and methods are described for modifying input and output (I/O) to an object storage service by implementing one or more owner-specified functions to I/O requests. A function can implement a data manipulation, such as filtering out sensitive data before reading or writing the data. The functions can be applied prior to implementing a request method (e.g., GET or PUT) specified within the I/O request, such that the data to which the method is applied may not match the object specified within the request. For example, a user may request to obtain (e.g., GET) a data set. The data set may be passed to a function that filters sensitive data to the data set, and the GET request method may then be applied to the output of the function. In this manner, owners of objects on an object storage service are provided with greater control of objects stored or retrieved from the service.

This application is being filed concurrently with the following U.S. Applications, each of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety:
U.S.applica-tionFilingSer. No.TitleDate16/586,619EXECUTION OF OWNER-SPECIFIED CODE Sep. 27,DURING INPUT/OUTPUT PATH TO OBJECT 2019STORAGE SERVICE16/586,704INSERTING OWNER-SPECIFIED DATA Sep. 27,PROCESSING PIPELINES INTO INPUT/OUTPUT 2019PATH OF OBJECT STORAGE SERVICE16/586,673INSERTING EXECUTIONS OF OWNER-Sep. 27,SPECIFIED CODE INTO INPUT/OUTPUT PATH 2019OF OBJECT STORAGE SERVICE16/586,580ON-DEMAND EXECUTION OF OBJECT Sep. 27,COMBINATION CODE IN OUTPUT PATH OF 2019OBJECT STORAGE SERVICE16/586,562ON-DEMAND EXECUTION OF OBJECTSep. 27,TRANSFORMATION CODE IN OUTPUT PATH 2019OF OBJECT STORAGE SERVICE16/586,539ON-DEMAND EXECUTION OF OBJECT FILTER Sep. 27,CODE IN OUTPUT PATH OF OBJECT STORAGE 2019SERVICE16/586,825ON-DEMAND CODE EXECUTION IN INPUT Sep. 27,PATH OF DATA UPLOADED TO STORAGE 2019SERVICE IN MULTIPLE DATA PORTIONS16/586,816ON-DEMAND CODE OBFUSCATION OF DATA Sep. 27,IN INPUT PATH OF OBJECT STORAGE 2019SERVICE16/586,818ON-DEMAND INDEXING OF DATA IN INPUT Sep. 27,PATH OF OBJECT STORAGE SERVICE201916/586,647DATA ACCESS CONTROL SYSTEM FOR Sep. 27,OBJECT STORAGE SERVICE BASED ON 2019OWNER-DEFINED CODE16/586,659USER-SPECIFIC DATA MANIPULATION Sep. 27,SYSTEM FOR OBJECT STORAGE SERVICE 2019BASED ON USER-SUBMITTED CODE16/586,686CODE EXECUTION ENVIRONMENT Sep. 27,CUSTOMIZATION SYSTEM FOR OBJECT 2019STORAGE SERVICE16/586,626EXECUTION OF USER-SUBMITTED CODE ON Sep. 27,A STREAM OF DATA201916/586,694SEQUENTIAL EXECUTION OF USER-Sep. 27,SUBMITTED CODE AND NATIVE FUNCTIONS2019
Computing devices can utilize communication networks to exchange data. Companies and organizations operate computer networks that interconnect a number of computing devices to support operations or to provide services to third parties. The computing devices can be located in a single geographic location or located in multiple, distinct geographic locations (e.g., interconnected via private or public communication networks). Specifically, data centers or data processing centers, herein generally referred to as a "data center," may include a number of interconnected computing systems to provide computing resources to users of the data center. The data centers may be private data centers operated on behalf of an organization or public data centers operated on behalf, or for the benefit of, the general public.
To facilitate increased utilization of data center resources, virtualization technologies allow a single physical computing device to host one or more instances of virtual machines that appear and operate as independent computing devices to users of a data center. With virtualization, the single physical computing device can create, maintain, delete, or otherwise manage virtual machines in a dynamic manner. In turn, users can request computer resources from a data center, including single computing devices or a configuration of networked computing devices, and be provided with varying numbers of virtual machine resources.
In addition to computational resources, data centers provide a number of other beneficial services to client devices. For example, data centers may provide data storage services configured to store data submitted by client devices, and enable retrieval of that data over a network. A variety of types of data storage services can be provided, often varying according to their input/output (I/O) mechanisms. For example, database services may allow I/O based on a database query language, such as the Structured Query Language (SQL). Block storage services may allow I/O based on modification to one or more defined-length blocks, in a manner similar to how an operating system interacts with local storage, and may thus facilitate virtualized disk drives usable, for example, to store an operating system of a virtual machine. Object storage services may allow I/O at the level of individual objects or resources, such as individual files, which may vary in content and length. For example, an object storage service may provide an interface compliant with the Representational State Transfer (REST) architectural style, such as by allowing I/O based on calls designating input data and a hypertext transport protocol request method (e.g., GET, PUT, POST, DELETE, etc.) to be applied to that data. By transmitting a call designating input data and a request method, a client can thus retrieve the data from an object storage service, write the data to the object storage service as a new object, modify an existing object, etc.

On-demand indexing of data in input path of object storage service


A photophoretic display device includes at least one trap light source configured to generate a trap beam, at least one illumination light source configured to generate an illumination beam, a void, and a first reflective surface. The trap beam enters the void and traps a first one or more scattering particles, the trap beam is incident on the first reflective surface at a first incidence angle and is reflected as a first reflected trap beam, the first reflected trap beam traps a second one or more scattering particles, and the illumination beam illuminates the first one or more scattering particles and the second one or more scattering particles that are trapped to generate a volumetric image.

Planar display devices may lack the capability to display actual depth given their lack of three dimensions. Instead, one or more effects may simulate depth. For example, effects including directional emitters, occlusion, and transparency may simulate depth in a planar image. Generating three-dimensional images may reduce or eliminate the need for such simulation techniques. Accordingly, photophoretic display devices capable of generating a volumetric image may be desired.

TOYOTA MOTOR ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURING NORTH AMERICA, INC.


