Fuel cell separation, fuel cell device, and electronic applied device technical field are provided. A fuel cell separator capable of making a fuel cell device compact and reducing variations in air supply amount to generating cells. Oscillating fans as fluid oxidant supplying means are respectively provided at openings of channels. The oscillating fans are individually driven to respectively supply air into the channels. The oscillating fans are included in a separator body of a separator. As compared with the case that the oscillating fans are provided separately from a fuel cell body having the separator as a component, the limitation to layout of the fuel cell body and various units for effecting stable electric power generation in the fuel cell body can be reduced, and the fuel cell device can be reduced in size.

The present invention relates to a fuel cell separator, fuel cell device, and electronic applied device, and more particularly to a fuel cell separator, fuel cell device, and electronic applied device wherein the fuel cell device can be reduced in size with almost no limitation to layout of a fuel cell body in the fuel cell device, and air can be smoothly supplied to each generating cell.
A fuel cell is a power generating device including a generating cell for performing electric power generation by the electrochemical reaction of a fluid fuel such as hydrogen gas or methanol and a fluid oxidant such as oxygen contained in air. In the case of a solid polymer type fuel cell, it generally has a structure formed by sandwiching a proton conductor membrane between an oxygen electrode and a fuel electrode. The oxygen electrode is supplied with air containing oxygen, and the fuel electrode is supplied with a fluid fuel. In performing electric power generation in the solid polymer type fuel cell, ions (protons) move in an electrolyte membrane as an ion exchange membrane to react with the oxygen supplied from the oxygen electrode, thereby generating a current, whereas producing water on the oxygen electrode. Such a generating element of the fuel cell is referred to as an MEA (Membrane and Electrode Assembly). By arranging a plurality of MEAs in a plane or arranging a plurality of generating cells each formed by sandwiching an MEA between a pair of separators in a plane, a fuel cell having a planar structure is configured. Alternatively, by stacking a plurality of MEAs or a plurality of generating cells, a fuel cell having a stack structure is configured.
Further, since the product obtained by the electric power generation in the fuel cell is water, the fuel cell has received attention in recent years as a power generating element causing no environmental pollution, and it has recently been tried to use the fuel cell as a driving power source for driving an electric vehicle or a hybrid vehicle in the field of transport vehicles.
Thus, the use of the fuel cell as a driving power source for transport vehicles is greatly expected. Further, the practical use of the fuel cell in a home power supply system is also expected, and various applications of the fuel cell are examined on a small-sized power source or portable electronic equipment such as a notebook personal computer, mobile phone, and PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), utilizing a weight reduction and size reduction of the fuel cell. In such a fuel cell, it is important to stably output a required electric power and to reduce the size to a portable size. Under these circumstances, various technical developments are being made actively.
Of the pair of separators constituting the generating cell, the separator touching the oxygen electrode of the generating element is formed with a fluid oxidant supply channel for supplying a fluid oxidant such as oxygen to the oxygen electrode. The fluid oxidant supply channel has an opening exposed to an end surface of the separator for taking the outside air into the channel to supply it to the oxygen electrode. The fluid oxidant supply channel is formed as a groove extending in the longitudinal direction of the separator so as to be exposed to the opposite ends of the separator. The outside air supplied from one of the openings of the channel is made to flow in the channel, and then discharged from the other opening to the outside of the generating cell. A plurality of fluid oxidant supply channels may be arrayed in the transverse direction of the separator, so as to efficiently supply oxygen to almost all the surface of the oxygen electrode. An air supplying fan is provided along a side surface of the generating cell to collectively supply air to all the fluid oxidant supply channels. For example, in the case that the fuel cell body has a stack structure formed by stacking a plurality of generating cells to generate a required electric power, the air supplying fan is provided separately from the fuel cell body to collectively supply air to all the fluid oxidant supply channels.
However, in the above case that the air supplying fan is provided separately from the fuel cell body, the layout of the fuel cell body is limited by the layout of the air supplying fan. Moreover, since the air supplying fan is provided in a fuel cell device, a size reduction of the fuel cell device itself is difficult.
Further, in the case of dispersively arranging a plurality of fuel cell bodies in electronic equipment to drive various elements mounted in this electronic equipment at required positions, the air supplying fan provided separately from each fuel cell body causes the production of a waste space in the electronic equipment, resulting in the hindrance to size reduction of the electronic equipment to be driven by the electric power generated in each fuel cell body.
Furthermore, there are variations in amount of air to be supplied by the air supplying fan between a central portion and an outer circumferential portion thereof. As a result, there are variations in amount of air to be supplied into the fluid oxidant supply channels between the channels exposed to the central portion of the fan and the channels exposed to the outer circumferential portion of the fan, causing a possibility that the electric power generation by the fuel cell body may become unstable. Particularly, if there are variations in air supply amount among the generating cells forming a stack structure, there is a possibility that the power generation efficiency in a specific one of the generating cells may be lowered.

Compact fuel cell separator incorporating fluid oxidant supply means, a fuel cell device and an electronic applied device incorporating the compact fuel cell separator


A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device comprises the steps of introducing a first gas containing steam or alcohol into a processing vessel housing a semiconductor substrate, and introducing a hydrogen fluoride gas as a second gas into the processing vessel after stopping introduction of the first gas into the process chamber.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor device, particularly, to the removal of a natural oxide film from a semiconductor substrate in the manufacture of a semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A dry etching method using a HF (hydrogen fluoride) gas is known to the art as a technique for etching silicon substrates one by one for removing an oxide film from the substrate surface. In the conventional dry etching method, it was customary to prepare an etchant by adding steam or a nitrogen gas containing steam to anhydrous HF so as to improve the etching rate. In addition, use of the mixed gas is effective for the saving of HF which is costly. In using the mixed gas in the dry etching method, steam alone or a mixture of steam and a nitrogen gas is introduced into a processing vessel, followed by introducing a mixed gas containing an anhydrous HF gas and a nitrogen gas into the processing vessel. In short, the etching treatment using the anhydrous HF was performed in the presence of a large amount of steam.
The etching method outlined above permits a high etching rate. In addition, the natural oxide film formed on a silicon substrate is very thin. It follows that it is difficult to control the etching rate to etch selectively the natural oxide film alone, leading to the problem that oxide films other than the natural oxide film tend to be etched together with the natural oxide film. Further, the etching rate in a peripheral region is higher than that in a central portion, when it comes to a single wafer. In other words, the conventional dry etching method is not satisfactory in uniformity of etching rate over the entire surface of a single wafer. What should also be noted is that, since the etchant used contains a large amount of steam as pointed out previously, water is left even after the etching treatment, leading to growth of a new natural oxide film.

