In a switching power circuit, one end of a primary winding of a transformer having a plurality of windings is connected to a voltage source, and the other end is connected to a return side of the voltage source through a first switching device. At least one of secondary windings of the transformer is connected to a forward-type rectifier circuit, which is comprised of a rectifier diode, a flywheel diode, a choke coil, and a smoothing condenser, through a MAGAMP. A second switching device is connected in parallel with the flywheel diode, and the second switching device is turned on/off according to an output of the secondary winding of the transformer or according to a signal acquired by inverting the secondary winding output.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a switching power circuit.
2. Description of Related Art
FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a switching power circuit having a conventional MAGAMP magnetic amplifier system regulator. In FIG. 5, symbol T1 denotes a switching power supply transformer, which is comprised of a primary winding N11, secondary windings N21, N22, and a primary auxiliary winding N12 supplying power to a primary control circuit. A commercial power supply Vin (AC) is rectified by a diode bridge DB1, and is smoothed by a smoothing condenser C1 to thereby acquire a direct current voltage Vin (DC). A field effect transistor (FET) Q1 performs high-frequency switching of the direct current voltage Vin (DC) charged in the condenser C1, and the direct current voltage Vin is applied to the primary winding N11 of the transformer T1. A pulse voltage synchronous with an output of the primary winding N11 is generated at the secondary winding N21 of the transformer T1. A rectifier circuit formed of diodes D11, D12, a choke coil L11 and a condenser C11 rectifies and smoothes the pulse voltage to thereby acquire a direct current voltage Vo1.
Resistances R11, R12, R13, a Zener diode Q3, a photo coupler Q2 and the primary control circuit detect and feedback-control the direct current voltage Vo1 by controlling the on/off time ratio for switching the field effect transistor Q1 in such a manner that the direct current voltage Vo1 can be a desired value. At the second winding N22, a saturable reactor L22, a transistor Q22, a Zener diode Q21, resistances R21, R22, R23, R24, R25 and a diode D23 control a direct current voltage Vo2 to a desired voltage by a MAGAMP (Magnetic Amplifier) system. A forward-type rectifier circuit is comprised of a rectifier diode D21, a flywheel diode D22, a choke coil L21 and a smoothing condenser C21.
The MAGAMP system is based upon a magnetic saturation operation of the saturable reactor. The saturable reactor is a device which has a sufficient initial inductance and is magnetically saturated to have an inductance L≈0 when an integrated value of a certain voltage * a time (which is generally called the xe2x80x9cET integrated valuexe2x80x9d) is applied to the saturable reactor. In FIG. 5, symbol L22 denotes the saturable reactor. FIG. 6 is a waveform chart showing waveforms at points A and B in the switching power circuit in FIG. 5. As shown in FIG. 6, when a voltage V1 is generated at the point A at a time T0, the impedance of the saturable reactor L22 is high until a predetermined time Ti, so that no voltage is generated at the point B. When the ET integrated value (V1 * (T1xe2x88x92T0) reaches a saturation ET integrated value of the saturable reactor L22 at the time T1, the impedance of the saturable reactor L22 is decreased to such a low value that the voltage at the point A passes through the point B. A reset current Ir is carried through the saturable reactor L22 through the transistor Q22 between times T2 and T3, so that the saturable reactor L22 is reset or released from its saturated state. Thereafter, the same process (the high impedance, the decrease in impedance, and the reset) is repeated from the time T3.
The saturation ET integrated value of the saturable reactor L22 can be controlled by controlling the reset current Ir. Specifically, the resistances R21, R22 detect the output voltage Vo2, and the reset current Ir corresponding to a difference of the detected output voltage Vo2 from a reference voltage is carried through the saturable reactor L22, thus stabilizing the output voltage Vo2 at a desired voltage. This is called the MAGAMP system regulator.
A synchronous rectifying system may be used instead of the MAGAMP system. A description will now be given of a synchronous rectifier circuit with reference to FIG. 7. FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a switching power circuit provided with a synchronous rectifying system regulator. Field effect transistors (FET) Q20, Q21 as semiconductor switching devices are connected in parallel with secondary rectifier diodes D21, D22, respectively. The field effect transistor Q20 is turned on only while the diode D21 is conducted. The field effect transistor Q21 is turned on only while the diode D22 is conducted. Consequently, a current is carried through the field effect transistors Q20, Q21 with low ON resistance, and the current is rectified by a drop in voltage by a forward voltage Vf (≈0.5V) of the diodes D21, D22 or less.
Since a certain limited time is required for turning on/off the field effect transistors Q20, Q21, there is a time-lag when drive signals for the field effect transistors Q20, Q21 are acquired from a drive signal for the primary field effect transistor Q1 in synchronism therewith. To address this problem, a PWM control circuit detects the output voltage Vo1 regarded as a reference oscillation signal S0, and a signal S1 with a time lag from the reference oscillation signal S0 drives the field effect transistor Q1. A signal S2 with a smaller time lag than the signal S1 drives the synchronous rectifier field effect transistors Q20, Q21. This is called the synchronous rectifying system.
Thus, the synchronous rectifying system requires a complicated synchronous signal circuit. Further,. an additional circuit is needed for acquiring the drive signal for the primary switching device (field effect transistor Q1). Therefore, the synchronous rectifying system is not suitable for a method wherein a control IC is arranged at an upstream side (see FIG. 5), which is now the mainstream.
In recent years, the operating voltage of digital ICs has been lowered, and the direct current voltage Vo2 of the above-mentioned switching power circuit is set to 3.3V in many cases. In such cases, a power loss (=Vf * Io) due to the forward voltage Vf (≈0.5V) of the diodes D21, D22 is relatively larger than in the case where the voltage Vo2 is 5V. This deteriorates the power conversion efficiency.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned technical problems.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a switching power circuit, which has improved power conversion efficiency with a simple structure and low costs.
To accomplish the above objects, according to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a switching power circuit comprising a transformer having a plurality of windings, one end of a primary winding of the transformer being connected to a voltage source, a first switching device, another end of the primary winding being connected to a return side of the voltage source through the first switching device, a magnetic amplifier connected to the secondary winding of the transformer, a forward-type rectifier circuit connected to the magnetic amplifier and including at least a flywheel diode, a second switching device connected in parallel with the flywheel diode, and a control circuit for turning on/off the second switching device according to an output of the secondary winding of the transformer or according to a signal acquired by inverting the output of the secondary winding.
To accomplish the above objects, according to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a switching power circuit comprising a transformer having a plurality of windings, one end of a primary winding of the transformer being connected to a voltage source, a first switching device, another end of the primary winding being connected to a return side of the voltage source through the first switching device, a semiconductor switching device connected to the secondary winding of the transformer, a forward-type rectifier circuit connected to the semiconductor switching device and including at least a flywheel diode, a second switching device connected in parallel with the flywheel diode, and a control circuit for turning on/off the second switching device according to an output of the secondary winding of the transformer or according to a signal acquired by inverting the output of the secondary winding.
Preferably, the switching power circuit according to the second aspect further comprises a synchronous chopper control circuit for turning on/off the semiconductor switching device according to an output of the forward-type rectifier circuit.
To accomplish the above objects, according to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a switching power circuit comprising a transformer having a plurality of windings, one end of a primary winding of the transformer being connected to a voltage source, a first switching device, another end of the primary winding being connected to a return side of the voltage source through the first switching device, a conducting/cutting-off circuit connected to the secondary winding of the transformer, for conducting and cutting-off an input signal, a forward-type rectifier circuit connected to the conducting/cutting-off circuit and including at least a flywheel diode, a second switching device connected in parallel with the flywheel diode, and a control circuit for outputting a control signal for controlling conducting or cutting-off timing of the conducting/cutting-off circuit according to an output of the forward-type rectifier circuit, and wherein the second switching device is controlled in such a manner as to be off during a predetermined period included in a cutoff period of the conducting/cutting-off circuit.
Preferably, the conducting/cutting-off circuit comprises a saturable reactor, and the control circuit comprises a reset current control circuit for controlling a reset current for resetting the saturable reactor.
Alternatively, the conducting/cutting-off circuit comprises a semiconductor switching device, and the control circuit comprises a synchronous chopper control circuit for turning on/off the semiconductor switching device.
In a preferred form of each aspect, the forward-type rectifier circuit further comprises a rectifier diode, a choke coil, and a smoothing condenser.
In a preferred form of each aspect, the transformer further comprises a second secondary winding, the switching power circuit further comprising a second forward-type rectifier circuit connected to the second secondary winding.
In a preferred form of each aspect, the switching power circuit further comprises a second control circuit for turning on/off the first switching device according to an output of the second forward-type rectifier circuit.
According to the switching power circuit of the present invention, to obtain a power supply output using the MAGAMP or the semiconductor switching device connected to the secondary side of the transformer of the switching power source, a primary switching signal is acquired from the output of the secondary winding. The second switching device (rectifier field effect transistor at the flywheel side) is driven according to a drive signal acquired from the primary switching signal or by inverting the primary switching signal. This realizes a switching power circuit having a regulator of a relatively-low voltage which has improved power conversion efficiency with a simple structure and at low costs.