A semiconductor device and related methods of manufacture are disclosed in which dual work function metal gate electrodes are formed from a single metal layer by doping the metal layer with carbon and/or fluorine.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to semiconductor devices and related methods of manufacture. More particularly, the invention relates to semiconductor devices having a dual metal gate structure and related methods of manufacture.
2. Description of the Related Art
Constant demand for evermore densely integrated semiconductor devices, including the demand for semiconductor memory devices of constantly increasing capacity, has resulted in relentless pressure to reduce the size of the constituent components forming contemporary semiconductor devices. For example, the physical dimensions of nearly every constituent component in conventional Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) devices have been dramatically reduced over the past several years. This is particularly true of CMOS memory devices. However, despite the constant reduction in the physical dimensions of their constituent components, contemporary CMOS memory devices must nonetheless meet increasingly demanding performance criteria.
This ubiquitous "scaling down" of CMOS memory devices necessitates the use of ever more thin, yet performance criteria-compliant gate insulating (e.g., dielectric) layers. As the design rule for CMOS memory devices headed below 100 nm during the past decade, it has become increasingly apparent that the polysilicon gate structures conventionally used would no longer work with very thin gate insulating layers.
The use of polysilicon gate electrodes is a time honored one. Polysilicon is easy to deposit and pattern. It is not adversely affected by subsequently applied high temperature processes, and its "work function" is easily modified by selectively doping the polysilicon.
All conductive materials, including semiconductors, are characterized by a certain responsiveness to applied energy. This responsiveness is termed the material's "work function," and is usually expressed in electron volts (eV). This intrinsic quality of the material is defined by the minimum quantity of energy required to remove an electron from the Fermi level of the material in a vacuum. Different materials have different Fermi levels, different electron configurations, and thus require different amounts of applied energy to remove an electron.
In all materials, electrons arrange themselves in a hierarchy of energy states, first filling up the lower energy states before filling the higher energy states. The Fermi level for a particular material is associated with a highest occupied energy state for the material at zero temperature.
The Fermi level, and therefore the corresponding work function, for many undoped semiconductor materials like polysilicon is situated somewhere generally mid-way between the so-called conductance band of silicon (about 4.1 eV) and the valance band of silicon (about 5.2 eV). (This type of work function is referred to hereafter as "mid-bandgap.")
In contrast, conventional semiconductor materials have been selectively doped to produce either an N-type or a P-type material. N-type semiconductor materials have a Fermi level closer to the conduction band of silicon than to the valance band of silicon. P-type semiconductor materials have the opposite characteristic.
PMOS and NMOS type devices, such as transistors, are formed in great number in contemporary semiconductor devices. Each of these device types operationally benefits from a gate electrode having, respectively, P-type and N-type performance characteristics, including P-type and N-type work functions. Accordingly, conventional polysilicon CMOS gate electrodes are routinely doped with selected P-type and N-type impurities in order to modify ("adjust") the mid-bandgap work function of undoped polysilicon to levels more appropriately suited to (i.e., "compatible" with) PMOS and NMOS devices, respectively.
Unfortunately, when used with very thin gate insulating layers doped polysilicon gate electrodes experience undesirable voltage drops and unacceptable drive current requirements due to a well understood phenomenon called the gate depletion effect. Doped polysilicon gate electrodes may also experience high gate resistance, boron (B) penetration problems, and stability issues related to high-k gate dielectrics.
Beginning in the late 1990's, researchers proposed the use of metal gate electrodes as a replacement for the polysilicon gate electrodes previously used in CMOS devices. Various metals were identified as possible candidates for the formation of metal gate electrodes, including tungsten (W), titanium (Ti), tantalum (Ta), molybdenum (Mo), ruthenium (Ru), nickel (Ni), and niobium (Nb). Various metal compounds, metal nitrides, metal silicides, and metal oxides were also proposed for use in the formation of metal gate electrodes. (Hereafter, metal compounds, alloys, nitrides, silicides, and oxides are all subsumed in the term "metal" as it relates to the selection and formation of metal layer adapted for use in the fabrication of gate electrodes).
While certain types of metal gate electrodes experience some chemical and thermal stability issues, as compared with polysilicon gate electrodes, metal gate electrodes generally enjoy low gate resistance and do not suffer from the gate deletion effect. However, metal gate electrodes are significantly more difficult and complicated to fabricate. This is particularly true of etching process(es) used to pattern the metal layer. Such process(es) use chemicals that are difficult or dangerous to handle, use, and dispose of after use.
Given these enhanced processing difficulties, it is generally preferred to form only a single metal layer having a mid-bandgap work function from which PMOS and NMOS metal gate electrodes are subsequently formed. That is, manufacturing methods requiring multiple metal layer depositions and multiple corresponding etching steps are disfavored. However, it must be noted that some manufacturers have adopted a multiple metal layer deposition approach to the problem of providing PMOS and NMOS-compatible gate electrodes, despite the increased processing difficulties. Some companies feel that the ability to precisely select disparate metals for the formation of PMOS and NOMS gate electrodes allows maximum flexibility in the definition of work function and the selection of an operating threshold voltage (Vth) for the device incorporating the PMOS or NMOS gate electrode.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,130,123 to Liang et al. recognizes the utility of forming dual metal gate electrodes (i.e., PMOS and NMOS metal gate electrodes) from a single metal layer. Selected portions of the single metal layer are adjusted for PMOS and NMOS operation by adjusting their respective Fermi levels. Liang et al. propose in one example a method wherein selected portions of an N-type metal layer having a work function suitable for NMOS operation is exposed to a nitrogen-rich (NH3 or N2) ambient environment in order to change the work function of the exposed selected portions into a work function suitable for PMOS operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,483,151 to Wakabayashi et al. similarly suggests increasing the nitrogen content of selected portions of a titanium nitride layer to yield dual metal gate electrodes in a Metal Insulating Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MISFET). Here, however, nitrogen ion implantation is proposed as a replacement for the ambient atmosphere exposure suggested by Liang et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,815,285 similarly uses nitrogen ion implantation to selectively modify the work function of a metal layer.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,537,901 to Cha et al. takes a slightly different direction. Cha et al. form separate metal layers under separate processing conditions to yield dual metal gate electrodes having disparate PMOS and NMOS compatible work functions. Here again, however, differing amounts of nitrogen ultimately define the respective work functions of both metal layers.
Japanese patent publication 2004-111549 in the name of Hiroyuki uses selective metal ion (nickel) implantation into a deposited metal layer (tantalum) to effect similar results. However, metal doping of metal to produce changes in the doped metal layer's work function is expensive and sometimes yields inconsistent results. As a result, conventional approaches to metal layer work function adjustment are dominated by nitrogen doping in one form or the other.

