The invention is directed to a method of reducing the extent of infarction, particularly cerebral infarction subsequent to cerebral ischemia, by the administration of citicoline shortly after an ischemic episode and continuing daily treatment for up to about 30 days, preferably for at least about 6 weeks. The method is useful in the treatment of stroke and severe head trauma patients and maximizes the chances for a full or substantially full recovery of the patient.

The brain, more than any other organ in the body, depends, for its survival and proper functioning, on a relatively constant supply of oxygenated blood. While comprising only 2% of the body's weight, the brain receives 15% of the heart's output of blood and consumes 20% of the oxygen used by the body. In addition, a constant supply of blood is required to provide the brain with glucose, the major energy substrate used by the brain to produce high energy phosphates such as ATP.
Ischemia may be defined as the loss of blood flow to a tissue. Cerebral ischemia is the interruption or reduction of blood flow in the arteries feeding the brain, usually as a result of a blood clot (thrombus) or other matter (embolus) occluding the artery. Loss of blood flow to a particular vascular region is known as focal ischemia; loss of blood flow to the entire brain, global ischemia.
Once deprived of blood--and, hence, oxygen and glucose--brain tissue may undergo ischemic necrosis or infarction. The metabolic events thought to underlie such cell degeneration and death include: energy failure through ATP depletion; cellular acidosis; glutamate release; calcium ion influx; stimulation of membrane phospholipid degradation and subsequent free-fatty-acid accumulation; and free radical generation.
Knowledge of these underlying events has led investigators studying certain types of ischemic injury to utilize agents such as calcium channel blockers, glutamate and glycine antagonists, CDP-amines, free radical scavengers/antioxidants, perfluorocarbons and thrombolytic agents to improve cerebral blood flow and/or neurological outcome, all with mixed results. Indeed, some vasodilators may improve blood flow and, thus, may find use as anti-ischemic agents. None, however, has been shown to reduce infract volume, particularly in patients that have suffered an ischemic stroke. Conversely, although certain calcium-channel blockers have been reported to decrease infarct size, these drugs also have been reported to produce inconsistent results and undesirable side effects, such as reduction in pulse or perfusion pressure. See, e.g., Kaste, M. et al. Stroke (1994) 25:1348-1353.
More particularly, glutamate antagonists have been observed to reduce infarct size under certain experimental conditions. See, e.g., Olney, J. W. et al. Science (1991) 254:1515-1518. However, most, if not all, of these compounds cause brain vacuolization and most produce phencyclidine-like subjective effects in animals and humans. Ingestion of phencyclidine has been associated with euphoria, anxiety, mood lability and prolonged psychosis.
Free radical scavengers/antioxidants are a heterogenous group of compounds. In general, the effects of these compounds on infarct volume have been inconsistent. For example, superoxide dismutase inhibitors have been found to reduce infarct volume only when injected intracerebroventricularly. See, Kinouchi, H. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (1991) 88:11158-11162. Other compounds, such as lubeluzole, have been shown to have clinical benefit but with a very narrow margin of safety. See, Diener, H. C. et al. Stroke (1995) 26:30.
Although perfluorocarbons have shown some benefit in the outcome from ischemic stroke, these compounds have an extremely long half-life and must be infused into the brain and spinal fluid. In addition, these compounds have been observed to cause gonadal hypertrophy. See, Bell, R. D. et al. Stroke (1991) 22:80-83!.
Thrombolytic agents, such as t-PA (tissue plasminogen activator), streptokinase, and urokinase, have shown some promise in the treatment of ischemia. However, these agents have the propensity to increase intracranial bleeding, which, ultimately, can lead to increased mortality. See, e.g., del Zoppo, G. J. et al. Seminars in Neurology (1991) 11(4):368-384; The Ancrod Stroke Study Investigators, Stroke (1994) 25:1755-1759; Hacke, W. et al. Stroke (1995) 26:167. Moreover, the efficacy of these agents may be limited to treatment within the first three hours of stroke.
Citicoline monosodium is an exogenous form of cytidine-5'-diphosphocholine (CDP-choline). Endogenous CDP-Choline is a key intermediate in the biosynthesis of membrane phosphatidyl choline, which is of primary importance for the dynamic regulation of cellular integrity. The role of phospholipids in the maintenance of neuronal function is critically important in conditions where ischemia can induce the breakdown of these membranes.
Citicoline has been extensively studied in clinical trials. Results of these trials indicated an improvement in a variety of clinical symptoms, including headache, vertigo, motor coordination and insomnia. These trials also showed improvements in motor function and reduction in stroke sequelae. However, such trials were limited to the use of citicoline during the rehabilitation stage of patients who may have suffered a stroke, and, thus, such treatments occurred well after the putative ischemic event. Nevertheless, such trials showed that stroke and head trauma patients tolerated citicoline well at dose ranges of 250 mg/day to 1000 mg/day for several weeks.
The inventors believe that the full potential therapeutic effects of citicoline, which may be related to membrane stabilization through enhanced phospholipid synthesis in ischemic brain, have not been realized in prior studies because such studies involved the administration of citicoline well after the onset of ischemia, typically only during the treatment efforts to foster recovery of the patient. Furthermore, such prior treatments may not have proceeded for sufficiently long enough periods.
Stroke is a severe, potentially catastrophic disease affecting approximately 500,000 people per year in the U.S. Clinicians have had to rely on supportive measures and non-specific agents, such as steroids and mannitol, to reduce brain swelling. As 25 to 50% of stroke victims become disabled, there exists a need for improved methods of treating these patients.
Although intravenous thrombolytic therapy has shown some promise if administered within three hours of a stroke, it is believed that an oral drug treatment that would be initiated within a 24-hour post-stroke window and which would positively affect neurological outcome three months after a stroke could become an important new weapon in the fight against this disease.

Reduction of infarct volume using citicoline


In a cogeneration system having a first power plant connected to an AC power feed line between a power network and an electrical load and a first internal combustion engine for driving the first power plant such that exhaust heat of the first engine is supplied to a thermal load, power supply from the first power plant to the power network is interrupted by turning off a switch installed in the feed line, when outage of the power network is detected and a second power plant is operated, such that outputs of the first and second power plants are supplied to the electrical load. With this, it becomes possible to respond to a commercial power network outage for preventing reverse flow of the power output by the cogeneration system into the power network and supplying as much electric power as possible to the electrical load.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a cogeneration system, particularly to a cogeneration system responsive to a commercial power network outage for supplying a load with as much electric power as possible.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, cogeneration systems have been developed that are equipped with an internal combustion engine-driven generator for installation in an AC power supply line between a commercial power network and an electrical load for supplying power to the load in interconnection with the power network and also for supplying hot water or air or the like heated using exhaust heat from the engine to a thermal load. Such a cogeneration system is taught, for example, by Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. Hei 5-328615 ('615).
In the configuration according to the technology taught by '615, an engine-operated, on-site power generation plant is connected to an on-site load and three other loads are connected to be switchable between a commercial power utility (commercial power network) and the engine-operated, on-site power generation plant. When the operating load of the on-site load exceeds a predetermined value, the other three loads are connected to the commercial power utility side and as the amount of operating load decreases below the predetermined value, the other three loads are sequentially connected to the engine-operated, on-site power generation plant.
When the power network interconnected with this type of cogeneration system experiences an outage, the ordinary practice is to shut down the cogeneration system to prevent a reverse flow of its power output into the power network. Alternatively, it is conceivable to not shut down the cogeneration system at the time of a power failure but to keep it operating for supplying power to the electrical load. In this case, however, the maximum amount of power that can be supplied is limited to the inherent maximum output of the cogeneration system.