SWITCHING POWER CIRCUIT WHICH SWITCHES VOLTAGE SUPPLIED TO A PRIMARY WINDING OF A TRANSFORMER WITH A SWITCHING ELEMENT TO RECTIFY ALTERNATING CURRENT GENERATED IN A SECONDARY WINDING OF THE TRANSFORMER


The invention comprises methods of forming pluralities of capacitors. In one implementation, metal is formed over individual capacitor storage node locations on a substrate. A patterned masking layer is formed over the metal. The patterned masking layer comprises openings therethrough to an outer surface of the metal. Individual of the openings are received over individual of the capacitor storage node locations. A pit is formed in the metal outer surface within individual of the openings. After forming the pits, the metal is anodically oxidized through the openings effective to form a single metal oxide-lined channel in individual of the openings over the individual capacitor storage nodes. Individual capacitor electrodes are formed within the channels in electrical connection with the individual capacitor storage node locations. At least some of the metal oxide is removed from the substrate, and the individual capacitor electrodes are incorporated into a plurality of capacitors. Other aspects and implementations are contemplated.

Capacitors are one type of component which is commonly used in the fabrication of integrated circuits, for example in DRAM circuitry. A typical capacitor is comprised of two conductive electrodes separated by a non-conducting dielectric region. As integrated circuitry density has increased, there is a continuing challenge to maintain sufficiently high storage capacitance despite typical decreasing capacitor area. The increase in density of integrated circuitry has typically resulted in greater reduction in the horizontal dimension of capacitors as compared the vertical dimension. In many instances, the vertical dimension of capacitors has increased.
One manner of forming capacitors is to initially form an insulative material within which a capacitor storage node electrode is formed. For example, an array of capacitor electrode openings for individual capacitors is typically fabricated in such insulative capacitor electrode-forming material, with a typical insulative electrode-forming material being silicon dioxide doped with one or both of phosphorus and boron. The capacitor electrode openings are typically formed by etching. However, it can be difficult to etch the capacitor electrode openings within the insulative material, particularly where the openings are deep.
Further and regardless, it is often desirable to etch away most if not all of the capacitor electrode-forming material after individual capacitor electrodes have been formed within the openings. Such enables outer sidewall surfaces of the electrodes to provide increased area, and thereby increased capacitance for the capacitors being formed. However, the capacitor electrodes formed in deep openings are typically correspondingly much taller than they are wide. This can lead to toppling of the capacitor electrodes either during the etch to expose the outer sidewall surfaces, during transport of the substrate, and/or during deposition of the capacitor dielectric layer or outer capacitor electrode layer. Our U.S. Pat. No. 6,667,502 teaches provision of a brace or retaining structure intended to alleviate such toppling.
While the invention was motivated in addressing the above identified issues, it is in no way so limited. The invention is only limited by the accompanying claims as literally worded, without interpretative or other limiting reference to the specification, and in accordance with the doctrine of equivalents.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Methods of forming pluralities of capacitors


A method of forming a cutting element for an earth-boring tool may include directing at least one energy beam at a surface of a volume of polycrystalline superabrasive material including interstitial material disposed in regions between inter-bonded grains of polycrystalline superabrasive material. The method includes ablating the interstitial material with the at least one energy beam such that at least a portion of the interstitial material is removed from a first region of the volume of polycrystalline superabrasive material without any substantial degradation of the inter-bonded grains of superabrasive material or of bonds thereof in the first region.

Earth-boring tools for forming wellbores in subterranean earth formations generally include a plurality of cutting elements secured to a body. For example, fixed-cutter earth-boring rotary drill bits (also referred to as "drag bits") include a plurality of cutting elements that are fixedly attached to a bit body of the drill bit. Similarly, roller cone earth-boring rotary drill bits may include cones that are mounted on bearing pins extending from legs of a bit body such that each cone is capable of rotating about the bearing pin on which it is mounted. A plurality of cutting elements may be mounted to each cone of the drill bit. In other words, earth-boring tools typically include a bit body to which cutting elements are attached.
The cutting elements used in such earth-boring tools often include polycrystalline diamond compacts (often referred to as "PDCs"), which include cutting faces of a polycrystalline diamond material. Polycrystalline diamond material is material that includes inter-bonded grains or crystals of diamond material. In other words, polycrystalline diamond material includes direct, inter-granular bonds between the grains or crystals of diamond material. The terms "grain" and "crystal" are used synonymously and interchangeably herein.
Polycrystalline diamond compact cutting elements are typically formed by sintering and bonding together relatively small diamond grains under conditions of high temperature and high pressure in the presence of a catalyst (e.g., a metal solvent catalyst such as cobalt, iron, nickel, or alloys and mixtures thereof) to form a layer (e.g., a compact or "table") of polycrystalline diamond material on a cutting element substrate. These processes are often referred to as high temperature/high pressure (HTHP) processes, and may involve a temperature of at least about 1300° Celsius and a pressure between about 5 GPa and 9 GPa to sinter and bond together the diamond grains. The substrate may comprise a cermet material (i.e., a ceramic-metal composite material) such as, for example, cobalt-cemented tungsten carbide. In such instances, the cobalt (or other catalyst material) in the substrate may be swept into the diamond grains during sintering and serve as the catalyst material for forming the inter-granular diamond-to-diamond bonds, and the resulting diamond table, from the diamond grains. In other methods, powdered catalyst material may be mixed with the diamond grains prior to sintering the grains together in a HTHP process.
Upon formation of a diamond table using a HTHP process, catalyst material may remain in interstitial spaces between the inter-bonded grains of diamond in the resulting polycrystalline diamond compact. The presence of the catalyst material in the diamond table may contribute to thermal damage in the diamond table when the cutting element is heated during use, due to friction at the contact point between the cutting element and the formation.
Polycrystalline diamond compact cutting elements in which the catalyst material remains in the polycrystalline diamond compact are generally thermally stable up to a temperature of about 750° C., although internal stress within the cutting element may begin to develop at temperatures exceeding about 350° C. This internal stress is at least partially due to differences in the rates of thermal expansion between the diamond table and the substrate to which it is bonded. This differential in thermal expansion rates may result in relatively large compressive and tensile stresses at the interface between the diamond table and the substrate, and may cause the diamond table to delaminate from the substrate. At temperatures of about 750° C. and above, stresses within the diamond table itself may increase significantly due to differences in the coefficients of thermal expansion of the diamond material and the catalyst material within the diamond table. For example, cobalt thermally expands significantly faster than diamond, which may cause cracks to form and propagate within the diamond table, eventually leading to deterioration of the diamond table and ineffectiveness of the cutting element.
Furthermore, at temperatures at or above about 750° C., some of the diamond crystals within the polycrystalline diamond compact may react with the catalyst material causing the diamond crystals to undergo a chemical breakdown or back-conversion to another allotrope of carbon or another carbon-based material. For example, the diamond crystals may graphitize at the diamond crystal boundaries, which may substantially weaken the diamond table. In addition, at extremely high temperatures, in addition to graphite, some of the diamond crystals may be converted to carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide.
In order to reduce the problems associated with differential rates of thermal expansion and chemical breakdown of the diamond crystals in polycrystalline diamond compact cutting elements, so-called "thermally stable" polycrystalline diamond compacts (which are also known as thermally stable products, or "TSPs") have been developed. Such a thermally stable polycrystalline diamond compact may be formed by leaching the catalyst material (e.g., cobalt) out from interstitial spaces between the inter-bonded diamond crystals in the diamond table using, for example, an acid or combination of acids. For example, the hard polycrystalline material may be leached using a leaching agent and process such as those described more fully in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,127,923 to Bunting et al., (issued Jul. 7, 1992), and U.S. Pat. No. 4,224,380 to Bovenkerk et al., (issued Sep. 23, 1980), the entire disclosure of each of which is incorporated herein by this reference. Specifically, aqua regia (a mixture of concentrated nitric acid (HNO3) and concentrated hydrochloric acid (HCl)) may be used to at least substantially remove catalyst material from the interstitial spaces between the inter-bonded grains in the hard polycrystalline material of the diamond table. It is also known to use boiling hydrochloric acid (HCl) and boiling hydrofluoric acid (HF) as leaching agents. One particularly suitable leaching agent is hydrochloric acid (HCl) at a temperature of above 110° C., which may be provided in contact with the hard polycrystalline material of the diamond table for a period of about two hours to about 60 hours, depending upon the size of the body comprising the hard polycrystalline material. Some leaching processes even involve contacting the hard polycrystalline material with a leaching agent for multiple weeks or longer. The leaching depth within the diamond table is generally controlled by liquid acid diffusion through the microstructure of the hard polycrystalline material. After leaching the hard polycrystalline material, the interstitial spaces between the inter-bonded grains within the hard polycrystalline material may be at least substantially free of catalyst material used to catalyze formation of inter-granular bonds between the grains in the hard polycrystalline material. In some embodiments, leaching may be selectively applied to specific regions of the diamond table and not to other regions. For example, in some embodiments, a mask may be applied to a region of the diamond table and only the unmasked regions may be leached.