Method and apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor device


An EL display device which can display vivid images with a good balance of the brightnesses of emitted red color, blue color, and green color light is provided. The EL display device has a plurality of pixels each containing EL elements respectively, and the EL display device performs gradation display by controlling the time during which the plurality of EL elements emit light. The EL display device is characterized in that a voltage applied to each of the EL elements differs depending upon the color displayed by the plurality of pixels each containing the EL elements respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an EL (electroluminescence) display device formed with a semiconductor element (an element using a semiconductor thin film) built on a substrate, and to an electronic device comprising the EL display device as a display.
2. Description of the Related Art
Techniques of forming a TFT on a substrate have greatly advanced in recent years, and development of applications to active matrix type display devices is proceeding. In particular, a TFT using a polysilicon film has a higher electric field effect mobility (also referred to as mobility) than a TFT using a conventional amorphous silicon film, and it is capable of high speed operation. It therefore becomes possible to perform control of pixels by a driver circuit formed on the same substrate as the pixels, although conventionally by a driver circuit external to the substrate.
This type of active matrix display device obtains many advantages, such as lowered manufacturing cost, smaller display device, increased yield, and reduced throughput, by building various circuits and elements on the same substrate.
In addition, research on active matrix type EL display devices having EL elements as self-luminescing elements has become spirited. The EL display device is also referred to as organic EL display (OELD) or an organic light emitting diode (OLED).
The EL display device is a self luminescing type which differs from a liquid crystal display device. The EL element has a structure in which an EL layer is sandwiched between a pair of electrodes, and the EL layer is normally a lamination structure. A lamination structure of xe2x80x9ca hole transporting layer, a light emitting layer, and an electron transporting layerxe2x80x9d proposed by Tang, et al., of Eastman Kodak Co. can be given as a typical structure. This structure has extremely high light emitting efficiency, and at present nearly all EL display devices in which research and development is proceeding employ this structure.
Furthermore, additional structures such as a hole injecting layer, a hole transporting layer, a light emitting layer, and an electron transporting layer formed in order on a pixel electrode; or a hole injecting layer, a hole transporting layer, a light emitting layer, an electron transporting layer, and an electron injecting layer formed in order on a pixel electrode may also be used. An element such as a fluorescing pigment may also be doped into the EL layer.
A predetermined voltage is then applied to the EL layer having the above structure by a pair of electrodes, and recombination of carriers thus occurs in the light emitting layer, and light is emitted. Note that the light emitting of the EL element is referred to as driving the EL element throughout this specification.
In addition, note that a light emitting element formed by an anode, an EL layer, and a cathode is referred to as an EL element throughout this specification.
Roughly divided, there are four color display methods for an EL display device: a method of forming three types of EL elements corresponding to R (red), G (green), and B (blue); a method of combining white color light emitting EL elements and color filters; a method of combining blue or blue-green EL elements and fluorescing bodies (fluorescent color changing layers, CCMs); and a method of using a transparent electrode for the cathode (opposing electrode) and overlapping EL elements corresponding to RGB.
Generally, however, there are many organic EL materials with which the brightness of red color emitted light is low compared with the brightness of blue color and green color emitted light. The brightness of red color images displayed therefore becomes weaker when an organic EL material having these types of light emitting characteristics is used in an EL display device.
Further, a method of using orange color light having a slightly lower wavelength than that of red color light has been conventionally performed because the brightness of red color light is low compared to the brightness of blue and green light. However, the brightness of red color images themselves which are displayed by the EL display device is low, and when display of the red color image is attempted, it is displayed as orange.
In consideration of the above, an object of the present invention is to provide an EL display device for displaying an image which has a good balance between the desired brightnesses of red, blue, and green light, using organic EL materials with different brightnesses of red, blue, and green light.
The applicant of the present invention has made the voltage applied to an EL element which performs display of a color having a low light emission brightness higher than the voltage applied to an EL element which performs display of a color having a relatively high light emission brightness in an EL display device which performs time partitioning gradation display.
An EL driver TFT which performs control of electric current to an EL element has a relatively larger current flow than a switching TFT which controls the driving of the EL driver TFT in order to make an EL element emit light. Note that control of the driving of TFT means that an on state or an off state of the TFT is set by controlling the voltage applied to a gate electrode of the TFT. In particular, for the above structure the present invention has more current flowing in the EL driver TFTs of pixels displaying colors having low light emission brightness than in the EL driver TFTs of pixels displaying other colors. A problem therefore surfaces in that the EL driver TFTs of the pixels displaying colors having low light emission brightness degrade quicker than EL driver TFTs of pixels displaying other colors due to hot carrier injection.
The applicant of the present invention, in addition to the above structure, made the length of an LDD region of the EL driver TFTs of the pixels displaying colors having low light emission brightness longer than the length of an LDD region of the EL driver TFTs of the pixels displaying colors having high light emission brightness as measures against deterioration of the EL driver TFTs by hot carrier injection.
Note that, throughout this specification, length of the LDD region refers to the length of the LDD region in a direction which links a source region and a drain region.
Furthermore, at the same time the channel width(W) of the EL driver TFTs of the pixels displaying colors having low light emission brightness is made larger than the channel width(W) of the EL driver TFTs of the pixels displaying colors having relatively high light emission brightness.
Note that, throughout this specification, channel width(W) refers to the length of the channel region in a perpendicular direction to the direction which links the source region and the drain region.
Even though the amount of current for controlling the EL driver TFTs is increased by raising the voltage applied in accordance with the above structure, the present invention can suppress deterioration of the EL driver TFTs. In addition, it becomes possible to regulate the brightness of light emitted by the EL elements by the value of the voltage applied to the EL elements, and to display an image having vivid colors and good balance between the brightnesses of emitted light in red, blue, and green colors. Note that the present invention may employ not only the time partitioning gradation display but also the other method of the display.
The structure of the present invention is shown below.
In accordance with the present invention, an EL display device having a plurality of pixels, each containing an EL element, characterized in that:
the EL display device performs gradation display by controlling the amount of time light is emitted by the plurality of EL elements; and
a voltage applied to the plurality of EL elements differs in accordance with the color displayed in the plurality of pixels containing the EL elements, is provided.
Also in accordance with the present invention, an EL display device having:
a plurality of pixels, each containing
an EL element;
an EL driver TFT for controlling light emission from the EL element; and
a switching TFT for controlling the driving of the EL driver TFT;
characterized in that:
the EL display device performs gradation display by controlling the amount of time light is emitted by the plurality of EL elements;
a voltage applied to the plurality of EL elements differs in accordance with the color displayed by the plurality of pixels each containing the EL elements;
the plurality of EL driver TFTs are composed of n-channel TFTs; and
the higher the voltage applied to the plurality of EL elements, the longer the length, in the longitudinal direction of a channel, of an LDD region of the plurality of EL driver TFTs, is provided.
Further, in accordance with the present invention, an EL display device having:
a plurality of pixels, each containing:
an EL element;
an EL driver TFT for controlling light emission from the EL element; and
a switching TFT for controlling the driving of the EL driver TFT;
characterized in that:
the EL display device performs gradation display by controlling the amount of time light is emitted by the plurality of EL elements;
a voltage applied to the plurality of EL elements differs in accordance with the color displayed by the plurality of pixels each containing the EL elements;
the plurality of EL driver TFTs are composed of n-channel TFTs; and
the higher the voltage applied to the plurality of EL elements, the larger the width of a channel region of the plurality of EL driver TFTs, is provided.
Also in accordance with the present invention, an EL display device having:
a plurality of pixels, each containing:
an EL element;
an EL driver TFT for controlling light emission from the EL element; and
a switching TFT for controlling the driving of the EL driver TFT;
characterized in that:
the EL display device performs gradation display by controlling the amount of time light is emitted by the plurality of EL elements;
a voltage applied to the plurality of EL elements differs in accordance with the color displayed by the plurality of pixels each containing the EL elements;
the plurality of EL driver TFTs are composed of n-channel TFTs;
the higher the voltage applied to the plurality of EL elements, the longer the length, in the longitudinal direction of a channel, of an LDD region of the plurality of EL driver TFTs; and
the higher the voltage applied to the plurality of EL elements, the larger the width of a channel region of the plurality of EL driver TFTs, is provided.
In accordance with the present invention, an EL display device having:
a plurality of pixels, each containing:
an EL element;
an EL driver TFT for controlling light emission from the EL element; and
a switching TFT for controlling the driving of the EL driver TFT;
characterized in that:
the EL display device performs gradation display by controlling the amount of time light is emitted by the plurality of EL elements;
a voltage applied to the plurality of EL elements differs in accordance with the color displayed by the plurality of pixels each containing the EL elements; and
the higher the voltage applied to the plurality of EL elements, the larger the width of a channel region of the plurality of EL driver TFTs, is provided.
The present invention may also be characterized in that the amount of time light is emitted by the plurality of EL elements is controlled by a digital signal input to the switching TFTs.
The present invention may also be an electronic device employing the above EL display device.

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


A method for determining a designated forwarder (DF) of a multicast flow, a device, and a system are disclosed. In an Ethernet virtual private network (EVPN) scenario, a customer edge (CE) device is connected to a plurality of provider edge (PE) devices in a dual-homed or multi-homed manner. A first PE device is any one of the plurality of PE devices. After determining that the CE device connected to an Ethernet link joins a multicast group of a multicast flow, the first PE device determines bandwidth occupation statuses of a plurality of Ethernet links included in an Ethernet segment (ES) to which the Ethernet link belongs, and then determines, as a DF of the multicast flow based on the multicast flow bandwidth occupation statuses of the plurality of Ethernet links, a PE device corresponding to an Ethernet link that occupies lowest multicast flow bandwidth.

