A compound lens produced by heating and pressing a semi-cured product of a curable resin composition containing a (meth)acrylate monomer, a non-conjugated vinylidene group-containing compound, and a photo-radical initiator and a transparent substrate arranged so as to be in contact with the semi-cured product in a state in which a molding die is filled with the semi-cured product and the transparent substrate, and obtaining a cured product by allowing the semi-cured product to be thermally polymerized, exhibits an excellent transfer property, a small number of bubble mixtures, and excellent heat resistance and crack resistance.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a compound lens and a method of manufacturing the same.
Background Art
In the related art, inorganic glass materials have been used for optical components (also referred to as an optical element, mainly lenses) from a viewpoint of excellent optical characteristics, mechanical strength, and the like. In recent years, physical properties which cannot be obtained by the materials in the related art and reduction in manufacturing cost have been examined by means of using a compound lens obtained by combining inorganic glass materials with a resin composition.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a method of manufacturing a compound lens of glass, which is free from an adhesive, and plastic using an epoxy resin through thermal curing and discloses that the evaluation results on a ball drop test, an outside air resistance test, a temperature cycle test, and a hot water resistance test are excellent.
Patent Literature 2 discloses a three-layer (plastic, an adhesive, and glass) laminated lens without interlayer peeling after repetition cycles and discloses that interlayer peeling does not occur for a 30 day test at 50° C. at a humidity of 98% and a 30 day test with a temperature cycle having a range of −40° C. to 80° C.
Patent Literature 3 discloses a resin composition for a hybrid lens in which a resin composition used for forming a resin layer of a hybrid lens obtained by bonding a glass lens base material with the resin layer contains a radical polymerizable monomer and a silane coupling agent, and discloses that a hybrid lens which has a thick resin layer, high thickness deviation, and high performance capable of increasing aspherical amount can be manufactured.
On the other hand, a method of forming a molded article having a specific shape is known using a curable resin in a field other than the above-described compound lens.
Patent Literature 4 discloses a method of forming a cured product by curing a semi-cured product after the semi-cured product having a viscosity in a specific range is prepared using an epoxy ring-opening polymer (A) of a monofunctional epoxy compound, which includes a polymerizable unsaturated bonding group in the side chain thereof and a curable resin composition which includes a compound having a polymerizable unsaturated bonding group and has an alicyclic structure in the compound having the polymer (A) and/or a polymerizable unsaturated bonding group, but there is no description on application to the compound lens.
Further, a method of changing characteristics after curing by adding various additives to a curable resin composition has been known. For example, Example 1 of Patent Literature 5 related to the field other than the compound lens, as a COP protection coat material and a resin composition for coating of an alicyclic structure-containing polymer (COP)-based optical disk substrate discloses an aspect of using a curable resin composition to which monofunctional acryl, difunctional acryl, and a terpene compound are added with a content ratio of 0.5% by mass to 30% by mass with respect to acryls, and a terpene compound (limonene) and photo-polymerization initiator are added and discloses that adhesion with a COP substrate can be improved.

Compound lens and method for manufacturing same


Items may be packaged for shipping or storage using additive manufacturing techniques, also known as three dimensional (3-D) printing. Packages made by such processes may be referred to as 3-D printed packages. The 3-D printed packages may be customized based on one or more items contained in the package, a recipient of the package, a sender of the package, and/or a destination location of the package. The customizations may include two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional customizations on an interior and/or exterior of the 3-D printed packages.

Products are commonly packaged by a manufacturer or distributor prior to sale. This sort of packaging is referred to as "retail packaging." The retail packaging for a particular product is often designed specifically for the particular product. Considerable time and expense goes into designing retail packaging for a particular product. Then thousands of the product are packaged in the same retail packaging with little or no ability for customization of the retail packaging for the product.
Products and other items (collectively referred to as "items") may subsequently be packaged for storage and/or shipping. This sort of packaging is referred to as "non-retail packaging." Non-retail packaging typically employs general-purpose packaging supplies, such as cardboard boxes, bubble wrap, polystyrene peanuts, tissue paper, shrinkwrap, packing tape, and the like. Such general-purpose packaging supplies tend to be labor intensive to use. Also, while some degree of customization is possible using general-purpose packaging supplies, the customization is limited primarily to the size and shape of box employed, the packing materials in the box to protect the item, and any tape or shrinkwrap used to seal the box.
Accordingly, there remains a need for improved methods of retail and non-retail packaging.


This invention relates to the use of 2',3'-dideoxycytidin-2'-ene (2',3'-dideoxy-2',3'-didehydrocytidine) in treating patients infected with a retrovirus.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns the use of nucleoside 2',3'-dideoxycytidin-2'-ene (2',3'-dideoxy-2',3'-didehydrocytidine) in treating patients infected with retroviruses, especially AIDS.
2. Background Information
The etiological agent of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome ("AIDS") is a retrovirus called lymphadenopathy-associated virus (LAV) (F. Barre-Sinoussi, J. C. Chermann, F. Rey, M. T. Nugeyre, S. Chamaret, J. Gruest, C. Dauguet, C. Axler-Blin, F. Vezinet-Brun, C. Rouzioux, W. Rozenbaum and L. Montagnier, Science, 220, 868-870 (1983)) or human T lymphotropic virus III (HTLV III) (M. Popovic, M. G. Sarngadharan, E. Read and R. C. Gallo, Science, 224, 497-508 (1984)). Presently, the best evidence supports the concept that these are either the same virus or closely related variants (L. Ratner, W. Haseltine, R. Patarca et al, Nature, 313, 227-285 (1985).
2'3'-Dideoxycytidin-2'-ene was first synthesized by Horowitz et al. (J. P. Horwitz, J. Chua, M. Noel, J. T. Donatti, J. Org. Chem., 32, 817 (1967)).
Hiroaki Mitsuya and Samuel Broder, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 83, 1911-1915, March 1986, described the testing of purine and pyrimidine nucleoside derivatives, namely, 2',3'-dideoxynucleosides to attempt to inhibit the infectivity and cytopathic effect of human T-lymphotropic virus type III (HTLV-III/LAV) in vitro.

