A random access memory comprises an array of memory cells and a controller. The controller is configured to access the array of memory cells in a double data rate prefetch mode in response to a read command and in a single data rate mode after the first double data rate access is completed.

One type of memory known in the art is Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM). One type of DRAM is Single Data Rate (SDR) Synchronous DRAM (SDRAM). In SDR SDRAM, read and write operations are synchronized to a system clock. The system clock is supplied by a host system that includes the SDR SDRAM. Operations are performed on the rising edges of the system clock. SDR SDRAM uses a single data rate architecture. The single data rate architecture has an interface designed to transfer one data word per clock cycle at the data input/output (I/O) pads or pins (DQs). A single read or write access for the SDR SDRAM effectively consists of a single n bit wide, one clock cycle data transfer at the internal memory array and a corresponding n bit wide, one clock cycle data transfer at the DQs.
Another type of DRAM is Double Data Rate (DDR) SDRAM. In DDR SDRAM, the read and write operations are synchronized to a system clock. The system clock is supplied by a host system that includes the DDR SDRAM. Operations are performed on both the rising and falling edges of the system clock. DDR SDRAM uses a double data rate architecture to achieve high speed operation. The double data rate architecture is essentially a 2n prefetch architecture with an interface designed to transfer two data words per clock cycle at the DQs. A single read or write access for the DDR SDRAM effectively consists of a single 2n bit wide, one clock cycle data transfer at the internal memory array and two corresponding n bit wide, one half clock cycle data transfers at the DQs.
Read and write accesses to SDR SDRAM and DDR SDRAM are burst oriented. Accesses start at a selected location and continue for a programmed number of locations in a programmed sequence. Accesses begin with the registration of an activate command, which is followed by a read or write command. The address bits registered coincident with the activate command are used to select the bank and row to be accessed. The address bits registered coincident with the read or write command are used to select the bank and the starting column location for the burst access.
A Column Address Strobe (CAS) signal is used to latch in the column addresses for selected memory cells and initiate a column access during a read or write operation. The delay between an activate command and the first read command is referred to as the RAS to CAS Delay (tRCD). The delay between CAS pulses during a burst is referred to as the CAS to CAS Delay (tCCD). In both SDR SDRAM and DDR SDRAM, tRCD and tCCD cannot be shorter than minimum times, which are limited by the processing speed of the memory circuit. If tRCD and tCCD are shorter than the minimum times, the memory circuit may fail.
Another type of DRAM is Pseudo-Static Random Access Memory (PSRAM). PSRAM is a low power DRAM having a Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) interface for wireless applications. PSRAMs do not have a separate activate command. The activate command in PSRAMs is automatically executed with a read or write command. Typically, the first access to a memory array of a PSRAM is asynchronous. The read command is typically decoded asynchronously and the initial CAS pulse after the asynchronously decoded read command is issued asynchronously. The subsequent CAS pulses for a burst access after the initial CAS pulse are issued synchronously with the clock. The position of the initial asynchronous CAS pulse can vary with respect to the next, synchronous CAS pulse. The time required to read data out of the memory array is typically longer than a clock period. This delay is referred to as the initial latency, which is the delay between a read command being issued and the first data provided at the DQs.
In PSRAMs, as in SDR SDRAMs and DDR SDRAMs, the tCCD needs to be longer than a minimum time, otherwise the PSRAM may fail. Since the initial CAS pulse is issued asynchronously, the initial CAS pulse and the next, synchronous CAS pulse may move too close together, violating the minimum tCCD requirement, depending on the clock period and the speed of the asynchronous command decode. For typical PSRAMs operating at higher clock speeds, a longer initial latency may be required to maintain the minimum tRCD and tCCD requirements to prevent a memory failure.

Integrated circuit including a memory having low initial latency


A semiconductor package substrate includes a main body with a surface having a first circuit layer thereon and a dielectric layer covering the first circuit layer, with a plurality of vias on a portion of the first circuit layer; a plurality of first conductive vias disposed in the vias; a plurality of first electrically connecting pads on the first conductive vias and completely exposed on the dielectric layer having no extending circuits for a semiconductor chip to be mounted thereon, the first electrically connecting pad being electrically connected to the first circuit layer of the first conductive via; and an insulating protective layer disposed on the main body with an opening for completely exposing the first electrically connecting pads, whereby the circuit layout density is increased without disposing circuits between the electrically connecting pads.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to semiconductor package substrates, and more particularly, to first electrically connecting pads of a semiconductor package substrate for fine pitch application and enhanced bonding of semiconductor chips.
2. Description of Related Art
In flip-chip technology, electrode pads are formed on the IC semiconductor chip and an organic circuit board also has electrically connecting pads corresponding to the electrode pads in position. Solder structures or other conductive adhesive materials are formed between the electrode pads and the circuit boards for providing electrical and physical connections between the semiconductor chip and the circuit board. Related technology is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,809,262 (TW Patent No. 572361).
Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B, a circuit layer 11 is formed on at least one surface of a substrate main body 10. The circuit layer 11 comprises a plurality of electrically connecting pads 110 and circuits 112, and portions of the circuits 112 are electrically connected with the electrically connecting pads 110 and thus electrically connected to the internal circuits (not shown in the drawings). Moreover, an insulative protective layer 13 is formed on the substrate main body 10, having an opening 130 for exposing the electrically connecting pads 110 and portions of the circuits 112, in which an solder layer 14 made of solder is formed on the exposed circuits 112 and electrically connecting pads 110, so as to avoid oxidation or provide an electrical connecting means for other electrical devices.
Referring to FIG. 2, a semiconductor chip 20 is mounted on the electrically connecting pads 110 in the opening 130 of the insulative protective layer 13. The semiconductor chip 20 has a plurality of electrode pads 21 each formed with a bump 22, allowing the bump 22 to be electrically connected to a solder layer 14 on each electrically connecting pad 110 correspondingly, so as to reduce the overall height of the package. Moreover the opening 130 is filled with an underfill 23, and since the aperture of the opening 130 is sufficiently large to expose a plurality of electrically connecting pads 110 and accommodate the underfill 23 without resulting in a flash incidence.
However, the electrically connecting pads 110 extend sideward to the circuits 112 as shown in FIG. 1A, preventing the bumps 22 of the semiconductor chip 20 from completely covering the electrically connecting pads 110 as shown in FIG. 2. Hence, a circuit-extending portion of the electrically connecting pads 110 is susceptible to concentration of stress, thus leading to cracking of the bumps 22 and poor bonding between the bumps 22 and the electrically connecting pads 110.
Moreover, a circuit 112 is formed between two adjacent electrically connecting pads 110, which lengthen the distance between the two adjacent electrically connecting pads 110. As the distance between two adjacent electrically connecting pads 110 cannot be reduced, fine pitch application is unavailable.
Thus, there is an urgent need to develop a semiconductor substrate in which the problem that the electrically connecting pads cannot be completely covered by the bumps of the semiconductor chips is solved, and the pitch distance between two electrically connecting pads can be reduced for fine pitch application.

Phoenix Precision Technology Corporation


The present invention provides a method for improving Network Discovery and Selection suitable for a UE which is moving into a new TA, which comprises: receiving, by a MMF, a TAU request including the new TA from the UE; allocating, by the MMF, a new TA List according to the new TA in the TAU request; sending, by the MMF, the new TA List to the UE; sending, by the MMF, a TA information to a Mobility Policy Function, MPF, for updating mobility policy of the UE if the new TA is a special TA covered by different networks.

