A method for forming a noble metal coating on a gas diffusion medium substantially free of ionomeric components comprising subjecting an electrically conductive web to a first ion beam having an energy not higher than 500 eV, then to a second beam having an energy of at least 500 eV, containing the ions of at least one noble metal and electrodes provided by the method.

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) are considered to be one of the most promising sources of clean electrical energy for the near future. PEMFC are electrochemical generators which produce direct electrical current from a gaseous fuel (typically hydrogen, pure or in admixture) and a gaseous oxidant, normally consisting of oxygen or air. The core component of the cell is the membrane-electrode assembly, consisting of an ion-exchange membrane, which is the solid electrolyte supporting the whole process and the physical separator of the anode and cathode cell compartments, bonded or otherwise coupled to gas diffusion electrodes. The gas diffusion electrodes, one cathode and one anode, contacting either side of the ion-exchange membrane, usually comprise a gas diffusion medium and a catalyzed layer.
Several kinds of technical solutions are known from the prior art for these components: the catalyzed layers are in some cases applied to the gas diffusion media prior to coupling with the membrane, and/or they are directly coated on the membrane surface prior to the application of uncatalyzed gas diffusion media thereon. The gas diffusion medium usually comprises an electrically conductive web and one or more gas diffusion layers. The conductive web can be metallic or carbon-based, and may consist of a metal mesh, foam or cloth, of a woven or non-woven carbon cloth, of a carbon paper or of any other preferably porous or perforated medium. Gas diffusion layers are provided to supply suitable paths for the diffusion of gaseous reactants inside the electrode structure toward the catalytic sites whereupon the electrochemical reactions of fuel oxidation (anode side) and oxidant reduction (cathode side) occur. They are usually based on mixtures of electrically conductive inert fillers (for instance carbon particles) and suitable, preferably hydrophobic binders (for instance PTFE or other fluorinated binders).
Gas diffusion layers should be carefully designed to provide a permeable and smooth structure, to ensure a correct apportionment of the gaseous reactants without incurring heavy mass transport penalties, and to provide a good contact with the membrane. Improved gas diffusion structures for fuel cells are, for instance, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,103,077. A catalyzed layer can then be applied to the gas diffusion layers, for instance as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,017,650; catalyzed layers of the prior art comprise noble metal catalysts such as platinum, optionally supported on carbon or graphite particles, a suitable binder, which can be the same hydrophobic binder already present in the gas diffusion layers, and an ionomeric component, usually an ionomeric perfluorocarbon species. The ionomeric component can be added to the catalyst-binder mixture and/or it can be applied subsequently as an external layer wetting the pre-applied catalyst and binder particles.
Gas diffusion electrodes of this kind, coupled to proton-exchange membranes known in the art, for instance based on fluorocarbon acids such as Nafion® (a trademark of U.S. company DuPont), give rise to membrane-electrode assemblies characterized by excellent performances. Nevertheless, the noble metal component is exploited to such a low extent in structures of this kind, that very high specific loadings are required (usually in the range of 0.3 to 1 mg/cm2 of platinum both for the anode and for the cathode side in commercially available products). The high amount of noble metal required for obtaining suitable performances in fuel cells is perhaps the single most important factor preventing PEMFC (and other types of fuel cells such as DMFC, direct methanol fuel cells) from having a commercial success.
Direct metallization of ion-exchange membranes with a catalyst layer has been proposed as a means to achieve a better catalyst-membrane interface, allowing a better catalyst exploitation and therefore the use of lower noble metal loadings. However, no means for direct metallization of membranes has proven effective and practical up to now. High temperatures required by sputtering or ultra high vacuum deposition (UHV) are destined to impart consistent damages to the delicate ion-exchange membranes, and even the common physical and chemical vapor deposition techniques (PVD or CVD) have proven too difficult to control and cumbersome to scale up.
A substantial improvement in the metallization of membranes is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,077,621, wherein the use of dual IBAD is proposed for this purpose. Dual IBAD, which is an evolution of the Ion Beam Assisted Deposition (IBAD) technique, has the advantage of being a low temperature process and very easy to scale up. The membrane is initially cleaned and textured by a first low-energy ion beam, for instance an Ar+ beam, having an energy not higher than 500 eV; a second beam is then focused on the membrane, containing higher energy ions (such as O2+ or N2+) together with the ions of the metals to be deposited, previously evaporated by means of an electron beam. Dual IBAD is much advantageous also over convention IBAD (in which a single beam is used), in that it allows the formation of a better controlled film with the required density and porosity while imparting a minimum stress to the membrane structure.
Since the handling of a large-sized, ion-exchange membrane in a continuous metallization process is not very easy, a further improvement of this technique has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,673,127. In this case, a very thin ion-exchange membrane layer is formed on a gas diffusion structure, and then subjected to dual IBAD. Although this technique obtains high power densities in fuel cells with reduced platinum loadings, it still presents some disadvantages that the present invention wishes to address. Firstly, although the performances of these electrodes can be high, they can be somehow unpredictable since the reliability of this technique is affected by the characteristics of the ionomer film, which can vary according to the preparation conditions. The state-of-the-art liquid ionomer film is of fluorocarbonic nature, since this is the only known ionomeric material that would allow high power density operation, and it has to be recast from an alcoholic or hydroalcoholic suspension of a fluorocarbon acid such as the product commercialized as "Liquid Nafion" by DuPont.
The nature of these suspensions is not always consistent, since average molecular weight, morphological parameters of the suspended particles, rheological parameters and other factors may vary in a remarkable fashion from one batch to the other. Moreover, also in the best cases, the utilization factor of the catalyst with liquid ionomer-embedded particles never approaches unity. Liquid ionomers for gas diffusion electrodes were first described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,115 as a means for extending the proton conduction paths within the interstitial spaces of a three-dimensional catalytic layer, thereby improving the utilization factor of the catalyst (which is a measure of the availability and accessibility of the catalyst itself as a site for the desired reaction). This approach is effective up to a certain extent, only mimicking the ideal situation whereby all the catalyst is present in a very thin and smooth, quasi-two-dimensional layer, in direct contact with the membrane surface.
Besides solving the issue of lowering the platinum loading (or more generally the noble metal loading) in fuel cell electrodes, another problem which should be addressed is the low stability of fluorocarbon-based ionomeric components in membrane-electrode assemblies under certain process conditions. In some applications (such as automotive ones), fuel cells are operated in a discontinuous fashion depending on the instant power demand. Since PEMFC are known for their very quick start-up and their remarkable ability of following the requirements of steeply variable power demand, they are the most promising candidate for operating in this field. However, in conditions of zero or near-zero power demand, i.e. when little or no current is generated (open circuit voltage conditions), a consistent generation of peroxides on the anode side is likely to take place. Perfluorocarbon materials are often unstable under these conditions, especially over long times. Also for this reason, alternative membranes (for instance, based on polybenzimidizole, polyetherketones or polysulfones) have been developed for fuel cell applications. In any case, none of these materials have proven suitable for being employed as a proton conducting material for the electrode interface according to the teaching of U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,115, and perfluorocarbon materials such as the aforementioned "Liquid Nafion" are always used. The elimination of this component would therefore be beneficial for many reasons, not only of cost and reliability, but also of overall chemical stability at certain process conditions.
For all the above reasons, direct metallization of gas diffusion media was attempted with several different techniques in the past, with no major success. Although, for instance, U.S. Pat. No. 6,159,533 claims that excellent performances are obtainable with a PVD deposition of platinum on a gas diffusion medium, the examples show that the actual recorded performances don't go beyond a modest 732 mA/cm2 at 0.358 V in a fuel cell provided with a very thin membrane (20 microns), fed with a very high gas flow-rate (3.5 stoichiometric ratio on air, 2 stoichiometric ratio on pure hydrogen) at a relatively high pressure (about 2 bar).

Gas diffusion electrodes, membrane-electrode assemblies and method for the production thereof


The present invention is directed toward a laminate composite structure and a method for fabricating a laminate composite structure, wherein the laminate composite structure comprises a solid laminate and a composite sandwich structure. The solid laminate includes a bend having composite pins inserted there through. The composite sandwich structure is comprised of a core material sandwiched between top and bottom composite face sheets.