Use of 2',3'-dideoxycytidin-2'-ene (2'- ,3'-dideoxy-2'3'-didehydrocytidine) in treating patients infected with retroviruses


A mass analyzer for scanning sample gases is disclosed. The mass analyzer comprises an ionizer for generating ions from a sample; a mass filter with an accumulator section integrated in the mass filter and accumulates filtered ions prior to ejecting from the mass filter; and an ion detector that is configured to detecting ejected ions from the mass filter. The mass filter may include a quadrupole array and the accumulator section includes an ion trap array.

In a publication WO2014/150040, a hybrid mass spectrometer design and architecture, and methods of operating mass spectrometers are disclosed. The hybrid mass spectrometer has an ion source, a mass selector, and an elongated collision cell that receives ions from the mass selector through a first end. A controller, coupled to the collision cell, is programmed with logic for selectably releasing accumulated ions from the first end of the collision cell to a first mass analyzer (e.g., an electrostatic ion trap) or from a second end of the collision cell to a second mass analyzer (e.g., a two-dimensional quadrupole ion trap). Both the first and second mass analyzers are positioned out side of an ion path extending from the ion source to the collision cell, such that ions may be conveyed to and accumulated in the collision cell concurrently with the acquisition of mass spectra by one or both mass analyzers.


A passive optical network is provided that spectrally slices optical signals transmitted in both upstream and downstream directions utilizing wavelength division multiplexing routing. The passive optical network preferably includes a broadband optical signal source at both ends to provide signals that are spectrally sliced according to optical frequency. The downstream information may be transmitted in a conventional data format. The upstream transmissions may be segregated by subcarrier multiplexing, time scheduling or wavelength division multiplexing. At the subscriber end of the network there is an optical network unit which includes a device coupling the downstream fiber to the upstream fiber. Such coupling allows the passive optical network to perform enhanced diagnostic tests.

Optical networks, including passive optical networks, have been proposed as a copper plant replacement for local telephone service. Passive optical networks direct optical signals between a central office or host digital terminal, and network terminal equipment. Passive optical networks require no power or processing in the field to direct such optical signals between network equipment.
Typically, a passive optical network includes a plurality of optical paths extending from the central office to a plurality of remote nodes. Each remote node is further optically connected to a plurality of optical network units, which may suitably be subscribers' terminal equipment. Such networks transmit downstream optical signals from the central office to each remote node, where the signal is then passively split and distributed to the optical network units. In the upstream direction, in other words, toward the central office, the optical network units transmit optical signals to the remote node, where they form a multiplexed signal that is provided to the central office. Lasers are generally used to generate light used to form the transmitted light signals. For a general discussion of such networks, see, for example, Stern et al., "Passive Optical Local Networks For Telephony Applications And Beyond", Electronics Letters, Vol. 23, pp. 1255-57 (1987).
Downstream signals destined for a plurality of optical network units may generally be provided from the central office to the remote nodes using one of two signal arrangements, broadcast signals and switched signals. In a broadcast signal arrangement, a central office broadcasts a downstream optical signal to the remote nodes using, for example, a time-division multiplexing (TDM) protocol. A TDM signal typically includes a frame of information subdivided into time slots, each time slot assigned to an individual optical network unit (ONU). While the entire TDM signal is broadcast to each ONU, each ONU only uses the data from its assigned time slot. In a switched architecture, the central office transmits a separate signal to each ONU. For example, the central office may transmit wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) signals wherein each ONU or subscriber is assigned a wavelength band. In a WDM network, signals destined for each remote node, and ultimately, each ONU, are created by modulating light at distinct wavelengths at the central office. The modulated light signals are then multiplexed onto a fiber and directed to the remote node. A wavelength division demultiplexer (WDM) at the remote node splits and distributes the downstream signals to the ONUs as a function of wavelength. One notable difference between the two architectures is that in broadcast signal systems, the data signal for all ONUs is provided to each ONU, which results in wasted power and lacks signal privacy. In WDM signals, each ONU sees only its own data signal, which is more power efficient and private.
RITE-Net.TM. is a WDM network in which a central office provides multiplexed optical signals encoded with information at specific wavelengths to each remote node. At each remote node, the downstream signals are routed by wavelength to the ONUs. At each ONU, the received light is overmodulated with upstream information and looped back through the remote node to the central office. To this end, a modulator at the optical network unit imprints information on a portion of the downstream signal which is then directed back to the remote node. The RITE-Net.TM. network not only has the privacy and efficiency advantages of WDM optical communication, but further has the advantage of not requiring a light source at the ONU. From a network standpoint, it is advantageous that the ONUs cannot generate their own light signals. RITE-Net.TM. is described in commonly-owned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/029,724, filed Mar. 1, 1993, and incorporated herein by reference.
At present, however, the multiwavelength laser and modulator technologies that are preferably employed in a RITE-Net.TM. network are still being developed. In the interim, broadcast TDM networks have been proposed that utilize widely available technology.
One design consideration in passive optical networks is the facility for diagnostics which may be used to identify and locate network component failures, such as fiber cuts or transmission equipment failure. For cost efficiency, passive optical networks, including both broadcast signal and switched signal networks, are preferably capable of performing diagnostic operations from the central office location. One known diagnostic operation that may be performed at the central office is the optical time domain reflectometry ("OTDR") test, which is described, for example, in J. M. Senior "Optical Fiber Communications" pp. 822-27 (Prentice Hall 1992).
In the OTDR test, a light pulse is provided at one end of the fiber, typically at the central office. Then, a measure of the light reflected back due to backscatter effects is taken. The measure of backscattered light provides an indication of the status of the optical link to the node. In practice, if a particular ONU cannot communicate with the central office, the OTDR test may be used to determine if there is a fiber cut, and if so, its approximate location.
The OTDR test in some circumstances does not adequately identify a network failure. Consider, for example, a situation in which a particular ONU is not communicating. In such a situation, the cause may be an optical path problem such as a fiber cut, or a failure in the ONU transmission or reception equipment. If the OTDR test is performed and the results indicate that their may be a fiber break at or near the ONU, there is no way to distinguish between a fiber failure near the ONU or an ONU transmission or reception equipment failure.