Cogeneration system with first and second power plants


A semiconductor device comprising an oxide film, an electrode and a PZT or PLZT film formed in this order on a substrate, the electrode being a deposit of platinum containing lead.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a semiconductor device, and more particularly to a semiconductor device provided with a ferroelectric PZT or PLZT film.
2. Description of the Related Art
PZT (Pb-Zr-TiO.sub.3), PLZT (Pb-La-Zn-TiO.sub.3) or the like has a perovskite structure represented by the general formula ABO.sub.3 and shows a hysteresis effect on an external electric field and a very high dielectric constant. Such materials are actively utilized as a capacitor dielectric film for semiconductor devices such as large-scale DRAMs and non-volatile memory devices.
A principal portion of a conventional non-volatile, memory device having a PZT film is exemplified with reference to FIG. 2(c) as attached herein.
In FIG. 2, 1 is a substrate made of silicon and having thereon an oxide film 2 of SiO.sub.2. A platinum thin film is layered on the SiO.sub.2 film 2, forming an electrode 7 on which a PZT film 6 is deposited.
A preparing method of the semiconductor device as above is as follows.
Silicon halide or hydride is hydrolyzed or oxidized or organic oxysilane is thermally decomposed to form the SiO.sub.2 film on the silicon substrate 1 and platinum is then deposited 1000 to 2000.ANG. on the SiO.sub.2 film 2 by a DC magnetron sputtering method using a platinum target to form the electrode 7 (FIG. 2(a)).
PZT is deposited 2000 to 3000.ANG. in thickness on the electrode 7 by a RF sputtering method using a plasma ion of Ar/O.sub.2 preferably with a sintered PZT target of Ti, Zr and Pb in the ratio of 0.5:0.5:1.15 under reduced pressure to form the PZT film 4 (FIG. 2(b)).
The silicon substrate 1 having thereon the SiO.sub.2 film 2, electrode 7 and PZT film 4 is annealed for 30 mins to 1 hr at 550.degree. to 650.degree.C. in an oxidative atmosphere and then further applied with a separate electrode material in a desired pattern to complete a semiconductor device (not shown).
The semiconductor device uses platinum as the basic electrode 7 and the substrate is annealed after the PZT film 4 is formed on the basic electrode 7. Hence, the annealing causes PbO in the PZT film 4 to readily change to a vapor, leading to that the resultant PZT film 6 lacks Pb, particularly, at an interface between the electrode 7 and the PZT film 6. As a result, there is a problem that the PZT film 6 when provided with a space-charge region at the interface between the electrode 7 and the PZT film 6 is poor in reliability or other properties.

Semiconductor device with PZT/PLZT film and lead-containing electrode


An IR imaging system includes a lens module and an imaging module coupled to the lens module. The lens module includes a barrel defining a through hole, at least one lens received in the through hole and an IR bandpass filter received in the barrel and configured for filtering out visible light. The imaging module includes a housing and an IR image sensor received in the housing. The IR imaging system can prevent IR image sensors being affected by visible light.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to imaging systems and, more particularly, to an infrared (IR) imaging system that can prevent an IR image sensor therein from being affected by visible light.
2. Description of Related Art
The wavelength of IR light is longer than that of visible light. IR light shares many of the properties of visible light, but its different wavelength has several unique characteristics. For instance, materials that are opaque to visible light may be transparent to IR, and vice-versa. IR light is much less subject to scattering and absorption by smoke or dust than visible light, and IR light cannot be seen by the human eye.
Also, unlike visible light, which is given off by ordinary objects only at very high temperatures, IR energy is emitted by all objects at ordinary temperatures higher than 0° K. This means that IR energy is all around us all the time, even in the dark. Different objects give off varying amounts of IR energy, depending on the temperature of the object and their emissivity. Passive IR cameras are designed to sense differing amounts of IR energy coming from the various areas of a scene using an IR image sensor to convert them to corresponding intensities of visible light by electronics for display purposes. This permits true see-in-the-dark capability as well as the ability to observe thermal properties in all light conditions. The IR image sensor can also react to some visible light which will reduces a signal-to-noise ratio of imaging system.
What is needed, therefore, is an IR imaging system which can prevent IR image sensor from being affected by visible light.

Infrared imaging system and lens module for use with the same


Enclosures and systems that can control airflow and signal connectivity in a blade enclosure are provided. Some examples include a front section including a number of blade server modules, a rear section including a number of switch modules; and a middle section having a number of openings and a number of connectors, wherein the middle section controls airflow between the front section and the rear section in the blade enclosure with the number of openings and the middle section controls signal connectivity between a number of blades in the number of blade server modules and a number of switches in the number of switch modules with the number of connectors.

In a blade enclosure, blade server modules, that are housed in the blade enclosure, can be coupled to switch modules, that are housed in the blade enclosure. The blade server modules and switch modules can be coupled together via a rigid printed circuit board (PCB). A PCB can have copper traces that provide a direct high-speed connection for signals transferred between the blades and switches in the blade server modules and switch modules, but using a PCB to couple blades to switches can limit the configurations that the blade server modules and switch modules can have in their enclosures and also can limit cooling of the blades and switches by preventing airflow between the blade server modules and switch modules.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP


The present invention relates to a novel treatment for myocardial infarction which comprises administering a hapten-binding molecule capable of preventing reformation of fibrin-platelet clots and a thrombolytic agent capable of either dissolving fibrin-platelet clots or inhibiting their formation. The therapy of the invention is capable of increasing clot lysis while minimizing fibrinogen breakdown and preventing the reocclusion of the affected coronary artery. The therapy of the present invention is capable of achieving this goal even in the absence of heparin and when the concentration of thrombolytic agent is lower than that required by other potential therapies.

The initiating event of many myocardial infarctions (heart attacks) is the hemorrhage into atherosclerotic plaque. Such hemorrhage often results in the formation of a thrombus (or blood clot) in the coronary artery which supplies the infarct zone (i.e., an area of coagulation necrosis which results from an obstruction of blood circulation). This thrombus is composed of a combination of fibrin and blood platelets. The formation of a fibrin-platelet clot has serious clinical ramifications. The degree and duration of the occlusion caused by the fibrin-platelet clot determines the mass of the infarct zone and the extent of damage.

Method of treatment for myocardial infarction

The Research Foundation of State University of New York


A method of making a transistor comprising the steps of providing a structure having a collector layer 3, a base layer 5, and an emitter layer 7, one atop the other, forming a contact 9 on the emitter layer, removing a portion of the emitter layer to leave a relatively thick mesa region 13 with the contact thereon, a surrounding relatively thin ledge region 11 and an exposed portion of the base layer 5 and forming a contact on the exposed portion of the base layer 5. The emitter layer 7 is preferably GaInP, and preferably Ga.sub.x In.sub.1-x P, wherein x is in the range of approximately 0.50 to 0.52, and the base 5 is preferably GaAs. The ledge portion 11 has a thickness of about 700 Angstroms.

Heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) are generally utilized in power applications as well as in applications that require the active devices to have low 1/f noise and good high frequency performance. Typical examples are low noise oscillation circuits. This choice of utilizing HBTs for low noise applications results because HBTs are vertical devices with minimal exposed surface area, thus suffering less degradation due to surface-related noise sources, contrary to the case of Field Effect Transistors (FETs). While HBTs have consistently demonstrated lower 1/f noise than FET devices, conventional HBTs are still not totally free from surface-related noise sources. In HBTs fabricated with conventional process techniques, the extrinsic base surfaces, which are generally formed of GaAs, are exposed to air. Since a free GaAs surface is characterized by a high surface recombination velocity, significant surface recombination occurs in these extrinsic base surfaces. Fortunately, a surface passivation technique using a depleted AlGaAs layer on top of the extrinsic base can be applied to reduce this surface recombination and this technique has been utilized in the prior art. To date, this surface passivation technique has been limited to the case of using AlGaAs as the emitter material. However, because AlGaAs is known to have substantial DX bulk recombination centers, AlGaAs/GaAs HBTs naturally suffer some degradation in noise performance. DX centers are donor related deep levels in AlGaAs exhibiting unusual and complex properties, such as persistent photoconductivity. DX centers behave as effective electron traps. The current transients caused by the capture and emission of electrons at DX centers constitute noise.

1/f noise reduction in heterojunction bipolar transistors


A one dimension all-metal slab waveguide gas laser comprises a slab waveguide gas discharge area and an optical resonator disposed in a metal vacuum chamber. The gas discharge area is formed by a top and a bottom metal electrodes and metal supporting blocks insolated with the electrodes. A metal liner plate and a metal press plate are sequentially disposed on upside of the metal electrodes. A metal supporting plate is disposed at underside of the metal electrodes. The metal top electrodes are connected with a supply power through link pins of the metal electrodes. An output mirror and a feedback mirror are respectively arranged at two sides of the optical resonator. An output window of the laser is disposed in the vacuum chamber. The present one dimension waveguide gas laser has advantages of good quality of high thermo conducting and simple processing as well as low cost, and can avoid appearing modulation of the output power of the laser which is caused by high order mode of the guide in current two dimension slab guide laser, thereby the quality of optical beam of the laser is improved.