Multicast is a data transmission mode in which data is simultaneously sent to a plurality of receivers on a transmission control protocol (TCP)/internet protocol (IP) network in an efficient manner by using one multicast address. A multicast source sends a multicast flow to a multicast group member in a multicast group through a link on the network, and all multicast group members in the multicast group can receive the multicast flow. The multicast transmission mode implements a point-to-multipoint data connection between the multicast source and the multicast group members. The multicast flow needs to be transmitted once on each network link, and the multicast flow is replicated when the link has branches. Therefore, in the multicast transmission mode, data transmission efficiency is improved, and a possibility of congestion on a backbone network is reduced.
An Ethernet virtual private network (EVPN) is a layer 2 virtual private network (VPN) technology. The EVPN connects customer sites in different regions by using a cross-internet protocol (IP)/multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) bearer network. This is equivalent to that the customer sites are located on one local area network (LAN).
In an EVPN scenario, a customer edge (CE) device may receive a multicast flow from a remote multicast source by using a plurality of provider edge (PE) devices. The CE device is connected to the plurality of PE devices through a plurality of Ethernet links, and the plurality of Ethernet links belong to one Ethernet segment (ES). To avoid a waste of network resources caused by receiving duplicate traffic by the CE device from the plurality of PE devices, a designated forwarder (DF) election mechanism is introduced in the EVPN. In the EVPN scenario, the plurality of PE devices elect a DF based on a hash algorithm. However, the hash-based DF election mechanism may cause overload of some of the plurality of Ethernet links and poor bandwidth utilization of some of the plurality of Ethernet links, thereby degrading load sharing performance.

Method for determining designated forwarder (DF) of multicast flow, device, and system


An apparatus and method for production simulation simulates to calculate a total number of assembly boards manufactured with time by an electronic-component-mounting apparatus which includes a component feeding section having plural component feeders for feeding various components. The apparatus and the method allow a result of the simulation to be displayed. The production simulation apparatus is linked with a host computer for generating, transmitting, receiving, and storing data. When data for mounting components on a bare board is generated, production data for providing local maximum mounting efficiency is generated through carrying out an optimization process. The simulation for manufacturing the assembly boards is carried out using the production data and a production command data.

An electronic-component-mounting line used in production of assembly boards including components mounted thereon is commonly of a general-use type and may be utilized for producing many types of assembly boards. Including a mounting mechanism significantly improved in quality and function, the electronic-component-mounting line accordingly operates in a so-called "continuously-shifting" mode for mounting the components onto different types of bare boards not with a change of its component feeders along the mounting line but with a change of control data.
The continuously-shifting mode is however disadvantageous to an improvement in productivity. The mode, since allowing the component feeders to be fixedly located in the line, may hardly be optimum in the productivity when different types of products are manufactured. It is difficult to appropriately determine which order the different bare boards are put in the line and when the component feeders are changed. Steps of the production can not be evaluated in view of the productivity, and this prevents the productivity from being improved.

Apparatus and method for simulating production with electronic-component mounting apparatus

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A system and method for estimating the frequency offset experienced between carrier and local oscillator frequencies in communication systems using quadrature modulation. The invention exploits the geometry of the quadrature modulation constellation and estimates actual offset within a predefined carrier offset value without requiring data estimation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to digital communication systems using quadrature modulation techniques. More specifically, the invention relates to a system and method for blind detection of carrier frequency offsets in such systems.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A digital communication system typically transmits information or data using a continuous frequency carrier with modulation techniques that vary its amplitude, frequency or phase. After modulation, the signal is transmitted over a communication medium. The communication media may be guided or unguided, comprising copper, optical fiber or air and is commonly referred to as the communication channel.
The information to be transmitted is input in the form of a bit stream which is mapped onto a predetermined constellation that defines the modulation scheme. The mapping of each bit as symbols is referred to as modulation.
Each symbol transmitted in a symbol duration represents a unique waveform. The symbol rate or simply the rate of the system is the rate at which symbols are transmitted over the communication channel. A prior art digital communication system is shown in FIG. 1. While the communication system shown in FIG. 1 shows a single communication link, those skilled in this art recognize that a plurality of multiple access protocols exist. Protocols such as frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), carrier sense multiple access (CSMA), code division multiple access (CDMA) and many others allow access to the same communication channel for more than one user. These techniques can be mixed together creating hybrid varieties of multiple access schemes such as time division duplex (TDD). The type of access protocol chosen is independent of the modulation type.
One family of modulation techniques is known as quadrature modulation and is based on two distinct waveforms that are orthogonal to each other. If two waveforms are transmitted simultaneously and do not interfere with each other, they are orthogonal. Two waveforms generally used for quadrature modulation are sine and cosine waveforms at the same frequency. The waveforms are defined ass1(t)=A cos(2πfct)  Equation 1ands2(t)=A sin(2πfct)  Equation 2where fc is the carrier frequency of the modulated signal and A is the amplitude applied to both signals. The value of A is irrelevant to the operation of the system and is omitted in the discussion that follows. Each symbol in the modulation alphabet are linear combinations generated from the two basic waveforms and are of the form a1 cos(2πfct)+a2 sin(2πfct) where a1 and a2 are real numbers. The symbols can be represented as complex numbers, a1+ja2, where j is defined as j=√−1.
The waveforms of Equations 1 and 2 are the most common since all passband transmission systems, whether analog or digital, modulate the two waveforms with the original baseband data signal. Quadrature modulation schemes comprise various pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) schemes (where only one of the two basic waveforms is used), quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) schemes, phase shift keying (PSK) modulation schemes, and others.
A prior art quadrature modulator is shown in FIG. 2. The modulator maps the input data as a pair of numbers {a1, a2} which belong to a set defined by the modulation alphabet. a1 represents the magnitude (scaling) of the first waveform and a2 represents the magnitude (scaling) of the second waveform. Each magnitude is modulated (i.e. multiplied) by the orthogonal waveforms. Each individual modulator accepts two signal inputs and forms an output signal at the carrier frequency.
A prior art quadrature demodulator is shown in FIG. 3. The demodulator generates sine and cosine waves at a carrier frequency [fc]fLO for demodulation. Ignoring channel effects, the received signal can be represented asr(t)=a1(t)cos(2πfct+φ0)+a2(t)sin(2πfct+φ0)  Equation 3where a1(t) represents the plurality of amplitudes modulated on waveform s1(t) as defined by Equation 1 and a2(t) represents the plurality of amplitudes modulated on waveform s2(t) as defined by Equation 2. φ is an arbitrary phase offset which occurs during transmission.
The cosine and sine demodulator signal components are defined as:
                                          r            c                                          (            t            )                          =                                                            r                                                  (                  t                  )                                            *                                                  cos                                            (                                  2                                    π                                                                                f                    LO                                                      t                                )                                              =                                                    1                2                                                          a                1                                                          cos                                                  (                                                                                (                                                                              f                            c                                                    -                                                      f                            LO                                                                          )                                                                  t                                        +                                          ϕ                      0                                                        )                                                      +                                          1                2                                                          a                2                                                          sin                                                  (                                                                                (                                                                              f                            c                                                    -                                                      f                            LO                                                                          )                                                                  t                                        +                                          ϕ                      0                                                        )                                                      +                                          1                2                                                          a                1                                                          cos                                                  (                                                                                (                                                                              f                            c                                                    +                                                      f                            LO                                                                          )                                                                  t                                        +                                          ϕ                      0                                                        )                                                      +                                          1                2                                                          a                2                                                          sin                                                  (                                                                                (                                                                              f                            c                                                    +                                                      f                            LO                                                                          )                                                                  t                                        +                                          ϕ                      0                                                        )                                                                                Equation                                                  4            and
                                          r            s                                          (            t            )                          =                                                            r                                                  (                  t                  )                                            *                                                  sin                                            (                                  2                                    π                                                                                f                    LO                                                      t                                )                                              =                                                    1                2                                                          a                2                                                          cos                                                  (                                                                                (                                                                              f                            c                                                    -                                                      f                            LO                                                                          )                                                                  t                                        +                                          ϕ                      0                                                        )                                                      -                                          1                2                                                          a                1                                                          sin                                                  (                                                                                (                                                                              f                            c                                                    -                                                      f                            LO                                                                          )                                                                  t                                        +                                          ϕ                      0                                                        )                                                      -                                          1                2                                                          a                2                                                          cos                                                  (                                                                                (                                                                              f                            c                                                    +                                                      f                            LO                                                                          )                                                                  t                                        +                                          ϕ                      0                                                        )                                                      +                                          1                2                                                          a                1                                                          sin                                                  (                                                                                (                                                                              f                            c                                                    +                                                      f                            LO                                                                          )                                                                  t                                        +                                          ϕ                      0                                                        )                                                                                Equation                                                  5
The carrier frequency components, fc+fLO, are suppressed by the lowpass filters. The signals after filtering are:
                                          y            c                                          (            t            )                          =                                            1              2                                                  a              1                                                  cos                                            (                                                                            (                                                                        f                          c                                                -                                                  f                          LO                                                                    )                                                            t                                    +                                      ϕ                    0                                                  )                                              +                                    1              2                                                  a              2                                                  sin                                            (                                                                            (                                                                        f                          c                                                -                                                  f                          LO                                                                    )                                                            t                                    +                                      ϕ                    0                                                  )                                                                        Equation                                                  6            and
                                          y            s                                          (            t            )                          =                                            1              2                                                  a              2                                                  cos                                            (                                                                            (                                                                        f                          c                                                -                                                  f                          LO                                                                    )                                                            t                                    +                                      ϕ                    0                                                  )                                              -                                    1              2                                                  a              1                                                  sin                                            (                                                                            (                                                                        f                          c                                                -                                                  f                          LO                                                                    )                                                            t                                    +                                      ϕ                    0                                                  )                                                                        Equation                                                  7
If the local oscillator frequency in Equations 6 and 7 is equal to the carrier frequency, fLO=fc, and the phase offset is equal to zero, φ0=0, the right hand sides of Equations 6 and 7 become ½a1(t) and ½a2(t) respectively. Therefore, to effect precise demodulation, the local oscillator must have the same frequency and phase as that of the carrier waveform. However, signal perturbations occurring during transmission as well as frequency alignment errors between the local oscillators of the transmitter and receiver manifest a difference between the carrier and local oscillator frequencies which is known as carrier offset. A phase difference between the carrier and local oscillator frequency is created as well. However, if the difference in frequencies is corrected, the difference in phase is simple to remedy. Phase correction is beyond the scope of the present disclosure.
Carrier frequency offset is defined as:Δf=fc−fLO.  Equation 8
To synchronize either parameter, the frequency and phase offsets need to be estimated. In prior art receivers, frequency offset estimation is performed after a significant amount of data processing. Without correcting offset first, the quality of downstream signal processing suffers.
"Estimation of Frequency Offset in Mobile Satellite Modems" by Cowley et al. International Mobile Satellite Conference, 16-18 Jun. 1993, pp. 417-422, discloses a circuit for determining a frequency offsets in mobile satellite applications. The frequency offset estimation uses a low pass filter, an Mth power block, a square fast Fourier transform block and a peak search block.
"A method for Course Frequency Acquisition for Nyquist Filtered MPSK" by Ahmed IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, vol. 5, no. 4, 1 Nov. 1996, pp. 720-731, discloses a frequency offset estimator for mobile satellite communications. The estimator uses a low pass filter, a decimator, a fast Fourier transform block and a search algorithm.
"Carrier and Bit Synchronization in Data Communication—A tutorial Review" by Franks IEEE Transactions on Communications, US, IEEE Inc. New York, vol. COM-28, no. 8, 1 Aug. 1980, pp. 1107-1121, discloses carrier phase recovery circuits using elementary statistical properties and timing recovery based on maximum-likelihood estimation theory.
What is needed is a system and method of detecting and estimating carrier frequency offset before any data signal processing is performed.