Methods for removing interstitial material from superabrasive materials of cutting elements using energy beams


A counter circuit includes Johnson-type counters of m stages, each counter including a plurality of flip-flops connected in a cascade connection, each flip-flop receiving a clock signal at a respective clock input end. In the constitution, signals at respective output ends of flip-flops in a (k-1)-th stage counter are simultaneously input to respective clock input ends of flip-flops in each counter of a k-th stage and more. As a result, it is possible to obtain a signal having an arbitrary ratio of frequency division with high speed, while relatively simplifying the circuit constitution.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a counter circuit, and more particularly, to a counter circuit using a Johnson-type counter and to applications thereof.
The counter circuit and its applied circuits according to the present invention can be utilized in various digital applied circuits which frequently need operations for converting a chain of serial data into parallel data of a plurality of bits, or converting parallel data of a plurality of bits into a chain of serial data.
2. Description of the Related Art
With a recent demand for high speed operation of various digital applied circuits or systems, a development of integrated circuits (IC) which can effect perform signal processing with high speed has been, demanded. To this end, it is necessary to achieve high speed operations of the individual, respective circuits within the IC.
As an example of a counter circuit using a Johnson-type counter, a 1/N frequency-dividing circuit including a plurality of flip-flops connected in a cascade connection is known. In this constitution, the first stage flip-flop receives a clock signal and the last stage flip-flop outputs a 1/N divided signal. Accordingly, the 1/N divided signal cannot be obtained until the clock signal is applied and then passed through the flip-flops of the plurality of stages. Namely, it takes considerable time, corresponding to an operation delay time of the flip-flops, to obtain the 1/N divided signal. This is disadvantageous from a viewpoint of the operation speed.
Also, since the flip-flops are connected in a cascading manner, drawback arises in that the ratio of frequency division is fixed depending on the number of flip-flops used.
As another example of a counter circuit using a Johnson-type counter, a divided signal generating circuit effecting a logical-OR operation is known. In this case, each signal input to the OR logic portion needs an input amplitude of a predetermined level. However, when the input amplitude is increased, a problem occurs in that the operation delay time of each, flip-flop is prolonged. This leads to a lowering of the maximum operating frequency of the Johnson-type counter and therefore, make this type of counter circuit undesirable.
The problems in the prior art will be explained later in detail in contrast with the preferred embodiments of the present invention.

Counter circuit using Johnson-type counter and applied circuit including the same


The present invention teaches a touch display panel having a notch. A first resistance of a touch electrode is defined as the sum of a contact resistance between the touch electrode and the touch electrode's corresponding wire, and a resistance of the corresponding wire. For touch electrodes of an identical area, the touch electrodes have an identical first resistances. For touch electrodes of different areas, the touch electrodes of smaller areas have greater first resistances than those of the touch electrodes of greater areas. A consistent RC loading is obtained for touch electrodes of different areas, thereby effectively eliminating the touch and display differences resulted from the different areas of touch electrodes as the touch display panel has a notch design.

In the field of display technologies, flat panel display devices such as liquid crystal display (LCD) devices, due to their thin thickness, high quality, power saving, and low radiation, have gradually replaced cathode ray tube (CRT) display devices.
Existing LCD devices are usually back-lighted display devices, and include a LCD panel and a backlight module. The LCD panel usually include a color filter (CF) substrate, a thin film transistor (TFT) array substrate, and a liquid crystal layer and a sealant disposed between the two substrates. The principle behind a LCD panel is to alter the alignment of the liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal layer by the electrical field formed between the substrates. As such, light from the backlight module is refracted to produce pictures.
To achieve touch sensitive control, more and more appliances are now equipped with a touch screen. There are four major types of touch screens: resistive, capacitive, infrared, surface acoustic wave touch screens. The in-cell capacitive touch screen, due to its low cost and power consumption, thinness, and multi-touch capability is the mainstream touch screen. For liquid crystal display (LCD) panel using in-cell technique, the common electrode is manufactured into multiple touch electrodes of comparable sizes arranged in an array and the common electrode therefore functions both for the provision of a common voltage and for touch control. Recently, there is a type of display panels having a notch design. These notch display panels have a hollow out area along an edge of the display panel for placing electronic components so as to achieve a greater screen ratio. As shown in FIG. 1, a touch display panel with notch includes a touch layer 700 and a chip 900. The touch layer 700 includes a common electrode layer 710 and an oppositely disposed layout layer 720. The chip 900 is disposed outside the common electrode layer 710. The common electrode layer 710 includes a first sub-electrode layer 711, a second sub-electrode layer 712 along a side of the first sub-electrode layer 711, and two third sub-electrode layer 713 separated at a distance along a side of the second sub-electrode layer 712 away from the first sub-electrode layer 711. The second and third sub-electrode layers 712 and 713 surround a notch 715. The first, second, and third sub-electrode layers 711, 712, and 713 respectively include multiple touch electrodes 701 arranged in an array. The touch electrodes 701 of the first sub-electrode layer 711 are of a same area. The touch electrodes 701 in a row of touch electrodes 701 in the second sub-electrode layer 712 immediately beneath the notch 715 have smaller areas than those of the touch electrodes 701 in the first sub-electrode layer 711. The touch electrodes 701 in the column of each third sub-electrode layers 713 closest to the notch 715 have smaller areas than those of the touch electrodes 701 in the first sub-electrode layer 711. The layout layer 720 includes multiple wires 721 in parallel at intervals. Each wire 721 extends in a direction that the first and second sub-electrode layers 711 and 712 are arranged. Each wire 721 has an end electrically connected to a touch electrode 701 and another end electrically connected to the chip 900. Due to that the touch display panel has a notch design, the touch electrodes 701 surrounding the notch 715 have areas smaller than those of the other touch electrodes 701. For those touch electrodes 701 surrounding the notch 715, their areas are also different. In other words, there is a great variation among the touch electrodes 701's areas. As each touch electrode 701's capacitance is determined by its area, greater area means greater capacitance and greater capacitance means more severe RC loading. As such, there is a great variation among the touch electrodes 701's RC loading, compromising the touch effect of the touch display panel. In addition, as the touch display panel supplies a same common voltage to multiple touch electrodes 701, the different RC loadings lead to differences among the voltages finally reaching the touch electrodes 701. The touch display panel would suffer color difference in showing images.
In addition, as shown in FIG. 2, the touch display panel of FIG. 1 also includes a scan line layer 800 disposed oppositely to the touch layer 700. The scan line layer 800 includes two first scan line sets 810 whose vertical projections are respectively to the two lateral sides of the notch 715 away from the notch 715 and a second scan line set 820 whose vertical projection is below the notch 715 away from a lateral side of the notch 715. Each first scan line set 810 includes multiple first scan lines 811 in parallel at intervals extending perpendicular to the direction that first and second sub-electrode layers 711 and 712 are arranged. Each first scan line 811 in one first scan line set 810 is aligned with a first scan line 811 in the other first scan line set 810. The second scan line set 820 includes multiple second scan lines 821 in parallel at intervals extending perpendicular to the direction that first and second sub-electrode layers 711 and 712 are arranged. Due to the touch display panel's notch design, the first scan lines 811 have lengths smaller than those of the second scan lines 821. Therefore, the first scan lines 811 have their resistances, capacitances, and RC loadings all smaller than those of the second scan lines 821. Due to the RC loading differences from the first and second scan lines 811 and 821, the touch display panel would suffer color difference in showing images.

WUHAN CHINA STAR OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


We introduce a thoracic cage coordinate system for recording pathology locations in lung CT volume data. The centerlines of each individual rib are extracted and labeled from top to bottom. For each pair of ribs, a three-dimensional (“3D”) orthogonal basis is computed by eigen-analysis of the rib centerline points, which are taken as the x, y, and z axes. The rib pairs form a set of reference planes. Therefore, there are a set of coordinate systems (x, y, z), each of which is locally valid between two adjacent planes. To define a location globally, a fourth parameter, n, is added to identify the serial number of the reference plane. The complete coordinate is recorded as (n, x, y, z). This system is robust against deformations due to bending and twisting, and is relatively stable over inhalation. Further, this system may be readily adapted in other 3D modalities, such as MRI volume data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of computer tomography (CT), and, more particularly, to a thoracic cage coordinate system for denoting pathology locations in lung CT volume data.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the development of multi-slice computer tomography ("CT") scanners, computer-aided diagnosis ("CAD") algorithms and software can provide functionalities that make reading CT volume data more convenient and effective. An important task of CAD software is to record pathology locations as a basic reporting functionality. For example, the locations of lung nodules, which indicate possible lung cancer, may be recorded after they are found by physicians or by a CAD module.
Currently available recording schemes are generally not satisfactory. Internally, they record pathology locations using a patient coordinate system (i.e., x, y and z coordinates). When displayed for physicians, such pathology locations are coarsely referenced even with respect to simple lung anatomic structures, such as lung lobes. Because the patient coordinate system depends largely on patient pose and translations, it is generally inaccurate.
Thus, it would be advantageous to provide a coordinate system that is independent of patient pose and translations. Further, the coordinate system should be stable over small deformations of the patient's body or inhalation level.

