A nozzle is provided. The nozzle includes a cylindrical housing defining a fluid flow path therethrough about a longitudinal axis and a first finger mounted to a first end portion of the housing comprising a wedge disposed on an outer surface of the first finger. A hollow shroud is coaxially disposed around the housing and longitudinally movable with respect to the housing. An outlet aperture is disposed in fluid communication with the fluid flow path, and a ramp disposed within an internal surface of the shroud and engageable with the wedge.

Pressure washers are often used to provide a substantially constant flow of liquid at an increased pressure to a work surface or object for cleaning of that surface or object. Pressure washers often include a pump for increasing the pressure of liquid provided therefrom, a path for flowing from the pump, and a wand or similar structure that can be held by the user to direct the relatively high pressure flow to the object or surface to be cleaned.
Many types of nozzles for use with pressure washers are known in the art. Some nozzles provide output flow in a single cylindrical stream, multiple parallel streams, planar fluid flows, or many other geometries. Further, some nozzles alter the pressure of the fluid flowing therefrom by dramatically reducing or increasing the cross-sectional area of the output aperture, which makes different nozzles useable for different functions.
It is known that fluid backpressure upstream of a nozzle is important when mixing fluid from a pressure washer for simultaneously applying pressurized fluid and cleaning solution to both mechanically agitate the surface to be cleaned and additionally provide soap to the surface for further removal of dirt and debris. It is known that a large increase in system pressure (due to a reduction of output flow from a nozzle) may reduce or eliminate the entry of cleaning solution into a fluid flow due to a reduction in differential pressure across a venturi that is connected to the source of cleaning solution.
Nozzles that adjust the geometry of spray flow from the nozzle are known in the art. These nozzles often cause the backpressure to vary as the geometry is changed because the nozzles vary the size and shape of the outlet aperture of the nozzle in order change the flow geometry. The change in the cross-sectional area additionally causes changes to the system pressure within the pressure washer due to the change in output flow rate from the nozzle, which may alter the amount or eliminate the flow of cleaning solution into the fluid flowing through the nozzle.

Techtronic Outdoor Products Technology Limited


An engine assembly comprising an internal combustion engine having a combustion chamber; an intake manifold for supplying air to the combustion chamber; a fuel injector for supplying fuel to the combustion chamber; an exhaust manifold for receiving exhaust gas released from the combustion chamber and a rotatable drive shaft, wherein combustion of fuel in air within the combustion chamber results in rotation of the drive shaft. The engine assembly further comprises a turbocharger system comprising a turbine and a compressor, wherein the turbine is configured to receive exhaust gas from the exhaust manifold, to recover energy from the exhaust gas, and to release the exhaust gas via a turbine outlet; and wherein the compressor is configured to receive energy from the turbine and thereby to compress air for use in combustion of fuel in the combustion chamber. An intake throttle valve is configured to selectively control a boost pressure by controlling supply of air to the intake manifold; and a bypass valve is configured to selectively divert exhaust gas from the exhaust manifold away from the turbine, wherein the bypass valve is controlled by the boost pressure. A controller is configured (a) to provide an intermediate value for desired valve position of the intake throttle valve based on a desired oxygen to fuel ratio; and (b) to output a final value for desired valve position of the intake throttle valve based on the intermediate value for desired valve position and an engine speed value.

Effective operation of an internal combustion engine relies upon achieving an appropriate ratio of oxygen to fuel in the combustion chamber. Where the ratio is too high or too low, this results in sub-optimal attribute balance which leads to reduced power efficiency and a potential requirement for more processing of exhaust gases.
One method for controlling intake manifold pressure is to include within the engine hardware architecture a turbocharger with a bypass circuit including an electronically controllable bypass valve (also known as a wastegate). In this way, a primary route for exhaust gas leaving the combustion chamber takes exhaust gas into a turbine of a turbocharger, while a secondary route selectively facilitates bypass of exhaust gas away from the turbine using the electronically controllable bypass valve. The selective control of the bypass valve may be used to indirectly influence intake manifold pressure which, in turn, may be used to control air to fuel ratio in the combustion chamber.
Complex engine control processor hardware may be used to provide continuously precise instructions for positioning an actuator of the bypass valve, as well as to control all other actuators that control other variables associated with engine performance.
There may be circumstances where electronically controllable bypass valve functionality is unavailable or inappropriate but there may remain a desire to influence oxygen to fuel ratio using a turbocharger bypass circuit. It may also be the case in such circumstances that complex engine control processor hardware is unavailable or inappropriate.
In the absence of an electronically controllable bypass valve, it may still be appropriate to control intake manifold pressure. This may be achieved using a pneumatically regulated bypass valve but this approach has limitations dictated by specific engine operating conditions and valve characteristics.

Method of controlling an internal combustion engine with a turbocharger


Systems and method provide for the writing of a data block and corresponding metadata block to a storage location. Metadata and data block are encoded separately. The metadata and data block may be moved to a different location due to garbage collection, defragmentation, or some other prompt. The metadata is decoded, modified, re-encoded and written to the different location whereas the data block can be written to the new location without re-encoding.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to systems and methods for storing and accessing data in a flash memory system.
2. Background of the Invention
Solid-state drives, also referred to as SSDs, are data storage devices that make use of nand flash memory devices as storage elements. Typically they have a SSD controller that accepts host commands on one end and communicate to the nand flash on the other. Nand flash is a type of non-volatile storage device that retains data when powered off. The SSD controller accesses the nand flash device through the nand interface.
The page is the smallest memory operation unit, i.e. a program or read operation is performed on a page. Typical nand page sizes are ˜4 KByte, ˜8 KByte, and ˜16 KByte. The page sizes may be slightly larger than 4 KByte, 8 KByte, or 16 KByte to accommodate the data ECC parity. The typical nand interface data rates can be 200 MBps to 400 MBps. For a read, the memory read time will be ˜60 μs and data transfer out would be ˜40 μs for ˜16 KB data, ˜20 μs for 8 KB data and ˜10 μs for 4 KB.
Logical block addressing (LBA) is a common scheme used for specifying the location of blocks of data stored on computer storage devices, generally systems such as hard drives and SSDs. Typical host LBA granularity is 512 bytes. The SSD controller can choose to operate on 4 KBytes and manages the mapping between the 512 byte host LBA number and the 4 KByte controller LBA number. Each LBA in the system needs to be mapped to unique data units. The size of this data unit defines how large the physical address pointer is. As a result the size of the LBA pointer would be a function of the number of dies, number of blocks, number of pages and size of data unit, depending on the size of the data unit in the page.
The apparatus and methods disclosed herein provide an improved apparatus and method for storing, accessing, and maintaining data blocks, such as LBAs in a nand flash device or other storage devices.

System and method for improved data maintenance in a flash drive


A 3D pointing device for use with a content delivery system is provided. The pointing device can operate in one of at least one of two modes: a first 3D or scrolling mode, and a second non-3D mode that can also be referred to as an up-down-left-right (UDLR) mode. The pointing device can include one or more directional sensors, to provide orientation and movement information. For either of the at least two modes, an optical finger navigation module is provided that can detect movement of a user's finger or object across its screen, and provides a predetermined threshold that must be exceeded before movement information is generated from the OFN module. The pointing device can generate scroll and UDLR commands based on the information from the orientation and movement sensors, as well as the OFN module, or can provide the information from the orientation and movement sensors to a user interface that can generate the appropriate scrolling or UDLR commands for use by the content delivery system.

