Sampling and transforming (“twisting”) of biometric data are performed at client based on information known at client only. Twisting includes shuffling the arrays of biometric data and may include changing of values in these arrays. Twisted biometric data are submitted to server. Amount of information contained in twisted data is enough to verify and/or identify the client using proposed correlation procedure, however, is not enough to restore the client's real biometrical data in case of interception of submitted data and in case of compromising security of server. As a result the privacy of the client is guaranteed in the highest degree.

The present invention relates to systems, methods and computer program products for secure client-server communication, and more specifically to systems, methods and computer program products that use biometric data to identify and/or verify an individual.
Electronic communication over public networks, such as the Internet, presents two interrelated problems: the security of the server and the privacy of the client. The security of the server dictates strict requirements for verifying the identity of a client including the use of the client's biometrical information.
Storing biometrical information in server databases in an unencrypted form is dangerous for both server and client. An unauthorized user can intercept a request of an authorized user and use the obtained information to access this particular server, or take advantage of the stolen private information in other ways.
There is a known solution (Biometric authentication system with encrypted models, Gennaro, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,317,834 November, 2001), which consists of acquiring a biometric sample and storing an encrypted biometric record in a database. This solution solves the problem of server security, because encryption mechanism prevents an unauthorized user from decrypting of information and from accessing the server-specific information. The privacy of the client could still be compromised, for example, at the stage of transmitting of biometrical samples from client to server during enrollment.
To solve this problem, another known solution may be deployed. (Protection of biometric data via key-dependent sampling, Matyas, Jr., et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,507,912 January, 2003) According to this solution, the sampling of biometric characteristic is performed on the client side, using the key transmitted from the server to the client. The key-dependent biometric data samples are then transmitted from the client to the server even without the need for additional encryption. The authentication can be done by comparing of key-dependent samples collected during the enrollment process against key-dependent data submitted during the authentication request.
The theoretical basis for this solution is one-way functions. It is safe for the client to submit key-dependent biometric password if there is no way to invert the employed transformation. However, as mentioned in Fuzzy Extractors and Cryptography, or How to Use Your Fingerprints (Dodis, et al. http://eprint.iacr.orp/2003/235.pdf) the definition of a one-way function assumes that submitted password is truly uniform, and does not guarantee anything otherwise (and in the case of biometric password, it is far from the truly uniform).
Even if this theoretical obstacle were not an issue, there still would be a serious psychological and, probably, legal problem. An average user does not trust an on-line application 100%, if he/she does not have some element of encryption under his/her own control. Applying a server-generated key to biometrical data does not look so safe to the user as applying some secret word, created on the client side so that the client only knows this word. The publication mentioned above shows that the intuitive fear of the client has a mathematical basis.


In the construction of a wireless network in a building, structure conditions such as the floor plan of the building and the shape of the floor, material conditions such as materials for structures, and the like have a great effect on radio wave propagation characteristics. This causes a problem that unless these pieces of information are taken into consideration, an accurate layout design of wireless base stations cannot be made. In the construction of a new wireless network in a building, a wireless network similar to structure conditions of a newly constructed building is extracted from structure conditions of past buildings in which a wireless network is constructed. The layout positions of wireless base stations used in the extracted wireless network are regarded as the layout positions of wireless base stations in the new wireless network.

The multi-hop wireless network communication technology is a technology by which a wireless station exchanges data with the desired wireless station via multiple wireless stations installed as relay stations between the wireless stations by multi-hop communication.
In multi-hop communication, a wireless station does not directly wirelessly communicate with the desired window station but wirelessly communicates therewith via relay stations. Accordingly, multi-hop communication is a communication technology that is effective, for example, when an obstacle to radio waves is present.
Particularly in recent years, the cost of wireless communication devices for wireless LAN (local area network) or the like has been reduced, and sensor network technologies such as Bluetooth®, which is a short-range wireless communication standard mainly for digital devices, and ZigBee, which is a short-range wireless communication standard mainly for household electrical appliances, have been standardized. Accordingly, expectation for application of wireless technologies to the industry field has been increased, increasing application cases.
The multi-hop wireless network technology is expected to contribute to reductions in the number of monitoring/control cables by applying it to the industry field, for example, social infrastructure business, such as electric power or transportation, and monitoring/control networks for the manufacturing industry, such as factory automation (FA) systems and process automation (PA) systems.
Further, making wired cables wireless can result in reductions in the cost of cable installation or maintenance cost for a routine check.
Furthermore, use of wireless technologies allows business entities to more flexibly deal with changes in operation, such as addition of equipment or a change in the configuration of equipment.
As seen, wireless network systems have many advantages. On the other hand, application of wireless real-time communication to the industry field requires high reliability, and a failure that occurs in a wireless network must be dealt with rapidly.
For example, assume that a wireless network that meets a requirement by obtaining multiple channels, for example, two communication paths by multi-hop communication is constructed. In this case, at the point in time when one communication path fails, the reliability of the other communication path will decrease. For this reason, in the construction of a communication path, it is necessary to design favorable communication paths that are insusceptible to a failure to the extent possible.
In the field of industry, it is particularly important to construct or design communication paths of a wireless network in a building.
A wireless environment in a building is significantly susceptible to the floor plan of the building, the height of the ceiling, material characteristics of the wall, ceiling, and floor, the size of an opening such as the door or window, furniture or equipment inside the building, and the like. The wireless environment also shows characteristics that are different among sites over which a wireless network is to be constructed. Accordingly, a wireless network must be constructed or designed considering these factors.
For this reason, it is desired to actually measure the propagation state of a radio wave at locations where a wireless base station can be installed, of the sites over which a wireless network is to be constructed and to design the layout of wireless base stations on the basis of the measurement results.
However, it is difficult to actually measure the propagation state of a radio wave in all parts of space in the building in terms of cost and time. For this reason, it is practical and effective to design the layout of wireless base stations in a building into which wireless base stations are to be introduced newly, on the basis of the layout design of wireless base stations in a building in which a wireless network is already constructed, instead of measuring the propagation state of a radio wave thoroughly as described above.
The present invention relates to a technology of constructing a wireless network in a new building using an already constructed wireless network as described above.
Methods for estimating the propagation of a radio wave include a method of using a statistical model based on values which are actually measured at various locations. In addition, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2009-296572 (Patent Literature 1) and the like have proposed methods for estimating radio wave propagation characteristics. These technologies are configured to, in the installation of wireless base stations into a wide area, estimate the installment locations of wireless base stations using existing radio wave propagation characteristics.
In a building, however, there are large differences in structure among sites. Accordingly, to construct a wireless network system which is required to have high reliability, it is important to design a wireless network considering a propagation environment specific to each site.

Apparatus for supporting layout of wireless base stations in building


A multi-part module including a flame cone and a connector adapted to be interposed between the normal spark plug port in an internal combustion engine block and a spark plug suitable for use with the engine in question. In the method, a quantity of fuel/air mixture is captured in a chamber which also houses the electrode of a spark plug. Upon generation of a spark from the spark plug, this quantity of fuel/air mixture ignites, generating a flame which propagates through one or more channels in a flame cone interposed between the spark plug and the cylinder of the engine and exits into the cylinder through multiple directionally oriented ports, whereupon the flame fronts rapidly ignite substantially all the fuel/air mixture held within the cylinder.

The modern internal combustion engine such as used in automobiles, trucks, and like vehicles has been refined and improved over the years since its inception. One aspect of this type engine, namely the igniting of the air/fuel mixture in the combustion chambers has been largely ignored.
In combustion engines, the spark plug is depended upon to ignite a chemically correct air/fuel mixture (approx. 15:1) in a large cylinder head. To accomplish this task, the ignition is started before the piston reaches the top dead center of the compression stroke. This is known as the spark advance and can be as much as 40 degrees before the top of the compression stroke. It therefore may be recognized that any work that is started before the end of the compression stroke is negative and is dissipated as heat in the engine.
Commonly engines operate at a 10 to 20 percent richer mixture than the chemically correct air/fuel ratio. This inefficiency results in lower gas mileage and the high exhaust pollutants of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons. Hydrocarbons are the result of unburned gases. High compression ratio engines operate at high combustion temperatures and thereby create higher concentrations of nitrogen oxides. To reduce nitrogen oxides, nominal compression ratios have dropped from a high of 10.5:1 to 8:1.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,218,993; 4,646,695 and 4,696,269 are directed to a method and apparatus for the iginition of a fuel-air mixture in an internal combustion engine, employing a flame front. In the inventions disclosed in these patents, a jet of hot flame of high velocity is injected into the engine cylinder which is charged with a fuel/air mixture under pressure. Whereas the disclosures of these patents recognize the inherent inefficiency of the commonly employed spark plug as the igniter of the fuel/air mixture within the cylinder, and teach the use of a flame generated at the spark plug and propagated into the engine cylinder, these prior art concepts suffer from the difficulty of adjusting the proximity of the electrode of the spark plug to the cylinder. This problem is exacerbated by reason of the large differences between engine geometries, differences between the physical relationship of the electrode of the spark plug and the cylinder of difference engines, among other inherent problems relating to positioning, propagation and alignment of the flame front(s) with respect to the cylinder and its piston and intake valve, for example.

