An inverter of a liquid crystal display for receiving a power voltage for burst dimming via one power terminal to simultaneously adjust a burst dimming and an analog dimming is disclosed. In the inverter of the liquid crystal display, a burst dimming signal generator receives a triangular-wave signal and a power voltage for burst dimming to generate a burst dimming signal. An analog dimming voltage generator receives the power voltage for burst dimming to generate an analog dimming voltage. And a main controller receives the burst dimming signal and the analog dimming voltage to generate a pulse width modulating signal which is used for generating a driving current of a backlight assembly.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a backlight driving apparatus, and more particularly to a backlight driving apparatus of a liquid crystal display that is adaptive for receiving a power voltage for burst dimming via one power terminal to simultaneously adjust a burst dimming and an analog dimming, and a driving method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a liquid crystal display controls light transmittance of liquid crystal cells in accordance with video signals to thereby display a picture. An active matrix type of liquid crystal display having a switching device provided for each liquid crystal cell is advantageous for an implementation of moving picture because it permits an active control of the switching device. The switching device used for the active matrix liquid crystal display mainly employs a thin film transistor (hereinafter, referred to as "TFT") as shown in FIG. 1.
Referring to FIG. 1, the liquid crystal display of the active matrix type converts a digital input data into an analog data voltage on the basis of a gamma reference voltage to supply it to a data line DL and, at the same time supply a scanning pulse to a gate line GL, thereby charging a liquid crystal cell Clc.
A gate electrode of the TFT is connected to the gate line GL, a source electrode is connected to the data line DL, and a drain electrode of the TFT is connected to a pixel electrode of the liquid crystal cell Clc and one end electrode of a storage capacitor Cst.
A common electrode of the liquid crystal cell Clc is supplied with a common voltage Vcom.
When the TFT is turned-on, the storage capacitor Cst charges a data voltage applied from the data line DL to constantly maintain a voltage of the liquid crystal cell Clc.
If the gate pulse is applied to the gate line GL, the TFT is turned-on to define a channel between the source electrode and the drain electrode, thereby supplying a voltage on the data line DL to the pixel electrode of the liquid crystal cell Clc. In this case, liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal cell Clc are arranged by an electric field between the pixel electrode and the common electrode to modulate an incident light.
A configuration of the related art liquid crystal display including pixels which have such a structure is the same as shown in FIG. 2.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the related art liquid crystal display.
Referring to FIG. 2, a liquid crystal display 100 includes a liquid crystal display panel 110, a data driver 120, a gate driver 130, a gamma reference voltage generator 140, a backlight assembly 150, a common voltage generator 160, a gate driving voltage generator 170, a timing controller 180, and an inverter 190. Herein, the data driver 120 supplies a data to the data lines DL1 to DLm of the liquid crystal display panel 110. The gate driver 130 supplies a scanning pulse to the gate lines GL1 to GLn of the liquid crystal display panel 110. The gamma reference voltage generator 140 generates a gamma reference voltage to supply it to the data driver 120. The backlight assembly 150 irradiates a light onto the liquid crystal display panel 110. The common voltage generator 160 generates a common voltage Vcom to supply it to a common electrode of the liquid crystal cell Clc of the liquid crystal display panel 110. The gate driving voltage generator 170 generates a gate high voltage VGH and a gate low voltage VGL to supply them to the gate driver 130. The timing controller 180 controls the data driver 120 and the gate driver 130. The inverter 190 applies an AC voltage and a current to the backlight assembly 150.
The liquid crystal display panel 110 has a liquid crystal dropped between two glass substrates. On the lower glass substrate of the liquid crystal display panel 110, the data lines DL1 to DLm and the gate lines GL1 to GLn perpendicularly cross each other. Each intersection between the data lines DL1 to DLm and the gate lines GL1 to GLn is provided with the TFT. The TFT supplies a data on the data lines DL1 to DLm to the liquid crystal cell Clc in response to the scanning pulse. The gate electrode of the TFT is connected to the gate lines GL1 to GLn while the source electrode thereof is connected to the data line DL1 to DLm. Further, the drain electrode of the TFT is connected to the pixel electrode of the liquid crystal cell Clc and to the storage capacitor Cst.
The TFT is turned-on in response to the scanning pulse applied, via the gate lines GL1 to GLn, to the gate terminal thereof. Upon turning-on of the TFT, a video data on the data lines DL1 to DLm is supplied to the pixel electrode of the liquid crystal cell Clc.
The data driver 120 supplies a data to the data lines DL1 to DLm in response to a data driving control signal DDC which is supplied from the timing controller 180. Further, the data driver 120 converts digital video data RGB which are supplied from the timing controller 180 into an analog data voltage on the basis of a gamma reference voltage from the gamma reference voltage generator 140 to supply it the data lines DL1 to DLm. Herein, the analog data voltage is realized as a gray scale at the liquid crystal cell Clc of the liquid crystal display panel 110.
The gate driver 130 sequentially generates a scanning pulse in response to a gate driving control signal GDC and a gate shift clock GSC which are supplied from the timing controller 180 to supply it to the gate lines GL1 to GLn. In this case, the gate driver 130 determines a high level voltage and a low level voltage of the scanning pulse in accordance with the gate high voltage VGH and the gate low voltage VGL which are supplied from the gate driving voltage generator 170.
The gamma reference voltage generator 140 receives a high-level power voltage VDD to generate a positive gamma reference voltage and a negative gamma reference voltage and output them to the data driver 120.
The backlight assembly 150 is provided at the rear side of the liquid crystal display panel 110, and is radiated by an AC voltage and a current which are supplied from the inverter 190 to irradiate a light onto each pixel of the liquid crystal display panel 110.
The common voltage generator 160 receives a high-level power voltage VDD to generate a common voltage Vcom, and supplies it to the common electrode of the liquid crystal cell Clc provided at each pixel of the liquid crystal display panel 110.
The gate driving voltage generator 170 is supplied with a high-level power voltage VDD to generate the gate high voltage VGH and the gate low voltage VGL, and supplies them to the gate driver 130. Herein, the gate driving voltage generator 170 generates a gate high voltage VGH more than a threshold voltage of the TFT provided at each pixel of the liquid crystal display panel 110 and a gate low voltage VGL less then the threshold voltage of the TFT. The gate high voltage VGH and the gate low voltage VGL generated in this manner are used for determining a high level voltage and a low level voltage of the scanning pulse generated by the gate driver 130, respectively.
The timing controller 180 supplies digital video data RGB which are supplied from a system such as a TV set or a computer monitor, etc to the data driver 120. Furthermore, the timing controller 180 generates a data driving control signal DCC and a gate driving control signal GDC using horizontal/vertical synchronization signals H and V in response to a clock signal CLK to supply them to the data driver 120 and the gate driver 130, respectively. Herein, the data driving control signal DDC includes a source shift clock SSC, a source start pulse SSP, a polarity control signal POL and a source output enable signal SOE, etc. The gate driving control signal GDC includes a gate start pulse GSP and a gate output enable signal GOE, etc.
The inverter 190 receives a power voltage for burst dimming of 0V to 3.3V from a system to generate a burst dimming signal, and then adjusts a duty ratio of a pulse width modulating signal PWM which is used for generating a driving current of the backlight assembly 150 in accordance with the burst dimming signal. At the same time, the inverter 190 alternatively receives a power voltage for analog dimming of 0V, 1.65V, and 3.3V from a system to adjust amplitude of a pulse width modulating signal PWM.
Such an inverter 190 adjusts a supply period of a driving current of the backlight assembly 150 in proportion to a duty ratio of a pulse width modulating signal PWM and, at the same time adjusts amplitude of a driving current of the backlight assembly 150 in proportion to amplitude of a pulse width modulating signal PWM. Herein, the inverter 190 receives a power voltage for burst dimming via one power terminal and receives a power voltage for analog dimming via the other power terminal.
In this way, a backlight driving apparatus of the related art, that is, since the inverter 190 receives a power voltage for burst dimming and a power voltage for analog dimming via two power terminals, respectively, a system is designed to separately supply a power voltage for burst dimming and a power voltage for analog dimming. The inverter 190 of the related art has a disadvantage in that a configuration of supplying power path and a circuit configuration of the system are complicated.

Backlight driving apparatus of LCD and driving method thereof


A general purpose, programmable media processor for processing and transmitting a media data stream of audio, video, radio, graphics, encryption, authentication, and networking information in real-time. The media processor incorporates an execution unit that maintains substantially peak data throughout of media data streams. The execution unit includes a dynamically partionable multi-precision arithmetic unit, programmable switch and programmable extended mathematical element. A high bandwidth external interface supplies media data streams at substantially peak rates to a general purpose register file and the multi-precision execution unit. A memory management unit, and instruction and data cache/buffers are also provided. High bandwidth memory controllers are linked in series to provide a memory channel to the general purpose, programmable media processor. The general purpose, programmable media processor is disposed in a network fabric consisting of fiber optic cable, coaxial cable and twisted pair wires to transmit, process and receive single or unified media data streams. Parallel general purpose media processors are disposed throughout the network in a distributed virtual manner to allow for multi-processor operations and sharing of resources through the network. A method for receiving, processing and transmitting media data streams over the communications fabric is also provided.