Thoracic cage coordinate system for recording pathologies in lung CT volume data


A connector assembly includes a housing that includes one or more slots for inserting a component defined in a top side of the connector housing. Each slot includes a first and a second interior surface separated by a distance. Channels are defined in each surface and are adapted to receive a portion of a terminal. Openings for receiving a terminal are defined in a bottom surface of the housing. When the terminal is fully inserted into the opening the terminal portion is substantially adjacent to a surface within the channel and a contact region of the terminal is substantially centered between the first and second interior surfaces of the slot so as to enable lateral movement of the contact portion between the first and second surfaces when the component is inserted.

I. Field
The present invention relates generally to electrical connectors. More specifically, the present invention relates to a multi-position connector used with a fuel cell.
II. Discussion
As the cost of energy has soared so to has the pace of research into alternative sources of fuels. Most people experience the high cost of fuel at the fuel pump. For example, in recent years the price of petroleum has doubled and even tripled in some places.
To combat the high cost of fuels, automotive manufacturers have begun developing vehicles utilizing various combinations of technology to improve fuel efficiency. For example, many automotive manufacturers produce hybrid vehicles. These vehicles achieve higher average fuel efficiency by utilizing a combination of electricity and gas to power the vehicle. Other vehicles are being adapted to run solely on electricity. These vehicles typically utilize an array of expensive batteries that provide power to an electric motor.
Another technology being explored is the use of fuel cells. Fuel cells derive their name from the fact that they produce electricity like a battery cell. Unlike batteries, however, fuel cells derive their energy from a fuel, such as hydrogen. Once the energy of the fuel cell is depleted, hydrogen may be added to the fuel cell to "recharge" the fuel cell.
Typically, it is necessary to use stacks of fuel cells, or fuel cell plates stacked together, to produce the amount of energy needed for a vehicle. In fuel cells, an electrical connection is required for each fuel cell plate. However, one problem with fuel cells is that they often exhibit a relatively high variability in the distance between the plates. Consequently, current fuel cell stacks require individual connectors for each plate. This prevents the use of a multi-position type of connector resulting in a more complicated and more costly electrical connection to the fuel cell.


The present invention is directed to a method for making in vivo a lecithin gel which provides for the sustained release of a biologically active compound contained in the gel. The present invention is also directed to a method for the sustained treatment of a human or other mammal with a therapeutic amount of a biologically active compound using the gel for the sustained release of the biologically active compound.

Sustained release dosage forms can decrease the frequency of administration of biologically active compounds and can also serve to reduce side effects by reducing peak serum levels of the compounds. There is also a significant advantage in administering biologically active proteins and polypeptides in sustained release dosage forms, since compounds of those classes generally have short biological half-lives.
Aqueous gels of pharmaceutically acceptable polymers such as gelatin, methylcellulose and polyethylene glycol have been used to control the release rate of drugs from dosage forms. The diffusion of drugs through such gels is hindered by the viscosity of these systems as well as the tortuous diffusion path that results from the three dimensional polymeric network that is present. These gels cannot easily be used to sustain the release of drugs administered parenterally due to the inherent problem of injecting such viscous materials through a hypodermic needle. In addition, the high molecular weight of these polymers prevent their rapid elimination from the injection site.
Lecithin gels are known per se, see e.g., Scartazzini et al., J. Phys. Chem., 92:829-833 (1988) and Luisi et al., Colloid Polym. Sci., 268:356-374 (1990). These gels are formed ex vivo by the addition of a critical amount of water to a mixture of lecithin and an organic solvent for the lecithin. Lecithin gels have many of the rheological properties of polymeric gels.

Methods for the sustained release of biologically active compounds


Two mirrors (15) and (16) making an angle of 90 degrees are formed on a front face of a mirror member (17). An optical fiber for input (12) and an optical fiber for output (13) are held in a fiber array (14) with a predetermined interval, and an emission lens (23) and an injection lens (24) are provided on a front face of the fiber array (14) in a way that they are opposed to end faces of the optical fiber for input (12) and the optical fiber for output (13) respectively. According to the variable optical attenuator, when the mirror member (17) is straightly moved by an actuator (18), light attenuation can be varied thereby.

The variable optical attenuator (VOA), which attenuates light injected from an optical transmission channel for input (typically, optical fiber) and outputs it to an optical transmission channel for output (typically, optical fiber), can variably adjust the light attenuation. As a method for controlling the light attenuation in such a variable optical attenuator, various types have been proposed. For example, there are a mechanical type in which a shutter is inserted/removed halfway an optical path between opposed end faces of optical fibers and the light attenuation is adjusted using a shading level by the shutter, and a type in which an optical element such as Faraday rotator or thermooptic element is disposed halfway the optical channel.
However, in the first variable optical attenuator of the mechanical type, there is a problem of wavelength dependence or polarization-dependant loss because of diffraction at an edge of the shutter. Furthermore, a conventional actuator used in the mechanical-type attenuator is large in size, therefore miniaturization of the variable optical attenuator has been difficult.
In the second variable optical attenuator using the optical element, the variable optical attenuator is expensive because the expensive optical element such as Faraday rotator or thermooptic element is required, in addition, since it does not have self-holding capability of the light attenuation, current needs to be continuously applied to an electrical element for affecting on the optical element, therefore power consumption has been large. Also, an electrical element for affecting on other optical elements or an optical element is necessary with regard to the optical element, therefore a structure of the attenuator has been apt to be complicated.
As a variable optical attenuator using a light reflection surface, an attenuator disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,137,941 is known. FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a structure of the conventional variable optical attenuator. In the variable optical attenuator, as shown in FIG. 1, a lens 3 is disposed on end faces of an optical transmission channel for input 1 and an optical transmission channel for output 2 arranged parallel, a mirror 4 is provided at a position distant from the lens 3 only by the focal distance of the lens f, and the mirror 4 is rotatably supported by a fulcrum 5. Here, an intermediate line between the optical transmission channel for input 1 and the optical transmission channel for output 2 coincides with an optical axis of the lens 3, and the fulcrum 5 is located on an extension of the line. A piezoelectric actuator 7 is inserted between the mirror 4 and a base 6, and the piezoelectric actuator 7 is expanded and contracted with being controlled by a controller 8, thereby tilt of the mirror 4 can be optionally adjusted.
Thus, when the mirror 4 is perpendicular to the optical axis of the lens 3, light emitted parallel to the optical axis of the lens 3 from the optical transmission channel for input 1 refracts when it transmits through the lens 3 and then reaches the mirror 4, and the light reflected on the mirror 4 refracts when it transmits through the lens 3 and becomes parallel to the optical axis of the lens 3 and then it is injected into the optical transmission channel for output 2. In this case, when an optical axis of the light injected into the optical transmission channel for output 2 coincides with an axis center of the optical transmission channel for output 2, a quantity of light injected into the optical transmission channel for output 2 is maximized (the light attenuation is minimized). On the contrary, when the mirror 4 is tilted by the piezoelectric actuator 7, the optical axis of the light that is emitted from the optical transmission channel for input 1 and reflected on the mirror 4 and then returned to the optical transmission channel for output 2 is displaced from the axis center of the optical transmission channel for output 2, and the quantity of light injected into the optical transmission channel for output 2 decreases, therefore as the tilt of the mirror 4 increases, the attenuation of the light injected into the optical transmission channel for output 2 increases.
According to the variable optical attenuator having such a structure, the problem such as the wavelength dependence in the variable optical attenuator of the shutter type does not occur, in addition, the problem of high price due to the optical element can be avoided.
However, in the variable optical attenuator having such a structure, the lens 3 must be distant from the mirror 4 only by the focal distance of the lens 3, in addition, to reduce aberration of the light emitted from the optical transmission channel for input 1 or the light injected into the optical transmission channel for output 2, a portion near the optical axis of the lens 3 needs to be used as much as possible, and a short-focus lens can not be used, therefore the miniaturization of the variable optical attenuator has been restricted in such a structure. In the method of tilting the mirror 3, since the optical axis of light injected into the optical transmission channel for output 2 sensitively displaces even upon slight tilt of the mirror 3, the tilt of the mirror 3 needs to be controlled severely, therefore accurate control of the light attenuation has been difficult. Since the piezoelectric actuator is also used in this variable optical attenuator, the mirror 3 can not hold its angle by itself, resulting in large power consumption.