Composite materials are widely used throughout industry. Composites have proven to provide superior strength and weight characteristics over traditional materials in many applications. A composite sandwich structure is often used in applications where minimizing weight is important. These composite sandwich structures are composed of solid composite face sheets with a lighter core material "sandwiched" between. Composite sandwich structures, while light, are often not strong enough to withstand the stresses inherent with certain applications such as use in joints or in bends. Traditionally, metal has been used in joints and around bends due to its superior isotropic strength characteristics. The metal joint or flange is bolted onto the composite sandwich structure using a splice plate. This procedure complicates the assembly process and increases fabrication costs.
It is desirable to use a solid laminate composite structure instead of metal in those situations where a sandwich structure is not adequate and then transition to a sandwich structure in one integral part without using bolts and splice plates. However, several problems arise when using a solid laminate in a bend and then transitioning to a sandwich structure. First, a composite's strength is planar. The geometry of a bend can induce high interlaminar tension stresses in a composite that can cause delamination and failure.
Another problem arises when transitioning from the solid laminate composite to a composite sandwich structure. The conventional method of transitioning to the sandwich structure involves terminating inner plies of the solid laminate, leaving a void between the top and bottom plies. The remaining top and bottom plies become face sheets, between which a core material is inserted. The termination of the inner plies of solid laminate creates an edge that abuts the core material of the sandwich structure. This interface creates two problems.
The first issue involves the termination of the individual plies within the solid laminate. Many composite materials are fabricated by layering individual plies at various orientation angles within a stacking sequence to produce a product with superior strength characteristics in various directions within a plane. However, it is difficult to terminate the plies with high precision due to the varied orientation angles. This results in a ragged or uneven edge at the interface between the solid laminate and sandwich core. The uneven edge leads to the development of defects at this interface when the part is processed. Additionally, the interface between the solid laminate and the core material induces high interlaminar stresses when the part is structurally loaded, which can lead to a material failure.
Therefore, in light of the above, there is need in the art for a method of fabricating an integral composite structure that includes solid laminate, strong enough to use in joints and in bends, and core sandwich material, in one integral composite part, without the need for bolts and splice plates.

Method for an integral composite forward flange in a composite


A method of predicting and skipping branch instructions for pipelines which need more than one cycle to predict branch direction and branch target addresses in microprocessors and digital signal processors is provided. The address of an instruction executed before the predicted branch is used as an index to enable early branch prediction so that the address of the instruction predicted to be executed immediately after the branch is available earlier, thereby reducing the number of idle or wasted clock cycles. The relative offset in the execution sequence between the previously executed instruction and the predicted branch instruction is determined based on the type of the predicted branch instruction and the cycles required to predict branch execution.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of predicting the target address of the branch instruction and a method of skipping some specific branch instruction for pipelines that need more than one cycle to predict branch target addresses in microprocessors and digital signal processors.
2. Description of Related Art
A configuration of multi-stage pipeline is commonly used in microprocessor and digital signal processor for executing instructions now. The pipeline comprises the stages of fetching, decoding and executing. In order to improve efficiency of execution, all stages in the pipeline are processed simultaneously. In other words, instead of starting to process the second instruction only after the first instruction has left the pipeline, while the third stage is processing the first instruction, the second stage is also processing the second instruction and the first stage is processing the third instruction simultaneously. In such case, most of the stages are idle and a big resource is wasted.
Such pipeline design runs well in the case where the instructions are sequentially executed. However, it would be a big issue when such design is applied to process the branch instructions. Once the branch instruction is taken and the program counter is jump to somewhere, it is required to flush the result of several front stages in the pipeline, such that the instruction on the branch target address can be processed. In other words, a couple of consecutive cycles are wasted in this case.
In order to reduce the waste, a technique of predicting the target address of the branch instruction has been developed accordingly, it is referred to as "branch prediction". The object of the branch prediction is to predict the target address and the direction of the branch instruction in its earliest stage as possible as it can, wherein the direction means either "taken" or "not taken" of the branch instruction. Therefore, in case the prediction result indicates "taken of the branch instruction", namely the process jumps to elsewhere, the pipeline can extract the instruction on the branch target address earlier. In subsequent stages executed by the pipeline, if it is determined that the predicted target address is a correct one, the result of the previous stages is reserved. Therefore, cycles are not wasted and it is possible to process multiple stages at the same time.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a design of a conventional branch prediction technique, wherein each instruction is a constant of 4 bytes long. In the pipeline fetch stage, the value of the program counter (PC) 101 is provided to an instruction cache 102 for fetching a current instruction and a prediction unit 104 for creating indices, which are then used for searching the previously recorded related information. If the related information exist, which indicates the current instruction is a branch instruction, the prediction unit 104 predicts and provides a direction 106 and a target address 105 of the branch instruction to a multiplexer 107. Meanwhile, an adder 103 counts an address of a consecutive instruction, that is a summation of the value of the program counter 101 and the constant instruction length is generated, and then the summation result is provided to the multiplexer 107. If the direction 106 predicted by the prediction unit 104 is "not taken of the branch instruction", the multiplexer 107 feeds a next consecutive instruction address output from the adder 103 into the program counter 101 where it is used as the address of next fetch instruction, and the process is continuously executed. Otherwise, the multiplexer 107 feeds the target address 105 predicted by the prediction unit 104 into the program counter 101 where it is used as the address of next fetch instruction, namely the instruction subsequent to the current branch instruction is fetched in advance. Under the premise of faultless prediction, regardless of whether the branch is taken or not, the pipeline can fetch an instruction from a correct address every cycle.
Advantages of branch prediction are described in detail with reference to FIG. 2 and 3 hereinafter. FIG. 2 schematically shows how the pipeline having no branch prediction capability executes the instruction. It is assumed that the pipeline includes 5 stages from F1 to W5. At the 4th cycle, after the branch instruction BC4 is fetched by the pipeline, since it is not possible to predict the address of the instruction to be executed next, the front end of the pipeline is idle. The instruction is not fetched until the 6th cycle, where the instruction BC4 has passed the execution stage E3 and the address of the next instruction T5 is available. As shown in the diagram, after the instruction BC4 is fetched, the pipeline has idled for two cycles in such case.
Compared to FIG. 2, FIG. 3 schematically shows how the pipeline having branch prediction capability executes the instruction. It is assumed that the pipeline also includes 5 stages from F1 to W5. At the 4th cycle, after the branch instruction BC4 is fetched by the pipeline, meanwhile the address of the next instruction T5 had been predicted, thus the instruction T5 is directly fetched by the pipeline at the 5th cycle. At the 6th cycle, when the instruction BC4 has passed the execution stage E3 and it is verified that the address for the next instruction is correctly predicted, the front end result of the pipeline is reserved and subsequent instructions can continue their execution. Therefore, no idle stage exist in the pipeline, and a maximum efficiency is achieved in such case.
The example shown in FIG. 3 assumes that only one cycle is required for branch prediction. However, along with the complicated mechanism of the continuously developed branch prediction, new issue arises. As shown in FIG. 4, it is assumed that the pipeline includes 7 stages from F1 to W7, and it takes two cycles to predict the branch target address. At the 4th cycle, when the branch instruction BC4 enters into F1 stage, meanwhile the prediction unit starts to predict the target address of the branch instruction BC4. Since two cycles are required for the prediction, the pipeline is unable to obtain the predicted target address of BC4 at the beginning of the 5th cycle, therefore the sequential instruction i5 is fetched. The pipeline will be unaware that the target address of BC4 is T9 until the 5th cycle has been totally completed, and T9 is fetched only when the 6th cycle begins. Therefore, the cycles spent in fetching the instruction i5 previously are wasted in such an ineffective method.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,622,240 discloses a method for resolving the problems mentioned above. In this method, the calculation required to obtain the target address of the branch instruction is copied first, and the copied version of the calculation is provided to the pipeline as a pre-branch instruction, such that the pre-branch instruction can be processed by the pipeline in advance. After the pipeline has completed its fetching of the branch instruction, the calculation of the pre-branch instruction is also completed. Meanwhile, the target address of the branch instruction is available, and the instruction on the target address can be fetched when next cycle is just started. In this method, after the branch instruction is fetched, there is no idle stage in the pipeline. However, at least one cycle is required for the pipeline to process the derived pre-branch instruction before it is fetched, thus there is still some wasting of useful resources.
It is known from description above, a new method is demanded in order to further reduce idle and waste of the pipeline which needs more than one cycle to predict its branch target address.