Passive optical network with diagnostic loop-back


With an auxiliary electrode having a shape corresponding to the end of a workpiece attached to an upper electrode of a high frequency heater for high-frequency heating the end of the workpiece extruded, the workpiece is high-frequency heated intensively and uniformly between the auxiliary electrode and the lower electrode. After heating, the end of the workpiece is molded into a predetermined shape by a couple of stamping molds.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of fabricating a molding, and more particularly to a method of fabricating a molding which high-frequency heats the longitudinal end of a workpiece extruded by extrusion and thereafter molds the workpiece into a molding having a prescribed shape.
2. Description of Related Art
A method of fabricating a molding such as a side molding for a motor vehicle is previously known wherein resin material is extruded into a predetermined sectional shape by an extrusion machine, the material is cooled and cut into segments each having a predetermined length and, both longitudinal ends of each segment is set in a metallic mold of an injection molding machine and both ends are integrally molded to have predetermined shapes. The molding fabricated by this method is shown in FIGS. 8(a) and (b).
FIGS. 8(a) and (b) show the end of a molding fabricated by the conventional molding fabrication method; FIG. 8(a) is a partial plan view thereof and FIG. 8(b) is a partial sectional view.
In these drawings, generally, a molding body 1 is successively extruded by extrusion, and its plane shown in FIG. 8(a) cut in a predetermined length constitutes a design plane. An end 2 is formed on the tip of the molding body 1 by injection molding, and one or both ends of the molding body 1 successively extruded by extrusion are finished in a predetermined design.
The above conventional molding fabricating method provides a difference in shape between the extrusion orifice of an extrusion machine and the cavity of an injection molding metallic mold whose shapes define the sectional shapes of the molding body 1 and the end 2, and a variation in material or size between the molding body 1 and the end 2. Such difference or variation results in a connection line, burrs or level difference between the molding body 1 and the end 2 so that in some cases, a beautiful design plane cannot be obtained therebetween.
Such poor appearance in the design plane between the molding body 1 and the end 2 is remarkable in surface treatment increasing a sink on the side of the junction surface 2a of the end 2, in which both are colored, a shining film is bonded, etc.
To solve the aforementioned problem, a molding fabricating method has been proposed in which the end of a long workpiece extruded by an extrusion machine is previously softened by heating and the end of the workpiece in the softened state, is molded into a desired shape.
In this case, the end of the workpiece is heated by a high frequency heating machine including upper and lower electrodes. However, the upper and lower electrodes are formed in a relatively large scale so as to permit moldings having various kinds of specifications. For this reason, when the end of the workpiece is heated, the adjacent portions as well as the end may be heated, thus reducing the heating efficiency and resulting in non-uniform heating of the end.


