The present invention provides a method for identifying, isolating, mapping, amplifying and sequencing DNA fragments using sets of indexing linkers. Panels of indexing linkers and kits are also provided.

The analysis of large nucleic acid molecules, whether entire genomes or single restriction fragments, usually involves characterization by size, location relative to other fragments of nucleic acid, identification of restriction endonuclease cleavage sites, and nucleotide sequence. These analyses typically require a recursive process of division or cleavage into smaller fragments, separation of these into smaller subsets or individual pieces, and finally the identification of the fragment of interest, typically by hybridization with a specific nucleic acid probe or by direct determination of the nucleotide sequence of the fragment. In practice, the analysis frequently begins with the preparation of a library of cloned nucleic acid fragments constituting an entire genome, or a particular subset of fragments, selected by some convenient criteria.
This identification process is time consuming and expensive because the available means of characterization and selection of nucleic acid fragments are too general (for example by restriction fragment length or by the presence of poly-A in mRNA) or too specific (for example the detection of unique sequences and sequences poorly represented in cloned libraries), or may require prior knowledge of some of the nucleic acid sequence (for example flanking sequences must be known in order to specify the nucleic acid primers needed for amplification of the intervening "target" sequence by the Polymerase Chain Reaction).
It would be useful to have some additional means of characterizing or "indexing" nucleic acid fragments which would permit manipulation and identification to be carried out more efficiently and at lower cost. Such a development would make a significant contribution to a wide variety of molecular biology projects, including such major tasks as the sequencing of the human genome.
Three important techniques have been developed for nucleic acid manipulation and analysis.
The first of these is molecular cloning. (See for example ser. no. Cohen et al. (1973) Proc. Nat'l. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 70:3240-3244, "Construction of Biologically Functional Bacterial Plasmids in vitro"). In its simplest form, this involves first cutting or breaking the target nucleic acid, i.e. DNA, into smaller fragments (typically by restriction endonuclease digestion) and inserting the fragments into a biological vector. The assortment of DNA fragments is then maintained and amplified by the replication of the vector DNA in vivo. Separation of the copies of cloned DNA in this "library" is accomplished by dilution and subsequent growth of bacterial colonies or phage plaques from single organisms bearing copies of only one of the original DNA fragments. Identification of the clones of interest is done by hybridization of a specific labelled probe with the DNA released from each colony or plaque.
More recently, a second technique was developed called the Polymerase Chain Reaction or PCR. (See for example Canadian Patent No. 1,237,685 of K. B. Mullis for "Process for Amplifying Nucleic Acid Sequences") . This technique can be used to isolate and amplify sequences of interest. The technique allows the definition of any "target" portion of a nucleic acid sequence by the sequences which lie adjacent to it. Consequently, hybridization of nucleic acid primers at these adjacent sites permits the replication of only the intervening target sequence and the adjacent primer sites. The selective amplification by repeated replication in this way results directly in the separation of the desired fragment (or subset of sequences) by effective dilution of all other unwanted sequences by replicated copies of the target sequence. Identification is then carried out by hybridization against a known probe, or more frequently, by simple size analysis by agarose or polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis to confirm that the desired target sequence has been amplified.
A third major technique used for comparative genomic analysis is called Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism, or RFLP, analysis. See for example: D. N. Cooper and J. Schmidtke (1984) Human Genetics 66:1-16, "DNA Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphisms and Heterozygosity in the Human Genome". Insertions, deletions, and some types of single base substitutions can be detected and their inheritance (and the inheritance of other mutations known to be closely linked) determined. Specific individuals can be uniquely identified from a modification of this technique known popularly as "DNA Fingerprinting". See for example: A. J. Jeffries et al. (1985) Nature 314:67-73, "Hypervariable `Minisatellite` Regions in Human DNA". This third technique also begins with restriction endonuclease cleavage of genomic, cloned or PCR-amplified DNA, into fragments. The resulting fragments are separated according to size by gel electrophoresis, and certain target fragments or groups of fragments are identified by hybridization with a specific probe. In this case, the sizes of fragments identified by hybridization with the probe provide a measure of whether the target sequence complementary to the probe is part of an identical or analogous fragment from other individuals.
While each of these three techniques, and the many specific variations which have evolved from them, are extremely valuable in investigating various aspects of structure and organization of particular genes, they each suffer from disadvantages.
Molecular cloning of a mixture of all the fragments from a restriction endonuclease digest of genomic DNA may provide a library, which on statistical grounds, should contain representatives of all fragments. In fact there may be a selective bias against some sequences due to the spacing of the restriction sites, or the propensity of some sequences to mutate, rearrange or fail to replicate in vivo. See for example: U. Gubler and B. J. Hoffman (1983) Gene 25:263-269, "A Simple and Very Efficient Method for Generating cDNA Libraries", and T. Maniatis et al (1978) Cell 15:687-701, "The Isolation of Structural Genes from Libraries of Eukaryotic DNA", and K. Kaiser and N. Murray (1985) DNA Cloning, Vol. 1: A Practical Approach, "The Use of Phage Lambda Replacement Vectors in the Construction of Representative Genomic DNA Libraries". As a consequence, any sequence which is present in the library at low frequency may be very difficult to detect, requiring screening of large numbers of colonies or plaques. Another disadvantage is that subsequent manipulation to ensure the purity and identity of clones or to isolate smaller fragments of the target clone also contributes to significant delay and expense. That is, it is necessary either to undertake the expense of screening large numbers of clones to detect a low probability event directly, or to undertake the extra procedures of attempting to enrich the population of clones screened for the target of interest.
The major disadvantage of the PCR technique is the requirement for prior knowledge of the nucleic acid sequences flanking the region of interest which permits specification of the primers required to amplify that intervening sequence. Where applicable, this technique offers extremely high precision at relatively low cost, but is limited to targets which have already been the subject of investigation at least to the extent of obtaining the necessary flanking sequence information. A second disadvantage is that for non-repetitive analyses of large numbers of different targets, the cost of two unique primers required per target may become prohibitive. This technique is currently limited to a maximum distance between primer sites of only a few kilobases of DNA. This appears to be a minor limitation, but reduces the possibilities for investigation of larger structural and functional units in a genome.
In contrast to the PCR technique, RFLP analysis does permit comparisons to be made among fragments of unknown sequences. However it is limited to detections of certain types of mutations or variations, namely to significant insertions and deletions large enough to change the sizes of fragments, or to insertions, deletions or base changes within restriction endonuclease recognition sequences which prevent cleavage between two fragments or which generate new recognition sequences. In the absence of such polymorphic or polyallelic genetic markers closely linked to the loci of interest for genetic diagnosis, RFLP analysis is unable to provide the desired inferences about the inheritance or identity of these loci; see: D. N. Cooper and J. Schmidtke supra!. The search for suitable probes and the characterization of such variant sites is thus a relatively inefficient trial and error process.
Each of these three important techniques for nucleic acid analysis has been outstandingly successful in those areas for which it is applicable. Each in turn has limitations based upon the limited information available about the fragments or groups of fragments, or conversely, based upon the limited ability to reduce the complexity of a mixture (i.e. to select and isolate a suitable subset) to permit sore detailed investigation. It would be a powerful extension of all of these techniques to provide a method for subsetting complex mixtures of nucleic acids in a consistent and efficient manner, to provide a level of information intermediate between the relatively crude measure of sizes of restriction fragments, and the precision of partial or complete sequence determination. Three aspects of recombinant DNA technology are important in achieving such a method.
First, certain types of restriction endonucleases cleave DNA to reveal cohesive ends which may be non-identical and unrelated to the recognition sequence of the enzyme used. One group is called Type IIS or "shift" restriction endonucleases. See for example: W. Szybalski (1985) Gene 40:169-173, "Universal Restriction Endonucleases; Designing Novel Cleavage Specificities by Combining Adapter Oligodeoxyribonucleotide and Enzyme Moieties"; Kessler et al (1985) Gene 33:1-102, "Recognition Sequences of Restriction Endonucleases and Methylases--A Review". These Type IIS endonucleases cut DNA at sites removed by one or more bases from the recognition sequence (which is usually non-palindromic). A second group of restriction endonucleases have interrupted palindromic recognition sequences and they cut irrespective of the nature of the intervening sequences, provided that the intervening sequence is of the appropriate length.
The cohesive ends of the resulting DNA fragments may contain all possible permutations and combinations of nucleotides. For example the restriction endonuclease FokI (see Kessler et al supra!) generates 4 base, 5'- cohesive ends, by cutting one strand 9 nucleotides 3'- to the recognition sequence GGATG and correspondingly on the opposite strand 13 nucleotides 5'- to the complementary CATCC sequence: ##STR1## If a large genome was cut with this enzyme, then all 4' or 256 possible tetranucleotide ends should be represented in the resulting mixture of DNA fragments.
A universal restriction endonuclease is described in published European patent application No. 234,781 (Szybalski). The universal endonuclease utilizes a tailored oligodeoxynucleotide adaptor in conjunction with a Class IIS endonuclease. The adaptor consists of a single stranded region complementary to a single stranded region of target DNA at the desired cleavage sites. Adjacent to the single stranded region of the adaptor is a hairpin region containing the recognition sequence of the endonuclease. The adaptor is constructed so that the endonuclease will bind to a recognition sequence in the double stranded portion and will cleave the single stranded target region at the desired site, once the adaptor has been hybridized to the complementary region of the target DNA. The described adaptor is intended to be bound to target DNA only by means of base pairing. Consequently, the single stranded region of the adaptor, complementary to the target DNA, must be of sufficient length to anchor the adaptor throughout the cleavage process. The adaptor disclosed has a recognition sequence for FokI and a single stranded region of 14 nucleotides in which cleavage will occur. This teaching provides highly specific cleavage of single stranded DNA at any desired sequence.
Brenner, S. and Livak, K. J. (1989) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sciences USA 86:8902-8906 provide a method for characterizing DNA fragments by both size and terminal sequence. In their method, fragments are produced as a result of cleavage by a Type IIS endonuclease. In the case of the endonuclease FokI, 4 base, 5' single stranded overhangs having non-identical sequences were generated. DNA polymerase was used to attach fluorescent labelled nucleotides complementary to the bases in the 5' cohesive ends. Cleavage using a different endonuclease was carried out resulting in the presence of some fragments having fluorescent labelled ends. Analysis of the fluorescently labelled DNA by gel electrophoresis in an automated DNA sequencing apparatus provided the sequence of the fragment cohesive ends produced by the Type IIS endonuclease cleavage and the length of the fragments.
The second aspect is similar to a prior invention: DNA adaptors. See for example: R. J. Wu et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,321,365, "Oligonucleotides useful as Adaptors in DNA Cloning, Adapted Molecules, and Methods of Preparing Adaptors and Adapted Molecules". Adaptors are short double stranded DNA molecules with either one or both ends having protruding single stranded regions which are recognition sites of restriction endonucleases. They can be covalently attached to other DNA fragments bearing the complementary base pairs for the same restriction endonuclease recognition sequence (e.g. fragments generated as a result of cleavage of a larger fragment with the same endonuclease) using a polynucleotide ligase. This provides a tool for molecular cloning as the same adaptor molecule may be used to introduce any double stranded DNA into cloning vehicles at specific sites.
Finally, the third aspect is the ability to synthesize chemically any desired nucleic acid sequence by the phosphotriester method (see S. A. Narang et al. (1979) Methods Enzymol 68:90-98 "Improved Phosphotriester Method for Synthesis of Gene Fragments) or the phosphoramidite method" (for example see: M. D. Matteucci and M. H. Carruthers (1981) J. Amer. Chem. Soc. 103:3186-3191 Synthesis of Deoxyoligonucleotides on a Polymer support) offers the practical means to design and prepare oligonucleotide primers, probes, adaptors and linkers at will to suit any desired application.