As described in FIG. 1, a 3GPP network or a Wifi network is combined by more than one Tracking Area (TA), and User Endpoint (UE), which register in an area including one TA or more than one TA (TA list). Usually, the UE receives and saves the TA or TAs sent from an area that the UE has registered. For example, the UE receives TA1 sent from area1 and saves it in its TA list when the UE is moving into area1. If later the UE moves into area2, it receives TA2 sent from area2 and adds TA2 into its TA list or replaces TA1 with TA2. When the UE moves into a new TA, a Tracking Area Update (TAU) procedure will be initiated.
In a conventional network, as described in FIG. 2, most of the areas are covered by the same radio technologies, e.g. a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network or other 3GPP network, and a default mobility policy can be applied. Only in some narrow area which is covered by different radio technologies, e.g. an LTE network and Wifi network, and a special mobility policy shall be applied. The mobility policies include:
1) Inter system mobility policy including a set of operator-defined rules and preferences that affect the inter-system mobility decisions taken by the UE; and
2) Access network discovery information including a list of access networks available in the vicinity of the UE for all the access technology types requested by the UE.
In the 6 TAs (TA1˜TA6) of FIG. 2, different mobility policies are applied:
TA4: outside of the Wifi area, the LTE network is selected.
TA2, 3, 6: inside the Wifi area, the WiFi network is selected.
TA1: almost outside of the Wifi area, the LTE network is selected.
TA5: part of the TA is inside of the Wifi area, the network selection is based on more accurate location information.
When the UE is moving between TAs covered by different networks, the mobility policy will be updated. A special TA is the TA or a TA List at which the mobility policy will be updated if the UE is moving into the special TA. A non-special TA is the TA or TA List at which the mobility policy will not be updated if the UE is moving into the non-special TA. In FIG. 2, the TA or TA List which overlapped overlay by different radio technologies are the special TAs. So TA2, TA3, TA5 and TA6 are the special TAs when UE is located in TA1; TA1, TA4 and TA5 are the special TAs when UE is located in TA2.
In the 3GPP network, as described in FIG. 3, when the UE is moving between the TAs, the mobility management is implemented by an MME (Mobility Management Entity) via tracking the UE's location or the TA. MME functions include Tracking Area list management. All the tracking areas in a Tracking Area List to which a UE is registered are served by the same serving MME. Tracking Area list management comprises the functions to allocate and reallocate a Tracking Area Identity list to the UE. Moreover, the Network Discovery and Selection is implemented by an ANDSF (Access Network Discovery and Selection Function). The ANDSF contains data management and control functionality necessary to provide network discovery and selection assistance data as per operators' policy. The ANDSF is able to initiate data transfer to the UE, based on network triggers, and respond to requests from the UE. The ANDSF stores the network topology information and shall send available access network(s) and the mobility policies to the UE in response to the UE's request or based on the network triggers.
The 3GPP has described a mechanism of Network Discovery and Selection by sending the mobility policies from the ANDSF to the UE (see 3GPP TS 23.402 and TS 24.302). As described in 3GPP, there are two methods, push model and pull model, for ANDSF to send the policies to the UE.
In the push model the ANDSF may update the inter-system mobility policy based on network triggers. To provide the UE more useful and precise information, the ANDSF shall be able to limit the information provided to the UE, which is based on the UE's current location, UE capabilities, etc.
In the pull model of communication, the UE sends a query to the ANDSF to retrieve information about available access networks in its vicinity. The UE may include the following information in the request: 1) UE's current location; and 2) UE capabilities (e.g. a list of access networks that can be selected).
But the 3GPP did not describe detail mechanism which is necessary to Network Discovery and Selection:
In push model, how the ANDSF gets the network triggers to update the inter-system mobility policy, and how the ANDSF gets the UE's current location for limiting the information provided to UE are not described.
In pull model, when the UE sends query to the ANDSF is not described.
Therefore, in current 3GPP specification, there is no mechanism to update the mobility policies to the UE when the UE is moving to a new area.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and device for improving network discovery and selection


A method for designing a metal ion for use in a molecular dynamics simulation can include the steps of building a metal ion molecule having a center atom and a dummy atom, assigning a van der Waals radius to the center atom, and assigning a charge to the dummy atom. A metal ion molecule may have the center atom covalently linked to one or more dummy atoms resulting in the metal ion molecule having a polyhedron geometry. New force field parameters may be used in methods for designing metal ions for use in molecular dynamics simulations.

An increasing number of researchers use molecular dynamics (MD) simulations for research purposes such as identifying potential new drugs, identifying potential sites to mutate known proteins, and simulating protein-ligand interactions.
Two accepted methods have been reported for MD simulations of metalloproteins, such as the known zinc-bound proteins. The first is commonly referred to as the "bonded model." The bonded model imposes a covalent bond between a metal cation, e.g., zinc, and its ligands to maintain the polyhedral geometry of the cation and its ligands during the MD simulations. There are disadvantages for the bonded model method including the inability to evaluate the intermolecular interactions of the metal cations with their ligands and the inability to simulate the exchanges of the ligands that coordinate to the metal ion. The second method is commonly referred to as the "non-bonded model." The non-bonded model maintains a metal ion's geometry, e.g., zinc's polyhedral geometry, with electrostatic and van der Waals forces. The non-bonded model, however, is limited by the instability of such geometries during nanosecond MD simulations.
Accordingly, a dilemma facing researchers is the limitations of the conventional bonding models and methods for modeling bonding interactions of metal ions. Thus, there exists a need for improved methods for modeling metal-containing proteins.

Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research


A system and method for classifying channels in a frequency hopping wireless communication system is provided. A data collection engine operates to obtain channel metrics indicating the level of interference for each channel used by the wireless communication system. A data analysis engine operates to provide a channel map for adaptive frequency hopping (AFH) and/or a channel map for channel avoidance. More specifically, the data analysis engine first operates to filter the channel metrics to remove channel metrics indicative of frequency hopping interference. Next, the channels are divided into a number of channel blocks each including at least two adjacent channels. For each channel block, the channel metrics of the channels within the channel block are combined to provide a metric sum. The data analysis engine then operates to classify each channel as usable or unusable based on the metric sums for each of the channel blocks.

As is well known in the wireless data communications arts, a common trade-off in the design of communication systems is performance versus bandwidth. That is, various aspects of communication performance can be improved at the expense of increased radio frequency (RF) bandwidth. One very important factor contributing to the performance of a communication system is the "quality" of the data channels used in the system. As is well known, data reception errors can be caused by the introduction of noise and interference during data transmissions across a channel. Signal interference distorts signals and their associated data during transmissions over the channel. A source of such noise and interference is radio-frequency interference (RFI) such as multi-path fading, multiple-access interference, and hostile jamming. Channel quality depends largely on the amount of noise and interference that exists on a channel relative to the strength of the signal levels of the channel. A channel that has a small amount of noise relative to the strength of the signals has high channel quality. Conversely, a channel that has a large amount of noise relative to the signal levels has low channel quality. Channel quality is typically measured in terms of the signal-to-noise (SNR) or Es/No (i.e., ratio of signal energy to noise energy) of a channel.
A wireless communication system can be properly designed to operate reliably in the presence of various types of noise and radio-frequency interference. For example, signals with very large RF bandwidths can be generated using a method known as adaptive frequency hopping (AFH) in which the carrier frequency of a digital communication signal is adaptively changed, or "hopped," over a wide range of frequencies. One such AFH digital communication system is the Bluetooth™ protocol system that facilitates the transport of data between Bluetooth devices. Bluetooth technology is described in more detail in a specification published by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), entitled "Specification of the Bluetooth System, version 1.2", electronically available to the public via the well-known Internet at <http://www.Bluetooth.com>, published on Nov. 5, 2003, referred to herein as the "Bluetooth Specification" and is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for its teachings on Bluetooth flow control, signals, devices and communication protocols and schemes. As used herein, "Bluetooth device," "Bluetooth communication system" or any variation thereof refer to a device or system operating according to the Bluetooth™ protocol.
As described in more detail in the above-incorporated related applications, and in the incorporated Bluetooth Specification, Bluetooth communication systems use a frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) scheme when communicating between master and slave devices. In accordance with this frequency hopping spread spectrum scheme, frequencies are switched during data transmissions. Frequency hopping is performed in accordance with specified frequency-hopping algorithms so that devices can independently determine the correct frequency-hopping sequences (i.e., ordered lists of frequencies, sometimes referred to as "hop-sets"). In one example, pseudo-random FH sequences are independently determined by slave devices using their associated master device address and clock information.
Although the FH sequence associated with each Bluetooth master device is unique, piconets operating within close proximity can interfere with one another due to the relatively small number of independent channels used by the Bluetooth devices. In addition, channel noise and interference can be caused by a number of non-Bluetooth devices operating within close proximity to the Bluetooth devices. For example, as described in the above-incorporated related applications, an 802.11 protocol device operating within close proximity to a Bluetooth device can cause undesirable RF interference rendering one or more of the channels in the Bluetooth device's hop-set unusable. As is well known, the various IEEE 802.11 communication protocols (referred to hereinafter as "802.11") are global standards for radio communications operating at 2.4 GHz radio frequencies. One exemplary well-known 802.11 communications protocol is the IEEE 802.11b protocol (referred to hereinafter as "802.11b"). The 802.11b protocol allows 802.11b devices (i.e., those that comply with the 802.11b standard) to operate at high data transmission rates (e.g., 11 Mbps). The 802.11b protocol is particularly useful in implementing Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs). Devices complying with the 802.11b standard are described in more detail in a standard produced by the IEEE 802 Working Group, entitled "IEEE Std 802.11b-1999", electronically available to the public via the well-known Internet at <http://standards.ieee.org>, referred to herein as the "802.11b Specification," and is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for its teachings on 802.11b flow control, signals, devices and communication protocols and schemes. Another exemplary IEEE 802.11 communications protocol is the newly emerging IEEE 802.11g.
As noted above, one technique that may be used in solving interference problems is AFH. The purpose of AFH is to allow Bluetooth devices to improve their immunity to interference while allowing them to avoid causing interference to other devices in the Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) 2.4 GHz band. The basic principle is that Bluetooth channels are classified into two categories, used and unused, where used channels are part of the hopping sequence and unused channels are replaced by used channels in a pseudo-random manner in the hopping sequence. This classification mechanism allows for the Bluetooth devices to use 79 or fewer channels required in the incorporated Bluetooth Specification. Note that, in the United States, at least 75 channels (MHz) were required until 2002 when the FCC changed its regulations. The current minimum number of channels in the United States is 15, although there are other places (such as Europe) that require at least 20 channels. Hence, the minimum number of channels allowed by the incorporated Bluetooth Specification, NMIN, is 20.
An exemplary AFH Hopping Sequence follows. As an example, imagine that Bluetooth uses 10 channels (0 through 9). If all channels were "good," a hopping pattern might be as follows:                4 6 1 7 5 3 9 3 4 1 2 1 6 5 3 8 6 1 0 3 8 4 0 2Now, if channels 6 and 7 were determined to be "bad," the hopping pattern would appear as follows:        4 x 1 x 5 3 9 3 4 1 2 1 x 5 3 8 x 1 0 3 8 4 0 2In each case the value of "x" would be pseudo-randomly selected from the other 8 valid channels (0-5 and 8-9). Then, the new hopping sequence, after substitution, would appear as follows:        4 5 1 9 5 3 9 3 4 1 2 1 1 5 3 8 0 1 0 3 8 4 0 2
The incorporated Bluetooth Specification defines the aspects of AFH that are necessary to ensure interoperability. This includes the hopping kernel, baseband behavior, Link Manager Protocol (LMP) commands, and Host Controller Interface (HCI) commands and events required to change and configure the hopping sequences. The Bluetooth Specification also defines a mechanism that allows a slave to report channel classification information to a master. However, the Bluetooth Specification does not define or describe any specific requirements of the channel assessment mechanism. Channel assessment is left to the innovation of the various chipset and end product manufacturers.
As described above, "channel assessment" can be implemented as an algorithm that is used by a Bluetooth device to determine a channel map of which channels are good and which are bad within the 2.4 GHz ISM band. This channel map can then be used for Adaptive Frequency Hopping (AFH) or proprietary coexistence techniques such as channel avoidance. For example, the channel map can be used to determine which channels are "used" (i.e., the "good" channels from the channel map), and which are "unused" (i.e., the "bad" channels from the channel map).
At present, channel assessment algorithms have used either active measurements (e.g., bit error rate, or packet error rate) or passive measurements (e.g., Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI) measurement scan of the ISM band) in generating the channel maps. Disadvantageously, when using either passive or active measurements, the accuracy of the measurements depends on a number of factors including: the duty cycle of the interferer, the number of interferers, the number of samples used, etc. In general, these techniques are designed to provide an accurate estimate of the interference. However, in the end, the result is only a guess of what the interference profile truly looks like. Therefore, using these techniques, the interference profile will never be 100% accurate.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus that estimates and detects the presence of RF interference in a data channel. The data channel may have been previously determined by an AFH scheme to be "disallowed" (i.e., exhibited bad channel conditions), or it may be a channel within a frequency hop-set. The interference detection apparatus and method should be amenable for use in any communication system where the presence of intermittent interference needs to be detected.