The present invention describes mode switching techniques, devices, systems and software which can be used in three dimensional (3D) pointing devices, as well as in other types of devices.
Technologies associated with the communication of information have evolved rapidly over the last several decades. Television, cellular telephony, the Internet and optical communication techniques (to name just a few modes of communications) combine to inundate consumers with available information and entertainment options. Taking television as an example, the last three decades have seen the introduction of cable television service, satellite television service, pay-per-view movies and video-on-demand, both of the latter being made available by cable, fiber-optic, and satellite service providers, as well as over the internet (e.g., Netflix®). Whereas television viewers of the 1960s could typically receive perhaps four or five over-the-air TV channels on their television sets, today's TV watchers have the opportunity to select from hundreds, thousands, and potentially millions of channels of shows and information. Video-on-demand technology, currently used primarily in hotels and the like, provides the potential for in-home entertainment selection from among thousands of movie titles.
The technological ability to provide so much information and content to end users provides both opportunities and challenges to system designers and service providers. One challenge is that while end users typically prefer having more choices rather than fewer, this preference is counterweighted by their desire that the selection process be both fast and simple. Unfortunately, the development of the systems and interfaces by which end users access media items has resulted in selection processes which are neither fast nor simple. Consider again the example of television programs. When television was in its infancy, determining which program to watch was a relatively simple process primarily due to the small number of choices. One would consult a printed guide that was formatted, for example, as series of columns and rows which showed the correspondence between (1) nearby television channels, (2) programs being transmitted on those channels and (3) date and time. The television was tuned to the desired channel by adjusting a tuner knob and the viewer watched the selected program. Later, remote control devices were introduced that permitted viewers to tune the television from a distance. This addition to the television-user interface created the phenomenon known as "channel surfing" whereby a viewer could rapidly view short segments being broadcast on a number of channels to quickly learn what programs were available at any given time.
Despite the fact that the number of channels and amount of viewable content has dramatically increased, the generally available user interface, control device options and frameworks for televisions has not changed much over the last 30 years. Printed guides, and their displayed counterparts on a guide channel, are still the most prevalent mechanism for conveying programming information. The multiple button remote control 100, an example of which is illustrated in FIG. 1 with up 102, down 104, left 106 and right 108 arrows, is still the most prevalent channel/content navigation mechanism. The reaction of those who design and implement the TV user interface to the increase in available media content has been a straightforward extension of the existing selection procedures and interface objects. Thus, the number of rows in the printed guides has been increased to accommodate more channels. The number of buttons on the remote control devices has been increased to support additional functionality and content handling. However, this approach has significantly increased both the time required for a viewer to review the available information and the complexity of actions required to implement a selection. For example, in a large grid guide supporting hundreds of channels, a user may have to perform 50 or a 100 up-down-left-right button presses to navigate the grid guide and make a content selection. Arguably, the cumbersome nature of the existing interface has hampered commercial implementation of some services, e.g., video-on-demand, since consumers are resistant to new services that will add complexity to an interface that they view as already too slow and complex.
Some attempts have also been made to modernize the screen interface between end users and media systems. However, these attempts typically suffer from, among other drawbacks, an inability to easily scale between large collections of media items and small collections of media items. For example, interfaces which rely on lists of items may work well for small collections of media items, but are tedious to browse for large collections of media items. Interfaces which rely on hierarchical navigation (e.g., tree structures) may be speedier to traverse than list interfaces for large collections of media items, but are not readily adaptable to small collections of media items. Additionally, users tend to lose interest in selection processes wherein the user has to move through three or more layers in a tree structure. For all of these cases, current remote units make this selection process even more tedious by forcing the user to repeatedly depress the up and down buttons to navigate the list or hierarchies. When selection skipping controls are available such as page-up and page-down, the user usually has to look at the remote to find these special buttons or be trained to know that they even exist. Accordingly, organizing frameworks, techniques and systems that simplify the control and screen interface between users and media systems as well as accelerate the selection process, while at the same time permitting service providers to take advantage of the increases in available bandwidth to end user equipment by facilitating the supply of a large number of media items and new services to the user have been proposed in the Assignee's earlier U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/768,432, filed on Jan. 30, 2004, entitled "A Control Framework with a Zoomable Graphical User Interface for Organizing, Selecting and Launching Media Items", the disclosure of which is incorporated here by reference.
Of particular interest for this specification are the remote devices usable to interact with such frameworks, as well as other applications and systems. As mentioned in the above-incorporated application, various different types of remote devices can be used with such frameworks including, for example, trackballs, "mouse"-type pointing devices, light pens, etc. However, another category of remote devices which can be used with such frameworks (and other applications) is 3D pointing devices. The phrase "3D pointing" is used in this specification to refer to the ability of an input device to move in three (or more) dimensions in the air in front of, e.g., a display screen, and the corresponding ability of the user interface to translate those motions directly into user interface commands, e.g., movement of a cursor on the display screen. The transfer of data between the 3D pointing device may be performed wirelessly or via a wire connecting the 3D pointing device to another device. Thus "3D pointing" differs from, e.g., conventional computer mouse pointing techniques which use a surface, e.g., a desk surface or mouse pad, as a proxy surface from which relative movement of the mouse is translated into cursor movement on the computer display screen. An example of a 3D pointing device can be found in Assignee's U.S. Pat. No. 7,158,118 to Matthew G. Liberty (hereafter referred to as the '118 patent), the disclosure of which is incorporated here by reference.
The '118 patent describes 3D pointing devices which include, for example, one or more rotational sensors and an accelerometer. The rotational sensor(s) are used, as described in more detail below, to detect an angular rate at which the 3D pointing device is being rotated by a user, and this information is conveyed to a user interface wherein it can be used, for example, to control cursor movement. Such 3D pointing devices have been shown to free the user from the constraints of up-down-left-right (UDLR) remote control devices 100 by, for example, allowing them to directly, quickly and randomly access any point or region on a displayed user interface or screen.
However, despite the established benefits of 3D pointing, an issue that may be presented with this new technology is how to handle legacy applications or systems that expect UDLR inputs to select user interface objects, e.g., media selections on a television. Even though 3D pointing provides a superior user experience in many respects, given the large number of devices and applications that have been designed to expect UDLR inputs, 3D pointing (by itself) may not provide sufficient support for such legacy systems. Of perhaps more significant importance, however, is that code bases for set top boxes (STB) and television operation, for example, are so large that a substantial transition period needs to planned for wherein legacy (UDLR) style navigation has to co-exist with the newer 3D pointing style navigation. A new device (i.e., a new 3D pointer) that implements both forms of control into one device and that can change mode of control between different applications, or even different screens, without compromising performance of either type would provide an easy, elegant and simple transition path from the legacy UDLR-type navigation to pointing-type navigation.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

3D pointing device with up-down-left-right mode switching and integrated swipe detector


A self bonding floor tile includes a main body and a self bonding layer connected with the main body. The self bonding layer includes an absorptive element, a first adhesive and a second adhesive. The first adhesive connects the main body with the self bonding layer. The absorptive element includes a plurality of fibers which are implanted into the first adhesive by flocking process with at least a portion of the absorptive element extending into the first adhesive, and at least a portion of the second adhesive penetrates into the other portion of the absorptive element for connecting the self bonding layer with a support body going to be decorated. The present self bonding floor tile can be quickly installed, easily and partly replaced with low installation and replacement cost.

With the improvements of living standards, people paid more attentions to home environments, as an important component of interior decoration, floor tile, of course, obtains more attentions. Presently, the widely used floor tiles comprise woodiness floor tile, natural stone floor tile, and composite floor tile, or etc. All of the currently installation manners used for various floor tiles have obvious shortcomings, which are described in detail as follows.
The woodiness floor tiles are interlocked with each other into one piece, if some of the floor tiles are damaged and need to be replaced, the whole floor needs to be replaced, which causes high replacement cost. The natural stone floor tiles are adhered to the ground by cement, once the floor tiles are installed, they cannot be replaced except for destroying them. The composite floor tiles are adhered to the ground by white glue, Acryl glue or other chemical glues. They are permanently adhered to the ground and cannot be partly replaced except for destroying them. Furthermore, such present floor tiles have a common shortcoming of need to be installed by special technical workers, which increases the installation cost of the present floor tiles.
For decreasing the installation and replacement cost, technician of the industry had conducted many attempts. One kind of the products having low installation and replacement cost includes an upper portion and a lower portion, both of the portions have similar configurations and similar sizes. During manufacturing, opposite sides of the floor tiles are manufactured to structures capable of being overlapped. During installation, the products are staggered according to a predetermined special position relationship and the overlapped portions are coated with hot-melt pressure sensitive adhesive, then corresponding sides of adjacent floor tiles are adhered together under pressure, and all the floor tiles are joined together into a single piece. However, such floor tiles still have obvious shortcomings. Because the opposite sides of the floor tiles are coated with adhesive, and the floor tiles are generally long, it is uneasy to place the floor tiles at the right position during adhering; furthermore, once two floor tiles are joined together, it is hard to reregulate their positions. Thus, the worker could not make sure of an accurate and perfect installation, thereby influencing the usage of the floor. Moreover, because the working surfaces of the floor tiles are joined together as a single piece, the problem of localised replacement still cannot be well resolved.
Another kind of floor tiles has greater weight and thickness than conventional floor tile, and includes a plastic layer of low hardness at its bottom. During installation, due to the adaptability (which means the bottom of the floor tiles can be reshaped according to the ground condition) generated by the their own weight and their soft bottom layers of the floor tiles, the floor tiles can be directly installed to the ground without any glue. The floor tiles can be installed and replaced easily, but because there is no adhesion between the floor tiles and the ground, the floor tiles can easily be moved by external force during usage, which influences the usage of the floor tiles.
Therefore, it is need to provide an improved product for substituting the present conventional floor tile, which can not satisfy the usage function only, but also can be easily installed, partly or wholly replaced with low cost. Furthermore, the product of the present invention can also be used for decorating ceiling, wall and wardrobe besides decorating the ground.

SHANGHAI JINKA FLOORING TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


Phothermographic material capable of producing a high density cyan image upon image-wise exposure and thermal development at a relatively low temperature and for a short period of time. The photothermographic material of the invention comprise coated on a support base at least one light-sensitive emulsion layer containing: (a) a binder; (b) a silver source material; (c) a light sensitive silver halide in catalytic proximity to said silver source material, wherein said emulsion layer or an adjacent layer thereto comprises a chromogenic cyan leuco dye.. The photothermographic material of the invention may be used to obtain good cyan image of suitable density in single color or multicolor photothermographic articles. At the same time the chromogenic leuco dye is stable enough not to be oxidized by oxygen of the air or by simple heating and to limit the fog formation after development.