A cigarette pack is described which is made from a thermoplastic film. In addition, an opening device for opening cigarette film packs made from thermoplastics and a process for the production of an opening device are described.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a soft pack for cigarettes. The invention also relates to an opening device for opening the soft pack for cigarettes, and a method of making the opening device.
2. Description of Related Art
It is known to supply cigarettes in packs which comprise a plurality of wrappers of different materials. Typically, cigarette wrappers are made of a paper/aluminum composite, a paper tape or board, and a film as the outer wrapper. This pack simultaneously fulfills a number of functions required specifically for cigarette packs. These include, inter alia, good water vapor and gas barrier properties which are intended to protect the cigarettes against drying-out and loss of flavor. Also, good handling of the pack is ensured by a special tear-open device.
However, these conventional packs require multistage automatic systems which wrap the cigarettes in the individual layers. This usually involves considerable work and expense, the reduction of which is a constant need. With the advancing development of recyclable packaging systems, there is a growing demand for single-material packs whose recycling is, in principle, simpler. In this respect, the known cigarette packs are greatly in need of improvement.


A vehicle transmission shifter mechanism having a shift lever frame including a roller detent, a shift lever shiftable to a plurality of different shift positions and a feel positioner for providing a feel to a vehicle operator for establishing each of the shift positions is provided with an improvement, the improvement being a leaf spring configured in a U-shaped arrangement at one end to quick connect into a pair of spaced apertures in a plate on the shift lever, and configured at the other end with opposing fingers to snappingly quick connect to a roller for rollingly engaging the roller detent. The roller is biased against the roller detent which generates reactive forces on the one end of the leaf spring causing the one end to be securely retained in the spaced apertures in the plate and causing the roller to be securely retained in the opposing fingers on the other end.

The present invention relates to vehicle transmission shift mechanisms, and in particular to an improved shift lever positioner providing assembly advantages.
Vehicle transmission shifter mechanisms commonly have a feel positioner that gives the vehicle operator an improved "feel" for each gear shift position. The feel positioner allows the feel to be customized for given vehicle models. For example, the feel can be made rough and somewhat stiff for a high performance vehicle model, or it can be made smoother and more luxurious for a more expensive model, even though a similar transmission and/or power train is used. However, this customization has lead to a proliferation of parts, with non-standardized parts being developed for particular vehicle model and power train combinations. Further, subassembly of the feel positioner to the shifter mechanism commonly involves subassembling the multiple non-standardized parts by secondary mechanical fastening methods such as riveting, staking, welding and the like, thus further increasing assembly time, in-process inventories and manufacturing costs. These increased costs are undesirable, particularly in view of the competitive vehicle manufacturing environment now being experienced.
Thus, an improved device solving the aforementioned problems is desired.