Spark ignition modifier module and method


A content management system synchronizes content items across client computing systems connected by a network. Each client device has a storage allocation for synchronized shared content items. If the storage allocation for shared content items on a client device is exceeded by the request to add or edit a content item such that it is enlarged, a client application or the host of content management system selects content items to remove from residence on the client device but keep remotely on content management system. Upon removal of the selected content items, the client application creates shadow items, representing the content item but only containing the metadata of the content item. This creates sufficient space while maintaining user access to all synchronized shared content items. When a shadow item is requested by an application running on the client device the client application may approve or deny the request.

The described embodiments relate generally to improving the performance of computer systems providing content item synchronization, and particularly to improving the synchronization of content items between a client device and a content management system where storage allocation for synchronized content items is constrained.
Content management systems enable users to share content items from one client to another client. The clients are computing devices that provide content items to a content management system for storage and synchronization with other clients. The other clients may be operated by another user or may be devices registered or managed by the same user. A user designates which content items or directories containing content items are available to be shared with other users, and thus synchronized to the client devices of such users. Generally, a content management system synchronizes a given content item with all of the client devices that have been designated to share the content item. As a result, each of these client devices may store a very large amount of shared content items. In some cases, the amount of storage taken up on a client device by the shared content items substantially reduces the amount of storage available on the client device for other items, such as unsynchronized content items and applications.
The figures depict various embodiments for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments of the structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles of the invention described herein.

Selective downloading of shared content items in a constrained synchronization system


A demodulator in a wireless communication network for combining symbols without the need to store the received symbols in buffers for subsequent retrieval and accumulation. The demodulator includes a plurality of accumulators capable of accumulating received symbols, each symbol associated with a physical channel and a propagation path. The demodulator includes a multiplexer for routing the received symbols to an appropriate accumulator selected from the plurality of accumulators. The symbols received from different propagation paths are each routed and accumulated to an appropriate accumulator based on a physical channel of the received symbol and a value of an indicator associated with a propagation path of the received symbol.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a demodulator and, more particularly, to a demodulator for performing buffer-less de-skewing for symbol combination.
2. Description of Related Art
Wireless communication has become an essential necessity of people's everyday life. Having access to all the communication features people have been accustomed to while "on the move" has been desired. Voice communication and data communication need to be available to people through their portable devices in a cost efficient way while maintaining acceptable quality.
Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) wireless communication is a well adopted communication standard that is used throughout the world. In a CDMA wireless communication system, a user signal is spread with a wide frequency bandwidth by the use of an individual code and is transmitted in a common frequency band. The receiver detects a desired signal by a despreading process from the CDMA signal and the individual code.
The receiver in the CDMA wireless communication system often detects multiple signals from one or more base stations and demodulates these signals in the mobile station. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the propagation of the received signals from the base stations 12 is affected by the terrain (14 and 16) and may occur over multiple paths. These multiple path signals received from the same originating transmitted signal are referred to as multipath propagation signals.
This phenomenon of multipath propagation is due to various terrain factors such as scattering, refraction and reflection. Each multipath propagation signal requires a different amount of time to reach the receiver (mobile station 10). For example, a signal 18(1) received directly from a transmitter "line of sight" will be received before the reflected propagation signal 18(2). Nonetheless, each of the multipath propagation signals 18(1) and 18(2) is utilized by the receiver to provide a better signal quality by combining the multipath propagation signals together to form a stronger signal. Because the received multipath propagation signals are shifted in time with respect to each other, a de-skewing operation is necessary to align the signals and enable the signal combination.
FIG. 2 illustrates a conventional demodulator 50 in a CDMA wireless communication system. Signals are received on different physical channels (22, 24, and 26). The signals from each channel, however, propagate through different propagation paths (for example, path #1 (20), path #2 (30), and path #3 (40)). Symbols 28, 38, and 48 within each of the received signal channels 22, 24, and 26, respectively, are de-rotated and placed in a buffer/memory 54. Thus, the symbols from each physical channel and from each propagation path are stored in the buffer 54. The symbols 28 from a first channel 22 are received from propagation path 20 and are stored in the buffer 54 at location 56. The symbols 28 from the same first channel 22 received from the propagation path 30 are stored in the buffer 54 at location 58. The symbols 28 from the first channel 22 are received from propagation path 40 and are stored in the buffer 54 at location 60. Although only three paths are shown, it will be understood that the receiver is capable of handling more or fewer paths per physical channel.
The same operation is performed for a second channel 24 for all the propagation paths, i.e., propagation paths 20, 30, and 40, with the symbols 38 for the second channel 24 stored in the buffer 54 at locations 62, 64, and 66. The same operation is also performed for the rest of the channels, i.e., channel (C) 26, for all the propagation paths, i.e., propagation paths 20, 30, and 40, with the symbols 48 for that channel (C) 26 stored in the buffer 54 at different locations. Thus, each symbol received on each physical channel from each propagation path is stored in a distinct buffer location.
This buffering process allows the demodulator 50 to wait for the symbols (28, 38, and 48) to be received from each path before processing the symbols. De-skewing is automatically performed when the last symbol of a propagation path is aligned in the buffer 54. The symbols of a physical channel received from different propagation paths are then added using an adder 74 and output to one of the accumulators (76, 78, 80) associated with that physical channel.
The process for waiting for the symbols from all the propagation paths of the physical channel to be received before combining these symbols produces a delay in the demodulator output. The delay required to perform the symbol combination is at least the maximum path delay of the received signals. Moreover, storing the received symbols in a buffer before the symbol combination increases the power consumption of the demodulator. In view of the foregoing, there is a need for a demodulator that decreases the delay and reduces the power consumption of the demodulator.

Buffer-less de-skewing for symbol combination in a CDMA demodulator


An antenna device includes an input/output portion for a high frequency signal to be input or output, a distributing portion for distributing the high frequency signal input to the input/output portion into a plurality of high frequency signals, a phase shifting portion for imparting the plurality of high frequency signals with a predetermined amount of phase shift, and a feeding portion for feeding a plurality of antenna elements with the plurality of high frequency signals imparted with the predetermined amount of phase shift to cause the plurality of antenna elements to radiate the plurality of high frequency signals. The feeding portion is configured as a triplate line with a center conductor placed between one pair of parallel plate shaped outer conductors.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an antenna device for feeding a plurality of antenna elements with a high frequency signal imparted with an amount of phase shift by a phase shifter.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an example of conventional antenna devices, it has been known an antenna device with a combination of a rotary phase shifter and a phase shift amount adjustment transmission line of a predetermined length, so that the tilt angle is altered by adjusting the rotation angle of the rotary phase shifter. This antenna device is configured so that excitation power inputted to an input terminal is distributed by a power distributor, and this distributed power is input to the rotary phase shifter, and output of the rotary phase shifter is input to the phase shift adjusting transmission line and output of the phase shift adjusting transmission line is fed to an antenna element via a feed line. For example, JP Patent No. 3231985 discloses such a conventional antenna device.

Antenna device including a phase shifter and a feeding portion configured as a triplate line with a center conductor


In a motor vehicle, a manual shift lever having shift positions including a parking position, and a reclining seat including a seat cushion and a seat back tiltable relative to the seat cushion between an upright position and a reclined position. Two switches are provided for detecting the parking position of the shift lever and the upright position of the reclining seat, respectively. The seat back is prevented from shifting toward the reclined position when the shift lever is not in the parking position. The shift lever is prevented from moving out of the parking position when the seat back is in the reclined position.

The present invention relates to a motor vehicle wherein a seat of the reclining type is installed, and more particularly to a reclining mechanism for a seat for a motor vehicle.
Japanese Patent Application First Publication (JP-A) 63-149237 discloses a system for controlling a seat back of a seat of the reclining type. According to this known system, the seat back is prevented from tilting toward a reclined position beyond a limited tilted position when the adjacent rear seat is occupied by a seat occupant.

Seat reclining mechanism and shift lever interlock system


Technologies are described herein for converting presentations between differing slide dimensions and aspect ratios. During dimensional conversion of a slide, foreground objects placed on the slide by a user are dimensionally scaled and repositioned on the slide based on a change in the overall dimensions of the slide, while background objects on the slide originating from a slide master associated with the slide are replaced with corresponding background objects from a new template associated with the new aspect ratio of the slide. Any content and/or properties of the old background objects on the slide are copied to the corresponding background objects on the dimensionally converted slide.