Dual work function metal gate structure and related method of manufacture


A process for generating animated graphical images of a vascular structure attached to an anatomical structure includes the steps of: generating and arranging a plurality of anatomical patches in rest positions to form an anatomical patch surface representing an anatomical structure disposed in a rest position; and generating and arranging at least one vascular patch over the anatomical structure in the rest position, the vascular patch having an associated array of control points configured to form a closed surface of a vascular structure having a closed transverse cross section; and establishing a binding positional relationship between at least a portion of the control points and the anatomical patch surface by determining binding points on the surface of at least one selected anatomical patch in a rest position. The control points of each vascular patch include at least one transverse cross-sectional subset of control points that are disposed proximate an associated transverse cross-section of the vascular structure, each control point of the subset having a common binding point. The common binding point is located at a closest point on the surface of the selected anatomical patch to a selected one of the control points of the transverse cross-sectional subset. The process provides for generating images of a vascular structure attached to an animated anatomical structure, wherein the vascular structure is modeled by parametric surface patches, wherein the vascular layer may have an elastic quality, and wherein the transverse cross section of the vascular structure is not flattened during animation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of computer animation. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method for generating computer animated graphical images of a vascular structure attached to an anatomical structure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Computer animation techniques have been used for generating animated images of animal bodies including human bodies. For various applications in the field of medicine, including medical training, it is useful to generate animated images of various anatomical elements of an animal such as bones, muscles, vascular tissue, and other tissue. Such animated images are also useful in special effects applications for motion pictures.
The present application is concerned primarily with generating computer animated images of a vascular structure attached to an anatomical structure (e.g., bones, muscles, and other tissue) as the anatomical structure moves in accordance with an animated sequence. Prior art methods for generating computer animated images of a layer of skin superimposed over an underlying structure provide some background information for the development of computer animated images of a vascular structure. However, as further explained below, special problems arise in modeling a vascular structure attached to an anatomical structure that do not arise in modeling a layer of skin superimposed over an underlying anatomical structure.
Anatomically Based Modeling is discussed in detail in an article of the same title written by Jane Wilhelms and Allen Van Gelder of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and published in Computer Graphics Proceedings, Annual Conference Series, 1997. This reference describes a method for modeling skin deformation in response to deformation of anatomical elements which are modeled as triangle meshes or ellipsoids. Skin overlying the anatomical elements is modeled by a triangle-mesh of skin vertices which is attached to the anatomical elements by anchors.
The anatomically based modeling process described by Wilhelms and Van Gelder includes the steps of: defining springs between associated skin vertexes of the triangle-mesh skin; binding each skin vertex with a closest anatomical body component (muscle, bone, or generalized tissue) in accordance with an anchoring method; animating the anatomical body causing the anatomical body components to be moved; moving the skin vertexes of the triangle-mesh skin based on the movement of the body components and the anchoring, the movement causing corresponding springs to deform and therefore exert restoring forces on the skin vertexes; and resolving the spring forces during a relaxation phase of the process.
The springs, which are mathematical functions defining a potential force between the associated vertices as a function of the distance therebetween, provide for achieving a natural elasticity in the skin as it stretches over the animated understructure.
Wilhelms and Van Gelder describe a binding phase in the above cited reference wherein selected points of the layer of skin are bound to associated points on the underlying anatomical structure. An anchor of a particular skin vertex is defined to be the nearest point on its underlying component. A virtual anchor, defined as the initial position of a skin vertex relative to its anatomical component, is the position of the vertex when the skin is extracted in the animal""s rest position. The anchors and virtual anchors are stored parameterized in the local space of the component. As shape changes occur in the anatomical components, the skin vertices are correspondingly affected via the anchors and virtual anchors. Each skin vertex is considered to be bound to its virtual anchor.
Special problems arise in binding a vascular structure to an anatomical structure that do not arise in binding a layer of skin to an anatomical structure primarily because a vascular structure has a substantially cylindrical surface, and a substantially circular transverse cross section, while a layer of skin has a substantially planar, albeit curved, surface. As muscles flex and skeletal elements are moved during animation, it is desirable that the vascular tissue attached thereto have an elastic quality in order to appear natural. It is also very important that the vascular structures not be flattened as they are flexed and bent during movement of the anatomical structures. However, if a vascular structure is bound to an anatomical structure in accordance with the method described by Wilhelms and Van Gelder, the vascular structure is flattened during animation of the underlying anatomical structure.
Another problem associated with the anatomically based modeling process described by Wilhelms and Van Gelder is that the exterior object, that is the layer of skin, is modeled using a triangle mesh of vertices. Polygonal models such as a triangle mesh of vertices are useful primarily for representing objects having flat surfaces, but fall short in allowing the degree of flexibility required for representing curved bodies having complex details. By contrast, parametric surfaces afford great flexibility by providing modelers with intuitive control parameters that make manipulating them fairly natural. Many different types of parametric surfaces, or patches, are commonly used by modelers for representing curved surfaces. One type of parametric surface commonly used by modelers is the non-uniform rational B-spline surface (NURBS) patch. A NURBS patch has a resolution defined by an associated number of control vertex (CV) points which are arranged in an array and which provide a xe2x80x9ccontrol hullxe2x80x9d of the patch.
In order to achieve optimal realism in computer animated images of a vascular structure, it is desirable to be able to model a vascular structure using parametric surfaces which provide a high degree of flexibility. It would also be desirable to provide an anatomically based modeling process having the advantages of the process described by Wilhelms and Van Gelder, but using a parametric surface model for the vascular structure, wherein the parametric surface is formed by a plurality of patches some of which have different resolutions defined by a different number of CV points.
What is needed is a system and method for generating realistic animated graphical images of a vascular structure stretching attached to an animated anatomical structure, wherein the vascular structure is modeled by parametric surface patches, wherein the vascular structure may have an elastic quality, and wherein the transverse cross section of the vascular structure is not flattened during animation.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a system and method for generating realistic animated graphical images of a vascular structure attached to an animated anatomical structure, wherein the vascular structure is modeled by parametric surface patches, wherein the vascular layer may have an elastic quality, and wherein the transverse cross section of the vascular structure is not flattened during animation.
Briefly, a presently preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a process for generating animated graphical images of a vascular structure attached to an anatomical structure. The process includes the steps of: generating and arranging a plurality of anatomical patches in rest positions to form an anatomical patch surface representing an anatomical structure disposed in a rest position; and generating and arranging at least one vascular patch over the anatomical structure in the rest position, the vascular patch having an associated array of control points configured to form a closed surface of a vascular structure having a closed transverse cross section. In one embodiment, the control points of each of the vascular patches are configured to form a substantially cylindrical surface of a vascular structure having a substantially circular transverse cross section.
The process also includes the step of establishing a binding positional relationship between at least a portion of the control points and the anatomical patch surface by determining binding points on the surface of at least one selected anatomical patch in a rest position. In accordance with the present invention, the control points of each vascular patch include at least one transverse cross-sectional subset of control points that are disposed proximate an associated transverse cross-section of the vascular structure, each control point of the subset having a common binding point. The common binding point is located on a closest point on the surface of the selected anatomical patch to a selected one of the control points of the transverse cross-sectional subset.
The process further includes the steps of: animating the anatomical structure causing a translation in the position of the selected anatomical patch relative to the rest position, and resulting in a translated anatomical patch surface; and deforming the vascular patch by moving at least a portion of the control points of the vascular patch based on the associated binding positional relationships and the translation in the position of the selected anatomical patch.
In an embodiment, at least one intra-patch spring may be defined between a corresponding pair of selected control points of at least one of the vascular patches. Each intra-patch spring defines a potential force between the corresponding pair of selected control points. The step of deforming the vascular patch by moving at least a portion of the control points results in at least a portion of the springs being deformed causing spring restoring forces to be exerted on associated ones of the control points. Spring restoring forces are computed and resolved to determine a relaxed position for each of the control points.
The step of establishing a binding positional relationship between each of the control points and the associated closest anatomical patch in the rest position further includes determining an anchor point associated at least a portion of the control points. Each anchor point defines the location of the associated control point relative to its associated binding point with the associated closest anatomical patch being disposed in the rest position. The step of moving each of the control points based on the binding positional relationships further includes determining a moved position for each of the control points based on the associated binding point, the associated anchor point, and a displacement in the position of the associated closest anatomical patch.
In an embodiment, each of the anatomical patches is a non-uniform rational B-spline (NURBS) patch having a (u,v) coordinate system defining a u-direction and a v-direction relative to the NURBS patch. In this embodiment, the step of determining an anchor point associated with each of the control points of the subset further includes: determining a normal vector that is normal to the surface of the associated closest anatomical patch at the associated binding point; determining a u-tangent to the surface of the associated closest anatomical patch along the u-direction at the associated binding point; determining a v-tangent to the surface of the associated closest anatomical patch along the v-direction at the associated binding point, the normal vector, the u-tangent, and the v-tangent defining an associated binding point reference coordinate system for the associated anchor point; and defining the position of the anchor point relative to the binding point using the associated binding point reference coordinate system.
The step of establishing a binding positional relationship further includes the step of generating and storing anchor point mapping information associated with each of the vascular control points. The anchor point mapping information includes: patch information indicative of the associated selected anatomical patch; binding point information indicative of the associated binding point; and anchor point position information indicative of the position of the anchor point relative to the binding point in terms of the associated binding point reference coordinate system of the associated selected anatomical patch in the rest position.
The step of moving each of the control points based on the associated binding positional relationship includes: reading the patch information and the binding point information associated with a particular one of the control points; determining a displaced binding point reference coordinate system by determining a displaced normal vector, a displaced u-tangent, and a displaced v-tangent to the surface of the associated selected anatomical patch at the associated binding point with the selected anatomical patch being in the displaced position relative to the associated rest position; reading the anchor point position information associated with the particular control point; and determining a moved position of the particular control point based on the anchor point position information and the displaced reference coordinate system.
An important advantage of the system and method of the present invention is that it provides for generating high quality graphical images of a vascular structure attached to an animated anatomical structure, wherein the vascular structure is modeled by parametric surface patches, wherein the vascular layer may have an elastic quality, and wherein the transverse cross section of the vascular structure is not flattened during animation.
The foregoing and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment which makes reference to the several figures of the drawing.