Branch prediction using precedent instruction address of relative offset determined based on branch type and enabling skipping


A system for enabling ordering of printer supplies directly via a printer. The system provides an option for a user to request value bundled information before placing a printer supply order. By providing the option of requesting value bundled information, a customer can obtain information about printer supply promotions directly via the printer without the need for an information handling system to be coupled to the printer. Additionally, the system provides an encouragement to a customer to purchase a plurality of printer suppliers by providing the customer with incentives for the purchase.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to printers, and more particularly to ordering printer consumables directly via a printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems. Known printers are another example of an information handling system.
Many business and individuals need to print documents. In fact, the ability to print documents can be a critical requirement in many cases. Accordingly, printer owners place a high value on the functionality of their printers. Some businesses may own and operate a large number of printers. One challenge that can be encountered is ensuring that printers are available when needed. This involves ensuring that replacements to printer consumables are available when the printer consumable within the printer is depleted.
Additionally, some printer companies provide printers and printer consumables to customers via the mail and may not have a retail storefront presence. A consumer may ignore the automatic warning of "low ink" levels when generated. When the ink finally runs out, they can only order on-line and at best with next day delivery. With this type of supply chain, it becomes important to provide a printer customer with the forewarning of the need to replace a printer consumable before the consumable is depleted. If a customer waits until the printer consumable is already depleted, then the printer customer would be unable to use their printer until receiving a replacement consumable in the mail. The option of just running down to the store is not available.
With printer companies that remotely provide printer consumables, the printer consumables are generally ordered either via telephone or via the Internet, often using an information handling system that is coupled to the printer. It is known to provide software which facilitates the ordering of printer consumables. This software is often loaded onto an information handling system when the printer is coupled to the information handling system. This software works well for printers that are installed in a consumer segment; however, issues can arise for printers that are installed in a business environment. This method of replenishing printer consumables depends on software application. Often with printers that are installed in a business environment, a small installed foot print is desired. Thus, in many business environment printer installations, only the print driver is installed without the installation of additional software. Without installing this additional software, when ordering printer consumables it is often necessary to determine a unique identifier of the printer (e.g., a service tag), where to order the printer consumables and the telephone number, physical address or web address to use to access the provider so that the consumables can be replenished.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an ability to order printer supplies that does not require the use of software installed on information handling systems coupled to the printer.

Printer consumable ordering direct from printer


A SoftRouter architecture deconstructs routers by separating the control entities of a router from its forwarding components, enabling dynamic binding between them. In the SoftRouter architecture, control plane functions are aggregated and implemented on a few smart servers which control forwarding elements that are multiple network hops away. A dynamic binding protocol performs network-wide control plane failovers. Network stability is improved by aggregating and remotely hosting routing protocols, such as OSPF and BGP. This results in faster convergence, lower protocol messages processed, and fewer route changes following a failure. The SoftRouter architecture includes a few smart control entities that manage a large number of forwarding elements to provide greater support for network-wide control. In the SoftRouter architecture, routing protocols operate remotely at a control element and control one or more forwarding elements by downloading the forwarding tables, etc. into the forwarding elements. Intra-domain routing and inter-domain routing are also included.

The enormous success of the Internet has led to constant development and deployment of new features and services that have increasingly placed its technical foundations under stress. This has given credence to the notion that re-architecting the current distribution of functions in an IP network would lead to significant benefits in network stability, simplification of network operations, and flexibility in introduction of new network protocols and services.
Traditional router architectures are becoming complex. Despite the end-to-end architecture design principle that aims at a simple core network, traditional router architectures have gotten increasingly complex today. As new features are being defined in requests for comments (RFCs), more and more control plane complexity is being added at the routers. These features include routing (e.g., BGP-based MPLS-VPNs), traffic engineering (e.g., OSPF-TE), security, and the like. In fact, the code complexity of an IP router now rivals that of a telephony switch. In contrast, the forwarding path implementation has progressively become easier with rapid advances in large-scale hardware integration (e.g., ASIC) and ready availability of off-the-shelf chips.
Traditional IP networks are constructed using routers that operate relatively autonomously. The potentially unmanageable complexity is present at many points all over the network. This has many undesirable consequences. First, the multiple points of control significantly increase operational complexity (e.g., misconfiguration). Second, in certain circumstances, uncoordinated actions of these autonomous routers can lead to sub-optimal performance (e.g., poor recovery time) at best and network instability in the worst case. Finally, the introduction of new features may require upgrades to a large number of routers, which is both complex and error-prone.
Many advanced network management tasks, such as routing policy enforcement and traffic engineering would benefit significantly from the availability of a network-wide view. For instance, several common BGP-induced network stability and operations problems would be solved by moving BGP from individual routers to a single entity with autonomous system (AS)-wide scope. Similarly, many management functions require a network-wide view, without which a network can exhibit oscillation and poor stability. However, network-wide control is difficult and cumbersome to achieve in today's network of autonomous and complex routers.
Traditional router architectures have integrated control and forwarding. The control processors implementing control plane functions are co-located with the line cards that implement forwarding functions and often share the same router backplane. The control processors provide control functions only to the co-located line cards, and vice-versa, leading to a scenario where the line cards cannot be managed when there is a failure of the co-located controller(s).
In the traditional router architectures, the underlying theme is the deep intertwining of control and forwarding functions in current routers. There is a need to deconstruct routers to keep most of the network entities as dumb as possible by reducing their function to support only a few canonical packet forwarding functions and migrate all control protocols and non-forwarding related state and control processing to a few smart network-based control entities with the primary function of network-wide control.


The disclosed techniques provide a method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving system information, base station, and terminal. The method of transmitting system information comprises: configuring, by a base station, a radio frame for transmitting system information in a system information window with a system information repetition pattern; and, starting, by the base station, to transmit the system information in an available radio subframe of the radio frame indicated by the system information repetition pattern, wherein if there are not enough available radio subframes for transmitting the SI one or more times in the radio frame indicated by the system information repetition pattern, the system information is repeatedly transmitted one or more times in an available radio subframe in a specified radio frame. With this technical solution, the problem in related techniques that the system information cannot be transmitted using the prior art as the number of radio subframes that system information needs to occupy increases is solved, such that regardless of a size of the system information, a suitable number of radio subframes can be selected and thereby network resources are reasonably used.

Machine to Machine (M2M) communication is an important issue in the study of 5th Generation (5G) Mobile Communication Technology, and it is also an important application area for future wireless communication. In the M2M project, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) proposes a research subproject of a Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) system for characteristics of low-cost, low-throughput terminals, for the purpose of building a system similar to the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) in the frequency band of 200 KHz so as to provide a low-throughput wireless communication service for the low-cost terminals.
System information (SI) is common information of a cell and is used to indicate a system parameter of the cell. User equipment (UE) resides in the cell and must maintain consistency of the latest system information. System information is typically carried over a broadcast channel of the cell to be transmitted. In LTE and NB-IoT systems, system information is divided into two categories, a master information block (MIB) and a system information block (SIB). The SIB is subdivided into differently numbered system information blocks, e.g. SIB1, SIB2 and SIB3. Except SIB1, the other system information blocks form one or more pieces of SI. SIB1 carries scheduling information of the compositive SI. The scheduling information is used to indicate the numbers and transmission periods of system information blocks included in each SI, and a time window in which UE receives these pieces of SI.
Each SI has its transmission period. A system configures a send window, called a SI-window (also known as a system information window), for each SI in the time interval of the transmission period of the SI. SI is scheduled to be sent in this window. As shown in FIG. 1, SI-windows of a plurality of pieces of SI are arranged in turn in a configured order for sending. Transmission periodicity is configured for SI-1 and SI-2, respectively. A period of SI-2 is twice a period of SI-1. In a transmission period of SI, if periods of both SI-1 and SI-2 are met, SI-widows of SI-1 and SI-2 are arranged in turn in the time interval of the period.
In the 3GPP conclusion, SI is transmitted in an SI-window according to the following method: the system configures a radio frame (RadioFrame) for repeated transmission of each SI in the SI-window for the SI, specifies with an SI repetition pattern that the SI uses sub-frame resources of the Mth radio frame of every N radio frames in its SI-window, specifies an available wireless sub-frame of the radio frame by configuring a downlink valid sub frame, and defines that a radio subframe in the radio frame occupied by specific system control information is an invalid subframe. Such specific system control information includes a Physical Broadcast Channel (PBCH), Primary Synchronization Symbol (PSS), Secondary Synchronization Symbol (SSS) and SI block type one (SIB1).
Thus, available radio subframes used to transmit SI mean: radio subframes except a radio subframe occupied by the specific system control information, and an invalid radio subframe.
Thus, FIG. 2 shows a schematic diagram illustrating radio subframe resources configured for one piece of SI in the above method. The mth radio frame of every N radio frames in the SI-window of the SI is configured to be the radio frame to transmit the SI. FIG. 3 illustrates an example of valid radio subframes in one radio frame that can be sued to transmit SI.
On the other hand, in the technical solution of the NB-IoT or enhanced MTC (eMTC), some UE is in a weak coverage area of the radio signal. For this demand, a network side transmits the same information repeatedly, and the UE merges it after receiving the information, so as to enhance quality of received signals. Therefore, a base station transmits the SI repeatedly in the above radio subframes available to the SI during transmission of the SI so as to enhance quality of SI received by UE.
One piece of SI needs to occupy only one radio subframe in the eMTC. Thus, each radio subframe in the above radio subframe resources configured by the base station transmits the SI once repeatedly. While in the NB-IoT, depending on a different size of SI, one piece of SI may need 8, 4, or 2 radio subframes to complete one transmission.
The number of radio subframes required for transmission of SI information in the NB-IoT is greater than 1, which brings the following problem: there may not be enough available radio subframes for one complete transmission of SI in a radio frame for transmission of the SI configured in the above method, or the available radio subframes are greater than resources required for one complete transmission of the SI, but are not an integer multiple of the resources required for one complete transmission of the SI.
Accordingly, there has not been an effective solution to the problem of transmitting SI using an increased amount of radio subframes.