Silver halide photothermographic imaging materials, especially "dry silver" compositions, processed with heat and without liquid development have been known in the art for many years. Such materials are a mixture of light insensitive reducible silver source material, a minor amount of light sensitive silver halide in catalytic proximity to the silver source material, and a reducing agent for the silver source.
The silver source material is a material which contains silver ions. The earliest and generally preferred silver source materials comprise silver salts of long chain carboxylic acids, usually of from 10 to 30 carbon atoms. The silver salt of behenic acid or mixtures of acids of like molecular weight have primarily been used.
The light sensitive silver halide is in catalytic proximity to the light insensitive silver salt such that the latent image formed by the irradiation of the silver halide serves as a catalyst nucleus for the oxidation-reduction reaction of the organic: silver salt with the reducing agent when heated above 80.degree. C. Typically, the reducing agent is a colorless developer or else is a lightly colored leuco dye or dye forming developer that is oxidizable to a colored state. Such developers in photothermographic media are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,457,075; 3,839,049; 3,985,565; and 4,260,667.
Multicolor photothermographic imaging articles typically comprise two or more monocolor-forming emulsion layers (often each emulsion layer comprises a set of bilayers containing the color-forming reactants) maintained distinct from each other by barrier layers. The barrier layer overlaying one photosensitive, photothermographic emulsion layer typically is insoluble in the solvent of the next photosensitive, photothermographic emulsion layer. Photothermographic articles having at least 2 or 3 distinct color-forming emulsion layers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,021,240 and 4,460,681. Various methods to produce dye images and multicolor images with photographic color couplers and leuco dyes are well known in the art as represented by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,022,617; 3,531,286; 3,180,731; 3,761,270; 4,460,681; 4,883,747 and Research Disclosure 29963.
A common problem that exists with these photothermographic systems is the instability of the image following processing. The photoactive silver halide still present in the developed image may continue to catalyze print-out of metallic silver even during room light handling causing a strong increase of fog after development. This is also increased by the presence of oxygen in the air which causes the oxidation of leuco dyes. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,670,374 and 4,889,932 describe photothermographic materials containing oxidable leuco phenazine, phenoxazine or phenothiazine dyes useful to give colour photothermographic images. Unfortunately they are subjected to aerial oxidation, which causes increasing fog after development.
Another problem is the lack of stability of the leuco dyes before exposure: in fact, in many cases, it is not possible to obtain any images because the leuco dye reacts in a non-image-wise way before exposure. The consequence of this non-image-wise reaction is the absence of sensitometric effects. This means that there is no difference in the print-out between the parts that should have produced an image and the parts that should not have produced any image. European Patent Application No. 35,262, and PCT Patent application No. WO 90-00,978 describe, respectively, non-silver copy materials and non-silver heat-sensitive materials both having leuco dyes with the same --SO.sub.2 -- protecting group. These leuco dyes are useful in heat-sensitive materials. They are not useful in photothermographic materials because they do not react image-wise to give a dye image. In fact, when the material containing such leuco dyes is exposed and developed according to the usual process for photothermographic materials, it does not present any sensitometric effects.
Thus, there exists a need to have useful leuco dyes for photothermographic materials which are stable enough not to be aerially oxidised or by simple heating, and which limit fog formation after development to the simple print-out due to the presence of photosensitive silver halide. They also must react image-wise to provide a good dye image.
British Patent No. GB 1,417,586 describes the preparation of oxichromic compounds containing a reduced azomethine linkage. Such compounds produce upon chromogenic oxidation a chromophore useful in colour photographic systems, particularly in silver halide transfer materials. These oxichromic compounds may have a group which prevents oxidation of the N atom of the azomethine linkage and which hydrolizes off in alkaline solution and, in addition, they have a hydroquinone moiety in their structures. They are hence different from the compounds of the present invention and are used for a different purpose.

Cyan chromogenic leuco dyes for photothermographic materials

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company


The present invention is directed toward permitting an operator to be able to introduce new services and/or service features into his/her network without them needing to have already been provided in advance in the software system of the exchanges by the manufacturer of the exchanges. Disclosed is an information element of a signaling message which is designed such that the services or service features for which it is used can be stipulated during operation using an appropriate administration component.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, generally, to an information element component of a signaling message and a method for connection control using such information element and, more specifically, to such an information element and method wherein an operator is able to introduce new services and/or service features into a network without such services and features needing to already have been provided in advance.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In today's communication networks, such as the telephone network, many (connection-related) services or service features can be introduced only by virtue of a complex change of software in the exchanges (APS change). In many cases, the reason for this is, among other things, that services and service features require alteration of the signaling between the exchanges (interoffice signaling). This change includes extending existing information elements and introducing new information elements or even new messages. However, since the association between an information element of a signaling message and one or more services or service features is stipulated via the APS, the cited change cannot be made without a change of APS.
A previous solution for introducing new service features into a network (without changing the APS in the VST) is to use the IN (Intelligent Network) architecture. For many service features, however, an IN solution is not possible or is too expensive.
The present invention is, therefore, directed toward permitting an operator to be able to introduce new services and/or service features into the network without them needing to have already been provided in advance in the APS by the manufacturer of the exchanges.

Information element component of a signaling message, and a method for connection control using same


A bird feeder has a bird food storage container, an upper feeding station platform, and a feeder base assembly located below and spaced apart from the container and the platform. The base assembly is attached to the container by an elongated bolt and threaded nut attachment, so it is thus easily separated from the container for ease of cleaning and food replenishment. The base assembly is made up of a feeder tray which catches and collects fallen food from the container, and a tray holder. The feeder tray, removeably mounted within the tray holder, has a perforated bottom with holes sized for water drainage, but which are sized small enough to retain bird food on the tray. The feeder tray also has a circumscribing upper rim which allows for easy removal and replacement of the tray from and into the tray holder. The tray holder has a circumscribing upper perch rim, spaced apart from the rim of the feeder tray when the tray is positioned within the holder. The perch rim provides support for larger birds while they are eating from the feeder tray.

A common problem with refillable hanging bird feeders is that large amounts of bird food are wasted as it falls from the feeders during the feeding process. Most feeders do no have provision for recovering and recycling this food to the birds. Food which is dropped from feeders to the ground is usually lost to squirrels, chipmunks, and other ground animals.
In addition, many bird feeders do not have the capability to be contemporaneously supplied with different types of bird food, in order to target different types of birds. Further, birds of various sizes have difficulty feeding at the same feeder, since feeders are most often designed for varieties of birds which are similar in size.
Some bird feeders use trays on which bird food is placed. However, the trays used on these types of feeders are not well supported, nor are they adequate to hold perching birds or to allow them ready access to food on the trays. Such food tray feeders also do not have easily separable components for ease of cleaning and refilling of food.


A method of writing a diffraction grating into a photosensitive optical transmission medium is disclosed, in which a first phase mask is used to generate an interference pattern in a second phase mask substrate and using photolithographic techniques. This produces a second phase mask, which is then use to write a diffraction grating into a photosensitive optical transmission medium. This method enables the line placement in a phase mask to be improved by averaging out the line placement errors.