Blind carrier offset detection for quadrature modulated digital communication systems


The invention relates to the compounds having the structures I and II: ##STR1## The invention also relates to a method of making the compound having the structure I by mixing 2,2,4,4-tetramethyl-1,3-cyclobutanediol; dimethyl carbonate; and a basic catalyst, and heating the mixture.

Poly(2,2,4,4-tetramethyl-1,3-cyclobutylene carbonate) is a useful polymer for making molded articles. However, the art does not disclose an efficient method for the preparation of high molecular weight poly(2,2,4,4-tetratmethyl-1,3-cyclobutylene carbonate).
Defensive Publication T858,012 discloses a melt method of preparing poly(2,2,4,4-tetramethyl-1,3cyclobutylene carbonate) by reacting 2,2,4,4-tetramethyl-1,3-cyclobutanediol, hereinafter referred to as "TMCD" for convenience, with the bis(ethyl carbonate) of TMCD in the presence of a dibutyltin oxide catalyst. However, this process only produces low molecular weight and discolored polymers having inherent viscosities below 0.4 dL/g.
Bis(phenyl carbonates) such as those used in U.S. Pat. No. 3,335,111 are known in the art as monomers for the production of polycarbonates. However, these aromatic monomers are expensive to produce and the phenol by-product ultimately imparts some undesirable color to the polymer.
In light of the above, it would be desirable to have a bis alkyl carbonate of TMCD and a method of making therefor that can be used in the production of high molecular weight poly(2,2,4,4-tetramethyl-1,3-cyclobutylene carbonate).

Carbonic acid 3-methoxycarbonyloxy-2,2,4,4-tetramethyl-cyclobutyl ester methyl ester and method of making therefor


An LTCC module includes a base on one or more surfaces for receiving one or more external components to be attached to the module. A base is formed of a plurality of layers of metallization in a predetermined pattern. The layers include an adhesion layer on the LTCC module surface, with one or more intermediate layers, followed by a top layer. The module is fired with each application of the layers at a reduced temperature lower than the normal cofiring temperature of the LTCC module, but of sufficient value to partially sinter the layers. After the last applied top layer, the module is fired once at an elevated temperature to fully sinter the layers.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention in general relates to the field of LTCC (low temperature cofired ceramic) circuitry.
2. Description of Related Art
An LTCC circuit is comprised of a plurality of ceramic layers with passive and/or active components and stacked together to form a module, with each ceramic layer containing thick film printed circuitry metallization, generally gold or silver. The ceramic layers include conductive vias for making electrical contact between layers and the stack of ceramic layers is cofired at a temperature high enough to sinter the layers, yet low enough so as prevent flowing or melting of the metallization. The result of the firing is to form a rigid monolithic structure.
LTCC circuits have high packing density, can be customized to meet desired applications, are cost effective, reliable and can be controlled with respect to dielectric values. The LTCC allows for integration of digital and RF, stripline and microstrip circuits in a single light weight 3-D package. Such LTCC circuits are used for high frequency applications in both military as well as commercial devices.
Often, after the LTCC module is cofired, it is desirable to add additional layers of metallization, in a certain pattern, to build up a base, on one or more surfaces, to which some component is to be attached. Such component may be a frame structure, a heat sink or an electrical connector block, by way of example.
Typically, the base to which the component is attached is made up of a plurality of metal layers to achieve a desired thickness. Each layer of the base is screened on, in the predetermined pattern and then fired at the cofiring temperature of around 850° C. This procedure of repeated firings of the LTCC module, however, at the elevated temperature, has an adverse affect on buried components such as resistors, capacitors and inductors which may change with these repeated firings. For example buried resistors may actually change their initial resistance value by more than 50% with repeated firings. Further, repeated high temperature firings may affect solderable layers and change their bondability.
In addition, some ceramic materials which comprise the ceramic layers will also change with repeated high temperature firings. As the ceramic material is heated to a temperature above its crystallization temperature, additional crystallization occurs. This crystallization can modify the dielectric constant and density of the ceramic.
It is an object of the present invention to minimize or eliminate the above described changes without degrading the performance of the metallization forming the base.

Method of forming one or more base structures on an LTCC cofired module


An exercise apparatus includes a base. A first and second vertical support members are coupled to the base. Additionally, a resistance assembly is coupled to the first and second vertical support members. When viewed from the base, the first and second support members converge relative to one another until mutual vertices. The first and second support members then diverge relative to one another above the vertices.