System and method for generating computer animated graphical images of a vascular structure attached to an anatomical structure


In a vehicle front structure, without increasing the thickness of the material of a damper housing structure and reinforcement portions, an adequate mechanical strength in supporting the damper can be ensured, and the cost of the manufacturing facilities can be minimized. The damper housing structure is formed by a damper base, a damper housing main body, a front reinforcement portion and a rear reinforcement portion, and the damper base. Each of the damper housing main body, the front reinforcement portion and the rear reinforcement portion includes a closed cross section portion extending linearly with a same cross section.

A known vehicle body front structure comprises a pair of front side frames extending in the fore and aft direction on either side, a pair of front upper members extending in the fore and aft direction above the corresponding front side frames, respectively, on either side, and a pair of damper housing structures each connecting the corresponding front side frame to the associated front upper member.
In a conventional damper housing structure for such a vehicle body front structure, it is known to integrally form a damper housing (strut housing) including a damper base for retaining the upper end of a damper and reinforcement portions provided in the front and rear parts of the damper housing by stamp forming (See Patent Document 1, for instance).

Vehicle body front structure for automobile


Apparatus and processes for the production of a sulfur dioxide-containing combustion gas are provided in which a sulfur-containing liquid is pneumatically atomized with a sulfur gun or lance that utilizes an atomizing gas to form an atomized combustion mixture for combustion in a sulfur furnace. The sulfur dioxide-containing combustion gas may be used in the manufacture of sulfuric acid by the contact process.

The conventional contact process for the manufacture of sulfuric acid includes burning or combusting molten sulfur in air or other oxygen-containing gas in the combustion chamber of a sulfur furnace to produce a combustion gas comprising sulfur dioxide, oxidizing the sulfur dioxide produced in one or more catalytic oxidation stages of a converter to produce a conversion gas comprising sulfur trioxide, and absorbing the sulfur trioxide in aqueous sulfuric acid to form additional sulfuric acid product.
In order to prepare the sulfur for combustion, it is typically liquefied and fed under pressure through one or more sulfur guns or lances directed into the combustion chamber of a sulfur furnace supplied with combustion air or other oxygen-containing gas. The sulfur lance produces atomized sulfur particles that are discharged into the combustion chamber as a spray of sulfur droplets. Most conventional sulfur lances operate hydraulically to produce an atomized spray of sulfur particles. That is, atomization is achieved by passing the liquefied sulfur under pressure through the nozzle of the lance into the combustion chamber of the furnace without the aid of an atomizing gas. Typically, hydraulic atomization produces a spray of atomized sulfur droplets having an average particle size or diameter in excess of 300 μm or more and containing particles as large as 2000 μm or more. With these large particle sizes, it is difficult to ensure sufficiently rapid vaporization and combustion of the liquid sulfur particles within the combustion chamber volume. Moreover, hydraulically-operated sulfur lances sometimes suffer from the emission of insufficiently atomized liquid sulfur (i.e., "drool") from the nozzle of the lance. As a result of these deficiencies, unburned sulfur sometimes deposits outside the intended combustion zone within the sulfur furnace, particularly in smaller sulfur furnace installations or during times of turndown when the sulfur pressure is reduced, leading to process inefficiency and increased maintenance requirements.
As an alternative to hydraulic atomization, it has been proposed to pneumatically atomize liquid sulfur utilizing an atomizing gas such as air (See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,807,530 (Anderson); and Conroy et al., Combustion of Sulfur in a Venturi Spray Burner, Industrial & Engineering Chemistry, Vol. 41, No. 12, pp. 2741-2748 (1949)). Anderson, for example, discloses the pneumatic atomization of molten sulfur to an average particle size on the order of about 10 μm utilizing an atomizing sulfur gun fed with sulfur and atomizing air. In order to ensure an adequate retention time of the spray of atomized sulfur particles in the combustion zone, the apparatus of Anderson further includes a concentric combustor and windbox arrangement that imparts a vertical flow of combustion air from the windbox that converges at the nozzle of the atomizing sulfur gun. The sulfur gun of Anderson includes the atomizing nozzle assembly described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,728,036 (Bennett et al.) in which sulfur and air flows are mixed in and passed through a single narrow annular divergent frustoconical passage to produce a spray of atomized liquid sulfur particles discharged into the combustion chamber of the furnace.
Although the teachings of Anderson are significant, the disclosed apparatus is somewhat complex and difficult to integrate in an existing plant. Furthermore, pneumatic atomization of sulfur-containing liquids to an average particle size of 10 μm represents a significant operational cost. That is, despite the purported improvement in rapid vaporization, combustion and lower deposition of unburned sulfur, overall process economics are still hampered to some extent by the attendant power requirements. Moreover, the nozzle design employed in the sulfur gun of Anderson is susceptible to blockage of the narrow annular passage through which the spray of atomized sulfur is emitted by solid contaminants often found in molten sulfur contained in sulfur pits used in commercial sulfuric acid manufacturing operations.
Accordingly, a need persists for effective techniques and apparatus for producing atomized sulfur combustion mixtures that ensure sufficiently rapid vaporization and complete combustion within the design combustion chamber volume to minimize deposition of unburned sulfur in the sulfur furnace, while also improving the overall economics of both the initial capital cost of equipment and the on-going operational costs.