Method and apparatus for performing channel assessment in a wireless communication system


An open magnetic structure comprising a conical permanent magnetic structure that generates an MRI imaging field around the body part of a patient in a cavity of the structure. The permanent magnetic sections include a recess over the cavity, with the surface of the structure bounding the recess following a cone angle of the conical permanent magnetic structure. The structure can be configured sufficiently large to accommodate a full patient body.

My U.S. Pat. No. 6,707,363 describes a magnetic structure based upon a conical geometry designed for NMR (sometimes referred to as MRI) head imaging in interventional procedures. The goals include an open structure providing full access to the head region while being imaged to a surgeon, minimize the dimensions and weight of the magnet materials, make an efficient use of the magnetic material with a maximum strength of the NMR imaging field, as well as allow access to the head of the patient from the vertical as well as the horizontal direction.
My improvement patent application, published as US 2004/0135580 A1, teaches several ways to improve the performance involving the use of magnetic straps, and a way to reduce the volume and weight of the permanent magnetic material by recessing a central pole piece to extend inwardly the outer permanent magnet. However, to achieve proper magnetic conditions at the material interfaces so as not to reduce the uniformity of the active magnetic field in the region of interest, it was thought necessary to introduce a non-magnetic region between the inwardly-extending magnetic section and a part of the pole piece and the remainder of the outer permanent magnet.
A further improvement patent application filed Oct. 27, 2003 by me, under application Ser. No. 10/694,419, features a structure wherein the interface between the pole piece and permanent magnetic conical section is configured to form an equipotential surface.
All three of these previous patent applications focused on head imaging, because it did not appear possible at the time those inventions were made with the structures there described to obtain a sufficiently large cavity having a uniform magnetic field in the region of interest to accommodate a larger body part, such as the chest of a patient.


A method and system of providing access to a virtual storage device is disclosed. According to one embodiment, access is provided to a virtual storage device comprising a file system storage object to store data to be written to the virtual storage device and a storage device. According to another embodiment, the virtual storage device further comprises a file system storage object to represent the virtual storage device.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to data storage and retrieval generally and more particularly to a method and system of providing access to a virtual storage device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Information drives business. For businesses that increasingly depend on data and information for their day-to-day operations, unplanned downtime due to data loss or data corruption can damage their reputations and bottom lines. Data can be corrupted or lost due to hardware and/or software failure, user error, and/or intentional malicious action. To increase data consistency and integrity and minimize the impact of data corruption, a number of techniques have been developed and implemented. One such technique involves the generation of backup or "snapshot" data which may be utilized in the event corruption of "primary" or "production" data occurs.
Such a snapshot is typically generated by first mirroring data from a primary data storage area to a backup, or "mirror" storage area in real time as updates are made to the primary data. Periodic "snapshots" of data may then be generated by "detaching" a mirror being updated in real time so that it is no longer updated. Detaching the mirror involves halting transactions being applied to the primary data storage area and to the mirror for a very brief time period to allow existing transactions to complete. A snapshot is then taken which serves as a frozen or "point-in-time" image, and provides a logically consistent copy of, the primary data. Such snapshot data may be useful in performing backups, data analysis, etc., and to recover from unintentional or unforeseen data corruption (e.g., where snapshot data is created on a regular or periodic basis) as well as to perform "provisional" write operations or updates, further described herein, to avoid data corruption resulting from anticipated or intentional data changes (e.g., where snapshot data is created on-demand prior to an update).
FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate the generation of a snapshot within a data storage system according to the prior art. In FIG. 1A, two mirrors of data 110 are maintained within a storage environment 100, and corresponding updates are made to mirrors 120A and 120B when an update, such as update 104A, is made to data 110. For example, update 104B is made to mirror 120A residing on mirror data storage area 122, and corresponding update 104C is made to mirror 120B residing on mirror data storage area 124 when update 104A is made to data 110. In a conventional data storage system, each mirror may reside on a separate physical storage device from the data for which the mirror serves as a backup, and therefore, data storage areas 112, 122, and 124 correspond to three physical storage devices in the illustrated example.
A snapshot of data can then be made by "detaching," or "splitting," a mirror of the data so that the mirror is no longer being updated. FIG. 1B shows storage environment 100 after detaching mirror 120B. Detached mirror (snapshot) 120B serves as a snapshot of data 110 as it appeared at the point in time that mirror 120B was detached. When another update 106A is made to data 110, a corresponding update 106B is made to mirror 120A. However, no update is made to detached mirror (snapshot) 120B. Instead, a pointer to the data changed in update 106A is retained in a data change log 130 which tracks changes in primary data with respect to detached mirror (snapshot) 120B.
In a typical data storage system resynchronization allows snapshots to be refreshed and re-used rather than discarded. A snapshot such as snapshot 120B can be quickly re-associated with the primary data which it previously mirrored in a process sometimes referred to as a "snapback." Updates made to the primary volume while the snapshot was unavailable for update are tracked using data change log 130. When the snapshot is "re-attached" to again serve as a mirror, only the updates that were missed are applied to re-synchronize the snapshot with the primary data. For example, if the storage device storing detached mirror (snapshot) 120B will be again used to serve as a mirror for production data, an update applying the change made in update 106A would be applied to snapshot 120B before other updates are made.
According to one known process, a provisional write operation or update is performed on a snapshot in order to avoid the corruption and/or loss of primary data. A snapshot is first generated as described herein and a desired operation is performed on the snapshot. The result of performing the operation on the snapshot may then be analyzed to determine the effect the operation would have had on the primary data. Thereafter, the snapshot may be accessed, resynchronized or "snapped-back" to the primary, or discarded as desired. Although this technique preserves the integrity of primary data while allowing a user to "test" the impact of an operation, it requires the creation of a separate snapshot for each provisional operation to be carried out and the time and storage resources associated with the snapshot may be forfeited if a snapback operation is not ultimately performed. Consequently, and due to other negative associated attributes, the described process has proven to be undesirable.

Method and system of providing access to a virtual storage device


The invention relates to a heterogeneous vanadium-phosphorus oxide catalyst system for the selective oxidation of hydrocarbons, which may or may not be saturated, comprising a support based on one or more metal oxides, and vanadium-phosphorus oxide in an amount of from 0.01 to 45 wt. %, based on the weight of the catalyst and calculated as (VO).sub.2 P.sub.2 O.sub.7, to a process for the selective oxidation of an organic compound in the presence of a vanadium-phosphorus oxide catalyst, which process comprises an oxidation and a reduction phase, wherein a hydrocarbon is contacted with said catalyst in the reduction phase and in oxidized or non-oxidized form is adsorbed to the catalyst, whereafter the thus loaded catalyst is brought into the oxidation phase, the desired product is formed in the presence of gaseous oxygen and subsequently separated.