Exercise apparatuses commonly employ a weight stack actuated by a cable which is pulled by users of the apparatus. Recently, resistive elastic members, such as bands or plates, have been incorporated into exercise equipment to provide motion resistance. Specifically, resistive elastic members have gained increased popularity due to their ability to provide substantially consistent tension throughout the desired range of motion and generate an increased use of stabilizer muscles to oppose the substantially consistent tension while providing resistance in a large number of directions and ranges of motion.
While the use of resistive elastic members provides many benefits, a number of the traditional apparatus configurations can present limitations affecting the usefulness of the exercise apparatus. For example, the range of exercises which may be performed with certain cable actuated apparatuses is sometimes limited by the position and orientation of the apparatus itself. Particularly, with the added range of motion and resistance offered by the use of resistive elastic members, such as bands and plates, consumer needs and considerations are often at odds. Particularly, the safety considerations of providing a stable apparatus are constantly at odds with the desire for a system that is relatively compact while providing the ability to perform full body exercises and allow the user to take advantage of a full range of motion.
One type of resistance band apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,626,801 issued to Jean Pierre Marques. In this patent, an exercise system includes a pair of elongate side members, a plurality of bar members extending between the side members, a plurality of eyelets attached to a front edge of the side members, and a mat member pivotally attached to a lower portion of the side members. A plurality of attachments can be attached to the bar members and the eyelets to allow the performance of various exercises. An alternative resistance based apparatus is also disclosed in U.S. Pat. App. No. 20080020912 assigned to ICON IP, INC. In this patent, an exercise machine has resilient elongate members for providing balanced resistance in the form of elongate resilient members oriented horizontally such that the intermediate portion of the elongate members contact a fulcrum of the exercise machine.

Non-linear resistance based exercise apparatus


A presentation configuration system may receive metadata from multiple users utilizing tax preparation applications. The metadata may be tags or labels of interview segments of the tax preparation applications. The presentation configuration system may create community defined presentation structures from the metadata such that the community defined presentation structure includes an organization of interview segments within a tax preparation application. The community defined presentation structure may indicate how interview segments of a tax preparation application should be presented to a user. Furthermore, a tax preparation application may provide a user (e.g., a taxpayer) with multiple options corresponding to community defined presentation structures. The tax preparation application may receive a selection of one of the options from the user. Thus, the tax preparation application may present the tax preparation interview segments of the tax preparation application to the user according to the community defined presentation structure indicated by the option selected.

Utilizing a preparation application has become a popular method of preparing a return, such as a tax return, for filing with an authority. Typically, preparation applications will present a series of questions or prompts to a user in order to obtain the necessary information to complete a return. Multiple interview segments (e.g., one or more screens of the preparation application) may include questions or prompts. Thus, to complete a return, the preparation application may present the multiple interview segments to the user. Typically, the configuration or organization in which the preparation application is configured to present the interview screens by default may be known as the default presentation structure. While viewing the interview segments, the user may enter the necessary information (e.g., income, deductions, credits) for the completion of a return.
Preparation applications may present the various interview segments according to a static hierarchical configuration such as one or more tree structures of various topics. For example, the preparation application may navigate through a tree structure beginning with a root node. The root node may be a parent that has child nodes (e.g., income, deductions, and credits). Each child of the root node may also be a parent node. For example, "income" may be a child topic of the root "taxes" while also being a parent topic to "wages," and "interest." Typically, the taxonomy of the hierarchical configuration in which the preparation application adheres to may not be particularly meaningful to a user lacking knowledge of the specific taxonomy.
Furthermore, if the user would like to search for a particular topic (e.g., donating my car), the search function of the preparation application may be limited to searching within the data of the particular hierarchical configuration. Thus, to produce the most meaningful search results, the user may need to have a clear understanding of the particular accounting terms and taxonomy used throughout the hierarchical tree structure. For example, instead of searching for "donating my car," the user may need to search using other terms such as "charitable contribution of an automobile."

System and method for creating and implementing community defined presentation structures


In a content display device (1) of the present invention, a scrolling processing section (107) causes a scrolling movement of a currently-displayed shelf face (11) in a lengthwise direction to be displayed in a case where a second input operation instructing display of the currently-displayed shelf face (11) in a different position in the lengthwise direction is carried out via an input operation section (111). A rotation processing section (106) causes rotation of a bookshelf object (10) on a central axis of the bookshelf object (10) to be displayed in a case where a first input operation instructing display of a shelf face (11) different from the currently-displayed shelf face (11) is carried out via the input operation section (111).

Terminals having a browser function of displaying images representing respective pieces of content side-by-side are conventionally known. Such a browser function is achieved, for example, by a method (adopted in Apple's iPhone) of arranging icons in a grid manner, a method (adopted in Apple's iPad and in general digital cameras) of two-dimensionally arranging a small number of high-quality images, or the like. That is, in many of the conventional terminals, a plurality of thumbnail images are displayed on a two-dimensional plane. Accordingly, the number of thumbnail images that can be displayed within 1 screen is restricted by a screen size.
In view of this, a method of attaching an image to each side face of a three-dimensional object and rotating the three-dimensional object is proposed (see Patent Literature 1). Further, a method is proposed in which a plurality of images are presented to a user in an easily viewable way for the user by changing a three-dimensional shape of a three-dimensional object depending on how the plurality of images are presented (see Patent Literature 2).
As described above, the number of thumbnail images that can be displayed within 1 screen is restricted by a screen size. In view of this, a technique of attaching thumbnail images to each side face of a cube which is a three-dimensional object and rotating the cube has been developed (see, for example, Patent Literature 2). According to such a technique, a large number of thumbnail images can be displayed in an easily viewable way.
In recent years, various devices, such as portable devices and handheld devices, having a touch panel function have been developed. A user can change animation displayed on a display of such a device by touching (e.g., scrolling) the display.
The scrolling is an operation for sliding content such as texts, a drawing, or an image in a horizontal or vertical direction throughout a screen or a display window. A technique is proposed which slows down scrolling until the scrolling stops by applying a predetermined slow-down rate to a user's input speed of a dragging operation after the user's input for the scrolling operation stops (see Patent Literature 3).

Content display device, content display method, portable terminal, program, and recording medium


A wall lamp comprising a conical lamp shade covered with a cover to hold a lamp bulb therein, wherein said lamp shade comprises a plurality of curved slots around a peripheral wall adjacent to a top edge thereof in such length and curvature that light beams from the lamp bulb inside said lamp shade are projected therethrough onto a wall to which said top edge of said lamp shade is secured, to form an image in a spiral pattern.

The present invention relates to wall lamps, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a wall lamp which has curved slots on the peripheral wall of the lamp shade thereof for projecting light beams from the lamp bulb therein backwards outwards onto the wall to which said lamp shade is secured.
Because of industrial and economic prosperity, a lamp has no longer a device simply for illumination but also a device for decorative purpose. FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate a wall lamp according to the prior art which is generally comprised of a lamp shade secured to a flat wall to hold a lamp bulb therein. The lamp shade is comprised of a plurality of acrylic plates surrounding around the lamp bulb therein, and a plurality of wing plates transversely disposed at the bottom to add beauty. Because light from the lamp bulb mainly projects outward in directions parallel to the wall, less attractive lighting effect can be produced.


A bit-level operation may be implemented prior to modulation and resource element (RE) mapping in order to generate a NoMA transmission using standard (QAM, QPSK, BPSK, etc.) modulators. In this way, the bit-level operation is exploited to achieve the benefits of NoMA (e.g., improved spectral efficiency, reduced overhead, etc.) at significantly less signal processing and hardware implementation complexity. The bit-level operation is specifically designed to produce an output bit-stream that is longer than the input bit-stream, and that includes output bit-values that are computed as a function of the input bit-values such that when the output bit-stream is subjected to modulation (e.g., m-ary QAM, QPSK, BPSK), the resulting symbols emulate a spreading operation that would otherwise have been generated from the input bit-stream, either by a NoMA-specific modulator or by a symbol-domain spreading operation.