Method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving system information, base station, and terminal


A fuse comprises a silicide element disposed above a substrate, a first terminal contact coupled to a first end of the silicide element, and a first metal line disposed above the silicide element and coupled to the first terminal contact. The fuse further comprises a plurality of second terminal contacts coupled to a second end of the silicide element, and a second metal line disposed above the silicide element and coupled to the plurality of second terminal contacts. The silicide element has a sufficient width that a programming potential applied across the first and second metal lines causes a discontinuity in the first terminal contact.

Polysilicon or poly fuse structures have been formed in integrated circuits that may function as memory devices. These fuse structures can be "programmed" by passing a high current that causes its silicide structure to break down. In the programmed state, the fuse structure has a resistance that is greater than in its non-programmed state. Because traditional polysilicon fuses require a high voltage potential to program the fuse, they are unsuited to low power applications.

Low power fuse structure and method of making the same

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


The invention is to provide a recording method of an optical disc drive, which first calibrates the write power with minimum recording speed, adjusts write powers for higher speeds, searches a blank area in a lead-out area of a disc to record with write powers for all speeds, read signals, deletes the speeds with bad recording quality, reserves the speeds with good recording quality as recordable speed, checks the required recording speed for the address of the recording data, searches the recordable speed equal to or smaller than the required recording speed, replaces the required recording speed with the searched recordable speed, records data with the searched recordable speed and corresponding write power to ensure quality.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a recording method of an optical disc drive, and more particularly, to a method for choosing recordable speeds by verifying results of testing write powers while the optical disc drive records data onto an optical disc.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An optical disc drive emits a laser beam irradiated from an optical pick-up head on a recordable optical disc to form marks, such as pits or phase changes, where different reflected laser intensities of a marked area and an unmarked area can be utilized to distinguish digital values 1 and 0. In this way, the goal of recording data on the optical disc is achieved. Therefore, the quality of marks recorded on the optical disc depends on the laser power and the irradiation time. However, the irradiation time is decreased when the rotation speed of the optical disc increases.
Although the quality of marks recorded on the optical disc is better when the rotation speed is slower and the irradiation time is longer, the recording performance of the optical disc drive is degraded due to the fact that slower rotation speed of the optical disc makes the recording time inevitably increase.
The capacity of optical discs has become larger and larger. In order to shorten the recording time, as shown in FIG. 1, a conventional optical disc drive rotates an optical disc 2 by a spindle motor 1, moves an optical pick-up head 3 in a radial direction back and forth, and uses the optical pick-up head 3 to irradiate a laser beam onto the optical disc 2. Because the outer tracks of the optical disc 2 have higher tangential velocity, the optical disc 2 is divided into several areas from the inner track to the outer track according to different recording speeds. By changing addresses under default recording speeds which vary from a low recording speed to a high recording speed step by step, such as 2×, 4×, 6× and 8×, the recording speed of the outer track is increased to thereby reduce the overall recording time.
However, as there are many manufacturers that produce optical discs 2, the materials, ingredients and manufacturing processes of the optical discs 2 made by different manufacturers might be different. This makes optical discs 2 manufactured by different manufacturers have different reflective characteristics in response to the laser beam. Therefore, the conventional optical disc 2 is configured to have the most inner track and the most outer track respectively serving as an inner track test area 4 and an outer track test area 5 for testing the laser power to obtain an optimum laser power used for recording data onto the optical disc. A conventional optical disc drive performs a recording test by recording default test data at the inner track test area 4 or the outer track test area 5 at a low recording speed 2×, and then reads out data which has been recorded onto the optical disc 2 by the recording test. Next, a recording quality parameter (e.g., a Beta parameter) used for evaluating the recording quality of the marks is derived by the amount of reflected light corresponding to recorded marks, decoding error rate, signal intensity, etc. An Optimum Power Control (OPC) is implemented to choose the optimum write power in accordance with a plurality of recording quality parameters derived from the recording test. To shorten the recording time required by the recording test, the write powers of higher recording speeds are estimated using the optimum write power of the low recording speed 2× and ratios between the low recording speed 2× and the higher recording speeds. After the optimum laser powers for different recording speeds are successfully derived, the conventional optical disc drive proceeds with normal data recording.
However, the conventional optical disc drive does not obtain the write power used for high recording speed from an actual test; instead, the conventional optical disc drive directly derives the recording power used for high recording speed from a test result of recording default data at the low recording speed, which makes it difficult to control the recording quality of the higher recording speeds of the optical disc. What is worse is that the optical disc even has bad readability of recorded data or is unreadable. However, implementing a recording test for each recording speed takes up more test areas, which reduces capacity available for normal data storage of the optical disc, and also makes it necessary to prepare, transfer and record the default test data of the recording test applied to each recording speed. This lengthens the recording time and degrades overall recording performance. Besides, the optical disc drive cannot support optical discs made by all manufacturers. While implementing a recording test on an unsupported optical disc, the optimum write power derived from recording limited default data at a lowest recording speed may not have acceptable recording quality, not to mention the estimated write powers for higher recording speeds. Therefore, the conventional recording test employed in the optical disc drive still has problems to be worked out.


A process of fabricating an insulated-gate field effect transistor includes step for forming a silicon gate electrode 5 on a gate insulation film 4 deposited over one surface of a p-type semiconductor substrate 10; forming n-type base regions 7 extending beneath the silicon gate electrode by introducing an n-type impurity into specified areas of the surface of the semiconductor substrate using the silicon gate electrode 5 as a mask, and then laterally diffusing the introduced impurity; forming a mask layer 8 on the silicon gate electrode; forming p-type source regions in the base regions 7 by introducing p-type impurity, with the silicon gate electrode 5 masked with the mask layer 8, into the specified areas of the surface of the semiconductor substrate, thereby portions in the base regions 7 beneath the silicon gate electrode 5 being defined as channel regions 12; forming a drain electrode 14 on the other surface of the semiconductor substrate 10. This process allows substantially only one impurity of the conductivity type (n-type in this case) to enter in the silicon gate electrode, thus contributing to making the resistance of this silicon gate electrode lower.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process of fabricating the insulated-gate field effect transistor (referred to as IGFET hereinafter), and more particularly to a process of fabricating a high power IGFET with a silicon gate electrode, and with a drain electrode formed on the undersurface of the semiconductor substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
An IGFET which is constructed of source and channel regions at one surface, a silicon gate electrode on the surface, and a drain electrode on the other surface of a semiconductor substrate, thereby electric charges moving from the surface to the undersurface and being output from the drain electrode on it, is adapted for high breakdown voltage and high power application. Furthermore it is possible to form self-aligned channel regions of a prescribed short channel length using the silicon gate electrode as a part of diffusion mask by double diffusion technique involving introduction of p- and n-type impurities in sequence.
Such a process of fabricating the IGFET is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,302, which comprises forming p-type base regions by ion-implantation of boron atoms into an n-type semiconductor layer using exposed polycrystalline silicon gate electrode as a mask, followed by thermal treatment for annealing, and subsequently forming n-type source regions in those p-type base regions by thermal diffusion of phosphorus likewise using as a mask the polycrystalline silicon gate electrode left exposed, thereby channel regions being defined. This process can provide an n-channel type IGFET containing self-aligned channel regions formed in the p-type base regions at the substrate surface under the utilization of the difference in lateral diffusion between boron and phosphorus.
In the process described above, the polycrystalline silicon gate electrode, into which the p-type impurity is introduced during formation of the p-type base regions and the n-type impurity during formation of the n-type source regions, consequently both conductivity types of impurities counteracting against each other, results in creating an increased resistance. This produces a problem of increasing gate input resistance and in turn slowing down the switching speed of the IGFET.

Process of fabricating an insulated-gate field effect transistor


A bed assembly provides an enlarged sleeping surface area as compared to a standard Queen sized bed. Specifically, in the disclosed bed assemblies, the sleeping surface area is about 64 inches to about 68 inches wide and about 77 inches to about 82 inches long. This can be accomplished by providing both a mattress and a foundation having the appropriate, enlarged sleeping surface area, or by combining an enlarged mattress with a foundation having at least one standard Queen sized surface. The mattress and foundation can be fit into a bed frame made of a suitable size to fit the bottom surface of the foundation (i.e., either “enlarged” or standard Queen size). The enlarged sleeping surface of the bed may be between about 65 inches to about 67 inches wide and about 78 inches to about 80 inches long. This enlarged sleeping surface area provides a more comfortable and restful sleep for two occupants.