This invention relates to optical dispersion compensation and optical pulse manipulation using Bragg reflection gratings.
The use of Bragg reflection gratings is known for causing wavelength-dependent delays, which compensate for dispersion effects. Many optical materials exhibit different responses to optical waves of different wavelengths. Chromatic dispersions, often simply referred to as xe2x80x9cdispersionxe2x80x9d, is one well-known resulting phenomenon, in which the index of the refraction of a medium is dependent on the wavelength of an optical wave. Dispersion can cause optical waves of different wavelengths to travel at different speeds in a given medium, since the speed of light is dependent on the index of refraction. The dispersion of optical materials in general relates nonlinearly to the wavelength.
In many applications, an optical signal is composed of spectral components of different wavelengths. For example, a single-frequency optical carrier may be modulated in order to impose information on the carrier. Such modulation generates modulation sidebands at different frequencies from the carrier frequency. Also, optical pulses, which are widely used in optical data processing and communication applications, contain spectral components in a certain spectral range. The dispersion effect may cause adverse effects on the signal due to the different delays on the different spectral components.
Dispersion in particular presents obstacles to increasing system data rates and transmission distances without signal repeaters in either single-channel or wavelength-division-multiplexed (xe2x80x9cWDMxe2x80x9d) fiber communication systems. Data transmission rates of tens of Gbit/s may be needed in order to meet the increasing demand in the marketplace. Dispersion can be accumulated over distance to induce pulse broadening or spread. Two adjacent pulses in a pulse train thus may overlap with each other at a high data rate due to dispersion. Such pulse overlapping can often cause errors in data transmission.
There have been various proposals for overcoming the dispersion effect. This invention is concerned with the use of a Bragg grating. Such gratings are known both with linearly chirped (i.e. varying) grating periods and with non-linearly chirped graft periods, in order to achieve the desired spectral response along the length of the optical carrier (fiber or waveguide).
A spectral component in an optical signal with a wavelength satisfying a Bragg phase-matching condition is reflected back from a Bragg grating. Other spectral components are transmitted through the grating. The Bragg phase-matching conditions at different positions in the fiber grating are differentiated by the chirping of the grating period, so that the resonant wavelength of the fiber grating changes with the position. As the grating period increases or decreases along a direction in the fiber grating, the resonant wavelength increases or decreases accordingly. Therefore, different spectral components in an optical signal are reflected back at different locations and have different delays. Such wavelength-dependent delays can be used to negate the accumulated dispersion in a fiber or waveguide link.
To use a chirped Bragg grating, an optical circulator is typically used to couple the input optical signal to the grating and to route the reflected signal. An optional optical isolator may be placed at the other end of the grating to reject any optical feedback signal.
A common method of writing a Bragg grating uses a phase mask in the form of an etched fused silica grating, to form a light interference pattern, which then illuminates a photosensitive optical carrier to alter the refractive index characteristics. The phase mask is generally made using holography or electron beam lithography. In order to write a fiber grating of pitch p, a phase mask of pitch 2p is written and illuminated at normal incidence with coherent radiation of an appropriate UV wavelength to photoactivate the fiber.
One of the main problems with this method of production is that any errors on the phase mask are translated into errors of some form in the actual fiber grating itself. Holographic writing techniques are not ideally suited for chirped gratings, because many grating lines are written simultaneously, with overlap between successive writing operations. Phase masks produced using electron beam lithography have extremely good precision over many lines, but there is a line placement error on each of the individual grating lines. This is because each line is exposed individually by the electron beam process. This does, however, make the process particularly suited to the manufacture of chirped gratings. Relative movement is ultimately controlled by an interferometer device, which in the past has imposed a maximum accuracy of around 5 nm, although recent developments are enabling increased positioning accuracy. The electron beam itself has a width of approximately 150 nm-200 nm, and a typical grating pitch of the phase mask is 1070 nm. The random placement error leads to imperfections in the interference pattern written into the fiber that manifests itself as a rise in the out-of-band reflectivity of the reflection spectrum of the fiber grating and also as a source of delay ripple in the delay characteristics of the grating.
Line placement errors also arise in phase masks manufactured using other techniques, for example hybrid holographic techniques, which are frequently used for generating phase masks with nonlinear chirp functions.
A phase mask is composed of stitched sections or segments typically 0.1 to 1 mm in length, determined by the field size of the e-beam machine. These stitched segments produce a stitch error which is highly periodic and leads to side lobes in the fiber grating reflection spectrum. These are highly problematic for similar reasons to those described for the random line placement error above. This error, in older e-beam machines was typically 10-20 nm, but has been improved to less than approximately 5 nm using more recent technology. Still more sophisticated slurring techniques have recently been reported which distribute the stitch over a region of mask rather than occurring all at one point and have led to improved side lobe suppression.
Typically, a phase mask produces a fiber grating up to 100 mm in length. If a longer grating is required then a number of gratings patches are joined together. In order to obtain a single uninterrupted continuous grating, the precision of the patch positions must be much better than the grating pitch. In practice, even with highly sophisticated alignment techniques, there is always a stitch-error which leads to severe degradation of the grating performance.
According to the invention, there is provided a method of writing a diffraction grating into a photosensitive optical transmission medium, comprising the steps of:
using a first phase mask to generate an interference pattern in a second phase mask substrate and using photolithographic techniques to create a second phase mask;
using the second phase mask to write a diffraction grating into a photosensitive optical transmission medium.
The method of the invention enables the line placement in a phase ask to be improved by averaging out the line placement errors. This is achieved by carrying out a multiple-stage phase mask creation process, by a first phase mask is used to create holographically a second phase mask, rather than being used to write the grating into the fiber or waveguide.
The first phase mask may be manufactured using electron beam photolithographic techniques.
The medium preferably comprises an optical fiber and the first phase mask preferably a chirped grating period.
The generation of an interference pattern in the second phase mask substrate uses a UV beam which illuminates the first phase mask perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis of the first phase mask. This means that the pitch of the written grating is half of the pitch of the phase mask used to write the grating. Therefore, the first phase mask preferably has a pitch of 4 times the pitch of the desired grating, as a result of the two stage process.
The invention also provides a method of writing a diffraction grating into a photosensitive optical transmission medium, comprising the steps of:
(i) using a first phase mask to generate an interference pattern in a second phase mask substrate and using photolithographic techniques to create a second phase mask;
(ii) carrying out at least one further phase mask manufacture process, the at least one further phase mask process starting with the a previously created phase mask and producing a further phase mask by generating an interference pattern in a further phase mask substrate and using photolithographic techniques, the at least one further process resulting in a final phase mask; and
(iii) using the final phase mask to write a diffraction grating into a photosensitive optical transmission medium.
In this method, a repetitive phase mask writing process is adopted, each stage in the process improving the errors in line placement. When using normal exposure of the mask, the pitch of the first mask will be 2(n+2).p, wherein n is equal to the number of further phase mask manufacture processes and p is the desired pitch of the fiber grating. The case of n=0 corresponds to the two-gage process above with the mask having a pitch of 4p.
According to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a phase mask for writing a diffraction grating with a pitch p into a photosensitive optical transmission medium, comprising a phase mask written using electron beam lithography having a pitch of 2(n+2).p, wherein n is greater than or equal to 0.
The invention enables the delay ripple in a chirped grating to be reduced, and according to a third aspect of the invention, there is provided a chirped diffraction gating written using a phase mask and having a mean group delay ripple of less tan 5 ps, and preferably below 2.5 ps.

Method of writing a bragg diffraction grating


The present invention relates to a burn pot for particulate combustors, particularly of the type used for burning particulate fuel such as pellets. The burn pot includes a burn pot body surrounded by an air plenum in which air is delivered and exhausted through openings in side, front, and bottom walls of the burn pot body. A rearwardly inclined back wall is moved by a driver to reciprocate forwardly and rearwardly toward and away from the front wall. The back wall is inclined opposite to the front wall in order, upon reciprocating motion, to engage and move the particulate material toward the front wall, bunching it for more efficient combustion, clearing the openings in the burn pot walls, and forcing ash up the front wall and over the upper ash discharge edge thereof. The burn pot and back wall are removably mounted within the firebox to facilitate removal for cleaning, maintenance or replacement.

Pellet burning stoves have been found to be extremely efficient combustors with the predictable nature of the pellet fuel and the ability to control burning conditions within the fire box enclosures of such units. Combustion efficiency, due to the consistent size, material, and moisture content of the combustible particulates, may be controlled by specific design of the air feed systems and burn pots into which the pellets are fed in metered quantitites.
Combustion efficiency at high burn rates is a relatively easily achieved objective, due to the burn intensity and the ability to supply regulated combustion air to the burning product. Combustion efficiency at lower burn rates, however, is more difficult to achieve. Previous burn pots having a fixed internal volume must be designed for a maximum load of particulate fuel, thereby detracting from combustion efficiency at low burn rates. Such "typical" burn pots are excessively large for small amounts of fuel at low burn settings. A difficulty experienced at low burn is that the small amounts of fuel received within the burn pots is spread over a considerable surface area, leaving the individual combustible particulates to burn independently. Even with the fairly consistent nature of the combustible particulates, the individual particulates cannot be relied upon to burn evenly individually. Some will burn actively while others smolder or do not burn at all. A need has therefore remained for a burn pot in which provisions are made to facilitate high burn rates and that it will also function well to increase effective burning at low burn rates by accumulating the particulates in a desired mass.
Another difficulty with existing forms of burn pots is ash accumulation. This is especially true of certain combustible particulates that do not burn completely and leave excessive ash. The task of cleaning ash from the burn pots thus becomes a tedious chore. There therefore also remains a need for a burn pot that includes provision for cleaning ash and cinders from the burning area.


A method of forming a metal-insulator-metal capacitor has the following steps. A stack dielectric structure is formed by alternately depositing a plurality of second dielectric layers and a plurality of third dielectric layers. A wet etch selectivity of the second dielectric layer relative to said third dielectric layer is of at least 5:1. An opening is formed in the stack dielectric structure, and then a wet etch process is employed to remove relatively-large portions of the second dielectric layers and relatively-small portions of the third dielectric layers to form a plurality of lateral recesses in the second dielectric layers along sidewalls of the opening. A bottom electrode layer is formed to extend along the serrate sidewalls, a capacitor dielectric layer is formed on the bottom electrode layer, and a top electrode layer is formed on the capacitor dielectric layer.