This invention relates to a catalyst for the selective oxidation of hydrocarbons, which may or may not be saturated, to oxygen-containing organic compounds. More particularly, the invention relates to a catalyst for the selective oxidation of hydrocarbons to oxygen-containing compounds, such as the oxidation of n-butane to maleic acid anhydride. The invention further relates to a process for the selective oxidation of hydrocarbons, which may or may not be saturated, to oxygen-containing organic compounds. Finally, the invention also relates to the preparation of such a catalyst.
According to the prior art, n-butane is oxidized to maleic acid anhydride with a good selectivity in the presence of catalysts containing vanadium oxide and phosphate. Suitable catalysts can be prepared in two different manners. In both cases, the starting material is vanadium(V), whereafter the vanadium(V) is reduced to vanadium(IV), whereafter phosphate is added. According to the first method, hydrochloric acid is added to the solution of vanadium(V), whereafter at elevated temperature the vanadium is reduced with hydrogen chloride to form chlorine. According to the second method, work is done in an organic solvent, such as for instance i-butanol. At elevated temperature the organic solvent reduces the dissolved vanadium(V) which is subsequently stabilized by reaction with the dissolved phosphate.
In general the selective oxidation is carried out with an excess of oxygen. To prevent the formation of explosive mixtures, generally a content of 1.5 vol. % n-butane in air is worked with. Typical is a conversion of about 90% of the n-butane present in the feed, which is converted to maleic acid anhydride with a selectivity of about 60%. To realize such a conversion, the temperature of the catalyst bed must be maintained at about 400.degree. C. Naturally, with such an exothermic reaction the temperature in the catalyst bed will increase; generally, a higher final temperature leads to a poorer selectivity with a higher conversion. About 50% of the n-butane supplied then becomes available as maleic acid anhydride with the current technical implementation of the process.
Customarily, the oxidation reaction over the vanadium, phosphorus and oxygen-containing catalysts is carried out by passing the reactants through the reactor once, a so-called `once through` process. One of the most important limitations of this process, which uses a fixed catalyst bed, is that only an n-butane concentration of 2 vol. % at most can be used; higher n-butane contents may lead to explosions.
To increase the yield of maleic acid anhydride, recently other embodiments of the process have been proposed. One of the successful newly proposed embodiments is a fluidized bed reactor. It is then possible, without danger of explosions, to increase the concentration of the n-butane in the feed to substantially the stoichiometric value. As a result, the productivity per unit volume of the reactor increases, which leads to lower investment costs. (GB-A 2,145,010).
A fluidized bed reactor has still other advantages, viz. a markedly improved dissipation of the reaction heat, so that areas having locally a high temperature are effectively avoided. Although a fluidized bed process is economically and technically attractive, the selectivity of the catalytic oxidation is lower at higher n-butane concentrations, while moreover a (highly) wear-resistant catalyst must be used. In particular in the case of vanadium-phosphate-oxygen catalysts, the production of a wear-resistant catalyst is a difficult task.
It is known from EP-A 189,621 that the efficiency of the conversion to maleic acid anhydride can be increased by employing two separate reaction steps. The two reaction steps are carried out in separate reactors or in separate sections of a single reactor. In this case, n-butane, preferably in the absence of molecular oxygen, is contacted with the oxidized catalyst. After reaction with the lattice-oxygen present in the catalyst, whereby maleic acid anhydride is formed with a good selectivity, the residual butane and the product formed are removed, and the catalyst is passed into a reoxidation zone, where the catalyst is reoxidized with air oxygen.
Since the reduction and the oxidation of the catalyst take place in separate reactors, a more concentrated n-butane stream can be used. Moreover, in such a circulating fluidized bed, the heat transfer proceeds faster than in a fixed catalyst bed, so that the temperature is better controllable. Selectivity of up to 90% has been reported for the use of this process with two separate catalytic reactors. Although the yield of maleic acid anhydride is markedly increased, the catalyst developed for this process has two shortcomings. Because the conventional vanadium-phosphorus-oxygen catalyst is not wear-resistant, a new catalyst had to be developed, whose individual catalyst bodies are covered with a porous layer of silicon dioxide. On the one hand, this porous layer reduces wear, but, on the other hand, the inert porous layer limits the transport of reactants and reaction products. Moreover, the surface/volume ratio of the vanadium-phosphorus-oxygen constituent in the newly developed catalyst is relatively low, as in the conventional catalysts. To obtain a useful conversion of n-butane, large quantities of catalyst have to be recirculated per kilogram of maleic acid anhydride. In the literature it has been published that per kilogram of catalyst only about 2 g maleic acid anhydride is obtained.
It appears from the above-described prior art that there is a great need for a better catalyst in order to overcome the drawbacks of the current vanadium-phosphorus-oxygen. In general, wear-resistant catalysts in which the catalytically active component has a high surface area to volume ratio are obtained by providing the active component on a so-called support. Such a support is a highly porous, thermostable material, on the surface of which the active component or components are provided in more or less finely divided form. Commercially, a wide variety of preformed support bodies are available; it is therefore easy to select a suitable support with the necessary wear-resistance and a desired pore distribution. If the active component or components are provided on a support selected on the basis of the process in which the catalyst is to function, a catalyst meeting often conflicting requirements is readily obtained.
In spite of the fact that the vanadium-phosphorus-oxygen has already been employed on a technical scale for over a decade and in spite of the fact that the shortcomings of the current catalyst have been suitably recognized, efforts to prepare a satisfactory supported vanadium-phosphorus-oxygen catalyst have been unsuccessful to date. The selectivity of the supported vanadium-phosphorus-oxygen catalysts prepared heretofore was invariably found to be unacceptably low.
This is the reason that alternatives have been searched for. The first possibility has already been mentioned above, viz. the provision of a porous layer of wear-resistant silicon dioxide on porous particles of the vanadium-phosphorus-oxygen catalyst. Another method of preparing an improved catalyst is described in the above-mentioned GB-A 2,145,010. There a mixture of the oxides of vanadium and phosphorus is treated with an acid, preferably phosphoric acid or hydrochloric acid, the material thus obtained is mixed with zirconium dioxide or titanium dioxide, and the suspension obtained is subsequently spray-dried. Wear-resistant bodies of dimensions of from 3 to 10 .mu.m are then obtained. It will be clear that neither of the methods leads to catalysts where the active component is provided on (highly) porous support bodies in finely divided form.
An important disadvantage of the known catalysts based on vanadium, phosphorus and oxygen (VPO) is, moreover, the requirement that the catalysts must possess a specific structure to obtain the desired activity and selectivity.
A first object of the present invention is to provide a suitable catalyst for the selective oxidation of hydrocarbons, which catalyst is less dependent on the structure of the active component and which moreover requires no special measures for increasing its usefulness in various more modern oxidation processes.