This invention relates to mattresses and foundations for beds, and particularly to mattresses and/or foundations that provide an enlarged sleeping surface area as compared to a conventional Queen sized bed.
In 1958, the predecessor of Simmons Company, the assignee of the present invention, introduced the Queen sized mattress. The dimensions of the Queen sized mattress were derived through research by Simmons in which average sized couples were asked to sleep on mattresses of unrestricted size. During the course of the night's sleep, the couples were observed, and the area which the couples occupied during the night was measured. Based on area occupied, the dimensions for the Queen sized mattress was established. Later in the 1960s, King sized mattresses were introduced to cater to people who were larger than average size, and who needed a larger sleeping area.
Since 1958, the average size of a woman in United States has increased by 13 pounds, and the average size of a man has increased by 19 pounds. The increase in size of average Americans suggests the need for a larger sleeping surface area for such couples occupying a single bed.
Standard bed sizes (American National Standard 2357.1-1981) published by the International Sleep Association are as follows:
Twin:38 inches by 74.5 inches;Twin Extra-Long:38 inches by 79.5 inches;Double:53 inches by 74.5 inches;Double Extra-Long:53 inches by 79.5 inches;Queen:60 inches by 79.5 inches;King:76 inches by 79.5 inches;California King:72 inches by 83.5 inches.
Typically, the twin bed size is suitable for individual children, and the double bed size is suitable for individual adults. A Queen sized bed cannot always comfortably accommodate two people as suggested by the increase in average size of Americans since 1958. Particularly, if at least one of the people is of relatively large stature or if at least one of the people is a relatively light sleeper or a restless sleeper, a Queen sized mattress is likely to be considered too small for an average couple. Because of the close proximity of occupants in a Queen sized bed, movement by one occupant of the bed is transferred to and tends to wake up or keep up the other bed occupant. While appropriate selection of the inner core spring construction and padding may help reduce this transfer of motion, beds of such construction tend to be less comfortable to users.
Generally, because of their larger sizes, two people can be comfortably accommodated in King sized or California King sized beds. These beds, however, are so large that they do not always easily fit inside a bedroom and/or they do not leave sufficient space in a room to accommodate other furniture that is typically desired in a bedroom. Moreover, the increased costs of King sized and California King sized mattresses, foundations, bed frames, and bedding make these very large bed sizes disadvantageous.
Thus, there is a need for a mattress, foundation, and/or bed assembly that provides a reduced transfer of motion between bed occupants and an enlarged sleeping surface area as compared to conventional Queen sized beds but that is not so large as to overfill or cramp the available space in conventional sized bedrooms.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Mattress and bed assembly providing an enlarged sleeping surface area


A PEM fuel cell oxidant flow field plate (12) having a substantial portion (77A) of the flow field formed of interdigitated reactant flow channels (86, 87) includes a humidification zone coextensive with an electrolyte dry-out barrier (38). Within the humidification zone, the reactant flow channels are flow-through channels (89), which permits the inlet reactant flow to be sufficiently slow to permit adequate humidification of the inlet reactant gas from adjacent water, such as coolant water flow channels and/or the anode, to avoid electrolyte dry-out.

This invention relates to humidification of unhumidified fuel cell reactant gases near the inlet of interdigitated reactant flow field channels by means of a humidification zone having non-interdigitated, low pressure flow-through flow paths, in which the dry incoming gases are exposed to a water transport plate and/or the anode but are not in contact with the membrane (or other reaction electrolyte).
In fuel cells employing a proton exchange membrane (xe2x80x9cPEMxe2x80x9d) electrolyte, it is critical that a proper water balance be maintained within the PEM electrolyte. The process not only generates water at the cathode, but also drags water along with the ions from the anode through the PEM electrolyte to the cathode. If the electrolyte is dry, the process effectiveness suffers, due to increased ionic resistance and reactant cross over, which generates heat and results in membrane degradation, reducing the life of the fuel cell power plant.
In some fuel cells, the reactant gases are humidified before being introduced to the fuel cell, whereby the membrane is always provided with adequate moisture. However, this requires humidification equipment which increases the weight, volume and complexity of the fuel cell. In the case of fuel cells operating at substantially atmospheric pressure, thereby to avoid the need for having a compressor which increases parasitic power waste, it is preferred to utilize unhumidified reactant gases. When this is done, the reactant gases do not become humidified at the very entrance of the fuel cell, but only after flowing adjacent to a water transport plate and/or membrane electrode assembly for a sufficient distance to add adequate moisture to the reactant gas streams. Cells utilizing water transport plates are shown in commonly owned copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/733,133 filed Dec. 8, 2000, incorporated herein by reference. Therefore, the use of unhumidified reactant gases will result in a portion of the electrolyte being dry, with attendant increase in ionic resistance and reactant cross over and reaction which results in heating and degradation of the electrolyte membrane.
In commonly owned copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/731,307 filed on Dec. 6, 2000 and entitled xe2x80x9cFuel Cell With an Electrolyte Dry-Out Barrierxe2x80x9d, incorporated herein by reference, electrolyte dry-out barriers are provided to either or both of the anode and cathode reactant flow fields. The barriers prevent the fuel-containing gas and the oxidant gas streams from contacting the electrolyte prior to being at least partially humidified. The barriers extend for a small percentage (in the range of 3%-10%) of the total length of the flow field.
In some PEM fuel cells, it is known to use interdigitated flow fields, in which the inlet flow channels are not connected to the outlet flow channels such as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,641,586. This design causes the reactant gases to be transported by forced convection into the adjacent porous electrode substrates, which is more effective than the diffusion process in cells with conventional flow-through flow fields. Interdigitated flow fields are used to advantage particularly when the fuel cell is operating on dilute reactants, such as air or reformed hydrocarbon fuel, in which the extraction of the desired reactant gas component becomes more critical.
It has been found that utilization of an electrolyte dry-out barrier of the type described in the aforementioned application in conjunction with interdigitated flow fields, to an extent sufficient to eliminate electrolyte dry-out, results in too great a fraction of the electrolyte area being removed from active participation in the fuel cell process, thereby reducing the effectiveness of the fuel cell. Increasing the area of the electrolyte dry-out barrier increases the weight, volume and cost of the fuel cell. This is particularly undesirable for fuel cells used in vehicular applications.
Objects of the invention include provision of an improved reactant humidification zone in a fuel cell employing an interdigitated flow field; provision of a humidification zone in an interdigitated flow field which does not neutralize a prohibitively large fraction of the electrochemically active area.
According to the present invention, a reactant gas humidification zone in a fuel cell employing reactant gas flow field plates having interdigitated reactant flow channels includes an entry portion having flow-through flow channels coextensive with an electrolyte dry-out barrier, thereby significantly reducing the amount of electrolyte that must be protected from the unhumidified entry reactant gases.
According further to the invention, flow channels in the humidification zone are more narrow and more numerous than the flow field channels, thereby to provide additional oxidant contact area.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent in the light of the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments thereof, as illustrated in the accompanying drawing.

Fuel cell hybrid flow field humidification zone


Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for performing self qualification of cloud based applications. One of the methods includes analyzing, by a self-qualified process (SQP), a set of risks for a cloud based software platform, wherein each risk comprises a set of features that are being evaluated according to a risk definition; performing, by the SQP, one or more tests related to one or more risks of the set of risks; and based on an outcome of each of the tests, generating a measure of a qualification state for the cloud based software platform, wherein the measure of the qualification state is used to determine self-qualification of the software platform.

Nowadays there is a large amount of information continuously created and stored in various "clouds" of distributed storage and/or processing coming from a growing legion of systems. This information is provided by different data sources and it is stored in a heterogeneous way. Each atomic data is related in some way with other data, e.g., by the timestamp when they were created, by their geolocation, based on their origin, etc. The ability to access this large amount of information from a centralized location could lead to new knowledge. Nevertheless, the lack of standardization on its raw format provokes a loss of strength when it is required to ensure the parameters that must work for regulated environments.
This scenario is a reality for many different environments that are sharing information in the cloud (administration, public organizations, private companies, enterprises, individual, commercial transactions, education, social media, etc.). This specification discloses a standard format to manage the needed requirements for a cloud platform that must be qualified under a regulated context from an architectural point of view.

Self qualified process for cloud based applications


The present invention is directed towards the diagnosis of malignant cancer by detection of the mts-1 mRNA or the mts-1 protein, encoded by the mts-1 gene. The present invention contemplates the use of recombinant mts-1 DNA and antibodies directed against the mts-1 protein to diagnose the metastatic potential of several types of tumor cells, including, for example, thyroid, epithelial, lung, liver and kidney tumor cells. The present invention is also directed to mammalian cell lines and tumors with high and low metastatic potential which have been developed to serve as useful model systems for in vitro and in vivo anti-metastasis drug screening.