Optical fiber and discs have made the transmission and storage of digital information both cheaper and easier than older analog technologies. An improved system for digital processing of media data streams is necessary in order to realize the full potential of these advanced media.
For the past century, telephone service delivered over copper twisted pair has been the lingua franca of communications. Over the next century, broadband services delivered over optical fiber and coax will more completely fulfill the human need for sensory information by supplying voice, video, and data at rates of about 1,000 times greater than narrow band telephony. Current general-purpose microprocessors and digital signal processors ("DSPs") can handle digital voice, data, and images at narrow band rates, but they are way too slow for processing media data at broadband rates.
This shortfall in digital processing of broadband media is currently being addressed through the design of many different kinds of application-specific integrated circuits ("ASICs"). For example, a prototypical broadband device such as a cable modem modulates and demodulates digital data at rates up to 45 Mbits/sec within a single 6 MHz cable channel (as compared to rates of 28.8 kbits/sec within a 6 kHz channel for telephone modems) and transcodes it onto a 10/100baseT connection to a personal computer ("PC") or workstation. Current cable modems thus receive data from a coaxial cable connection through a chain of specialized ASIC devices in order to accomplish Quadrature Amplitude Modification ("QAM") demodulation, Reed-Solomon error correction, packet filtering, Data Encryption Standard ("DES") decryption, and Ethernet protocol handling. The cable modems also transmit data to the coaxial cable link through a second chain of devices to achieve DES encryption, Reed-Solomon block encoding, and Quaternary Phase Shift Keying ("QPSK") modulation. In these environments, a general-purpose processor is usually required as well in order to perform initialization, statistics collection, diagnostics, and network management functions.
The ASIC approach to media processing has three fundamental flaws: cost, complexity, and rigidity. The combined silicon area of all the specialized ASIC devices required in the cable modem, for example, results in a component cost incompatible with the per subscriber price target for a cable service. The cable plant itself is a very hostile service environment, with noise ingress, reflections, nonlinear amplifiers, and other channel impairments, especially when viewed in the upstream direction. Telephony modems have developed an elaborate hierarchy of algorithms implemented in DSP software, with automatic reduction of data rates from 28.8 kbits/sec to 19.6 kbits/sec, 14.4 kbits/sec, or much lower rates as needed to accommodate noise, echoes, and other impairments in the copper plant. To implement similar algorithms on an ASIC-based broadband modem is far more complex to achieve in software.
These problems of cost, complexity, and rigidity are compounded further in more complete broadband devices such as digital set-top boxes, multimedia PCs, or video conferencing equipment, all of which go beyond the basic radio frequency ("RF") modem functions to include a broad range of audio and video compression and decoding algorithms, along with remote control and graphical user interfaces. Software for these devices must control what amounts to a heterogeneous multi-processor, where each specialized processor has a different, and usually eccentric or primitive, programming environment. Even if these programming environments are mastered, the degree of programmability is limited. For example, Motion Picture Expert Group-I ("MPEG-I") chips manufactured by AT&T Corporation will not implement advances such as fractal- and wavelet-based compression algorithms, but the software of these chips cannot not readily be upgraded to the MPEG-II standard. A broadband network operator who leases an MPEG ASIC-based product is therefore at risk of having to continuously upgrade his system by purchasing significant amounts of new hardware just to track the evolution of MPEG standards.
The high cost of ASIC-based media processing results from inefficiencies in both memory and logic. A typical ASIC consists of a multiplicity of specialized logic blocks, each with a small memory dedicated to holding the data which comprises the working set for that block. The silicon area of these multiple small memories is further increased by the overhead of multiple decoders, sense amplifiers, write drivers, etc. required for each logic block. The logic blocks are also constrained to operate at frequencies determined by the internal symbol rates of broadband algorithms in order to avoid additional buffer memories. These frequencies typically differ from the optimum speed-area operating point of a given semiconductor technology. Interconnect and synchronization of the many logic and memory blocks are also major sources of overhead in the ASIC approach.
The disadvantages of the prior ASIC approach can be over come by a single unified media processor. The cost advantages of such a unified processor can be achieved by gathering all the many ASIC functions of a broadband media product into a single integrated circuit. Cost reduction is further increased by reducing the total memory area of such a circuit by replacing the multiplicity of small ASIC memories with a single memory hierarchy large enough to accommodate the sum total of all the working sets, and wide enough to supply the aggregate bandwidth needs of all the logic blocks. Additionally, the logic block interconnect circuitry to this memory hierarchy may be streamlined by providing a generally programmable switching fabric. Many of the logic blocks themselves can also replaced with a single multi-precision arithmetic unit, which can be internally partitioned under software control to perform addition, multiplication., division, and other integer and floating point arithmetic operations on symbol streams of varying widths, while sustaining the full data throughput of the memory hierarchy. The residue of logic blocks that perform operations that are neither arithmetic or permutation group oriented can be replaced with an extended math unit that supports additional arithmetic operations such as finite field, ring, and table lookup, while also sustaining the full data throughput of the memory hierarchy.
The above multi-precision arithmetic, permutation switch, and extended math operations can then be organized as machine instructions that transfer their operands to and from a single wide multi-ported register file. These instructions can be further supplemented with load/store instructions that transfer register data to and from a data buffer/cache static random access memory ("SRAM") and main memory dynamic random access memories ("DRAMs"), and with branch instructions that control the flow of instructions executed from an instruction buffer/cache SRAM. Extensions to the load/store instructions can be made for synchronization, and to branch instructions for protected gateways, so that multiple threads of execution for audio, video, radio, encryption, networking, etc. can efficiently and securely share memory and logic resources of a unified machine operating near the optimum speed-area point of the target semiconductor process. The data path for such a unified media processor can interface to a high speed input/output ("I/O") subsystem that moves media streams across ultra-high bandwidth interfaces to external storage and I/O.
Such a device would incorporate all of the processing capabilities of the specialized multi-ASIC combination into a single, unified processing device. The unified processor would be agile and capable of reprogramming through the transmission of new programs over the communication medium. This programmable, general purpose device is thus less costly than the specialized processor combination, easier to operate and reprogram and can be installed or applied in many differing devices and situations. The device may also be scalable to communications applications that support vast numbers of users through massively parallel distributed computing.
It is therefore an object of this invention to process media data streams by executing operations at very high bandwidth rates.
It is also an object of this invention to unify the audio, video, radio, graphics, encryption, authentication, and networking protocols into a single instruction stream.
It is also an object of this invention to achieve high bandwidth rates in a unified processor that is easy to program and more flexible than a heterogeneous combination of special purpose processors.
It is a further object of the invention to support high level mathematical processing in a unified media processor, including finite group, finite field, finite ring and table look-up operations, all at high bandwidth rates.
It is yet a further object of the invention to provide a unified media processor that can be replicated into a multi-processor system to support a vast array of users.
It is yet another object of this invention to allow for massively parallel systems within the switching fabric to support very large numbers of subscribers and services.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a general purpose programmable processor that could be employed at all points in a network.
It is a further object of this invention to sustain very high bandwidth rates to arbitrarily large memory and input/output systems.

General purpose, dynamic partitioning, programmable media processor


A method for simulating noise on the input of a static logic gate and determining noise on the output of the static logic gate. The method identifies the PFETs and NFETs that are used when a particular voltage pattern drives the input of a static gate. After the FETS have been identified, P/N ratios are calculated for all possible input combinations. A maximum or minimum P/N ratio may be chosen and a noise signal simulated on the input of the gate. The signal created on the output of this gate is noise that may be used to evaluate other circuits for noise problems. Using noise created by this method, integrated circuit designers can create computer simulations that better model the electrical environment that integrated circuits operate in.