The combination of RF transverse gas electric discharging technology with optical waveguide technology drives the rapid development of waveguide CO2 laser technology. In the past decade, RF transverse single waveguide CO2 laser technology has experienced a development process from all-ceramic waveguide structures to ceramics and metal sandwich waveguide structures to all-metal waveguide structures. In the all-ceramic waveguide structure (see FIG. 1A), a square waveguide is composed of two vacuum ceramic side walls 33 and two vacuum ceramic clamp plates 34, and disposed between two metal electrodes 32 connected with a high frequency power supply 31. A gain channel area is formed in the waveguide by discharge excitation. The advantage of the all-ceramic waveguide structure is low loss of optical wave. Along with the development of the waveguide CO2 laser technology, in order to enhance gain cooling effect, decrease the cost and simplify the structure, the metal and ceramic sandwich waveguide structure is proposed (see FIG. 1B). In the metal and ceramic waveguide structure, two metal electrodes 32 and two vacuum ceramic side walls 33 form a waveguide discharge excitation channel, the metal electrodes 32 being connected with the high frequency power supply 31. In order to further lower the cost of device and facilitate modularization of production, in 1988 Synrad company of the USA proposed an RF excitation large aperture all-metal channel CO2 laser technology, disclosed on Laser Focus, pp 44–48, April 1998 (see FIG. 1C). In the technology, a gas discharge channel is composed of two metal side walls 36 having surface insulation layers and two metal electrodes 37 of having surface insulation layers. The metal side walls 36 having the surface insulation layers are connected with a metal housing 35. The two metal electrodes 37 having surface insulation layers are connected with the high frequency power supply 31. The two metal electrodes 37 have a phase difference of 180 degree, forming a four-electrode discharging mode. In 1991, Mr. Jianguo Xin, et al. from Beijing Institute of Technology developed a two-electrode RF transverse excited all-metal waveguide structure CO2 laser technology, disclosed on Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 59(26), p3363, 1991 (see FIG. 1D). In this kind of structure, two metal electrodes 32 and two metal side walls 36 with surface insulation layers form a gas discharge channel of a waveguide. A 0.1 mm thick gas gap exists between the metal side walls 36 with two surface insulation layers and the metal electrodes 32. According to Paschen's law, the gas breakdown voltage in a very small gas gap is relatively high, and the voltage in the air gap is only ½ of the voltage between the two metal electrodes 32. Therefore gas discharge excitation can be limited to within the waveguide channel by appropriately designing the size of waveguide channel.
In present there are only two institutes in the world which are reported to own RF excited all-metal CO2 laser technology: the RF excited four-electrode large aperture all-metal channel CO2 laser from Synrad Company of the USA, and the RF transverse excited two-electrode all-metal waveguide structure CO2 laser.
But by far, all of the area scaling slab waveguide RF excited diffusively cooled CO2 lasers reported home and abroad adopt a metal and ceramic sandwich structure. In a technical point of view, the waveguide RF excited diffusively cooled CO2 laser with the metal and ceramic sandwich structure uses ceramics to electrically separate discharge electrodes so as to generate gas discharge to form a gain area in the waveguide of the metal and ceramic sandwich structure. The process of this kind of metal and ceramic sandwich structure is relatively complex and higher manufacturing cost. On the other hand, the RF excited diffusively cooled CO2 laser with all-metal waveguide structure uses Paschen's law of gas discharge and principle of voltage division 1 to suppress the gas discharge inside the all-metal waveguide to form a gain area. The principle of forming gain area in the two kinds of technologies is different.
All of the prior structures of slab waveguide lasers are of two dimensional waveguide structures. In the prior two dimensional slab waveguide structure, a high order mode effect in the waveguide can be generated in the direction parallel with the electrodes in the waveguide cross section, making the intensity of laser output beam distributed in the direction to be modulated, thereby affecting the beam quality.

One dimensional all-metal slab waveguide gas laser

Beijing BDHlaser Science & Technology Inc. Ltd.


A keypad suitable for being disposed on a circuit board is provided. The keypad is in contact with the circuit board to generate an electrical signal. The keypad includes a flexible light guide plate, a key pattern, a passivation layer, a light source, and a reflector. Wherein, the key pattern and the passivation layer are both disposed on a first surface of the flexible light guide plate, and the passivation layer covers the key pattern. In addition, the light source and the reflector are both disposed at one side of the flexible light guide plate, and the reflector covers the light source. The keypad has better display brightness such that the user can easily recognize the patterns of the keys.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a keypad, and more particularly, to a keypad with a flexible light guide plate.
2. Description of the Related Art
Along with the continuous technology development and the growth of the need for the convenience of portable products in the consumer market, the handheld electronic apparatus is designed to be lighter, thinner, shorter, and more compact and capable of providing powerful functions. In general, depending on the functions it provides, the handheld electronic apparatus are generally classified into cell phones, electronic dictionaries, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and handheld game consoles.
For example, the cell phone mainly comprises a main body, a display unit, and a keypad. Wherein, the main body is usually a data processing module, and the display unit is usually a Liquid Crystal Display Module (LCM). The display unit is usually disposed inside the main body, and the display area of the display unit is exposed from the main body. The display unit displays the images, patterns, and the texts. In addition, the keypad usually disposed on the main body works as an operation interface of the handheld electronic apparatus.
To help users recognize the text or pattern on the keypad under a condition of insufficient luminance, a set of backing light source is commonly disposed under the keypad, such that the users can conveniently recognize the text or pattern on the keypad. In addition, the backing light source may be a Light Emitting Diode (LED) or an Electro-Luminescent Device (ELD). The detail structure of the conventional keypad is described in greater detail hereinafter.
FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of a conventional keypad. Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional keypad 100 comprises a first substrate 110, a second substrate 120, a key pattern, 130, a third substrate 140, and a light source 150 disposed on the third substrate 140. Wherein, the light source 150 is a Light Emitting Diode (LED). Since the light source 150 is disposed under the first substrate 110, the second substrate 120, and the key pattern 130. To be emitted from the surface of the second substrate 120, the light emitted by the light source 150 has to sequentially pass through the first substrate 110 and the second substrate 120. However, the first substrate 110 is usually made of a material such as PC (Phosphatidyl Cholineor) or ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene), and the second substrate 120 is usually made of a material such as rubber. In other words, the display brightness of the conventional keypad 100 is confined by the materials of the key pattern 130, the first substrate 110, and the second substrate 120. Accordingly, if the display brightness of the conventional keypad 100 is insufficient or not uniformly distributed, the user cannot easily recognize the text or pattern on the keypad. To resolve this problem, an easy solution is to increase the quantity of the light sources 150 disposed on the conventional keypad 100. However, such method inevitably increases electric power consumption of the handheld electronic apparatus.
In addition, although the keypad 100 provides more uniformly distributed brightness when it is comprised of the ELDs, since the ELDs are also disposed under the first substrate 110 and the second substrate 120, the light emitted by the ELDs is still confined by the first substrate 110 and the second substrate 120, the conventional keypad 100 is not able to provide an uniformly distributed brightness.


A method of forming a sensor for sensing a physical property of a media. A substrate is provided having circuitry thereon including at least one electrical contact and a die is provided having disposed thereon corresponding electrical contacts and a sensing element for sensing a physical property of a media applied to said sensing element. One or more bonding ring or portions are arranged on the die. The die electrical contact(s) and bonding ring(s) can be bonded substantially simultaneously, with conductive bonding material, to the corresponding substrate electrical contact(s) and a surface of said substrate, respectively, to thereby form a sensor. The bonding ring(s) form a pressure seal. The substrate can include corresponding bonding ring(s). The die can include an ASIC for compensating temperature effects on said pressure sensor.

Typical pressure sensors are not particularly well suited to low cost applications by virtue of the relatively high number of component parts, expensive materials and/or processing requirements, and high number of manufacturing-processing steps required to both produce the sensors and to integrate them into the instrumentation or apparatus of the application.
In order to manufacture a typical pressure sensor, it is usually necessary to make electrical connections between the sensor components and associated circuitry and to establish a pressure seal interface between the circuitry and a pressure media which is to be applied to the sensor. Generally, making the electrical connections and forming the pressure seal interface require at least two independent process steps during production. Even more process steps are required when sealing both sides of the sensor. This results in increased cost.
There is a continuing need to provide pressure sensors which can be manufactured more efficiently and/or at lower cost.
The embodiments disclosed herein therefore directly address the shortcomings of methods of manufacturing present pressure sensors providing a low cost method of manufacturing a pressure sensor that is suitable for many price sensitive applications.