Vehicle shifter with roller and detent type shift lever positioner

Grand Haven Stamped Products, Div. of JSJ Corporation


An entire area of an FPD on which an alignment marker provided in a screen is projected is set in advance as a fixed overlapping area (Ctop to Cbottom) according to the long length imaging area and/or the X-ray source position. When determining a plurality of field-of-view area areas for dividing an imaging area for long length imaging into a plurality of areas and taking images, the field-of-view areas (FOVNT to FOVNB) and the FPD positions PN corresponding to the respective field-of-view areas are determined so that adjacent field-of-view areas overlap each other at the set fixed overlapping area. The X-ray source height, the X-ray irradiation direction, the collimator aperture angle and the FPD position are controlled so as to apply an X-ray only to each of the determined field-of-view areas.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an X-ray radiographic apparatus and method, and specifically relates to a technique for obtaining one long length of X-ray image by taking plural X-ray images and connecting these X-ray images.
2. Description of the Related Art
In plain X-ray radiography, a long length of image is sometime taken for a region with a long length, such as the entire backbone or the entire legs.
Conventional computed radiography (CR) is X-ray radiography using a storage phosphor sheet (imaging plate: IP) instead of an X-ray film. In the CR, when taking a long length of image, images are taken with IPs overlapped each other, and a long length of image is obtained by combining images read from the respective IPs (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-232976). Also, in this case, more accurate alignment can be performed by providing markers made of, e.g., lead, in the region where the IPs overlap each other.
Meanwhile, in recent years, for plain X-ray radiography, DR (digital radiography) has been proposed as an improvement from the aforementioned CR method. In the DR, an X-ray is converted into electrical signals and read as they are by means of an X-ray flat panel detector (FPD) with a large area, and long-length imaging using this FPD has also been performed.
Examples of long length imaging methods mainly include: an X-ray tube turning method in which plural images are taken while an X-ray tube is turning (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-358254); and an X-ray tube parallel movement method in which plural images are taken while an X-ray tube being moved in parallel to itself (Japanese National Publication of International Patent Application No. 2006-500126).


A method of providing content from an internet server to an internet user based on the user's internet navigation history. The method begins with the step of installing a profile decoder, including a profile library, on the server. The profile decoder maps server content to content categories contained in the profile library. The server then receives a communication from a user then in internet communication with the server, at least a portion of that communication including an encrypted summary of user navigation history. The server then processes the user communication in the profile decoder to identify user content preferences by matching user content preferences with available server content, employing the profile server. Finally, the server provides content to the user based on the user's identified preferences.

The present invention relates generally to the field of market research, and in particular, it relates to the use of user behavior to define content offered to that user.
The technique of gathering information about consumer behavior on the internet was set out in commonly-owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/226,066, entitled "Method and Device for Publishing Cross-Network User Behavioral Data" filed on 14 Sep. 2005. (the "'066" application), published as U.S. Patent Publication No. 2006-0136528 A1 on Jun. 22, 2006, issued Apr. 6, 2010 as U.S. Pat. No. 7,693,863. That application is incorporated by reference herein for all purposes.
The technique of the '066 Application teaches how information about user behavior on the internet can be gathered. In sum, that application teaches that a behavior module can reside on a user computer, which module can observe and record user behavior in terms of keystrokes, mouse clicks and so on. Also, the behavior module can also observe information about websites visited by the user. In conjunction with software incorporated into the behavior module, data about the web site or web page can be analyzed and the site categorized into one of a set of categories defined by the behavior module. Information identifying the category, as well as information about the user's navigation behavior, such as the when the site was visited, how much time was spent there, and what the user did, can also be gathered by the behavior module. Finally, the behavior module can summarize the information and compact it into a form suitable for transmission, such the form generally known as a "cookie."
What is not taught by the '066 application, and not seen in the art, is an understanding of how to employ such information to provide content to a user based on what that user wants to see. It remains to the present invention to provide such functionality to the art.

Method for providing content to an internet user based on the user's demonstrated content preferences


A processor which is provided with an execution portion having an n-stage pipeline for performing an operation on input data and for outputting the result of the operation and a result flag representing the state of the result of the operation, an internal-state register for storing the result flag as data indicating the internal state of the processor, an instruction-fetch-address generating portion for determining from the data indicating the internal state of the processor or from the result flag whether or not a branch condition of a conditional branch instruction is satisfied and for generating an instruction fetch address, and a result flag generating portion for receiving the input data and for outputting a pre-read result flag determined prior to the completion of the operation effected in the execution portion and a pre-read result-flag determination signal indicating that the pre-read result flag is determined to the instruction-fetch-address generating portion. In the processor, the instruction-fetch-address generating portion determines whether or not the branch condition of the conditional branch instruction is satisfied by using the pre-read result flag of which the determination is indicated by the pre-read result-flag determination signal and generates an instruction fetch address.

1. Field of The Invention
This invention generally relates to a processor and more particularly to a processor suitable for executing a conditional branch instruction at a high speed.
2. Description of The Related Art
Referring first to FIG. 3, there is illustrated the construction of a prior part processor. Reference numeral 1 designates an execution portion which has three pipeline stages for performing a processing on input data and outputs a result of the processing and a result flag representing the state of the result of the processing when receiving three clock pulses after the input data is inputted thereto. The result flag includes information representing information on "an EQUAL ZERO flag", "a PLUS flag" and "a MINUS flag" which will be described later. For simplicity of description, the number of the execution portion is assumed to be 1. Incidentally, the number of pipeline stages is also assumed for simplicity of description to be 3 but may be other than 3. Further, reference numeral 2 denotes an internal-state register for storing a code (hereunder referred to as an internal-state code) representing the internal state of the processor by using the result flag outputted from the execution portion
1. Reference numeral 3 designates an instruction-fetch-address generating portion for generating an instruction fetch address, which is comprised of a next address generating portion 4, a target-instruction-address generating portion 5, a selector 6 and a control portion 7 for controlling the selector 6. Usually, an instruction fetch address selected by the selector 6 is incremented by the next address generating portion 4. Then, the incremented address is outputted as the next address. When a branch instruction is executed, a target instruction address is generated by the target-instruction-address generating portion 5. Further, the generated target instruction address is outputted as an instruction fetch address. When a conditional branch instruction is executed, the control portion 7 determines from the internal-state code stored in the register 2 or from the result flag whether or not a corresponding branch is taken (namely, a corresponding branch condition is satisfied). If taken, the control portion 7 controls and causes the selector 6 to output a target instruction address.
Hereinafter, an operation (especially, the execution of a conditional branch instruction) of the prior art processor will be described by referring to the accompanying drawing. When a conditional branch instruction is used in a program, it is usual to employ a method by which an operation instruction is first executed and the internal-state code held in the register 2 is then changed according to the result of the execution of the operation instruction and subsequently it is determined from the internal-state code stored in the register 2 whether or not the branch is taken (namely, the branch condition of the conditional branch instruction is met). For example, an operation of the processor will be described hereinbelow when the following assembler instructions of an assembler program are executed:
______________________________________ . . . FMUL fr00, fr01, fr02 BRcc PLUS, lavel0 . . . ______________________________________
Namely, when the floating-point multiplication instruction FMUL is executed, the multiplication of data stored at the addresses fr01 and fr02 is first performed and then the result of the multiplication is stored in a location corresponding to the address fr00. Subsequently, the conditional branch instruction BRcc is executed. At that time, it is determined from the inter-state data changed according to the result stored at the address fr00 whether or not the branch is taken. In this case, if the PLUS flag is on, it is determined that the branch is taken (namely, the branch condition is satisfied). Thus, the program branches to the address lavel0.
Referring next to FIG. 4, there is illustrated the timing of operations of the prior art processor of FIG. 3 when this program is executed. The result of the operation (namely, the multiplication) effected by executing the FMUL instruction, as well as the result flag, is outputted when receiving three clock pulses after an input of data. Further, the BRcc instruction cannot be executed until the result is outputted. Namely, a wait cycle equivalent to two clock cycles is inserted between the input of the data and the execution of the BRcc instruction. Therefore, in case where a conditional branch instruction is executed in accordance with the internal-state code changed by performing an operation, the prior art processor as above constructed can determine a result flag only when the result of the operation is outputted. Consequently, the prior art processor cannot execute a conditional branch instruction only after an operation is completely accomplished. This has become an obstacle to the realization of a high-speed processing. The present invention is created to eliminate the above described drawback of the prior art processor.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a processor which can execute a conditional branch instruction at a high speed.