This application is related to an application Ser. No. 09/845,384, titled xe2x80x9cA method for calculating the P/N ratio of a static gate based on input voltagesxe2x80x9d, filed on or about the same day as the present application.
This invention relates generally to electronic circuits. More particularly, this invention relates to integrated electronic circuits designed with CMOS Field Effect Transistors (FETs).
Integrated circuits are electrical circuits comprised of transistors, resistors, capacitors, and other components on a single semiconductor xe2x80x9cchipxe2x80x9d. The components on a chip are interconnected to perform a given function or number of functions, such as a microprocessor, a programmable logic device (PLD), a electrically erasable programmable memory (EEPROM), a random access memory (RAM), an operational amplifier, or a voltage regulator. A circuit designer typically designs the integrated circuit by creating a circuit schematic indicating the electrical components and their interconnections. Designs can be simulated by computer to verify functionality and to ensure performance goals are satisfied.
In the world of electrical device engineering, the design and analysis work involved in producing electronic devices is often performed using electronic computer aided design (E-CAD) tools. Electronic devices include electrical analog, digital, mixed hardware, optical, electromechanical, and a variety of other electrical devices. The design and the subsequent simulation of any circuit board, VLSI chip, or other electrical device via E-CAD tools allows a product to be thoroughly tested and often eliminates the need for building a prototype. Thus, today""s sophisticated E-CAD tools may enable the circuit manufacturer to go directly to the manufacturing stage without costly, time consuming prototyping.
In order to perform the simulation and analysis of a hardware device, E-CAD tools must deal with an electronic representation of the hardware device. A xe2x80x9cnetlistxe2x80x9d is one common representation of a hardware device. A xe2x80x9cnetlistxe2x80x9d is a detailed circuit specification used by logic synthesizers, circuit simulators and other circuit design tools. A netlist typically comprises information on circuit components and the interconnections between those components.
Two forms of a netlist are the flat netlist and the hierarchical netlist. Often a netlist will contain a number of circuit xe2x80x9cmodulesxe2x80x9d which are used repetitively throughout the larger circuit. A flat netlist contains multiple copies of circuit modules essentially containing no boundary differentiation between circuit modules and other components in the device. By way of analogy, one graphical representation of a flat netlist is simply the complete schematic of the circuit device represented with primatives only.
In contrast, a hierarchical netlist will only maintain one copy of a circuit module that may be used in multiple locations. By way of analogy, one graphical representation of a hierarchical netlist would show the basic and/or non-repetitive devices in a schematic form and the more complex and/or repetitive circuit modules would be represented by xe2x80x9cblack boxes.xe2x80x9d A black box is a system or component whose inputs, outputs, and general function are known, but whose contents are not shown. These xe2x80x9cblack boxxe2x80x9d representations may mask the complexities of the circuit allowing a level of abstraction that may show only inputs and outputs or some other small set of information.
The design of an integrated circuit can be represented at different levels of abstraction, such as the Register-Transfer level (RTL) and the logic level, using a hardware description language (HDL). VHDL and Verilog are examples of HDL languages. At any abstraction level, an integrated circuit design may be specified using behavioral or structural descriptions or a mix of both. At the logical level, the behavioral description is specified using boolean equations. The structural description is represented as a netlist of primative cells. Examples of primitive cells are full-adders, NAND gates, latches, and D-Flip Flops.
Systems may use the information provided in netlists to evaluate circuit timing and other related parameters. More specifically, systems may perform a timing analysis of circuits using netlist files. Although the operational specifics may vary from system to system, generally such systems may operate by identifying certain critical timing paths, then evaluating the circuit to determine whether timing violations may occur through the critical paths. Timing specifications may be provided to such systems by way of a configuration file.
One such system is marketed under the name PathMill(copyright), by EPIC Design Technology, Inc. (purchased by Synopsys). PathMill(copyright) is a transistor-based analysis tool used to find critical paths and verify timing in semiconductor designs. Using static and mixed-level timing analysis, PathMill(copyright) processes transistors, gates, and timing models. It also calculates timing delays, performs path searches, and checks timing requirements. PathMill(copyright) can analyze combinational designs containing gates, and sequential designs containing gates, latches, flip-flops, and clocks. Combinational designs are generally measured through the longest and shortest paths.
While tools such as these are useful for the design verification process after layout, there are various shortcomings in the PathMill(copyright) product and other similar products. For example, there is a often a need to identify gates such as NAND gates and NOR gates from a transistor level circuit design, in order to verify that certain design criteria have not been violated. For example, it is sometimes desirable to insure that the PFET (P-channel Field Effect Transistor) to NFET (N-channel Field Effect Transistor) transistor width ratio, (Wp/Lp)/(Wn/Ln), is within a certain predefined range for certain gates (e.g., NOR and NAND gates). The PFET-to-NFET transistor width ratio is also dependent on the input voltages supplied to the gates. Accordingly, there is a need to provide a design tool that evaluates a netlist or other electronic file representative of an electronic circuit to identify the PFET-to-NFET transistor width ratios of static gates based on the inputs to these gates.
In a preferred embodiment, the invention provides a method for simulating noise on the input of a static gate and determining noise on the output. The invention determines a P/N ratio for all input combinations for a given static logic gate. A particular P/N ratio may be used in a simulation to determine a worst case noise on the output of a static logic gate. The resulting output noise signal is used with other simulations to determine if noise problems exist with a design containing the particular static logic gate. This method enables circuit-designers to better design VLSI chips and as a result decrease the chances that hardware will have design flaws.
Other aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, illustrating by way of example the principles of the invention.

Method for simulating noise on the input of a static gate and determining noise on the output


A paintball gun provides a double-acting trigger apparatus including a pair of finger engagement surfaces against which a user of the gun may employ a pair of trigger fingers. The user of the paintball gun may effect a firing operation of the gun by using either one of the two fingers to pull the trigger. Consequently, rapid firing operations of the gun are effected by dithering the two trigger fingers in rapid alternating motions to apply pressure on and off the two trigger engagement surfaces. Further, the paintball gun includes a programmable, microprocessor-based controller allowing the gun to be fired in response to a chosen discreet event in time. This chosen discreet event may include the opening and/or closing of a pair of switch contacts, for example; or the making or breaking of an electrical circuit effected between conductive components of the paintball gun. Movements of the double-acting trigger apparatus will result in plural discreet events separated in time, so that plural rapid-sequence firing operations of the paintball gun may be accomplished. Accordingly, a very high cyclic rate of fire is possible with a semi-automatic paint ball gun according to this invention.

Paint ball guns were originally developed for marking uses such as forestry and cattle ranching, in which frangible projectiles (or paint balls, as they are more commonly called) were fired against trees to be harvested or onto cattle to be taken to market, for example. For this reason, the paint ball guns themselves are frequently referred to as "markers." But, more recently paint ball guns are much more widely used in various recreational environments, such as simulated war games wherein it is the intent to shoot at an opposing player with the paint ball gun, thus hitting and marking this opposing player with a particular color of paint splattered from a frangible paint ball.
Paint ball guns using compressed air or gas for power are well known. Until recently, most paint ball guns were pneumatically powered, mechanically operated guns. The entry of electro-pneumatically operated paint ball guns provided more consistent and better performing guns for the recreational market. An electro-pneumatic paint ball gun provides improved performance with fewer component malfunctions than the earlier mechanical-pneumatic paint ball guns.
However, a common problem with the conventional electro-pneumatic paint ball guns is that they use a mechanical sear device to release a hammer. The hammer is spring loaded to a position at which it impacts a valve stem, opening a flow path for high pressure gas to communicate to a paint hall, propelling the paint ball through and from a barrel of the gun. The adjustment of the engagement and release of the mechanical hammer and sear remains an uncertain element of conventional paint ball gun operation, requiring frequent adjustments in order to operate at high cyclic rates.
A more recent paint ball gun is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,532,949 (hereinafter, the "949" patent). In the '949 patent, a hammer of a paint ball gun is moved in each of two opposite directions by respective ends of a rod member, to which respective pneumatic pressures are applied sequentially by a solenoid valve. In this '949 patent, the hammer must be moved in each direction of its stroke by a respective pneumatic pressure, and these respective pneumatic pressures must be sequentially controlled by a solenoid valve.
Further, a deficiency of conventional paint ball guns becomes apparent when attempts are made to achieve a high cyclic rate of fire. That is, competition rules prohibit the operation of paint ball guns in a full-automatic mode in which the gun cycles many times and fires many paint balls with a single pull or movement of the trigger. In full-automatic mode, a paint ball gun would continue firing paint balls as long as the trigger is pulled and held, and as long as its ammunition supply lasts. But, competition uses of such full-automatic paint ball guns is prohibited, and only semi-automatic guns are allowed in which a single paint ball is fired for each pull of the gun trigger.
Nevertheless, paint ball players desire to achieve a high rate of fire with semi-automatic paint ball guns. This is desired in order to provide the highest chance of obtaining hits on dodging and running competitors in paint ball competition. This rapid semi-automatic paint ball gun fire is ordinarily attempted by "vibrating" or shaking the trigger fingers against a two-fingered trigger structure of the conventional paint ball gun.
An improved apparatus and method for allowing rapid firing of a semi-automatic paint ball gun is desired.


Methods and apparatus for communicating different size coded blocks of information in a wireless sectorized communications cell are described. Information may be categorized and formed into large, medium, and small coded blocks which may include error correction code bits based on the number of bits representing the information, time criticality of the information, and tolerable level of interference. Channels with full tone overlap between adjacent sectors, channels with no tone overlap between adjacent sectors, and channels with partial tone overlap between adjacent sectors are used for different size blocks. Some tones corresponding to a channel with less than full tone overlap are left unused in an adjacent sector thereby achieving less than full transmission tone overlap. Large transmission blocks are transmitted using full tone overlap channels; medium transmission blocks are transmitted using partial tone overlap channels; small transmission blocks are transmitted without using transmission tone overlap in adjacent sectors.