The cell of a semiconductor memory such as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) device is generally created comprising one single Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect-Transistor (MOS-FET) as a switching device connected with a capacitor as a digital data storage device. A capacitor known as a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) structure possesses a low-interfacial reaction specificity to enhance its performance. The MIM capacitor has therefore become an important topic of research for the memory technology in the future. As the DRAM device needs ultra-high integrity, cell areas are reduced, and thus many studies for increasing the capacitance of a MIM capacitor are being developed. There are various ways of increasing the capacitance such as forming a crown-shaped capacitor structure, whereby a surface area of a dielectric layer is increased. However, the conventional process needs to form a thick insulator layer in openings to increase the vertical dimension of the crown-shaped capacitor structure, resulting in a high aspect ratio of bit line contact holes for capacitor-over-bit line (COB) designs. The formation of the thick insulator layer increases process complexity and cost, and causes difficulties in anisotropically etching bit line contact holes with deep and narrow designs.
What is needed in the art, therefore, is a novel approach to increase capacitance and maintaining the capacitor height simultaneously to minimize an impact on the bit line contact aspect ratio.

Method of forming a metal-insulator-metal capacitor

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


The switching regulator has a first switching regulator circuit for outputting a variable power according to a pulse width modulation pulse to be supplied; a second switching regulator circuit for outputting or stopping a constant power according to a control signal to be supplied; and a control circuit for controlling the first switching regulator circuit and the second switching regulator circuits. The control circuit increases the variable power of the first switching regulator circuit by an amount greater than a regular amount if a detected voltage changes from a status higher than the target voltage to a status lower than the target voltage, and decreases the variable power of the first switching regulator circuit by an amount greater than the regular amount if the detected voltage changes from a status lower than the target voltage to a status higher than the target voltage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-phase switching regulator, and more particularly to a switching regulator which performs control using a logic circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
A switching regulator is used for many electronic devices. Generally a switching regulator converts input voltage into a predetermined voltage, and supplies it to circuits in the device.
FIG. 1A is a diagram depicting a configuration of a conventional switching regulator. FIG. 1B is a timing chart in the configuration in FIG. 1A. The conventional switching regulator comprises a differential amplifier 201, a reference voltage generation circuit 202, a comparator 203, a triangular wave generation circuit 204, a driver 205 and a transistor 206. The output voltage Vout of the conventional switching regulator is fed back to the differential amplifier 201. The reference voltage generated by the reference voltage generation circuit 202 is also input to the differential amplifier 201. The differential amplifier 201 compares the two inputs, and outputs an error voltage according to the comparison result.
FIG. 1B shows an error voltage VD by a dashed line. Along with the error voltage DV, a triangular wave TW, which is output from the triangular generation circuit 204, is input to the comparator 203. The comparator 203 compares the two inputs, and generates a PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) pulse.
Now the error voltage DV and the triangular wave TW in FIG. 1B will be described to assist in understanding the operation of the comparator 203. Here the time m0 to m7 is time when the error voltage DV and the triangular wave TW cross. In the period between time m0 and m1, the potential is lower in the error voltage DV than in the triangular wave TW. Therefore in the period between m0 and m1, the PWM pulse is at low level. In a period between time m1 and m2, the potential is higher in the error voltage DV than in the triangular wave TW. Therefore in the period between time m1 and m2, the PWM pulse is at high level. In the same manner, the high level and low level of the PWM pulse are switched at a time when the error voltage DV and triangular wave TW cross.
The generated PWM pulse is supplied to the driver 205, and the driver 205 supplies the signal RS, that is the inverted PWM pulse, to the gate of the transistor 206. The high level of the signal RS turns the transistor 206 ON. At this time, current It flows through the transistor 206. For example, the signal RS is at high level in the periods between time m4 and m5, and between time m6 and m7, and during these times the current It flows through the transistor 206, which is ON.
The current It is a current that flows from the input power supply Vin to the ground, and stores energy in the coil L which the current flow through. The amount of the stored energy is determined by the width of the PWM pulse. The energy stored in the coil L is supplied to an output terminal 207 as an output voltage at a timing when the driver 205 is not driving the transistor 206. The output power is supplied to an external circuit 208 via the output terminal 207. By adjusting this output power amount, the output voltage Vout in the output terminal 207 is maintained at a target voltage even if the load in the external circuit 208 fluctuates.
In such a switching regulator, if fluctuation of the load of the external circuit to which the output power is supplied is large, the adjustment width of the power to be supplied must be large as well. Therefore in this case, it is desirable to combine a plurality of switching regulators and supply the combined output power to the external circuit. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H4-210776 discloses a configuration using two switching regulators that are combined.
The switching regulator disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H4-210776 uses both a pulse width modulation type switching regulator and a resonance type switching regulator. In this switching regulator, only the pulse modulation type switching regulator operates in an area where the output power is low. At a point when the power to be output exceeds a predetermined value, the resonance type switching regulator is activated so as to increase the output power and maintain the target voltage.

Switching regulator with an adjustable output regulator circuit and a constant output regulator circuit


A cell-capturing filter that filters out cells includes a metallic porous film having a plurality of through holes that extend through a first main surface and a second main surface, which are opposite to each other. The metallic porous film includes a filtering portion including the plurality of through holes, and a frame portion disposed to surround an outer periphery of the filtering portion. In the filtering portion, a first film thickness of the metallic porous film at a center of the filtering portion is smaller than a second film thickness of the metallic porous film at a portion located closer to the frame portion than the center of the filtering portion.

A filter including a metallic porous film is known to date as a cell-capturing filter that filters out cells in a fluid to capture the cells (see, for example, PTL 1).
Such an existing cell-capturing filter includes a metallic porous film including multiple through holes that extend through flat main surfaces opposite to each other. A fluid containing cells, which are to be filtered out, is fed from one main surface of the metallic porous film and caused to pass through the through holes so that the cells can be captured on the main surface.
PTL 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (Translation of PCT Application) No. 2010-520446


A rare earth bonded magnet obtained by mixing two types of magnetic powders (A) and (B) in the present invention has a high residual magnetic flux density (Br), a large intrinsic coercive force (iHc) and a large maximum energy product ((BH)max) in spite of a low rare earth element content, and shows an excellent rust preventability. A rare earth-iron-boron type magnet alloy of the present invention has a residual magnetic flux density (Br) as high as not less than 10 kG, an intrinsic coercive force (iHc) as large as not less than 3.5 kOe and a large maximum energy product ((BH)max) and which has an excellent rust preventability.