Malignant cancer tumors shed cells which migrate to new tissues and create secondary tumors; a benign tumor does not generate secondary tumors. The process of generating secondary tumors is called metastasis and is a complex process in which tumor cells colonize sites distant from the primary tumor. Tumor metastasis remains the major cause of morbidity and death for patients with cancer. One of the greatest challenges in cancer research is to understand the basis of metastasis, i.e., what controls the spread of tumor cells through the blood and lymphatic systems and what allows tumor cells to populate and flourish in new locations.
The metastatic process appears to be sequential and selective, and is controlled by a series of steps since metastatic tumor cells: (a) are mobile and can disseminate from the original tumor; (b) are capable of invading the cellular matrix and penetrating through blood vessels; (c) possess immunological markers, which allow them to survive passage through the blood stream, where they must avoid the immunologically active cytotoxic "T" lymphocytes; and (d) have the ability to find a favorable location to transplant themselves and successfully survive and grow.
Understanding the underlying molecular mechanisms in metastasis is the key to understanding cancer biology and its therapy. In clinical lesions, malignant tumors contain a heterogeneous population of cells, exhibiting a variety of biological characteristics, e.g., differential growth rates, cell surface structures, invasive capacities and sensitivity to various cytotoxic drugs. Researchers can take advantage of tumor heterogeneity factors, by identifying specific cell produced markers, which are unique for metastasis, to develop therapeutic regiments which do not rely only on surgical resection.
At this time it is not known whether the metastatic phenotype is under the regulation of a single or multiple gene(s), and whether these genes are independent or interrelated. However, a number of genes have become correlated with the formation and metastasis of tumors. For example, several normal cellular genes become oncogenes by incorporation into a retroviral genome. Due to the juxtaposition of new promoter elements, such incorporation frequently allows a potential oncogene to be expressed in inappropriate tissues or at higher levels than it normally would be expressed. It appears from work with tumorigenic retroviruses as well as other systems that misexpression of many cellular proteins, particularly those involved in the regulation of the cell cycle, cell mobility, or cell-cell interaction may lead to a cancerous phenotype.
The present invention discloses the human mts-1 gene and diagnosis of metastatic cancer by use of either antibodies directed against the mts-1 protein or mts-1 nucleic acid probes directed against mts-1 mRNA.
The mouse and rat mts-1 genes have been previously isolated under different names (i.e., 18A2, Linzer, et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 80:4271-4275, 1983; and p9Ka, Barraclough et al., J. Mol. Biol. 198:13-20, 1987) but no function or correlation of the mts-1 gene in metastatic cancer has been established prior to the present invention. Previous work has indicated that the protein now identified as the mts-1 protein is a calcium binding protein with homology to other calcium binding proteins such as, for example, the S-100 calcium protein, which are thought to have a role in cell growth (Linzer et al. supra; Jackson-Grusby et al., Nuc. Acids Res. 15:6677-6690, 1987; Goto et al., J. Biochem. 103:48-53, 1988). Other researchers suggest a role for p9Ka, later found to be identical to mts-1, in myoepithelial cell differentiation (Barraclough, et al., supra).
As determined uniquely by the present invention, the mammalian mts-1 gene is expressed at 10-100 fold higher levels in metastatic cells compared to non-metastatic cells and normal cells. Only a few types of normal cells, including lymphocytes and trophoblasts, express mts-1. Hence, the present invention demonstrates a surprising new property of mts-1: the misexpression of mts-1 within a cell or tissue is diagnostic of malignant cancer.

Diagnosis of metastatic cancer by the mts-1 gene


A protective covering assemblage is releasable secured to a post extending from the ground. Protection means are mounted on and supported by a top portion of the post so as to cover at least a portion of the post which would be grazed by a passing vehicle. The protection means are rotatable mounted on the post and are made from a material which avoids damaging a vehicle when the vehicle comes into contact with the protection means.

The present invention relates generally to protective devices and, more particularly, it relates to protective covering assemblages for minimizing damage to vehicle bodies and the like.
It is commonplace in and around garages, bank and restaurant drive-thru's, and parking lots to utilize rigid vertical posts extending a few feet from the ground for purposes of controlling vehicular traffic. For instance, these posts allow for chains and the like to be connected thereto and extend therebetween so as to close-off such areas. Also, such posts delineate desired vehicle paths as well as serve to protect adjacent structures from being damaged by vehicles deviating from the desired path. The rigid posts are made from a variety of materials and typically are made of reinforced concrete or a concrete core surrounded by a metal casing. In normal usage, it is fairly common for vehicles to graze or impact these rigid posts. As a consequence thereof, the vehicle body is often damaged by ensuing scrapping, nicking, and/or denting. Today, of course, repairing vehicle body damage is a costly and time consuming experience.
Heretofore, the prior art has failed to disclose a protective covering assemblage which is easily attachable to a variety of posts or the like and which includes a protective member covering a portion of the post and which is rotatable if grazed by the moving vehicle so as to minimize and/or eliminate vehicle body damage that would otherwise be caused by the vehicle grazing an unprotected post.


An anisotropic conductive film (ACF) structure and a hot-pressing method and a hot-pressing assembly thereof are provided. The ACF structure includes an ACF and a copper/gold foil surface layer as a substrate. The ACF structure is hot-pressed by a hot-pressing method, which includes the following steps: allowing, when the ACF is in a molten state, the copper/gold foil surface layer and a bonded part to be conductive respectively to generate a magnetic field around to enhance the attraction of the copper/gold foil surface layer and the bonded part to conductive particles inside the ACF; and applying, when the ACF is in a curing stage, a closed circuit to ends of the copper/gold foil surface layer and the bonded part to perform real-time detection on the ACF to ensure the effectiveness of the hot pressing.

Contact electrical conduction is widely used in metal parts of digital products to achieve electromagnetic shielding and other purposes. In the prior art, the electroplating method and the conductive tape bonding method are typically used to form a contact conduction area on the surface of the metal part. The advantages and disadvantages of the two methods are as follows. (1) The electroplating method has the advantages of high electrical conductivity, low contact resistance, stability and reliability, but it is not environmentally friendly, has a complicated process and a high cost. (2) The conductive tape bonding method is environmentally friendly, has a simple process and a low cost, but it has the disadvantages of low electrical conductivity, poor thermal conductivity and poor stability.
The anisotropic conductive film (ACF) is composed of high-quality resin and conductive particles. The ACF is mainly used in a process where high-temperature lead-tin soldering cannot be performed on circuit boards, that is, the common bonding process. The common bonding process involves the connection of a flexible circuit board or flexible cable to a liquid crystal display (LCD), a printed circuit board (PCB) or a membrane switch, or the connection between flexible circuit boards.
Generally, the ACF is subject to a special hot pressing and curing process, to be melted, bonded and cured under the three necessary conditions of temperature, time and pressure, such that the ACF can effectively adhere to the surface of a metal structural part made of ordinary steel, stainless steel, aluminum, aluminum alloy and copper, etc., and to ensure excellent electrical performance and reliability. The conductive particles in the ACF achieve electrical conduction between an electronic component and a substrate.
The conductive particles of the ACF are mainly plated plastic balls, and a metal layer plated on the outside of the plastic balls plays a leading role in the electrical conduction. In order to achieve effective electrical conduction, the conductive particles are required to be blasted by force. The conductive particles are scattered inside the ACF, and the positions thereof are uncertain when the ACF is subject to hot-pressing. Therefore, it cannot be guaranteed that the conductive particles realize effective electrical conduction between the electronic component and the substrate after hot pressing, which affects the electrical conductivity of the ACF to some extent. In addition, the ACF is typically used for partial electrical conduction by making the upper and lower surfaces of the ACF adhere to the surface of the metal structural part, but such a connection process is complicated, and it is more likely to affect the effective electrical conduction.

Anisotropic conductive film (ACF) structure and hot-pressing method and hot-pressing assembly thereof

Jiangsu Telilan Coaling Technology Co., Ltd.


A coupler for a coaxial plug and connectable with a cable, especially an antenna coupler with an outer conductive sleeve comprised entirely or partly of metal and formed by bending from a blank whose basic shape is produced by stamping or punching from steel metal.

A coupler for coaxial conductors and especially an antenna coupler is described in German patent document DE 196 09 571. In general, this coupler has an outer sleeve which can be cast or machined from metal and is formed with a massive sleeve. It may be made by turning and/or milling and has with its outer side a bulge which can be engaged by a locking element which can fix a plug, receivable in the coupler, and lock them together. The turning or milling of a solid material, like that on which the outer sleeve has been fabricated in the past is expensive and time-consuming.

Coaxial cable coupler, especially an antenna coupler


There is provided an information processing device which comprises a transparency adjustment unit to adjust transparency of a watermark image which is to be added to a main image to prepare data of a first image having first transparency and data of a second image having second transparency, wherein each of the first and second images corresponds to the watermark image and the first transparency of the first image is higher than the second transparency of the second image. The information processing device further comprises an overlap processing unit to generate data of an overlap image of the main image, the first image and the second image such that the second image, the main image and the first image overlap with each other in bottom-to-top order.