In a cellular wireless system, a service area is divided into a number of coverage zones generally referred to as cells. Each cell may be further subdivided into a number of sectors. Base stations may transmit information on downlink channels to wireless terminals in each of the sectors of the base station's cell simultaneously, using different frequencies in different sectors or, in some cases, reusing the same frequency bandwidth in each of the sectors. Wireless terminals may include a wide range of mobile devices including, e.g., cell phones and other mobile transmitters such as personal data assistants with wireless modems.
A problem with sectorized cellular communications systems is that transmissions by the base station into a first sector of a cell intended for a first wireless terminal may interfere with transmissions from the base station into a second sector, intended for a second wireless terminal. In the case of sectors of a cell, due to transmitter proximity, this interference can be significantly greater than in the case of a neighboring cell transmission, in which case the transmitter and the antenna of a neighboring base station is located in a different cell.
Inter-sector interference is particularly problematic for wireless terminals located in sector boundary regions, e.g., regions where the received signal strength levels from both sector base station transmissions, as measured at the wireless terminal, are nearly equal. Inter-sector interference may be reduced by restricting transmissions from being on the same bandwidth in an adjacent sector resulting in increased transmission reliability; however, this has the negative effect of reducing overall system capacity. Different types of information are often coded differently, e.g., using different block sizes and/or different amounts of error correction codes and, in some cases no error correction codes at all. Generally, where some form of signal coding is used, the larger the block size used in coding the greater the protection against burst errors where one or a few consecutive bits are lost, e.g., at one or more different locations in the coded block. Burst errors are common in the case of wireless systems and may be the result of unpredictable impulse noise occurring on one or more tones. Unfortunately, large block sizes are not well suited for all types of data. In the case of time critical control information for example, it may not be practical to code the control information in large blocks which could take a relatively long time to communicate over a wireless link before they could be decoded. Thus, small block sizes are often used for time critical data particularly where the data unit to be transmitted can be represented in relatively few bits. For example some control signals can be transmitted using a single or a few bits with these signals frequently being transmitted in relatively small blocks. In the case of transmitted blocks including multiple bits, e.g., 2 or 3 bits, repetition coding may be used, e.g., the data bit may be repeated. However, given the small number of bits, the information in a small block is still particularly prone to loss due to signal interference.
Some control signals are normally represented using several bits with such signals frequently being encoded as medium or intermediate size blocks. Such blocks normally include error correction coding bits or some other form of error protection. While error correction is supported, the medium size coding block may be more prone to errors due to bursty signal interference than blocks of larger size where error correction coding and data resequencing over the larger block size can provide better protection against short term interference bursts than may be possible in a medium sized coding block.
Information and/or control signals which are not particularly time critical may be grouped together to form larger blocks of data which are coded and transmitted as a unit, e.g., a large coded block. Large coded blocks are frequently used for non-time critical data and/or data that requires a large number of bits to be useful. Larger code blocks may include, e.g., hundreds or even many thousands of bits which are treated as a single block for error correction coding purposes.
From the above discussion, it can be appreciated that different types of information and/or different size blocks of data transmitted from the base station to a wireless terminal, can tolerate different levels of interference before impacting system operation and the reliability of the information being communicated.
In order to use bandwidth efficiently, it is generally desirable to reuse as much of the frequency spectrum in each sector as possible. Unfortunately, in the case of a sectorized cell, the greater the amount of frequency reused in each of the sectors the greater the risk of signal interference and the loss of data. As noted above, different types of data and different coded block sizes can often tolerate different amounts of interference before becoming unusable. Thus, while avoiding use of the same tones in adjacent sectors minimizes signal interference it may also lead to an unacceptable loss of bandwidth if applied to all coded blocks to be transmitted in a cell. Similarly, transmitting information on the same tone in each sector at the same time may result in an unacceptable error rate particularly with regard to coded blocks which are small in size, e.g., one or a few bits.
In view of the above discussion, it becomes apparent that there is a need for methods and apparatus that exploit the different levels of tolerable interference for different types of information, and thus provide multiple levels of trade offs between bandwidth and transmission reliability.

Method of downlink resource allocation in a sectorized environment


A power control device 10 is a power control device that controls power supply from an outside to a plurality of power consuming devices 50, and includes a power supply control device 20 that obtains consumed power values of the plurality of power consuming devices 50 and predicts consumed power values, and controls power supply to the power consuming devices 50 when a prediction value of a total of the obtained consumed power values based on the prediction exceeds a predetermined power value.

Various proposals have been made to stably supply power to a large number of power consuming devices arranged inside homes, office, buildings, and the like. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-020260 discloses a power supply system including:
a storage battery configured to be charged with power from a lamp line,
a converting unit connected between a watt-hour meter and a home switchboard, and configured to control the storage battery and to convert supplied DC power into commercial AC power, and
means for linking control of a charge/discharge operation of the storage battery to a power rate of the power supplied from the lamp line.
The power supply system further includes:
a controller capable of performing communication with the converting unit,
a communication device having functions to control devices and to measure states, and connected to the controller, and
means for collecting consumed power amounts and states of the devices, and transmitting the consumed power amounts and the states to the communication device.
Then, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-020260, a device controller 900 creates control data of devices 50n from the operation states and the consumed power of the devices 50n so as to suppress a peak of power consumption, and controls discharging of a storage battery 202 by controlling the devices 50n and controlling an operation of a converting unit 201 so as to comply with the entire consumed power (see the paragraph [0045] of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-020260).
Further, a power packet system that enables supply and reception between customers in an end-to-end manner by delivering power energy with a power packet to which heater information is attached is known from Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-142771.

Power control device and power consuming device


Embodiments of the invention generally provide an input device that simultaneously transmits a multiplexed signal across two or more transmitter electrodes used in touch detection. The multiplexed includes two or more component signals that are transmitted on respective electrodes (or channels). The component signals are then decoded and correlated to indicate a positional location of an input object. Various multiplexing schemas—e.g., code division multiplexing, frequency division multiplexing, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, and the like—may be used to generate the multiplex signal and then demultiplex the received results.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to increasing the signal to noise ratio during touch detection, or more specifically, simultaneously transmitting a multiplexed signal across multiple transmitter electrodes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Input devices including proximity sensor devices (also commonly called touchpads or touch sensor devices) are widely used in a variety of electronic systems. A proximity sensor device typically includes a sensing region, often demarked by a surface, in which the proximity sensor device determines the presence, location and/or motion of one or more input objects. Proximity sensor devices may be used to provide interfaces for the electronic system. For example, proximity sensor devices are often used as input devices for larger computing systems (such as opaque touchpads integrated in, or peripheral to, notebook or desktop computers). Proximity sensor devices are also often used in smaller computing systems (such as touch screens integrated in cellular phones).

Flexible timing and multiplexing for a display device comprising an integrated capacitive sensing device


A switching converter according includes a control arrangement to furnish a control signal dependent on the output voltage, as well as a first and at least one second converter stage. Each converter includes an inductive storage element, a ramp signal generator to furnish a signal having a ramp slope, a pulse width modulator which receives the control signal and the ramplike signal and which furnishes a pulse width modulated signal, and a driver circuit which receives the pulse width modulated signal and the input voltage and which applies the input voltage to the inductive storage element depending on the pulse width modulated signal. The ramp slope of the ramplike signal of the at least one second converter stage is adjustable. The ramp signal generator of the second converter stage receives a calibration signal which depends on the inductance of the inductive storage element of the first converter stage.

For supplying current and voltage to a load with a high current uptake, such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) in a computer, it is known how to employ switching converters having several converter stages connected in parallel. Each of these converter stages receives an input voltage and each of these converter stages provides a portion of the overall current required to supply the load. Each individual converter stage has an inductive storage element, where the input voltage is applied in accordance with a pulse width modulated signal that is generated for each converter stage. Control of the current uptake of an individual converter stage occurs in terms of the duty cycle of the pulse width modulated signal generated for the particular converter stage.
Suitable as the converter stages are both those working by the current control principle (Current Mode, CM) and those working by the voltage control principle (Voltage, Mode, VM). CM converter stages and VM converter stages differ with respect to the generation of the pulse width modulated signal that controls the current uptake of the converter stages. Common to both of the two principles is that a control signal dependent on the output voltage is generated to produce the pulse width modulated signal.
In a CM converter stage, this control signal is compared to a ramp signal, which is proportional to a current flow through the inductive storage element of the converter stage. The steepness of the edges of this ramp signal will depend on the input voltage and the inductance of the inductive storage element of the converter stage. In a VM converter stage, a separate ramp signal generator is present to create the ramp signal.
One problem with the parallel connection of several converter stages that supply a load in common is that identical current uptakes for the converter stages—unless further steps are taken—can be achieved only if the individual converter stages are identical in construction and if the components used to realize the converter stages are identical in dimension. Differing parameters of the components result in unequal current loading of the individual converter stages. In extreme cases, this can lead to individual converter stages becoming overheated and thereby damaged.
In order to achieve uniform current distribution it is known to make one of the converter stages a master converter stage and to detect the output current of this converter stage. The other converter stages are slave converter stages whose output currents are compared to the output current of the master stage. A control signal, supplied to the individual converter stages across an external feedback control loop and dependent on the output voltage, is corrected in the slave converter stages depending on the comparison of the output current of the particular converter stage to the output current of the master converter stage so as to achieve identical current uptakes for the individual converter stages.