Method of flip chip mounting pressure sensor dies to substrates and pressure sensors formed thereby


A locking device to secure a compartment which allows an intelligent interaction with the user. The locking device may be incorporated into a furniture or other structure requiring locking to prevent and allow access to the compartment.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to locking security device. More particularly, the present invention relates to a locking security device integrated into a piece of furniture for locking a furniture compartment.
Description of Related Art
Security devices are a necessity in today's world where valuables are at a constant threat of being stolen, even in the safety of one's home. While furniture is good for hiding valuables from plain sight, it is also the first place a thief may look to find these valuables. As such, locking furniture is very important for keeping these valuables.
Many furniture devices have simple locks on them such as keyed locks. These may be satisfactory for the storage of low-security items, however, for a determined thief, they are no deterrent. Further, such keyed and other security systems are highly visible, and are generally bad-looking and inelegant.
Therefore, what is needed is a device that provides a high level of intelligent security to a furniture piece, controlling access to a furniture compartment therein. Further, what is needed is a locking security device that is integrated into the furniture and relatively hidden, so that it is not readily apparent how it may be accessed.


The present invention relates to coatings and compositions suitable for use with imaged or printed products, such as business communication documents, pressure sensitive products, including labels and other materials used in the handling of information, whether intended for a business, personal or informational purposes. More particularly, the present invention is directed to coatings and formulations that can conceal or reduce the odor associated with certain inks, curable coatings, varnishes and the like as well as coatings that can be used in the creation of textural or aesthetic features for such products.

There are many coatings, varnishes, inks, toners, adhesives, overcoatings, washes and the like which can be used by manufacturers to impart various properties or characteristics to the surfaces or substrates to which they are applied. Such materials are widely and commonly used in the printing and graphic arts industry as well as other applications. Their use depends on the specific need, end result or application to which the coated materials or substrates are to be made.
Unfortunately, while these materials meet the various functional needs of the manufacturer such as gloss or shine, they can also come with various undesirable attributes and drawbacks, one of which is the emission of displeasing or unpleasant olfactory properties, which makes use by the customer potentially difficult and may lead to customer complaints depending on the strength of the offending smell or odor and sensitivity of the end user. Manufacturers have thus attempted to combat this situation through the use of the inclusion of perfumes and scents, peppermint, spearmint with vanilla being a particularly popular one. However, with the inclusion of these additional components, comes the expected and undesirable affect of increased prices due to the presence of the perfumes and scents in the coating. Typically, and depending on the type of coating, in order for the scents or perfumes to be effective the scents or perfumes may need to be added in relatively significant amounts in order to overcome the smell or odor that emanating from the coating.
Unfortunately, it has also been found that even with the inclusion of perfumes or scents, while one smell or odor (the original odor) may be decimated, the end user or customer may find the particular perfume or scent that has been included in the coating to be offensive or trigger an allergic reaction, hence destroying the entire intent of producing a product that overcomes the aforementioned drawback.
A yet still further drawback in addition to the expense, is that when synthetic materials are used to conceal the odor of the coating, the coated substrate may loose some of its environmentally friendly characteristics and thus may no longer be acceptable for recycling and may require specific handling and disposal requirements, which again can be costly for the manufacturer and the distributor.
Still another problem with adding or applying such materials to substrates, particularly glossy coatings, materials and the like is that these shinny coatings can create potentially dangerous situations when the coated substrate is inadvertently left on the floor or other surface. The glossy coating has a reduced surface attraction with the surface it is on which can lead potentially to slip and fall accidents by innocent bystanders. In addition, when such glossy materials are placed within a stack, the stack may splay out of alignment making distribution or feeding for subsequent processing difficult and requiring the manufacturer to realign the stack of items.
What is therefore needed is a way to reduce the offending odor of such coatings so that such coatings may continue to be used within the printing and graphic arts industries without customer complaints, as well as to eliminate problems associated with surface affinity so that coated sheets may be handled more efficiently, without increasing the costs of the product or the problems associated with disposal of such coated substrates.

Printed communication materials having reduced odor and textural or tactile properties


A white reference data generating unit which generates white reference data used in a shading correction process includes a line memory for storing white reference data, a determination circuit for determining whether or not the image data supplied from an image sensor is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold level, a updating circuit for updating the white reference data stored in the line memory to new white reference data calculated based on the white reference data stored in the line memory and input data while each line on a white reference plate is scanned, and a selector for supplying the image data, as the input data, to the updating circuit when the determination circuit determines that the image data is greater than the threshold level, and for supplying difference data, as the input data, to the updating circuit when the determination circuit determines that the image data is equal to or less than the threshold level, the difference data being obtained by subtracting a predetermined value from the white reference data stored in the line memory.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a white reference data generating unit applied to a shading correction system, and more particularly to a white reference data generating unit applied to a shading correction system which is provided in an optical reader used in digital copy machines, facsimile machines and the like.
(2) Description of Related Art
In an optical reading apparatus used in facsimile machines, digital copy machines and the like, a line sensor such as a CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) sensor optically scans a document so that an image formed on the document is read. This type of line sensor generally has thousands of photosensitive elements. Thus, an image for one line is divided into thousands of pixels, and then the line sensor outputs an image signal having levels corresponding to densities of respective pixels.
In the optical reader, there are an intensity variation of a light irradiating the document, a variation of luminous intensity distribution in a optical system, a sensitivity variation of respective photosensitive elements of the line sensor and the like. Due to the above various variations, there is a case where levels of the image signal corresponding to pixels having the same density differ from each other. To eliminate this problem, a shading correction process is carried out in the optical reading apparatus.
In the shading correction process, white reference data corresponding to each of the photosensitive elements (the pixels) is generated based on the image signal output from the line sensor when the line sensor scans a white reference plate having a uniform white density before scanning the document. When the document is scanned by the line sensor, image data for each pixel obtained based on the image signal output from the line sensor is corrected by use of corresponding white reference data which has been obtained as described above. That is, a ratio of a level of the image signal corresponding to each pixel to the corresponding white reference data is used as the image data for each pixel.
The white reference data for each pixel is obtained by scanning the white reference plate. Thus, if the line sensor scans the white reference plate in a condition in which dust is adhered to the white reference plate, the white reference data corresponding to each pixel on an area to which the dust is adhered is damaged. If the shading correction is carried out based on the white reference data which is damaged by the dust, a white line is formed at a position of each pixel corresponding to the damaged white reference data on an image reproduced based on the image data.
Conventionally, to prevent the white line from forming on the reproduced image, a white reference data generating unit disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid Open Publication No-62-189871 has been proposed. In this conventional white reference data generating unit, a maximum level of levels of the image signals, corresponding to each pixel, obtained by scanning the white reference plate for a plurality of lines is defined as the white reference data for each pixel. According to the conventional white reference generating unit, as the maximum level of the image signal obtained by scanning the white reference plate is used as the white reference data, the white line can be prevented from forming on the reproduced image.
However, as various noises are included in the image signal output from the line sensor, when the level of the image signal instantly increases caused by a noise at a time of scanning the white reference plate, an accurate white reference data cannot be obtained. In this case, a good shading correction cannot be carried out.

White reference data generating unit applied to shading correction system


An alternator system includes an input shaft, a planetary gear assembly, a variable resistance generator, and a control unit. The alternator assembly is structured to produce an output current having a frequency. The planetary gear assembly disposed between, and operatively coupled to, the input shaft and the alternator assembly. The planetary gear assembly has a planet gear carrier body with an outer radial surface having teeth. The variable resistance generator has an external generator shaft with a generator gear. The generator gear is structured to engage the outer radial surface teeth. The control unit structured to detect the frequency of the alternator assembly output current and to alter the resistance of the generator. The control unit is structured to maintain the frequency of the alternator assembly output current within a selected range by increasing or decreasing the resistance of the generator.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an alternator and, more specifically, to an alternator coupled to a drive via an adjustable speed planetary gear assembly.
2. Background Information
As is well known in the art, an alternator is a device structured to convert energy from a rotational motion into an alternating current. Generally, an alternator spins a magnet, or rotor, within an alternator housing and this spinning magnet induces electric currents in a set of stationary wire coils, or the stator. Most engine powered road vehicles include an alternator and the following description shall use a heavy-duty truck as an example; however, it is understood that the claimed invention may be used with any type of alternator and is not limited to vehicular use. That is, the invention relates to an alternator wherein the rotor is likely to spin at various speeds. Thus, the invention may be used in conjunction with other devices such as, but not limited to, a windmill structured to produce electricity. In a vehicle, an engine provides a source of rotation, such as, but not limited to the drive shaft or crank shaft. The source of rotation is coupled, typically, via a belt and/or shaft to a shaft that is fixed to the rotor and has an end extending outside the alternator housing, hereinafter a "rotor shaft assembly". Thus, when the engine is operating, the source of rotation causes the rotor to rotate and creates the alternating current.
While this configuration is satisfactory, it does have disadvantages. For example, because the speed of the rotor is linked to the speed of the source of rotation, the frequency of the alternating current is directly dependent upon the speed of the source of rotation. This can be a disadvantage as the engine speed, as used in this example, typically varies between 600 to 2400 rpm which results in the frequency of the current varying between about 150 and 600 Hz. It would be advantageous to maintain the frequency of the current within a selected range between about 50 and 70 Hz, and more preferably about 60 Hz.