Many presentation applications allow the development of presentations comprising a number of "slides" containing text, drawing objects, images, videos, animations, and other content. The slides of a presentation usually all share consistent dimensions. While the dimensions of slides may vary, traditionally the dimensions of slides in a presentation have been set to create a rectangular slide that translates to an aspect ratio (width:height) of 4:3. This is a standard ratio utilized for years in television, cinematography, photography (e.g. 35 mm slides), and the like. However, many modern computer monitors, televisions, projectors, tablet computers, mobile phones, and the like employ a "widescreen" format with varied aspect ratios from 2.39:1 to 16:10. The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers ("SMPTE") adopted a 16:9 aspect ratio format in the 1980s for High Definition Television ("HDTV"), and this standard 16:9 aspect ratio is widely accepted as a standard for television screens, projectors, monitors, and other display devices.
Because of the persistence of the 4:3 aspect ratio in presentation applications for many years, many presentations, templates, sample presentations, and the like have slides with dimensions that correspond to this ratio, such as 10″ wide by 7½″ high. When these slides are converted to widescreen format for display on a monitor, television, projector, or other device, various known methods may be utilized to scale the slides to fit the screen. For example, each slide may be stretched to fill the display area, causing drawing objects, images, videos, and other graphical content to appear distorted. Letterboxing may also be utilized, where the slides are scaled down evenly to fit in both dimensions, and black bars (or some other graphical elements) are placed around the edges where content does not appear due to the disparity in aspect ratios between the slides and the display device. Similarly, cropping may be utilized to cut out portions of the original slides from the display so that the remaining content fills the entire screen.
It will be appreciated that these methods may not result in an acceptable display of the slides in the presentation. Instead, the presentation designer may wish to convert the slides of the presentation to have dimensions that conform to the new target aspect ratio. This may be done manually by the presentation designer by reformatting and repositioning the text, drawing objects, images, videos, animations, and other content objects on every slide for an acceptable display. However, manual conversion of the slides may be tedious and time consuming. Alternatively, the slides of the presentation may be converted to the new dimensions automatically by the presentation application. Generally, however, the automatic conversion by the presentation application simply results in each content object on the slides being stretched to conform to the new aspect ratio, which may result in unwanted distortion of the content.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the disclosure made herein is presented.


A method for mitigating inter-cell interference by a base station in a cellular communication system. The base station determines cells to which same frequency resources are allocated, and which cause interference to each other, and determines a starting time slot, at which resource allocation to each cell starts, as a different time slot for each cell, taking into account a number of the cells and time slots constituting time resources. In response to receiving a call setup request from a terminal, the base station selects a time slot taking into account interference information of each of the time slots, and allocates a resource based on the selected time slot to the terminal.

The Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) system, a wireless network system supporting 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) GSM-based services, is mobile communication technology that is widely used in the world including Europe, and has evolved into the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) standards to improve the data transmission capability.
The GSM system uses, as a multiple access scheme, a hybrid scheme of Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) and Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA). In GSM, a physical channel is comprised of a carrier frequency and a time slot, and data is transmitted over a unique time slot in a pre-assigned channel after the data is digitalized and compressed. A user may send and receive multimedia data such as voice and image over the GSM system, and a roaming service is possible between GSM networks.
The GSM system may be operated as a synchronous GSM system and a non-synchronous GSM system. The former matches time synchronization for the frame boundaries and slot boundaries between all cells, using the Global Positioning System (GPS) or the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 1588 protocol, while the latter does not match synchronization between cells.
In the GSM cellular system, it is important to mitigate inter-cell interference in order to maintain the data quality. The existing GSM system solves the inter-cell interference problems by considering only the resource allocation in the frequency domain.
However, the GSM cellular system using a synchronous transmission scheme may utilize resource allocation not only in the frequency domain but also in the time domain to solve the inter-cell interference problems, due to its possible synchronization between base stations. However, there has been no way to solve the inter-cell interference problems by adjusting the resource allocation in the time domain.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.

Apparatus and method for mitigating inter-cell interference in cellular communication system


A process for filling high aspect ratio gaps on substrates uses conventional high density plasma deposition processes while reducing the concentration of the inert gas, such as Ar, to 0-13% of the total process gas flow. By reducing the inert gas concentration, sputtering or etching is reduced, resulting in reduced sidewall deposition from the sputtered material. Consequently, gaps with aspect ratios of 3.0:1 and higher can be filled without the formation of voids and without damaging circuit elements.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods of thin film deposition and specifically to a process of filling high aspect ratio gaps on substrates.
2. Description of Related Art
As semiconductor technology advances, circuit elements and interconnections on wafers or silicon substrates become increasingly more dense. In order to prevent unwanted interactions between these circuit elements, insulator-filled gaps or trenches located therebetween are provided to physically and electrically isolate the elements and conductive lines. However, as circuit densities continue to increase, the widths of these gaps decrease, thereby increasing gap aspect ratios, typically defined as the gap height divided by the gap width. As a result, filling these narrower gaps becomes more difficult, which can lead to unwanted voids and discontinuities in the insulating or gap-fill material.
Currently, high density plasma (HDP) oxide deposition is used to fill high aspect ratio gaps. Typical HDP deposition processes employ chemical vapor deposition (CVD) with a gas mixture containing oxygen, silane, and inert gases, such as argon, to achieve simultaneous dielectric etching and deposition. In an HDP process, an RF bias is applied to a wafer substrate in a reaction chamber. Some of these gas molecules (particularly argon) are ionized in the plasma and accelerate toward the wafer surface when the RF bias is applied to the substrate. Material is thereby sputtered when the ions strike the surface. As a result, dielectric material deposited on the wafer surface is simultaneously sputter etched to help keep gaps open during the deposition process, which allows higher aspect ratio gaps to be filled.
FIGS. 1A-1D illustrate, in more detail, the simultaneous etch and deposition (etch/dep) process described above. In FIG. 1A, SiO.sub.2, formed from silane (SiH.sub.4) and oxygen (O.sub.2), begins depositing on the surface of a wafer 100 for filling a gap 110 between circuit elements 120. As the SiO.sub.2 is being deposited, charged ions impinge on the SiO.sub.2 or dielectric layer 125, thereby simultaneously etching the SiO.sub.2 layer. However, because the etch rate at about 45.degree. is approximately three to four times that on the horizontal surface, 45.degree. facets 130 form at the corners of elements 120 during the deposition process, as shown in FIG. 1B. FIGS. 1C and 1D show the process continuing to fill gap 110 with simultaneous etching and deposition of SiO.sub.2.
In FIGS. 1A-1D, the etch/dep ratio is optimized such that facets 130 remain at the corners of circuit elements 120 throughout the HDP deposition process. However, as shown in FIG. 2A, if the etch/dep ratio is decreased, facets 130 begin moving away from the corners of elements 120, and cusps 210 begin to form on sidewalls of gap 110. Cusp formation is due to some of the etched SiO.sub.2 being redeposited on opposing surfaces through line-of-sight redeposition, even though most of the etched SiO.sub.2 is emitted back into the plasma and pumped out of the reaction chamber. This redeposition increases as the distance between opposing surfaces decreases. Therefore, as facets 130 move away from the corners of elements 120, the line-of-sight paths are shortened, resulting in increased sidewall redeposition. At a certain point in the process, cusps 210 will meet and prevent further deposition below the cusps. When this occurs, a void 220 is created in dielectric layer 125, as shown in FIG. 2B. On the other hand, if the etch/dep ratio is increased, as shown in FIG. 3, the etching component can etch or "clip" material from the corners of elements 120, thereby damaging elements 120 and introducing etched contaminants 310 into dielectric layer 125.
The etch/dep ratio can be controlled by varying the flow rate of silane or other process gases, which affect the deposition rate, or by varying either the power supplied to the wafer for biasing or the flow rate of argon or other inert gases, which affect the sputter etch rate. Etch rates are typically increased by increasing the flow rate of the inert gas, which is used solely to promote sputtering, rather than increasing power and expending large amounts of energy. Typical argon flow rates for HDP deposition range from 30%-60% or more of the total process gas flow rate. By optimizing the etch/dep ratio, gaps with aspect ratios of up to about 3.0:1 can be filled without voids. However, as shown in FIG. 4, filling higher aspect ratio gaps results in voids 410 due to cusps 420 prematurely closing the gaps even if the etch/dep ratio is optimized to 1 at the element corners. As discussed above, this is due mainly to the shortened line-of-sight path between opposing sidewalls. If the etch rate is increased to keep the gaps open longer, undesirable corner clipping can occur.
Therefore, with circuit densities increasing, higher aspect ratio gaps need to be filled without the problems discussed above with current HDP deposition processes.