Switching converter with plural converter stages having calibrated current uptake


A system to provide automated services to heterogeneous devices in a network environment, which includes a device agent residing on each of the heterogeneous devices, a device communicator to register and synchronize the devices via each of the device agents, and a portal server to interface multiple content sources on behalf of the devices, wherein the devices communicate with the portal server via each of the device agents and the device communicator.

As computing technology advances, the number of personal devices, communications protocols, and diversity of connectivity choices may increase. In particular, these devices may include, for example, a desktop personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a personal data assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a GPS in-car navigation system, a digital camera, a MP3 player, and other devices. The choice of protocol may include, for example, Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP), Internet Inter-Orb Protocol (IIOP) in Common Object Request Broken Architecture (CORBA), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) with Extension Markup Language (XML), or any other appropriate protocol. The choice of connectivity may include, for example, Ethernet, Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11 a/b/g (WiFi), ZigBee, Infrared Detection and Acquisition (IrDA), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), Code Division Multiplexed Access (CDMA), and Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM).
These devices, however, may not communicate directly with each other, because, for example, they may not support a common communication protocol or they may be implemented in different programming languages. As devices become smaller, less expensive, prolific, and more focused on a single application, device interoperability may pose a greater challenge. Even if a device can communicate via multiple protocols, the ability to move to new standards may remain problematic and difficult to achieve.
Each of the devices may have different computation power, screen sizes, computation power, and connection capabilities, and hence connecting these devices to each other and other networks, such as, for example, the Internet or any other network, may require a significant amount of programming and manual synchronization to achieve consistent states. Providing services to these devices may be difficult and may demand a significant programming effort and infrastructure.
For rapid application development, a standard platform may be desired so that programmers may focus on application development rather than dealing with multiple languages and/or multiple connectivity issues. In this regard, the underlying operating system and system libraries of the standard platform may provide an abstraction or simplified interface to shield the multiple connection protocols and hardware-specific details. However, a suitable standard platform for devices may be lacking in that for each new software application written, a significant amount of programming effort may be required to deal with device-specific details, which may prolong application development and limit the deployment of the application to other devices.
Other challenges may exist as well to provide services to devices. In particular, providing services to mobile devices via a wireless network may also pose a challenge, due to delay and availability constraints, for example. In particular, delay constraints may arise due to limited bandwidth, packet loss, and backbone delay, which may present difficult challenges to engineers who may have limited or no control over these constraints. Public backbones, such as, for example, the Internet or cellular networks, may be highly latent and may provide only limited coverage. Hence, mobile applications may be required to work in a not-always-on environment, using a network only when it's available.

Apparatus, method and system for providing automated services to heterogenous devices across multiple platforms


Several novel polyimide materials are disclosed. One example is a polyimide material comprising heterocyclic polyimide having an unit represented by the following general formula (1):

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to polyimide optical materials and an optical waveguide element where the polyimide optical materials ate employed. In particular, the present invention relates to polyimide which is useful as an optical material for the optical waveguide of an optoelectronic integrated circuit (OEIC) or of an optoelectronic mixed printed wiring board and to an optical waveguide element where such a polyimide is employed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Organic polymer materials are advantageous over inorganic materials, in that they are relatively light, excellent in impact resistance and workability, and easy to handle. Because of such advantages, organic polymer materials have been used extensively in optical components such as optical fiber, lenses, and substrate for optical disks.
There is a problem, however, if the polymer materials are employed as a medium for enabling a near-infrared ray for optical communication to transmit therethrough, for example as an optical waveguide of an OEIC or of an optoelectronic mixed printed wiring board, the problem being a relatively large light transmission loss as compared with inorganic materials. The causes for this can be generally classified into scattering and absorption. As the wavelength of light to be employed for the optical communication is shifted to the longer wavelength side (from 0.85 μm to 1.0 μm–1.7 μm), the infrared vibration which is intrinsic to the molecular structure of polymer materials is increasingly lost by harmonic absorption and this loss of the infrared vibration becomes predominant. As a result, it is now feared that the application of the polymer materials for use in the optical communication may become difficult.
In particular, polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and polystyrene (PS) which have been widely employed to date as an optical material for visible light, are formed of molecular structures having at least two carbon-hydrogen bond (C—H bond) in their molecules. Therefore, the near-infrared absorption spectra of these polymers include a plurality of absorption peaks which are large in width and intensity. To shift the harmonic absorption originating from this C—H bond toward the longer wavelength side, to minimize the intensity of the harmonic absorption, the employment of deuterium (D) or fluorine (F) to substitute for the intramolecular hydrogen has been proved to be effective. With respect to the materials where the hydrogen atoms in PMMA or PS are replaced by deuterium or fluorine, there have been already conducted fundamental studies. However, since these polymeric optical materials are not provided with sufficient soldering-heat resistance (260° C.) which is requisite in the fabrication of OEIC on the surface of a silicon substrate for instance, various measures will be necessitated in the fabrication process if the these polymeric optical materials are to be actually employed in the fabrication of OEIC, etc.
On the other hand, polyimide resin is known as ordinarily having a thermal decomposition temperature of as high as 400° C. or more, i.e. as one of the highest heat resistant resins among organic polymers, thus is now being studied to employ polyimide resin as an optical material.
For example, a coating material made of a fluorine-containing polyimide resin having hexafluoroisopropylidene group is now being studied for using it as a heat resistant material having an improved transparency. Further, there is proposed an optical waveguide formed of a fluorine-containing polyimide resin having hexafluoroisopropylidene group in the main chain thereof for the purpose of minimizing the light transmission loss.
However, the polyimide materials that have been conventionally studied, such as partially fluorinated polyimide, are accompanied with the following problems due to the fact that they contain a C—H bond of an aromatic ring in the molecular chain thereof. Namely, the near-infrared absorption spectra of these polyimide materials include a peak originating from the harmonics of the stretching vibration of C—H bond or from a combination vibration formed between the harmonics of the stretching vibration of C—H bond and the bending vibration. As a result, it is impossible to achieve the minimization of light transmission loss throughout the entire wavelength zone for optical transmission (1.0 μm to 1.7 μm).
Under the circumstances, it is now studied to employ, as a coating material, a fully fluorinated polyimide resin where all of hydrogen atoms in C—H bonds are substituted by fluorine atoms, and there is proposed an optical waveguide which is formed of this full fluorinated polyimide resin.
Although it is possible, with the employment of this full fluorinated polyimide resin, to achieve the minimization of light transmission loss throughout the entire wavelength zone for optical transmission (1.0 μm to 1.7 μm), the hydrogen radicals thereof are all substituted by fluorine atoms, resulting in an excess introduction of fluorine atoms. Accordingly, due to this excess fluorine group, the solvent resistance, as well as the heat resistance, which are characteristic of the conventional polyimide material, are caused to greatly deteriorate in this fully fluorinated polyimide resin, and at the same time, the workability thereof for forming optical elements as well as the solder reflow property thereof are caused to greatly deteriorate, thus obstructing the utility of this fully fluorinated polyimide resin as a material for the manufacture of the optical waveguide of an optical element.
Although other fluorinated polyimides have been proposed, no one has succeeded in providing an organic polymer material which is capable of meeting not only a high light transmitting property throughout the entire wavelength zone for optical communication but also other properties such as the solvent resistance and the heat resistance, all of which are required in the materials for manufacturing the optical waveguide of an optical element. Therefore, there is an earnest desire to develop an organic polymer optical material having all of the aforementioned properties.
Therefore, one of the objects of the present invention is to provide a polyimide optical material which is provided with sufficient heat resistance and solvent resistance demanded for the manufacture of an optoelectronic integrated circuit and which can be employed as an organic polymer optical material exhibiting an extremely low light transmission loss in the near infrared zone, in particular, throughout the entire wavelength zone for optical transmission (1.0 μm to 1.7 μm).
Another object of the present invention is to provide a polyimide precursor solution that is useful for synthesizing the aforementioned polyimide optical material.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an optical waveguide element which can be easily manufactured and is excellent in heat resistance and minimal in light transmission loss.

Polyimide optical materials, polyimide precursor solutions and optical waveguide elements

Abstract: (wherein Φ1s may be the same or different and are individually a quadrivalent organic group, the Φ1s including at least 0.2 molar equivalent of a quadrivalent hetrocyclic group selected from the following Group (a), Ψ1s may be the same or different and are individually a bivalent organic group, and n is a positive integer).


This invention is directed to the production of glass-plastic lenses consisting of a thin glass element bonded to a relatively thick transparent lens or lens preform made of poly(diethylene glycol)bis(allyl carbonate) by a transparent thermoset, polyurethane adhesive layer of optical quality having an elongation at rupture of at least 200% and an elastic modulus in the range of 0.13-10 MPa and at 100% elongation.