Multiple access is a function of wireless communication systems in which multiple users can share resources. Multiple access systems may be orthogonal or non-orthogonal. In orthogonal multiple access systems, such as time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA), signals for different users are transmitted on different physical channel resources (e.g., time, frequency, or some combination). In non-orthogonal multiple access (NoMA) systems, such as code division multiple access (CDMA), interleave division multiple access (IDMA), interleave grid multiple access (IGMA), multi-user shared access (MUSA), and sparse code multiple access (SCMA), there may be cross-correlation of signals for different users. Intentionally introducing non-orthogonality may increase the spectrum efficiency but may create some challenges in terms of transmitter and receiver implementation. It is desirable to design a non-orthogonal multiple access transmission mechanism that simplifies and facilitates transmitter and receiver implementation.

Method and system for non-orthogonal multiple access communication


A thermal head has plural heat generating elements arrayed therein in a main scanning direction to form a heat generating element row, causes the respective heat generating elements to generate heat while conveying a recording medium in a sub-scanning direction, and forms plural dot lines in the main scanning direction on the recording medium to record an image. A plurality of the heat generating element rows are arrayed in the sub-scanning direction. Respective nth (n is a natural number) heat generating elements among the heat generating elements in the respective heat generating element rows can sharingly form a dot in the same position in an identical dot line according to independent driving for each of the heat generating element rows.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thermal head that has plural heat generating elements arrayed therein in a main scanning direction and causes, while conveying a recording medium in a sub-scanning direction, the respective heat generating elements to generate heat to record an image and the like on a recording medium and a method of controlling the thermal head, and, more particularly to a technique adapted to obtain a high recording quality with high density.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is known a thermal printer including a thermal head that has plural heat elements (heat generating elements) arrayed therein and a platen roller provided to be opposed to the thermal head. In such a thermal printer, the thermal head is pressed against a recording medium (a recording sheet, etc.), which is conveyed onto the platen roller, via an ink ribbon to record an image and the like. When a thermosensitive recording medium is used, the ink ribbon is unnecessary.
FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing a main part of a general thermal printer 10 and is a diagram showing a section in a direction perpendicular to a rotating shaft 31 of a platen roller 30.
The thermal printer 10 shown in FIG. 9 includes a line-type thermal head 20 that has plural heat elements (not shown) arrayed therein in a line shape. A recording sheet 40 is held on the platen roller 30 and moved by the rotation of the platen roller 30.
A general image recorded by the thermal printer 10 has the shape of a horizontally long rectangle. Therefore, depending on a type of the thermal printer 10, a relatively short side (a direction perpendicular to the paper surface in FIG. 9) of the image is set as the length of the thermal head 20 and as the main scanning direction taking into account manufacturing cost and the like. The thermal printer 10 records the image on the recording sheet 40 while conveying the recording sheet 40 (feeding the recording sheet 40 in a right direction on the paper surface in FIG. 9) to form a relatively long side of the image, which is set as the sub-scanning direction.
The thermal head 20 is pressed against the recording sheet 40 via an ink ribbon 50 of a rolled cloth shape rolled between two ribbon cartridges 51. The thermal head 20 has a glaze 21, which is a convex portion standing in the vertical direction and extending in the main scanning direction. Plural heat elements are provided in a line shape along a top surface of the glaze 21. Therefore, during recording, the respective heat elements of the thermal head 20 press the recording sheet 40 with a high linear pressure.
When recording is actually executed, the respective heat elements are caused to generate heat in this state. Then, when the thermal printer 10 is a thermal printer of a sublimation transfer system, dye (thermofusible ink) of the ink ribbon 50 is transferred onto the recording sheet 40 in proportion to thermal energy generated by the heat elements. When the thermal printer 10 is a thermal printer of a thermofusible transfer system, pigment (thermofusible ink) of the ink ribbon 50 containing wax as a binder melts with thermal energy generated by the heat elements and adheres to be transferred on to the recording sheet 40. Therefore, one point of the thermofusible ink transferred onto the recording sheet 40 by the heat elements is formed as one dot.
To form a two-dimensional image with such a thermal head 20 of the line type, it is necessary to move the thermal head 20 and the recording sheet 40 relatively to each other. In other words, the thermal printer 10 sequentially forms dots while feeding the recording sheet 40 in the sub-scanning direction. Then, plural dots are arranged in the sub-scanning direction and changed to be continuous sets of dots one after another and a dot line is formed. Moreover, a plurality of the dot lines are formed in the main scanning direction by the plural heat elements arrayed in the main scanning direction. As a result, a two-dimensional image can be formed over the entire recording sheet 40.
As described above, the thermal printer 10 shown in FIG. 9 records an image on the recording sheet 40 by causing the respective heat elements to generate heat while feeding the recording sheet 40 in the sub-scanning direction using the thermal head 20 of the line type that has the plural heat elements arrayed therein in the main scanning direction. The resolution (the density of the dot line) of the thermal printer 10 depends on the number of heat elements arrayed in the main scanning direction of the thermal head 20.
FIG. 10 is a plan view showing a thermal head 200 in the past.
As shown in FIG. 10, in the thermal head 200, plural heat elements h (h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, etc.) are arrayed in one row in the main scanning direction. A total number of the heat elements h is 2560. Therefore, the thermal head 200 can form 2560 dots per one line in the main scanning direction of the respective heat elements h. Since the resolution of the thermal head 200 is 300 DPI (dots per inch), the heat elements h are arranged side by side over 2560 dots/300 DPI=8.53 inches (216 mm).
FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing a method of controlling the thermal head 200 in the past shown in FIG. 10.
As shown in FIG. 11, in the thermal head 200 in the past, when data of an image that should be formed is inputted, heat history correction is applied to data for the heat elements h. Subsequently, the data for the heat elements h is modulated for driving of the heat elements h by PWM modulation. Dots are formed by the driving of the heat elements h based on the modulated data. An overall image is formed by sets of the dots.
In recent years, the thermal printer 10 (see FIG. 9) is demanded to form an image with high definition and, at the same time, at higher speed. For example, high recording speed equal to or less than 1 microsecond per one dot is demanded of the thermal printer 10. Such improvement of recording speed, which should be called as "ultrahigh speed recording", causes a temperature rise in the thermal head 200 (see FIG. 10).
The thermal head 200, which is originally a consumable product, is deteriorated more rapidly than usual because of an excessive temperature rise in the thermal head 200 (see FIG. 10) and the durable life of the thermal head 200 is extremely shortened. When the heat elements h (see FIG. 10) are arrayed at high density to form an image with high definition, a heat radiation property of the thermal head 200 is spoiled. As a result, a trailing track is formed regardless of the finish of recording, i.e., a so-called "tailing" occurs, because of the heat stored in the thermal head 200 and a recording quality falls.
To cope with such a problem, for example, there is known a technique for arranging the heat elements h (see FIG. 10), which are arranged in one row, in two rows and using one of the rows for preheating of the recording sheet 40 (see FIG. 9) and the ink ribbon 50 (see FIG. 9) or forming dot lines, which are sets of plural dots arranged in the sub-scanning direction, in two rows to thereby preventing an excessive temperature rise in the respective heat elements h.
For example, JP-A-2006-205520 (hereinafter, Patent Document 1) discloses a thermal head including plural printing dots arranged in a line shape and an electrode layer that supplies a current to the plural printing dots, wherein the thermal heads has a large-area heat element, which is thin and long in a traveling direction, on an entrance side in the traveling direction and has a small-area heat element on an exit side and, in the respective printing dots, plural heat generation areas having different heat generation peak temperatures are formed in a current supply direction when the current is supplied from the electrode layer.
JP-A-2002-370398 (hereinafter, Patent Document 2) discloses a thermal head in which plural heat elements are set in parallel to a direction in which thermal recording paper travels, a mechanism for controlling a temperature history (profile) of thermal energy is provided, and the respective heat elements are independently applied, whereby necessary energy can be supplied by a necessary amount.

Thermal head and method of controlling thermal head


A motor vehicle has a loading compartment and a driver's compartment which is separated from the loading compartment via a partition. In order to permit great variability by making good use of the space, the partition is of two-part design, with the two parts being connected to each other via a hinge. The hinge makes it possible for the second part to be able to be pivoted in relation to the fixed, lower part toward the loading compartment or toward the driver's compartment. A latching device secures the partition in various pivoting angles.