It is an object of the present invention to provide a gasoline composition utilizing lignocellulosic biomass, which is a plant-derived resource that does not cause competition with food production, the gasoline composition satisfying properties required for use in gasoline engines, and a process for producing the gasoline composition. The gasoline composition contains 0.3 to 10.0 vol % of hemicellulose-derived pentene.

Using biofuels for reducing greenhouse gas emissions has been expected because biofuels are carbon neutral.
In recent years, environmental destruction has been worse and the environment is concerned so that a reduction of environmental burden from automotive gasoline has become a social demand. To response to such a social demand, using bioethanol produced from corn, sugarcane or the like for the production of automotive gasoline has been attempted.
So-called biofuels, which are fuels including bioethanol produced from plants as raw materials, can satisfy the GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions standard but a kind of plants used as the raw materials are limited. Currently, corn, sugarcane and the like are mainly used as the raw materials but these plants are also used for food. Thus, production of ethanol may cause competition with food production.
Accordingly, methods of producing biofuels that do not cause competition with food production have been studied. For example, in Patent Literature 1, a method for producing ethanol from cellulose that constitutes non-food portions such as stems and leaves usually discarded is proposed. In Non Patent Literature 1, a process for producing bioethanol is described.

Gasoline composition and production process therefor


A video display device includes: a display panel that displays an image based on an input image signal; a light source substrate that includes a plurality of light sources on a main surface which is a front side of the light source substrate, and emits, toward a rear side of the display panel, light emitted from the plurality of light sources; a reflection sheet that is provided on the main surface of the light source substrate, and in which hollow partitioning walls each of which separates adjacent two light sources of the plurality of light sources are formed; and an optical member that has a plate shape, is provided between the display panel and the light source substrate, and uniformizes luminance distribution of the light emitted from the light source substrate. The reflection sheet extends to an outside of an outer peripheral edge of the optical member as viewed from the front side.

For example, various technologies for improving quality of images formed by a video display device including a backlight, such as a liquid crystal display device, have been continuously developed. A technology called direct-backlight local dimming is one of examples of these technologies.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a technology relating to local dimming
Patent Literature 2 discloses a technology which provides a lens on each of a plurality of light sources included in a direct-backlight video display device to diffuse light emitted from the plurality of light sources and thereby uniformize luminance distribution of the light emitted from the plurality of light sources.

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


A spirit type level that may be used to plumb any vertical pole or post, may be used to horizontally set an object and may also be used to quickly and easily set a pipe at a selected slope of between 0 and 3 percent. The spirit type level of the invention includes a plurality of differently oriented spirit vials that are secured within the level body in a manner such that, if any one of the spirit vials become broken, or otherwise damaged, it can be easily replaced and the level need not be discarded. The spirit type level of the invention can be quickly and easily removably attached to the object to be leveled thereby freeing the hands of the user to position the object.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to tools used in the construction industry. More particularly, the invention concerns a specially designed spirit level for use by plumbers having replaceable spirit vials and including a novel connector mechanism for releasably connecting the level to the structure to be leveled.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Spirit levels of various designs have been suggested in the past and are widely used by construction workers to determine the orientation of a particular structure or surface with respect to a reference axis. A typical spirit level generally comprises an elongated body that has a pair of opposing, generally parallel working surfaces and includes a plurality of openings having spirit vials permanently secured therein. The spirit vials are typically aligned in different directions relative to the working surfaces and function to indicate the orientation of a structure. For example, one vial may be aligned in a direction perpendicular to the working surfaces, another may be aligned in a direction parallel to the working surfaces and a third may be aligned in an angular direction. Typically, the vial contains a fluid and a spirit, and the user views the position of the spirit within the vial to determine the position of the tool relative to the working surfaces.
A novel and highly useful level construction is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,536,798 issued to the present inventor. This patent, which is entitled "Multiple Angle Compact Spirit Level", describes a level with a generally U-shaped or round, rigid frame. The outer surface of the level is comprised of a number of planar reference faces that are at different fixed angles with respect to the spirit vial mounted within the frame
Another useful level construction is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,802,372 also issued to the present inventor. This patent, which is entitled "Removable Laser Base Attachment for Spirit Levels", describes a spirit level that includes a body, a laser beam generator, and a removable securement. The body has a flat top surface that the level is secured to and a bottom surface that is flat and parallel to the top surface. A laser diode mounted in a module emits a visible laser beam upon application of power from a battery that is controlled by a switch. The module, batteries, and switch are mounted in a through bore in the body. The laser base is removably secured to the spirit level by any manner appropriate to the shape of the level. In one such securement, the level has a T-shaped cross-section and the body has a complementary slot into which the level slides. When the level reference surface abuts the top surface of the laser base, a thumb screw is tightened to frictionally secure the level in the base.


A sewing machine includes a controller and a thread cutter which cuts an upper thread passed through a sewing needle and which has a fixed knife, a moving knife, and a driving source to drive the moving knife. The moving knife cuts the upper thread by guiding the upper thread. The moving knife has a through-hole into which the sewing needle is loosely insertable and includes a thread cutting portion in an inner edge portion of the through-hole. By controlling the driving source, the controller makes a stitch point of a first stitch of the sewing needle with respect to the through-hole of the moving knife, and moves the moving knife to a position where the fixed knife and the moving knife cut a sewing start end portion of the upper thread after a stitch point of a second stitch of the sewing needle.

A sewing machine of the related art includes a needle vertical movement mechanism that vertically moves a sewing needle; a shuttle mechanism that captures an upper thread that has passed through the sewing needle; and a thread cutter that cuts the upper thread and a lower thread at a sewing end, in which seams are formed and sewing is performed by both of the needle vertical movement mechanism and the shuttle mechanism (for example, refer to JP-A-2007-029437).