Processor for executing a conditional branch instruction at a high speed by pre-reading a result flag

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A plug for the sealing closure of an opening in a sheet includes an integral body including a cap portion having an annular shirt portion and a cover portion connected to one end of the shirt portion. The body further includes a flange portion extending obliquely outwardly and downwardly and an annular sealing surface approximately at the same level as the connection of the cover portion to the shirt portion and below the connection of the flange portion. The plug body can be urged into the opening by an axial pressure. An outward pivoting of the flange portion upon insertion of the plug body into the opening exerts a radial expansion force and/or a pivoting force on the sealing surface so that the body's material in the area of the sealing surface is formed against the other side of the sheet.

Body components or bodies of automobiles are immersed into appropriate baths to undergo treatment or painting. Suitable holes require to be provided to allow the liquid to flow in and to flow out again. Such holes have to be closed afterwards, primarily for protection from corrosion. A large number of different closing plugs have become known to close such openings. The are commonly made of plastics and are mounted by hand by urging them into the opening. To this end, such closing plugs mostly have a flange which leans against one side of the sheet, and locking means which grip behind the other side of the sheet. Since air and/or water is to be prevented from entering the flange sealingly bears against the sheet and an additional sealing agent may be provided, e.g. a hot-melt adhesive. If a hot-melt adhesive material is used it may be contemplated to omit the snap connection and to arrange for the plug to be mounted exclusively by means of the hot-melt adhesive. Finally, plugs are also known which are completely formed from a hot-melt adhesive material. As is known, openings or holes in the area of automobile bodies have a sound transmission characteristic different from that of the material outside the holes. Another sound transmission will also result if a closing plug is employed. Moreover, there is a danger that the closing plug will vibrate, thus producing noise.

Plug for the sealing closure of an opening in a sheet of a body or the bottom of an automobile


A semiconductor device according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: a square pole-shaped channel portion made from a first semiconductor layer formed on a substrate, and surrounded with four side faces; a gate electrode formed on a first side face of the channel portion, and a second side face of the channel portion opposite to the first side face through respective gate insulating films; a source region having a conductivity type different from that of the channel portion and being formed on a third side face of the channel portion, the source region including a second semiconductor layer having a lattice constant different from that of the first semiconductor layer and being formed directly on the substrate; and a drain region having a conductivity type different from that of the channel portion and being formed on a fourth side face of the channel portion opposite to the third side face, the drain region including the second semiconductor layer being formed directly on the substrate.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device having a fin-shaped channel portion, and a method of fabricating the same.
Shrink is required for insulated gate field-effect transistors in order to prevent a chip size from increasing along with high integration of semiconductor devices.
Cut-off characteristics of a drain current becomes worse because the drain current becomes unable to be controlled any more by a gate voltage due to a short channel effect as a gate length is shortened to make a source region and a drain region close to each other.
Therefore, even when a gate is closed, a leakage current is caused to flow between the source region and the drain region because silicon is a semiconductor having a relatively high electric conductivity. That is to say, a phenomenon called punch-through occurs. A double-gate structured field effect transistor in which not only an upper surface of a channel portion, but also a lower surface thereof is held between opposite portions of a gate electrode, thereby making it possible to perfectly control a channel by a gate voltage applied to the gate electrode is effective in suppression of the punch-through.
It is difficult to form a gate electrode on a lower surface of a channel portion in accordance with a conventional method of putting materials one on top of another, thereby fabricating an insulating gate field-effect transistor. In order to solve this problem, there is known a double-gate structured field effect transistor structured such that a channel portion is stood vertically to a surface of a substrate, and both sides of a fin-shaped channel portion is held between opposite portions of a gate electrode (hereinafter referred to as "a FINFET"). The FINFET, for example, is disclosed in a non-patent literary document of 2005 Symposium on VLSI Technology Digest of Technical Papers 11A-1, pp. 194 and 195.
For fabrication of the semiconductor device disclosed in the non-patent literary document, a silicon layer is recess-etched in order to form a source region and a drain region of a FINFET, thereby leaving a part of the silicon layer, and a silicon germanium layer is epitaxially grown on the part of the silicon layer thus left. A compressive stress is generated in a channel portion by the silicon germanium layer to give the channel portion a strain, thereby increasing a mobility of carriers.
However, the semiconductor device disclosed in the non-patent literary document involves such a problem that a dispersion necessarily occurs in a thickness of the remaining silicon layer because there is no etching stopper in the phase of the recess etching.
As a result, there is encountered such a problem that a total amount of silicon germanium layer disperses in correspondence to the thickness of the remaining silicon layer, so that the magnitude of the compressive stress generated in the channel portion fluctuates, and thus the mobility of the carriers in the channel portion necessarily disperses.
Moreover, there is caused such a problem that the lower portion of the channel portion contacts no silicon germanium layer because the remaining silicon layer underlies each of the source region and the drain region, which results in that an amount of strain in the lower portion of the channel portion decreases, thereby reducing the mobility of the carriers in the lower portion of the channel portion.

Semiconductor device and method of fabricating the same


A rinse aid composition for use on plasticware is herein described which requires lower concentration of conventional hydrocarbon surfactants, exhibits adequate sheeting on the plasticware and acceptable drying time which prior rinse aids have failed to provide without special handling. The compositions described contain hydrocarbon surfactants and a polyether or polybetaine polysiloxane copolymer surfactant in combination with a fluorinated hydrocarbon surfactant. The composition may be formulated as a solid or liquid suitable for dilution to form an aqueous rinse used to contact the plasticware in a warewashing machine.