This invention relates to a motor vehicle with a closed loading compartment and a driver's compartment which is separated from the loading compartment via a partition, which has an adjustable vehicle seat, in which the partition includes at least first and second surfaces which are connected pivotably to each other, and in which a hinge runs parallel to a vehicle floor and pivotally connects the surfaces to each other.
German document DE 19751671 A1 discloses a partition for minibuses or trucksters. The partition runs transversely with respect to the longitudinal direction of the vehicle and separates a driver's compartment from a useable space. In order to enlarge the useable space available, this partition is designed in such a manner that it has an upper section and a lower section, the lower section extending into the driver's compartment under the seats thereof. As a result, an additional useable space is provided at the expense of the driver's compartment.
One object of the present invention is the object of providing a vehicle which provides great loading compartment and driver's compartment variability by making good use of the space and at the same time which has a high degree of safety.
This object is achieved according to the invention by a motor vehicle having a latching device arranged in a region of a vehicle roof, with the first surface arranged in a lower region of the vehicle and connected fixedly both to the vehicle floor and also, on both sides, to vehicle walls, and with the second surface arranged in an upper region of the vehicle and secured fixedly in an adjustable manner in various pivoting angles via the hinge.
The partition of the motor vehicle according to the invention has two surfaces which are connected to each other via a hinge running transversely with respect to the vehicle floor. A first surface is arranged in the lower region of the vehicle and is connected fixedly both to the vehicle floor and also, on both sides, to the vehicle wall. As a result, this surface forms a stable termination of the loading compartment and increases the strength of the vehicle structure. The second surface of the partition is arranged in the upper region of the vehicle and can be pivoted by means of the hinge. The second surface is secured fixedly in various pivoting angles via a latching device arranged in the region of the vehicle roof.
The pivoting of the upper part of the partition therefore enables either the driver's compartment to be enlarged, by the partition being pivoted in the direction of the loading compartment, or it enables the loading compartment to be enlarged by the partition being pivoted in the direction of the driver's compartment. As a result, it is possible for even very large drivers, with a predetermined size of the driver's compartment, to be able to push the vehicle seat back a long way or to be able to incline the backrest rearward a long way in order to take up a comfortable and ergonomic sitting position. For this purpose, the partition is pivoted toward the loading compartment, so that the necessary space is created for the driver.
In the case of smaller drivers or in the case of very large freight items, the partition can be pivoted forward toward the driver's compartment, so that an enlarged loading compartment is obtained. A stable connection of the upper, second surface of the partition to the vehicle body is produced via the fixed, lower segment of the partition and the hinge. A latching device is provided at the upper end of the second surface and connects the latter fixedly to the vehicle roof. As a result, the necessary safety is ensured even in the event of a crash by items of luggage being securely retained in the loading compartment by the partition during sharp braking maneuvers or a crash.
In one embodiment, provision is made for the latching device to have two intermeshing racks. The first rack is connected fixedly to the vehicle body, preferably the structure of the vehicle roof. The second rack is connected in an articulated manner to the second surface of the partition. The two racks engage in one another and therefore define a certain set angle of the second surface. The articulated suspension of the second rack makes it possible for a relatively large angular region to be able to be covered while the two racks remain constantly stably connected.
In particular, provision can be made for the latching device to have a prestressed spring which pressurizes the second rack in the direction of the first rack. As a result, the mechanical connection of the two racks is further improved and the retaining force of the latching device is increased.
One embodiment makes provision for the setting of the teeth of the two racks to be designed in such a manner that a movement of the second rack forward in the direction of travel is blocked and a movement of the second rack rearward counter to the direction of travel is made possible in the event of it being pressed over the latching. As a result, a simple possibility of adjusting the upper partition section in the direction of the loading compartment is obtained and at the same time a particularly good support of the partition is obtained should items of luggage impact against the partition in the direction of the driver's compartment.
For a particularly stable support, provision may be made for a plurality of latching devices or pairs of racks to be arranged next to one another on the second surface of the partition.
A roof lining which covers the latching device can be arranged below the vehicle roof. The latching device is therefore fitted in a visually advantageous manner between the roof lining and vehicle roof and cannot be seen from the driver's compartment.
In order to permit an ergonomically favorable possibility of adjusting the vehicle seat, provision may be made for the hinge to be arranged at such a height above the vehicle floor that the resulting pivot point of the second surface is arranged approximately at the same height as the pivot point of a pivotable backrest of the driver's seat. The effect achieved by this solution is that the second surface of the partition can be pivoted parallel to a backrest of a driver's seat.
In order to achieve good stability at low weight, provision is made for the second surface to have a mechanically stiff frame of profiled material which encircles the second surface in a closed manner and in which an extensive filling composed of a mechanically stiff material is accommodated. This filling may be formed from sheet metal or a fiber composite material. Furthermore, in order to increase the rigidity, the filling has a curvature directed toward the loading compartment or a profiling.
The invention can be used in particular for lightweight commercial vehicles, such as van-type trucks or vans. However, it may also be used for motor homes or coaches in order firstly to provide a comfortable driver's compartment or interior and secondly to provide as large a loading compartment as possible by making correspondingly good use of the space.
Further features of the invention are illustrated in the drawings and described in more detail below in the associated description.


A roller assembly call up mechanism for a vehicle wash conveyor having an endless chain with a plurality of spaced roller assemblies attached thereto for pushing a vehicle along a slotted track, is located below the track and includes a power cylinder, a crank arm connected to the power cylinder and an axle connected to the crank arm for rotation with the axle. A ramp in the form of a pair of spaced forks is connected to the axle for rotation therewith. A slotted link is pivotally connected at one end to the ramp and at an opposite end to the entrance trap door whereby when the power cylinder is actuated the ramp and the trap door are pivoted upwardly.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved vehicle washing apparatus and, more particularly, to a vehicle washing apparatus having a conveyor with an improved roller assembly call up mechanism which includes an anti-jam feature.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various prior art vehicle washing installations and systems have heretofore been known and are in widespread use. The typical vehicle washing system includes a wash bay having a floor in which a conveyor is mounted for moving the vehicle through the installation and a series of power driven brushes and scrubber curtains are utilized to clean the vehicle under a drenching spray of water and cleaning agent. The washed vehicle is then given a drenching spray of clean rinse water and is dried.
A well known prior art conveyor is of the over and under type which utilizes an endless conveyor chain having a plurality of spaced roller assemblies attached along the length thereof. The endless chain typically extends around a three track structure comprised of a slotted upper track, an intermediate track and a lower track. The slotted upper track supports a vehicle such as a car. When the car advances on to the upper track, pusher rollers from a roller assembly are needed so a forked ramp is provided which is raised from the intermediate track to intercept and guide the pusher rollers through an opening roller assembly onto the slotted upper track along which the car tires roll. The pusher rollers then engage a tire of the vehicle to push the car through the washing installation. The slotted upper track accommodates the tire of a vehicle being washed and also provides a travel path for the pusher rollers which are selected at an appropriate time. The intermediate level track provides the forward track for the idle rollers of the roller assemblies as well as for unselected roller assemblies where the pusher rollers have not been ramped up to the slotted upper track and the lower track provides a return track for the roller assemblies.
A typical prior art over and under conveyor 10 is illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. The conveyor 10 includes a slotted upper track 12, an intermediate track 14 and a lower track 16.
The conveyor includes an endless chain 18 having a plurality of spaced roller assemblies 20 connected thereto. Each of the roller assemblies 20 has a pair of idler rollers 22 at its forward end and two pairs of pusher or tire engaging rollers 24 at its back end. The pusher rollers 24 engage the back of a tire 26 of a vehicle to push the vehicle along the slotted upper track of the conveyor in the direction indicated by the arrow A.
The conveyor is provided with an entrance trap door 28 at an entrance end thereof and with an exit trap door 30 at an exit end thereof.
A roller call up mechanism, generally indicated by the numeral 34, is provided at the front entrance end of the conveyor to move the pusher rollers 24 from a down position on the intermediate track to a raised tire engaging position on the slotted upper track to engage the tire of a vehicle after the vehicle has moved onto the conveyor.
The call up mechanism 34 is shown in greater detail in FIG. 2 and includes a power cylinder 36 having a rod pivotally connected to the crank arm 38 which in turn in fixedly secured to an outer end of an axle 40 which extends parallel to the slotted track in a direction perpendicular to the length thereof. A pair of spaced forks 42 are fixedly secured to the axle 40 for rotation therewith and form a ramp for moving the pusher rollers 24 up to the slotted upper track.
In operation of the typical prior art conveyor, when a vehicle has moved onto the slotted upper track of the conveyor, a signal is sent either manually by a call up button or automatically by a pressure sensing switch to the roller call up mechanism. This in turn activates the power cylinder 36 forwardly whereby crank arm 38 is rotated to rotate the axle 40. When the axle 40 is rotated, the forks 42 are raised upwardly. As a roller assembly is moved forwardly the pusher rollers engage the forks and are moved upwardly to push the trap door 28 open and to ride along the top of the slotted upper track to engage the back of a tire. The pusher rollers then move the vehicle down the track until reaching the end of the conveyor track whereupon the pusher rollers open the exit trap door 30 and drop back down to the lower track and loop back until a signal is again given causing the cycle of roller call up to start over again.
A problem with this type of this prior art conveyor is that if a car wheel is on top of the entrance trap door at the time the pusher rollers are ramped up by the forks, the rollers start to come up but stop below the trap door and jams up before emerging onto the slotted upper track. This sudden stop and jam up can cause serious damage to the conveyor chain and other components of the conveyor system. Therefore there is a need for an anti-jam device for the roller call up mechanism.