High aspect ratio gapfill process by using HDP


Para-cumylphenol is continuously produced by the reaction of purified phenol and alpha-methylatyrene in the presence of an acidic catalyst and an effective amount of hypophosphorous acid (H.sub.3 PO.sub.2) for stabilizing the color and UV absorption.

The invention relates to the continuous production of para-cumylphenol and, in particular, to the stabilization of color using hypophosphorous acid.
Para-cumylphenol is prepared by the reaction of purified phenol and alpha-methylstyrene in the presence of an acidic catalyst. During the process, the reaction effluent stream is stripped of the phenol solvent carrier in a stripper column and later subjected to nitrogen desorbing to remove residual phenol and other volatile impurities. Long residence times in the phenol stripping column and the nitrogen desorber have resulted in thermal/oxidative degradation of the para-cumylphenol product, leading to significant color formation which is undesirable.

Stabilization of color in production of paracumylphenol using hypophosphorous acid


Implementations of the present disclosure provide a process kit for an electrostatic chuck. In one implementation, a substrate support assembly is provided. The substrate support assembly includes an electrostatic chuck having a first recess formed in an upper portion of the electrostatic chuck. A process kit surrounds the electrostatic chuck. The process kit includes an inner ring and an outer ring disposed radially outward of the inner ring. The outer ring includes a second recess formed in an upper portion of the upper ring. The inner ring is positioned within and is supported by the first recess and the second recess. An upper surface of the inner ring and an upper surface of the outer ring are co-planar.

In the processing of substrates, such as semiconductor substrates and display panels, a substrate is placed on a substrate support in a process chamber while suitable process conditions are maintained in the process chamber to deposit, etch, form layers on, or otherwise treat surfaces of the substrate. During etching processes, a plasma, which drives the etching process, may not be uniformly distributed across the substrate surface. The non-uniformity is particularly apparent at the edge of the substrate surface. This non-uniformity contributes to poor processing results. Thus, some process chambers use edge rings, which may also be referred to as a process kit ring, in order to increase plasma uniformity and improve process yield.
However, it has been observed that the etching process can result in accumulation of polymer material at the edge of the substrate surface. The polymer material may get stuck in the gap between the edge of the substrate and the process kit ring and diffuse into the electrostatic chuck of the substrate support. When the substrate is lifted up and/or the plasma is turned off, the polymer material may deposit back onto the substrate surface, thereby negatively affecting substrate processing.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for apparatuses that can address issues discussed above.


A semiconductor package including a leadframe which has one or more anchor pads formed on and/or defined by the die pad thereof. Such anchor pad(s) may be provided in any one of a multiplicity of different pad shapes, and are adapted to satisfy the required mechanical anchoring and thermal dissipation thresholds for the package, while still enabling high density circuit routing on the printed circuit board under the package. The leadframe of the semiconductor package further includes a plurality of leads which are segregated into at least two sets, with the leads of each set extending along and in spaced relation to respective ones of the peripheral edge segments defined by the die pad. Connected to the top surface of the die pad is at least one semiconductor die which is electrically connected to at least some of the leads of each set by conductive wires. The semiconductor die, the wires, and portions of the die pad and leads are encapsulated by a package body, the bottom surfaces of the anchor pads of the die pad and the bottom surfaces of the leads being exposed in or on a common exterior surface of the package body.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to integrated circuit chip package technology and, more particularly, to a semiconductor package which includes exposed leads and one or more exposed anchor pads on the bottom surface of the package body thereof, the anchor pad(s) each being formed on and/or defined by the die pad of the semiconductor package leadframe.
2. Description of the Related Art
Semiconductor dies are conventionally enclosed in plastic packages that provide protection from hostile environments and enable electrical interconnection between the semiconductor die and an underlying substrate such as a printed circuit board (PCB) or motherboard. The elements of such a package include a metal leadframe, an integrated circuit or semiconductor die, bonding material to attach the semiconductor die to the leadframe, bond wires which electrically connect pads on the semiconductor die to individual leads of the leadframe, and a hard plastic encapsulant material which covers the other components and forms the exterior of the semiconductor package commonly referred to as the package body.
The leadframe is the central supporting structure of such a package, and is typically fabricated by chemically etching or mechanically stamping a metal strip. A portion of the leadframe is internal to the package, i.e., completely surrounded by the plastic encapsulant or package body. Portions of the leads of the leadframe extend externally from the package body or are partially exposed therein for use in electrically connecting the package to another component. In certain semiconductor packages, a portion of the die attach pad or die pad of the leadframe also remains exposed within the package body.
In the electronics industry, there is an increasing need for semiconductor packages which include leadframes adapted for large die, low input/output applications. Such leadframes typically include die pads which are sized to accommodate large semiconductor dies, and provide the requisite mechanical anchoring and thermal dissipation characteristics for the packages. In such semiconductor packages, one surface (i.e., the bottom surface) of the die pad is typically exposed within the bottom surface of the package body. However, because of the large size of the die pad and hence the large area of the exposed surface thereof, circuit routing on the underlying printed circuit board underneath the exposed die pad becomes difficult to the increased risk of shorting. In many applications, diminishing space availability increases the need to be able to accomplish high density routing on the printed circuit board under any exposed pad semiconductor packages mounted thereto.
Thus, there exists a need for large exposed pad semiconductor packages which are adapted to accommodate large semiconductor dies, yet are configured to allow for high density circuit routing under the package(s), thus improving routing flexibility on the printed circuit board to which the package(s) are surface mounted. The present invention addresses this particular need by providing a large exposed pad semiconductor package which defines one or more anchor pads formed on and/or defined by the die pad of the leadframe thereof. Such anchor pad(s) may be provided in any one of a multiplicity of different pad shapes, and are adapted to satisfy the required mechanical anchoring and thermal dissipation thresholds for the package, while still enabling high density circuit routing on the printed circuit board under the package. These, as well as other features and attributes of the present invention will be discussed in more detail below.

Semiconductor package having leadframe with exposed anchor pads


Described is a device which enables toolsetting on a machine tool. The device includes a light emitting unit (10) and a light detecting unit (14). A light source (30) causes a light beam (12) to propagate from the emitting unit (10) to the detecting unit (14). A light detector (40) detects the presence or absence of the beam. A trigger signal is produced when occlusion occurs and so the position of an object can be determined by reference to the machine""s coordinate readings. The beam (12) may be uncollimated and thus provide a device with an easier set-up and a greater resistance to vibration in use. The light detector (40) and/or light source may be protected from contamination by windows (34,44) or a protector having an aperture therein. The light emitting and detecting units each have an aperture for the light beam. The apertures may be oblique conduits (104) for pressurised air flow, thereby keeping the conduits free from contamination, while minimising turbulence in the path of the beam which could cause noise in the resulting signal.