Process for the selective oxidation of hydrocarbons


It is an object of the invention to provide a coordinate input apparatus which can eliminate an input point erroneously inputted. Values of voltage of pairs of electrodes 31, 32; 33, 34 of a tablet 24 are sampled at time t1 by A/D converter circuits 41, 42 to obtain values of X and Y coordinates of a latest input point. A coordinate predicting circuit 43 finds a predicted point of an input point of one period ahead from the coordinates of the latest input point and the input point at time t0 of one period before. The predicted point of the input point at time t1 is found in advance when the input point at time t0 is obtained. An erroneous input discriminating circuit 44 finds an error of the coordinates of the latest input point and the predicted point with respect to X- and Y-axis directions. When the error of the coordinates is less than an allowable error both in X- and Y-axis directions, the input point is determined to be valid and the coordinate of the input point is supplied to a buffer 47 as it is. When the error of the coordinates is the allowable error or more, the input point is determined to be invalid and (0, 0) is supplied to the buffer 47.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coordinate input apparatus suitably used as an input apparatus of information processors such as a personal computer and a word processor.
2. Description of Related Art
A coordinate input apparatus called a tablet has been used as an input apparatus for inputting hand-writing letters and graphics to electronic equipment such as a personal computer and a word processor. The coordinate input apparatus is also called a touch panel. The coordinate input apparatus has a pointing area which is a two-dimensional plane. When the user presses down the pointing area continuously, similar to drawing a line on a paper with a pen, the coordinate input apparatus outputs values of coordinates which correspond to each of a plurality of points on the line in order of the passed points.
The pointing area of such coordinate input apparatus is constructed often by a translucent member for example. This member is used by laying it on top of a visual display area of a display unit such as a cathode ray tube or liquid crystal display. At this time, the display unit changes pixels which correspond to the coordinate output from the coordinate input apparatus, i.e. the pixels right under the position of the area which has been pressed down by the user, from white display to black display. Thereby, a curve approximated by the input points thus inputted and broken lines connecting the input points is displayed on the display unit.
FIG. 18 is a block diagram showing an electrical structure of a resistor film type coordinate input apparatus. Two resistor films having the same size with a pointing area 3 for example are disposed while leaving a space therebetween in the resistor film type coordinate input apparatus. Two pairs of electrodes 4, 5; 6, 7 are attached to the pair of resistor films in the directions vertical to each other. For example, the electrodes 4, 5 detect the coordinate of a position in the X direction indicated by an arrow 17 in the pointing area 3 and the electrodes 6, 7 detect the coordinate of the position in the Y direction indicated by an arrow 18 in the pointing area 3.
One pair of electrodes attached in one direction of the pointing area are used as scanning electrodes so as to apply a gradient voltage and the other pair of electrodes are used as detection electrodes. When the user presses down one point in the pointing area by a pen or by a finger, the resistor films contact at that point and the voltage between the electrodes in one direction is divided. The values of the voltage thus divided are detected by the electrodes in the other direction. A ratio of division of the gradient voltage obtained from this voltage value is equal to a ratio of a distance between the electrodes divided by the input point. Accordingly, the value of coordinate of the input point in one direction can be obtained from the values of voltage thus divided. The two-dimensional coordinate of the input point within the pointing area can be detected by using the above-mentioned two pairs of electrodes while switching them alternately in a short time. The resistor film type coordinate input apparatus detects the values of the coordinate of the input point by checking variations of the values of voltage among each of those electrodes 4, 5 as well as 6, 7.
The values of voltage detected by the electrodes 4, 5 as well as 6, 7 are supplied to analog/digital converter circuits 9 and 10 (hereinafter abbreviated as "A/D converter circuit" in the figure), respectively. The analog/digital converter circuits 9 and 10 convert analog outputs from the electrodes 4, 5; 6, 7 into digital outputs for sampling per predetermined unit time measured by a timer 11. The outputs from the analog/digital converter circuits 9 and 10 are stored in an X coordinate buffer 14 and a Y coordinate buffer 15 in a buffer 13 as the X coordinate and the Y coordinate of the input point output from the pointing area 3. The above-mentioned electronic equipment reads the X and Y coordinates of the input point from the respective buffer areas 14 and 15 in the buffer 13 to use in the processing thereafter.
In the coordinate input apparatus described above, the input point is inputted by the user who presses down the pointing area by a finger or by holding a pointing member such as a pen, with a similar operation to drawing a line on a paper with a pen. The input point pointed by the user is the point pressed down by the pointing member. At this time, if the hand holding the pointing member erroneously touches the pointing area and presses down the resistor film, sometimes the coordinate of the position which the hand touched is output erroneously as a coordinate of the input point. Further, if a degree of pressure for pressing down the pointing area by the pointing member is less than the pressure necessary for contacting the pair of resistor films, the values of the coordinate which corresponds to the input point may not be output.
Still more, when the coordinate input apparatus described above is used as an input apparatus of an electronic equipment, the peripheral edge portion of the pointing area is often overlapped with a case of the electronic equipment. When a portion of the case which overlaps with the peripheral edge portion of the pointing area is held strongly while using the electronic equipment, the case may be pressed and deformed, thus pressing down the pointing area. Then, the coordinate of the position pressed at this time may be erroneously output as a coordinate of an input point.
The input coordinate inputted through the pointing area is output as an electrical signal for example. Accordingly, there may be case when noise is superimposed to the electrical signal during the time from when it is output from the pointing area 3 till stored in the buffer areas 14 and 15. Thereby, the values of the coordinate of the input point stored in the buffer areas 14 and 15 may deviate from the actual values by the noise.
Thus, the erroneous inputs by which the values of coordinate of the input point inputted from the pointing area 3 are erroneously output occur in the coordinate input apparatus. Then, the applicant of the present invention has proposed a display integrated tablet device which has been disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 6-295219 as a coordinate input apparatus which can eliminate the erroneous inputs described above. This tablet device enables to input coordinates by utilizing a constitution of a display panel such as a liquid crystal display. The display panel is constituted such that first and second electrode groups in which thin strips of electrodes are arrayed in parallel are disposed so as to face each other so that the longitudinal directions of the electrodes cross at right angles each other while leaving a space therebetween.
When a coordinate is to be inputted, scan voltage is applied alternately to the electrode groups to scan each electrode group sequentially. The user draws or contacts a detection pen near to/with a desirable position on the surface of the display panel. At this time, induced voltage is generated by floating capacity between the detection pen and the electrodes to which the scan voltage has been applied. The tablet device discriminates the input coordinate based on the variation of the induced voltage and timing when the voltage is applied to each electrode. At this time, the tablet device binalizes an output, i.e. the variation of the induced voltage of the detection pen, by a comparator to count a number of pulses. When the number of pulses thus counted is greater than an actual number of times of electrode scan, it is considered that there has been an erroneous input.
There has been disclosed a touch operating input apparatus which can eliminate an erroneous input caused by a structure peculiar to the tablet in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 4-57117. According to the input apparatus of the present publication, an optical touch panel for example is disposed on a display while overlaying a contact type touch panel. The user operates the two kinds of panels in the same time. The input apparatus discriminates that the input is correct only when the same coordinate is inputted on the two kinds of panels, respectively.
For example, the optical touch panel causes an erroneous input when a flying object such as an insect or foreign material infiltrates into the pointing area. The contact type touch panel causes an erroneous input when the structural member of the pointing area has a flaw or deformation. The contact type touch panel will cause no erroneous input even if a flying object infiltrates into the pointing area. Similarly, the optical touch panel will cause no erroneous input even if the structural member of the pointing area gets a flaw. Thus, the cause of the erroneous input of the touch panel is different depending on the structure thereof. Accordingly, even if the cause of the erroneous input described above occurs, no erroneous input will occurs on one touch panel, though an erroneous input occurs on the other touch panel.
Accordingly, it is possible to eliminate the erroneous input based on the cause peculiar to each individual touch panel by determining that the input is correct only when the coordinates which correspond to the same position are inputted respectively from the two overlaid panels. However, because the two kinds of coordinate input apparatuses are used in the touch operating input device described above, the structure is complicated. Accordingly, the size of the device becomes large, increasing the manufacturing cost thereof.
Further, a coordinate reader which calculates a position indicated by a coordinate indicator within a tablet and which allows an erroneous input to be eliminated has been disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 6-4203. This coordinate reader detects the coordinate based on induced current which is generated within the tablet by electrical coupling which is generated between the tablet and the coordinate indicator when they are drawn closer or are contacted. At this time, among variations of voltage caused within the tablet, variation caused by external noise is instantaneous and variation in inputting the coordinate continues for a certain period of time. Accordingly, when the variation of voltage occurs, the duration is counted by a timer to determine that the input coordinate is correct only when the variation of voltage continues more than a predetermined time set in advance. However, it is difficult to determine whether the coordinate is correct or not before a time more than the predetermined time passes since when the coordinate has been inputted.
A coordinate input apparatus which detects an input coordinate by using a capacitive coupling method for an X-Y matrix display and which allows the erroneous inputs to be eliminated has been disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 7-64704. When an input pen is abutted with the display in the coordinate input apparatus, a capacitive coupling occurs between the pen and the display. Thereby, scan voltage which has been applied to a display electrode of the display is also applied to an electrical circuit of the pen, thus causing a change in the output of the pen. The input coordinate is detected by specifying the display electrode which has been scanned when the change in the voltage has occurred.
A switch which turns off only when the pen is abutted with the display is provided at the edge of the pen. When the edge of the pen is not abutted on the display and the switch is on, impedance of the pen is dropped. Thereby, noise which mixes in when the pen is not abutting with the display is reduced. This method of eliminating the noise of the coordinate input apparatus is effective only for the coordinate input apparatus constructed as described above.
A coordinate detector and a coordinate detecting method which allow the influence of noise to be eliminated are disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 5-324163. A coordinate is inputted by pressing a resistor film sheet, i.e. an pointing area, by pen input means in this coordinate detector. When the resistor film sheet is pressed by the pen input means, values of coordinate at that time are sampled by a plurality of times to average the values of the sampling data. This average value is compared with each sampling data, the sampling data which deviates from the average value more than a predetermined deviation is excluded and only values of the remaining sampling data are averaged again. An average value of the remaining data is considered as the value of coordinate which has been inputted. The noise eliminated by this method is what is added on a power line of a power source which the tablet applies at the both ends of the resistor film sheet. Accordingly, it is different from what eliminates the erroneous input of the tablet.
Further, an information processor which reduces errors of specification of coordinate or area is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 6-342336. Input means of this information processor is what inputs coordinates by pressing down by pointing means such as a finger or a pen. At this time, the pointing means validates the input coordinate only when pressure for pressing down the input means exceeds a predetermined value.
The input means of the information processor described above determines whether the coordinate inputted at this time is correct or not in correspondence to the pressure when the pointing means presses down the input means. Accordingly, if the pressure exceeds the predetermined value, it is difficult to eliminate the input coordinate even if it is actually erroneous. For example, when a line is to be drawn on the input means by the pointing means, an input coordinate is considered to be valid if the pressure in inputting it exceeds the predetermined value even if the input is made at the position separated from the position which is assumed from the direction and speed of the advancement of the pointing means.


A method and a device for better utilizing latent cold in a cold producing material used for producing and upholding a pre-determined temperature inside a transport container or the like, where dry ice or a similar first phase change material having very low sublimation temperature is utilized. Inside the transport container is arranged a receptacle for such low sublimation temperature phase converting material, the said receptacle being provided with an enclosure having cavities for a second phase change material having a considerably higher melting point, the said cavities of the receptacle at least partially enclosing the inside of the receptacle, in which the converting material having the essentially lower melting point is received.

It is known to place inside containers and the like receptacles more or less filled with dry ice, i.e. solid carbonic acid or similar PCM, which during the transportation time through the influence of the ambient surrounding temperature is brought to evaporate or sublimate, a process which is difficult to regulate. This result in high dry ice costs and an unsatisfactory function since the temperature inside the container hardly can be controlled as closely as desired.
It is further known to arrange walls at transport boxes and the like provided with preferably closed spaces and fill said spaces with a phase change material (PCM) having a high melting temperature e.g. water. The boxes are before the loading thereof with goods placed in a space so cold that the phase change material is transformed into a solid state. During the transport, the heat necessary for the re-conversion will be collected from the ambient air passing through the box walls leaving the interior more or less unaffected. On long transports, some problems may occur in case the PCM is water or freezing mixtures, since rather large volumes would be necessary in order to keep the desired low temperature inside the transport box interior.
The reason why the first mentioned alternative, i.e. to utilize known phase change materials of very low evaporating temperature type such as dry ice, liquid CO2, liquid nitrogen or the like as a matter of fact, is used rather sparsely, depends on the cost and on the fact that the extremely low temperatures often affect the goods transported in a negative way.
A further drawback likewise important, is that in cases where the goods transported is not allowed to be colder than +/−0° C., the goods has to be insulated from the dry ice containing receptacle holding the evaporating dry ice, which results in a bad and lower utilization of the cold energy of the dry ice and increased handling costs.