The present invention relates to a rare earth bonded magnet and a rare earth-iron-boron type magnet alloy, and more particularly, to a rare earth bonded magnet which has a high residual magnetic flux density (Br), a large intrinsic coercive force (iHc) and a large maximum energy product ((BH)max) in spite of a low rare earth element content, a rare earth-iron-boron type magnet alloy which has a residual magnetic flux density (Br) as high as not less than 10 kG, an intrinsic coercive force (iHc) as large as not less than 3.5 kOe and a large maximum energy product ((BH)max) and which has an excellent rust preventability, a process for producing the rare earth-iron-boron type magnet alloy, and a bonded magnet produced from such a rare earth-iron-boron type magnet alloy.
Bonded magnets which are advantageous in that they can be produced in any shape and have a high dimensional accuracy, etc., have conventionally been used in various fields such as electric appliances and automobile parts. With a recent development of miniaturized and lightweight electric appliances and automobile parts, bonded magnets used therefor have been strongly required to be miniaturized.
For this purpose, magnets have been strongly required to have a high residual magnetic flux density (Br), a large intrinsic coercive force (iHc) and, as a result, a large maximum energy product ((BH)max).
Bonded magnets using magneto plumbite type ferrite (referred to as `ferrite bonded magnet` hereinunder) which have conventionally been used for bonded magnets have an excellent rust preventability because ferrite is an oxide. In addition, since the ferrite bonded magnets are produced from a cheap material such as oxides of barium and strontium and an iron oxide, the ferrite bonded magnets are economical and are, therefore, widely used.
As to the magnetic characteristics of a general ferrite bonded magnet, however, the residual magnetic flux density (Br) is about 2 to 3 kG, the intrinsic coercive force (iHc) is about 2 to 3 kOe, and the maximum energy product ((BH)max) is about 1.6 to 2.3 MGOe.
Conventionally, rare earth bonded magnets represented by Nd-type isotropic compression-molded magnets are widely used for electric appliances in the form of magnets for motors. Especially, the rare earth bonded magnets are widely used for appliances mounted on computers such as hard disk drives (HDD) and CD-ROMs, peripheral devices of computers such as printers and scanners, and portable communication devices such as pocket telephones.
With the miniaturization and lightweight of the electric appliances and automobile parts, it is strongly demanded to provide a magnet which has higher magnetic characteristics and which is more economical. For example, as compared with the Nd-type isotropic bonded magnet, a rare earth sintered magnet (Nd-type or Sm-type) and a Sm-type anisotropic bonded magnet have a large maximum energy product ((BH)max), but are inferior in economical and they are therefore hardly used for electric appliances in the form of magnets for the above-mentioned motors.
As the magnet powder as a material of Nd-type isotropic compression-molded bonded magnets, the magnet powder MQP (trade name, produced by MQI Corp.) developed by GM Corp. in USA is only one at present which is supplied on an industrial scale. Especially, the magnet powder of MQP-B grade is chiefly used. The general composition of the MQP-B powder is Nd.sub.12 Fe.sub.76.5 Co.sub.5.5 B.sub.6 in the vicinity of the stoichiometeric composition of an Nd.sub.2 Fe.sub.14 B.sub.1 type crystal structure. As to the nominal magnetic characteristics, the residual magnetic flux density (Br) is 8.2 kG, the intrinsic coercive force (iHc) is 9.0 kOe, the maximum energy product ((BH)max) is 12.0 MGOe. As to the magnetic characteristics of a compression-molded bonded magnet (MQI-B10) produced from this magnet powder, the residual magnetic flux density (Br) is 6.9 kG, the intrinsic coercive force (iHc) is 9.0 kOe, the maximum energy product ((BH)max) is 10.0 MGOe.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (KOKAI) No. 8-124730 (1996) describes a rare earth resin magnet having an intrinsic coercive force as low as 4 to 10 kOe, which is produced by mixing a rapidly chilled powder having a composition in the vicinity of the stoichiometeric composition of Nd.sub.2 Fe.sub.14 B.sub.1 in which Nd is 12.+-.0.5 atm % and an intrinsic coercive force iHc of 10 kOe and an exchange-spring magnet constituted by a soft magnetic phase and a hard magnetic phase in which crystal grain size is controlled to 20 to 50 nm, and solidifying the obtained mixture with a resin. However, the object of the invention of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (KOKAI) No. 8-124730 (1996) is to provide a rare earth resin magnet having an excellent multipolar-magnetizability. Therefore, the invention of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (KOKAI) No. 8-124730 (1996) is aimed at lowering the intrinsic coercive force by mixing powders. The magnetic characteristics described in the Examples do not exceed those of the MQI-B10.
As described above, in spite of an increasing demand for magnets which have a high magnetic force and which can be economically produced, no magnet which satisfies the demand from the point of view of both performance and economy has ever been proposed.
There is no end to a demand for a higher performance and a lower price of a magnet. To meet such a demand, rare earth-iron-boron type alloys for exchange-spring magnets using Nd as a rare earth element have been earnestly developed and some of them have already been put to practical use.
An exchange-spring magnet exhibits a magnetic spring phenomenon by the exchange interaction of iron or an iron compound and an Nd.sub.2 Fe.sub.14 B.sub.1 type tetragonal compound. Those magnets are characterized in a low rare earth element content and a high residual magnetic flux density (Br), and have a high possibility of being excellent on a cost/performance basis.
A rare earth-iron-boron type alloy for exchange-spring magnets containing less than 10 atm % of a rare earth element such as Nd, has a high potential in magnetic characteristics as compared with a rare earth-iron-boron type magnet alloy containing about 10 to 15 atm % of a rare earth element such as Nd which is in the vicinity of the stoichiometeric composition, e.g., commercially available "MQP" (trade name)" developed by General Motors. Since it is possible to reduce the amount of expensive rare earth element used, this alloy is economically advantageous.
The rare earth-iron-boron type alloy for exchange-spring magnets containing less than 10 atm % of a rare earth element such as Nd is divided into two systems as the soft magnetic phase: one is a system containing .alpha.Fe or bccFe, and the other is a system containing Fe.sub.3 B or Fe.sub.2 B. The former generally has a residual magnetic flux density (Br) as high as 10 to 13 kG but the intrinsic coercive force (iHc) thereof is as low as 3.5 kOe at most. The latter generally has a comparatively high intrinsic coercive force (iHc) such as 3.5 to 7.7 kOe, but the residual magnetic flux density (Br) thereof is as low as less than 10 kG, which is higher than that of "MQP" but lower than that of the former .alpha.Fe system.
In the field of small-sized motors for which bonded magnets produced from a rare earth-iron-boron type magnet alloy is mainly used, bonded magnets are required to have well-balanced residual magnetic flux density (Br) and an intrinsic coercive force (iHc) from the point of view of miniaturized of motors and magnetic stability of the magnets used therefor. That is, magnets are strongly required to have a residual magnetic flux density (Br) of not less than 10 kG and an intrinsic coercive force (iHc) of not less than 3.5 kOe.
On the other hand, an alloy containing rare earth elements in an Nd system is defective in that it is easily oxidized in the air and is likely to produce an oxide, so that the rust preventability is poor. Since bonded magnets produced from an alloy containing a rare earth element in an Nd system have a poor rust preventability, they are usually subjected to rust preventive coating-treatment such as dipping, spread coating or electro deposition using a resin and metal plating.
If the rust preventability of an alloy containing a rare earth element in an Nd system is enhanced, it may be possible to simplify or omit the rust preventive coating step for the surfaces of bonded magnets even for the above-described use. In some uses of general-purpose motors, there is a possibility of omitting the rust preventive coating step. Therefore, the enhancement of the rust preventability of a rare earth-iron-boron type magnet alloy is strongly demanded.
As described above, there is also a strong demand for the economical production of a rare earth-iron-boron type magnet alloy which has a high residual magnetic flux density (Br), a comparatively large intrinsic coercive force (iHc), and as a result, a large maximum energy product ((BH)max), and an excellent rust preventability.
In conventional quenched permanent magnet materials which contain Fe as the main ingredient (less than 91 atm %) and further contain at least one rare earth element (R) and boron (B), a permanent magnet material is known which comprises less than 10 area % of a soft magnetic residual amorphous phase based on the total alloy structure and a crystalline phase as the balance which is substantially produced by heat-treatment and which contains an R--Fe--B type hard magnetic compound (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (KOKAI) No. 8-162312 (1996)).
Although the economical production of a rare earth-iron-boron type magnet alloy which has a high residual magnetic flux density (Br), a comparatively large intrinsic coercive force (iHc), and as a result, a large maximum energy product ((BH)max), and an excellent rust preventability is now in the strongest demand, no magnet ever produced has such properties.
In the rare earth-iron-boron type magnet alloy described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (KOKAKI) No. 8-162312 (1996)), the intrinsic coercive force (iHc) is as low as less than 3 kOe and the residual magnetic flux density (Br) is as low as less than 10 kG, as is clear from Table 5 in the specification in which the residual magnetic flux density (Br) is about 0.62 to 0.97 T (equivalent to 6.2 to 9.7 kG), the intrinsic coercive force (iHc) is about 0.16 to 0.21 MA/m (equivalent to 1.25 to 2.6 kOe), the maximum energy product ((BH)max) is about 19.7 to 72.0 kJ/m.sup.3 (equivalent to 2.5 to 9.0 MGOe).
The rare earth-iron-boron type magnet alloys described in Examples 2 to 4 of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (KOKAI) No. 8-162312 (1969) are bulk bodies obtained by pulverizing a quenched ribbon and extruding the pulverized particles under a vacuum. The bulk bodies are, therefore, different from a rare earth-iron-boron type magnet alloy as a raw material for bonded magnets in its configuration.
The theoretical energy product of a permanent magnet is generally represented by: (BH)max=0.25.times.Br.sup.2. Therefore, in order to obtain a bonded magnet having a higher energy product than MQI-B10, it is essential to use magnetic powder having a higher Br. In this case, with respect to intrinsic coercive force (iHc), if the condition: iHc>0.5.times.Br is satisfied, the squareness is not impaired and the energy product is not lowered. It is, therefore, possible to use magnetic powder having a lower intrinsic coercive force (iHc) than that of MQI-B10 so long as the above-described condition is satisfied.
The present inventors have hit upon an idea of mixing two types of magnetic powders (A) and (B) in order to improve the magnetic characteristics of a bonded magnet. As a result of various experiments using an exchange-spring magnet powder (B) in an .alpha.Fe--NdFeB system and a magnetic powder (A) which contains a smaller amount of rare earth element than the MQP-B magnetic powder and is therefore economically advantageous, and which has a lower residual magnetic flux density (Br) than the magnetic powder (B) but an intrinsic coercive force (iHc) of not less than 7 kOe which is higher than that of the magnetic powder (B), by the combination of specific magnetic powder (A) and specific exchange-spring magnet powder (B), it has been found that a bonded magnet having the magnetic characteristics of a residual magnetic flux density (Br) of not less than 8 kG, an intrinsic coercive force (iHc) of not less than 5 kOe and a large maximum energy product ((BH)max) of not less than 11 MGOe has been firstly produced. Namely, it has been found that this bonded magnet is more excellent in residual magnetic flux density (Br) and maximum energy product ((BH)max) than the bonded magnet MQI-B10 in spite of a lower intrinsic coercive force (iHc), and that it is more excellent from the point of view of economy. On the basis of this finding, the present invention has been achieved.