A laser annealing apparatus for crystallizing a semiconductor film with a linearly radiating laser beam including a laser oscillator and laser optical systems for forming a laser beam radiated from the laser oscillator linearly, for application to a semiconductor film. Each linearly radiating laser beam from each laser optical system radiated onto the semiconductor film is arrayed almost linearly in a length direction, with an interval on the semiconductor film.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a polycrystalline semiconductor film having excellent crystallinity, and more particularly to a laser heat treatment apparatus for forming a silicon film.
2. Related Art
A pixel portion of a liquid crystal display makes up an image by switching thin film transistors made from an amorphous or polycrystalline silicon film formed on a substrate of glass or composite quartz. However, due to low crystallinity of the silicon film constituting an active layer of the transistors, the thin film transistors are low in performance, typically in mobility. Therefore, it has been difficult to fabricate an integrated circuit requiring high speed and high functionality.
Thus, to realize a thin film transistor with high mobility, a method for improving the crystallinity of a silicon film involves a laser heat treatment of radiating a laser to the silicon film formed on the substrate to enhance the crystallinity.
The pixel transistors in the pixel portion of the liquid crystal panel are driven by a driver circuit that is usually separate, but the driver circuit should be constructed in proximity to the pixel transistors at the same time if high speed and high functionality of the polycrystalline silicon film are to be realized. If this is possible, there is a remarkable advantage in terms of the manufacturing cost and reliability of the liquid crystal panel.
The relationship between the crystallinity of silicon film and the mobility of thin film transistor is described below. The silicon film produced through the laser heat treatment is typically polycrystalline. A grain boundary of polycrystal is made up of lattice defects, which scatter the carriers in the active layer of the thin film transistor to impede the movement. Accordingly, to enhance the mobility of the thin film transistor, it is important to reduce the frequency of carriers traversing the grain boundary in moving through the active layer. Therefore, it is required to decrease the density of lattice defects. The laser heat treatment is aimed at forming the polycrystalline silicon film having large crystal grain diameter and with less lattice defects on the grain boundary from the amorphous silicon film formed on the substrate.
The present inventors proposed an optical system for laser heat treatment in the Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 11-179233, in which a laser beam from a laser oscillator is distributed linearly on the surface of silicon film through the optical system, and the linear beam is swept relatively on the silicon film in its orthogonal direction.
FIGS. 4 and 5 are typical views of the laser optical system 3. A laser beam 2 radiated from the laser oscillator 1 is passed through intensity distribution forming means 30 and beam shape forming means 31 to illuminate the silicon film 5 formed on the substrate 50.
The laser beam 2 radiated from the laser oscillator 1 typically shows Gaussian intensity distribution. The intensity distribution forming means 30 preserves the Gaussian intensity distribution in the x direction of the beam, and smoothes the intensity distribution only in the y direction of the beam.
The laser beam with such a top hat distribution is adjusted in the magnification of laser beam length in the x and y directions by the beam shape forming means 31, and the beam shape is made rectangular or linear on the amorphous or polycrystalline silicon film 5. If the longitudinal direction of rectangular laser beam is taken as the y direction, the intensity distribution XC in the x direction on the upper face C of the silicon film 5 has a reduced shape of the intensity distribution XA in the x direction on a plane of incidence A for the intensity distribution shaping means 30, still preserving a property of directivity of the oscillating laser beam 2, while the intensity distribution YC in the y direction is almost uniform on the upper face C of silicon film.
On the other hand, the silicon film 5 as the subject of laser radiation is formed on a silicon oxide film as an under-layer film 51 on the substrate 50 made of glass, which is fixed on a scanning stage, and heated by radiation of the laser beam while the laser beam of rectangular shape is being moved in the x direction.
If the laser beam of rectangular shape is applied onto the surface of the silicon film 5 formed on the substrate while sweeping it in the x direction, the silicon film 5 is heated by absorbing the laser beam, and melted in a rectangular shape. At this time, there is no temperature gradient in the longitudinal direction or the y direction of radiating laser beam because the intensity distribution of laser beam 2 is uniform, but there is some temperature gradient caused by the cooling in the sweep direction or x direction. When the melted silicon film is crystallized by the cooling, the crystal grows in accordance with the temperature gradient, causing one dimensional growth (one directional growth) in the movement direction or the x direction of the substrate 50, so that the crystal grains having a grain diameter of about several μm are formed along the sweeping direction.
If the rectangular or linear beam is employed for the laser heat treatment, the intensity distribution in the width direction of laser beam has a great effect on a recrystallizing growth process, and the intensity distribution in the longitudinal direction governs the area where the crystal grows, whereby an appropriate beam profile and the intensity of radiation must be chosen to fabricate the thin film transistor having excellent characteristics. However, the optical system for forming the rectangular beam has a limited laser output, and to obtain a required intensity of radiation, it is necessary to shorten the length of radiating laser beam in the longitudinal direction, resulting in lower productivity.


The present disclosure provides a method and apparatus for anti hacker's hijacking of an autonomous vehicle, a device and a storage medium, wherein the method comprises monitoring an autonomous vehicle's running data; determining whether the autonomous vehicle is hijacked by a hacker according to a monitoring result and a preset rule; activating an anti-hijack emergency handling operation if it is determined that the autonomous vehicle is hijacked by the hacker. The solution of the present disclosure may be applied to improve safety of the autonomous vehicle.

An autonomous vehicle means that the vehicle's surroundings are sensed by a vehicle-mounted sensing system, and the vehicle's steering and speed are controlled according to road, vehicle position and obstacle information obtained from the sensing so that the vehicle can safely and reliably travel on the road.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a working principle of an autonomous vehicle in the prior art. As shown in FIG. 1, a high-precision map refers to a map which has a centimeter-level precision, can be refined to a travel route and can distinguish situations on a bridge, situations below a bridge, cameras, road signs, zebra crossing and the like; smart sensing refers to deeply understanding environment information around the vehicle based on merge of multiple sensors; smart control refers to automatic planning, vehicle control and the like.
Hacker's hijacking is an important safety problem with which the autonomous vehicle is confronted. Regarding this problem, there is not yet an effective solution in the prior art, so the safety of the autonomous vehicle is reduced.

Method and apparatus for anti hacker's hijacking of autonomous vehicle, device and storage medium

BAIDU ONLINE NETWORK TECHNOLOGY (BEIJING) CO., LTD.