Method and device for ensuring maintained temperature inside a transport container or the like


Various improvements to data processing systems involve enhancements to BIOS functionality, use of identifiers associated with specific instances of hardware, and data hiding techniques—sometimes alone, sometimes in combination. Many of these improvements can be applied to increase the security of computer systems, and networks of which they form part.

Digital watermarking technology (also known as steganography) encompasses a great variety of techniques by which one or more bits of digital data are hidden in some other object, without leaving human-perceptible evidence of alteration or data representation.
Digital watermarks can take many different forms, and serve many different applications (e.g., authenticating objects; conveying or linking to object metadata; specifying rules for use; triggering device actions or content delivery; conveying decryption instructions, logically binding content to users or devices, etc.). Patents illustrating same include U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,614,914, 6,823,075, 6,804,376, 6,788,800, 6,771,797, 6,768,809, 6,768,808, and 6,750,985.
The most familiar forms of steganography are those in which information is concealed in objects such as sound and image files. For example, the least significant bits of pixels defining a graphic can be altered to convey plural bits of hidden information. The graphic appears essentially pristine to a human viewer, but a suitably-programmed processor can decode the plural-bit payload from the graphic data. Similarly, a graphic may be stored in higher resolution than it can be displayed, and the display functions may disregard the superfluous information—allowing these extra thousands of bits to be used for other purposes. Many more sophisticated techniques for hiding information are detailed in the watermarking patent literature, such as the patents referenced above. However, objects that can conceal hidden data include more than just audio and imagery files. There is a growing field of art in concealing data within software instructions, e.g., in the pattern or order of instructions, in the pattern of registry usage, etc. Some such techniques are detailed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,834,343 and 6,829,710.
BIOS technology is also well known, and traditionally has served two primary purposes. The first is to initialize and test a computer's hardware and to collect hardware configuration information (the Power On Self Test process—POST). The second is to provide the collected hardware information to a loader that initiates the operating system (OS). Exemplary patent publications in the field include U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,557,104 6,791,572 6,772,313 6,734,864 6,633,976 6,622,179 6,598,165 and 6,564,318.


(Meth)acrylate resins of at least one bio-based (meth)acrylate monomer, where the monomer includes a rosin or isosorbide moiety obtained from natural sources, can be used in toner, carrier coating or both.

Most polyester-based resins are prepared from monomers obtained from petroleum or are man-made materials, ("conventional monomers"). With an increased focus on impact on environment and health, there is an interest and/or a need to find suitable replacements to reduce health risk and negative environmental impact associated with carrier and toner production and use.
Bio-based monomers in polymeric materials reduce dependency on fossil fuels and render the polymeric materials more sustainable. Recently, the USDA proposed that all toner/ink have a bio content of at least 10%.
Toner resins using bio-based monomers were described, see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,580,472. Nevertheless, there remains a need to use same successfully and to increase the bio-content of toner, and to incorporate bio-content into carriers, the other element of two-component developers comprising toner particles and carriers, while maintaining or improving favorable toner, carrier and developer properties.
A bio-based resin, including those with a high C/O ratio, which can be formulated into a toner particle or to coat a carrier, is described.

Bio-based acrylate and (meth)acrylate resins


A method and apparatus for a structure editor implementing a “top-down” approach to designing a Web page. The user uses a “drag and drop” interface to add, delete, and move display elements to define the hierarchy of the site and to define the layout of each page in the site. The present invention automatically generates a layout for each page. This layout contains display elements that represent the links between pages of the site. The present invention automatically adds, removes, and deletes the appropriate links between the pages of the site as the user moves display elements. After the user has defined the hierarchy of the site and the layout of each page in the site, the user “publishes” the site. The publish function automatically generates HTML for each page of the site in accordance with the display elements of each page, yielding true WYSIWYG pages for the site.

The past several years have seen an explosive growth of the World Wide Web ("the Web"). The Web is built around a network of "server" computers, which exchange requests and data with each other using the hypertext transfer protocol ("http"). A human designer designs the layout of a Web page, which is then specified using HTML ("Hypertext Markup Language"). Several versions of HTML are currently in existence. Examples include HTML versions 2.0 and 3.0, as specified by the WWW Consortium of MIT. Netscape Communications Corp. has specified additional HTML features that extend the HTML language, including forms and tables.
A user views a Web page using one of a number of commercially available "browser" programs. The browser submits an appropriate http request to establish a communications link with a Web server of the network. A typical http request references a Web page by its unique Uniform Resource Locator ("URL"). A URL identifies the Web server hosting that Web page, so that an http request for access to the Web page can be routed to the appropriate Web server for handling. Web pages can also be linked graphically to each other.
The HTML to describe a Web page is often created by hand by a human being. If the design of the page changes, the corresponding HTML must be rewritten, which is an exacting process. Although several conventional HTML editors exist, these editors only allow the user to specify certain elements of a page and still require the user to enter HTML code. Conventional HTML editors allow the user to specify the page content and general layout, but do not provide the user with "What You See Is What You Get" (WYSIWYG) capability. Thus, the pages generated by conventional HTML editors look different when viewed by different browsers.
A Web "site" consists of a "homepage" and several other related pages. Each page has corresponding HTML that describes the appearance and function of the page. For example, the HTML for the homepage usually contains links to one or more of the other pages and the other pages often contain respective links back to the homepage. When the user clicks on a link of the displayed homepage, the browser requests and displays the linked-to page. Each link must be designed and coded into the HTML for the page. Thus, for example, when a human designer decides to remove a link between the homepage and another page, the HTML for the homepage must be changed to reflect the removed link. This process is exacting and requires that the user manually change the link. Moreover, if the linked-to page has another link back to the homepage, that link may also need to be changed.
It is usually desirable to have a consistent style for all pages of a site. When the user hand codes the HTML for each page of a site, it is difficult for the user to remember to use a consistent style. In addition, if the user decides to change the style of a site, each page must be changed individually.

Hierarchical drag and drop structure editor for web sites


The present invention provides compounds which can regulate VCP activity. The present invention provides the compound of formula (I)

Valosin-containing protein (VCP) belongs to a subfamily of ATPase, AAA (ATPases Associated with diverse cellular Activities), and is highly conserved among species. ATPases belonging to AAA are characterized in that they possess SRH (Second region of homology) region consisting of a similar amino acid sequence as a common structure in their C-terminal, in addition to Walker A motif (WA) which binds to ATP and Walker B motif (WB) which is involved in hydrolysis by the ATPase. The coordinated activity of WA, WB and SRH regions is thought to hydrolyze ATPs. VCP is mainly consisted of four regions, N-terminal region, D1 ATPase (D1) region, D2 ATPase (D2) region and C-terminal region, and possesses two ATPase regions characteristic of AAA family. Among them, D2 ATPase region is considered to be mainly responsible for the ATPase activity. In the two ATPase regions ATPase domain is followed by α-helix-enriched region, each of them is called D1α and D2α domain, respectively. The N-terminal region is known to have a function binding to and recognizing ubiquitin or degenerated proteins, and to be a binding region with cofactors such as Npl4, Ufd1 and p47 (Non-patent Literature 1).
It has been previously reported that VCP is involved in mechanisms of onset of neurodegenerative diseases. One of the mechanisms of onset of neurodegenerative diseases is an excess biological reaction for accumulation and aggregation of abnormal proteins (feedback mechanism). VCP is implied to be involved in such biological reactions. In particular, VCP recognizes and binds to extended polyglutamine observed in the neurodegenerative diseases such as Machado-Joseph disease (MJD) and Huntington's chorea. In addition, it was observed that VCP is co-localized with intranuclear inclusion bodies of MJD or Huntington's chorea, Lewy bodies of Parkinson's disease and aggregations in motor neurons, and recognize and bind to proteins which are believed to be involved in the pathogenesis of several neurodegenerative diseases. Furthermore, VCP is known to be involved in myopathy called IBMPFD (Inclusion Body Myopathy with Paget disease of bone and Front-temporal Dementia), which is dominantly inherited and associated with inclusion bodies after middle age, osteoporosis of Paget type, and diseases associated with frontotemporal dementia. Therefore, VCP is thought to serve not only as a sensor of abnormal proteins, but as an executioner of neuronal death (Non-patent Literature 2).

Abstract: (R is as defined in the description)or oxides, esters, prodrugs, pharmaceutically acceptable salts or solvates thereof. The compounds can regulate VCP activity, and thus are useful for treating VCP-mediated diseases such as neurodegenerative diseases.