Process and apparatus for the combustion of a sulfur-containing liquid


The present invention relates generally to neutron detecting scintillators and related methods and devices. A neutron detecting scintillator includes a plurality of microcapillary tubes loaded with a scintillator composition comprising a plastic scintillator and a neutron absorbing material. The present invention additionally provides methods of producing a neutron detecting scintillator having a plurality of microcapillary tubes loaded with a scintillator composition comprising a plastic scintillator and a neutron absorbing material. The method includes preparing a solution comprising a monomer and a neutron absorbing element, introducing the solution into a microcapillary tube of the plurality, and polymerizing the solution within the microcapillary tube.

The present invention relates generally to neutron detecting scintillators and devices. More specifically, the present invention relates to neutron detecting scintillators, devices and related methods, a scintillator including a plurality of microcapillary tubes loaded with a scintillator composition including a plastic scintillator and a neutron absorbing material.
Scintillation spectrometers and devices are widely used in detection and spectroscopy of energetic photons and/or particles (e.g., x-rays, gamma-rays, neutrons). Such detectors are commonly used, for example, in nuclear and particle physics research, medical imaging, diffraction, non-destructive testing, nuclear non-proliferation monitoring, and the like.
Scintillators and scintillation based detectors are generally well known. Scintillation spectrometry generally comprises a multi-step scheme. Specifically, scintillators work by converting energetic particles such as x-rays, gamma-rays, neutrons, and the like, into a more easily detectable signal (e.g., visible light). Incident energetic photons/particles are stopped by the scintillator material of the device and, as a result, the scintillator produces light photons mostly in the visible light range that can be detected, e.g., by a suitably placed photodetector. Various possible scintillator detector configurations are known. In general, scintillator based detectors typically include a scintillator material optically coupled to a photodetector.
Neutron diffraction provides an excellent tool for the analysis of biological matter. For example, unlike x-rays, neutrons interact with nuclei of atoms in a molecule instead of the electrons. Neutron diffraction techniques, for example, can be more useful than x-ray diffraction in determining positions of protons. One example of a neutron detection based techniques in biology includes single crystal diffraction techniques, which is used for a wide variety of biological analysis including protein analysis, solvation studies, drug design, and the like. Another example of an important neutron detection based application is neutron radiography.
Despite advantages and great promise of neutron detection based techniques, the techniques of neutron crystallography and neutron radiology are relatively underutilized compared to other techniques such as x-ray crystallography. One reason for that is the lack of suitable high performance neutron detectors, such as position sensitive thermal neutron detectors. Most of the area detector technologies rely primarily on imaging plates, multi-wire chambers and photographic methods. All these systems have significant performance limitations in terms of sensitivity, position resolution, count rate capability, logistic complications, or lack of real-time output. The performance of currently available detectors is thus a factor limiting more wide-spread implementation of neutron detectors, and is due at least partially to the current lack of scintillators suitable for high performance neutron detection. For example, currently available scintillators with slow response, and low discrimination between neutron and other events, such as gamma-ray events, typically must sacrifice spatial resolution for detection efficiency, thereby further degrading the performance.
Thus, there is a need for improved neutron detecting scintillators and related devices and assemblies, and methods of fabrication. In particular, there is a need for neutron detecting scintillator and devices that provide improved performance, including enhanced signal-to-noise ratio, improved spatial resolution, and the like, and which can be efficiently and economically manufactured.


A single block pneumatic gauging system, with an appropriate passageway, receives compressed air to its inlet and its outlet is connected to an air probe. Parts to be gauged, are placed on a fixture which incorporates the air probe. The proximity of the part, to the nozzle of the air probe, creates a restriction which causes the air speed in the passageway to vary proportionally to the size of the part. A transmitter, at the mid-point of the passageway, generates a sonic wave, which propagates in the passageway. A receiver at the inlet will sense the sonic wave which travels at the speed of sound minus the air speed and a receiver at the outlet will sense the sonic wave which travels at the speed of sound plus the air speed. Phase comparison of both waves provides a signal proportional to air speed in the passageway which in turn is proportional to the size of the part being gauged.

Pneumatic or Air Gauging is in use in all branches of Manufacturing to perform Quality Control, of machined parts, to precise dimensional tolerances.
As its name implies, this type of gauging uses the shop air available in all manufacturing plants (50-100 PSI) thru an Air Electric Converter such as this invention, to which an air probe or gauging fixture is connected at its outlet.
The part to be checked for proper tolerances is placed on a fixture which incorporates the nozzle(s) from which the compressed air exits the Air Electric Converter or, in some cases, the air tooling which includes the nozzles is manually inserted in the part to measure its inside diameter.
The distance between the face of the nozzle(s) and the surface of the part being checked, determines the amount of air exiting the Air Electric Converter.
Using 1 or 2 "MASTER" parts of precisely known dimension and placing them alternately on the fixture, the entire gauging system can be calibrated to those values.
At this point, each manufactured part will be compared to the mean value and their deviation from the nominal value logged by the processing equipment or in some automatic gauging systems parts can be sorted by categories including rejects.
Although the principal use of this invention is for dimensional gauging of machined parts, it is suitable for checking or classifying precision orifices and measuring very small diameter thru holes.
In today's world, the possibilities for interfacing with other instruments and computers are numerous and ever changing. Those stated are only representative of what is available today.
The invention could be assembled without the phase locked loop or the analog digital converter.
This invention can incorporate an air filter at the inlet and a shut-off valve to manually or automatically close the air to conserve energy.
The present invention has for principal object to provide a single-piece pneumatic circuit module, thus avoiding the complex plumbing of pneumatic circuit units, available on the market, that generally consist of fixed and adjustable orifices, bourdon tubes, bellows, diaphragms, levers and pivots which introduce parasitical friction and hysteresis, which result in inaccurate measurement of work pieces.
Even the most advanced differential units using direct electrical signal from a solid state sensor relying on back pressure measurements have a very small linear range of operation and require complex tooling. Reference to U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,592.