The present invention relates to an apparatus which enables a coordinate positioning machine (such as a machine tool) to determine the position of an object relative to a reference point. It may, for example, be employed on a machine tool for toolsetting operations.
A known tool setting device for use on a machine tool includes a light source which generates a fine beam of light which is incident upon a detector. During a toolsetting operation, the machine is operated to move the tool in a direction transverse to the direction of propagation of the light beam until a part of the tool interrupts passage of the light beam. Detection of this interruption results in the generation of a trigger signal in the detecting unit, which is used by the machine to establish the relative position of its moving parts in order to determine dimensions of the tool. Such devices are known, for example, from German Patent Nos. DE 42 385 04 and DE 42 448 69, French Patent No. 2,343,555, European Patent No. 98,930 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,518,257. The devices may be used additionally for measuring the length or diameter of a tool to monitor tool breakage or wear.
The devices disclosed in the above-mentioned patent specifications use a narrow light beam into or through which the tool is passed. The detection units detect when the tool breaks into the beam from the resulting drop in the intensity of the light falling on them.
The accuracy with which these devices can measure tool position is dependent on the diameter of the laser beam, the smaller the diameter the more accurate the measurement.
For example, French Patent No. 2,343,555 describes a system in which the laser produces a coherent beam the diameter of which is on the order of 0.7 to 0.8 mm. European Patent No. 98,930 proposes the use of a laser light source because lasers supply a sharply defined light beam for high measurement accuracy. U.S. Pat. No. 4,518,257 describes a system in which the laser beam is focused to a small examination zone at which all measurements are made.
One problem with all of these devices is that the smaller the laser beam, the more difficult is the task of aligning the laser beam with the detector system.
Another problem with the prior art systems exemplified in European Patent No. 98,930 is that the optical system has to be kept clean to avoid build up of contaminants on the optical components which can reduce the intensity of light received by the receiver and cause the signal from the detector to be emitted early. This is particularly so in the case of devices which rely on the reduction in intensity produced by the smallest obstruction of the beam to produce a measurement signal.
European Patent No. 98,930 describes two methods of keeping the optical system clean, one of which involves directing an air blast at the external glass faces of the housings of the emitter and receiver, the other of which involves the use of movable mechanical shutter. These methods require the provision of additional cost and complexity to the devices.
A problem with a focused system, as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,518,257, is that the tool can only be measured in the small examination zone. Unfocused systems do not suffer from this problem, but the beam must be accurately aligned with an axis of travel of the machine tool to permit accurate measurements anywhere along the beam path. Prior unfocused systems have been awkward to align, because each time an adjustment is made to the direction of the beam path, the position of the beam must be checked at two different positions along the path, followed by further adjustment as necessary.
One tool setting device known as the Tool Verification Gage (TVG) used by General Electric in the USA has an aperture in a plate at a light transmitter and a similarly apertured plate in a light receiver. The aperture is in the order of 1 mm in diameter. The device operates in the same manner as the devices described previously. It appears that the device is supplied with pressurised air such that the air is caused to exit from the apertures. In this manner the apertures are kept free from contamination and light can pass through the apertures unhindered.
However, in that device the light beam is exposed to air turbulence in the apertures and this causes irregularities at the detector in the form of signal noise. Additionally the aperture allows a high volume of air to escape and so the device is costly to operate. Again lenses are employed to collimate the beam or light from the transmitter and therefore setting up the device is not easy because alignment of the fine beams is required.
The present invention provides alternative devices which are suitable for toolsetting on a machine tool (or other applications on other coordinate positioning machines). The devices include a number of technical aspects in which they differ from the prior art devices discussed above and which enable various ones of the problems which arise with those prior art devices to be eliminated or reduced.
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a position determination device for a machine utilising coordinate positioning, the device comprising a light emitting unit and a light detecting unit, the light emitting unit having a housing within which a light source is housed for emitting a light beam which in use propagates towards the light detecting unit which in turn includes a housing having a light channel located in register with the light beam, and a light detecting device located substantially in register with the light channel thereby to detect the light beam propagating from the light emitting unit, wherein the light beam is uncollimated such that the size of the resultant spot formed on the detecting unit is substantially larger than the light channel at the light detecting unit.
The light emitting unit may have a light channel also and the or each light channel may be an aperture. Where the light channel is an aperture one or both of the housings may include this aperture in the form of a conduit through which pressurised air supplied to the housings may pass from the interior of the housing to the exterior. In a preferred embodiment of this aspect of the invention the conduit extends transverse or obliquely to the direction of propagation of the light beam between an interior and an exterior aperture of the housing. Also preferably the interior and exterior apertures overlap to the extent that light may pass through the conduit so that the conduit also forms the aperture through which the light beam leaves or enters the respective housing.
Thus the housings of the light emitting and/or detecting units are constructed amongst other things for the purpose of preventing ingress of dirt or contaminants.
The light channels are formed from any light transmissive medium surrounded by a non-transmissive medium, e.g. an aperture or window in a non-transmissive material.
Such a channel has preferably a cross-sectional area of 0.8 mm2 or less. More preferably a channel has at its narrowest point a cross-sectional area in the range of 0.02 mm2 to 0.8 mm2. Where a channel is approximately circular such areas would provide a diameter between 50 microns and 1 mm. Small apertures of this size are often referred to as pinholes.
According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a position determination device for a machine utilising coordinate positioning, the device comprising a light emitting unit and a light detecting unit, the light emitting unit having a housing within which a light source is situated for emitting a light beam which in use propagates towards the light detecting unit which in turn includes a housing and a light detecting device to detect the light beam propagating from the light emitting unit, wherein one or both of the housings include a light channel in the form of a conduit through which pressurised air in use supplied to the or each housing may pass from the interior of the housing(s) to the exterior thereof, and the or each conduit extends transversely or obliquely to the general direction of propagation of the light beam.
Preferably the light beam is uncollimated such that the size of the resultant spot formed on the detecting unit is substantially larger than the aperture within the light detecting unit.
A third aspect of the present invention provides a device which enables determination of position of an object on a coordinate positioning machine, including a light emitting unit and a detecting unit, the light emitting unit including a light source and an adjuster for adjusting the angle of a light beam produced by the light source, wherein the adjuster has associated therewith a common centre point, located between the light emitting unit and the detecting unit, that the adjuster directs the light beam through said centre point, and that when the alignment of the beam is adjusted by the adjuster the beam continues to pass through said centre point. This may be achieved by providing the adjuster with a curved bearing surface, preferably a spherical bearing surface, centred on said common point.
In this third aspect of the invention, the alignment of the beam may be simplified since it is no longer necessary to measure the position of the beam repeatedly at two different points along the beam path. Rather, a measurement can be made just once at the common centre point, followed by repeated measurements after each adjustment at another single point along the path. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention a device which enables determination of position of an object on a coordinate positioning machine includes a light emitting unit and a detecting unit, the light emitting unit having a housing within which a light source is situated, the housing having a first light channel through which a beam of light from the light source passes, and which propagates towards the light detecting unit which in turn includes a housing having a second light channel located in register with the light beam, and a light detecting device located substantially in register with the light channels thereby to detect the light beam propagating from the light emitting unit, wherein the light beam is uncollimated and the detecting unit is arranged to emit a trigger signal when the light level it receives has fallen to one half of that which it receives when the beam is not occluded.

Position determining apparatus for coordinate positioning machine


A production valve includes an outer housing having a production port, a piston disposed within the outer housing and adapted to move from one position to another position, a frangible breakup element supporting the piston in the one position, and a detonating cord adapted for propagating a detonation wave passing through the center of the piston and the breakup element. The detonation wave shatters the frangible breakup element when the detonation wave, propagating within the detonating cord, passes through the breakup element. When the breakup element shatters, the support provided to the piston by the breakup element is removed. When the support provided to the piston by the breakup element is removed, the piston moves from the one position to the other position in response to either tubing pressure or rathole pressure or both, and the production port of the production valve opens when the piston moves to the other position.

The subject matter of the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for explosively opening a production valve of a tool string adapted to be disposed in a wellbore, and more particularly, to an apparatus and associated method which includes a frangible breakup element that is adapted to shatter into a multitude of pieces when a detonation wave passes therethrough, a support, applied to a piston, being removed when the frangible breakup element shatters, the piston moving in response to a tubing pressure or a rathole pressure when the support, applied to the piston, is removed, the production valve opening when the piston moves a predetermined distance.
A tool string, adapted to be disposed in a wellbore, often includes a production valve, a firing head, and a perforating gun. The production valve can be connected between the firing head and the perforating gun in the tool string when disposed in the wellbore, or the firing head can be connected between the production valve and the perforating gun. When the perforating gun detonates, the production valve should be open in order to create an underbalance condition and permit well fluids to flow into the production valve and into the associated tubing. One of the advantages of using tubing conveyed perforating (TCP) is the ability of shoot the perforating gun in the wellbore while the well is underbalanced. The most common way to shoot while underbalanced is to use a production valve. These valves are operated (that is, opened) downhole at the appropriate time by various means, such as by dropping a weight bar from the surface which breaks off a frangible member thereby allowing pressure from either the rathole or the tubing to work on a piston and opening the production ports of the production valve. In shallow wells, where the pressure is relatively low, a problem occasionally arises when the production valve opens, that is, a resultant pressure transient in the well causes a decrease in pressure inside the tubing string and hence at the firing head that can prevent a pressure assisted firing head in the perforating gun from functioning properly The resultant pressure transient can produce a low or negative pressure in the vicinity of a firing pin of the firing head of the perforating gun at precisely the time when the firing pin of the firing head in required to move for firing the perforating gun. Still other production valves, used in association with pressure assisted firing heads, are also operated by pressure. These valves also have inherent problems in that most rely on shear pins to retain the valve in the closed condition; however, the shear pins must shear immediately prior to the firing the perforating gun. In addition, the use of a pressure operated valve in a tool string increases the total operating pressure necessary to actuate the firing head; however, the equipment located downhole in the wellbore may not be strong enough to withstand these higher operating pressures.

Explosively opened production valve including a frangible breakup element operated by tubing pressure or rathole pressure or both


A static induction device (SI device) at least shares a structure in which an SI thyristor, an IGT and a capacitor are merged onto the single monolithic chip. The SI thyristor has a cathode, an anode and a gate regions, and a channel. The IGT has a well on a surface of the channel, a source and drain regions within the well, a gate insulating film on the well, and a gate electrode on the gate insulating film. The capacitor comprises the gate region of the SI thyristor, the gate insulating film on the gate region, and the gate electrode. The cathode and the drain region are connected to each other through a high-conductive electrode.