A bag is convertible between a hand-held bag, a shoulder bag and a backpack. The bag includes a bag body defining an interior storage space. A top handle is positioned on a top portion of the body. The bag includes a pair of discrete, separate shoulder straps and a pair of independently operable shoulder strap retraction systems. Each of the retraction systems includes at least one reel-type winding device operably connected to a respective strap for storing and selectively retracting and withdrawing a portion of the respective shoulder straps. Each reel-type device is positioned in the bag at least in part within the interior storage space, and overlying a respective opening in the bag to withdraw and retract the respective shoulder strap therefrom. Each strap is selectively positionable at a retracted position, a withdrawn position, and an intermediate position. Each strap is independently withdrawable from the bag from about the reel-type device to the withdrawn position to convert the bag from the hand-held bag to a shoulder bag. Both straps are independently withdrawable from and retractable into the bag to the intermediate position, to convert the bag from the hand-held or shoulder bag to a backpack. Each strap is independently adjustable in the intermediate position to provide a snug fit of the backpack to a user's back.

A wide variety of briefcases, backpacks, shoulder bags and the like are in use every day for carrying books, papers and computers between the home, office, school and the like. Numerous bags are known in the art which can convert from a briefcase-type or hand-type bag, that is, one that has a handle positioned on the top of the bag, to, for example, a shoulder bag having a strap that permits carrying the bag from one's shoulder. Bags are also known that can be converted from briefcases to backpacks. Likewise, shoulder bags are known that can be converted to backpacks, to permit "hands-free" carrying of materials.
Those who have had occasion to carry relatively heavy objects in such bags, particularly on a frequent basis, will recognize the various anatomical problems that can arise as a result of carrying a substantially heavy object. In particular, those who frequently carry laptop computers and the like will recognize the significant strain that can be placed on one's arms, shoulders and back from carrying these objects in a briefcase, a shoulder bag, or a backpack that is not suitably designed for carrying such objects.
Some of the known convertible bags are configured as "day-packs" that include shoulder straps and a handle positioned at the top of the pack. One drawback to this arrangement is, that when carried as a briefcase from the top handle, the straps merely hang from the bag and can become caught on other objects, or the straps can become entangled in one's legs. In addition, such hanging straps can be rather unsightly. This can be particularly problematic when such a bag is required to provide a neat and clean appearance.
To alleviate the unsightly "hanging strap problem", bags have been configured to permit manually pulling or retracting the straps into the bag. As will be recognized, these retracted straps can still hang from the bag or be readily pulled therefrom. In addition, the manually retracted straps may not provide a desirable, neat appearance.
One known bag includes a device that permits suspending a strap therefrom which device permits winding the strap onto a roller, and permits extracting the strap therefrom. Although such a bag alleviates the problem of unsightly or dangling straps, there still exists various other problems of the known convertible bags.
Accordingly, there continues to be a need for a convertible bag that can be used as a briefcase, a shoulder bag or a backpack. Such a bag permits carrying relatively heavy objects in a backpack-style bag, while providing the flexibility of converting between a briefcase, shoulder bag or backpack, and permits fully retracting the straps into the bag to provide a neat and clean appearance.


A selective call receiver (100) including a receiver (102) for receiving messages and a housing (104) for housing the receiver (102). A clasp (200) for securing first and second wrist straps (112, 114) including a base member (202) and a pair of sides (204, 206) contiguous with the base member (202). A first compression member (208) located between the pair of sides (204, 206), the base member (202) and the first compression member (208) for engaging the first wrist strap (112) slidably therebetween. The first wrist strap (112) is also coupled to the housing (104). A clasp cover (214) having a second compression member (210) coupled thereto and to a first (204) of the pair of sides. The second compression member (210) engages the second wrist strap (114) with the first compression member (208) when the clasp cover (212) is transversely rotated between the pair of sides (204, 206) while the second wrist strap (114) also coupled to the housing (104).

Throughout the years, selective call receivers have reduced significantly in size. This reduction was made possible by numerous advances in integrated circuit (IC) and leadless components technologies, which are partly responsible for contemporary miniature receivers. However, this miniaturization in electrical receivers has placed a severe demand on the mechanical components. That is, the materials and the methods of coupling the mechanical parts together must be more stress resistant.
For example, consider the increased stress placed upon an antenna of a wrist watch selective call receiver (e.g., wrist watch pager) that is substantially disposed within a wrist strap, and especially a coupling to the antenna. During normal operation, the watch wrist strap must be flexible and movable while contemporaneously maintaining the electrical contact between both sections of the antenna forming a "closed-loop" path. Previous methods of coupling the antenna sections together generally require at least one section of the antenna to be rigidly fixed to a clasp. However, constant use and movements cause excessive stress build-up at the fixed points. The stress build-up can eventually result in a separation from the antenna resulting in an open circuit between the receiver and the antenna.
Generally, this coupling is substantially cumbersome for users and repair personnel who must remove and replace the antenna/watch band assembly. Thus, what is needed is a method of coupling an antenna within a wrist strap to a clasp that reduces stress build-up during use, while maintaining an electrical contact to provide the "close-loop" path.

Method and apparatus for coupling straps of a wrist worn device


Systems and methods are presented for handling calls. In one embodiment of the invention, a call handling system is configured for handling a variety of emergency and/or non emergency related calls. The call handling system may enable recognition of and response to received call information. The call handling system comprises a call interface configured for receiving the call information. A processor is communicatively coupled to the call interface and configured for processing the call information to initiate a protocol. This protocol may, as it progresses, be used to generate data for use in a CAD system. The CAD system may subsequently dispatch responders based on the generated data. The call handling system includes an advisory component that recommends a type of dispatch and a risk assessment. The call handling system also includes a build component that allows for the generation of protocols.

Call handling of either emergency or non-emergency related situations is a process of interacting with a caller to exchange information. The caller may have contacted a particular agency or service provider to gain assistance. For example, a caller may dial 911 seeking emergency assistance. Another example is where a caller dials an information service to obtain driving directions or addresses.
A particular caller may contact a particular agency or service provider to forward information. For example, a caller may dial 911 to report an emergency situation that the caller has witnessed, such as a crime, an automobile accident or a building fire. An example of a non-emergency situation would be where the caller calls to report local driving or weather conditions or a crime tip line. Whether the caller is calling to gain assistance or report information, a call handler, who may be specially trained in quickly and efficiently exchanging information with a caller, may handle the call.
A critical application of call handling is in the provision of emergency services. In an emergency situation, the call handler may need to quickly extract information from the caller in order to assist the caller. Such is typically the case in emergency medical situations where the call handler must ascertain the type and extent of injury in order to give relevant instructions. Generally, in an emergency situation, a caller will dial 911 and be connected to a local Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP). The PSAP is generally staffed with a group of specially trained call handlers. Typically, the call handlers will respond to callers according to protocols, often dispatching emergency service providers. Call handling is often employed with Computer Aided Dispatch ("CAD") systems that dispatch response units, such as police, fire and/or medical units, based on received information.
Additionally, a call handler working in a PSAP may receive textual information, displayed on a computer terminal, regarding the probable location of a caller. If the caller is calling from a landline, systems at the PSAP may access an automatic location information (ALI) database to determine the location of the caller. Accordingly, errors in the ALI database may result in incorrect determinations of caller location. Therefore, the call handler may need to verify the location of the caller. If the caller is calling from a mobile wireless device (e.g., cell phone), location information, if available at all, may not be determinable in the same manner as for landlines. For example, location information of a caller using a mobile wireless device presented to a call handler may be derived from triangulating signals transmitted by the cell phone, not by means of a database as in line calls. The accuracy of such a location may be dependent on the number of cell towers and signal strength. Global Positioning System (GPS) location data may also be available if the caller is using a cell phone with GPS capabilities. However, GPS systems may be unreliable, for example, if the caller is indoors. Accordingly, in the case of mobile wireless devices, the call handler may need to provide and/or verify the location of the caller.
Generally, the location of the caller is only one part of the information that is exchanged between the caller and the call handler in an emergency situation. For example, at the scene of a major traffic accident, the caller may need to communicate the number of people injured, the number of vehicles involved, location and condition of the vehicles, current conditions (e.g., fog, ice, etc.), and many other aspects of the situation. In current emergency call handling systems, all of this information is communicated verbally between the caller and the call handler and the call handler may forward this information to an emergency services provider.

Protocol builder for a call handling system


A stereoscopic viewing apparatus for viewing side-by-side complimentary stereoscopic image pairs of various sizes to produce a three-dimensional effect, the stereoscopic viewing apparatus comprising a pair of left and right spaced-apart ocular windows and variable septa.