Pneumatic gauging system A.K.A. air gauging system A.K.A. air electric converter


An overhead railway and trolley for transporting miners out of a mine. The railway is formed by connected rails that are mounted to a roof of a mine. The trolley is mounted to a bottom flange of the rails and includes wheel assemblies having at least two wheels mounted side-by-side, and each is configured to engage and roll along a top surface of the bottom flange. The trolley has a clicker that is configured to engage protrusions extending away from the bottom flange. The clicker permits the trolley to travel out of the mine but prevents it from traveling into the mine. The trolley also includes a pair of handles that are configured to be gripped by a miner standing on a floor of the mine as he travels from the beginning of the railway to the ending (i.e., the egress direction).

In mining environments, escape line systems constructed from ropes or cables have been suspended from the roof of the mines. The purpose of the safety line is to assist miners in escaping from the mine or for rescue personnel to enter the mine in the event that there is a fire, flood, etc., where visibility is limited. Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 depicts the current state-of-the-art mining "escape line" system that is standard throughout the mining industry.
The system consists essentially of an escape line that is made from a rope, string and/or cable that is suspended from the roof of the mine. To use the system, miners grab onto the escape line using their hands and walk towards the exit of the mine. At each of the suspension points, miners remove their hands from the escape line and then grab the line on the other side of the suspension point. Indicators are placed at intervals along the length of the rope which provide miners with a visual and tactile reference point or warning. The indicators may be used to indicate the direction that the miner is traveling. For example, certain indicators are arrow-shaped and the arrow points towards the exit of the mine. Similarly, the indicators may include reflectors, such as green and red reflectors, to indicate that miner is exiting or entering the mine. The indicators may also be used to indicate that a particular location has been reached. For example, it is often understood that consecutive orb-shaped indicators are placed near a branching location where the escape line branches in two or more directions.
This system has, thus far, been a relatively effective means for assisting miners to escape mines when needed. However, there are many areas where the system could be improved. For example, since this system is typically employed in mines and is typically only used during or after a triggering event, the condition of the mine and the miners are typically not well suited for making a quick, safe and organized escape from the mine. Rather, the mine is often dark and the miners have limited vision and may have sustained injuries. The miners' exit is slowed and made more dangerous since they are required to grasp the escape line by hand and because they have to then remove their hands from the line at each suspension point and reflectors.
What is needed, therefore, is an improved escape system for miner egress that overcomes the problems associated with today's escape line systems.
The above and other needs are met by a guidance and signaling system that includes an overhead railway having an ingress direction and an egress direction. The egress direction may begin at a beginning located near a mining work area and end at an ending located outside of the mining work area. The system includes a trolley configured for human transport that rolls along the overhead railway in either the ingress or egress directions.
The railway is mounted to a roof of a mine and includes a plurality of rails connected together at ends. Each rail has a substantially horizontal bottom flange.
The trolley has a base plate that is placed below the bottom flange of the rails. The base plate has a front end, a back end, and left and right sides. Wheel assemblies are fixedly mounted proximate the left and right sides of the base plate and are configured to engage left and right sides of the bottom flange. Each wheel assembly has a wheel mounting plate extending vertically upwards from the base plate, at least two wheels mounted side-by-side, each configured to engage and roll along a top surface of the bottom flange, a clicker.
The clicker is configured to engage protrusions extending away from the bottom flange. In engaging the protrusions, the clicker moves between a first position where the trolley rolls past the protrusion and a second position where the trolley is stopped by the protrusion. The clicker is biased to the second position, but is configured to move automatically to the first position when the trolley is travelling from ending to beginning (i.e., when the miner is escaping the mine by traveling in the egress direction).
The trolley also includes a pair of handles extending downwards from the front end of the base plate that are configured to be gripped by a miner standing on a floor of the mine. The miner grasps the handles as he travels through the mine.

Overhead rail guidance and signaling system


A silver halide photographic light sensitive material is disclosed, comprising a support having thereon a silver halide emulsion layer, wherein the silver halide emulsion layer contains tabular silver halide grains having an average iodide content of 1.0% or less; the silver halide emulsion layer further containing a dye compound represented by the following formula: ##STR1##

Recently, with regard to processing of a silver halide photographic light sensitive material (hereinafter, simply referred to as photographic material), shortening of processing time and curtailment of processing effluent have been demanded. In the field of medical use, the amount of X-ray photographing time is rapidly increasing due to increased use of X-rays for diagnosis and inspection in general medical examinations, as well as spread of periodical medical check-ups and clinical surveys. As a result, desire for still faster processing and reduction of processing effluent is raised.
Shortening of processing time including developing, fixing, washing, drying, etc. is the key for faster processing of photographic materials. Shortening of the developing time alone, however, leads to a marked decrease of image density and sensitivity and deterioration of contrast. Shortening of the fixing time alone leads to insufficient fixing, causing deterioration of image quality. Accordingly, it is basically required to enhance developability, fixability and dryability of a photographic material in concert.
It is conventionally believed that lowering the content of silver iodide with low solubility, the use of a silver chlorobromide or silver chloride emulsion with high solubility, the decrease of the silver halide grain size and the use of tabular-formed grains are advantageous for enhancement of developability and fixability. However, it is also known that lowering the silver iodide content and the use of a silver chlorobromide or silver chloride emulsion cause a decrease in sensitivity.
Techniques which incorporate silver halide solvents (thiocyanates) in a silver halide emulsion or a photographic material for the purpose of enhancement of sensitivity and developability are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,222,264 and 3,320,069, and JP-A 62-18538 (the expression, "JP-A" means unexamined, published Japanese Patent Application). However, enhancement of the sensitivity by the use of the silver halide solvent leads to deterioration of storage stability, causing practical problems in use of the solvent.
It is known in the field of photographic printing papers that, as a method for sensitizing silver chloride grains, high sensitivity can be achieved by incorporating a compound of group VIII metal of the periodic table, within the grains. This effect concerns only cubic or octahedral grains, and effects concerning tabular grains are not known at this time.
For enhancement of developability to reduce processing effluent, it is desirable to use silver halide grains with high covering power whereby a high density can be obtained with a low silver coverage. The tabular grains are suitable therefore in terms of sensitivity, graininess, sharpness and spectral sensitization efficiency. On the other hand, as the size or thickness of silver halide grains decreases, scattering of blue light due to developed silver increases, resulting in strongly yellowish light to form an yellowish silver image.
With regard to techniques for modifying silver image tone, there have been reported a number of studies of photographic materials and processing. For example, specific mercapto compounds are well-known as a representative image toner. Recently, there has been proposed a technique in which a specific dye is dissolved in a water insoluble high boiling solvent, dispersed in water and incorporated in a photographic material, as described in JP-A 5-165147. However, it resulted in fluctuation in sensitivity, depending on the aging condition thereof before exposure. In X-ray photographic materials for medical use, there have been problems such as dirt adhering to the intensifying screen which is brought into contact with a photographic material at the time of exposure. Furthermore, in the above technique, since the same amount of dye as that of an exposed portion is contained in a non-exposed portion, there is the defect of increased fog density.
To overcome this defect, JP-A discloses a technique in which with forming a silver image, a dye image is formed, in response to the silver image, from a diffusion-proof compound capable of releasing a diffusible dye upon reaction with a silver ion, but the decreased effects of improving blackness of the silver image and lowering of the fog density were insufficient.
JP-A 3-153234 discloses a technique of using a leuco dye capable of forming a blue dye image in response to a silver image. Thereby, contamination of a developer and occurrence of stains can be minimized but since color tone of the blue dye formed from the leuco dye is in a longer wavelength region and has a greenish tint, the improvement in blackness of the silver image was insufficient. In addition, there was a defect such that leuco dye residue in a non-exposed portion of a processed photographic material is liable to color-form with aging, causing an increase of fog density.