The invention relates to a glass-plastic composite ophthalmic lens.
Composite lenses which contain a thin layer of glass bonded by a transparent adhesive to a relatively thick lens made of transparent plastic material have already been proposed in the patent literature.
For example, EP-A 0 182 503 [which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 4,679,918 (Ace)] describes a composite lens containing a glass lens, for example, a photochromic glass lens, and a lens made of plastic material whose radii of curvature of the surfaces facing each other are different; these lenses are joined by a relatively thick intermediate layer of adhesive elastomer material of optical quality capable of great elongation, for example, approximately 400%. The silicone elastomers are the only adhesive elastomer materials described.
The problem posed by the manufacturing of composite lenses of the above-mentioned type and which the aforementioned documents attempt to solve is that of obtaining such composite lenses which are capable of resisting the variations of temperature to which these lenses are subjected when in service. This problem is difficult to overcome because of the great difference existing between the thermal expansion coefficients of the glass and of the plastic material, which makes the differential expansion high between the plastic material and the glass and causes the thin layer of glass to break when the lens is subjected to temperature variations when one uses an ordinary adhesive, such as an epoxy resin of optical quality, to bind the glass layer to the plastic lens.
The problem considered above is particularly hard to solve when the plastic lens consists of poly(diethylene glycol bis(allyl carbonate)), which is a plastic material widely used in the manufacturing of ophthalmic lenses, sold by the company PPG Industries, Pittsburgh, Pa., under the commercial designation CR39.RTM.. CR39.RTM. actually exhibits a linear thermal expansion coefficient which is more than 10 times higher than that of mineral glasses of optical quality.
The solution proposed by the aforementioned documents in an attempt to solve this problem is based on the use, as adhesive, of a silicone elastomer with a high elongation at rupture in order to minimize the stresses generated in the composite lens by the differential thermal expansion between the glass and the plastic material.
This solution is nevertheless not entirely satisfactory because it does, not take into account the long-term effect of humidity which particularly tends to degrade the properties of transparency and elongation of the adhesive. In effect, the adhesives of the silicone type have a pronounced hydrophobic nature and do not dissolve in water. Any water present forms a two-phase system with the adhesive, which gives the layer a milky and diffusing, and therefore redhibitory, aspect. Moreover, the theoretical approach on which the proposed solution is based, is inexact. In effect, the aforementioned documents consider that the phenomenon of thermal expansion to which the lens is subjected is that of the simple variation of the diameters of two flat disks, free to expand, whereas one is in the presence of elements with curved surfaces. The aforementioned documents also neglect the effect that can occur when one mounts composite lenses on a frame, for example a metallic frame, of glasses. Mounting the lenses in effect is usually done on the plastic part of the lens which limits the increase of the diameter of the lenses when they are exposed to a relatively high temperature. Consequently, the radius of curvature of the part made of plastic material has a tendency to decrease (bulging effect), with the result that the stresses on the edges of the lenses increase more than could be expected from a simple calculation of variation of the diameters. The humidity also has a similar effect to that of thermal expansion, which is therefore added to that of thermal expansion, aggravating the destructive phenomenon observed.
In any case, the applicants have no knowledge that the composite lenses described in the aforementioned documents have been commercialized, and this is probably because of the fact that these lenses do not have an entirely satisfactory behavior in the long term.
The applicants, therefore, undertook intensive research and found that an essential property for the material of the intermediate adhesive layer, besides a great elongation capability, was a low elastic modulus, namely, an elastic modulus of at most 1.0 MPa with 100% elongation. Therefore, the applicants, research was directed to minimizing the stresses undergone by the thermosetting polyurethanes of optical quality, which normally have an elastic modulus much higher than the maximum value mentioned above, by modifying their composition so as to lower their elastic modulus below this value.


A nonaqueous secondary cell including the following elements: a positive electrode capable of absorbing and releasing lithium; a negative electrode capable of absorbing and releasing lithium; and a nonaqueous electrolyte including a nonaqueoous solvent and a lithium salt dissolved therein wherein the electrolyte contains a vinyl ethylene carbonate compound represented by the general formula (1)

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a nonaqueous secondary cell.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, owing to the advance in electronic technology, there have been promoted the performance enhancement and miniaturization of electric appliances such as cellular telephones, notebook-type personal computers, video cameras, and the like, and accordingly, there is a strong demand for secondary cells that have high energy densities and can be used in these electric appliances. A representative cell that can meet such a demand is a nonaqueous secondary cell in which lithium salt is used as a negative active material.
A nonaqueous cell comprises, for example, a negative electrode comprising a current collector supporting a carbon material which absorbs and releases lithium ions, a positive electrode comprising a current collector supporting a composite lithium oxide such as a lithium-cobalt composite oxide which absorbs and releases lithium ions, and a separator holding an electrolyte solution dissolving such lithium salts as LiClO4, LiPF6, and the like in an aprotic organic solvent and being interposed between the negative and positive electrodes to prevent short-circuiting of both electrodes.
The positive and negative electrodes are formed in thin sheets or foil shapes, and are piled or wound spirally through a intermediary of the separator to form an electric power generating element. The electric power generating element is housed in either a metallic can made of a stainless steel, a nickel plated iron, or lighter aluminum or a cell container made of laminate film, and subsequently an electrolyte is poured into the cell container, which is sealed for fabricating a cell.
Among a variety of characteristics to be considered such as the charge and discharge characteristics, cycle life characteristics, high-temperature standing characteristics, and the like, the cycle life characteristics capable of suppressing initial-stage performance deterioration over a long period is one of the important characteristics. For example, in a cell in which a carbon material is used as the negative electrode material, the cell characteristics are changed significantly, depending on the kind of the solvent in a nonaqueous electrolyte. It is well known that the electrochemical characteristics of the carbon material can be fully exploited, when such carbonic acid esters as, for example, ethylene carbonate, dimethyl carbonate, vinylene carbonate, or the like is used as a solvent. On the other hand, however, there is a problem that when these solvents are used, the solvents are decomposed while generating gases, and accordingly the cell capacity is gradually lowered with development of the charge and discharge cycles.
In order to solve these problems, a method is proposed in which vinylene carbonate or vinyl ethylene carbonate is added to the electrolyte. For example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-84542, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-45545, and the like, proposals have been disclosed in which vinylene carbonate is added to the carbonate electrolyte containing ethylene carbonate (EC) as the main component. In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-87156, a proposal has been made in which vinyl ethylene carbonate is used in a nonaqueous electrolyte cell using metallic lithium for the negative electrode.
Even with these methods, satisfactory cycle life characteristics have not yet been obtained.
On the other hand, the high temperature standing characteristics are an important group of characteristics in a nonaqueous secondary cell, which are assessed by measuring the swelling degree and the discharge capacity of the cell after the cell in a charged state has been allowed to stand for a specified duration in an environment where the temperature is 80° C. or above.
There are available many methods for improving the high temperature standing characteristics, among which are a method in which a solvent having a high boiling point and a low vapor pressure is used, and a method in which the decomposition of the nonaqueous electrolyte on the surfaces of the positive and negative electrodes is suppressed. As in the former case, however, when a solvent having a high boiling point and a high vapor pressure is used, there occur a problem that generally the viscosity of such a solvent is high and the electric conductivity of the nonaqueous electrolyte is lowered, and hence the discharge characteristics of the cell are lowered, and the like. In order to overcome this problem, a method has been proposed in which γ-butyrolactone that has a high dielectric constant and a high boiling point and the like is used (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-235868).
γ-Butyrolactone, however, tends to undergo reductive oxidation on the negative electrode while charging, and thereby occurs a problem that the resulting decomposition products cause clogging of the separator and the surface resistance of the negative electrode is increased, leading to a remarkable capacity lowering after repetition of charge and discharge cycles.
For the purpose of suppressing the reductive decomposition of the solvent on the negative electrode, a number of methods have been proposed in which, in order to suppress the reductive decomposition of a lithium salt, a compound which forms a so-called SEI (solid electrolyte interface) on the negative electrode is added to the electrolyte (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-6729).
When these SEI forming agents are used, a low-conductivity and high-resistance SEI is formed on the negative electrode, and accordingly there occur problems that the charge and discharge performance of the cell is remarkably lowered, that the swelling of the cell becomes remarkable owing to the elevated internal pressure due to the gas generated by the decomposition of the surplus portion of the added SEI forming agent when the SEI agent is added in excess, and the like.
The present invention has been developed for the purpose of overcoming the above described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a nonaqueous secondary cell having excellent charge and discharge characteristics, cycle life characteristics, and high-temperature standing characteristics.

Abstract: wherein R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, and R6 represent each independently a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group having from 1 to 4 carbon atoms, and furthermore contains at least a compound selected from the group consisting of vinylene carbonate, a cyclic sulfonic acid ester or a cyclic sulfuric acid ester, and an acid anhydride.