The present invention relates to a novel structure of a static induction power device such as a static induction thyristor (hereinafter referred to as an "SI thyristor") and, more particularly, to a structure of a MOS controlled SI thyristor capable of simplifying a gate drive circuit.
In recent years, various MOS controlled power devices, or MOS gated power devices such as MCT (MOS-controlled Thyristor), EST (Emitter-Switched Thyristor), DMT (Deletion Mode Thyristor) have been proposed. However, each of these MOS controlled power devices has, as a main device a conventional type thyristor such as GTO, and a MOS transistor, integrated on the same monolithic chip. Since the ON-voltage of these MOS controlled power devices is determined by a characteristic of the main device, they have the disadvantages that ON-voltage and conduction loss are high. It is difficult to bring these MOS controlled power devices to a high frequency use.
In view of the above, a MOS controlled SI thyristor (hereinafter referred to as a "MCSITH") which expects high efficiency and high-speed operation and whose main thyristor is an SI thyristor, a device essentially low in both ON-voltage and conduction loss and capable of being operated at a high speed or high frequency, has already been proposed in Japanese Patent Application No. HEI 2-95251 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. HEI 3-292770) by the same Applicant as the present invention. The MCSITH is one which has, as shown in FIG. 23 and FIG. 24 (which is a cross-sectional view taken along a line XXIII--XXIII in FIG. 23), a structure in which a MOS transistor is integrated between a gate and a cathode of a normally-off SI thyristor.
FIG. 23 is a top plan view, while FIG. 24 is a cross-sectional view taken along a line A--A in FIG. 23. As shown in FIGS. 23 and 24, an SI thyristor is arranged such that an n.sup.+ region 23 is a cathode, a p.sup.+ region 21 is an anode, each of a pair of floating p.sup.+ regions 31 is a gate, and an n.sup.- region 22 is a channel. Each of the p.sup.+ regions 31 serves also as a source of a pMOS transistor in which a corresponding p.sup.+ region 32 is a drain, and a high conductivity layer 25 such as a polysilicon silicon layer or the like is a gate electrode.
Turning-on of the MCSITH is realized by the application of a positive potential to a capacitor which comprises the p.sup.+ gate region 31, the high conductivity layer 25 and an oxide film 26 that is an insulating film arranged on the p.sup.+ gate region 31, reducing the height of a potential barrier formed within the n.sup.- channel 22 by means of capacitive coupling (static induction effects). Turning-off is achieved realized by short-circuiting the p.sup.+ gate regions 31 and the n.sup.+ cathode region 23 to each other with a PMOS transistor extracting a hole through the p.sup.+ gate regions 31 to the cathode region 23.
However, this MCSITH has the following disadvantages. If impurity density of the n.sup.- channel 22 is approximately 10.sup.13 cm.sup.-3, in order that the main thyristor has a normally-off characteristic, it is required that the spacing between the adjacent p.sup.+ gate regions 31 and 31 is equal to or less than approximately 6 .mu.m. Assuming that a diffusion width of the n.sup.+ cathode stripe 23 is 2 .mu.m, then it is required that the spacing between the n.sup.+ cathode stripe 23 and the stripe of p.sup.+ gate regions 31 is narrowed to 2 .mu.m at one side. Accordingly, the gate length L of the pMOS transistor should have a value, which is equal to or less than 2 .mu.m, for example, 1 .mu.m or the like. Owing to the small impurity concentration of 10.sup.13 cm.sup.-3, punch-through current incapable of being controlled by the gate electrode 25 always flows between the p.sup.+ source region 31 and the p.sup.+ drain region 32, and the main thyristor cannot be turned off. Particularly, since the depth of the p.sup.+ gate regions 31 of the SI thyristor are deep such as, normally, 5.about.15 .mu.m, the MCSITH has a disadvantage that the punch-through current is apt to flow as compared with a standard, discrete MOS transistor; the source and drain regions of the standard MOS transistor have a diffusion depth almost equal to or less than twice that of a gate length. Then, the MCSITH has a disadvantage that the diffusion depth of the p.sup.+ source region 31 is equal to or more than 3.about.15 times the gate length of the pMOS transistor so that the punch-through current is very apt to flow.
Further, the aforesaid Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. HEI 3-292770 has proposed a structure in which, as shown in FIG. 25 and FIG. 26 (which is a cross-sectional view taken along a line XXV--XXV in FIG. 24), a pMOS transistor, comprising a p.sup.+ source region 31, a p.sup.+ drain region 32 and a gate electrode 25, is formed along the longitudinal direction of a cathode stripe 23. In this case, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. HE 3-292770 has an advantage that a gate length L of the pMOS transistor can be selected independently of spacing between the p.sup.+ gate regions 31 and 31 of the main thyristor.
However, the above-described structure has the following disadvantage. If the gate length L is lengthened to suppress the punch-through current of the pMOS transistor, the ON-resistance of the pMOS transistor is raised and the main thyristor cannot be turned off. Lengthening of the gate width w of the pMOS transistor in the structure illustrated in FIGS. 25 and 26 has a limit because of a restriction of the spacing between the p.sup.+ gate regions 31 and 31 of the main thyristor. There is a trade-off between the condition under which the main thyristor is brought to the normally-off and a condition under which the ON-resistance of the pMOS transistor is reduced. Thus, it is difficult to simultaneously satisfy the both conditions.
Moreover, in the structures illustrated in FIGS. 23 through 26, since each of the p.sup.+ gate regions 31 is under the floating condition, it is impossible to bring a metal electrode into direct contact with an upper portion of the p.sup.+ diffused gate region 31 like a normal surface-gate SI thyristor. As a result, a resistance value of the p.sup.+ gate region 31 is determined by a resistance of the diffused region. Thus, it is difficult to reduce a gate resistance. The above-described structure has also the following disadvantage. Since the p.sup.+ gate resistance is high, maximum anode current that can be turned off and maximum forward blocking voltage of the main thyristor are small, and turning-off time is late.


Conventionally, no consideration was given to the control of the main power supply circuit in a storage apparatus. Thus, unnecessary electric power will be consumed because it is not possible to inhibit the power consumption of the main power supply circuit of the storage apparatus. With this storage system having a plurality of storage apparatuses, a storage apparatus internally has a power supply control program for controlling the respective components and the main power supply circuit, and the power supply control command program provided to the management computer migrates a storage extent to be used for business to another storage apparatus based on the operation schedule of business to use the storage extent of the storage apparatus, and commands the power supply control of the main power supply circuit in the storage apparatuses and the respective components.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to storage technology and, more specifically, to power saving technology in storage systems, which include a plurality of storage apparatuses.
2. Description of Related Art
Various types of data are being handled by enterprises and individuals, and the amount data stored in storage devices is increasing rapidly due to the requirements to store electronic data for longer periods of time. Thus, in order to realize flexible scalability and reduction in management costs through uniform storage management, a storage area network configuration (primarily referred to as a SAN (Storage Area Network)) that connects a plurality of servers and a plurality of storage apparatuses with switches or hubs is used as the storage system. The progress of the storage system technology continuously demands more sophisticated functions and lower storage costs. With the emphasis on environmental issues in recent years, there are also requirements relating to energy efficiency of the data storage equipment.
In order to improve energy efficiency of the data storage systems, (energy saving) technology is disclosed for frequently monitoring the volume access from a host system using a storage extent (hereinafter also referred to as a "volume") of a storage apparatus in a stand-alone storage apparatus, and migrating the disk apparatuses configuring the volume to an energy saving mode or turning off the power supply when there is no access from the host system for a prescribed period of time. In addition, technology is disclosed for diagnosing the disk apparatuses after the lapse of a prescribed period of time from the start of the energy saving process or when reaching a designated time in order to maintain the reliability regarding the disk apparatuses subject to the energy saving process. For instance, the power supply control technology of the disk apparatus in the storage apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-293314 (Patent Document 1) uses the power supply control of the disk apparatus provided to the storage apparatus according to the volume access frequency of the host system using the volume.

Storage system including plurality of storage apparatuses


A collapsible, foldable container with reduced deflection and increased strength and convenience is provided. A door can be provided in the lower portion in one or more of the sidewalls, opening upward and outward without unduly loading the door hinges. A latch is provided to hold the door in the open configuration engageable by slamming open and disengaging by jerking close. In one embodiment, the base of the container includes a plate having ribbing extending upwardly therefrom. When a smooth-bottomed surface is desired, a plate may be installed on top of the upwardly extending ribbing. Ribbing on the bottom surface and/or sidewall surfaces can include close-loop or circular ribs with integral ribbing extending radially therefrom. Preferably, containers are configured so that they can be stacked, one upon the other, either with or without a top or lid. Preferably, the lid, when provided, avoids pooling of liquids such as rainwater by having a domed-shape and by providing channels in a peripheral ridge. Sagging in the components of the container can be at least partially avoided by providing ribbing in regions extending from the center of the bottom of the container towards peripheral portions, preferably corners.