Silver halide photographic light sensitive material


An imprinting apparatus and method of fabrication provide a mold having a pattern for imprinting. The apparatus includes a semiconductor substrate polished in a [110] direction. The semiconductor substrate has a (110) horizontal planar surface and vertical sidewalls of a wet chemical etched trench. The sidewalls are aligned with and therefore are (111) vertical lattice planes of the semiconductor substrate. The semiconductor substrate includes a plurality of vertical structures between the sidewalls, wherein the vertical structures may be nano-scale spaced apart. The method includes wet etching a trench with spaced apart (111) vertical sidewalls in an exposed portion of the (110) horizontal surface of the semiconductor substrate along (111) vertical lattice planes. A chemical etching solution is used that etches the (111) vertical lattice planes slower than the (110) horizontal lattice plane. The method further includes forming the imprinting mold.

1. Technical Field
The invention relates to the fabrication of nano-scale and micro-scale structures. In particular, the invention relates to molds used in imprinting lithography.
2. Description of Related Art
A consistent trend in semiconductor technology since its inception is toward smaller and smaller device dimensions and higher and higher device densities. As a result, an area of semiconductor technology that recently has seen explosive growth and generated considerable interest is nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is concerned with the fabrication and application of so-called nano-scale structures, structures having dimensions that are often 50 to 100 times smaller than conventional semiconductor structures. Nano-imprinting lithography is a technique used to fabricate nano-scale structures.
Nano-imprinting lithography uses a mold to imprint nano-scale structures on a substrate. A mold typically contains a plurality of protruding and/or recessed regions having nano-scale dimensions. Such a mold is fabricated using electron beam (e-beam) lithography or patterning and dry etching, typically reactive ion etching (RIE) to create a nano-scale pattern in the mold. However, e-beam lithography is slow and therefore of limited use in high throughput or production situations. Moreover, e-beam lithography has limited resolution in the nano-scale range. For example, a mask prepared using micro or nano-patterning techniques (e.g., optical lithography or e-beam writing) has some residual roughness along mask pattern edges. RIE etching through the mask introduces surface roughness in the sidewalls of the patterns of the mold that at least mimic and may further exacerbate the edge roughness of the mask pattern. As such, the mask used in RIE etching defines the sidewall roughness of the nano-patterns of a mold and such roughness remains rough at the micro-scale even with extreme precision writing. Further, the RIE process causes crystal degradation to the mold material.
While holding much promise, the practical use of such fabricated molds has been somewhat limited. In particular, the surface roughness of the mold contributes to undesirable roughness of the imprint patterns of the mold. Further, crystal damage to the mold caused by RIE processing contributes to low mold reliability and limited mold useful life in manufacturing of nano-scale structures. Moreover, the fabrication of the molds is time consuming. As such, the conventional mold can be costly to use.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to fabricate a mold with higher reliability, higher nano-scale resolution, longer useful life and less surface roughness to the mold patterns using potentially low-cost, fabrication techniques at higher throughput. Such a fabricated mold would solve a long-standing need in the area of nanotechnology.

Apparatus for imprinting lithography and fabrication thereof

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A semiconductor device having a shallow trench isolation structure, where the upper part of the trench is broader than the lower part of it, comprises an insulating layer on the sidewalls of the upper part of the trench, another insulating layer buried in the trench for isolating semiconductor devices and low-concentration doped regions near the upper part of the trench and high-concentration doped regions near the lower part of the trench. Therefore, the leakage current is prevented due to the sufficient amount of the ions in the high-concentration doped regions near the lower part of the trench and the narrow width effect is minimized owing to the insulating layer on the sidewalls of the upper part of the trench.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a semiconductor device, and more particularly to a semiconductor device having a shallow trench isolation structure removing the narrow width effect and a method for fabricating the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The local oxidation of silicon process (LOCOS) and the recessed local oxidation of silicon process (RLOCOS) have been used for the isolation technique of semiconductor devices. In the local oxidation method, the shape of the field oxide layer at the an oxidation mask edges is that of a slowly tapering oxide wedge that merges into the pad oxide layer, which is disposed between a silicon substrate and the oxidation mask, it has been referred to as a bird's beak. The bird's beak is a lateral extension of the filed oxide layer into the active area, whereby the active area is reduced.
As the integration of semiconductor devices are increased, it is very important to obtain the correct active area, therefore the shallow trench isolation (STI) technique capable of removing the bird's beak is highlighted.
The FIGS. 1A to 1D, are cross sectional views of a semiconductor device having a shallow trench isolation structure according to a conventional method.
First, referring to FIG. 1A, a silicon oxide layer 2 and a silicon nitride layer 3 are formed, in order, on a silicon substrate 1, and photoresist patterns 4 are formed on the silicon nitride layer 3. Thereafter, the silicon nitride layer 3, the silicon oxide layer 2 and the silicon substrate 1 are selectively etched to form a trench using photoresist patterns 4 as an etching mask.
Referring to FIG. 1B, photoresist patterns 4 are removed and an oxide layer 5 is formed on the side walls and the bottom of the trench to prevent the silicon substrate 1 from being damaged in the channel stop ion implantation process. Thereafter, ions 6 are implanted into the silicon substrate around the trench so that a channel stop ion implantation layer 7 is formed. In the channel stop ion implantation process, the ions 6 are implanted obliquely into the trench to increase the dopant concentration in the sidewalls of the trench, whereby the depletion phenomenon is prevented.
Referring to FIG. 1C, an insulating layer 8 is formed to isolate devices on the resulting structure, thereby fully filling the trench with the insulating material.
Referring to FIG. 1D, the insulating layer 8 is etched by the chemical-mechanical polishing method, and then a buried insulating layer 8a is formed in the trench.
The dopants in the sidewalls of the trench flow into the buried insulating layer 8a during the thermal treatment process. Therefore the leakage current increases due to the depletion effect.
As a method for solving the above mentioned problem, ions are implanted obliquely into the sidewalls of the trench to increase the dopant concentration in the sidewalls. However, in this case, it is difficult to obtain the concentration uniformity over the sidewalls, and moreover the channel width is reduced by the dopants in the region near the silicon substrate. This is referred to as the narrow width effect of the device.
FIG. 2 shows the dependency of the ion concentration on the depth along the line a-a' in FIG. 1D. The solid line shows the dopant concentration and the dotted line shows the target value of the dopant concentration. As shown in FIG. 2, the dopant concentration is higher than the target values in the region near the silicon substrate surface, but is lower than the target values in the other region.
As mentioned above, the channel stop ion implantation process is carried out to reduce the leakage current, but it may cause the serious problem of the narrow width effect.