1. Technical Field
Aspects of the present invention relate to an information processing device having a watermark printing function.
2. Related Art
Printer drivers having a watermark printing function are widely used. Through the watermark printing function, data of a watermark image (e.g., watermark letters) can be added to data of a main image (e.g., a document) to be printed. For example, an indication "Confidential", "Important", "Urgent" or "No Copy" is added on a document to be printed so as to attract the attention of readers of the document. An example of a printing device having the watermark printing function is disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. HEI 11-298717.
In general, the watermark printing function includes a background mode and a transparent mode. FIGS. 9B and 9C illustrate examples of an overlap image of a main image 10M and a watermark image 10W (see FIG. 9A) printed in the background mode and transparent mode, respectively. In the background mode, the main image 10M is written on the watermark image 10W (see FIG. 9B). Since in this case the watermark image 10W is covered with the main image 10M, there are cases where readers of the main image (e.g., a document) hardly recognize the watermark image 10W (i.e., a word "Copy") depending on the size of the watermark image 10W.
As shown in FIG. 9C, in the transparent mode, data of the watermark image 10W undergoes a process for giving transparency to the watermark image 10W, and thereafter the watermark image data which has undergone the transparency process is overlaid on the data of the main image 10M. Since the watermark image has undergone the transparency process, a reader of the overlap image shown in FIG. 9C is able to recognize both of the main image and the watermark image in an overlap portion between the main image and the watermark image. However, in the transparent mode, a part of the watermark image not overlapping with the main image also undergoes the transparent process. Therefore, readers of the overlap image shown in FIG. 9C may feel that the entire watermark image is light and difficult to recognize.


A process is provided for forming a conductive line between a conductor and a spacer formed on a substrate of a field emission display. In one embodiment, the process performs the steps of disposing a screen between the substrate and a distributing member, the screen having an opening which permits the extrusion a conductive material, and moving the distributing member relative to the screen to extrude the conductive material through the opening and form a conductive line connecting the conductor and the spacer, wherein the snap off distance is varied according as the distributing member moves along the substrate.

This invention relates to the field of electronic displays, and, more particularly, field emission display ("FED") devices.
As technology for producing small, portable electronic devices progresses, so does the need for electronic displays which are small, provide good resolution, and consume small amounts of power in order to provide extended battery operation. Past displays have been constructed based upon cathode ray tube ("CRT") or liquid crystal display ("LCD") technology. However, neither of these technologies is perfectly suited to the demands of current electronic devices.
CRT's have excellent display characteristics, such as, color, brightness, contrast and resolution. However, they are also large, bulky and consume power at rates which are incompatible with extended battery operation of current portable computers.
LCD displays consume relatively little power and are small in size. However, by comparison with CRT technology, they provide poor contrast, and only limited ranges of viewing angles are possible. Further, color versions of LCDs also tend to consume power at a rate which is incompatible with extended battery operation.
As a result of the above described deficiencies of CRT and LCD technology, efforts are underway to develop new types of electronic displays for the latest electronic devices. One technology currently being developed is known as "field emission display technology."The basic construction of a field emission display, or ("FED") is shown in FIG. 1. As seen in the figure, a field emission display comprises a face plate 100 with a transparent conductor 102 formed thereon. Phosphor dots 112 are then formed on the transparent conductor 102. The face plate 100 of the FED is separated from a baseplate 114 by a spacer 104. The spacers serve to prevent the baseplate from being pushed into contact with the faceplate by atmospheric pressure when the space between the baseplate and the faceplate is evacuated. A plurality of emitters 106 are formed on the baseplate. The emitters 106 are constructed by thin film processes common to the semi-conductor industry. Thousands of emitters 106 are formed on the baseplate 114 to provide a spatially uniform source of electrons.
FIG. 2 shows a basic construction of a typical field emission display device. As shown, there is a substrate 200 formed of a transparent material, for example, glass. On the substrate 200, there is formed conductors 202 and spacers 204. When the FED is finally assembled, conductors 202 will form the contact points necessary to connect the FED into an electronic circuit. Spacers 204 provide the required separation between die 206 and substrate 200. Without spacers 204, the die 206 would be forced together with substrate 200 by atmospheric pressure when the device is evacuated. Die 206 has surface 208 which has formed thereon the emitters which will emit electrons to form an image on phosphor layer 210. Also formed on surface 208 of die 206 are a plurality of contact pads 212 which will be connected to conductors 202 to allow operation of the device.
One method for connecting the bond pads on surface 208 to the conductors 202 is a method referred to as "flip chip" bonding. This technique is described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG. 3 shows an example of a die 300 suitable for flip chip bonding. In this example, die 300 has contact pads 302a-302n for providing electrical connection to emitters 306. Bonding pads 302a-302n have formed thereon conductive "bumps" 304a-304n. Bumps 304a-304n provide the electrical connection necessary to the corresponding conductors on the spacers as shown in FIG. 4.
FIG. 4 is a diagram of a substrate 400 having formed thereon a phosphor layer 402, a spacer 404 and a plurality of conductors 406a-406n. Formed on the upper surface of spacer 404 are a plurality of conductors 408a-408n for providing electrical connection to bond pads 302a-302n by conductive bumps 304a-304n (see FIG. 3). However, it is still necessary to provide electrical communication between conductors 408a-408n formed on the spacer and conductors 406a-406n formed on the substrate 400. One method for providing this communication is shown in FIG. 5.
FIG. 5 is a top view of a substrate 500 having the conductors 506a-506n on the spacer 504 electrically connected to the conductors 510a-510n on the substrate 500. As shown in FIG. 5, substrate 500 has formed thereon phosphor layer 502, spacer 504 and conductors 510a-510n. Spacer 504 has formed, on an upper surface, conductors 506a-506n. Spacer conductors 506a-506n are electrically connected to substrate conductors 510a-510n by bonding wires 508a-508n. However, the connecting scheme shown in FIG. 5 is undesirable because it requires that additional manufacturing steps be taken to bond each bonding wire 508a-508n between the proper conductors on the substrate 500 and the spacer 504.
There has therefore been a need in the industry for a method and apparatus to connect substrate conductors to spacer conductors without the use of bond wires.

Multiple level printing in a single pass


A paper or plastic band for a product, such as a newspaper, comprises a single integral strip with the inner faces of the two end portions of the strip being joined such that the strip forms a loop with the joined end portions forming a tag projecting outwardly from the loop. In another embodiment, the tag is folded over to lie flat against the loop and is joined in this position in order to reinforce the joint between the two end portions.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a band for a product.
2. Description of the Related Art
A product, such as a magazine or a newspaper, may be banded in order to hold it together or to hold it in a folded state. A common form of plastic and paper banding comprises a strip which is looped around the product with the ends of the strip overlapped and joined such that the outer face of the underlying end is joined to the inner face of the overlapping end. With this form of banding, the strength of the joint between the ends is limited. This invention seeks to overcome drawbacks of known product bands.

Longford Equipment International Limited


A secondary nozzle is provided for a gas turbine. The secondary nozzle includes a flange and an elongated nozzle body extending from the flange. At least one premix fuel injector is spaced radially from the nozzle body and extends from the flange generally parallel to the nozzle body. At least one second nozzle tube is fluidly connected to the fuel source and spaced radially outward from the first nozzle tube with a proximal end fixed to the flange. The second nozzle tube has a distal end, spaced from the proximal end, with at least one aperture therein. A passageway extends between the proximal end and the distal end of the second nozzle tube, with the passageway fluidly connecting to the fuel source and the aperture.

Gas turbines play a predominant role in a number of applications, namely in aircraft propulsion, marine, propulsion, power generation and driving processes, such as pumps and compressors. Typically, a gas turbine includes a compressor, a combustor and a turbine. In operation, air is fed into the system where it is compressed by a compressor and a portion of the air further mixed with fuel. The compressed air and fuel mixture are then burned to cause an expansion, which is responsible for driving the turbine.
In an effort to reduce emissions, combustors have been designed to premix fuel and air prior to ignition. Premixed fuel and air burn at a lower temperature than the stoichiometric combustion, which occurs during traditional diffusion combustion. As a result, premixed combustion results in lower NOx emissions.
A typical combustor includes a plurality of primary fuel nozzles that surround a central secondary nozzle. Traditional secondary nozzles may include passageways for diffusion fuel and premix fuel all within the same elongated tubular structure. This type of nozzle often includes a complex structure of passageways contained within a single tubular shell. The passageways for creating the diffusion flame extend through the length of the nozzle. Premix fuel is dispensed upstream of the diffusion tip in order to allow fuel to mix with compressed air flowing through the combustor prior to reaching the flame zone, which is located downstream of the nozzle. As a result, passageways for premix fuel are typically shorter than passageways for diffusion fuel.
Additionally, premix fuel may be mixed with air upstream of the diffusion tip and, more importantly, radially outward of the secondary nozzle structure. In this type of secondary nozzle, premix fuel is carried along only a portion of the nozzle length until it is passed radially outward from the nozzle body to a premix injector tip. At the injector tip, the premix fuel is dispensed into the air flow path. As the fuel and air continue to travel downstream along the remainder of the secondary nozzle length, they become mixed, allowing for more efficient combustion within the flame zone, downstream of the nozzle tip.
While compressed air is hot, fuel is typically cool in comparison. The temperature differentials flowing through the different passageways in the secondary nozzle may result in different levels of thermal expansion of the materials used to construct the nozzle. It is contemplated that it would be beneficial to simplify the secondary nozzles to reduce the high stresses on the nozzle structures resulting from their internal complexity, extreme operating conditions and thermal expansion differentials.