The connector system comprises an outlet and a single connector or a double connector. The single connector is suitable for connection of a service with four poles. The module of the outlet has four chambers, one pair of wires of the cable, shielded in pairs, being accepted per chamber. Two contact pins each are mounted per chamber of the module. The outlet comprises a base part and a cover. The single connector comprises a cover and a floor. Disposed in the housing, formed by the cover and the floor, are two guide bodies. The guide bodies each have two through holes in which sockets are provided for connection with the contact pins of the outlet. The guide bodies are provided with a shield on their part protruding beyond the housing, which shield is in contact with the inner wall of the chambers of the outlet. The ground connection is realized continuously throughout the connector system. The connector system is EMC-tight. With this connector system one or two services, as desired, can be connected, four wires of the eight-core cable of the outlet being used per service. The conductors extend essentially right through the connector system, which has an advantageous effect on the attenuation.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a multipolar connector system with an outlet and at least one connector for electrical and mechanical connection of electrical conductors.
2. Discussion of the Background
The connector system according to the invention is foreseen in particular for class E building cabling. The class determines the transmission quality of electrical signals of entire transmission lines or transmission systems from one terminal to another. In corresponding norms, such as EN 50173, limiting values are set down, for example, for the maximal cross talk attenuation, for the reflection loss, etc., as well as for the highest permissible frequencies. For class E and future classes, working with frequencies of up to 600 MHz and more is foreseen.
The trend in technical progress is that building cabling in the future will no longer be provided separately for telephones, electronic data processing devices, video devices, etc., but instead only a single building cabling network will be provided via which the information and data of all the services which come into question are transmitted. A start has been made with ISDN (Integrated Service Digital Network).
The building cabling usually provided for the aforementioned purpose comprises shielded cables with eight wires or four wire pairs, respectively, each with two twisted wires. However, at most four wires or two pairs of wires, respectively, are required per service. With the connector system preferably used today, which has become known by the type designation RJ 45, at most one connector for a single service can be plugged into an outlet. If two services are required at a place of work, two outlets have to be installed next to each other. This is rather time-consuming work since more than a single service is usually required nowadays at most places of work.
Moreover it has been discovered that the aforementioned electrical transmission parameters in the connector systems of the type RJ 45 are not suitable for frequencies of over 300 MHz, and desirable magnitudes can hardly be reached. Responsible for this is the internal connection technology having usually cut/clamp connections, the wires inside the outlet or the connector of this connector system being often run bent. Moreover it is known that in the case of the connector system RJ 45, the shielding of the individual pairs of wires is not led, or cannot be led, directly up to the connector contacts.

Multipolar connector system with an outlet and at least one connector for electrical and mechanical connection of electrical conductors


A method in an application server for accessing a messaging server includes receiving, from a browser configured for dynamic control of audio operations, an HTTP request having an audio file that stores received voice signals specifying a messaging operation; identifying the messaging operation in the application server by interpreting the audio file; outputting a function call specifying the messaging operation to the messaging server according to IP protocol; receiving from the messaging server a response to the function call that specifies a stored message; and sending an HTML page to the browser for playback of a second audio file representing the stored message. The step of receiving from the messaging server a response includes receiving the stored message as one of an e-mail message and a voice mail message.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to unified voice messaging systems enabling voice, fax, and e-mail messages to be retrieved via a telephone.
2. Description of the Related Art
The evolution of the public switched telephone network has resulted in a variety of voice applications and services that can be provided to individual subscribers and business subscribers. Such services include voice messaging systems that enable landline or wireless subscribers to record, playback, and forward voice mail messages. However, the ability to provide enhanced services to subscribers of the public switched telephone network is directly affected by the limitations of the public switched telephone network. In particular, the public switched telephone network operates according to a protocol that is specifically designed for the transport of voice signals; hence any modifications necessary to provide enhanced services can only be done by switch vendors that have sufficient know-how of the existing public switched telephone network infrastructure.
A particular concern involves existing voice messaging systems, where voice mail storage is highly restricted in both function and capacity due to limited voice mail system features implemented by switch vendors. In particular, all voice and fax messages are typically held in a single inbox, and are categorized based on whether the user has listened to the messages; hence, voice mail users are forced to keep their messages in a single inbox. In contrast, existing e-mail clients executed by computers enable users to store and manage e-mail messages in multiple folders that are customized by the users. Hence, existing voice mail messaging systems designed and implemented according to the conventional public switched telephone network paradigm are highly restricted in the availability of advanced voice mail system features.
An open standards-based Internet protocol (IP) network, such as the World Wide Web, the Internet, or a corporate intranet, has provided dramatically-improved client-server type application services for clients by enabling the clients to request application services from remote servers using standardized protocols, for example hypertext transport protocol (HTTP). The web server application environment can include web server software, such as Apache, implemented on a computer system attached to the IP network. Web-based applications are composed of HTML pages, logic, and database functions. In addition, the web server may provide logging and monitoring capabilities. In the case of services such as electronic mail, the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) enables clients to access electronic mail or bulletin board messages that are kept on a mail server, such as a shared server. Hence, a client e-mail program can access and manage e-mail messages stored on a remote IMAP server from a desktop computer at home, a workstation at the office, or a notebook computer while traveling, without the need to transfer messages or files back and forth between these computers.
Commonly-assigned, copending application Ser. No. 09/480,485, filed Jan. 11, 2000, entitled Application Server Configured for Dynamically Generating Web Pages for Voice Enabled Web Applications, the disclosure of which is incorporated in its entirety herein by reference, discloses an application server that executes a voice-enabled web application by runtime execution of extensible markup language (XML) documents that define the voice-enabled web application to be executed. The application server includes a runtime environment that establishes an efficient, high-speed connection to a web server. The application server, in response to receiving a user request from a user, accesses a selected XML page that defines at least a part of the voice application to be executed for the user. The XML page may describe any one of a user interface such as dynamic generation of a menu of options or a prompt for a password, an application logic operation, or a function capability such as generating a function call to an external resource, such as an IMAP message store. The application server then parses the XML page, and executes the operation described by the XML page, for example dynamically generating an HTML page having voice application control content, or fetching another XML page to continue application processing. In addition, the application server may access an XML page that stores application state information, enabling the application server to be state-aware relative to the user interaction. Hence, the XML page, which can be written using a conventional editor or word processor, defines the application to be executed by the application server within the runtime environment, enabling voice enabled web applications to be generated and executed without the necessity of programming language environments.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Arrangement for accessing an IP-based messaging server by telephone for management of stored messages


One aspect of the present invention is a method for marking metal or other product for its identification. This method includes the steps of: (a) forming on said product or on a tag to be attached to said product a layer of coating containing an additive that is darkenable under the action of a CO.sub.2 laser beam to form product identification indicia; (b) providing a raster-scanning infrared laser beam emitting CO.sub.2 laser that raster-scans in the Y-axis; (c) effecting impingement of said laser beam from said laser onto said coating layer, wherein one or more of said laser beam or said coating layer moves in the X-axis for said laser beam to form said product identification indicia from said additive that is darkened by said laser beam; and (d) if said coating layer was applied to a tag, attaching said tag to said product. The zone can be an area on the metal product that has been coated with a layer of the coating or can be a metal tag that has been coated with a layer of the coating. Another aspect of the present invention is the laser marked identification tag disclosed herein.