Roller assembly call up mechanism for a vehicle wash conveyor


A method for producing an electric storage device having a bus bar and an electric storage element equipped with an external terminal includes the steps of: arranging the electric storage element having the external terminal, positioning a resin member having either one of a receiving portion or a projection relative to the electric storage element, arranging the bus bar having the other one of the receiving portion or the projection on the external terminal, connecting the bus bar to the external terminal, and inserting the projection into the receiving portion in the step of arranging the bus bar.

High-capacity electric storage devices are employed as a power source for various equipment such as hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), electric vehicles (EV), electric motorcycles, aircrafts, and ships. Such an electric storage device is provided with a rechargeable electric storage element, such as batteries (lithium ion batteries, nickel hydrogen batteries, or the like) and capacitors (electrical double-layer capacitors, or the like), and a bus bar that is electrically connected to the electric storage element.
The electric storage element is provided with an electrode assembly that includes a positive electrode plate and a negative electrode plate, a case that houses the electrode assembly, and an external terminal that is electrically connected to the electrode assembly and arranged outside the case. The number of the electric storage element to be provided is at least one. That is, the number of the electric storage element to be provided in an electric storage device corresponds to the output (capacity) of the electric storage device.
The bus bar serves to connect electric storage elements electrically to each other, or to connect each electric storage element electrically to an external load. Therefore, the bus bar is composed of a metal material having electrical conductivity, and has a connection region that is connected to the external terminal of the electric storage element. The bus bar (connection region) is connected to the external terminal of the electric storage element by screwing or welding. This allows the bus bar to be connected to the external terminal not only electrically but also mechanically. In the electric storage device of this type, the charge or discharge state, the service life, or the like, of the electric storage element is monitored by a monitoring device mounted on the electric storage device or a monitoring device configured as a separate body from the electric storage device. Following this, a wiring member that transmits information (signals of voltage, temperature, etc.) on the electric storage element between the electric storage element and the monitoring device is connected to the bus bar. That is, the bus bar is provided with a receiving portion to which a screw member for connecting the wiring member or a conductor such as a rivet is secured.
When the bus bar is connected to the external terminal of the electric storage element, the bus bar is required to be positioned relative to the external terminal of the electric storage element so that the relative arrangement between the bus bar and the external terminal should be appropriate. Following this, there is proposed a method in which an electric storage element is provided with a projection, and a bus bar is provided with a receiving portion so that the receiving portion of the bus bar and the projection of the electric storage element are fitted together, thereby positioning the bus bar relative to the electric storage element (see, for example, JP 2011-71104 A).
However, the above-mentioned method may require work to adjust the arrangement of the electric storage element in the manufacture of the electric storage device in some cases. In the worst case, the electric storage element and the bus bar may fail to be appropriately connected to each other.
This problem is more specifically described below. In the conventional method, based on the premise that the relative arrangement between the bus bar (connection region) and the electric storage element (external terminal) is maintained always constant, the receiving portion of the bus bar is provided adjacent to the connection region and the projection of the electric storage element is provided adjacent to the external terminal. Therefore, if the electric storage element is mispositioned, or the arrangement of the receiving portion is displaced from a predetermined position due to poor machining accuracy, the positional relationship between the external terminal and the receiving portion may fail to be consistent with the positional relationship between the external terminal and the projection in some cases. That is, even if the bus bar (connection region) is arranged so as to be connectable to the external terminal, there may be some cases where the bus bar cannot be positioned relative to the external terminal because of failure to insert the projection into the receiving portion.
Therefore, the conventional production method sometimes requires not only adjusting the arrangement of the bus bar but also appropriately adjusting the arrangement of the electric storage element when arranging the bus bar. Further, the electric storage element may sometimes be supplied in a state of being already positioned at a given position. In such a case, the arrangement of the electric storage element cannot be adjusted to the arrangement of the bus bar, as a result of which the bus bar may fail to be connected appropriately to the external terminal of the electric storage element.

Method for producing electric storage device, spacer and electric storage device


Detecting loss of stream cipher synchronization between a transmitter and a receiver in a video processing system may be achieved by receiving, by the receiver, an encrypted video frame from the transmitter, obtaining an encrypted  value for a selected pixel in the encrypted video frame, decrypting the encrypted pixel value using a first portion of the receiver's current key stream, re-encrypting the pixel value using a second portion of the receiver's current key stream, sending the re-encrypted pixel value from the receiver to the transmitter, obtaining, by the transmitter, a plaintext value for the selected pixel from a corresponding original video frame and encrypting the plaintext pixel value using a second portion of the transmitter's current key stream, and comparing the re-encrypted pixel value received from the receiver with the encrypted pixel value generated by the transmitter and detecting a loss of cipher synchronization when the values do not match.

1. Field
The present invention relates generally to computer security and, more specifically, to synchronization of cryptographic processing between two entities in a processing system.
2. Description
In some digital content transmission and reception systems, a transmitter sends digital content, such as audio/video data, over a fast, high bandwidth, unidirectional connection to a receiver, which renders the content for perception by a user. This connection often is noisy; that is, communication of data may include some errors in transmission. Some of these systems also have a slow, very low bandwidth back channel for communicating from the receiver to the transmitter.
In some of these systems, the transmitter encrypts the content prior to communication of the content to the receiver in order to protect the content from unauthorized access during transmission. The receiver then decrypts the received encrypted content and renders it. Systems typically employ a stream cipher for encryption and decryption of the content. When the content is audio/video data (such as a television program or film), each frame is typically encrypted with a unique key stream, and the transmitter and the receiver must continuously agree on the current position of the encrypted video stream being sent from the transmitter to the receiver. A sync pulse is typically sent at the transmission of a frame boundary of video data. When the transmitter and receiver get out of synchronization due to missing a sync pulse, as commonly occurs when the transmitter changes video sources (e.g., when the user changes TV channels and requests delivery of a different program) or when transmission errors occur, the receiver improperly decrypts the video data because it may be using a different key stream than the transmitter. The result may be display of a garbled video image called "video snow" for a period of time. The transmitter can abandon the out-of-sync video stream and initiate transmission of a new stream (in effect "re-synchronizing" the data flow), but will not do so until and unless the out-of-sync situation is detected.
One known solution to this problem includes checking every 128th video frame of the video stream at the transmitter and receiver. However, this approach may still result in the display of "video snow" for up to four or five seconds in a worst case situation, depending on the frame rate being used. This result is undesirable from a viewer standpoint. Thus, new techniques are needed.

Method and apparatus for detection of loss of cipher synchronization