A card-type electronic device has a multilayer printed wiring board and a case which houses the multilayer printed wiring board. The case has an opening. The multilayer printed wiring board includes a plurality of insulating layers and a plurality of conductive layers, which are alternately stacked, and has a flat surface on one side thereof along a stacked direction. The flat surface is formed of one of the insulating layers, and at least a part of the flat surface is exposed to the outside of the case through the opening.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card-type electronic device such as an SD (Secure Digital) memory card, formed of a flat case and a multilayer printed wiring board housed therein, and also to a method for manufacturing the card-type electronic device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A compact SD memory card including a flash memory is known as a medium to store image data, sound data and other data. The SD memory cards are widely used in mobile devices, for example, cellular phones and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants).
The SD memory card comprises a multilayer printed wiring board on which a memory element and a controller are mounted, and a flat case which houses the multilayer printed wiring board. The case has a recess portion in which the multilayer printed wiring board is fitted. The recess portion has an opening on the outer surface of the case, and a bottom that faces the opening. The multilayer printed wiring board is exposed to the outside of the case through the opening in the recess portion, and it constitutes a part of the surface of the SD memory card. The memory element and controller are housed in a gap between the multilayer printed wiring board and the bottom of the recess portion.
The multilayer printed wiring board has a plurality of conductive layers and a plurality of insulating layers stacked alternately. One of the conductive layers is located at the surface of the multilayer printed wiring board. Since the conductive layer is exposed to the outside of the case through the opening, if the user touches the conductive layer with a finger, the memory element may fatally damaged by static electricity built up in the human body.
To avoid the above damage, in the conventional SD memory card, the conductive layer located at the surface of the multilayer printed wiring board is coated with a solder resist, so that the memory element is protected from static electricity. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,784,259 discloses such an SD memory card.
According to the conventional SD memory card, a solder resist must be applied to the surface of the multilayer printed wiring board in order to protect the memory element from the static electricity. Therefore, in the process of manufacturing a multilayer printed wiring board, a step of applying a solder resist is additionally required, so that the number of steps is increased. As a result, the manufacturing cost for the multilayer printed wiring board is increased, resulting in a high-priced SD memory card.
Further, patterned conductive layers slightly protrude from the insulating layers. Therefore, even if a solder resist is applied to the conductive layer, the conductive layer patterns form irregularities on the surface of the SD memory card. Thus, the SD memory card looks unattractive, so that the value of the product is lowered.

Electronic device having multilayer printed wiring board and method for manufacturing electronic device


A vacuum cleaner includes a housing carrying a suction generator and a dirt collection vessel. In addition the vacuum cleaner includes a cleaning nozzle including a wand receiver, a tubular wand, a latch releasably securing an end of the wand to the wand receiver and a latch release carried on the wand or the cleaning nozzle. The latch release is characterized by a lever, a cam carried on the lever and a cam guide track. The lever is displaceable between a first or home position and a second or wand release position.

It is well known in the art to equip both upright and canister vacuum cleaners with a cleaning wand. The wand is of tubular construction and is connected to the suction generator of the vacuum cleaner through a flexible hose. The wand is detached from the main body of the upright vacuum cleaner or a nozzle assembly of the canister vacuum cleaner for purposes of specialty cleaning. Specialty cleaning includes but is in no way limited to tight corners where insufficient clearance exists for cleaning with the upright vacuum cleaner or nozzle assembly. It also includes above floor cleaning applications such as the cleaning of dirt and debris from upholstered furniture, the tops of baseboards, windowsills, draperies or the like.
An important feature of any vacuum cleaner of this type is the ability to quickly and conveniently release the wand for the specialty cleaning applications. The present invention relates to a vacuum cleaner equipped with just such a quick release wand.


A wrapping machine for wrapping products is provided with a product diverter for producing package formats which are greater in width than the number of lanes which deliver product to the wrapper machine. A plurality of metering belts advance product from an infeed conveyor along a plurality of infeed lanes. The metering belts are independently driven so that product can be advanced in each lane independently of the product in the other lanes. The metering belts deliver product to accelerator belts which speed up the product to create a gap between successive products in a lane. A first flighted conveyor advances product from the accelerator belts to a plurality of pivotally mounted diverting gates, corresponding in number to the number of infeed lanes. Each of the diverting gates direct the product to one of a plurality of output lanes. The number of output lanes is equal to, less than, or greater than the number of infeed lanes. The diverting gates are independently controlled so that each diverting gate can be pivoted independently of the other gates. A second flighted conveyor advances product from the discharge end of the diverter gates along the output lanes.

This invention relates to an apparatus and method to handle objects, such as rolled tissue product, within a wrapping machine that is capable of receiving at its input a substantially continuous flow of randomly spaced articles that are separated into a discrete number of lanes and discharging at its output side a continuous flow of articles separated into a discrete number of lanes which is equal to, less than, or greater than, the number of lanes at the infeed. A second objective of this apparatus is that the objects are discharged in an organized and timed relationship to further processing in the wrapping machine.


A method, an eNodeB and a User Equipment for transmitting Random Access Response messages are provided. The method includes: receiving Random Access Preamble transmitted by the UE through the Random Access Channel; according to the RAP, determining whether the UE belongs to the central group or the edge group of the Random Access Area; after determining that the UE belongs to the central group of the RAA, determining the RAA which the UE belongs to; transmitting the first RAR message to the UE according to the RAP, the channel resource information of the RACH, and the RAA. By transmitting the RAR message on the basis of the RAP and the RAA, the method, eNB and UE for transmitting RAR messages enable different RAR messages to be transmitted with respect to identical Random Access requests of different RAAs.

In a radio communication system, a terminal is required to establish a connection with a network, which is generally referred to as a random access procedure. In a long term evolution (abbreviated as "LTE") system, the random access procedure is generally required to be performed in the following situations: the terminal initially accessing to establish a radio link (transformed a radio resource control (abbreviated as "RRC") state from an idle state (RRC_IDLE) to a connected state (RRC_CONNECTED)); re-establishing a link after the radio link is interrupted; the terminal establishing an uplink synchronization with a target cell in a switching process; in the case that the terminal is in the RRC_CONNECTED state and the terminal does not established the uplink synchronization, establishing the uplink synchronization when uplink data or downlink data is received; a user located based on an uplink measurement; performing a scheduling request in the case where no special scheduling request resource is assigned on a physical uplink control channel (abbreviated as "PUCCH").
There is a contention based random access procedure and a non-contention based random access procedure in the LTE. The contention based random access procedure generally includes: randomly selecting, by a user equipment (abbreviated as "UE"), a random access preamble sequence from a RAP sequence set; sending the selected random access preamble sequence on a random access resource (a physical random access channel (abbreviated as "PRACH")) predetermined by a base station (eNodeB, abbreviated as "eNB"); receiving a random access response (abbreviated as "RAR") message issued by the base station, on a physical downlink shared channel (abbreviated as "PDSCH"); transmitting, by the UE, a random access procedure message to the base station on a physical uplink shared channel (abbreviated as "PUSCH") determined based on the RAR message according to a cell-radio network temporary identity (abbreviated as "C-RNTI") in the RAR message, where the random access procedure message includes an identifier of the UE located in this cell and is used for a contention resolution; and receiving, by the UE, a contention resolution message sent by the base station. In this way, the random access procedure may be implemented.
The non-contention based random access procedure includes: sending, by the UE, the random access preamble sequence predetermined by the base station, on the random access resources predetermined by the base station; and determining, by the UE, that the random access successes when the RAR message corresponding to the preamble sequence transmitted by the UE is received.
In 3rd generation partnership project (abbreviated as "3GPP"), four types of coordinated multi-point transmission (abbreviated as "CoMP") scenes are provided. In one scene, all transmission points share one cell identity (ID) in a macro region which includes a macro site and a radio remote head (abbreviated as "RRH"). This architecture is also referred to as a distribute antenna system (abbreviated as "DAS").
In the DAS system, in one cell, the base station only feeds back one RAR with respect to the identical PRACH preamble sequence identity detected on the same PRACH time frequency resource. Thus, the probability of the same random access preamble sequence selected by different UEs increases, as the number of the UEs increases. Therefore, the collision probability is increased during the transmission of the RAR and the success rate of the random access is reduced.

Method, enodeb and user equipment for transmitting random access response messages