The present invention relates to the field of stereoscopes. In particular, the present invention relates to a prism stereoscope for viewing stereoscopic image pairs.
Stereoscope viewing apparatuses have been known since 1833 when Sir Charles Wheatstone, a British inventor, came up with the idea of using drawings and a viewing device to produce three dimensional images. The drawings included two side-by-side complementary images, each image drawn from a slightly different perspective. When placed a fixed distance from a users eyes, and with the help of a septum, the images fuse together to produce a three dimensional effect.
As the stereoscope technology advanced, side-by-side complementary photographs took the place of the drawings. Over the years, many types of stereoscopes have been used. The following patents describe such examples:
The side-by-side format is a popular method of displaying stereo-paired images. Commercial stereoscopes, such as the Holmes/Bates and Viewmaster(copyright) stereoscopes typically contain lenses combined with prisms. Lenses magnify the images and allow the user to focus on the images a few inches from the user""s eyes. The prisms also translate the images to the center of the user""s field of view. This aids the user in fusing the images in binocular vision.
Many commercial stereoscopes incorporate prisms intrinsically as a property of the lens. Lenses in stereoscopes define a limited range of viewing distances for which the user can focus on stereoscopic images. The limited range, together with the amount of prism action, define the maximum separation of the images that can be fused. Therefore, either the stereoscope determines the allowable image separations or the image separation determines the required properties of the stereoscope.
The use of standard image sizes became popular early on in order to allow standard stereoscopes to be used to view many images. However, images are increasingly being printed or viewed in non standard sizes. Non-standard sized images are frequently encountered when a computer monitor is used to view the stereo-images. This is because the size of the images depends on the properties of the monitor, including monitor settings such as pixel density, and the pixel dimensions of the images. Stereoscopes often use a septum to block out the periphery around the images including the well-known side images which cause visual rivalry between the left and the right views. The optimal dimensions of the septa are determined by the distance between the stereoscope and the stereo-image pairs and the properties of the lenses. In traditional stereoscopes, the septum has a fixed geometry.
To aid the viewing of non-standard size images, various stereoscopes have been designed using prisms or mirror boxes. Mirror boxes typically allow large images of a particular size to be viewed at any distance. If the mirror box can be translated outward, a range of large image sizes can be used at any reasonable distance. However, mirror box stereoscopes are typically as wide as the distance between the centers of the images being viewed.
Stereoscopes which use prisms but no lenses can be used to view images of any size from the common standard print sizes up to arbitrarily large sizes. The user adjusts the viewing distance until the stereo images fuse together. Prism stereoscopes often include masks to block out the well known side images which create vision disparities between the left and right eyes. Ideally, the masks should block out all of the periphery from the fused image.
The present invention is a stereoscopic viewing apparatus for viewing side-by-side complimentary pairs of stereo images. The stereoscopic viewing apparatus of the present invention includes a pair of ocular members and a pair of objective members. In use, the ocular members are placed proximate to a user""s eyes, and the objective members are adjusted to define a field of view. The objective members are adjusted depending upon the size of the stereo images and the distance the stereo images are from the viewing apparatus. With the objective members properly adjusted, the user perceives a three-dimensional image.


A water pedestal for supplying water to a recreational vehicle. The water pedestal includes a housing having a tubular wall, an open lower end and an open upper end. A flexible conduit is located substantially within the housing, the flexible conduit having a lower end extending below said open lower end of said housing and adapted to be attached to an underground water main. The flexible conduit has an upper end attached to a ball valve. The flexible conduit is formed into a loop between the upper and lower ends thereof. A rigid conduit communicate the ball valve with an anti-syphon hose bib. The hose bib includes a rigid pipe and a faucet attached to the outer end of the rigid pipe, the rigid pipe extending through the wall of the water pedestal housing adjacent the upper end of the housing. A tubular slip sleeve is located within the housing and attached to the tubular wall of the housing at a mid-portion thereof. The tubular slip sleeve is positioned around the loop of flexible conduit and holds it in place within the housing. A cap is removably attached to the open upper end of the housing.

This invention relates to a water pedestal for providing a water hookup for recreational vehicles that is resistant to damage from accidental collisions.
Many RV parks provide a water hookup that is a faucet or hose bib located below ground level. Such below ground level installations can fill with water or contain insects or small reptiles, and require the user to get down on his or her hands and knees to attach a hose.
Where above ground level installations are used, they typically are merely pipes extending upwardly from the underground water main with a faucet on the upper end. In parking recreational vehicles it is not uncommon for the driver to inadvertently bump into such a pipe and cause a rupture between the pipe and the water main. The rupture causes minor flooding and requires the services of a plumber to fix.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a water pedestal that provides a water hookup that is easier to access and which can sustain low speed impacts without rupturing the connection to the water main.
This and other objects are achieved by a water pedestal that includes a housing having a tubular wall, an open lower end and an open upper end.
A flexible conduit is located substantially within the housing, the, flexible conduit having a lower end extending below the open lower end of the housing and adapted to be attached to an underground water main.
The flexible conduit has an upper end attached to a ball valve. Rigid conduit means communicate the ball valve with an anti-syphon hose bib. The hose bib includes a rigid pipe and a faucet attached to the outer end of the rigid pipe, the rigid pipe extending through the wall of the water pedestal housing adjacent the upper end of the housing.
The flexible conduit has a length that is about twice the distance between its connection to the underground water main and the ball, valve. This excess length allows a loop to be formed between the lower and upper ends thereof.
A slip sleeve is located within the housing and attached to the tubular wall of the housing at a mid-portion thereof. The loop of the flexible conduit is placed within the slip sleeve and held in place therein.
A cap is removably attached to the open upper end of the housing.
In use the lower end of the housing is surrounded by a non-packing filler material, such as round rock having a diameter between about 0.25 inch and about 2.0 inches. In the event the water pedestal is struck at a low speed by a recreational vehicle, the housing will tilt backwards within the non-packing filler material, and the resulting force acting on the flexible conduit will cause part of the excess length thereof contained in the loop to be pulled downwardly, thereby preventing a rupture at the connection between the flexible conduit and the water main.


Methods and systems for enabling an approximation of true snapshot integration by lowering total power requirements, total detector bias current, integrated charge per detector and detector impedance while allowing for higher ROIC input noise through the use of microbolometer photodetectors, super-pixels, and techniques for their use are herein provided.

Digital detection of visual and infrared (IR) images is a very widely used technology, having applications ranging from consumer-oriented cameras and video apparatuses to law enforcement and military equipment. For virtually all of these applications, there is a growing demand for higher image pixel counts, higher pixel density, increased sensitivity, improved dynamic range, and faster image processing.
In particular, many emerging thermal infrared (IR) sensing applications simultaneously demand high sensitivity, large dynamic range, large pixel count, and operation at fast data rates. Among these applications are day/night persistent surveillance, border patrol and protection, aerial search and rescue, and environmental remote sensing. Such applications require sensor systems capable of high-quality, large-pixel-count images. Organizations such as the US Army Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate (NVESD) are demanding ever higher pixel counts and densities to meet the challenges brought about by such applications.
At the heart of all digital imaging systems is the Focal Plane Array ("FPA"), which is a two-dimensional array of elements upon which an image is focused, whereby each of the FPA elements or "pixels" develops an analog output "signal charge" that is proportional to the intensity of the light that is impinging on it. Traditionally, a readout integrated circuit ("ROIC") uses an integration capacitor to store the signal charge at each pixel of the FPA, and then routes the analog signals onto output taps for readout and digitization by analog-to-digital converters ("ADC's") external to the individual pixels. This approach requires storing a large signal charge at each pixel site, and further requires that an adequate signal-to-noise ratio and dynamic range be maintained as the analog signals are read out and digitized. Accordingly, this traditional approach suffers from sensitivity and dynamic range limitations.
One approach for improving the sensitivity and dynamic range of an imaging system is to include "in-pixel" ADC circuits within the ROIC, whereby a separate digitizing circuit is located proximal to each pixel (or to each localized group of pixels) so that the signal charges for the pixels are digitized before being read out of the ROIC. However, conventional ADC circuits comprise large numbers of flip-flops and other digital elements. As a result, they are bulky, which limits the achievable pixel density.
A more compact in-pixel ADC can be implemented by dedicating a small in-pixel integration capacitor, comparator, and binary digital counter to each pixel (or localized group of pixels). According to this approach, for each pixel, the associated integration capacitor is charged by the signal charge of the pixel, while the comparator monitors the charge of the integration capacitor and issues an output pulse spike that resets the integration capacitor each time the integrated charge reaches a specified threshold value. The comparator thereby issues a train of output pulses, which are counted by the binary digital counter.
The train of pulses from the comparator terminates when the signal charge of the pixel is fully drained by the integration capacitor, or when the measurement ends, such that the number of pulses counted by the counter represents a digital measurement of the amplitude of the signal charge, with the reset threshold value of the comparator representing the least significant bit (LSB) accuracy of the measurement. The total number of spikes is retained by the binary counter until it is read out by the multiplexer of the ROIC. When integration occurs simultaneously across all pixels of the FPA, this is referred to as true snapshot integration.
This in-pixel binary counter approach, which may be referred to as single stage ADC, allows for increased dynamic range, due to the ability to add bits to the binary counter. While this approach is an improvement over earlier methods, in terms of dynamic range, single stage ADC counters must count the full range, one bit at a time, and, in high count rate applications, such a configuration may become a performance bottleneck. Even assuming performance was not limited by the use of a single stage ADC, such a device requires significant amounts of power to assure proper functioning. While these issues might be mitigated through the use of stacked digital layers, this would result in significantly more expensive fabrication and assembly processes. Moving to a smaller geometry (e.g. a 14 nm process) might also mitigate such issues, but would also be very expensive.
An extension of this approach, referred to as two stage ADC, involves digitizing the residue in the integration capacitor after the initial integration is finished to obtain a fine residue value. The fine residue value and coarse counts are then combined to reach a final value, achieving additional accuracy by reducing the value of the LSB. While two stage ADC provides benefits over single stage ADC, including reducing the count rate in coarse mode and operating at a lower power, power requirements, total detector bias current, integrated charge per detector and detector impedance are still too high for true snapshot integration in some applications.
Lastly, ROIC input noise thresholds are currently too low for true snapshot integration in some applications.
What is needed, therefore, are devices and methods that enable true snapshot integration, or an approximation thereof, by lowering total power requirements, total detector bias current, integrated charge per detector and detector impedance while allowing for higher ROIC input noise.

Rolling subframe pulsed bias microbolometer integration

BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc.