A current sense amplifier including a transconductance amplifier to measure a current passing through a sense resistor and generate a reference current indicative of the measured current. A current mirror circuit is connected to the transconductance amplifier and receives the reference current for amplification to generate an amplified output current. A cascode circuit is connected serially to the current mirror circuit to boost an output impedance for the amplifier at the output of the generated amplified output current. The current mirror circuit and cascode circuit of the current sense amplifier are each formed from a pair of transistors sharing a common control node, with the transistors realized using with bipolar or MOS technology.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of current sense amplifiers.
2. Description of Related Art
Current sense amplifiers are typically used to measure the amount of current supplied by and to a device or component in various types of electronic equipment. Reference is now made to FIG. 1 wherein there is shown a schematic diagram of a typical implementation for a current sense amplifier 10. A current (referred to as Iload) to be sensed flows through a sense resistor (Rsense) from a first sensing node (Rs+) to a second sensing node (Rsxe2x88x92). The first sensing node (Rs+) is connected to a first input (+) of an operational amplifier 12 through a resistor R1. The second sensing node (Rsxe2x88x92) is connected to a second input (xe2x88x92) of the operational amplifier 12 through a resistor R2. The output of the operational amplifier 12 is connected to the base of a transistor 14 whose collector is connected to the first input (+). A current (referred to as Iref) flows through the connection between the first input (+) and the collector of the transistor 14. An emitter of the transmitter 14, generates an input current (referred to as Iin) and, is connected to an input of a 1:n current mirror 16. Vcc is connected to an output of the current mirror 16 through a load resistor R3 for the generation of an output current (referred to as Iout) The second input (xe2x88x92) of the operational amplifier 12 presents a relatively high impedance. Neglecting the presence of any input bias current at the second input (xe2x88x92), it is recognized that no current flows through the second resistor R2 from the second sensing node (Rsxe2x88x92) . The voltage at both the first input (+) and second input (xe2x88x92) is therefore equal to the voltage at the second sensing node (Rsxe2x88x92). The voltage drop across the resistor R1 is accordingly equal to the product of Iload and Rsense. The input current Iin thus equals the current Iref, and ideally then:
Iref=Iloadxc2x7(Rsense/R1);xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1)
and
Iout=nxc2x7Iin;xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(2)
and
Iout=nxc2x7Iloadxc2x7(Rsense/R1).xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(3)
In practice, however, the value of base current at the transistor 14 cannot be neglected as it is also multiplied by a factor of n in the current mirror 16 and alters the value of the output current Iout (of Equation 3) away from ideal. Still further, it is recognized that a current mirror 16 possessing a large factor (for example, n equals approximately twenty for a Wilson current mirror) is not particularly accurate. The value of the input current is actually set as follows:
Iin=Irefxc2x7(1+1/xcex2)xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(4)
wherein: xcex2 is the current gain of the transistor 14.
Reference is now made to FIG. 2 wherein there is shown a schematic diagram of the 1:n current mirror 16. This current mirror has a conventional configuration that is well known to those skilled in the art. A detailed description of the components, interconnection and operation of the current mirror 16 is accordingly not required. Continuing with the foregoing analysis, and specifically with respect to the current mirror 16, the relationship between the input current Iin and the output current Iout is given by the following:                               I          out                =                              I            in                    ·                                                    n                ·                                  β                  2                                            +                              n                ·                β                            +              β                                                      β                2                            +                                                (                                      n                    +                    1                                    )                                ·                β                            +              n              +              1                                                          (        5        )
wherein: xcex2 is the current gain of the matched transistors within the current mirror 16. From Equations 4 and 5, the actual value of the output current Iout is given by the following:                                           I            out                    =                      n            ·                          I              ref                        ·                          (                              1                -                                                                                (                                                  n                          -                                                      1                            n                                                    -                          1                                                )                                            ·                      β                                        +                                          (                                              n                        -                                                  1                          n                                                                    )                                                                                β                      2                                        +                                                                  (                                                  n                          +                          1                                                )                                            ·                      β                                        +                    n                    +                    1                                                              )                                      ;                  xe2x80x83                        and                            (        6        )
by taking into account Equation (1);                               I          out                =                  n          ·                      I            load                    ·                      (                                          R                sense                            R1                        )                    ·                                    (                              1                -                                                                                (                                                  n                          -                                                      1                            n                                                    -                          1                                                )                                            ·                      β                                        +                                          (                                              n                        -                                                  1                          n                                                                    )                                                                                β                      2                                        +                                                                  (                                                  n                          +                          1                                                )                                            ·                      β                                        +                    n                    +                    1                                                              )                        .                                              (        7        )
Now, from a comparison of the foregoing Equations, it is recognized that the actual output current (see, Equation 7) of the current mirror 16 and the current nxc2x7Iref that should preferably (and ideally) be output from the current mirror approximately differ from each other by a factor (shown inside the parenthetical of Equation 7) on the order of:       (          n      -              1        n            -      1        )    /      β    .
Given a scenario where n is relatively large (for example, greater than or about ten) and xcex2 is relatively small (for example, less than or about sixty), this factor can present a significant difference in measured current. In this configuration, the current sense amplifier circuit of FIG. 1 cannot be used for generating a precision current amplifier output.
A transconductance amplifier measures a current passing through a sense resistor to generate a reference current indicative of the measured current. A current mirror circuit connected to the transconductance amplifier amplifies the reference current to generate an amplified output current. A cascode circuit is connected between the current mirror circuit and output of the generated amplified output current.

Low voltage current sense amplifier circuit


A lighting apparatus with uniform illumination distribution, according to various embodiments, can include a lens for area lighting. In one embodiment, the lens comprises a plurality of cross-sections identified by a thickness ratio defined at different angles. The thickness ratio is determined relative to the thickness of the cross-section defined at a center angle of the lens. In another embodiment, the lighting apparatus with uniform illumination distribution includes a lens having an inner surface and an outer surface. A profile of the inner surface and the outer surface is composed of a plurality of piecewise circular arcs defined with radii and circle centers. The lens is formed as a complex curve lens by joining the piecewise circular arcs of the inner surface and the outer surface.

In recent years, as their power and efficiency have increased and their cost decreased, LEDs have been used in many applications as viable replacements to conventional fluorescent lamps, incandescent lamps, neon tubes and fiber optic light sources. LED lighting systems can be employed in a variety of environments to illuminate a flat surface, such as street lighting, a parking lot, a parking garage, a roadway, a walkway, a sidewalk, an aisle, a hallway, a table, a stage, a room, a manufacturing facility, a warehouse, and other types of environments.
In applying these lights to these environments, a multitude of factors influences the choice of equipment, placement of fixtures, and degrees of illumination appropriate to the structures, terrain, and after-hours activity. Based on the LED lens selected for a particular application, hot spots of non-uniform light intensity, which are apparent to the eye human, can be created. A poor lighting design can create blinding spots of glare that cast shadows, creating an eyesore and a number of safety and security hazards. Thus, security ranks as a top concern for business owners having a commercial lighting system installed.
For example in a parking lot lighting system, visibility constitutes a major factor in every design. Parking lot lighting systems are actually regulated by the government, and by law must produce a minimum of four foot candles of light. Neglecting this element not only places drivers and pedestrians at risk in the parking lot, it can create for the business owner liability in the form of possible government fines and legal liability should an unfortunate incident occur on the premises due to poor visibility.
Thus, the optical specifications within the design of a lighting system typically identify application-specific radiation patterns required to be produced by the selected light source. For example, in some lighting applications, such as street lighting, parking garage lighting and walkway lighting, uniform illumination output from the light source is desired in order to uniformly illuminate the entire area.
However, this requirement may be difficult to attain when the target area has widely varying distances. To achieve uniform illumination over the entire area, it is necessary to tailor the intensity of the LED lens by increasing the intensity towards the more distant parts of the area, relative to the closest parts of the area.
For producing uniform illuminance on a flat surface, the ideal intensity distribution is given by an inverted cosine cube law (1/cos3 θ, variation where θ is the angle measured from the vertical direction of the lamp). Amplitude may change depending upon the power source, but the distribution shape still follows the inverted cosine cube law. An exact lens having the characteristics of "ideal" uniform illuminance cannot be produced.
Rather, some conventional techniques approach uniform illuminance without actually achieving "ideal" uniform illuminance. One such conventional technique is a batwing beam pattern, which is commonly used for illuminating a flat surface. The batwing pattern may be defined by having two roughly equal peaks in a candela distribution plot with a valley between the peaks at about 0 degrees. Some LED lamps that radiate the batwing intensity distribution can produce uniform illuminance, but none can produce an intensity distribution that follows the inverted cosine cube law.

Lenses for cosine cubed, typical batwing, flat batwing distributions


Metal vanadium oxide particles have been produced with an average diameter less than about 500 nm. The particles are produced from nanocrystalline vanadium oxide particles. Silver vanadium oxide particles, for example, can be formed by the heat treatment of a mixture of nanoscale vanadium oxide and a silver compound. Other metal vanadium oxide particles can be produced by similar processes. The metal vanadium oxide particles have very uniform properties.

Lithium based batteries have become commercially successful due to their relatively high energy density. Suitable positive electrode materials for lithium based batteries include materials that can intercalate lithium atoms into their lattice. The negative electrode can be lithium metal, lithium alloys or compounds that can reversibly intercalate lithium atoms into their lattice. Batteries formed from lithium metal or lithium alloy negative electrodes are referred to as lithium batteries while batteries formed with an anode (negative electrode) active material that can intercalate lithium ions are referred to as lithium ion batteries.
In order to produce improved batteries, various materials have been examined for use as cathode (positive electrode) active materials for lithium based batteries. A variety of materials, generally chalgogenides, are useful in lithium based batteries. For example, vanadium oxides in certain oxidation states are effective materials for the production of positive electrodes for lithium based batteries. Also, metal vanadium oxide compositions have been identified as having high energy densities and high power densities, when used in positive electrodes for lithium based batteries. Silver vanadium oxide has a particularly high energy density and high power densities, when used in lithium based batteries. Silver vanadium oxide batteries have found particular use in the production of implantable cardiac defribulators where the battery must be able to recharge a capacitor to deliver large pulses of energy in rapid succession, within ten seconds or less.


A method for fabricating a transistor, the method includes forming a gate over a substrate to form a first resultant structure, forming a gate spacer at first and second sidewalls of the gate, etching portions of the substrate proximate to the gate spacer to form a recess in a source/drain region of the substrate, forming a first epitaxial layer including germanium to fill the recess, and performing a high temperature oxidation process to form a second epitaxial layer including germanium over an interfacial layer between the substrate and the first epitaxial layer, the second epitaxial layer having a germanium concentration that is higher than a germanium concentration of the first epitaxial SiGe layer, thereby forming a second resultant structure.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and, more particularly, to a transistor in a semiconductor device and a method for fabricating the same.
As a semiconductor device becomes highly integrated, it has become increasingly important to fabricate a transistor capable of ensuring high current drivability while maintaining the margin of a channel length in a narrow area. In particular, it is essential for the fabrication of high speed products to ensure high current drivability.
According to the prior art, in order to ensure high current drivability, a method of scaling the thickness of a gate insulation layer has been employed. However, in a highly integrated semiconductor device, an equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) is less than 2 nm and thus current leakage occurs in the gate dielectric layer. Therefore, such a method has a limit in ensuring the high current drivability.
In order to overcome such a limitation, a technology capable of increasing the mobility of a carrier has been recently proposed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,861,318 discloses a method for improving on-current by applying stress to a channel region formed below a gate to increase the mobility of a carrier. Hereinafter, the method will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 illustrates a cross-sectional view of a method for fabricating a transistor in a semiconductor device according to the prior art. Referring to FIG. 1, a PMOS transistor will be described as one example.
As shown in FIG. 1, an isolation layer 11 is formed on a substrate 10 to isolate an active region of the substrate 10. In general, the substrate 10 includes silicon. Then, a gate 100 including a gate insulation layer 12, a gate electrode 13 and a gate hard mask 14 is formed on the substrate 10.
After an insulation layer for a gate spacer is formed on the resultant structure including the gate 100, the entire surface of the insulation layer is etched to form a gate spacer 15 on both sidewalls of the gate 100. After the substrate 10 is etched using the gate 100 and the gate spacer 15 as an etch barrier to form a recess 16 in source/drain regions of the substrate 10, an epitaxial SiGe layer 17 is formed to fill the recess 16.
In the case of fabricating the transistor in such a manner, stress is applied to a channel region 18 due to the difference between the lattice constant of the substrate 10 including silicon and the lattice constant of the epitaxial SiGe layer 17, so that the mobility of a carrier is increased. Since the epitaxial SiGe layer 17 has a lattice constant larger than that of the substrate 10, the compressive stress is applied to the channel region 18 to increase hole mobility. In particular, the lattice constant of the epitaxial SiGe layer 17 is further increased as the mole fraction of germanium contained in the epitaxial SiGe layer 17 is increased. However, the fabricating method of the transistor as described above has the following problems.
First, the stress applied to the channel region 18, due to the difference between the lattice constant of the substrate 10 and the lattice constant of the epitaxial SiGe layer 17, is rapidly reduced as the width of the gate spacer 15 is increased (reference document: K. Ota, et al, "Scalable eSiGe S/D Technology with less layout dependence for 45 nm, VLSI 2006"). That is, since the stress applied to the channel region 18 is changed according to the width of the gate spacer 15, properly adjusting the degree of on-current based on the mobility of the carrier is difficult.
Furthermore, in order to increase the stress applied to the channel region 18 to increase the mobility of the carrier, it is preferable to increase the difference between the lattice constant of the substrate 10 and the lattice constant of the epitaxial SiGe layer 17. To this end, the mole fraction of germanium contained in the epitaxial SiGe layer 17 should be increased. However, if the mole fraction of germanium contained in the epitaxial SiGe layer 17 is increased beyond a certain level (e.g., mole fraction 0.2), a defect such as dislocation may occur in the epitaxial SiGe layer 17. Such a defect may cause current leakage.

Semiconductor device and method for fabricating the same


An authentication section comparing a characteristic included in a user's input into an input section with a characteristic of a person registered in memory, to determine an authentication result. An authentication control section including a function for (i) storing a value indicating a likelihood of being the person, (ii) controlling the value indicating a likelihood of the user being the person, based on (i) the authentication result of the authentication section and (ii) a passage of time. In response to an instruction to begin a process which requires authentication, the authentication control section controls whether or not to permit execution of the process depending on a the stored value Thus, unauthorized use of a device is prevented, while the trouble of asking a user to make a special input for authentication is resolved when a process requiring authentication is executed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an art which is mounted on an information processing device such as a portable device (e.g., cell phone and PDA) and a personal computer and prevents unauthorized use by authenticating whether or not a user trying to execute various processes using the device is a person who is authorized to use it.
2. Background of the Related Art
Recently, under study is provision of various services using a portable device by mounting, on the portable device, a chip or card that realizes a so-called IC card function. For example, a user will be able to use various services by having a user's own portable device mounted with an IC card that communicates with a service terminal provided with an IC card reader/writer. The various services including e-money transaction processes, bonus point service processes accompanying purchase of products or the like, fare adjustment processes at gates of transportation facilities, entry processes by e-ticket, and management processes of entry/exit or attendance record.
Such a chip or card that realizes an IC card function is configured such that programs and important data are concealed in a IC chip and important information as well as a key or logic to access that information cannot be seen by an unauthorized device. The chip or card can encrypt and store important information such as credit card data, e-ticket data, or the like.
While important information stored as above cannot be accessed from an unauthorized device, if an unauthorized user (other than the person) once obtains a portable device mounted with an IC card or IC card function, the unauthorized user can use services provided, based on this important information. Moreover, since a portable device needs frequent charging, it is often left, for example, on a table in an office while being connected to the power. In this case, even if a user does not lose the portable device, it becomes highly likely that the above-mentioned unauthorized use would occur.
A portable device holds not only important information related to e-commerce or the like, but also information related to privacy such as an address book, schedule, incoming and outgoing emails, or records of incoming and outgoing calls. There are a growing number of requests for wanting to avoid a user, other than the person, who dishonestly sees such information stored in a portable device.
Under such circumstances, various mechanisms to prevent unauthorized use are under study. A popular mechanism is password authentication. Recently, a cell phone mounted with a fingerprint authentication device has been commercialized. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. 2002-44727 discloses an art to allow, by way of fingerprint authentication, an operation that lifts a restriction of a communication control section. Also suggested is an art of performing authentication by combining results obtained from various authentication methods. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. 2000-242786 describes an art to judge whether a user is the person or not by determining probabilities of the user's being the person using two or more authentication methods respectively and by determining a logical value from each result. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. 2000-259828 describes an art to judge whether a user is the person or not using two or more authentication methods respectively and decides that the user is the person when all the authentication methods judge that the user is the person.
A known art to prevent unauthorized use is to authenticate in order to unlock a locked process when a user tries to execute the locked process in an information processing apparatus. With such art, a user who wants to protect important or privacy-related information needs to set a lock so that an application to receive services using such information or an application to view such information cannot be started or executed unless authentication is successful. Locking can prevent another person's unauthorized use, but since a special operation for authentication (e.g., inputting password, and pressing a finger on a fingerprint authentication device) is required whenever the person wants to use the device, it is troublesome and takes a longer time to start a desired application due to a process time required for authentication.
If it is possible to continuously confirm by some means whether a user using an information processing device is the person or not, the user will be free of trouble of being asked for a special operation for authentication when the user wants to use some services or information. However, such a continuous authentication is difficult, especially when the information processing device is a portable device, because of the way it is used and its physical restrictions. Therefore, it is required to devise when to conduct authentication, how to prevent unauthorized use during a period that a user is not being authenticated, or the like.

Apparatus and a method for preventing unauthorized use and a device with a function of preventing unauthorized use


Techniques for gaining facility in the performance of jazz music by performing a sequence of patterns. Each pattern begins at a fixed interval from the preceding pattern in the sequence and the patterns are performed with perpetual motion between the patterns. The patterns are all performed with the same articulation and are systematically performed across the complete range of the instrument and across a complete set of key areas and modes. In an exemplary embodiment, the patterns are made up of eighth note octave scales played in four four time with notes played on the upbeat being slurred to notes played on the downbeat. The last note of one pattern is slurred to the first note of the next. In the exemplary embodiment, the sequences of patterns are performed in all keys and the scales are drawn from the major scale and modes that stem from the major scale.

1. Field of the invention
The invention relates generally to techniques for gaining facility in the playing of musical instruments and more specifically to techniques for gaining facility in making transitions from a key or mode to another key or mode.
2. Description of related art
Since at least the time of Bach's Well-tempered Clavier, classically-trained musicians have used systematically-constructed sets of exercises to gain proficiency in singing or playing their instruments. One of the kinds of proficiency taught in these exercises was improvisation within the context of classical music. For example, the famous piano virtuoso and etude writer Carl Czerny's Opus 200 (1836) is a set of etudes entitled A systematic introduction to improvisation on the pianoforte. The title of Czemy's work expresses the underlying paradox: improvisation, that seemingly most spontaneous form of musical expression, requires careful and systematic preparation on the part of the musician. As Czemy put it, "When the practicing musician possesses the capability not only of executing at his instrument the ideas that his inventive power, inspiration, or mood have evoked in him at the instant of their conception but of so combining them that the coherence can have the effect on the listener of an actual composition-this is what is called: Improvising or Extemporizing."
While improvisation in the context of classical music is of at most historical interest, jazz improvisation is a living art. Jazz was originally an aural tradition, and improvisation was learned by listening to jam sessions and participating in them. As jazz has grown more complex and traveling big bands and their jam sessions have disappeared, people have begun to teach improvisation in schools. With that has come a large and confusing literature devoted to teaching improvisation.
Jazz improvisation is the spontaneous creation of music in the jazz style. Like traditional composition, jazz improvisation is a craft. It is a conditioning of the mind, body and spirit, brought about by the study of musical principles. This conditioning becomes a necessary prelude to the professional practice of the art, despite the implications of the word spontaneous. Just as spontaneity is combined with conditioning, so is the existing style of jazz combined with original of expression. One is lost without the other, and so we seldom hear an improviser's solo that do not contain melodic fragments or patterns: from the melody of the tune used, from a fellow performer's solo, from an influential player of the time, from a different tune altogether, from material previously improvised, or from patterns (original and borrowed) currently studied in individual practice. Another obvious combination is creation and performance. The jazz improviser pre-hears in his mind the next musical event, and then has the added task of playing it cleanly and with feeling. This is the process of jazz improvisation.
The study of jazz improvisation may be separated into three main areas of study. These areas are: facility, linguistics, and interaction.
Facility includes any act which helps the player to gain control of his or her instrument and/or any act contributing to the reading and comprehension of musical information. In regards to the alto saxophone gaining control of the instrument includes but is not limited to coordination between the fingers and tongue, embouchure development, air support, posture, reading notes, chord symbols, articulations, rhythms, dynamics, etc . . . In order to overcome limited facility on one's instrument one may practice long tones, scales, arpeggios, interval patterns, melodic phrases, and other devices. In order to develop better reading and comprehension of musical information, one may study musical notation privately or with a teacher.
One must become as proficient as possible on his or her instrument. Any musician is inhibited and limited by the lack of knowledge of the instrument. Musicians who know their instruments we have a better chance of conveying the music that is contained within their mind to the listener. The finest, most successful and well established jazz players not only continue to practice their instruments to maintain technical facility but also are consistently seeking to improve jazz vocabulary.
Like languages with regional accents, jargon, slang terms, and phrases, most music including jazz tends to have its own idiomatic phrases. To exercise jazz linguistics, one may engage in several activities. These include, but are not limited to, repeatedly listening to a multitude of jazz recordings, singing along with jazz recordings or others, transcribing jazz melodies and improvised solos, and practicing idiomatic phrases or patterns found in jazz solos or elsewhere. The most important way to learn the linguistics of jazz is listening to jazz. Virtually every great jazz player has learned the art form in the same manner: through learning the solos of other great players.
When listening to great jazz artists, students may find a particular sequence of notes enjoyable and transfer this melodic pattern of notes to his or her instrument. The idea of learning a pattern and when to play it should not be thought of as uncreative. Because it is impossible to continuously create new meaningful ideas, improvisers at times resort to playing ideas or patterns that have been practiced and mentally logged before hand. This is taking nothing away from the improvised because it is often just as hard to play an idea several times in a row, each time with the same conviction, as it is to create completely new ideas.
The frequent mention of melodic fragments, patterns, and sequences of notes in the foregoing discussion suggests the need for a collection of patterns to be practiced diligently by the serious student of jazz improvisation. After the student has acquired some basic vocabulary, has a good sound, and knows how to properly articulate and inflect, learning to organize (or reorganize) material is the next logical step to master.
Because jazz is multifaceted, interaction, leading to good communication, in performance with other musicians is vital. Jazz is a complex art form combining the talents of individuals together as a collective whole. Therefore the art of improvisation must be taught both individually and collectively. In this fashion ideas may be shared aurally and developed. As essential to students as technical information and counsel is the understanding of jazz acquired directly through performance.
Facility, linguistics, and interaction work collectively to develop a strong sense of comfort in the jazz idiom and jazz improvisation. Many times these defined areas in fact overlap. One such case is the transcribing of a melodic phrase, or "lick," from a solo and practicing it in all keys. Here, both facility and linguistics are used. Facility is employed due to the practice of tongue and finger coordination. Linguistics is utilized due to the practice of phrasing the melodic figure just as one had heard it on the jazz recording.
Another such case of overlapping is partaking in a jam session. Here, interaction is exercised, for the wonderful interplay between jazz musicians. Also, linguistics is implemented due to the "conversation" flowing back and forth between jazz musicians. Again, facility, linguistics, and interaction operate together to develop a strong sense of ease in the performance of jazz improvisation.
In New Concepts in Linear Improvisation, Miami, Fla. CPP/Belwin, Inc., 1976, Ramon Ricker discusses three distinct categories of jazz improvisers: the "head" player, the "ear" player, and the "ideal" player. Each is described. Most important is an explanation of how each type of improviser would improvise.
Ricker describes a "head" player as one who has a good intellectual grasp of improvisation, but whose solos never seem to work. Instead, they seem to lack the emotion or musical sense to make things happen.
An "ear" player is said to be a student who frequently will have no idea of what he is playing, but the performed solos will sound passable. The performer will sound good on blues and other simple chord progressions, but when more difficult tunes are encountered, fails hopelessly.
Ricker describes the "ideal" player as one who has the theoretical knowledge, but doesn't let it get in the way of his or her music. He states, "The marriage of intellect and emotion is a difficult one to consummate, but nevertheless quite possible." Fundamental to becoming an ideal player is that the player must be able to hear an interesting improvisation in his or her head and then be able to immediately play what he or she has heard on his or her instrument. In order to become an ideal player, a student must have an education in improvisation that balances technique and ear. It is an object of the techniques disclosed herein to provide such an education.

Chord progression based techniques and tools for learning to play music


A speech signal processing system combines acoustic noise reduction and echo cancellation to enhance acoustic performance. The speech signal processing system may be used in vehicles or other environments where noise-suppressed communication is desirable. The system includes an adaptive beamforming signal processing unit, an adaptive echo compensating unit to reduce acoustic echoes, and an adaptation unit to combine noise reduction and adaptive echo compensating.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to speech signal processing. In particular, the invention relates to multi-channel speech signal processing system.
2. Related Art
Speech signal processing may be performed in a noisy background, such as in a vehicle. In hands-free telephones or other communications devices, noise suppression may be needed to ensure reliable communication. The amplitudes and frequencies of the noise may vary temporally.
The suppression of signals transmitted by loudspeakers and received by the microphone(s), may be desired because echoes may affect the quality and intelligibility of voice conversation. Unfortunately, different convergence properties of adaptive beamformers and echo canceling may require excessive hardware and computational requirements. Therefore, there is a need to improve acoustic properties in speech signal processing with enhanced (SNR) and echo compensation.

Speech signal processing with combined noise reduction and echo compensation


A method for synchronous replication of stream data includes receiving a stream of data blocks for storage at a first storage location associated with a first geographical region and at a second storage location associated with a second geographical region. The method also includes synchronously writing the stream of data blocks to the first storage location and to the second storage location. While synchronously writing the stream of data blocks, the method includes determining an unrecoverable failure at the second storage location. The method also includes determining a failure point in the writing of the stream of data blocks that demarcates data blocks that were successfully written and not successfully written to the second storage location. The method also includes synchronously writing, starting at the failure point, the stream of data blocks to the first storage location and to a third storage location associated with a third geographical region.

Cloud computing has increased in popularity as storage of large quantities of data in the cloud becomes more common. The need for robust storage of data has also grown to protect the increasingly large quantity of data stored in the cloud. Some cloud service providers increase the robustness of cloud data storage by asynchronously storing data at multiple storage locations across different geographical zones. For example, after writing the data to a first or primary storage location in a first zone, the data is then written to a second storage location in a second zone. Storing the data at these different storage locations allows users to recover their data in the event that one of the storage locations becomes inaccessible. For some data, such as for mission critical applications, data loss is intolerable.

Synchronous replication of high throughput streaming data


A holder assembly, movable between stowed and deployed configurations, includes a holder including a flap configured to support a personal electronic device. The holder is configured to rotate between stowed and deployed positions. A latch assembly is configured to engage the holder in the stowed position, and a movement assembly is configured to automatically move the holder from the stowed position to the deployed position upon disengagement of the holder and latch assembly.

The present invention relates generally to support arms. More particularly, the present invention relates to a holder for a personal electronic device (PED).
Commercial airline companies strive to provide improved services for their customers as well as improving passenger comfort and convenience. Today, it is common for both private and commercial passenger aircraft to have an in-flight entertainment (IFE) system. An IFE system generally comprises an entertainment content source, such as a computer server having entertainment and/or information media (e.g., Internet access, movies, music, television shows and/or other entertainment media content) stored in digital format; and a wired or wireless (e.g., WIFI) networking system communicating entertainment media throughout the aircraft in response to passenger communications. On many airlines, it is standard for each passenger to have their own personal video display monitor associated with their chair or seat to provide the passenger with in-flight entertainment and/or information. The video display monitor can include a user interface wherein the passenger may provide touch-screen input to the IFE. However, although an airline may provide at least one video display monitor associated with one or more seats to provide passengers with entertainment and/or information, airlines are also aware that passengers use their own portable PEDs (e.g., notebook computer, media player, smartphone, tablet-style device, hand-held device, etc.) during a flight. These PEDs are capable of storing and playing music, video and entertainment digital files as well as being WIFI enabled. PEDs are commonly used on aircraft as more airlines offer passengers WIFI access in order to connect their PEDs to the IFE. Each passenger seat may include or be associated with a table tray providing a generally horizontal surface upon which the passenger places their PED. These table trays can be deployed from a seatback in front of a user or from an armrest of a passenger seat. However, some PEDs, such as smartphones and tablets, need to be held by the user in a position that allows the display screen on the PED to be seen by the passenger using it. If a PED is placed flat on a tray table with the display screen facing upwards, a passenger may have difficulty seeing the display screen due to the relative angle between the passenger's line of sight and the display screen. Images on the display screen may also be difficult to see due to light reflecting off the surface of the display screen. There has also been a challenge as to how to offer passengers a convenient location to not only view their PEDs, but also to store and charge their PEDs. The most common places to do so have been on the seatback, tray table, seat cushion or literature pocket. However, none of these solutions offer a convenient way to access the PED during flight. Furthermore, PEDs are not held in place by anything and a charging cable or the like connected to the PED may get snagged by a passenger's arm or leg, sending the PED the cable is connected to flying or smacking into a fellow passenger or a surface that damages the PED (not to mention the other passenger).
Accordingly, there is a need for a holder for holding a PED so that the display of the PED is clearly visible to a user during a flight aboard an aircraft. There is a further need for a holder movable between stowed and deployed positions. There is also a need for a holder that can be stowed within a seat console. There is a further need for a holder that can be stowed within a seat armrest. There is an additional need for a holder that can be retro-fitted onto an existing armrest. There is still a further need for a place to safely hold and use a PED. There is an additional need for a holder that will allow a passenger to "mount" the PED in a stationary location that is easily accessible and reduce the chance a charging cable or the like will get snagged. There is a need for a holder that maximizes the use of a limited space within an armrest by having one or more components serve one or more functions. There is an additional need for a holder that is easier to manufacture, assemble, adjust, and maintain. The present invention satisfies these needs and provides other related advantages.


A fluid delivery device according to the present invention has a fluid delivery device body and an electrochemical cell portion for generating a gas when supplied with a DC current. The fluid delivery device body has a partition member transformable by the pressure of a gas, and a gas introduction portion. A first compartment and a second compartment are formed in the fluid delivery device body by the partition member, and a gas generated in the electrochemical cell portion is introduced into the second compartment through the gas introduction portion. A transformable fluid reservoir having a fluid delivery portion is disposed in the first compartment. If the gas generated in the electrochemical cell portion is introduced into the second compartment, the inner pressure of the second compartment increases, and the partition member is pushed, so that a fluid in the fluid reservoir disposed in the first compartment is delivered from the fluid delivery portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fluid delivery device such as an infusion pump to deliver a fluid with high accuracy.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, various infusion pumps have come into use in order to infuse a liquid medicine into human bodies little by little with high accuracy.
Conventional infusion pumps can be classified into four kinds in accordance with the difference in their systems, that is, a syringe pump, a peristaltic (rotor) pump, a finger pump and a bellows pump. Of these, any other than the bellows pump use a motor such as a stepping motor, a rotary solenoid motor, a DC motor, or the like, as a driving source for ejecting a liquid medicine, and adopt a complicated mechanism for controlling the infuse volume of the liquid medicine. Generally, such pumps are therefore heavy in weight and large in size and hence expensive. Therefore, such pumps are usually used on a bedside in a hospital, and are unsuitable for portable or disposable use.
On the other hand, a bellows pump is of a system in which bellows are pushed by use of vaporization pressure of a freon gas to thereby infuse a liquid medicine. However, it is difficult to control the vaporization pressure of the freon gas. Further, this pump has another problem related to the accuracy of the infusion particularly when a very small amount of the liquid medicine is infused over a long period.
One of the present inventors has proposed a device having a pumping function and a gas flow control function in which an electrochemical cell is used for generating an amount of gas which is proportional to the value of a DC current supplied thereto (Japanese Patent No. 1214001). Recently, an electrochemically driven drug dispenser using the principle of the above device has been proposed (H. J. R. Maget, U.S. Pat. No. 4,522,698). This electrochemically driven drug dispenser has an electrochemical cell in which porous gas diffusion electrodes are joined respectively to the opposite surfaces of an ion exchange membrane containing water functioning as an electrolyte. The electrochemically driven drug dispenser uses such a phenomenon that when hydrogen is supplied to an anode of the electrochemical cell and a DC current is made to flow between the anode and the cathode, the hydrogen becomes hydrogen ions at the anode, and when the produced hydrogen ions reach the cathode through the ion exchange membrane, an electrochemical reaction arises to generate hydrogen thereat. That is, the hydrogen generated and pressurized at the cathode is used as a driving source for pushing a piston, a diaphragm, bellows or the like. Alternatively, oxygen may be used in place of hydrogen as a reactor in this electrochemical cell. If the air is used as source of oxygen to be supplied to the cathode, the structure of the drug dispenser may be made considerably simple.
Further, another method has been proposed using electrolysis of water (Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei.2-302264), which is an improved type of such an electrochemically driven drug dispenser. In this method, water is contained in an electrochemical cell in which a cathode and an anode are integrally joined to the opposite surfaces of an ion exchange membrane respectively, or a cathode and an anode are joined both onto one of the opposite surfaces of an ion exchange membrane, so that the cathode and the anode are separated and insulated from each other. Thus, hydrogen, oxygen, or a gas mixture of hydrogen and oxygen generated by electrolysis of water when a DC current is made to flow between the electrodes is used as a pressurization source of the drug dispenser.
When a liquid medicine is infused by an electrochemically driven drug dispenser, there is a method in which the liquid medicine with a predetermined volume is put into a vessel provided with a flexible diaphragm, and the diaphragm is then pushed by the pressure of a gas so as to infuse the liquid medicine. As a specific example of this method, a structure has been proposed in which a flexible diaphragm is disposed in a part of an annular vessel, a liquid medicine is put into a vessel portion surrounded by a wall portion of the vessel and the flexible diaphragm, and a gas generated from an electrochemical cell is supplied to a gap formed between another wall portion of the vessel and the flexible diaphragm to thereby infuse the liquid medicine (H. J. R. Maget, U.S. Pat. No. 4,902,278). In such a structure, when different kinds of liquid medicines are used in one device, it is necessary to cleanse the inside of the vessel every time, and therefore only one kind of a liquid medicine can be used in one device in practical use.
As a practical matter, however, it is impossible to manufacture such a drug dispenser easily and inexpensively because of its complicated structure. In addition, particularly in the case where a liquid medicine is to be delivered, a disinfection or sterilization of the whose system is inevitable. This operation is very difficult to perform in the above-mentioned structure.
There has been further considered to a device in which a liquid medicine or blood is charged in advance into a fluid reservoir consisting of a flexible bladder having a fluid delivery pipe. This fluid reservoir is put into a closed vessel, and gas generated from an electrochemical cell is introduced into the closed vessel. The pressure in a space defined by the inner wall of the closed vessel and the outer surface of the bladder is increased to push the bladder to thereby deliver a fluid. In this device, when a disinfected fluid such as a liquid medicine, blood or the like is to be delivered into a human body, such a fluid must not come into contact with the air or the like at all. However, the consideration of sealing the vessel into which the fluid reservoir is received, or sealing the closed vessel in the condition that a fluid delivery pipe is led to the outside of the closed vessel is troublesome. For instance, an operation of screwing through an O-ring, or the like, is troublesome.


A roller conveyor comprising a driven section (18) freely rotatably mounted on one end of a roller shaft (16) a sleeve member freely rotatably mounted on the same one end through a bearing device (31), a roller body (24) freely rotatably fitted on the driven section (18) and the other end of the roller shaft (16), the sleeve member (19) being provided with a flexible body (26) adapted to contact the inner surface (24a) of the roller body (24) when contracted and to press against the inner surface (24a) and driven section (18) when expanded, and a fluid feed and delivery passage which opens to the interior of the flexible body (26) and which extends from the roller shaft 16 to the sleeve member (19). Thus, when the flexible body is expanded to press against the inner surface of the roller body and the driven section, the torque in the driven section can be transmitted to the roller body through the flexible body, thereby causing the forced rotation of the roller body. When the pressure in the flexible body is released, the flexible body is contracted to contact the inner surface of the roller. Since the sum of the frictional resistance of the seal device and the contact resistance of the flexible body is high, the roller body can be made integral with the roller shaft and its rotation can be completely stopped.

As for a roller conveyor using driven rollers, there is a construction as found in, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,080,219. This prior art construction comprises a roller shaft supported in a frame, a freely rotatable roller fitted on said roller shaft, a flexible body attached to said roller shaft and adapted to be expanded and contracted for contact with and separation from the inner surface of said roller body, a fluid feed and delivery passage which opens to the interior of said flexible body through said roller shaft, and a driven section provided on said roller shaft.
According to this prior art construction, torque is imparted to the driven section, whereby the flexible body is integrally rotated. In this state, fluid is fed to the flexible body through the fluid feed and delivery passage so as to expand the flexible body by the fluid pressure until it abuts (or presses) against the inner surface of the roller body, thereby integrally rotating the roller body to convey articles. When the pressure in the flexible body is released through the fluid feed and delivery passage, the flexible body is contracted to separate from the inner surface of the roller body, whereupon the torque transmission to the roller body is interrupted; thus, the rotation of the roller body is stopped.
In the case of the prior type described above, however, when the flexible body is contracted to separate from the inner surface of the roller body, the roller body does not stop but continues rotating owing to the frictional resistance of the bearings and inertial force. Therefore, when the roller body supports articles to be conveyed which are light in weight, it continues conveying them.

Roller conveyor having an expandable and contractible flexible body drive correction


A process for forming a silicon oxynitride layer in an N.sub.2 atmosphere is disclosed. The silicon oxynitride layer is formed by heating a silicon substrate in an N.sub.2 atmosphere for a period of time that is sufficient to form a nitrided layer with a nitrogen content of at least about 5.times.10.sup.13 atoms/cm.sup.2 therein. Afterward, the substrate is further oxidized in an oxygen containing atmosphere for a period of time sufficient to form a silicon oxynitride layer on the substrate with a thickness of at least about 1 nm and a nitrogen content of at least about 5.times.10.sup.13 atoms/cm.sup.2 on the wafer.

1. Technical Field
This invention is directed to a process for fabricating integrated circuit devices in which a layer of an oxynitride material is formed.
2. Art Background
Semiconductor devices such as MOS (metal-oxide-semiconductor) devices are typically formed on a substrate such as a silicon wafer. Insulating films of silicon dioxide are formed on the substrate over which is formed a gate electrode. The insulating film formed between the gate electrode and the silicon substrate is referred to as the gate oxide, or gate dielectric.
The incorporation of nitrogen into the gate oxide is advantageous because it improves certain characteristics of the oxide, such as the charge-to-breakdown of the oxide and its resistance to hot carrier damage. The presence of nitrogen in the gate oxide also acts as a barrier against boron diffusion from the overlying layers of doped polysilicon into the underlying silicon substrate.
Various methods for the incorporation of nitrogen into silicon dioxide have been proposed. Currently, a silicon wafer is heated in an atmosphere of either N.sub.2 O or NO for a period of time that is adequate to incorporate the desired amount of nitrogen into the growing silicon dioxide film. This may or may not be followed by further oxidation of the wafer in an O.sub.2 atmosphere, depending on the desired thickness of the resulting film.
Processes for forming silicon oxynitride have been the subject of considerable investigation. Saks, N. S., et al., "Nitrogen depletion during oxidation in N.sub.2 O," Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 67(3), pp. 374-376 (1995) describes tests in which N.sub.2 O-oxidized silicon wafers are placed in an atmospheric oxidation furnace at 900.degree. C. After about five minutes in an O.sub.2 atmosphere, the wafers were re-oxidized in pure N.sub.2 O. Saks et al. observe that nitrogen is incorporated into the oxide at lower temperatures (900.degree. C.) in an N.sub.2 O atmosphere than the temperature at which nitrogen is incorporated into the silicon in an N.sub.2 atmosphere. However, Raider, S. I., et al., "Nitrogen reaction at a silicon--silicon dioxide interface," Appl. Physics Letters, Vol. 27(3), pp. 150-152 (1975) observes that continuous nitride films do not form to any significant thickness at temperatures less than about 1200.degree. C.
As observed by Saks et al., the NO species formed by the breakdown of N.sub.2 O at the furnace temperature depletes nitrogen from the bulk of the oxide, resulting in an unequal distribution of nitrogen in the oxide, with the bulk of the nitrogen concentrated at the interface between the oxide and the underlying substrate. Since nitrogen acts as a barrier to boron diffusion, the nitrogen content at the oxide/substrate interface does not prevent boron from penetrating the oxide, but, rather, merely prevents the boron from diffusing further into the underlying substrate. The presence of boron in the oxide will degrade oxide reliability. Therefore, a process that provides a more uniform distribution of nitrogen in the silicon oxynitride layer is desired.
Furthermore, the current processes for forming silicon oxynitride utilize atmospheres of nitrous oxide (N.sub.2 O) or nitric oxide (NO). These gases are expensive and both of them are asphyxiants, so their use must be carefully controlled. Therefore, a process that utilizes a less expensive source of nitrogen is desired.

Process for device fabrication in which a layer of oxynitride is formed at low temperatures


Specific applications of particles and particle agglomerates with semiconductor surfaces are provided. The particles and particle agglomerates display a high affinity for viral particles, and may be used therapeutically and/or prophylactically to treat or prevent viral infections. The particles and particle agglomerates may also be used to remove viral particles from a surface or fluid, e.g., as an absorbent in a filter, applied to surfaces to render them virostatic, and as tool to handle viral particles, e.g., for research, diagnostic, or decontamination purposes.

Viral infections are a major threat in the modern world and new solutions are urgently required to deal effectively with this global concern.
Herpes simplex virus type-1 (HSV-1) infections are extremely widespread in the human population. The virus causes a broad range of diseases ranging from labial herpes, ocular keratitis, genital disease and encephalitis (Whitley et al., 1998; Corey and Spear, 1986). The herpetic infection is a major cause of morbidity especially in immunocompromised patients. Following initial infection in epithelial cells, the HSV establishes latency in the host sensory nerve ganglia (Akhtar and Shukla, 2009; Hill et al., 2008). The virus emerges sporadically from latency and causes lesions on mucosal epithelium, skin, and the cornea, among other locations. Prolonged or multiple recurrent episodes of corneal infections can result in vision impairment or blindness, due to the development of herpetic stromal keratitis (HSK) (Kaye et al., 2000). HSK accounts for 20-48% of all recurrent ocular HSV infections leading to significant vision loss (Liesegang, 2001). HSV infection may also lead to other diseases including retinitis, meningitis, and encephalitis (Corey and Spear, 1986).
The development of novel strategies to eradicate herpes simplex virus (HSV) is a global public health priority (Superti et al., 2008). While acyclovir and related nucleoside analogs provide successful modalities for treatment and suppression, HSV remains highly prevalent worldwide. The emergence of acyclovir-resistant virus strains, ability of virus to uniformly establish latency coupled with adverse effects of available anti-herpetic compounds provides a stimulus for increased search for new effective antiviral agents that target additional steps in viral pathogenesis such as cell entry (Schulte et al., 2010; Dambrosi et al., 2010). In addition, the current available treatments are unable to destroy HSV completely and therefore the virus remains dormant and keeps being active from time to time to cause various clinical manifestations. Therefore, there is great need to find suitable biocompatible, multifunctional, and low dimensional (scale lengths comparable to viruses) inorganic/organic agents which work to neutralize the virus infectivity, destabilize and possibly dismantle the virus particles. Recent developments in nanotechnology offer opportunities to re-explore biological properties of known antimicrobial compounds by manipulation of their sizes (Travan et al., 2010).

The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois


A flare tank (10) comprises a container (12) having a fluid inlet (14), a fluid outlet (16) and a fluid flow path between the inlet (14) and the outlet (16). A baffle plate (20) is provided in the container (12) between the inlet (14) and the outlet (16). The baffle plate (20) extends transversely relative to the flow path for forming at least a partial barrier to fluid flow in the flow path. A gas outlet, e.g., a chimney stack (18), is located on the container (12) for the discharge of gas separated from the fluid. A burner (46) is provided for the combustion of combustible gas passing through the outlet (18). A holding tank (201) may be provided for holding the fluid following passage through the flare tank. In addition, safety features (240, 244, 250, 206) can be provided to prevent or disable the explosion or rupture of the holding tank (201).

Flares are used in various applications for the disposal of waste gases through combustion. For example, when an oil well is tested, combustible gases may be burned off through the use of a flare tank or stack.
In previous operations, mud from the drill rig which contained combustible gases was piped to or disposed of in a flare pit adjacent to the drill rig. The flare pit is simply a hole dug in the ground which is used to hold the mud. However, the combustible gases can separate from the mud in the flare pit and accidentally ignite thereby causing emissions to the atmosphere which are environmentally unattractive and dangerous to closely located personnel both by way of danger to the person and also due to the possibility of starting a grass or brush fire. Likewise, the mud in the flare pit and the combustible gas can create ground contamination which is also of concern for environmental reasons. Finally, it is necessary to often haul away the mud within the flare pit due to the contamination by unburned gases. This is costly.
European Patent Application No. 211 492 discloses an apparatus for separating oil from produced water at a wellhead. The apparatus includes a separator that operates at elevated pressure to separate the wellhead product into a three components, one of which is a gas product. The apparatus is provided with a pipe for introducing the wellhead product into the separator and a baffle which forms a weir over which a substantial proportion of the oil in the wellhead product flows. The gas component is removed through a pipe for storage or supply to a pipeline or for burning off.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a flare tank which facilities separation of the combustible gases from the fluid being treated for gas disposal. It is a further object of the invention to provide a flare tank which is portable so as to minimize disturbances on work sites. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a flare tank which is safe and not susceptible to damages associated with an explosion in the flare tank.

Portable flare tank for degassing of drilling fluid


A device for vacuuming organic materal, comprising an impeller constructed from an elastomer such as polyurethane and shaped so that at operating speeds, the impeller deforms under the centripetal forces into a shape commonly found in such devices having rigid impellers. In an alternative embodiment, the device further comprises a housing and an outlet duct constructed from high density polyethylene. The outlet duct may be directed in at least two directions. In yet another alternative embodiment, the device further comprises a vacuum wand having a flared entrance and may have a riser section which is preferably 18 inches long.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to devices used to generate a vacuum, and in particular to devices used to vacuum organic material such as leaves, cut grass, small sticks, pine needles, wood chips, nuts and other agricultural produce (hereinafter referred to as "organic material").
2. Description of the Prior Art
In order to vacuum organic material from an area, an impeller is disposed within a housing, an inlet duct is connected to the housing near the low pressure side of the impeller, and an outlet duct is connected to the housing near the high pressure side of the impeller. The impeller is normally driven via a drive shaft by a motor such that a vacuum is created in the inlet duct and a positive pressure is generated in the outlet duct. Organic material to be removed from an area is sucked into the inlet duct, moves through the housing, and then to the outlet duct where the organic material is blown by the impeller normally, but not always, to a container. When vacuuming organic material from an area, unwanted hard objects such as rocks and large sticks (hereinafter referred to as "hard objects") are often sucked along with the organic material into the inlet duct.
In the prior art devices used to vacuum organic material, impellers are rigid since they are generally made from metal or inflexible plastic. The hard objects sucked into the inlet duct often impact the impeller at a velocity high enough to damage the impeller and/or drive shaft, or the hard objects are wedged between the rigid impeller and the housing, which can cause damage to the impeller, motor, drive shaft, and housing.
The metallic prior art impellers are heavy. This results in a need for proper dynamic balancing of the impeller. Impacting the impeller with hard objects or wedging hard objects between the housing and the impeller can cause the impeller to go out of balance, thereby increasing operation costs due to lost time and costs associated with replacing or rebalancing the impeller. The weight of the prior art impellers also necessitates strong (and therefore heavy) support structures.
Furthermore, to reduce the chance that hard objects will become wedged between the housing and the impeller, the prior art devices sometimes provide a large clearance space between the housing and the tips of the impeller blades. Such a space results in generating less vacuum than could be generated with a smaller space between the housing and the impeller.
Also in the prior art, it is difficult to alter the direction in which the outlet duct directs the organic material. If it is desired to blow the organic material in a different direction, either (1) another duct must be attached to the outlet duct, or (2) several nut/bolt assemblies must be removed, the duct turned and the nut/bolt assemblies reinstalled. Either of these means of changing the direction in which the organic material is blown is time consuming and cumbersome.
Finally, in the prior art, a hand-held tube is provided for connecting to the inlet duct. These hand-held tubes are usually simple tubes having an external collar with handles so that the end of the tube can be positioned near the organic material by an operator. The entrances of these hand-held tubes are prone to plugging by sticks or other material caught on the entrance edge. Furthermore, a straight edge entrance results in significant loss of vacuum. In addition, to properly position the entrance of a prior art hand-held tube near organic material, the user is often required to bend downward, thereby causing back strain.


A carousel ride system includes a first rotatable platform and multiple second rotatable platforms. Each second rotatable platform of the multiple second rotatable platforms is positioned within a respective opening in the first rotatable platform. A first drive system is configured to drive rotation of the first rotatable platform and multiple second drive assemblies are configured to drive rotation of the multiple second rotatable platforms. Multiple figures extend over the multiple second rotatable platforms and multiple figure drive assemblies are configured to independently lift and rotate the multiple figures relative to the multiple second rotatable platforms. One or more processors are configured to coordinate operation of the first drive system, the multiple second drive assemblies, and the multiple figure drive assemblies to maintain the multiple figures in a forward-facing orientation relative to a direction of travel of the first rotatable platform during operation of the carousel ride system.

Amusement parks may have various entertainment attractions. One type of entertainment attraction may be a carousel ride system. The carousel ride system may include a turntable and multiple figures (e.g., seats for riders) that rotate with the turntable. In some carousel ride systems, the multiple figures may move up and down relative to the turntable as the multiple figures rotate with the turntable.
This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present techniques, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.


In a guide roller for a stamping machine for deflecting a stamping foil web and/or a substrate web to be stamped upon, so that the guide roller has a negligibly low degree of friction, fixed to a roller spindle that is fixed with respect to the machine is at least one porous air-permeable spindle sleeve at which at least one roller sleeve is rotatably mounted. The roller spindle has a compressed gas passage for acting on the or each spindle sleeve with compressed gas to produce a gas cushion between the or each respective spindle sleeve and the associated roller sleeve.

Stamping or embossing machines usually have at least one and often a plurality of guide rollers for guiding a web of material as it passes through the machine, the roller or each thereof being supported by means of a ball bearing assembly. Guide rollers of that kind entail such a level of friction that it is only possible to achieve machine speeds of 200 meters per minute. Due to friction, thin narrow foil webs may suffer from unacceptable stretching or in an extreme case may even be damaged to such an extent as to be effectively ruined.
Reference may be made to U.S. Pat. No. 3,349,462 disclosing a guide roller which is intended for use in a textile machine, that is to say for guiding or changing the direction of a textile web as it passes through the machine. The roller has a roller spindle which is fixed with respect to the support structure of the machine, and a porous air-permeable spindle sleeve is fixed to the roller spindle, with the axially remote end portions of the spindle sleeve. A roller sleeve is in turn supported on the spindle sleeve, and the roller spindle has a compressed air passage for supplying the spindle sleeve with compressed air which is operative to form an air cushion between the spindle sleeve and the roller sleeve. It will be noted here that textile webs usually enjoy a relatively high level of mechanical strength so that there is no real fear of friction-induced unacceptable stretching or elongation of the web material, in particular during the phase of starting up the machine. The situation is different when dealing with thin narrow stamping foil webs.
Reference may also be made to DE 44 16 421 A1 disclosing a heatable and coolable roller which is suitable for transporting materials in web form and for providing temperature control in respect thereof. The roller disclosed therein is distinguished by an extremely low level of bearing friction. To support the roller casing which rotates on a fixed cylindrical core, that roller arrangement uses a fluid which flows predominantly in a peripheral direction between the roller casing and the roller core. The fluid can be used at the same time to provide for temperature control of the roller casing. As the fluid used for temperature control flows preferably in the peripheral direction in the region of the usable roller width, that provides for excellent constancy of temperature over the width of the roller.


Systems and methods are provided for scanning a dental impression to obtain a digital model of a patient's dentition as an input to computer aided design (CAD) and computer aided manufacturing (CAM) methods for producing dental prostheses.

Dental prostheses are typically manufactured at specialized dental laboratories that employ computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) milling systems to produce dental prostheses according to patient-specific specifications provided by dentists. In a typical work flow, information about the oral situation of a patient is received from a dentist, the dental laboratory designs the dental prosthesis, and the prosthesis is manufactured using a mill or other fabrication system. When making use of CAD design and CAM manufacturing in dentistry, a digital model of the patient's dentition is required as an input to the process. Despite the rise of intraoral scanning technology, the prevalent method of acquisition of digital model data is still scanning a stone model cast from an impression. Even in more technically advanced markets it is estimated that only 10% of clinicians own an intraoral scanner, therefore any improvements to the conventional process are likely to remain relevant and benefit patients and clinicians alike for some time. Accordingly, improvements to methods of acquiring digital models of patients' dentition are desirable.

James R. Glidewell Dental Ceramics, Inc.


A method of evaluating a non-linear optical crystal used for non-linear wavelength conversion of laser beam which enables the non-linear optical crystal to be evaluated before the crystal is actually used as a wavelength conversion element in order for the crystal to be constantly used for an extended time with a high conversion efficiency retained and without lowering in output when non-linear optical crystals for various non-linear wavelength conversions such as a CLBO crystal are used to convert laser beams, wherein the non-linear optical crystal is moved to changed a laser beam incident position to detect the output of a laser beam emitted from the non-linear optical crystal for each changing position.

Currently, laser beam having wavelength of an ultraviolet region has been used for microfabrication of metals, reading devices of optical discs, and the like.
Conventionally, such laser beam having wavelength of the ultraviolet region has been generated by using gas laser such as excimer laser.
However, gas laser has problems of low operation efficiency and short lifetime, and also has a problem that F2 gas, for example, which is used as operating gas has toxicity. Further, a problem of high operating voltage has been also pointed out.
For these reasons, technology has been proposed to generate laser beam having wavelength in the ultraviolet region by solid-state laser using a non-linear optical crystal instead of gas laser.
As such technology, a technology is known where non-linear wavelength conversion is performed to laser beam having the wavelength of 532 nm, which is the second harmonic of the Nd:YAG laser, into laser beam in an ultraviolet region with the wavelength of 266 nm by using a cesium-lithium-borate crystal (CLBO crystal).
Meanwhile, the inventor of the present invention discovered that the CLBO crystal, because it is uneven and the crystal has irregularity, had a problem of reduction of output in a very short time by the generation of damage on the crystal caused by ultraviolet ray, which is created by the non-linear wavelength conversion, depending on a region to which laser beam is irradiated for non-linear wavelength conversion. Further, the inventor also discovered a problem that it was impossible to obtain a same output constantly because of the unevenness of crystal even if the region to which the laser beam having the wavelength of 532 nm was changed by simply moving the crystal when the output reduced.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and its object is to provide a method of evaluating a non-linear optical crystal and a device therefor, and a wavelength conversion method and a device therefor, which are capable of evaluating the non-linear optical crystal in advance before the non-linear optical crystal is actually used as a wavelength conversion element in order to maintain high conversion efficiency and use the non-linear optical crystal stably for a long period of time without reducing output in the case where laser beam wavelength is converted by using any of various kinds of non-linear optical crystal for non-linear wavelength conversion such as a CLBO crystal.

Method of evaluating non-linear optical crystal and device therefor and wavelength conversion method and device therefor


A process for producing an acetic acid product having low butyl acetate content via a carbonylation reaction. The carbonylation reaction is carried out at a temperature from 100 to 300° C., a hydrogen partial pressure from 0.3 to 2 atm, and a metal catalyst concentration from 100 to 3000 wppm, based on the weight of the reaction medium. The butyl acetate concentration in the acetic acid product may be controlled by removing acetaldehyde from a stream derived from the reaction medium and/or by adjusting at least one of reaction temperature, hydrogen partial pressure, and metal catalyst concentration.

Among currently employed processes for synthesizing acetic acid, one of the most useful commercially is the catalyzed carbonylation of methanol with carbon monoxide as taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,769,329, herein incorporated by reference. The carbonylation catalyst contains a metal catalyst, such as rhodium, which is either dissolved or otherwise dispersed in a liquid reaction medium or supported on an inert solid, along with a halogen-containing catalyst promoter as exemplified by methyl iodide. The rhodium can be introduced into the reaction system in many forms. Likewise, because the nature of the halide promoter is not generally critical, a large number of suitable promoters, most of which are organic iodides, may be used. Most typically and usefully, the reaction is conducted by continuously bubbling carbon monoxide gas through a liquid reaction medium in which the catalyst is dissolved.
During the carbonylation of methanol, by-products are formed. One by-product is acetaldehyde. Reduction of acetaldehyde has been described in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,756,836 teaches a process for producing a highly purified acetic acid characterized in that the process comprises the step of continuously reacting methanol and/or an aqueous solution of methyl acetate with carbon monoxide in a reactor. A treatment is conducted to limit the concentration of unsaturated compounds in crude acetic acid obtained in the process to 5 wppm or lower, and the resultant crude acetic acid is ozonized. The '836 patent also teaches a process for producing a highly purified acetic acid, characterized by the step of continuously reacting methanol and/or an aqueous solution of methyl acetate with carbon monoxide in a reactor while maintaining the concentration of acetaldehyde in a reaction fluid in the reactor at 1500 wppm or lower. The acetaldehyde concentration is controlled by conducting said reaction at a water content not greater than 10 wt. % and an acetaldehyde concentration of not greater than 1500 wppm to produce a crude acetic acid product mixture; sending the crude acetic acid product mixture to a distillation column to produce a high-boiling point fraction and a low-boiling point fraction; treating the low-boiling point fraction to reduce the content of acetaldehyde therein; and returning the treated low-boiling point fraction to the reaction system.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,095 also suggests that acetaldehyde concentration should be reduced. The '095 patent discloses a high purity acetic acid prepared by reacting methanol with carbon monoxide in the presence of a rhodium catalyst, iodide salts, and methyl iodide, wherein an acetaldehyde concentration in the reaction liquid is maintained at 400 wppm or lower. This may be attained by contacting the liquid containing carbonyl impurities with water to separate and remove the carbonyl impurities. After that, the liquid can be returned to the reactor.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,573,403 teaches a process for producing acetic acid which comprises charging reactants methanol, dimethyl ether, methyl acetate or any mixture thereof into a reactor containing: (1) a rhodium carbonylation catalyst, (2) an alkyl iodide or alkyl bromide, and (3) a hydrogenation catalyst, and contacting the reactants with carbon monoxide and hydrogen to produce acetic acid. The '403 patent further teaches that the addition of ruthenium compounds to the carbonylation reaction solution conditions effectively reduces the formation of undesired carbonyl impurities whilst increasing the formation of ethanol, ethyl acetate and ethyl iodide being precursors for the formation of valuable propanoic acid.
Additional methods for removing permanganate reducing compounds (PRC's), such as acetaldehyde, are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,855,306 and 7,683,212. The '306 patent teaches a process for reducing and/or removing permanganate reducing compounds or their precursors from intermediate streams during the formation of acetic acid. In particular, a low boiling overhead vapor stream from a light ends column is subjected to a single distillation to obtain an overhead that is subjected to an extraction to selectively remove and/or reduce PRC's from the process. The '212 patent teaches a method to produce acetic acid by continuously reacting methanol with carbon monoxide in the presence of a rhodium catalyst, an iodide salt, methyl iodide, methyl acetate, and water; and thereby producing acetic acid at a production rate of 11 mol/L·hr or more while keeping the acetaldehyde content of a reaction mixture to 500 wppm or less, in which the reaction is carried out at a carbon monoxide partial pressure in a gaseous phase of a reactor of 1.05 MPa or more and/or at a methyl acetate content of the reaction mixture of 2 percent by weight or more to thereby keep the production rate of acetaldehyde to 1/1500 or less that of acetic acid. The '212 patent teaches that this method can reduce production of by-products without reducing the reaction rate of acetic acid even at a low water content and a low hydrogen partial pressure in a reaction system.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,303,813 discloses methanol carbonylation methods which substantially reduce the production of carbonyl impurities, particularly acetaldehyde, crotonaldehyde, and 2-ethyl crotonaldehyde, by maintaining a partial pressure of hydrogen between about 0.4 and 4 psia at reaction total pressure of from about 15 to about 40 atmospheres total reaction pressure.
Although the above-described publications focus on suppressing or removing carbonyl impurities such as acetaldehyde and crotonaldehyde from carbonylation reaction systems, little art exists concerning butyl acetate, which can be formed from these impurities. The need therefore exists for improved processes for producing a high purity acetic acid comprising low amounts of butyl acetate.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Processes for producing an acetic acid product having low butyl acetate content