Apparatus (1) for handling articles (2), including an endless infeed drive member (3) moving in an infeed direction (ID); an endless outfeed drive member (4) moving in a second, outfeed direction (OD); and an endless carrier conveyor (33) having. The carrier conveyor includes an infeed section (34) overlying the infeed drive member (3), whereby the infeed drive member (3) drives the infeed section (34) in the infeed direction (ID); an outfeed section (35) overlying the outfeed drive member (4), whereby the outfeed drive member (4) drives the outfeed section (35) in the outfeed direction (OD); and an arcuate intermediate section (36) bridging the infeed section (34) and the outfeed section (35) along a transfer path (37) between a diverting point (DIV) where the carrier conveyor (33) disconnects from the infeed drive member (3), and an inverting point (INV) where the carrier conveyor (33) connects the outfeed drive member (4).

Apparatuses which permit the control of a flow of articles are useful wherever there is a need for accumulating articles in a buffer area between an upstream delivery station (e.g. a container filling and capping unit) and a downstream receiving station (e.g. a container labeling and/or wrap around station) in the event of a speed rate differential between the stations, e.g. when the downstream station is either shut down or running at an insufficient speed, whereby the articles fed from the upstream delivery station can not be properly handled.
Such apparatuses, which provide the ability to set the amount of articles temporarily stored in the buffer area, are commonly referred to as "accumulators". Depending upon the room available and the configuration of the manufacturing plant, the accumulator may be of planar/straight or spiral/helical form.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,591,963 to Wipf discloses a straight storage apparatus comprising a carriage which can be displaced along a conveying plane. A pair of deflecting rollers is arranged on the carriage to guide an endless conveying means. One of the deflecting rollers subdivides a storage strand of the apparatus in an entry-side storage strand and an exit-side storage strand. The length of the storage strand can be changed, as does the capacity of the storage apparatus.
In theory, such a solution seems satisfactory because its construction appears quite simple. In practise however, drawbacks come to light when the setting of the apparatus must be achieved and in particular when the conveyor has to be tensioned. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,591,963, tensioning means are provided on the carriage, the deflecting rollers being mounted in a mutually resilient manner. Although the tensioning process is not specifically disclosed in the Wipf patent, the skilled person can understand that the tensioning is achieved by moving the rollers towards each other, thereby exerting a traction effort on the circular portions of the conveying means wrapped around the deflecting rollers. The reaction effort exerted on the deflecting rollers by the conveying means generate undesired though inevitable bending and shear stresses on the axis of rotation of the rollers, thereby increasing the risk of axis wear, fatigue and, possibly, rupture.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,152,291 to Steeber et al, assigned to Hartness, discloses a spiral accumulator having an infeed conveyor driven in a first direction, and an outfeed conveyor spaced apart from the infeed conveyor and driven in an opposite direction. A transport member carrying a rotatable wheel is provided between the infeed and outfeed conveyors. The rotatable wheel is engaged on both sides by the infeed and outfeed conveyors so that the wheel is caused to rotate and the transport member may be caused to move along a path parallel to the infeed and outfeed conveyors depending upon the relative speed thereof. An article transfer member is also carried by the transport member for deflecting articles from the infeed conveyor to the outfeed conveyor. Articles deflected from the infeed conveyor temporarily run on a dead plate provided around the wheel over the space between the conveyors.
The Hartness accumulator does not have the hereabove mentioned drawback of Wifp's apparatus, since the stresses resulting from the tensioning of the infeed and outfeed conveyors are not transmitted to the rotatable wheel.
However, operating the Hartness accumulator has revealed uncontrolled movements of the articles in the turnaround area above the wheel, and more specifically at the junction of the (moving) infeed conveyor and the (still) dead plate, where the conveyor tends to move the articles ahead, whereas the dead plate is forcing them to loose headway. In addition, tacky articles may stick to the (still) surface of the transfer member. Subsequent uncontrolled movements of the articles may result in article jam and failure of the whole accumulating process, thereby causing the accumulator to be stopped, along with the entire upstream part of the manufacturing plant.
In order to improve article transfer, it was later on proposed to equip the article transfer member with an endless drive belt that is disposed along the transfer path so as to contact and move articles therealong, see U.S. Pat. No. 6,698,581 to Steeber et al, assigned to Hartness.
This solution seems satisfactory prima facie, but movement of the endless drive belt has to be synchronized with the infeed and outfeed conveyors. In order to achieve such synchronization, there is provided a complex and heavy transmission mechanism including a toothed wheel engaging the infeed and outfeed conveyors.

Apparatus for handling and accumulating articles in a buffer area


A halftone phase shift mask includes a substrate, a first light-shielding layer formed in one region of the substrate for shielding light between a plurality of key patterns, and a second light-shielding layer formed in another region of the substrate for shielding light between a plurality of cell patterns, whereby a generation of sidelobe is prevented. A method of manufacturing a phase shift mask includes forming a first light-shielding layer on one region of a substrate, forming a second light-shielding layer on another region of the substrate and on the first light-shielding layer, and patterning the first and second light-shielding layers to thereby form a plurality of cell patterns and key patterns.

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a phase shift mask, and more particularly, to a method of manufacturing a halftone phase shift mask.
In a general mask using a chrome film, a light-shielding layer for shielding light is selectively formed on a quartz or glass substrate. In a part where the light-shielding layer is not formed, light is transmitted with a uniform phase, whereas in a part where the light-shielding layer is formed, light is not transmitted.
Accordingly, in such a mask, the destruction and interference phenomena occur in the edge parts of the light-shielding layer, which reduces the size of the actual light-shielding region. Thus, it is difficult to form a desired pattern using the general mask.
In order to solve the disadvantages of such a general mask, a phase shift mask has been developed recently.
The phase shift mask compounds the phase of light being transmitted through the mask to 180.degree. or 0.degree. along the pattern arrangement, thereby removing the destruction and interference phenomena in the edge parts of the general mask.
Furthermore, among such phase shift masks, a halftone phase shift mask useful for improving the resolution limit of a contact hole has been developed.
This halftone phase shift mask is a mask in which the thickness of a light-shielding layer is formed very thinly so that the light-transmissivity of the light-shielding layer is 4-30%. Further, the halftone phase shift mask includes a phase shift film adhered thereto for shifting the phase of the light transmitting therethrough to 180.degree..
Hereinafter, a conventional halftone phase shift mask will be described with reference to the attached drawings.
To begin with, as shown in FIG. 1A, a transmissive substrate 1 such as a quartz or a glass is prepared. On the transmissive substrate 1, a halftone pattern material layer 2 (Cr.sub.2 O.sub.5) of a predetermined thickness is formed to cause a phase shift.
At this time, the halftone pattern material layer 2 has a characteristic of shifting the phase of a light passing through to 180.degree. and transmitting only 5-10% of the incident light.
Accordingly, in the open region of the halftone pattern material layer 2, light transmits through the transmissive substrate 1 so that the positive intensity profile of light is achieved as shown in FIG. 1A.
On the other hand, where the halftone pattern material layer 2 is formed, only 5-10% of the incident light is transmitted with the phase of light shifted to 180.degree., thereby showing a negative value. That is, the intensity profile as shown in FIG. 1B appears. Expressing the intensity profile in its absolute value, a profile as shown in FIG. 1C is realized.
FIG. 2 shows a construction of a conventional contact hole mask of a general DRAM. It includes a cell part 11 in the central region, an overlay monitor key part 12 in the edge region, and an alignment key part 13.
Here, when the halftone phase shift mask is used according to the conventional method, the sidelobe of small contact holes located in the cell part 11 is worth a little consideration. However, since a larger exposure energy is required to form large contact holes such as the alignment key part 13 or overlay monitor key part 12, the sidelobe of such large contact holes, which is proportional to the exposure energy, becomes large.
That is, in order to form the overlay monitor key part 12 and alignment key part 13 having large contact holes, the open region of the halftone pattern material layer should be larger than the size of the large contact holes. Then, this requires a large exposure energy for the masking. However, an increase in the exposure energy causes an increase in the size of the sidelobe.
FIGS. 3A to 3D show the pattern formation of a photoresist for forming an overlay monitor key and an alignment key using the conventional masking method.
To begin with, as shown in FIG. 3A, a halftone pattern material layer 22 is formed on a substrate 21 and then, patterned in accordance with the overlay monitor key pattern or the alignment key pattern, respectively.
At this time, as shown in FIG. 3B, light transmitting through an open region having no halftone pattern material layer 22 has a positive phase, whereas light transmitting through the halftone pattern material layer 22 has a negative phase. Expressing the intensity profile of light by its absolute value is as shown in FIG. 3C.
Here, since the transmissivity of light in the halftone pattern material layer 22 is 5-10%, the intensity profile of light shows a higher intensity for the open region than for the halftone layer 22. However, since the pattern desired to form is the overlay monitor key or alignment key pattern, the sidelobe attended by the halftone pattern material layer 22 is increased.
This is because the exposure energy increases if the pattern desired to form is large. By using a large exposure energy to form a large pattern, the size of the sidelobe also increases. Consequently, as shown in FIGS. 3D and 3E, the pattern of the photoresist is formed inaccurately, and the sidelobe 23 appears around the overlay monitor key or alignment key pattern.
Accordingly, the aforementioned method of manufacturing using the conventional halftone phase shift mask has the following problems.
First, the sidelobe of the masking material becomes large so that the overlay operation cannot be effectively monitored. Second, consequently in the subsequent step, alignment becomes impossible.