An inkjet ink contains at least one coloring material selected from the group of C. I. Direct Violet 107, C. I. Acid Red 14, C. I. Acid Red 52, C. I. Acid Red 87, C. I. Acid Red 289 and C. I. Reactive Red 180, and a coloring material including a compound expressed by general formula (I):

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inkjet ink, a method for producing the inkjet ink, an ink cartridge, and an inkjet recording method.
2. Description of the Related Art
An inkjet recording method is a recording method for forming an image by applying ink droplets onto a recording medium, such as plain paper or a glossy medium. As the price is reduced and the recording speed is increased, this method is rapidly spreading. In addition, as digital cameras are spreading rapidly, and the quality of images formed by the inkjet recording method becomes enhanced, it is increasingly demanded that the inkjet recording method produce recorded matter substantially equal in quality to silver halide photographs.
Also, as the size of ink droplets is reduced and the color gamut is increased by using multiple colors, the image quality can be enhanced more than ever. On the other hand, the demands on coloring materials and inks may also be increased, and demand for properties that provide high color developability and reliability, such as clogging resistance and ejection stability, may become more rigorous.
However, inkjet recording methods can have a disadvantage in that the recorded matter produced by the method can be inferior in terms of its fastness property. In general, recorded matter produced by an inkjet recording method has lower fastness than that of silver halide photographs. More specifically, the coloring material of recorded matter can be degraded by being exposed to light, humidity, heat, or environmental gas in the air for a long time. Consequently, the image is liable to deteriorate in color tone or fade.
In particular, images formed with magenta ink can exhibit the lowest fastness property of the three color inks: cyan, magenta, and yellow. Proposals have been made for dyes used in such magenta inks in order to enhance the lightfastness and the gasfastness of images.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 8-73791 and 9-255882 propose a xanthene dye or an azo dye using H acid as a coloring material that can form images having relatively high color developability. Research has been conducted for these types of magenta dye that may be capable of producing superior color developability, and high light-fastness and gas-fastness. Also, anthrapyridone dyes are disclosed as a magenta dye producing relatively high light-fastness and gas-fastness in International Publication Nos. WO2004/104108 and WO2006/075706 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-192930. In particular, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-192930 and International Application No. WO2006/075706 disclose a compound having a structure in which two anthrapyridone molecules are coupled with a linking group, and an ink containing such a compound.
Furthermore, Japanese Patent No. 3907671 discloses that an ink containing a xanthene dye or an azo dye and an anthrapyridone dye can form images superior in color developability, light-fastness, and gas-fastness. More specifically, a xanthene dye or azo dye superior in color developability, but inferior in light-fastness and gas-fastness, and an anthrapyridone dye superior in light-fastness and gas-fastness, may make a good complement to each other, and may thus produce images having high color developability and high light-fastness and gas-fastness.
As described above, various studies have been made to enhance the fastness property of images formed with magenta inks. However, no approach has yet achieved a magenta ink that adequately satisfies recent requirements for high-level color developability, light-fastness, and gas-fastness.

Inkjet ink, method for producing the same, ink cartridge, and inkjet recording method

Abstract: wherein in the formula (I), each M independently represents hydrogen, an alkali metal, ammonium, or an organic ammonium. The ratio of the content in the inkjet ink of the compound expressed by general formula (I) to the total content of coloring materials in the inkjet ink is in the range of 15.0% by mass or more to 40.0% by mass or less.


A method, non-transitory computer readable medium, and apparatus for remotely controlling a camera connected to a multi-function device are disclosed. For example, the method receives a request from a third party server to instruct the camera to take a photograph, sends a call to the camera to take the photograph, wherein the call is sent to the camera over a universal serial bus (USB) connection between the multi-function device and the camera, receives the photograph and transmits the photograph to the third party server.

Currently, to remotely control off the shelf external devices connected to a multi-function device requires a high level of customization and associated costs. For example, application programming interfaces (APIs) may be specifically written for specific types of external devices that work with specific multi-function devices that provided limited functionality. However, the APIs still do not provide complete remote control of the off the shelf external device connected to the multi-function device. In addition, the customer would be required to purchase the specific brand or type of external device that is programmed with the API to work with the specific multi-function device. As a result, the customers would be extremely limited to their choices of an external device and a multi-function device.

Method and apparatus for remotely controlling a camera connected to a multi-function device


The present invention provides systems and methods for asymmetrically varying gain in a low noise amplifier. The amplifier includes a first stage amplifier, a plurality of second stage amplifiers coupled to the first stage amplifier, a comparator coupled to one of the second stage amplifiers, and a controller coupled to the comparator, the first stage amplifier, and the plurality of second stage amplifiers. The controller is configured to produce one or more gain control signals to change the gain of one of the first stage amplifier or the plurality of second stage amplifiers at a plurality of asymmetric rates so as to cause the power of the output signal to move toward one of the threshold values of the comparator. The rate of change of the gain is based on conditions including the gain of the first stage amplifier, gain of a second stage amplifier, and the sampled power level.

In terrestrial digital television (DTV) applications, the received signal is not always direct. For example, the received DTV signal may be reflected by objects, geographic features (e.g., mountains), or may be affected by weather conditions. As a result, unlike cable TV signals, DTV signals are subject to large drops in the received signals, referred to as fading.
In addition, DTV low noise amplifiers typically have requirements that exceed the requirements of cable TV low noise amplifiers. For example, a DTV low noise amplifier typically requires more gain, a lower noise figure, and needs to handle relatively strong adjacent channels. Off-air DTV signals can vary widely in terms of received power level and can come in quite strongly. In some cases, the desired channel is very weak, and can have a very strong adjacent channel, for example, at a level of 40-50 dB stronger than the desired signal.
Accordingly, what is needed is an amplifier that can rapidly adapt to signals with large amounts of fading.
What is further needed is a system that can selectively respond faster or slower to a detected power level and achieve a linear type of response while still providing benefits of digital gain control for downstream power management.
The present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference numbers can indicate identical or functionally similar elements. Additionally, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number may identify the drawing in which the reference number first appears.


Photosensitive materials which comprise, on a conductive support, a layer structure having at least one layer. The at least one film is made of a cured film of a dispersion of a photoconductor in a binder polymer which has recurring units of the following general formula ##STR1## wherein each m is individually from 0 to 4, but at least one m is not 0, X.sub.1 and X.sub.2 are bromine atoms and n is an integer. The photoconductor may be X-type metal-free phthalocyanine or .tau.-type metal-free phthalocyanine dispersed partially in a molecular state and partially in a particulate state. Alternatively, combinations of carrier generation and carrier transport agents may be used. The layer structure is either a single-layer structure or a double-layer structure.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to photosensitive materials for electrophotography which make use of organic photoconductive compounds or substances dispersed in a specific type of binder polymer and which are particularly suitable for use in electrophotographic systems using a charging/exposing/developing process.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is known in the art, photosensitive compounds or substances which have been used in the field of electrophotography are broadly classified into inorganic photoconductors and organic photoconductors. Typical examples of the inorganic photoconductor include selenium, zinc oxide, titanium oxide, cadmium sulfide and the like. Typical examples of the organic photoconductors include phthalocyanine pigments, diazo pigments and the like.
The photosensitive material using the inorganic photoconductor is not always satisfactory with respect to the thermal stability and the durability. With inorganic photoconductors which are, in most case, toxic, there are problems on their preparation and handling.
On the other hand, the photosensitive material using the organic photoconductor is free of any toxic problem with excellent productivity and good economy. In addition, organic photoconductors can be arbitrarily controlled in photosensitive characteristic by modification or proper designing of the molecule. Accordingly, developments of organic photoconductors have been extensively made and a number of organic photoconductors have been in use. In fact, organic photoconductors are now being predominantly employed in the field of electrophotography.
Known organic photosensitive materials have usually a double-layer structure which includes a carrier generation layer capable of absorbing light to generate carriers and a carrier transport layer wherein the generated carriers are transported. Many attempts have been made for higher sensitivity. For attaining high sensitivity in the double-layer structure, the usual practice is that the carrier generation layer is formed in a thickness of several micrometers and the carrier transport layer is formed in a thickness of several tens micrometers. In order to impart high strength and good printing resistance, it is general that the carrier generation layer is formed directly on a substrate and the carrier transport layer is formed as a surface layer. The carrier generating agent used is one which works through movement of positive holes and the resulting photosensitive material is eventually of the negative charge type.
The negative charge systems, however, have several drawbacks: (1) negative charges attack oxygen in air to produce ozone which is not only harmful to human body, but also shortens the life of the photosensitive material by reaction therewith; (2) charging does not proceed satisfactorily; (3) the system is apt to be influenced by surface properties of a substrate such as a drum.
In order to overcome the above drawbacks, organic photosensitive materials of the positive charge type have been extensively studied. In order to realize the positive charge system, attempts have been heretofore made including
(1) reversed double-layer structures wherein the carrier generation layer and the carrier transport layer are reversed to the case of the negative charge system type; and PA0 (2) single-layer structures wherein various types of carrier generation compounds and carrier transport compounds are both dispersed in a binder resin.
However, the reversed double-layer structure involves the problems such as a lowering of the printing resistance and a poor life characteristic owing to the fact that the carrier generation layer, which has to be substantially thin, is placed on the surface of the photosensitive material. In addition, there arise problems such as of complication in the fabrication process of the double-layer structure and of layer separation. Accordingly, this type of photosensitive material has not been reduced to practice yet.
With the photosensitive materials having the single-layer structure are inferior to the double-layer structure photosensitive materials with respect to the sensitivity, a charging characteristic (i.e. a charging potential gradually drops when the material is repeatedly employed), and a residual potential. Nevertheless, the single-layer structure is advantageous in that if a carrier generation agent and a carrier transport agent are uniformly dispersed throughout the layer, the printing resistance is not lowered immediately after wear of the photosensitive material. This is considered for the reason that the wear of the photosensitive material does not directly influence the photosensitive characteristic. The single-layer structure is easier in fabrication than the double-layer structure. In short, the single-layer structure and the double-layer structure have, respectively, merits and demerits.
We proposed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 551,538 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,087,540 (corresponding European Patent Application No. 90307677.6) photosensitive materials which comprise an X-type phthalocyanine and/or .tau.-type phthalocyanine dispersed in polymer binders such as polyesters, polyvinyl acetate, polyvinyl chloride, polyvinylidene chloride, polycarbonates, polyvinyl butyral, polyvinyl acetoacetal and the like. The photosensitive material proposed above is convenient for use in the positive charge systems. Further studies revealed that the photosensitive material was not necessarily satisfactory with respect to the life or durability. In fact, when the material is subjected to a repetition cycle test where it is repeatedly used over 10,000 or more printing cycles, the charge voltage, attenuation in the dark and sensitivity are gradually lowered. The reason for this is considered to result from chemical fatigue such as with light and/or ozone generated in the system.