An ink jet printing apparatus and an ink jet printing method are provided which are capable of minimizing image impairments caused by a bias of satellite positions even when an odd-numbered-pass bidirectional multi-pass printing is performed. To this end, in an odd-numbered-pass bidirectional printing, a mask pattern, in which print permitted pixels and print non-permitted pixels are arranged such a way that a percentage of pixels in which predetermined two inks are permitted to be printed by scans in different directions is higher than a percentage of pixels in which the predetermined two inks are permitted to be printed by scans in the same directions, is used. This increases the probability of satellites of the two types of the inks printed in the same pixels being printed on both sides of main dots, thus allowing a uniform image to be produced even by an odd-numbered-pass bidirectional printing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet printing apparatus and an ink jet printing method. More specifically it relates to an odd-numbered pass bidirectional printing method employed in serial type printing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, relatively inexpensive office automation devices such as personal computers and word processors have come into widespread use. At the same time, efforts are being made to develop various types of printing apparatus that output information supplied from these devices and to enhance printing speed and print quality of these printing apparatus. Among others, a serial type ink jet printing apparatus is drawing attention as a relatively small printing apparatus capable of producing prints at low cost at high speed or with high quality. Such a serial type ink jet printing apparatus can perform a bidirectional printing to produce an image at high speed or perform a multi-pass printing to produce an image with high quality. Brief descriptions are made in the following as to the bidirectional printing and multi-pass printing in the serial type ink jet printing apparatus.
(Bidirectional Printing)
In a serial type ink jet printing apparatus, a print head having an array of ink drop ejection nozzles integrally formed therein is mounted in a carriage that is moved in a main scan direction in the printing apparatus. Individual nozzles (or ejection ports) of the print head eject ink according to image data as the carriage is moved, to form one band of image. A printing main scan (also referred to simply as a printing scan) of one band and an operation to convey a print medium one band width are alternated repetitively to form one band of image after another on the print medium.
The bidirectional printing is a printing method that, after completing a forward printing scan and the subsequent print medium convey operation, performs a printing scan in the backward direction. Compared with a one-way printing that repeats the process of performing the backward scan without printing operation followed by the printing scan, the bidirectional printing can shorten the printing time. For example, suppose an entire area of the A4-size print medium is to be printed using a print head that has 64 nozzles arrayed therein at a density of 360 dpi (dots/inch) in the print medium conveying direction. In that case, while the one-way printing requires about 60 reciprocal scans including backward scans without printing operation, the bidirectional printing needs only about 30 such reciprocal scans to complete the printing. This means the bidirectional printing can produce an image at almost twice the speed of the one-way printing.
(Multi-Pass Printing)
In a printing operation using a print head having a plurality of nozzles, the quality of an image produced is affected by ejection characteristics of individual nozzles. In a process of manufacturing nozzles of the print head, there inevitably occur some variations in the heating characteristics of electrothermal transducers (heaters) installed in the nozzles that generate an ejection energy and also in the shape of ejection openings. These variations influence the ejection volume and direction of ink ejected from the nozzles, which in turn generates density unevenness and stripes in an image formed on a print medium.
FIGS. 1A-1C show a printing state of a print head that has no ejection characteristic variations. In the figures, reference number 201 represents a print head which, for the sake of simplicity, is shown to have only eight nozzles 202 here. As shown in FIG. 1A, if the sizes and the ejection directions of ink droplets 203 ejected from nozzles are aligned, an arrangement of dots formed on a print medium are to be such as shown in FIG. 1B and a density unevenness in the direction of nozzle array are uniform as shown in FIG. 1C respectively.
FIGS. 2A-2C show a printing state of a print head that has ejection characteristic variations. The sizes and ejection directions of ink droplets ejected from individual nozzles 202 vary as shown in FIG. 2A. The dot arrangement on a print medium is also not uniform, as indicated in FIG. 2B. It is seen that there are some areas where dots overlap each other more than necessary and also blank areas where an area factor is less than 100%. As a result, the density unevenness in the direction of nozzle array is uneven, as shown in FIG. 2C. These non-uniform areas, if repeated in the sub-scan direction, are recognized as density unevenness.
FIGS. 3A-3C show a printing state when a multi-pass printing is done using the print head of FIGS. 2A-2C. As shown in FIG. 3A, the multi-pass printing completes a printing operation on an area that in a one-pass printing can be printed in a single printing scan, by dividing the printing scan into a plurality of printing scans. Here is shown a 2-pass printing method.
FIGS. 4A-4C show an arrangement of dots permitted to be printed by the individual nozzles in three consecutive printing scans. FIG. 4A shows dots permitted to be printed in the first printing scan. Here is shown about half the number of dots printed in this area of print medium and they are arranged on alternate pixels in vertical and horizontal directions. After the first printing scan, the print medium is conveyed half the printing width of the print head (equivalent to 4 dots in this case) in the sub-scan direction. In the subsequent second printing scan the remaining half of the dots that are also arranged on alternate pixels are printed (FIG. 4B) It is noted that they are printed at positions complementary to those dots printed in the first printing scan, i.e., they are printed where dots were not printed in the first printing scan. After another 4-dot conveying operation is finished, about half the dots are again printed in the third printing scan at positions complementary to those dots printed in the second printing scan (FIG. 4C). By repeating the above printing scan and the conveying operation alternately, an image is formed on the same image area (each unit image area) on a print medium by two printing scans of different parts of the print head.
The multi-pass printing described above prevents the dots printed by one nozzle from being connected in line in the main scan direction as shown in FIG. 2B. That is, the multi-pass printing allows the use of a print head equivalent to the print head 201 of FIG. 2A and can still halve adverse effects the ejection characteristic variations among the nozzles have on the print medium image, with a resultant dot arrangement being as shown in FIG. 3B. As a result, the density unevenness in the nozzle alignment direction is almost uniform as shown in FIG. 3C.
FIG. 23 is a schematic diagram for explaining a mask pattern capable of using for 2-pass printing described FIG. 4A to 4C and a completing relationship of the mask. P0001 denotes nozzle array consist of 8 nozzles for ejecting ink of same color. The nozzle array is divided into a first block and a second block each including 4 nozzles. P0002A and P0002B denote mask patterns corresponding to the first block and the second block respectively and each mask pattern has 4 pixels×4 pixels area. P0002A (lower pattern in FIG. 7) is a mask pattern used for a first scan, and P0002B (upper pattern in FIG. 7) is a mask pattern used for a second scan. Each mask pattern (P0002A and P0002B) consist of arrangement of print permitted pixels indicated by black and print non-permitted pixels indicated by white. The mask pattern P0002A for the first scan and the mask pattern P0002B for the second scan have completing relationship each other. Therefore, superimposing them, all of 4 pixels×4 pixels area is filled, and up to 100% printing become possible. Then, as such mask pattern is used repeatedly for the main scan direction 2-pass printing becomes possible for all of area where the print head scans.
Next, the "print permitted pixel" and the "print non-permitted pixel" will be described. The "print permitted pixel" means a pixel in which a dot is permitted to be printed. That is, when a 2-value image data corresponding to the "print permitted pixel" indicates ejecting ink, a dot is printed to the pixel. And when the 2-value image data indicates not-ejecting ink, a dot is not printed to the pixel. On the other hand, the "print non-permitted pixel" means a pixel in which a dot is not permitted to be printed regardless of the 2-value image data. That is, even if the 2-value image data corresponding to the "print non-permitted pixel" indicates ejecting ink, a dot is not printed to the pixel.
P0003 and P0004 denote an arrangement of dots in an image which is completed by 2-pass printing. In the first scan, 2-valued image data generated by using mask pattern P0002A is printed by the first block. Then, the print medium is conveyed, in the direction of an arrow, by a distance corresponding to width of one block. In the following second scan, in a similar way, 2-valued image data generated by using mask pattern P0002A is printed by the first block. At the same time, in the second scan, 2-valued image data generated by using mask pattern P0002B is printed by the second block. In this way, a printing for an area corresponding to half of nozzle arraying region capable of being used in a 2-pass printing mode, is completed by 2 times printing scans.
Although in the above explanation dots have been described to be arranged at alternate pixels in both vertical and horizontal directions in each printing scan, the multi-pass printing is not limited to such a dot arrangement. The positions at which dots are printed in each printing scan are generally determined by an arrangement of print permitted pixels in a mask pattern. It is therefore possible to adjust the dot arrangement and the print permitted ratio by changing the arrangement and ratio of print permitted pixel in the mask pattern. It is noted that, the "print permitted ratio" determined by a mask pattern is a ratio, which is expressed in percentage, of a number of print permitted pixels of a total number of the print permitted pixels and print non-permitted pixels in the mask pattern.
The 2-pass printing has been described in the above. The multi-pass printing may increase the number of passes to 3, 4 and 5 passes to enhance the uniformity of image quality. An increase in the number of passes, however, results in a reduction in the printing speed. So, many printing apparatus has a plurality of print modes with different number of passes, such as one that gives priority to image quality and one that places importance on printing speed. By using the bidirectional printing described earlier, it is possible to strike a balance between the image quality and the printing speed to provide a more appropriate print mode. It should, however, be noted that when a bidirectional multi-pass printing is performed using an odd number of passes in, a new problem that does not emerge in a multi-pass printing with an even number of passes arises.
FIGS. 5A and 5B are schematic diagrams showing a difference between an even-numbered-pass printing (with 4 passes) and an odd-numbered-pass printing (with 3 passes).
The bidirectional printing performs a printing operation in both the forward scan and backward scan. If the print heads for a plurality of inks are parallelly arranged in the main scan direction, the order in which the inks are applied to a print medium during the backward scan is reverse to that of the forward scan. For example, if during a forward scan inks are applied in the order of black, cyan, magenta and yellow, the backward scan applies inks in the order of yellow, magenta, cyan and black. At this time, even if the plurality of ink colors are ejected in the same percentages in both the opposite scans to produce the same image colors, there inevitably occurs some color difference between an image obtained in the forward scan and an image obtained in the backward scan. Further, if the printing is done using a single color or the print heads for a plurality of ink colors are arranged in the sub-scan direction, some printing characteristic differences, such as differences in dot shape resulting from satellite landing position variations, emerge between the forward scan and the backward scan. As a result, there is some density differences between images formed in the forward scan and the backward scan.
Thus, even where the multi-pass printing is performed, it is desired that there be no difference in the number of dots between the forward scan and the backward scan. Take FIG. 5A for example; in the case of an even-numbered-pass printing with four passes, the forward and backward scans are executed two times each over the same image area of a print medium: the same image area being a unit area having a width corresponding to a conveying distance of the print medium between pass and pass. Therefore, if the each printing scans for the same image area is given a print permitted ratio of 25%, the total print permitted percentage of the forward scans and that of the backward scans are both 50%.
However, in the case of an odd-numbered-pass printing with three passes shown in FIG. 5B, the numbers of times that the forward scan and the backward scan are executed over the same image area (unit area) of a print medium are not equal. The same image areas (unit areas) printed by two forward scans and one backward scan and the same image areas (unit areas) printed by one forward scan and two backward scans are alternated in the sub-scan direction. That is, if the print permitted ratio for each printing scan is uniformly set at 33.3%, then image areas with a strong printing characteristic of forward scan where the number of dots printed by the forward scan is 33.3% more than that of the backward scan and image areas with a strong backward scan printing characteristic where the number of dots printed by the backward scan is 33.3% more than that of the forward scan, are formed alternately. Since colors and densities may differ between these two kinds of image areas, overall image impairments such as color unevenness and density variations are likely to occur.
The image impairments described above caused by the bidirectional printing with an odd number of passes emerge with an increasing distinctiveness as the number of passes decreases. That is, a three-pass bidirectional printing with a print permitted ratio difference of 33.3% between the sum of forward scans and the sum of backward scans makes the image impairments most noticeable. If the print permitted ratio in each printing scan is equally set, the print percentage difference decreases to 20% and 14.3% as the number of passes increases to 5 passes and 7 passes, making the image impairments less noticeable.
As to the bidirectional printing with an odd number of passes, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-108322 discloses a construction in which a print permitted ratio is differentiated according to nozzle positions in the print head in order to make the sum of print permitted ratios in forward scans and the sum of print permitted ratios in backward scans equal.
FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing print permitted ratios of forward scans and backward scans in 3-pass bidirectional printing disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-108322. According to this patent document, a nozzle array of the print head is divided into three blocks, with both side blocks assigned a print permitted ratio of 25% each and a central block assigned a print permitted ratio of 50%. With this arrangement, areas printed by forward scan followed by backward scan followed by forward scan and areas printed by backward scan followed by forward scan followed by backward scan can both have equal numbers of dots capable of being printed by the forward scans and the backward scans. If these numbers of dots cannot be made perfectly equal as shown in FIG. 6, the print permitted ratios of the three divided blocks of the print head nozzle array can be determined in a way that suppresses a difference between the number of dots printed by the forward scan and the number of dots printed by the backward scan.
FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing a nozzle array of the print head divided into three blocks, of which upper and bottom blocks are given a print permitted ratios of 30% and a central part 40%. This arrangement can suppress the difference in print permitted ratio between the forward scans and the backward scans to about 20%, if not 0%. If a mask used has too large difference in a print permitted ratio between the central block and end block of the nozzle array, the intended effect of the multi-pass printing of "making the ejection characteristics of individual nozzles less noticeable on a printed image" is lost. This also gives rise to a possibility that the print head longevity may be shortened to a level similar to the life of a nozzle with a large ejection frequency. Thus, it is preferred to use a mask, such as described earlier, that makes inconspicuous image impairments caused by differences in print permitted ratio between forward scans and backward scans and which keeps the print permitted ratio differences small. That is, for providing benefits of multi-pass printing or head longevity described above, the mask pattern of FIG. 7 with small difference in print permitted ratios between forward scans and backward scans has more effective than the mask pattern of FIG. 6 with large difference in print permitted ratios between forward scan and backward scan.
In the following, a mask pattern in which a print permitted ratio of at least one printing scan of plural scans is different from that of other scans, as described above, is referred to as a stepping mask. That is, the stepping mask is a mask wherein print permitted ratios of each printing scans are not equal. On the other hand, a conventional commonly used mask that sets print permitted ratios of different printing scans equal is referred to as a flat mask.
In an ink jet printing apparatus that ejects ink from the print head to print an image, ink droplets ejected from the nozzles are not always stable as they leave the nozzles. When ink is ejected as a droplet from a nozzle opening, a main droplet of a relatively large volume, which is ejected first, is often followed by a smaller, slower sub droplet. Since the print head performs ejection as it moves relative to the print medium, the sub droplets which are slower than the main droplets land on the print medium at positions deviated from the main droplets in the direction of movement of the main scan, forming small dots—satellites.
FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing a positional relation on a print medium between a main dot formed of a main droplet and a satellite formed of a sub droplet. The diagram shows that the satellite position with respect to the main dot position during the backward scan is reverse to that of the forward scan. That is, when a bidirectional multi-pass printing is executed, dots printed by the forward scan and dots printed by the backward scan mix together in the same image area (e.g., in the same pixel, on the same pixel line or in the same M×N pixel area).
Such a satellite, if it occurs, will get printed at the same position as the main dot or, if it is small enough compared with the main dot, will not pose any problem to the image quality. However, in the case of print heads that eject high-resolution, small droplets of ink, such as those developed in recent years, main dots themselves are small in diameter, making the presence of satellites not negligible. When two kinds of ink are overlapped to produce a secondary color, in particular, the problem becomes worse.
FIGS. 9A and 9B show how cyan and magenta dots are overlapped to produce a blue color. FIG. 9A shows a printing state wherein two blue dots are formed in a 2×2 pixel area by moving a carriage in a forward direction of arrow. FIG. 9B shows a printing state wherein two blue dots are formed in a 2×2 pixel area by moving the carriage in a backward direction of arrow. Here, it is assumed that two print heads of cyan and magenta have the same satellite generation conditions. By the side of the blue dots (second color main dots) formed of main droplets, satellites (second color satellites) are shown to be formed by two overlapping color dots. These second color satellites formed of two overlapping color dots are more conspicuous than first color satellites and therefore more likely to affect the image quality. Additionally, in each pixel in FIGS. 9A and 9B, the second color satellites placed in one side of the main dots, so the satellites are distributed unevenly. Unevenly distributed, conspicuous satellites inevitably make the printed image look more granular and lose uniformity, degrading the image quality.
A technique to overcome the uneven distribution is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-38671. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-38671 discloses a construction in which satellites of two types of the inks (cyan and magenta) in the same pixel are printed at symmetric positions with respect to main dots.
However, concrete configuration of preferred mask pattern capable of being used for odd-numbered-pass bidirectional printing is not mentioned in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-38671. In this way, regarding the conventional mask pattern for odd-numbered-pass printing, positions of satellites of a plurality of dots printed at the same position are not to be considered.
FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing an example case in which a same stepping mask is used for both cyan and magenta. Considering an image area, 30% printing is performed in a first scan for both cyan and magenta ink. In a second scan whose direction is opposite that of the first scan, 40% printing is executed. In a third printing scan whose direction is the same as that of the first scan, 30% printing is performed. Since the same mask pattern is used for cyan and magenta, cyan dot and magenta dot landing a same pixel are printed by scans in a same direction. In this case, as a blue image is constructed such as showed in FIG. 9A or FIG. 9B, the satellites are distributed unevenly causing an image degradation.
In this way, in the conventional technologies, an odd-numbered-pass bidirectional printing fails to distribute satellite landing positions uniformly. As a result, with the odd-numbered-pass bidirectional printing, it was impossible to solve the problem of image impairments caused by biased position of satellites. Additionally, it was also impossible to solve both the problem of image impairments caused by a difference in print permitted ratio between forward scans and backward scans and the problem of image impairments caused by a biased position of satellites.