Method of manufacturing a halftone phase shift mask


A light control film comprises a light input surface and a light output surface opposite the light input surface; alternating transmissive regions and absorptive regions disposed between the light input surface and the light output surface, wherein the absorptive regions comprise a core having a first concentration, C1, of a light absorbing material sandwiched between cladding layers having a second concentration, C2, of the light absorbing material, wherein C2<C1, and wherein the cores have an aspect ratio of at least 20.

Louver-based light control films for applications such as privacy filters and automotive display filters have traditionally been made by skiving processes, microreplication or cast-and-cure processes. A limitation of traditional louver-based light control films is that on-axis light transmission is limited because of the louver aspect ratios, which are typically about 10:1 to about 15:1.


A surge protection circuit having an open circuit voltage surge protector, such as a gas discharge tube (GDT), a closed circuit current surge protector, such as a thermistor, and a thyristor. The GDT has a breakdown voltage that is at least a first defined amount higher than an anticipated highest peak voltage. The thermistor has a series resistance associated with a series resistance of electrical equipment being protected and a breakdown voltage that is at least a second defined amount higher than an impulse voltage (voltage required to excite the GDT based on the breakdown voltage) for the GDT. The thyristor has a rated peak current at least a third defined amount greater than a peak current for the thermistor.

Electrical equipment is designed to operate at certain voltage and currents. The electrical equipment may be capable of handling certain spikes in voltage and/or current. The electrical equipment may include spike protection circuitry to protect against certain types of spikes (e.g., reduce, limit, remove, and/or isolate the spikes so the spikes don't reach the electronics therewithin). Furthermore external surge protection devices may be utilized to further protect the electrical devices.
The spike protection circuitry is limited in the type of protection it provides. Lightning storms may create surges that may cause damage to the electrical equipment. In areas where lightning storms are common this may produce a wide variety of surges/spikes.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example connection of a local area network (LAN) 100 within a subscriber location 110 to a wide area network (WAN) 120 via an interface device 130. The WAN 120 may be any of a various of networks including, but not limited to, a telephone network, a cable network, a digital subscriber line (DSL) network, or a satellite network. The interface device 130 may extract data from communication lines of the WAN 120 and route it to appropriate devices on the LAN 100 and may receive data from the devices on the LAN 100 and transmit them to the WAN 120 over the communications lines.
The interface device may be designed to account for spikes and certain well defined surges. However, it is possible that the interface device may encounter a variety of surges having unknown magnitude in voltage, current and energy. This may be especially true in areas that are susceptible to lightning storms and/or other WAN's that are not equipped to handle prevent/limit these surges/spikes (e.g., are not well grounded). Without proper surge protection for the interface devices they may be damaged and/or destroyed by these surges.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


When a logarithmic spiral function curve exists at a position specified by variables, a filter coefficient corresponding to the position is obtained through calculation using Gaussian function stored in a Gaussian function memory, and the filter coefficient is stored in a filter coefficient memory in association with the position specified by the variables. Retinex processing is executed on original image data using the filter coefficients stored in the filter coefficient memory.

When a subject is photographed against light, an image of the subject becomes an ambiguous backlit image. This backlit image has such low brightness and contrast that the details thereof are difficult to discriminate. Overexposure or underexposure, blurring and out-of-focus in shooting an object, noise, or insufficient light intensity also may be cause of degradation in image quality. However, quality of such poor-quality images can be improved by executing processing on image data for enhancing the brightness and contrast thereof. Retinex processing has been known as one of such processing to improve image quality.
In Retinex processing, data of a high image quality portion is maintained, while image quality of a low image quality portion is improved. In Retinex processing, each pixel data of the original image is corrected to a value in which pixel data of surrounding pixels are reflected, using a Gaussian filter. Then, reference component data of the original image is calculated from natural logarithm of the corrected pixel data. Illuminance component data is calculated by dividing the pixel data of the original image by the pixel component of the original image. That is, the original image is divided into reference component and illuminance component. A processing, such as a gamma correction, for correcting brightness and contrast, is performed on the illuminance component. Thereafter, the corrected illuminance component and the reference component are composed to generate image data in which the low quality portion, such as a backlit image portion, has been improved in image quality in comparison to the original image.
However, in a filtering processing executed in Renetix processing, it is necessary to perform convolution operations. That is, density values of pixels of original image data are multiplied by corresponding filter coefficients to obtain products, and the sum of the products is obtained.
For example, when an image G1 shown in FIG. 1(a) is subjected to a filtering processing using a filter F1 having a scale of 9×9=81 pixels, 81 multiplications and 80 additions have to be performed. That is, a density value of each pixel in the image G1 is multiplied by a filter coefficient in the corresponding pixel of the filter F1, and the resultant products are added up. The center pixel of the filter F1 corresponds to a pixel of the image G1 subjected to the filtering processing. In this example, the filter coefficients take the values of 12 to 27.
Since the convolution operation take much time, there has been proposed to thin out rows and/or columns of elements (coefficients) in the filter F. For example, a filter F2 shown in FIG. 1(b) is created by thinning out the filter coefficients in pixels on the outermost and inner peripheries. By reducing the number of elements in this manner, the number of times of the convolution operation is reduced, thereby speeding up the filtering processing.

Data processing device that executes retinex processing


Disclosed is a sensor capable of measuring motion in a harsh environment. The sensor uses a fiber optic sensor element formed within a core of an optical fiber that is disposed within an enclosure made of a high strength, corrosion-resistant material. The optical fiber is attached to a supporting fixture in a cantilever fashion so that the intrinsic internal mass of the optical fiber has the freedom to be affected by gravity so that an environmental disturbance acting on the sensor results in a bending strain being applied to the optical fiber. A Bragg grating is located at the bending portion of the optical fiber. The modulation of an optical signal promulgating through the optical fiber is sensed using conventional means and used to measure the magnitude of the environmental disturbance.

There is often a need to measure near-acoustic vibrations, such as seismic vibrations, in harsh environments. Traditional seismometers involve the suspension of a reference or proof mass within a frame and a sensor to measure the relative motion between the frame and the proof mass as seismic waves act on the frame to move it. In this manner, traditional seismometers require the use of a proof mass. Use of a proof mass limits the robustness of the seismometer, making seismometers not well suited to harsh environments.
Optical sensors are well suited to such rugged environments because they have passive detective elements that are immune from magnetic noise and electrolytic corrosion. One well-established method of sensing is remote signal processing of fiber Bragg gratings. A fiber Bragg grating includes a distributed Bragg reflector constructed in a segment of optical fiber. It allows for the reflection of particular wavelengths of light while transmitting all others. The Bragg wavelength of the fiber is sensitive to strain, whereby strain on the fiber Bragg grating causes a shift in the Bragg wavelength. Accordingly, fiber Bragg gratings can be used as direct sensing elements for environmental measurands such as strain and temperature. That is, by measuring the shift in the Bragg wavelength, a strain applied to fiber may be measured. Thus, fiber Bragg gratings may be used in sensors, wherein a mechanism that is sensitive to environmental change is constructed so that energy may be translated into the distortion of an optical grating so as to allow the resulting change in absorbed optical power to be interpreted.