Mechanical warewashing machines have been common in the institutional and household environments for many years. Such automatic warewashing machines clean dishes using two or more cycles which can include initially a wash cycle followed by a rinse cycle. Such dishwashers can also utilize soak cycle, prewash cycle, scrape cycle, second wash cycle, a rinse cycle, a sanitizing cycle and a drying cycle, if required. Such cycles can be repeated if needed and additional cycles can be used. After passing through a wash, rinse and dry cycle, dishware, cups, glasses, etc., can exhibit spotting that arises from the uneven draining of the water from the surface of the ware after the rinse step. Spotting is aesthetically unacceptable in most consumer and institutional environments.
In order to substantially prevent the formation of spotting rinse agents have commonly been added to water to form an aqueous rinse which is sprayed on the dishware after cleaning is complete. The precise mechanism through which rinse agents work is not established. One theory holds that the surfactant in the rinse aid is absorbed on the surface at temperatures at or above its cloud point, and thereby reduces the solid-liquid interfacial energy and contact angle. This leads to the formation of a continuous sheet which drains evenly from the surface and minimizes the formation of spots. Generally, high foaming surfactants have cloud points above the temperature of the rinse water, and, according to this theory, would not promote sheet formation, thereby resulting in spots. Moreover, high foaming materials are known to interfere with the operation of the warewashing machine. Common rinse aid formulas are used in an amount of less than about 1,000 parts preferably less than 500 parts, commonly 50 to 200 parts per million of active materials in the aqueous rinse. Rinse agents available in the consumer and institutional markets comprise liquid or solid forms which are typically added to, dispersed or dissolved in water to form an aqueous rinse. Such dissolution can occur from a rinse agent installed onto the dish rack. The rinse agent can be diluted and dispensed from a dispenser mounted on or in the machine or from a separate dispenser that is mounted separately but cooperatively with the dish machine.
Commonly available commercial rinse agents typically comprise a low foaming surface active agent made from homopolymers or copolymers of an alkylene oxide such as ethylene oxide or propylene oxide or mixtures thereof. Typically, the surfactants are formed by reacting an alcohol, a glycol, a carboxylic acid, an amine or a substituted phenol with various proportions and combinations of ethylene oxide and propylene oxide to form both random and block copolymer substituents.
The commonly available rinse agents have primarily focused on reducing spotting and filming on surfaces such as glass, ceramics, china and metal. However, plastic dishware is more commonly used now, especially in the institutional market. A special problem for rinse aid surfactants used for plasticware is the attack and crazing of the ware. Block copolymer surfactants do not seem to attack plastics as strongly as fatty alcohol or alkyl phenol-based nonionic surfactants. Linear alkoxylates show they do not attack plexiglass, polystyrene, or Tupperware.RTM., common utensil plastics. Nevertheless, current surfactants have not provided the desired sheeting in an acceptable drying time following the rinse cycle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,298,289 describes the treatment and after-treatment of surfaces, especially metals, with derivatives of polyphenol compounds. These compositions are also said to be useful in treating plastic and painted surfaces to improve rinsability without water breaks. The surfactants employed are a combination of previously known anionic and nonionic surfactants.
Liquid dishwashing detergent compositions are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,452,646 containing highly ethoxylated nonionic surfactants to reduce spotting and filming on surfaces such as glass, ceramics and metal.
European Patent Publication 0,432,836 describes the use of alkyl polyglycoside surfactants in rinse aid compositions on polycarbonate.
Fluorinated surfactants are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,089,804 where a non-ethoxylated fluoroaliphatic sulfonamide alcohol is added to typical fluorinated hydrocarbon surfactants as a synergist. The compositions are described as useful in a wide variety of industries, e.g., household cosmetic and personal products. Rinse aid for dishwashing is mentioned.
Certain organosilanes have been described in rinse aid compositions where the organosilane contains either a nitrogen, phosphorous or sulfur cationic group in combination with an anion, e.g. a monofunctional organic acid. U.S. Pat. No. 4,005,024 describes such compounds in a rinse aid composition to attract specific soil particles.
Aminosilanes have been described with a low foaming ethoxylated nonionic surfactant in rinse aid compositions in automatic dishwashing machines.
None of the fluorinated surfactants or silanes described in rinse aid compositions have focused on their use in plasticware.
Surprisingly, we have found that by adding a polyether or polybetaine polysiloxane nonionic or amphoteric surfactant alone or in combination with a fluorinated hydrocarbon surfactant, especially an ethoxylated fluorinated aliphatic sulfonamide alcohol, to a conventional rinse aid composition containing hydrocarbon surfactants, the resulting rinse agent provides excellent sheeting properties on plasticware without attacking or crazing the plastic and, more importantly, providing dried, non-spotted plasticware in acceptable time following the rinse cycle.


An event invitation method according to this invention comprises the steps of acquiring position information of a customer registered in advance; judging whether or not information concerning an invitation to an event to a terminal of the customer based on at least a positional relationship between the customer and a site of the event; and sending information concerning the invitation to the event to the terminal of the customer if it is judged that the invitation to the event should be sent to the customer. With this method, for example, by sending event invitation information to customers who can reach the event site by the opening time or ending time of the event, collection of customers who attend the event and resale of canceled tickets can be performed efficiently.

According to the conventional art, usually a person who bought a ticket of an event or the like cannot have a ticket price refunded by the promoter of the event even when he cannot attend the event for a certain reason after buying the ticket. The only measures he can take in such a situation are to sell the ticket to others or consign the ticket to a discount ticket store. However, if something that will prevent him from attending the event happens immediately before the start of the event, he cannot even sell the ticket to others. On the other hand, there are events for which many customers cannot buy tickets.
There may also occur a case that a promoter of a public performance wants to sell seats that have become vacant several days before the performance. For example, even in a public performance for which tickets have been sold out, there may occur a case that seats that were secured for adjustments become available immediately before the performance. However, in this case, it is not appropriate to put an advertisement for a small number of tickets; there is no available method for selling those seats.
The above problems were mainly caused by the fact that, in the conventional art, it was impossible to issue invitations to an event such as a concert in timely fashion in accordance with situations of customers or the like. That is, a promoter did not have sufficient time, money, and human resources to enable resale of canceled tickets, and customers could not know status of available seats or the like immediately before events.


A mobile terminal according to the present disclosure includes a body having a front surface and a rear surface, a display unit disposed on the front surface, a cover formed to allow at least part thereof to cover the front or rear surface, a window portion provided on the cover to expose at least part of the display unit in a state that the cover covers the front surface, and expose at least part of the rear surface in a state that the cover covers the rear surface, and a sensor unit provided with at least one sensor disposed at an edge portion of the window portion, wherein the sensor unit senses a user motion with respect to an inner side of the window portion in a state that the cover covers the rear surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a mobile terminal and a control method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Terminals may be generally classified as mobile/portable terminals or stationary terminals according to their mobility. Mobile terminals may also be classified as handheld terminals or vehicle mounted terminals according to whether or not a user can directly carry the terminal.
Mobile terminals have become increasingly more functional. Examples of such functions include data and voice communications, capturing images and video via a camera, recording audio, playing music files via a speaker system, and displaying images and video on a display. Some mobile terminals include additional functionality which supports game playing, while other terminals are configured as multimedia players. More recently, mobile terminals have been configured to receive broadcast and multicast signals which permit viewing of content such as videos and television programs.
Efforts are ongoing to support and increase the functionality of mobile terminals. Such efforts include software and hardware improvements, as well as changes and improvements in the structural components.
Furthermore, in recent years, the development of a cover (or pouch) surrounding at least part of the mobile terminal has been actively carried out to protect the mobile terminal. Accordingly, a scheme capable of further enhancing the user convenience of the terminal using such a cover may be taken into consideration.

Mobile terminal having front cover portion, rear cover portion, and window portion and sensor provided in the front cover portion and methods of controlling the mobile terminal


A digital phase locked loop (DPLL) for providing clock synchronization in backplane bus systems has a loop filter with selectable high and low bandwidth modes. The DPLL is thus capable of respectively attenuating or tracking jitter from an input reference clock.

This invention relates to the field of digital communications, and in particular clock synchronization in systems employing a backplane bus.
In switching systems where several cards are connected to a common data bus, it is important that clock distribution and synchronization be done such that re-arrangements in the clock distribution do not affect data transport over the common data bus. Standards, such as the ECTF H.110 standard, describe the implementation of a common data bus and a clocking scheme to ensure that no data disruptions occur due to clocking re-arrangements.
The ECTF H.110 standard defines timing devices within the system as "primary master", "secondary master" or "slave". The "primary master" and "secondary master" devices are capable of synchronizing to a network reference clock and driving one of the two independent backplane bus clock/frame pulse pairs. The backplane bus clock is 8.192 MHz while the backplane bus frame pulse is 8 kHz. The "slave" devices use the main backplane bus clock and frame pulse, the "A" clocks for synchronization to the backplane bus. The "A" clocks are driven by the "primary master" and are derived from a local network reference or a system wide network reference. A second pair consisting of a backplane bus clock and frame pulse, the "B" clocks are used as a backup clock on the backplane. The "B" clocks are driven by the "secondary master". During normal operation, the "secondary master" and "slaves" are synchronized to the "A" clocks. When the "A" clocks becomes unreliable, the "slave" devices switch from using the "A" clocks to the "B" clocks for synchronization to the backplane bus. To ensure that during the switch from the "A" clocks to the "B" clocks, no data is lost, the "B" clocks must be phase locked with a minimum phase offset to the "A" clocks when the "A" clocks are reliable. When the "B" clocks are the main clocks on the backplane, the "secondary master" device that drives the "B" clocks switches from using the "A" clocks to using a network clock as its reference without disrupting data traffic on the backplane bus.
In order to meet all the requirements of synchronization and clock switching without the loss of data, the "secondary master" device must use a Phase Locked Loop (PLL) that can track the "A" clocks closely even in the presence of jitter. Therefore the "secondary master" should pass the jitter on the "A" clocks on to the "B" clocks. While not strictly required by the ECTF H.110 standard, it is also preferable for the "primary master" to attenuate jitter from the network reference clock while driving the "A" clocks. However, in order for the "Secondary master" to track the jitter on the "A" clocks, the PLL driving the "B" clocks may not attenuate the jitter. Since a "secondary master" or "slave" can become a "primary master", the DPLLs in these devices must track the "A" clocks continuously. Also, they must be able to switch from one input reference to another and at the same time switch from no jitter attenuation to jitter attenuation without disrupting the backplane clock and frame pulse.
Prior art implementations have not been able to provide these mixed jitter attenuation requirements without disrupting data during clock re-arrangements.