Photosensitive material for electrophotography comprising organic photoconductive substances in a binder polymer having aromatic rings, OH groups and bromine joined at the aromatic ring or rings

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


The method for automatic determination of validity or invalidity of input from miniaturized keypads or keyboards, in which more than one key is operated at the same time, includes designating a number of keys as principal keys and assigning each key neighboring each principal key as nearest neighbor or next nearest neighbor and then testing each signal produced by key operation. The signal is valid if it is produced by operation of only one single key. However testing continues if two or more keys produce the signal. Then the signal is valid when the two or more keys are correlated in an unambiguous principal key-nearest neighbor key relationship. If not, testing continues further and the signal is valid if the plural keys are correlated in an unambiguous principal key-nearest neighbor key-next nearest neighbor key relationship. Otherwise the signal is an invalid key input.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for automatic determination of the validity or invalidity of input by keys arranged next to each other in a keypad or keyboard.
2. Description of the Related Art
Keypads, touch pads or keyboards are increasingly used to control various electronic units. These electronic units include computers, mobile phones, organizers, remote control panels and many other devices. They are designed ever smaller in connection with electronic unit miniaturization. A natural limit to miniaturization of a keyboard, touch screen or keypad comprising individual keys or touch sensors results from the size of the adult fingers, which are still able to operate the keyboard. The probability is very high with too small keys that two or more keys or touch sensors are operated at the same time instead of only one key, which leads to indefinite or unclear input.
This problem can be addressed by connecting the keys with an electronic controller, which shuts off the associated electronic unit when several keys or touch sensors are operated, pressed or contacted at the same time.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,973,621 describes a keypad comprising a plurality of adjacent key switches, arranged in a controllable flat pattern. The key switches are mechanical keys in the case of this patent. In order for an adult with large fingers to operate the miniaturized keyboard or keypad, key legends or characters are arranged in the intervening spaces between the keys, instead, as is common, on the individual keys. Particularly each key legend or character is associated with four or six adjacent keys, which together correspond to a fingertip area. This presupposes that the center of the fingertip area is applied at the intersection of the intervening spaces.
If necessary, additional key legends or characters can also be associated with individual keys. The keypad keys are then divided into two categories for evaluation of key inputs: keys, which are correlated with a single key legend or character, and other keys, which are only associated with an intervening space correlation. Only key inputs in which key switches or keys of one category or the other are pressed are determined to be valid
In another type of analysis disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,973,621 components of the signals originating from individual keys are differentiated according to intensity. Then the signal components are tested after ascertaining an intensity maximum for the signal component of one of the keys to determine whether sufficiently remote keys operated at the same time produce no signal component.
In GB 2 263 184 A it is proposed to arrange the keys so close to each other that usually more than one key is simultaneously operated. From the first how many and which auxiliary keys must be pressed with each main key is given. The electronics are designed so that each time whether all the associated auxiliary keys are operated with the main key is tested and, only if that is the case, is the appropriate key input correlated to operation of the main key. The electronics does not detect whether or not all associated auxiliary keys are operated together with the main key. However this case can occur especially when an operator with different sized fingers uses the keypad. For this case it is suggested that keypads with different dimensions should be provided.

Method for automatic determination of validity or invalidity of input from a keyboard or a keypad


A device for operating a computer mouse has improved multi-axes mounting to the arm of a desk chair. The device comprises a platform with a holding area for the computer mouse. The platform should be sufficiently sized for a computer operator's forearm to rest thereon. The improved mounting for this device includes a rod from which at least two brackets are connected. One bracket rotatably connects to this rod and the other bracket slidably connects to same. Preferably, a braking mechanism prevents the platform from being rotated too far about the chair arm and dumping all holding area contents.

With the advent of mass personal computer usage, the incidence of repetitive injury disorders such as carpal tunnel syndrome has proliferated to the point of becoming the number one work related injury. It typically manifests itself with symptoms such as pain, numbness and/or stiffness in the hands, wrist, arm, shoulder and neck. Carpal tunnel syndrome has also been known to cause a loss of range of motion in the shoulder as well as loss of grip strength of the hand. Typically, treatments for carpal tunnel syndrome may range from noninvasive techniques such as physical therapy that includes joint manipulation, ultrasound, icing and electro-muscle stimulation, to ingestion of anti-inflammatory drugs, and to invasive procedures such as surgery for removing scar tissue within the wrist that impinges the median nerve. Therefore, a need exists to find means to permit a user to operate a computer mouse in a comfortable, ergonomic fashion that will prevent such disabling injuries.
A similar ailment, wrist tendonitis, has also been associated with computer use. The carpal tunnel is a narrow passageway in one's wrist through which the median nerve passes. This nerve carries sensations for the entire hand. It also affects the finger flexor tendons, which link one's fingers to the muscles in the person's lower arm. The tunnel is formed by walls of solid bone on three sides with the bottom enclosed by the transverse carpal ligament, a tough, inelastic cartilage. Tendonitis occurs when the tendons protect themselves from overuse. Each tendon is surrounded by a thick fluid-filled sac called a synovial sheath, which swells with extra fluid to protect the tendon. Such swelling is called tendonitis. When these sacs swell in the carpal tunnel, they can pinch the median nerve against the bone or carpal ligament. The result can be a loss of sensation in the hands and debilitating pain.
Computer use involves repetitive tasks like gripping, clicking, pushing and reaching for such items as the keyboard and mouse or other pointing device. The position of the user relative to these input devices requires extending upper extremities like the neck, shoulder, arms and hands from the desk chair to the mouse. A lack of optimum positioning, coupled with the highly repetitive nature of mouse use, may result in the aforementioned cumulative trauma injury. Efforts to decrease the stresses on a computer operator usually start only after injury symptoms first appear. The need for preventive support of an operator's upper extremities and wrist become more evident as more repetitive motion/stress related injuries are diagnosed.
Basic use of a computer mouse on a surface like a table requires positioning the user's hand in a generally horizontal plane. Such positioning may cause tendons in the hand to lie strained resulting in user discomfort. Further use in that position exacerbates the discomfort and may result in irritations of the carpal tunnel in some users. An invention is needed that allows a user to grasp the mouse with the wrist in a more natural upright position. Such an invention should reduce the stress on and swelling of the synovial sheath, thereby reducing the chance of sustaining a repetitive stress injury.
Tables exist that mount to the arm of a desk chair. But such tables do not typically tilt to the right or left about the X-axis, or in the same plane as the Z-axis. The parent invention creates a more neutral, upright position for the computer user's hand, wrist and forearm when using a mouse to alleviate tensions on the carpal tunnel. With the further adjustments of the present invention, it is possible to situate the user's elbow below their shoulder reducing at least some of the pressures exerted on a user's neck muscles.
Other devices involve more complex systems and may require specialized chairs. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,884,974 (Bergstem et al) describes a chair having supporting armrests that are adjustable in height, pivotable and longitudinally slidable. Unlike the parent invention, this device neither rotates the wrist into a natural position. Nor does that chair position a computer user's elbow below the shoulder.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,648,282 (Sykes) also fails to rotate a computer user's hand, wrist and forearm to a more natural upright position.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,408 (McAllister, et al) describes a workstation support for a keyboard and mouse. That device does not position the user's wrist in a preferred natural position. Instead, it forces the user to lean forward in the chair placing greater stress on his/her upper back and neck.

Device for reducing repetitive injury with improved multi-axis mounting