Simple fiber optic seismometer for harsh environments


A method is provided for operating a duplexer including a first tunable bandpass filter, a second tunable bandpass filter and means for coupling the first bandpass filter and the second bandpass filter to an antenna. The method comprises the steps of tuning the first tunable bandpass filter to provide a passband corresponding to an assigned transmit frequency, and tuning the second tunable bandpass filter to provide a passband offset from an assigned receive frequency, when the duplexer is operated in a transmit mode. When the duplexer is operated in a receive mode, the first tunable bandpass filter is tuned to provide a passband offset from an assigned transmit frequency and the second tunable bandpass filter is tuned to provide a passband corresponding to the assigned receive frequency.

The present invention generally relates to electronic duplexers, and more particularly to a method of operating tunable duplexers.
This invention relates to radio frequency and microwave duplexers used in wireless communications transceivers having two channel frequency allocations.
Wireless communications applications have increased to crowd the available spectrum and drive the need for high isolation between adjacent bands. Portability requirements of mobile communications additionally drive the need to reduce the size of communications equipment. Filter and duplexer products are some of the most inevitable components in the radio with requirements to provide improved performance using smaller sized components. Thus efforts have been made to develop new types of resonators, new coupling structures, and new configurations to address these requirements.
Many radio systems use a duplexer to couple the transmit and receive channels to a common shared antenna. Low insertion loss in the two channel passbands and high isolation between the two channels are usually the most important performance requirements of the duplexer. Filter design theory shows, however, that for a given filter frequency mask, optimization of the insertion loss performance often results in degradation of the isolation performance and visa versa. A trade-off between the two parameters is usually required.
Commercially available radio frequency (RF) duplexers include two fixed bandpass filters sharing a common port (antenna port) through a circulator or a T-junction. Signals applied to the antenna port are coupled to a receiver port through the receive bandpass filter, and signals applied to a transmitter port will reach the antenna port through a transmit filter. The receive port and transmitter port are isolated from each other due to the presence of the filters and the circulator, or T-junction. Fixed duplexers are commonly used in point-to-point and point-to-multipoint radios where two-way communication enables voice, video and data traffic within the RF frequency range. Fixed duplexers need to be wide band so that a reasonable number of duplexers can cover the desired frequency plan.
Tunable duplexers could be used to replace fixed duplexers in receivers. A single tunable duplexer could replace several fixed duplexers covering adjacent frequencies. Duplexers that include tunable or switchable filters have been described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,307,448; 6,288,620; 6,111,482; 6,085,071; and 5,963,856.
It would be desirable to operate a tunable duplexer in a manner that improves isolation between the transmit and receive channels.
This invention provides a method of operating a duplexer including a first tunable bandpass filter, a second tunable bandpass filter and means for coupling the first bandpass filter and the second bandpass filter to an antenna. The method comprises the steps of tuning the first tunable bandpass filter to provide a passband corresponding to an assigned transmit frequency, and tuning the second tunable bandpass filter to provide a passband offset from an assigned receive frequency, when the duplexer is operated in a transmit mode. When the duplexer is operated in a receive mode, the first tunable bandpass filter is tuned to provide a passband offset from an assigned transmit frequency and the second tunable bandpass filter is tuned to provide a passband corresponding to the assigned receive frequency.
By using this technique, the isolation between transmit and receive portions of a communications device is improved. The invention also permits the use of filters having a larger passband while maintaining sufficient isolation.

Method of channel frequency allocation for RF and microwave duplexers


A two chamber heat transfer unit configured such that hazardous air can circulate through one of the chambers of the heat transfer unit and any potential ignition source components are contained in another pressurized chamber of the heat transfer unit.

1. Field
This disclosure relates generally to heat transfer units, like air conditioners and heat exchangers, and, more particularly, to heat transfer units used in hazardous environments.
2. Background
In industrial applications, it is not uncommon to have locations where cooling or heat transfer from a location or housing is needed, yet the ambient atmosphere in the area to which the heat will be transferred contains fine dust or flammable vapor or chemicals which, when subjected to high heat or localized arcing, become overly corrosive (such locations being individually and collectively referred to herein as "hazardous environments"). Such environments can pose a hazard because most conventional air conditioning or heat exchanger units contain components that have elements which should not be exposed to the hazardous environment, for example, motors, switches and relays, because they have the potential to create sparks or have one or more sufficiently hot surfaces that can interact with the dust or vapor to cause an explosion or ignition Likewise, those sparks and/or hot surfaces can cause localized atmospheric chemicals to react with and quickly degrade components of the units themselves.
In an effort to address this problem, conventional heat transfer units that are used in such environments typically employ remedial approaches, such as relying upon use of explosion-proof hardware and enclosures, incorporating energy-limiting devices to reduce the possibility of arcing, or relocating spark-producing or high heat-producing components to locations well-removed from the hazardous environment. All such approaches however increase cost and complexity of the units.
Thus, there is a need for heat transfer units that can be used in hazardous locations but do not require such high cost and/or complex remedial efforts that have the effect of reducing reliability of their components relative to their normal counterpart components (e.g., non-explosion proof or energy-limiting).


A row unit for a work vehicle includes a row unit frame with a closer frame. The closer frame defines a longitudinal axis and a transverse axis. The closer frame is supported for rotational movement about a substantially vertical steering axis to vary a turning angle between the longitudinal axis the vehicle longitudinal axis. The row unit includes a closer implement assembly with first and second closer implements and a walking beam construction. The first and second closer implements are attached to opposite areas of the walking beam construction. The walking beam construction is rotationally attached to the closer frame to support rotation of the closer implement assembly about the transverse axis. The first and second closer implements are configured to move ground material into a ground opening from opposites sides as the work vehicle moves across the field.

Some work vehicles are configured for applying seed, fertilizer, and/or other particulate commodities to a field. Oftentimes, the work vehicle may include a metering system, which meters out a predetermined amount of the commodity for delivery to the soil. The work vehicle may also include a plurality of row units with ground engaging implements that are configured to receive the metered commodity and plant it within the soil.
More specifically, as the work vehicle moves across the field, the ground engaging implement(s) of a row unit may create a trench or furrow in the soil. The row unit may deliver the commodity into the trench. Then, the ground engaging implement(s) may move the soil over the commodity and bury the commodity under the surface of the soil.

Work vehicle with row unit having variable steering angle


An imprint lithography apparatus is disclosed that has a substrate table configured to hold a substrate, a template holder configured to hold an imprint template, the imprint template or the template holder having a template alignment mark configured to be imprinted onto the substrate table or onto a substrate to form an imprinted alignment mark, the imprint template having a functional pattern, and the template alignment mark and the functional pattern having a known spatial relationship, and an alignment sensor configured to determine the location of the imprinted alignment mark.