Digital phase-locked loop with master-slave modes


A sealing element for sealing off a drive unit, having a radial shaft sealing ring that has a radial sealing face for sealing off from a first component and a diametrically opposed radial sealing lip for sealing off from a further rotatable component, in which an axial sealing ring for axial sealing of a third component is integrally formed onto the radial shaft sealing ring.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a sealing element, and to a drive unit containing a sealing element, having a radial shaft sealing ring.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,015,883 discloses a sealing element which is located between an outer and an inner ring of a ball bearing, in order to seal off the roller bodies of the bearing from the environment. The sealing element is embodied as a radial shaft sealing ring, which is braced by an outer radial sealing face on the outer bearing ring, and rests with a diametrically opposed inner radial sealing lip on the inner bearing part, such as a rotatable shaft. For reinforcement, the sealing element has a support ring, which is disposed inside the sealing material. The sealing element also has a spring ring, which presses the inner sealing lip radially against the inner bearing ring. A sealing element of this kind is suitable for radial sealing of two cylindrical jacket faces rotatable counter to one another. However, with such a sealing element, axial sealing between two axially adjacent components cannot be achieved.

Sealing element, and drive unit containing a sealing element


Provided are a highly integrated semiconductor device with a silicide layer, which can secure a contact margin, and a method of manufacturing the highly integrated semiconductor device. The highly integrated semiconductor device includes a gate electrode formed on a semiconductor substrate. A source region and a drain region are formed in predetermined upper portions of the semiconductor substrate on two sides of the gate electrode such that each of the source region and the drain region includes a lightly doped drain (LDD) region and a heavily doped region. A suicide layer is formed on the gate electrode, the source region, and the drain region. The silicide layer has a sufficient thickness to function as an ohmic contact and is formed on the LDD region and the heavily doped region of each of the source region and the drain region.

This application claims the priority of Korean Patent Application No. 2003-58287, filed on Aug. 22, 2003, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a highly integrated semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the highly integrated semiconductor device, and more particularly, to a highly integrated semiconductor device with a silicide layer that can secure a contact margin, and a method of manufacturing the highly integrated semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the degree of integration of a semiconductor device increases, the area and line width of the semiconductor device decreases, resulting in an increase of an interconnection resistance and a contact resistance of the semiconductor device.
Such an increase in resistance reduces the operating speed of the semiconductor device.
To reduce the interconnection resistance and contact resistance, a method of forming a self-aligned silicide (SALICIDE) layer on a gate electrode, a source region, and a drain region of a metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistor has been suggested in Silicon processing for the VLSI Era (Vol. 4, page 604).
A conventional highly integrated semiconductor device comprising a self-aligned silicide layer will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.
Referring to FIG. 1, a gate insulating layer 15 and a polysilicon layer 18 are sequentially deposited on a semiconductor substrate 10, for example, a silicon substrate, and predetermined portions of the gate insulating layer 15 and the polysilicon layer 18 are patterned to form a gate electrode 20. Low concentration impurity ions are implanted into predetermined portions of the semiconductor substrate 10 on both sides of the gate electrode 20 to form lightly doped drain (LDD) regions 25a and 25b. Next, an insulating spacer 30 is formed along both sidewalls of the gate electrode 20, and heavily doped regions 35a and 35b are formed in predetermined portions of the semiconductor substrate 10 on both sides of the spacer 30, thereby forming a source region 40a and a drain region 40b. Next, a transition metal layer (not shown) is deposited on the resultant structure, and a heat treatment is performed. The gate electrode 20, the source region 40a, and the drain region 40b, which are made of silicon, react with the transition metal layer, such that a silicide layer 45 is formed on the gate electrode 20, the source region 40a, and the drain region 40b. Next, unreacted portions of the transition metal layer are removed. Since the silicide layer 45, which has a low resistance, is formed on the gate electrode 20, the source region 40a, and the drain region 40b, which are to be connected to a metal layer later, an interconnection resistance and a contact resistance are reduced.
Referring to FIG. 2, an interlayer insulating layer 50 is deposited on the resultant structure of FIG. 1, and is etched until the source region 40a and the drain region 40b are exposed, thereby forming a contact hole 55a.
However, as the degree of integration of the semiconductor device increases, the areas of the source region 40a and the drain region 40b decrease. Because of a lack of a margin necessary for the contact hole, misalignment may occur during a photolithography process performed to form the contact hole. If misalignment occurs, a contact hole 55 passing through the spacer 30 may be formed, thereby exposing the LDD region 25a, as shown in FIG. 2. Since the LDD region 25a exposed by the contact hole 55 has a relatively low impurity concentration and a high resistance, a contact resistance between the LDD region 25a and the metal layer (not shown) increases when the LDD region 25a contacts the metal layer later.
Furthermore, with the reduced line width of the gate electrode in the highly integrated semiconductor device, the depths of the source region 40a and the drain region 40b are also decreasing. As a consequence, a design rule of less than 0.1 μm requires a junction depth less than approximately 800 Å.
If the silicide layer 45 is formed on the source region 40a and the drain region 40b having a shallow junction depth, the silicide layer must also be thin, and the silicon of which the source region 40a and the drain region 40b are made is mostly used to form the silicide layer 45, causing a junction leakage current.

Highly integrated semiconductor device with silicide layer that secures contact margin and method of manufacturing the same


The present invention relates to a novel computer based method for performing genome-wise comparison of several organisms, the said computational method involves creation of peptide libraries from protein sequences of several organisms and subsequent comparison leading to identification of conserved invariant peptide motifs, and to this end several invariant peptide motifs have been identified by direct sequence comparison between various bacterial organisms and host genomes without any a priori assumptions, and the present method is useful for identification of potential drug targets and can serve as drug screen for broad-spectrum antibacterials as well as for specific diagnosis of infections, and in addition, for assignment of function to proteins of yet unknown functions with the help of such invariant peptide motif signatures.