The present invention is directed to a container, such as a box, with folding or collapsible sidewalls and in particular to a container having reduced outward deflection and reduced vertical sag. Cross-reference is made to commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/845,121, filed Mar. 3, 1992, incorporated herein by reference.
A number of containers having hinged or otherwise collapsible sidewalls have been proposed, since collapsing sidewalls provides the ability to reduce the volume required for such containers during storage or initial shipment and, for reusable containers, during return-shipment. Containers of this type, however, have often been subject to certain problems or deficiencies. In some configurations, there has been a tendency of the containers to experience a vertical downward deflection near the center of the sidewalls (or base) or xe2x80x9csagxe2x80x9d over time. This has been especially pronounced in certain configurations designed for stacking containers vertically one on top of the other. Such sag makes it difficult to efficiently pack containers into a limited space and contributes to material fatigue, eventually leading to failure of the container. Some previous devices have attempted to diminish the sag effect by adding reinforcing beams across the lower surface of the container. However, such beams have often interfered with providing the capability of four-way forklift entry since such beams typically run transverse to the path of forks of a forklift along at least one direction of entry.
Another troublesome type of deflection has been outward sidewall deflection. Use of the containers to transport dense loads results in outward forces being applied to the sidewalls and some amount of deflection often results. This deflection interferes with efficient packing of containers into a confined space. In some applications, containers are designed so that an integral number can be efficiently, (i.e., tightly, with no wasted space) packed into a larger vessel such as the hold of a cargo ship, a trailer, an airplane, etc. However, if the sidewalls of such containers have experienced deflection and, for example, undergone xe2x80x9cballooning,xe2x80x9d such containers will no longer pack correctly into such defined spaces. Furthermore, if containers are subject to sidewall deflection, even if containers have been successfully packed into a larger vessel, if sidewall deflection occurs after such packing, the containers may become tightly jammed into the larger vessel and it may be difficult to extract such jammed vessels.
In some instances, containers are provided with a removable top or lid, e.g., to protect the contents of the container during shipment, storage, etc. Previous lid devices have often been incompatible with container stacking such that containers were designed to stack in an unlidded condition, or to stack in a lidded condition, but not both. Previous lids with a stacking capability were sometimes susceptible to formation of pools if subjected to water, such as rainwater. Many previous lids added a significant amount of height to the container, particularly if the lids were configured to accommodate stacking. A number of lid designs were useful for storage but were subject to accidental loss during shipment, e.g., by the force of wind acting on the lids.
In some cases, it is desirable to provide one or more doors within one of the collapsible sidewalls to facilitate removal of the container contents. Previously, it has been difficult to successfully locate a door in the lower portion of a sidewall which is designed to swing outward and upward. The design was particularly difficult when the container was intended for bulk transport (i.e., transport of a large number of discrete and loose or unrestrained items, e.g., loose bolts, washers, etc.). In this application, a large amount of force is applied to the door and it has been difficult to design such a door that will successfully withstand the force without failure or undue deflection.
Previous devices have also been subject to deflection of the bottom surface or floor of the container. Some previous designs have provided for ribbing extending downward from the flat floor surface of the container. However, previous devices have required an excessive amount of ribbing to achieve acceptable strength and stiffness contributing to additional weight and cost of the container.
According to the present invention, a number of features can be used to reduce or eliminate vertical sag in a container. One feature is a particular reinforcement or ribbing pattern on the base portion of the container. The ribbing pattern used on this embodiment includes a plurality of ribbed regions extending from the central portion of the base of the container radially outward and, preferably, includes four regions in an X-shape extending from the central area of the base to the corners of the base. In one embodiment, there is substantially no ribbing in the interstices between the arms of the X-shaped structure.
Another feature which assists in reducing deflection involves a hinging arrangement which allows the sidewall to be pivoted downward to a collapsed configuration. According to this embodiment of the invention, when the sidewall is in an upright configuration, there is an engagement between a lip extending downward from the sidewall and a lip extending upward from the rim of the base. The base lip is positioned outside the sidewall lip so that outward force on the sidewall is transmitted to the base rim. Preferably, the sidewall lip and the rim lip are substantially continuous along the entire span of the lower edge of the sidewall. The hinging arrangement between the sidewall and the rim is configured so that there are no substantial interruptions of the sidewall lip and the rim lip, even at the location of the hinges. This is believed to avoid an undesirable concentration of forces at stress points.
A further feature useful in reducing deflection involves a rib pattern on the surface, preferably the outside surface of the sidewalls. In this embodiment, the ribbing pattern includes one or more curved, closed-shape ribs, preferably, circular ribs, with a plurality of linear ribs connecting to and radiating therefrom. This configuration is believed to provide a higher stiffness and reduced deflection of the sidewalls.
The present invention also includes a container having a door in one or more of the sidewalls. In this embodiment, the door is in the lower portion of the sidewall and extends from the lower edge of the sidewall upward, but without extending to the upper edge of the sidewall. Preferably, the door is hinged so as to open upwardly and outwardly and has one or more latches coupling the door in the closed configuration, to the base of the container, preferably to a shear plate structure in the base of the container. In one embodiment, outward forces are transmitted by the door to the base of the container.
In one embodiment, the door is held in the open position by a slam latch which is configured to engage the door when the door is slammed into the latch. Preferably, the door can be disengaged by suddenly pulling or jerking the door outward and downward away from the slam latch. In one embodiment, these features are achieved by the angular configurations of a jamming surface and a retaining surface of a slam latch and the resilient nature of the slam latch.
A further aspect of preventing unwanted deflection includes the positioning of ribs in the base of the container. According to one embodiment, the base of the container has an integral planar surface and ribbing attached or, preferably, integral with the planar surface. The ribbing, in this embodiment, extends upward from the planar surface, i.e., in a direction towards the interior of the container. When it is desired that the container should have a flat interior bottom surface, a plate can be positioned on top of the ribbing. Preferably, the base of the container is provided with nine points or regions of support, including support regions at the four corners, support regions at the centers of the four sides and a central support region. This configuration provides for desired support without interfering with accommodating the forks of the forklift.
Preferably, the containers can be stacked one upon the other, either in collapsed positioned, uncollapsed position, with or without a cap or top. When a cap or top is used, preferably the cap or top has a convex or dome shape on the upper surface to avoid pooling of water. In one embodiment, a rim is formed in the upper surface of the cap or lid and, preferably, the rim is provided with one or more channels to avoid pooling of water. The tops or lids can be configured to add on a small amount of height to the overall stack, such as about xc2xc inch per container. Preferably, the lids include detentes to grab the rim of the containers so as to avoid blowing off or other unwanted removal.