A lithographic apparatus is a machine that applies a desired pattern onto a target portion of a substrate. Lithographic apparatus are conventionally used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs), flat panel displays and other devices involving fine structures.
It is desirable to reduce the size of features in a lithographic pattern because this allows for a greater density of features on a given substrate area. In photolithography, the increased resolution may be achieved by using light of shorter wavelength. However, there are problems associated with such reductions. Current systems are starting to adopt optical sources with wavelengths in the 193 nm regime but even at this level, diffraction limitations become a barrier. At lower wavelengths, the transparency of materials is very poor. Optical lithography machines capable of enhanced resolutions require complex optics and rare materials and are consequently very expensive.
An alternative for printing sub-100 nm features, known as imprint lithography, comprises transferring a pattern to a substrate by imprinting a pattern into an imprintable medium using a physical mould or template. The imprintable medium may be the substrate or a material coated on to a surface of the substrate. The imprintable medium may be functional or may be used as a "mask" to transfer a pattern to an underlying surface. The imprintable medium may, for instance, be provided as a resist deposited on a substrate, such as a semiconductor material, into which the pattern defined by the template is to be transferred. Imprint lithography is thus essentially a moulding process on a micrometer or nanometer scale in which the topography of a template defines the pattern created on a substrate. Patterns may be layered as with optical lithography processes so that, in principle, imprint lithography could be used for such applications as IC manufacture.
The resolution of imprint lithography is limited only by the resolution of the template fabrication process. For instance, imprint lithography may be used to produce features in the sub-50 nm range with significantly improved resolution and line edge roughness compared to that achievable with conventional optical lithography processes. In addition, imprint processes do not require expensive optics, advanced illumination sources or specialized resist materials typically required by optical lithography processes.
Imprint lithography may be used to manufacture multiple layer structures, such as integrated circuits. In order to manufacture such multiple layer structures, each layer is typically independently imprinted. For example, a first layer is imprinted on a substrate, following which the imprinted material is treated such that the imprinted pattern becomes fixed. A second layer is then imprinted on the first layer and treated, followed by third and fourth layers, etc. In some integrated circuit designs up to thirty layers may be used. Manufacture of multiple layer structures is commonplace using optical lithography apparatus. However, it has so far proved difficult to manufacture such structures using imprint lithography, due to difficulties in aligning the patterns of successive layers such that they correspond correctly. Alignment between successive layers should be achieved with high accuracy otherwise device components, which are constructed by several layers, will not contact one another or do so improperly with the result that the device components may not function as intended.


A circuit and method for limiting the power supplied to a load are provided. The circuit and method prevent power supplied to the load from exceeding a power threshold for a programmable amount of time specified in a timer. The circuit includes a voltage controlled current source coupled to the load. A current multiplier divider is coupled to the voltage controlled current source and a timer is coupled to the load. A comparator with an adaptive threshold is coupled to the current multiplier divider and the input for controlling the timer to limit the power supplied to the load.

Power controllers have been provided to limit the power delivered to a load, thereby protecting it from thermal failure or other damage. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,141,197, providing a smart circuit breaker for residential use, U.S. Pat. No. 6,836,099, providing a power controller for real-time monitoring and adjustment of power usage by the load, U.S. Pat. No. 6,704,181, providing an adaptive power controller that dynamically controls the power based on information received from the load, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,122,180, providing a constant power controller for maintaining a constant power to the load.
In particular, constant power controllers monitor the power delivered to the load such that the power may not exceed a predetermined power level for some programmable amount of time. Such power level may be the constant maximum value permitted by the load and set by the load manufacturer to comply with its safety restrictions. In typical implementations, an adaptive trip threshold may be used to indicate when to trip off power to the load. Usually it is desirable to implement the adaptive trip threshold transfer function with accuracy less than +/−2%. Realization of such transfer function prevents excessive losses of power without violating the safety restrictions of the load.
There remains, however, a need to implement this transfer function with higher accuracy and with a relatively simple power controller circuit.

Circuit and method for limiting power to a load


A barrier system for protection and resistance from externally started fires, forest fires and other fires that effect and start a structure burning from the outside inward. The barrier system comprising a specifically designed track system mounted onto the top of the structure, utilizing fire protective material hanging down the sides of the structure to create a fire resistant enclosure. The barrier system is designed to be assembled and set up in advance on the structure in preparation of a fire. The barrier system design allows for ease and quickness with installation. Pre-installation of the barrier system on a roof of a structure that is being fire protected is provided by sectional pieces that are delivered to the structure and then installed in advance. The barrier system sectional pieces are designed to be different lengths and are adapted to the unique dimensions of the structure.

Living in Southern California and seeing all the houses burning down, Ameba Inventions believes that a personally controlled system needs to be developed to reduce loss of home and private property and assist in control of insurance rates by offering lower risk to a structure owner in high fire areas.

External structure fire protection system “ESFPS”


A valley detecting circuit and method are provided for a voltage across a switching device, which detect a voltage across the switching device to produce a first voltage proportional to the voltage across the switching device, clamp the first voltage to produce a second voltage, level shift the second voltage to produce a third voltage, and compare the second voltage with the third voltage to determine a valley for the first voltage.

An important challenge to the development of the advanced switching mode power supply is to increase the switching frequency of the power switches, because high switching frequency may decrease the size and the weight of a switching mode power supply. However, higher switching frequency results in higher switching loss, and it is therefore required to reduce the switching loss for implementing high switching frequency designs. FIG. 1 shows a conventional quasi-resonance flyback power supply 100, in which a power switch SW1 is serially connected to a primary coil P1 of a transformer TX between a power input Vin and ground GND, a capacitor C1 is shunt to the primary coil P1, and a control circuit 102 switches the power switch SW1 to produce a current on a secondary coil S1 of the transformer TX, in order to charge a capacitor C2 to produce an output voltage Vout.
FIG. 2 is a waveform diagram of the voltage across the power switch SW1 of the power supply 100 shown in FIG. 1. Between time t1 and t2, the power switch SW1 is off, a current flows from the secondary coil S1 through a diode D1 to charge the capacitor C2, and the voltage across the power switch SW1 will clamp to a predetermined value. Between time t2 and t3, the power switch SW1 is still off, the current on the secondary coil S1 is off, and the voltage across the power switch SW1 is resonated due to the presence of the capacitor C1, and thereby produces sinusoidal wave. Between time t3 and t4, the power switch SW1 is on, the voltage across the power switch SW1 falls down. To reduce the switching loss of the power switch SW1, the best timing to turn on the power switch SW1 is when the voltage across the power switch SW1 is at a minimum, that is, the valley of the sinusoidal wave.
Therefore, the key factor of reducing the switching loss is to precisely detect the minimum of the voltage across the power switch SW1. Usually, differentiators are used to detect the minimum of the voltage across the power switch SW1, for example, disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 6,722,989 to Majid et al. According to the present invention, it is desired to detect the minimum of the voltage across the power switch SW1 without using any differentiator.

Valley detecting circuit and method for a voltage across a switching device


A method is disclosed for heat embossing synthetic woven materials that exhibit adhesion properties when subject to heated dies to impart desired lettering or designs into the surface of the material. The method uses an isolation film to diminish excessive heat transfer resulting in excess adhesion to the die.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to the field of marking and embossing materials by subjecting them to a heated die that pre-heats and melts a selected surface portion of the material, imparting a desired lettering or design permanently within.
2. Description of Prior Art
Prior art techniques for marking materials subject to high adhesion properties when heated is to hot stamp a foil of colored material to the top surface of the material, examples of related prior art stamping techniques are evident in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,599,563, 4,047,996 and 4,092,198.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,599,563 a method for marking materials can be seen in which a groove is formed in the direction of the material elongation. Applying a colored material within the grooves so that the colored material adheres to the sides of the grooves preventing elongation and breaking of the coloring material upon elongation of the material.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,047,996 a method to imprint plastic plates is disclosed wherein hot stamping a plastic laminate to achieve a high color contrast of the desired design to the background material uses a pressure sensitive adhesive that is stamped, then adhesively applied to the surface material.
Pat. No. 4,092,198 is drawn towards a process for high pressure decorative laminate having registration colors. A sculptured pressing plate die impacts a multiple construction in which a coded print sheet is laminated to a core support sheet with an overlay sheet and a release sheet.

Method of heat embossing materials subject to adhesion


A multi-purpose tool includes a sleeve having a first end with at least two grooves defined longitudinally in an inner periphery thereof so as to receive a base member therein, and a second end to which a cap is mounted. The base member has a transparent end member formed to one of two ends of the base member and having a hole defined therethrough. A flashlight is received in the sleeve and has a bulb disposed thereto so as to emits light via the transparent end member of the base member. The flashlight has a switch which is accessed via an aperture is defined through a periphery of the sleeve. A knife assembly received in the sleeve and receive the flashlight therein and a receiving member is received in the cap and has a plurality of tips removably disposed thereto.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tool and, more particularly, to a multi-purpose tool having a flashlight, a knife assembly and a driver means received therein.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 1 shows a conventional screw driver which includes a handle 70 and a shank 71 extending longitudinally from one of two ends of the handle 70. The shank 71 has a tip portion 72 having a specific configuration so as to drive a screw. The conventional screw driver has only one function so that a user has to carry many types of screw drivers with him/her to complete his/her work. However, it is heavy to carry many screw drivers and the screw drivers could drop or lost.
The present invention intends to provide an improved multi-purpose tool which includes a flashlight, a knife assembly and a driver means to mitigate and/or obviate the above-mentioned problems.