Ink jet printing apparatus and ink jet printing method


A beverage dispenser provides numerous inventive features in its refrigeration system, diluent delivery system, concentrate delivery system, mixing and dispensing system, and control system. The refrigeration system employs a plate heat exchanger to provide on demand refrigeration of an intermittent water flow. The diluent delivery system includes a flowmeter/solenoid/check-valve assembly. The concentrate delivery system employs a positive displacement pump. The mixing and dispensing system includes a mixing nozzle that has a locking feature such that an elevated blocking surface directly faces the inlet of pressurized diluent to create turbulence. The control system receives package-specific information from a scanner and diluent flow rate information from the flowmeter, and then determines the pump speed in order to set a desired mix ratio.

Liquid dispensers are widely used in various industries. Chemical solutions including fertilizers, pesticides, and detergents and so on are often mixed from various concentrates and solvents before dispensed for use or storage. Similar dispensers also find applications in the medical field. In the food and beverage industry, liquid dispensers are widely used in all kinds of venues such as quick service restaurants.
The liquid dispensers used in food and beverage industry reconstitute juice syrup concentrates with a potable diluent, e.g., potable water, and then dispense the reconstituted juice into a container at the point of consumption. This kind of dispensers are sometimes called "postmix" dispensers as they produce a final product in contrast to a "premix" beverage that is prepackaged with the final constituents (flavor, gas, etc.) and ready for consumption. For safety and taste reasons, a postmix beverage dispenser often requires refrigeration in the dispenser of various components that eventually go into the postmix product.
Existing liquid dispensing apparatuses used in the food and beverage industry have become more and more complex in an effort to meet increasingly specific demands from customers. As a result, these dispensing apparatuses have become bulkier and more difficult to service. With the rapid growth in quick service restaurants and the counter space being at a premium, however, there is a strong need for machines of a smaller footprint while easier to service. A smaller machine that is easy to diagnose any operational problems and easy to change parts will further fuel the growth of the industry.