The present invention relates to the marking of metal for tracking and identification (e.g., information purposes, and more particularly to using laser marked coated metal zones therefor.
Primary metal mills require that their products be accurately identified. Molten metal batches have unique "heat" (batch) chemistries which affect the mechanical properties of the ultimate (further formed) end products. Tracking the many individual pieces produced from a heat is a difficult, time consuming process with many opportunities for error in the stressful (hot, noisy, dimly lit, and physically dangerous) mill environment.
Metals first exit the molten heat as very hot (e.g., 1,800.degree. F. or 982.degree. C.) slabs or billets. Ideally, these slabs and billets should be identified with bar coded information immediately after they solidify and while they are still on the run out tables (before they can be mixed up). Automatic identification (e.g., bar codes) are preferred because they help eliminate the errors inherent in manual marking and reading (estimated by some to be as high as 1 in 300 attempts).
High temperature tags (some with bar codes) have been used for some time. For example, one commercial tag product (supplied by Pannier Corp., Pittsburgh, Pa.) is a relatively thin (e.g. 0.008 in or 0.2032 mm thick) stainless steel tag coated with a high temperature white coating and are printable on-site using a dot matrix impact (inked ribbon) printer. These tags then are manually affixed to the slab or billet using a powder charged or pneumatically driven nail gun. Efforts to automate this prior art tag have generally not been successful because the dot matrix printer mechanism is "delicate" (dot matrix head and ribbon) and does not survive well in the vicinity of hot/dirty products; and the printer ribbon needs frequent replacement (e.g., every 300 tags), especially if high contrast bar codes are desired. Further, the nailing mechanism is difficult to automate as the environment is not conducive to bowl feeders. Nail "sticks" are limited to, say, 50 nails and stick feeds are unproved. Also, nailing becomes less acceptable (it is a foreign imperfection) and attachment is less reliable in premium (harder) grades of metal. Finally, nailing is increasingly unreliable as the product cools (hardens).
Another proposal is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,422,167 which discloses a label that is formed from a sheet of metal having a face and a back. The sheet face is coated with a layer of coating that is resistant to temperature of the hot metal stock and receptive to being thermally transfer printed. The metal sheet label is of a thickness so that the coating layer can be thermally transfer printed using conventional markers designed for paper or films. The printed label is adapted to be attached to hot (1,200.degree. F. or 648.8.degree. C.) metal stock by welding bare (uncoated) zones of the label. This tag system can withstand the rigors of, for example, steel coil or "hot bands" production and can be attached by welding.
Further, Nierenberg (U.S. Pat. No. 4,323,755) vaporizes a pattern (bar code) on glass CRTs for their identification. To improve contrast, the vaporized area can be coated first. Williams (U.S. Pat. No. 5,206,280) discloses a laser markable white pigment composition. Shimokawa (U.S. Pat. No. 4,847,181) proposes a dual layer label that can be laser marked. Gnanamuthu (U.S. Pat. No. 4,716,270) proposes a laser marking system where substrate is etched following laser marking of a label. Norris (U.S. Pat. No. 5,262,613) retrofits a mechanical engraver with a laser. Snakenborg (U.S. Pat. No. 4,946,763) proposes form a pattern in a metal stencil which is covered by a resist material containing a high concentration of metal powder. Resist material is removed by a laser beam to form the pattern. Honaker (U.S. Pat. No. 4,935,288) proposes a laser printable label having a coating of laser printable acrylic. Kiyonari (U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,137) proposes a resin composition for laser marking having an inorganic compound, like an anhydrous metal borate salt, and a resin. Kiyonari (U.S. Pat. No. 5,035,983) proposes a laser marking composition containing a non-black inorganic lead compound. Azuma (U.S. Pat. No. 4,861,620) proposes a pigment layer which can be marked by a laser beam. Herren (U.S. Pat. No. 5,030,551) laser marks ceramic materials coated with a transparent layer of titanium dioxide. Gernier (U.S. Pat. No. 4,985,780) proposes a two carriage assembly for laser marking articles.
Still, there exists a need in the art for a tag and identification system that can withstand the rigors of primary metal mills and in which the tag production and affixation are automated in order to provide significant labor savings (e.g., at least 1 worker per shift) and to eliminate the errors resulting from manual application (e.g., shuffled tags, sequences out of step by one, etc.).
Additionally, a variety of other raw and finished goods (e.g., automobile mechanical parts, tires, etc.) require marking for identification or information purposes. Such goods may be at or below room temperature when the marking requirement arises. A system that has the flexibility to mark "hot" metal as well as lower temperature items would be welcome.

CO.sub.2 laser marking of coated surfaces for product identification


Embodiments of the present apparatus include a magnetic transmission. The apparatus in this embodiment may have the following components: a plurality of magnetic gears arranged to form at least two gear trains; at least two of the plurality of magnetic gears being non-coaxial; and at least one of the non-coaxial magnetic gears being moveable relative to the other magnetic gears to thereby form the at least two gear trains.