Method for fabricating a semiconductor device having a shallow trench isolation structure

Hyundai Electronics Industries Co., LTD.


A laser device capable to simultaneously generate light at multiple wavelengths that are independently (and, optionally, simultaneously) tunable without a limit of how small a spectral separation between such wavelengths can be made is enabled with the use of a laser-cavity network that (i) contains multiple spatially-distinct laser cavity portions all of which have at least one spatial region of the cavity network in common and (ii) is defined by such optical elements that prevent the intracavity amplification of light at first and second of multiple wavelengths at the expense of the same laser gain medium. Each of the distinct cavity portions contains a dedicated laser chip supporting the generation of light at a corresponding wavelength. In a special case, at least two of the multiple lasing wavelengths in the output of the device can be simultaneously and independently tuned to become equal.

Most gas-phase species possess strong, fundamental vibrational modes in the mid-IR bands. This necessitates the development of tunable high power, compact, low-cost continuous wave (CW) mid-IR laser sources for numerous applications such as chemical and environmental monitoring, medical diagnostics, atmospheric transmission measurements, as well as military and security applications. Commonly used to-date CW sources of coherent mid-IR radiation include direct laser radiation devices (known as class 'A' laser sources) and sources the operation of which is based on nonlinear optical processes (referred to as class 'B' sources).
The development of class 'A' solid-state laser sources has been recently significantly advanced and includes quantum cascade (QC) lasers, rare-earth doped fiber lasers, inter-band cascade lasers (ICL) and type-II inter-band lasers, to name just a few. While these laser sources demonstrated promising performance across limited wavelength bands, at other wavelengths of interest their performance has been rather unsatisfactory due to some fundamental limitations.
The QC lasers, for example, showed promising performance in the wavelength range of 5-12 um. While operating in a CW mode, on the other hand, a QC laser converts up to 70% of the injected electrical power to heat, which has to be dissipated from the active region of the laser to enable the required room-temperature operation. Given that the area of the active region is approximately 100 μm2, an efficient solution to address such dissipation to enable the QC generation of high-power single-mode coherent light continues to present a real challenge. In addition, for wavelengths shorter than 5 μm (for example, in the range between about 3 μm and 5 μm), the smaller energy gap between the upper laser state and the continuum states above the quantum wells results in a higher probability of carrier leakage into the continuum states, causing poor operational performance of a QC laser at these wavelengths at room temperature.
High power fiber lasers are widely used in the range from about 1 μm to about 2 μm (and Ho+3-doped fiber laser devices have been developed to expand the emission wavelength towards 3 μm and achieve a near watt-level output power). At the same time, the performance of fiber lasers quickly degrades at wavelengths above 3 μm, even under cooling conditions. For wavelengths exceeding about 3.2 μm, the maximum output power obtained from the Ho+3-doped fiber laser, for example, does not exceed the mW range. Similarly, while a laser source employing direct bandgap III-V semiconductors (for example, InGaSb/GaSb based materials) can operate in the 1.9-2.7 μm range at room temperature, and an exemplary room-temperature operation of a Sb-based semiconductor laser with output power of 80 mW was demonstrated at wavelengths up to 3 μm, the valence-band leakage and large Auger recombination significantly reduce, as a rule, the efficiency of operation at wavelengths above 2.8 μm. Another type of 'A' class laser—the vibronic solid-state laser—possesses broad gain bandwidths caused by phonon interaction. Sources utilizing Cr2+ or Fe2+-cations doped into II-VI compounds demonstrated laser emission in the range of 2 μm-3 μm. While a chalcogenide ceramic laser based on Cr2+:ZnSe can produce high output power in a single longitudinal mode, both thermal lensing and quenching from multi-phonon emission remain among factors principally limiting the ability to scale the power output.
Class 'B' laser sources—in particular those employing difference frequency generation (DFG) to produce coherent mid-IR emission in a very broad wavelength band at room temperature—are commonly used as well. The recognized shortcoming of the majority of DFG-based lasers is their bulky structure and substantial dimensions, which stem from a need for a laser pump source (such as, for example, a Ti-Sapphire pump laser) producing high power, single mode emission. The diode-laser-pump-based alternative of a DFB class 'B' laser, on the other hand, does not produce yet a sufficiently high-power output (which is currently limited to about 10 mW) due to the fact that the output power of a single mode diode laser is typically below 1 W.
Optically-pumped vertical external-cavity surface emitting lasers (VECSELs) employing various III-V materials, have been subject to research in recent years and shown to provide a flexible high-brightness high-power output laser platform for generation of light in visible-IR wavelength bands. The major advantage of a VECSEL is that it utilizes a semiconductor quantum-well gain structure that opens a possibility to tailor the output spectrum of a VECSEL by means of band-gap engineering to provide specific solutions to a variety of applications in the near infrared. For example, VECSELs operating at different wavelengths between 670 nm and 2.8 um have been discussed in literature. In particular, InGaAs/GaAs strained quantum wells have been extensively researched and are capable of spanning the wavelength range from ˜900 nm to 1200 nm. The open cavity design of a VECSEL provides access to the high intracavity power, which allows for wavelength tuning, linewidth control, and efficient intracavity nonlinear frequency conversion for not just single frequency operation, but also high-power non-linear wavelength generation covering a range of wavelengths from the UV to the far IR regions of the spectrum (see, for example, M. Scheller et al., in Optics Express, v. 18, 21112, 2010; or S. Kaspar et al., in Applied Phys. Letts., v. 100, 031109, 2012). A VECSEL laser operating at two different wavelengths is of interest in a range of applications including free-space wavelength-multiplexed optical communications as well as for optical distribution and generation of radar local oscillators and for nonlinear frequency generation of radiation from mid-IR up to THz frequencies for remote sensing applications (L. Fan et al., in Appl. Phys. Letts., v. 90, 181124, 2007).
Although VECSELs utilizing multiple cavities, intra-cavity etalons, spatial mode splitting, or a multiple-quantum-well-based medium have been shown to generate light at two wavelengths, all VECSEL devices of related art lack the degree of tunability and efficiency of a single wavelength VECSEL source. In particular, the need for a VECSEL system structured to generate simultaneous light outputs at multiple wavelengths that are independently tunable and not limited by any particular mutual relationship (describing, for example, a limitation imposed on a characteristic of light at a first wavelength by light at a second wavelength) has not been addressed to date.

Multi-chip VECSEL-based laser tunable independently at multiple wavelengths

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