A power amplification apparatus and method for amplifying a baseband signal having a high peak-to-average power ratio (PAR) are provided. The power amplification apparatus and method comprise a signal generation section for generating a peak-reduced signal obtained by subtracting a peak value from the baseband signal and an error signal representing a difference between the baseband signal and the peak-reduced signal and for outputting the generated signals; a peak-reduced signal amplification section for amplifying the peak-reduced signal output from the signal generation section in a radio frequency band; an error correction amplification section for amplifying the error signal output from the signal generation section in the radio frequency band; and a summer for coupling and outputting the signal amplified by the peak-reduced signal amplification section and the signal amplified by the error correction amplification section.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power amplifier. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for improving the efficiency of a power amplifier which operates with a signal having a high peak-to-average power ratio.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional radio communication system such as a cellular system, a base station uses a power amplifier to communicate with user terminals which are located within a predetermined service area. The power amplifier amplifies and transmits radio frequency (RF) signals used in a communication system for transmitting multiple signals.
Specifically, in a cellular system using a code division multiple access (CDMA) technique, an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technique or the like, it is necessary owing to its particular characteristics to transmit modulated multiple signals having a high peak-to-average power ratio ('PAR') to multiple users or user terminals sharing the same frequency band. Conventional power amplifiers used to amplify a radio frequency signal in such a communication system results in the consumption of a lot of power because it is necessary to amplify and transmit a signal having a high PAR, which is inefficient and increases the manufacturing cost.
A peak reduction scheme for reducing a peak value of a signal is typically used to decrease the average power loss in a power amplifier which operates with a signal having a high PAR. Such schemes include "Clipping Noise Mitigation for OFDM by Decision-aided Reconstruction", to Kim et al, IEEE Communications Letters, Vol. 3, No. 1 January 1999 and "Design Considerations for Multicarrier CDMA Base Station Power Amplifiers", to J. S. Kenney et al, Microwave Journal, February 1999 which are incorporated herein by reference.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an apparatus for improving the efficiency of a power amplifier using a conventional peak reduction scheme.
According to a conventional peak reduction scheme, when an input signal having a high PAR is input from a base band source signal generator ('BSG') 110 to a peak-reduced signal generator ('PSG') 120, the PSG 120 detects a peak signal of the input signal and reduces the level of the detected peak signal, thereby outputting a signal having a reduced PAR. A signal output from the PSG 120 is coupled to a local oscillation signal, which is output from an RF local oscillator ('RFLO') 135, by a quadrature modulator ('QM') 130, thereby being converted into a quadrature-modulated RF signal. An RF power amplifier ('RFPA') 140 amplifies the quadrature-modulated RF signal output from the QM 130 and transmits the amplified signal to an antenna.
According to the conventional peak reduction scheme, as the PAR of a signal becomes lower, the efficiency of the power amplifier improves, but an error rate and spectral re-growth of the signal increases, so that a signal characteristic is significantly deteriorated. That is, when the peak reduction scheme is used, there is a limitation in improving the efficiency of a power amplifier. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a technique capable of effectively improving the efficiency of a power amplifier without increasing the error rate of a signal.

Apparatus and method for improving efficiency of a power amplifier having a high peak-to-average power ratio


A copy protecting method for an optical medium includes a writing step of writing watermark data as ECC data in a data storage area of a disk having a certain data stored therein.

This invention relates to copy protection of recording data in a disk recording/reproducing system (medium, recording apparatus, reproducing apparatus).
Further, this invention relates to copy protection for a data recording medium which requires a dishonest copy preventing process for protection of copyright or the like.
Further, this invention relates to copy protection for a reproducing apparatus for reproducing data from a data recording medium such as an optical disk by use of convergent light obtained by converging a laser beam.
Conventionally, copy protection techniques have been used for protecting the copyright of video software or the like. As a typical example of software which requires copy protection, a DVD video disk and DVD-ROM disk using a digital recording system are provided (DVD is an abbreviation for a digital video disk or digital versatile disk). Conventionally, encryption has been used for copy protection of digital recording video software.
The copy protection method using encryption is effective in DVD video disk or DVD-ROM disk in which encrypted data is recorded. However, in the case of a DVD-RAM in which the user can newly record data, the following problems occur.
(1) It is difficult to manage an encryption key necessary at the time of encryption.
(2) It is difficult to attain a strong encryption process for a disk recording/reproducing apparatus (such as a DVD-RAM recorder that effectuates digital recording and reproducing processes similar to an analog video cassette recorder under the control of a user. In addition, the encryption process may easily be deciphered.
(3) In a case where the encrypting and decrypting processes occur in a disk recording/reproducing apparatus, a copy of the data content to be protected from being copied can be made by decrypting data that is formed and encrypted using another disk recording/reproducing apparatus and encrypting the data again.
Accordingly, when the above recording/reproducing apparatus of digital video data is used, it is difficult to attain an effective copy protecting process using the above encryption technique.
Further, improving the copy protecting process by using an independent method for the DVD-RAM data recording medium complicates the copy protection processing circuit when the data recording medium is reproduced by a DVD-ROM driver or when the DVD-ROM disk is reproduced by a DVD-RAM driver, increasing the production costs of the DVD-RAM and DVD-RAM drivers.
A copy protection system that prevents unauthorized copying of a recordable digital data recording medium, such as a DVD-RAM disk, is disclosed and can be used with various data recording mediums that contain reproduction-only data recording media.
The disclosed invention is a copy protecting method for an optical medium that writes watermark data, such as error correction control (ECC) data, to a data storage area of a disk.
The disclosed invention further comprises a step of extracting the watermark data from ECC data on the disk and comparing the extracted watermark data with collation data to determine the validity of the disk based on the result of the comparison.
The following example describes the method and system of the present invention. Consider a case where a party wants to copy dishonestly a disk onto another disk using separately a disk reproducing apparatus and a disk recording apparatus that receives an output from the disk reproducing apparatus. When the party loads the disk into the reproducing apparatus that reads the disk, storage data such as video image data is output from the disk and the reproducing apparatus. Watermark data and error correction data is eliminated, however, by an error correction circuit in the reproducing apparatus. Accordingly, the disk storage data having the eliminated electronic watermark data is output from the reproducing apparatus to the recording apparatus, and the recording apparatus records the storage data without the electronic watermark data into a new disk.
When the new disk is read by a reproducing apparatus having an electronic watermark collating function, the electronic watermark cannot be extracted, the collating function cannot be performed, and the disk is detected as an invalid disk. Thus, a copy-protected disk that prevents dishonest copying by a normal disk reproducing apparatus and a normal disk recording apparatus is attained.
The copy protecting method of this invention eliminates the electronic watermark data at the time of dishonest copying by use of the error correction circuit that is provided in a DVD reproducing apparatus.
Further, the present invention includes an optical medium having a data storage area provided on an optical disk that stores digital data and a plurality of ECC blocks that store watermark data as ECC data together with other certain data.
The present invention describes a disk that stores electronic watermark data used in the copy protecting method. The electronic watermark data is stored as ECC data in each ECC block of the data storage area and is read out and compared with collation data in the reproducing apparatus. If a similarity of certain level or higher level is attained between the electronic watermark and collation data, the disk is determined to be a valid disk. If the similarity of certain level cannot be detected, however, the disk is determined to be an invalid disk, an error message is displayed to a user, and disk reproduction is interrupted.
Further, the present invention comprises an optical disk reproducing apparatus having an extracting means for extracting watermark data from ECC data stored in a storage area of the optical disk in which the watermark data is stored as the ECC data.
The present invention compares the extracted watermark data with the collation data to determine a validity of the disk based on a result of the comparison, eliminates the error data and watermark data from the certain data based on the ECC data, and outputs the certain data.
The present invention further describes the electronic watermark data collating function of the reproducing apparatus for protection from dishonest copying. The electronic watermark data, stored as the ECC data, is extracted by the reproducing apparatus and is compared and collated with collation data stored in part of a recording area of the disk. If a similarity of certain level or higher level is attained between the electronic watermark data and collation data, the disk is determined to be a valid disk having the electronic watermark. Otherwise, the disk is determined to be an invalid disk.
Since the electronic watermark data is eliminated as ECC data by the error correction circuit after the collating process, image data or the like can be recorded if an output of the reproducing apparatus is connected to an input of the recording apparatus to copy dishonestly the disk into a new disk. All of the data containing the electronic watermark data, however, cannot be copied. Accordingly, the error correction circuit of the reproducing apparatus provides the copy protection of the present invention.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention are set forth in the description that follows, and in part are obvious from the description or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention are realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.

Optical disk having electronic watermark, reproducing apparatus thereof and copy protecting method using the same