Gravitational force, electric force and magnetic force are three natural forces that can act at a distance. The use of magnetic forces, such as in magnetic levitation and magnetic bearings, are growing. Many practical applications for the magnetic forces are known, such as magnetically levitated trains, magnetic gears, etc. Conventional mechanical gears that are normally used in machines also have a magnetic counterpart in the magnetic gears.
There are a number of advantages in using magnetic gears over the conventional mechanical gears. For example, mechanical gears can generate much vibration and noise during operation, whereas magnetic gears significantly reduce such vibration and noise. Furthermore, the mechanical gears need lubrication and inspection for wear and tear from time to time. Therefore, if the gears can operate in a non-contact fashion, all those problems caused by friction, wear, vibration and noise disappear. Moreover, such non-contact gears are almost maintenance-free.
Magnetic gears operate through the interaction of magnetic field set up between two magnetic gears, and torque is transmitted by their mutual attraction and repulsion due to a magnetic coupling. Most conventional magnetic gear systems are designed for the coaxial type, because large torque can be transmitted. Because the magnetic coupling is achieved by the action of an electromagnet, problems, such as winding space and control current, must also be considered. Therefore, this type of magnetic gear design becomes rather complicated.
Nevertheless, since the torque transmitted through a coaxial magnetic gear system is provided by mutual interactions involving all the magnets in the two magnetic rings, a large torque can be transmitted by the coaxial magnetic system. However, due to directional restrictions of a coaxial type of magnetic gear transmission system, non-coaxial type of magnetic gear transmission system cannot be completely replaced with the coaxial type. Furthermore, the recent advances in the material research have produced a number of powerful magnets, such as a strong magnetic compound known as neodymium iron boron (NdFeB). Therefore, non-coaxial magnetic gear systems have practical value and there is a need in the art for improved non-coaxial magnetic gear systems.


A composite shelf in a shelf frame supports a plurality of disk drives and attenuates vibrations in the shelf. In the composite shelf, there is a double wall having an outer wall and an inner wall for supporting the disk drives mounted on the shelf. A stiffener between the inner wall and outer wall strengthens the composite shelf to reduce flexure in the composite shelf when the shelf is loaded by disk drives mounted on the shelf. A damping layer is placed between the stiffener and one of the inner wall or outer wall. This damping layer attenuates vibrations in the composite shelf so as to reduce vibrations transmitted from the composite shelf to the disk drives supported by the composite shelf. A second damping layer is placed between the stiffener and the other wall. Both damping layers attenuate vibrations in the composite shelf so as to reduce vibrations transmitted from the composite shelf to the disk drives supported by the composite shelf. A third damping layer may be placed within the stiffener. The damping layers may be formed of adhesive damping layers, or a damping layer sandwiched between two adhesive layers. Alternatively, the stiffener is a spacer member between the inner wall and the outer wall.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to attenuating the vibrations in a shelf frame on which a plurality of tape drives or disk drives are mounted. More particularly, the invention relates to a composite member in a shelf frame on which the drives may be mounted and where the composite member is structured both for strength and for reducing vibrations in the shelf frame and thereby reduce vibrations in the drives.
2. Description of the Related Art
Racks or shelves for mounting multiple disk drives in an array have been designed for strength and low cost. Vibrations in the rack, or in a shelf of the rack, caused by the disk drive mechanisms has not been a significant problem, to date. As disk drives became smaller, operating first with 9-inch disks, then 51/4-inch disks and 31/2-inch and smaller disks, shock mounts for damping vibrations were eliminated from the disk drives because the drives were robust and were not susceptible to a vibration problem. However, as the recording density have increased and the revolutions per minute of the disks have increased, vibrations in the disk drives can give rise to vibrations in the shelves or in the mounting rack sufficient to cause read/write errors in the disk drives. For example, nine Gigabyte drives with 10,000 rpm disk speeds can create enough vibration that there is vibratory cross talk between drives mounted on the same shelf frame or cabinet. Especially with embedded servos alone being used in the disk drives to follow recorded tracks, vibrations in the mounting shelf frame may cause read/write errors in the disk drives.
Making the shelf frames stiffer is not a solution to the vibration problem. In fact, a stiffer shelf may vibrate at a resonant frequency corresponding to the desired disk speed for the disk drives. What is needed is a mounting shelf or shelf frame for the disk drives that has sufficient strength to support the drives and yet has damping properties to attenuate the vibrations in the shelf and shelf frame. This will decrease transmission of vibrations to the drives from sources external to shelf frame or shelf frame cabinet and from drives mounted on the shelf frame.

Attenuating vibrations in a mounting shelf for multiple disk drives


A knowledge-based natural speech dialogue system includes: (i) a knowledge support system, (ii) a flexible dialogue control system, and (iii) a context information system. Flexibilities of the conversation structure, inherent in mixed-initiative mode for dealing with complex user request, are managed because the knowledge structures involved are represented by additional, powerful knowledge representation tools, and because the context information is retained by more specific data structures, which covers larger temporal scopes by the logic of the conversation, rather than by a fixed locality of the grammar flow. This system provides a simple yet reliable method to compensate for these factors to enable more powerful conversation engines with mixed-initiative capabilities.