A multi-range, synchronous shifting, hydromechanical transmission according to the present invention is suitable for application in an automotive drivetrain including a high speed engine. The transmission receives split power inputs from the engine; one input being geared down to a suitable lower speed for driving a continuously variable hydrostatic transmission unit, while the other input drives a counter shaft from which mechanical outputs are take at different speed ratios. A planetary gear set, driven by the hydrostatic transmission unit output, is shiftable to provide either a narrow continuously variable speed hydrostatic output, range suitable for transmission operation in low output ranges or a wide continuously variable speed hydrostatic output range suitable for transmission operation in high output ranges. A gear system includes a plurality of gears selectively conditioned by plural clutches and brakes to combine the hydrostatic outputs from the planetary gear set and the mechanical outputs from the counter shaft, such as to produce vehicle propulsion transmission outputs in any one of four continuously variable speed forward ranges and one continuously variable speed reverse range.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-range, synchronously shiftable, regenerative, continuously variable hydromechanical transmission. More particularly, the invention relates to a multi-range, synchronously shiftable, regenerative, continuously variable hydromechanical transmission suitable for application to high speed engines.
2. Description of the Related Art
Over the years, many vehicle drivetrains have been designed to utilize hydraulic transmission for multiplying engine torque to accelerate a vehicle from rest to a desired maximum speed. However, such design efforts have typically resulted in hydraulic transmissions that, although having acceptable torque capacity, are undesirably large and heavy. Moreover, such transmissions have exhibited less than optimum efficiency, resulting in loss of fuel economy and/or transmission performance.
As an alternative to the purely hydraulic transmissions, hydromechanical transmissions have been utilized in drivetrains for large off-road construction and military vehicles. Such transmissions are typically of a split power input type. In the split power input type transmission, a hydrostatic power unit (HSU) and a mechanical power unit are driven in parallel by a vehicle engine. The HSU converts its split portion of input power from the engine into hydrostatic output power that can be infinitely varied in speed and torque over a particular hydrostatic stroke range. This hydrostatic output power is then combined with the split portion of engine power in the mechanical power unit to produce hydromechanical output power in multiple transmission ranges. The speed and torque in each of the transmission ranges, which are initially set by gear ratios of the mechanical power unit, can be infinitely varied by varying the stroke of the HSU.
A properly designed hydromechanical transmission can advantageously provide synchronous range shifting that affords smooth and uninterrupted power flow from engine to driving wheels, as the vehicle is accelerated from rest to maximum speed. An additional benefit is that the engine may be operated at or near its peak efficiency output speed, regardless of transmission output speed.
However, there are several limitations in utilizing the HSU for vehicle transmissions. One limitation is the input speed capacity of the HSU with respect to its output torque potential. Speed capacity (RPM) is limited by high centrifugal loading on certain internal components of the HSU and the ability to supply replenishment hydraulic fluid to replace losses due to leakage. This limitation is of less concern for relatively low speed engine applications, such as diesel engines. Diesel engines generally have the maximum engine speed of less than 2600 rpm. Thus, the HSU can be directly driven by a diesel engine. On the other hand, maximum speeds of gasoline engines can, for example, reach 6000 rpm. Therefore, when the HSU is coupled with such a high speed engine, the input speed of the HSU must be reduced, i.e., geared down, to a speed that is safely acceptable for the HSU.
However, gearing down the input speed of the HSU has undesirable effect of reducing the output speed of the HSU and thus the overall ratio range of the transmission itself. That is, if the input speed of the HSU is reduced to 50% of the engine speed, then the maximum output speed of the HSU is also reduced to 50% at 1:1 input-output speed ratio. Moreover, because torque is inversely proportional to speed, a HSU with a larger capacity is necessary to accommodate the same engine power.
While high output torque is required to start a vehicle in motion from rest, fortunately, torque requirements decrease as vehicle speed increases. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a high speed driven hydromechanical transmission that takes advantage of both the higher starting torque capacity of a geared-down HSU and the increased output speed of a geared-up HSU.

Multi-range, hydromechanical transmission for application in high performance automotive drivetrains


The present invention provides method and apparatus for adapting a relatively high data rate second order serdes receiver to receive relatively low data rate serial data, the receiver having jog realignment by and having means for receiving the serial data as a plurality of repeated bits at the high data rate; framing the data as frames of repeated bits of the same value; examining the bits of the frame for the presence of bits which are not of the same value; upon detecting such a presence that is indicative of a framing error jogging the serdes receiver for frame realignment; and supplying to an output of the serdes receiver one of the bits of said same value from each frame at the low data rate.

The present invention relates to clock recovery during data transfer in electrical systems. Transmitted data is usually synchronised to a clock signal at a transmitter to ensure correct timing of the transmitted data and compliance with specification in terms of jitter, etc. In systems where the clock signal is transmitted alongside the data, extraction of the data is the straightforward task of examining the data signal in synchronism with the clock. In systems where the clock is not so transmitted a replica clock may be recovered from the data itself and used likewise. For example 1000BASE-X and 10GBASE-KR Ethernet are single wire pair systems in which there is no clock transmission. In many situations (typically involving high speed, long distance or significant noise) clock recovery itself is a highly non trivial task.
It is neither always nor necessarily the case but single wire pair data transmission between or within equipment is often performed by a device which receives data to be transmitted in parallel from a source, renders it into serial form and transmits it, typically at higher speed, over the single wire pair to a second receiver device which includes a clock and data recovery circuit (CDR) to recover a clock signal so that the now serial data may be extracted an expanded back out to parallel form for use at the receiver location. Typically, both devices are similar so that transmission may occur in either direction. Such devices are often referred to as SerDes devices and a typical arrangement is depicted in FIG. 1, wherein it will be noted that the receiving serdes device is shown to include CDR circuitry.
The purpose of the clock recovery circuitry may be seen as identifying two neighbouring transitions (for example by oversampling the incoming data stream and looking for two adjacent non-matching oversampled values) and placing a data sampling point mid way between them to capture a data value. This is depicted in FIG. 2.
Of course not every adjacent data pair will be subject to transition and so the clock recovery circuitry may be free running to place sample points at equivalent positions until a next transition occurs. This makes CDR vulnerable to any jitter that was present in the original clock to which the data was synchronised. Clearly if that jitter resulted in transitions that were too close (or far apart), then the sample points are likely to be consistently too early (or late).
If jitter is too great, CDR can break down completely and steps must be taken to ensure this cannot happen. To this end, for example, most transmission specifications set an upper limit on jitter with which a receiver is expected to cope.
As SerDes speeds have increased, more and more complex clock recovery circuits have become available which incorporate corrections for various anticipated errors and difficulties. Examples are discussed in United Kingdom Patent Specification GB2,473,748B and numerous others. Usually CDR is either first order, in which a next sample point is determined from current measurements, or second order in which previous corrections are taken into account: GB2,473,748B is exemplary of both.
As mentioned above, the SERDES devices which communicate between or within equipment are usually similar in nature in that they perform to similar standards and protocols. However, this may not be the case where legacy equipment is involved. New equipment may be required to perform data transfer not only with similar new equipment but also with equipment which operates according to an earlier standard. In the field of data transfer, earlier often means slower. For example, it may be desired to interface equipment designed for 10GBASE Ethernet (10 GHz clock) with equipment designed for 1000BASE Ethernet (1 GHz clock). Fortunately, this should be achievable since the specification of 10GBASE Ethernet requires that transfer speed extend down to 1 GHz. However, if it were desired to connect the same equipment to legacy equipment conforming to 100BASE-FX (100 MHz clock), the situation would be different since 100 MHz is outside the range provided for in 10GBASE. Of course, the equipments may be physically connected together without electrical incompatibility but that does not means that data transfer is possible, the basic problem is that in the upstream direction (100BASE-FX to 10GBASE) the CDR circuitry in the SerDes device is unable to reliably recover a clock from data at the slower data rate.
In the downstream direction, data transfer would be possible if each bit to be transferred from the 10G Serdes were simply repeated 10 times at the lowest permitted clock speed, thereby making the data appear to be clocked at 100 MHz. Since these bits would be synchronised to an internal clock of the Serdes which satisfies the jitter requirements of 10GBASE internet, they should be more than accurate enough for the 100BASE Serdes and downstream data transfer should work. The only overhead would be the repeat function, which likely could be accommodated in software configuring the SERDES.
In the upstream direction, unfortunately, the same approach cannot be used straightforwardly. Although at the upstream serdes the data could be regarded as arriving with each bit repeated 10 times and thus the problem potentially solved simply by discarding 9 bits out of each 10, it is in fact unlikely that the data could be recovered at all. If the slower clock were subject to 10% jitter, that is a whole bit time at the 1G clock speed and clearly the upstream SERDES CDR circuit could not function at all with such ambiguity as the transition boundaries are entirely overlapping. A prudent designer would expect to allow for 20% deterioration from an ideal channel due to noise, jitter and inter symbol interference, so the scale of this problem may thus be appreciated.
Clearly a hardware solution at the downstream end is required to adapt the legacy equipment such as a data resynchroniser to a tightly specified clock or in the extreme a 1000BASE serdes itself Unfortunately such difficulty and cost may negate the reasons for retaining the legacy equipment in the first place. According the present invention has been made in the course of realising a different approach of using resources within a typical 10G serdes.
According to the present invention there is provided apparatus and method as set forth in the claims.

Data transfer clock recovery for legacy systems