It is known that most of the drugs that are available today to cure infections bind to specific protein target molecules in the cell of the causative organism e.g., several antibiotics are known to disrupt the function of ribosomes so that the protein translation is affected. In these cases it has been found that the drugs either bind to the ribosomal RNA directly or RNA protein complexes (Wimberly et al, 1999). Chemical probing experiments have revealed that the drug binds to certain nucleotide sequences of ribosomal RNA that are 'invariant' in structurally analogous regions in different organisms (Porse and Garrett, 1999). The other class of drugs serves to block other functions such as transcription (Cutler et al, 1999) or fatty acid synthesis in the bacterial cell (McCafferty et al., 1999).
Recently, several drug resistant strains (Ghannoum & Rice, 1999) of pathogenic bacteria have emerged that renders the current treatment procedures ineffective in curing infections due to bacterial pathogens. This necessitates the identification of new drug targets and the corresponding drugs. For this purpose, the availability of complete genome sequences from various microbes offers us an opportunity to analyze all the proteins encoded in a given genome. Since most drugs known today target proteins, it is likely that analyzing all the proteins in a given bacterium may provide new valid drug targets.
The knowledge of conserved invariant sequences in a protein can be useful in understanding certain features of a protein's architecture, such as buried versus exposed location of a segment or the presence of specific secondary structural elements (Rooman and Wodak, 1988, Presnell et al., 1992). The protein's functional role is the most important aspect of conserved invariant sequences. Methods of usual sequence analysis include BLAST (Altschul et al., 1990), and FASTA (Wilbur and Lipman, 1983). These methods carryout sequence alignments whose quality is evaluated using an amino acid substitution matrix. Statistical calculations are performed and the results are output in a ranked manner, with the best similar sequence ranking first. However, these methods are not designed to do a genome-wise comparison simultaneously to identify invariant sequence motifs that are of particular importance in this work.
In order to compare each protein of one organism with all other proteins of several other organisms, either one has to use BLAST one by one or a batch BLAST has to be used which is highly time consuming and therefore not practicable. Even if this were done, at the end of the exercise one would obtain the overall similarity of a set of homologous proteins and alignments.
The problem with multiple sequence alignment is that it is biased to the selection of proteins. Only proteins that are functionally related will give a clear picture of any relationship between the selected proteins. Such procedures are labor intensive and time consuming and leads to results that need further processing and filtering. However, by these methods it is not possible to compare all proteins of several organisms and retrieve conserved invariant peptides.
The present invention provides a novel computer based method to look for invariant sequence motif that will lead to manifold usage as mentioned above and obviates the drawbacks listed above.
The applicants' approach is based on the paradigm that the invariant sequence motifs between the different bacterial proteins must be responsible for an important role for the structure and the function of the protein. Of the numerous ways by which drug targets can be identified, we have taken an approach based on comparative & structural genomics. In this case, the invariant sequence motifs may be either directly or indirectly involved in the function of the subject protein molecule. This approach is derived from the concept that invariant sequence motifs that have remained unchanged across bacteria that are related either distantly or closely should have evolved a unique structural feature that can not be compromised. Indeed, it is even possible that the so-called conservative substitutions are also not tolerated in these invariant sequence motifs. To this end, we have identified several invariant peptide motifs by direct sequence comparison between various bacterial genomes without any a priori assumptions. This purely unbiased and unassumed way of studying the sequences has the benefit of revealing unidentified sequence properties in the various genomes.
Since the invariant sequence motifs may be important for the function of the subject protein molecule, we aim to develop these peptide motifs as potential broad-spectrum antibacterial drug targets. It is probable that a small molecule that can bind specifically to these invariant sequences may cause disruption of function of the subject protein molecule. It is envisaged that this in silico approach will provide new leads for experimental validation to derive functions from protein sequences existing in the available databases.

Computer based method for identifying peptides useful as drug targets

Council of Scientific & Industrial Research


A shallow trench isolation (STI) structure and method of forming the same with reduced stress to improve charge mobility the method including providing a semiconductor substrate comprising at least one patterned hardmask layer overlying the semiconductor substrate; dry etching a trench in the semiconductor substrate according to the at least one patterned hardmask layer; forming one or more liner layers to line the trench selected from the group consisting of silicon dioxide, silicon nitride, and silicon oxynitride; forming one or more layers of trench filling material comprising silicon dioxide to backfill the trench; carrying out at least one thermal annealing step to relax accumulated stress in the trench filling material; carrying out at least one of a CMP and dry etch process to remove excess trench filling material above the trench level; and, removing the at least one patterned hardmask layer.

As devices become smaller and integration density increases, high density plasma chemical vapor deposition (HDP-CVD) has become a key process due in back filling high aspect ratio features such as shallow trench isolation (STI) features due to its superior gap-filling capability. In particular, high density plasma (HDP) processes, such as electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) processes and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) processes have been found to produce high-quality field oxides. Generally, HDP-CVD provides a high density of low energy ions resulting in higher quality films at lower deposition temperatures, compared to other plasma enhanced CVD deposition processes such as PECVD.
In a HDP-CVD deposition process, for example, a bias power is coupled to the semiconductor wafer to attract ions which sputter (etch) the wafer during deposition (re-sputtering effect), thereby preventing a phenomenon known as crowning where the deposition material converges over the trench before an etched feature opening is completely filled with the deposition material. The deposition rate may therefore be more finely tuned to improved CVD deposition properties to, for example, avoid crowning.
As device sizes decrease below 0.13 micron critical dimension, however, the gap fill of openings, for example STI openings, becomes problematical and the process window for successful gap filling is narrowed. Generally, as device sizes decrease and aspect ratios increase to greater than about 4 to 1, relatively high plasma RF powers, for example, greater than about 6 Watts/cm2 are delivered to a process water surface creating relatively large thermal stresses during the gap filling desposition. To maintain lower deposition temperatures the backside of the water is frequently cooled, leading to increased thermal gradients and consequently stresses across the wafer surface and through the wafer thickness. Consequently, compressive stresses, relatively larger parallel to the wafer process surface, are generated following the HDP-CVD process loading to subsequent problems in device quality and reliability. For example, charge carrier mobilities are strongly influenced, e.g., decreased due to stresses fields present in semiconductor materials.
There is therefore a need in the integrated circuit manufacturing art to develop an improved method for filling gaps including shallow trench isolation (STI) structures as well as a STI structure having reduced stresses to achieve improved semiconductor device quality and reliability.
It is therefore among the objects of the present invention to improved an improved method for filling gaps including shallow trench isolation (STI) structures as well as forming a STI structure having reduced stresses to achieve improved semiconductor device quality and reliability, in addition to overcoming other shortcomings and deficiencies of the prior art.

Method of achieving improved STI gap fill with reduced stress

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


The present invention relates to monitors. In order to facilitate mounting a monitor, a suspendable monitor (10) is provided for a ceiling suspended monitor system. The suspendable monitor comprises a video display (12), a structural frame (14), and a system interface (16). The video display is mounted to a front surface (18) of the structural frame. The system interface is mounted to the structural frame at one end and mountable to the ceiling suspended monitor system at the other end for suspending the suspendable monitor.

In some applications or environments, such as in a clinical environment, like an interventional X-ray room, it may be required to mount a monitor to a ceiling e.g. for optimal viewing angle. To this end, monitor ceiling suspension frames have been developed for mounting a monitor e.g. via a VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) interface. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,077,373 B1 describes a box-like frame for mounting a monitor. However, complexity may arise when mounting a monitor to a monitor ceiling suspension frame.


A system and method that facilitate data access in a software development environment is provided. The system generates strongly typed objects that encapsulate raw, untyped data access logic and groups together like database commands in a common data access component. The system provides a mapping between database types and common language runtime data types including the impedance mismatch of null representations. The system configures data access component(s) that are employed at design-time to facilitate access to data object(s) by application(s) and allows a user of the configured data access component(s) to improve developer productivity and/or reduce the quantity of runtime errors introduced into code. The data access component can be instanced on multiple forms components and/or with the developer's own class(es). Thus, change(s) to a query and/or interface are accomplished within the data access component and be available to the forms components and/or object(s) that utilize the data access component.