Rare earth bonded magnet and rare earth-iron-boron type magnet alloy


A method and an apparatus are provided for performing wireless communication between terminals. An inquiry message is transmitted to a neighboring terminal. An inquiry response message is received from the neighboring terminal. It is determined whether the apparatus overlaps the neighboring terminal. When the apparatus overlaps the neighboring terminal, paging is automatically performed, without intervention of a user of the apparatus, and pairing between the apparatus and the neighboring terminal is established.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method for performing wireless communication between terminals, and more particularly, to automatic pairing between terminals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Most mobile terminals are able to transmit and receive necessary information therebetween based on wireless communication. Bluetooth is widely used as a short-range communication method among wireless communication methods. An authentication procedure for a connection between terminals is required to perform wireless communication using Bluetooth. The authentication procedure is performed through multiple steps.
In a first step, a main terminal searches for each neighboring terminal having a Bluetooth function. When the main terminal terminates the search for each neighboring terminal, a user of the main terminal selects a desired neighboring terminal. In order to find the terminal that the user desires, the user must clearly recognize the name of the desired terminal. When the user has selected the desired terminal, a message is displayed to the user that inquires whether the user desires for the main terminal to be connected to the selected terminal. When the user presses an accept button, the authentication procedure for wireless communication between the main terminal and the selected terminal is terminated. As described above, in order to perform wireless communication, the user must go through multiple steps. Also, in order to select the desired terminal, the user must be well-acquainted with an accurate name of the desired terminal.

Method and apparatus for performing wireless communication between terminals


A method for starting an open-loop vector control of a synchronous machine by determining a stator inductance model of the machine; measuring the stator iductance in a plurality of directions; arranging the measured inductances in the model to form model parameters resulting in minimum error; checking the polarity of rotor magnetization to verify the direction thereof; initializing flux linkages of the open-loop vector control according to the model parameters and the direction of rotor magnetization; and starting the machine by the open-loop vector control method.

The present invention relates to a method of starting open-loop vector control in a synchronous machine, the method comprising the steps of determining a stator inductance model of the synchronous machine and measuring the stator inductance in a plurality of directions.
Vector control refers to a manner of controlling an AC motor which allows flux linkage and torque of the motor to be controlled independently like in a DC motor. In the DC motor, direct currents influencing the flux linkage and the torque are controlled, while in the AC motor both the amplitude and the phase angle of the currents have to be controlled. Thus, current vectors are controlled, from which comes the term vector control.
To implement vector control, the flux linkage and the current of the motor have to be known. The flux linkage of the motor is generated by the action of stator and rotor currents in the inductances of the machine. In an asynchronous machine, the rotor current has to be estimated and the estimation requires information on rotation speed of the rotor. This requires measured or estimated rotation speed of the rotor. In the synchronous machine, a magnetization current independent of stator magnetization is applied to the rotor, or the rotor magnetization is implemented with permanent magnets and its influence, seen from the stator, shows in the direction of the rotor position angle. To know the flux linkage caused by the position angle, the position angle of the rotor has to be measured or estimated.
When vector control of the AC motor employs a measured rotation speed or position angle of the rotor, the control method is known as the closed-loop vector control. If the rotation speed or the position angle is estimated, the control method is known as the open-loop vector control. Depending on the implementation method, a variable to be estimated can also be the stator flux linkage, apart from the rotor angle or angular speed.
When the synchronous machine is started by vector control, the machine""s stator flux linkage has the initial value "psgr"s0, which is dependent on the rotor magnetization "psgr"f and the rotor position angle xcex8r as follows:
"psgr"s0="psgr"fejxcex8r.
When voltage us influences the stator flux linkage, the stator flux linkage changes in accordance with the equation       ψ    s    =            ψ      s0        +                  ∫                  t          1                          t          2                                            (                                    u              s                        -                                          R                s                                                          i                s                                              )                                              ⅆ            t                    .
It appears from the equation that when integrating the stator flux linkage a previous value of the stator flux linkage is required, apart from the voltage and current values. Thus, to start the machine controllably, information on the initial position angle of the rotor is required. When employing the closed-loop vector control, the initial angle is measured, whereas when employing the open-loop vector control, the initial angle has to be defined by estimation. When the rotor rotates, the rotor flux linkage generates an electromotive force which can be utilized in vector control in a normal operating situation, but at a rotor standstill there is no electromotive force.
In a salient pole synchronous machine, such as a separately excited synchronous machine or one with permanent magnet magnetization or in a synchronous reluctance machine, the stator inductance Ls in stationary coordinates varies as a function of the rotor angle xcex8r as presented in the following equation
Ls=Ls0+Ls2 cos2 xcex8r,
and FIG. 1 shows a graphic illustration of the equation. It appears from the figure that the inductance varies around the basic value Ls0 at twice the rotor angle in a magnitude indicated by the inductance coefficient Ls2. The inductance coefficients Ls0 and Ls2 are defined as follows             L      s0        =                            L          sd                +                  L          sq                    2        ,
                L      s2        =                            L          sd                -                  L          sq                    2        ,
where the inductances Ls0 and Lsq are the direct-axis and quadrature-axis transient inductances of the synchronous machine.
To utilize the above equation for defining the initial angle of the rotor is known per se and it is set forth, for instance, in the articles by S. xc3x96stlund and M. Brokemper xe2x80x9cSensorless rotor-position detection from zero to rated speed for an integrated PM synchronous motor drivexe2x80x9d, IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications, vol. 32, pp. 1158-1165, September/October 1996, and by M. Schroedl xe2x80x9cOperation of the permanent magnet synchronous machine without a mechanical sensorxe2x80x9d, Int. Conf. On Power Electronics and Variable Speed Drives, pp. 51-55, 1990.
According to the article by M. Leksell, L. Harnefors and H.-P. Nee xe2x80x9cMachine design considerations for sensorless control of PM motorsxe2x80x9d, Proceedings of the International Conference on Electrical Machines ICEM""98, pp. 619-624,1998, sinusoidally altering voltage is supplied to a stator in the assumed direct-axis direction of the rotor. If this results in a quadrature-axis current in the assumed rotor coordinates, the assumed rotor coordinates are corrected such that the quadrature-axis current disappears. The reference states that a switching frequency of the frequency converter supplying the synchronous machine should be at least ten times the frequency of supply voltage. Thus, the supply voltage maximum frequency of a frequency converter capable of 5 to 10 kHz switching frequency, for instance, is between 500 and 1000 Hz. This is sufficient for an algorithm to function. Switching frequencies as high as this are achieved by IGBT frequency converters, but frequency converters with GTO or IGCT power switches, required at higher powers, have the maximum switching frequency of less than 1 kHz. The maximum frequency of the supply voltage in the initial angle estimation remains then below 100 Hz. At such a low frequency the machine develops torque and the algorithm becomes considerably less accurate.
In the reference by M. Schroedl, 1990, the initial angle is calculated directly from one inductance measurement, or, if more measurements are employed, the additional information is utilized by eliminating the inductance parameters. A drawback with the method is that an error, which is inevitable in measuring, has a great influence. One example of actual inductance measurement with a permanent magnent machine at rotor angles xcex8r=[0, . . . ,2xcfx80] is shown in FIG. 2. The figure shows theoretically great deviations from the sine curve. The inductance measurement is effected such that a stator is fed with a current impulse which causes flux linkage on the basis of which the inductance is calculated. Errors may arise from an error in current measurement or from the fact that the measuring current produces torque that swings the rotor.
From the inductance expression in the stationary coordinates it is possible to derive an expression for a rotor angle             θ      r        =                            1          2                        arccos                                                    L              s                        -                          L              s0                                            L            s2                              +              n                          xe2x80x83                        π              ,
where n is an integer. The influence of the error in the measured Ls can be studied by differentiating xcex8r with respect to Ls:             ⅆ              θ        r                    ⅆ              L        s              =            -              1                  2                                L            s2                                          xe2x80x83                          1                              1            -                                          (                                                                            L                      s                                        -                                          L                      s0                                                                            L                    s2                                                  )                            2                                          .
This allows calculating an error estimate for the angle       Δ              xe2x80x83                  θ      r        ≈                    ⅆ                  θ          r                            ⅆ                  L          s                          Δ              xe2x80x83                          L        s            .
It is observed that             Δ                    xe2x80x83                          θ        r              →    ∞    ,      xe2x80x83                when                    xe2x80x83                                                L            s                    -                      L            s0                                    L          s2                      →    1.
It is observed from the above that, when the inductance difference between the direct-axis and quadrature-axis directions is small, the error estimate of the angle approaches infinite. In other words, initial rotor angle definition based on inductance measurings becomes the more unreliable, the closer to one another the magnitudes of the direct-axis and quadrature-axis inductances of the rotor.
In the method presented in the reference by S. xc3x96stlund and M. Brokemper the rotor angle is not calculated directly, but the minimum inductance is searched by starting the measuring of inductances in different directions first at long intervals and when approaching the minimum by reducing the angular difference of successive measurings. Even though it is not mentioned in the article, the method easily catches fictitious minima resulting from measuring errors, and therefore, an error value may be extremely high.
On the basis of the above, the influence of the inductance measuring errors should be reduced somehow. One method could be to employ several measurings in each direction and to calculate the average from the measured inductances, yet this procedure does not eliminate the influence of a systematic error.
The object of the present invention is to provide a method which avoids the above-mentioned disadvantages and enables starting of an open-loop vector control in a synchronous machine in a reliable manner. This is achieved by the method of the invention which is characterized by comprising the steps of arranging measured stator inductances in a determined stator inductance model in order to form model parameters giving the minimum error, checking magnetization polarity of a rotor in order to verify the direction of the rotor magnetization, initializing flux linkages of the open-loop vector control according to the formed model parameters and the direction of the rotor magnetization, and starting the synchronous machine by the vector control method.
The method of the invention is based on the idea that the magnitude of the stator inductance is measured in a plurality of directions and the inductance values obtained as measurement results are arranged in the inductance model of the machine. As a result of the arrangement, very accurate information on the initial rotor angle of the synchronous machine is obtained. In addition, by utilizing the method of the invention, information on the initial value of the rotor magnetization in the stationary coordinates is obtained, and consequently the machine can be started in a reliable manner without transients or jerking startup.