Collapsible container with reduced deflection


The optical system includes, in order from an object side, a front lens unit LF, an aperture stop S, a rear lens unit LR. The front lens unit includes a diffraction optical element Ldoe. A stop side positive lens Lsp disposed closest to the aperture stop among the rear lens unit satisfies 1.55≦Ndsp≦1.70, 30.0≦νdsp≦50.0, and 5.0×10−4≦ΔθdCsp≦5.0×10−3. Ndsp and νdsp repectively represent a refractive index and an Abbe number of the stop side positive lens for a d-line, and ΔθdCsp is represents a value defined by ΔθdCsp=θdCsp−(−0.17041×θgdsp+0.513577) where Ngsp, NCsp and NFsp respectively represent refractive indices of the stop side positive lens for a g-line, a C-line and an F-line. θdCsp and θgdsp are respectively defined by θdCsp=(Ndsp−NCsp)/(NFsp−NCsp) and θgdsp=(Ngsp−Ndsp)/(NFsp−NCsp).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical system including a diffractive optical element, the optical system being suitable to optical apparatuses, such as a still camera, a video camera and an interchangeable lens.
2. Description of the Related Art
For such optical systems, reduction in size (total length) and weight of the whole optical system tends to increase various kinds of aberrations, especially longitudinal (axial) chromatic aberration and chromatic aberration of magnification, and thereby to degrade optical performance of the optical system. For a telephoto optical system having a shortened total length in particular, a longer focal length leads to increased chromatic aberration. A known technique to reduce such chromatic aberration is to use a diffractive optical element disposed in the optical system. This technique can achieve a high achromatic effect, which cannot be achieved with a normal optical glass material, by utilizing a negative dispersion property and a high anomalous partial dispersion property of the diffractive optical element, which are different from the properties of normal glass materials.
The shortened total length of the optical system potentially results in increase in aberrations other than chromatic aberration. For example, an optical system of a typical telephoto lens includes, in order from an object side to an image side, a front lens unit having a positive refractive power, an aperture stop and a rear lens unit having a negative refractive power. For such an optical system, reduction in the total length of the optical system tends to require a larger power of the front lens unit, which results in a positive Petzval sum. This causes a problem that an image surface of the optical system excessively tilts to an under side.
Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 06-324262 discloses an optical system of a telephoto lens having a shortened total length by using the diffractive optical element. This optical system includes a diffractive optical element to correct, among chromatic aberrations increased with a shortened entire length of the optical system, a chromatic aberration for a g-line that cannot be corrected only with a normal achromatic condition specifying use of a low dispersive optical material and a highly dispersive optical material. The diffractive optical element has a high anomalous partial dispersion (θgF=0.296) as described above, so that it is effective in correcting the chromatic aberration for the g-line. Also the diffractive optical element has an absolute value of a value corresponding to an Abbe number as small as 3.453 so that it can correct chromatic aberration with a small refractive power caused by diffraction and little influence on spherical aberration, coma, astigmatism and the like.
To sufficiently correct chromatic aberration over the entire visible wavelength range, chromatic aberrations for wavelengths of d-, g-, C- and F-lines need to be removed. However, the configuration including the diffractive optical element disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 06-324262 allows a relatively sufficient correction of the chromatic aberrations for three wavelengths among the d-, g-, C- and F-lines, but has difficulties in simultaneously correcting the chromatic aberration for the g-line and chromatic aberration for a wavelength range from the F-line to the C-line (especially the C-line). This is because the diffractive optical element causes chromatic aberration varying proportionally with wavelength. The chromatic aberration caused by the diffractive optical element and the wavelength are proportionally related to each other, and a gradient of the chromatic aberration for the wavelength range from the F-line to the C-line is the same as that of the chromatic aberration for a wavelength range from the g-line to the F-line.
In contrast, chromatic aberration caused in a typical optical material varies curvilinearly with wavelength, with a tendency of a larger curvature gradient for a shorter wave length. Therefore, the gradient of the chromatic aberration for the wavelength range from the F-line and the C-line differs from that of the chromatic aberration for the wavelength range from the g-line to the F-line. Thus, when the chromatic aberration caused in the typical optical material is corrected with a diffractive optical element, giving a refractive power to the diffractive optical element to correct the chromatic aberration for the wavelength range from the g-line to the F-line leaves the chromatic aberration for the wavelength range from the F-line to the C-line uncorrected. In an opposite manner, giving a refractive power to the diffractive optical element to correct the chromatic aberration for the wavelength range from the F-line to the C-line leaves the chromatic aberration for the wavelength range from the g-line to the F-line uncorrected. As described above, the use of the diffractive optical element has difficulties in simultaneously and sufficiently correcting the chromatic aberration for the g-line and the chromatic aberration for the C-line.
In addition, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 06-324262 only discloses chromatic aberration as aberration increased with a shortened entire optical system length and a method of correcting the chromatic aberration. However, consideration should be made on increase in aberrations other than the chromatic aberration, especially increase in field curvature (excessive tilt of the image surface to the under side).

Optical system including diffractive optical element and optical apparatus


A triphenylene derivative of general formula (I) or general formula (II) which can be used as a component of liquid crystal medium and the use thereof are provided in the present invention. This compound can be used to form a negative discotic liquid crystal composition having a suitable temperature range of liquid crystal phase and a lower clearing point, which can be used in TFT liquid crystal display as an optical compensation film (cell) material.

Rod-like liquid crystal materials having positive birefringence (Δn>0, Δn=ne−no) are used in TFT liquid crystal display at present. Anisotropy of the rod-like liquid crystal materials will cause light leak of the display and result in a narrower viewing angle. In order to improve the viewing angle of the display, it is an effective method to compensate the optical path difference of line polarized light after passing through a liquid crystal cell by using an optical compensation film having negative birefringence (Δn<0). The optical compensation film materials reported currently comprise polymer films uniaxially or biaxially stretched, main chain liquid crystal macromolecules, macromolecules having rigid chain unit, photopolymerisable rod-like liquid crystal macromolecules and discotic liquid crystal compounds.
The birefringence of the triphenylene discotic liquid crystal having optically uniaxial nematic phase is negative, and its absolute value is close to that of the rod-like liquid crystal usually used in liquid crystal display. Therefore, the triphenylene discotic liquid crystal having optically uniaxial nematic phase can be used as an optical compensation film (cell) material to compensate the optical path difference of line polarized light after passing through a liquid crystal cell.
The use of hexaarylate of triphenylene compound having a nematic phase as optical compensation film material was reported in U.S. Pat. No. 7,495,730, U.S. Pat. No. 7,443,474 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,518,783. Such type of materials already reported mostly have a higher melting point (of above 100) and a clearing point of about 200. When used for preparing an optical compensation film, the material has to be heated to a temperature above the clearing point thereof, and then cooled slowly to control the orientation of the discotic molecules. Therefore, while ensuring that the liquid crystal phase temperature is in a suitable range, reducing the clearing point of the material can save energy and simplify preparation process. The melting point of a material must be lower than room temperature when used as an optical compensation cell material.
Therefore, there is a need for providing a liquid crystal material having a suitable temperature range of liquid crystal phase and a lower clearing point.

Jiangsu Hecheng Display Technology Co., Ltd.


A method of operating an internal combustion engine including at least a combustion chamber having a piston disposed therein, the method comprising during a first number of cycles after start-up of the engine, supplying at least a first fuel to the combustion chamber, and combusting said first fuel and during a second number of cycles after said first number of cycles, supplying said first fuel and a second fuel to the combustion chamber to form a substantially homogeneous mixture, and compressing said mixture with said piston to cause auto-ignition of said mixture.

In some engines, diesel fuel has been used as a fuel efficient alternative to other fuels such as gasoline. In one example, air inducted into a combustion chamber of the engine is compressed by a piston and increased in temperature, while diesel fuel is injected directly into the combustion chamber to initiate combustion in the hot compressed gasses. This method forms a stratified mixture of air and diesel fuel, which when combusted may result in high production of NOx and soot, under some conditions. In another example, known as homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI), diesel fuel may be mixed with inducted air to form a substantially homogeneous mixture before being compressed to achieve auto-ignition of the air and fuel mixture. In some conditions, HCCI may produce less NOx and/or soot compared to stratified diesel combustion.
Under some conditions, it can be difficult to achieve a substantially homogeneous mixture with diesel fuel since it does not vaporize as readily as some other fuels such as gasoline. Furthermore, the timing of auto-ignition may be more difficult to control than stratified combustion where the injection of diesel fuel initiates combustion resulting in pre-ignition, knock or misfire. One approach used to improve the mixing of fuel, while controlling the timing of auto-ignition includes the addition of large quantities of exhaust gas recirculation (EGR). The EGR may be used to delay auto-ignition until a substantially homogeneous mixture is formed.
However, the inventors herein have also realized several disadvantages with the above approach. In particular, variations in EGR distribution between individual cylinders and/or engine cycles may result in auto-ignition of the mixture occurring too early or too late in the engine cycle. Furthermore, transient operation of the engine may exacerbate these variations, such as lag in EGR control that can result in uncertainties in combustion timing.
In one approach, at least some of the above issues may be addressed by a method of operating an internal combustion engine including at least a combustion chamber having a piston disposed therein, wherein the combustion chamber is configured to receive air, a first fuel and a second fuel to form a substantially homogeneous mixture, and wherein the piston is configured to compress said mixture so that auto-ignition of said mixture is achieved, the method comprising varying the amount of at least one of the first fuel and the second fuel that is received by the combustion chamber to adjust the timing of auto-ignition, where the first fuel includes diesel fuel.
In this manner, the combustion timing may be controlled by varying the ratio or relative amount of diesel fuel and a second lower cetane fuel utilized during each cycle. In some examples, the timing of combustion may be further controlled by adjusting the timing and/or quantity of these fuel injection(s). Thus, combustion timing control may be improved during transient engine operation and EGR usage may be reduced, thereby reducing engine pumping losses while increasing engine efficiency.
Furthermore, the inventors herein have also recognized that during cold ambient conditions, such as during engine start-up, it may be difficult to achieve HCCI operation with some fuel formulations. For example, it may be difficult to vaporize and/or ignite some low cetane fuels such as ethanol and methanol at low temperatures.
In another approach, the above issues may be addressed by a method of operating an internal combustion engine including at least a combustion chamber having piston disposed therein, wherein the combustion chamber is configured to receive a mixture of air and at least one of diesel fuel and a second fuel, the method comprising during a first condition, performing a first injection of the diesel fuel directly into the combustion chamber to form a stratified mixture of air and the diesel fuel, and to initiate combustion of the stratified mixture; and during a second condition, performing a first injection of the diesel fuel directly into the combustion chamber and a second injection of the second fuel into an air intake passage upstream of the combustion chamber to form a substantially homogeneous mixture of inducted air, diesel fuel, and the second fuel within the combustion chamber; and achieving auto-ignition of said substantially homogeneous mixture by compression ignition.
In this manner, fuel formulation can be adjusted in response to ambient conditions to improve engine start-up and warm-up operations while achieving the desired combustion timing.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Controlling engine operation with a first and second fuel