Software vendors are continually advancing the latest in development tools for users to take advantage of software made available to consumers. Typically, such tools require some level of familiarity by developer with the tool(s) language and structure in order to use the development tool(s) and develop the appropriate interface. However, the rapid evolution in which such development frameworks are manufactured and sold impact the speed with which such tools can be understood and used to provide the software for which they are created. Developers are still left spending an inordinate amount of time learning and struggling with the development environment in order to provide a suitable product for a customer.
In convention system(s), developer(s) could leverage a set of wizards to configure Data Components such as the DataAdapter, DataCommand, and, DataConnection. These enabled a developer to have a configured component that enabled them to work with an updatable query of data. This ability enhanced the experience of having to write, for example, the SQL commands and glue the associated objects together. However, it still left the user with a limitation of working with an object that didn't expose the required information to execute it.
For example, to fill a Typed DataSet with a configured DataAdapter, developer(s) needed to know the parameter(s) and data type(s) the query required. The developer(s) were thus at a disadvantage in that they were working with object(s) that didn't expose the required information to execute it. For example, developers would need to know what parameter(s) and data type(s) a particular query required. There generally was no information that would guide the developer, nor would the developer receive any compile time verification that they provided the correct number and type of parameter values. Additionally, conventional system(s) did not support the ability to reuse the configured component(s) as the component(s) were configured and instanced where the component(s) were consumed.
In typical systems developers are guided down a path where they create individual commands that execute against the database. Developer(s) often required the ability to get the same result set of data with a different set of parameters. Developer(s) were often confused on how to create a set of common query commands and associate them with the associated updatable commands.

Data access layer design and code generation


A memory bank contains a plurality of memories, a first Butterfly network is configured to apply memory addresses to the memory bank, and a second Butterfly network is configured to pass data to or from the memory bank. A control signal is generated for the first and second Butterfly networks in accordance with a multiple access rule to enable parallel access to the memory bank, without memory access conflict, for one of a linear order and an interleaved order. The method and apparatus is particularly advantageous for use in turbo decoding.

During operation of a wireless communication system when transmitting data it is necessary to decode various channel codes that are used for forward error correction. Typical channel codes, such as those used in 3G systems and WiMAX, are turbo codes, duo-turbo codes, and low density parity check (LDPC) codes.
Higher transmitted data rates imply the presence of a faster channel decoder at a receiver. A simple solution to address this need is to increase a clock frequency of a receiver decoder to achieve a required data rate. However, the use of a high clock frequency requires the decoder, such as one implemented in an integrated circuit such as an ASIC, to consume more power which, in a portable battery powered device, is a distinct disadvantage.
Another possible solution is to apply parallel processing for decoding. However, this approach raises a problem related to multiple access of data in two different access orders. While it may be straightforward to design a multiple access scheme for one access order, in the case of turbo codes and low density parity check codes, the multiple access scheme must be usable at least for two independent access orders without an access collision.
One possible technique to address the multiple access problem is to implement a row or bank of turbo decoders without internal multiple access capability. This technique may be adequate when data rates are not high, e.g., less than 20, Mbps.
Another possible technique to establish parallel processing is to design an interleaver of a code such that the interleaver supports some kind of multiple access schemes. An example of this kind approach is described by Takeshita, "On maximum contention-free interleavers and permutation polynomials over integer rings", IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, vol. 52, no. 3, pp. 1249-1253, March 2006. A weakness of this technique is that it is not applicable to existing systems. Another weakness is that a type of parallel processing depends on an interleaver of a code and one cannot modify it afterwards
Yet another multiple access technique is described by Benedetto et al., "Design issues on the parallel implementation of versatile, high-speed iterative decoders", Turbo-Coding-2006, Apr. 3-7, 2006, Munich. Reference can also be had to an approach described by Tarable et al., "Mapping Interleaving Laws to Parallel Turbo and LDPC Decoder Architectures", IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, Vol. 50, No. 9, September 2004.
Tarable et al. construct a mapping such that it is possible to process data in parallel both in a linear order and in an interleaved order without an access collision. Moreover, their solution is independent of the interleaver, that is, their method can be applied to any interleaver without restrictions. However, a drawback to this approach is that it requires very large switches (multiplexers) for implementation. Another drawback is that the method must be able to reorder data from any order to any order. For example, to accomplish parallel processing of degree 4, the decoder needs to generate 4!=1*2*3*4=24, orders. If the degree of parallel processing is 8, there are 8!=40320, cases to generate.
Clearly, a deficiency of this approach is that the algorithm used to generate the mapping function is quite complex. Also the algorithm does not guarantee a simple network for routing data.

Multiple access for parallel turbo decoder


A filter is provided which includes an organic vapor adsorbing layer, a first particulate removal layer, and a second particulate removal layer. The organic vapor adsorbing layer includes porous adsorbent beads which allow air or gas to flow therethrough with little resistance and provide increased surface area by virtue of the pores. The particulate removal layer can be made from an electrostatic and/or polytetraflouroethylene. The filter can have a figure of merit greater than about 10 and a capacity for permanently adsorbing organic vapors, wherein the figure of merit is calculated based upon a fractional efficiency determined for particles having a size of 0.3 .mu.m in an air flow having a velocity of 10.5 ft./min and for Frazier permeability at 0.5 inches H.sub.2 O.

Hard disk drives are enclosures in which an inflexible platter coated with magnetic material is spun very rapidly. A magnetic read/write head "flies" only a few microns above the disk on an air cushion. To provide a hard disk drive having high efficiency, it is desirable to position the head as close to the disk as possible without touching it.
It has been found that particulate and gaseous contaminants act to reduce efficiency and longevity of hard disk drives. Common sources of contaminants in disk drives include leaks which may or may not be intentional, the manufacturing environment which can contain certain contaminants, and the materials incorporated into the disk drive which give off particulates and gases. It is of particular concern that organic vapors can be generated inside disk drive enclosures during normal operating conditions when, for example, the temperature exceeds 150.degree. F. Such temperatures can be achieved by simply leaving the computer in the trunk of a car on a hot day.
Recirculation filters have been used in hard disk drives for removing contaminates. Such filters have been effective for removing particulate contaminants. They are not, however, suitable for removing organic vapors since they do not have a capacity for permanently adsorbing organic vapors. To provide enhanced organic vapor removal, it has been proposed to include activated carbon in recirculation filters. Activated carbon in the form of granules or fiber can adsorb organic vapors. However, permeability of filters including such activated carbon is sacrificed. This results in an overall lower effectiveness of the filter.
Another problem is that activated carbon granules or fibers can escape filtering media and contaminate the hard disk drive enclosure. Previous attempts at controlling carbon migration include coating the edges of filters with resins or epoxies, and using additional material and/or mechanical clamps to seal the filter edges. Although these attempts help control carbon migration, it would be desirable to further reduce carbon migration.


An oxide semiconductor film with excellent crystallinity is formed. At the time when an oxide semiconductor film is formed, as a substrate is heated to a temperature of higher than or equal to a first temperature and lower than a second temperature, a part of the substrate having a typical length of 1 nm to 1 μm is heated to a temperature higher than or equal to the second temperature. Here, the first temperature means a temperature at which crystallization occurs with some stimulation, and the second temperature means a temperature at which crystallization occurs spontaneously without any stimulation. Further, the typical length is defined as the square root of a value obtained in such a manner that the area of the part is divided by the circular constant.

1. Field of the Invention
One embodiment of the present invention relates to a method of forming a crystalline oxide semiconductor film used for manufacturing a semiconductor device. Note that a semiconductor device in this specification refers to any device that utilizes semiconductor properties. Therefore, for example, a display device, a semiconductor circuit, and an electronic device which include a semiconductor element such as a transistor or a diode are all semiconductor devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, an oxide semiconductor having semiconductor characteristics has attracted attention. Examples of the oxide semiconductor having semiconductor characteristics include tungsten oxide, tin oxide, and an indium-gallium-zinc-based oxide (In—Ga—Zn-based oxide), and a thin film transistor in which such an oxide having semiconductor characteristics is used for a channel formation region is known (Patent Documents 1 and 2). Further, in particular, properties of an In—Ga—Zn-based oxide have been researched (Non-Patent Document 1).

Method of forming crystalline oxide semiconductor film

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