Starting procedure of open-loop vector control in synchronous machine


A method of fabricating or reparing a blisk (10) that comprises a plurality of blades (14) attached to the outer periphery of a disc (12). Blades (14) are formed separately from the disc (12) and are attached to stubs (13) on the disc (12) by friction welding. A metal powder, such as titanium, is sprayed onto the stubs (13) to reinforce them during the friction welding process. Once the stub (13) has been coated with the powder spray, plates (20) are fastened on the disc (12) between which the sprayed coating (18) is clamped. The plates (20) restrain the sprayed coating (18) to prevent delamination during friction welding. Once each of the blades (14) has been welded onto the respective stubs (13) the clamping plates (20) are removed and the sprayed coating (18) is machined away.

Integrally bladed rotor assemblies are used in the compressor and turbine sections of a gas turbine engine. These assemblies can be fabricated or repaired by joining separately formed blades to a disc or ring.
Friction welding is one of the techniques that can be used to join the blades to the disc or ring. In friction welding either one or both of the blade and disc are moved relative to one another whilst being urged together with sufficient force to generate frictional heating. A multiplicity of blades are joined to the disc in this way.
The blades are friction welded to stubs of material upstanding from the periphery of the disc. The geometry of the stubs is however such that it has insufficient stiffness for the welding process.

Method of fabricating or repairing a blisk


An X-ray diagnostic apparatus includes two photographic systems, a control circuit controlling a movement of the second photographic system. A control circuit which controls movement of a photography system can move the photographic system to a temporary evacuation position closer to a photography position than an evacuation position, according to an instruction from an operator.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a biplane type X-ray diagnostic apparatus enabling photographing (fluoroscopic imaging/radiographic imaging) in two directions.
2. Description of the Related Art
A biplane type X-ray diagnostic apparatus developed chiefly for use in circulatory system examinations is equipped with two photographic (fluoroscopic/radiographic) systems in order to achieve simultaneous photographing in two directions: one is a frontal photographic system that photographs a subject laid on his back on the diagnostic table top in the frontal plane, and the other is a lateral photographic system that photographs the subject in the lateral plane. The frontal photographic system includes an X-ray tube and an X-ray detector respectively attached to the both ends of a C-arm supported by a floor-standing stand. The lateral photographic system also includes an X-ray tube and an X-ray detector, which are respectively attached to the both ends of an Ω-arm suspended from the ceiling.
Because the stand is installed to the floor, the C-arm in the frontal system is allowed to swivel about the stand (strut rotation), but in principle, remains immovable with respect to the floor surface. On the other hand, the Ω-arm in the lateral system is attached to the strut suspended from a slider engaged with a rail laid on the ceiling, and is therefore provided movably along the rail. This arrangement enables single-plane photographing with the use of the frontal photographic system alone by retracting the lateral photographic system to a remote place.
In the case of a diagnostic of a cardiac region, the blood vessel formation or injection of an anti-cancer agent through a catheter manipulation by X-ray fluoroscopy, or IVR (interventional radiology) accompanying an operation, such as occlusion of the vessels of nutrition to tumor tissues, biplane photographing using both the frontal and lateral photographic systems and single-plane photographing using the frontal photographic system alone are switched over frequently.
The lateral photographic system needs to be retracted from a photographing position to an evacuation position and returned to the photographing position from the evacuation position each time the switching takes place. Moreover, in order to avoid the interference with operations of the frontal photographic system by the lateral photographic system at the evacuation position and to secure a sufficiently large working space for an operator, the evacuation position is set to a place as far as 3 m away from the photographing position. Hence, each time biplane photographing and single-plane photographing are switched over, an examination or an operation work is halted for not short a time needed to move the lateral photographic system between the photographing position and the evacuation position, and the work efficiency is deteriorated as a result.


Methods and apparatus are provided for iterative refinement of cohorts using visual exploration and data analytics. A cohort comprised of multiple data objects is defined by obtaining an initial cohort seeding; visualizing the initial cohort using a selected view to present a current cohort; reducing the current cohort using one or more visual filters; visualizing the current cohort using a selected view; expanding the current cohort using one or more selected analytics; and determining whether the current cohort should be further modified using one or more of additional reductions and additional expansions. Cohorts can be passed between views and analytics via drag-and-drop interactions as an analysis unfolds.

Retrospective cohort analysis is a widely used technique in many fields. In the medical field, for example, electronic medical records (EMRs) contain a large amount of medical information for patients. It is often desirable to group similar patients as a cohort. Patient cohorts are groups of patients and their associated information, such as gender, age, diagnoses, and treatments. Retrospective patient cohort analysis is the analysis of medical and diagnostic histories of similar patients to make healthcare discoveries.
In the traditional pipeline, analysts work manually to define specific cohort constraints (e.g., "female patients over age 70") or apply specialized batch analytics to computationally determine a meaningful group of patients (e.g., high-utilization cohorts). Unfortunately, both methods have limitations. For the definition of the cohort constraints, it is difficult to select the attributes that are to be queried from a list of hundreds or thousands of patient attributes. For batch analytics that behave like a "black box," users have few ways to apply their domain expertise to influence the process.
A need exists for an integrated system that combines visual exploration and data analytics to interactively visualize and refine cohorts, request analytics on those cohorts, and make new discoveries.

Iterative refinement of cohorts using visual exploration and data analytics

International Business Machines Corporation


The guide portion of the cylinder of a Stirling cycle device is located at least partially within and is axially coextensive with the bellows thereby providing a reduction in the height/length of the piston, cylinder and bellows assemblies. The reduction is the distance between the guide surface and the top of the piston reduces the moment arm for canting.

As is well known, Stirling cycle cryogenic refrigerators, or cryocoolers, use a motor driven compressor to impart a cyclical volume variation in a working volume filled with pressurized refrigeration gas. The pressurized refrigeration gas is fed from the working volume to one end of a sealed cylinder called a cold head. An annular heat exchanger or regenerator is positioned inside the cold head. The regenerator has openings in either end to allow the refrigeration gas to enter and exit.
The compressor and expander reciprocate in a fixed relationship creating the volume variations in the working space and forcing the refrigeration gas to flow through the regenerator in alternating directions. One end of the regenerator is above ambient temperature during operation while the other end is at a cryogenic temperature. Gas enters the expander at cryogenic temperature and as the gas expands it absorbs heat, ideally, at constant temperature. The device to be cooled is mounted adjacent the expansion space, on the cold end of the cold head.
Because the cold head is sealed, the volume of the expansion space also varies as the expander reciprocates. The efficiency of a Stirling cryocooler is optimized by properly timing the movement of the expander. Specifically, its movement should be such that the variations in the volume of the expansion space lead the variations in the volume of the compression space by approximately 90.degree.. This insures that The working volume's pressure and temperature are at a peak before the refrigeration gas enters the regenerator from the working volume.
The two most common configurations of Stirling cryocoolers are referred to as "split" and "integral". The split Stirling type has a compressor which is mechanically isolated from the expander. Cyclically varying pressurized gas is fed between the compressor and expander through a gas transfer line. In most split Stirling cryocoolers proper timing of expander movement is achieved by using precision friction seals.
In an integral Stirling cryocooler, the compressor, heat exchangers, regenerator and cold head are assembled in a common housing. The typical arrangement uses an electric motor to drive the moving parts. A crankshaft, disposed in a crankcase, is used to properly time compressor and expander movement, much as an internal combustion engine uses a crankshaft to provide proper timing of the movement of its parts. As such, the typical integral cryocooler requires several bearings to support the crankshaft. If connecting rods are used to couple the compressor and expander to the crankshaft, additional bearings are required. One problem with this arrangement is that these bearings require a lubricant. Unfortunately, lubricants are subject to freezing at cryogenic temperatures and consequently must be prevented from freezing and plugging the regenerator. Many different sealing arrangements have been used. Some Stirling systems use contact seals of the wearing type along with hydro formed bellows to prevent lubricant from reaching the regenerator. However, these arrangements produce wear particles which result in limited operating life.
One way to prevent oil containing refrigerant gas in the crankcase from reaching the oil-free refrigerant gas in the regenerator is to use a bellows seal. Bellows seals have been found to be particularly suited for this application. The bellows configurations have been stacked or axially spaced and have excessive height/length requirements.

Piston cylinder arrangement for an integral Stirling cryocooler