The present invention is mainly directed to a knowledge support and flexible dialogue control system.
Automatic telephone conversation systems, which are activated in response to a user's request through speech for providing information and service, are well known in the IT industry. An automatic telephone conversation system may contain the components such as a speech recognition engine, a text to speech engine, a natural language understanding engine, a dialogue control engine and some business servers. The dialogue control system may further include a dialogue grammar engine for modeling dialogue structures and for guiding the procedure of satisfying user needs.
Several known telephone conversation systems include a dialogue control and dialogue grammar system. The dialogue control system could consist of user intention determination based on dialogue act sequencing. A controller, which is connected to one or a combination of these dialogue grammar models, controls the system dialogue moves in accordance with the user intention decided at a point of the dialogue. In response to the understood user intention, one or more deployment aspects of the telephone conversation system, such as a database server, may be accessed. A conversation system with flexible aspects of dialogue moves control is commonly referred to as a "mixed-initiative" dialogue system.
Dialogue grammar and dialogue control engines are key components of mixed-initiative telephone conversation systems. There are several types such systems but many of them suffer from serious shortcomings. A system that relies on a generative dialogue act grammar may hardly capture the full flexibility of the conversation flow, for instance. A system that retains the interactive information between the user and the system in the local grammar tree recently generated suffers from the inflexibility of knowledge representation as well as limitation of the locality of the temporal scope. A system that relies solely on the grammar structure to capture the user's knowledge, intention or indication cannot account for other aspects of the knowledge structure, such as the ontological structure, for instance.

Knowledge-based flexible natural speech dialogue system


In a radio display pager, a memory has message fields and corresponding attribute fields. When a message is received, it is stored in one of the message fields which are vacant. A message stored in one of the message fields is then displayed in response to the operation of a manual operated key. A protect indication is stored into the attribute field of the displayed message if the key is not subsequendy operated within a predetermined time interval. If the key is operated within that interval, a protect indication, if present in the attribute field of the displayed message, is deleted. If a new message is received when the message fields are already full, an unprotected old message is discarded to vacate a message field in which the new message is stored.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to radio display pagers, and more specifically to a radio display pager where important messages are protected when a message memory is already filled to capacity upon arrival of a new message.
2. Description of the Related Art
Radio display pagers are usually provided with a memory for holding messages therein to allow the user to see them later when he becomes free to take necessary actions. Since the capacity of the memory is limited, the oldest message is discarded when the memory is already full upon arrival of a new message. However, the oldest message is not necessarily a less important message. Japanese Patent Hei-3-25059 discloses a radio display pager in which the user selects an important message and attaches a tag to it for indicating "protection" so that if the memory is already fill when a new message is received, an unprotected message is discarded and the oldest message, if protected, remains safely in the memory. However, the prior art pager employs four manually operated keys for functions such as alarm resetting, message scrolling, message deleting and message protection. Since the recent tendency is toward increasing the display area at the expense of the space for the keys, it is desirable to reduce the number of manually operated keys. In addition, it is desirable to simplify key operations using as less keys as possible.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,332,994, titled "Radio Pager with Power-Backup Memory for Storing Uncompleted Messages", S. Kawashima et discloses a radio display pager wherein a label is attached to a message stored in a power-backup memory if the message is not answered by the user within a prescribed interval. When the pager is turned off for power savings purposes, the message is kept in the memory and when it is turned on again the memory is searched. If a label-attached message is detected, the user is alerted with a sound pattern that is different from the sound pattern initially used when the message is arrived. The difference in sound pattern allows the user to quicky recognize that there is a message that is not answered.

Radio display pager with reduced manually operated keys


A stepper motor suitable for use in a medical imaging environment has (a) a cylindrical central gear having an external surface with circumferentially distributed and radially directed teeth, (b) a shaft for mounting the central gear such that it is constrained to move in rotational motion about its centerline, (c) a cylindrical hoop gear having a bore with an internal surface having circumferentially distributed and radially directed teeth, (d) level arm crank mechanisms for mounting the hoop gear such that it is constrained to move in translational-circular motion about the central gear's centerline, wherein this central gear is further configured to fit within the hoop gear's bore in such a manner that a plurality of the central gear and hoop gear teeth intermesh and cooperate so that the planetary movement of the hoop gear causes the central gear to rotate, and (e) piston mechanisms for applying a fluid pressure driven force to specified points on the hoop gear so as to cause its movement.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to stepper motors that can provide directional translational or rotary motion in discrete displacements. More particularly, one embodiment of the present invention relates to a pneumatic stepper motor which is constructed from materials that can be used in all classes of medical imaging equipment.
2. Description of Prior Art
Noninvasive, diagnostic imaging techniques, such as ultrasound, x-ray and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are widely used in medicine. They are used to produce cross-sectional images of a patient's organs and other internal body structures.
MRI typically involves the patient lying inside a large, hollow cylinder containing a strong electromagnet, which generates a strong and uniform magnetic field that causes the electrons in a patient's body to spin in a uniform and predictable manner. The MRI equipment can then manipulate the spinning electrons and use the resulting information to generate an image of the inside of a patient's body.
However, difficulties are encountered in obtaining accurate images when disruptions and deflections in the magnetic field are experienced due to the presence in the field of materials that produce a magnetic field and/or are susceptible to producing their own magnetic fields when placed within an external magnetic field.
One source of magnetic field distortion can be equipment such as motors that are in the vicinity of the MRI machine. Motors are generally formed with materials that produce a magnetic field. Examples of such materials that are commonly used in motors include iron and brass. Thus, when placed in the field generated by the MRI machine, the typical electric actuated motor can cause artifacts in the image of the patient's body. Other forms of medical imaging (e.g., x-ray and ultrasound imagers) are also seen to have similar problems of distortions in their output images due to the presence of motors in the vicinity of the imaging equipment.
This situation has been a considerable implement to the development of medical robots that can operate within a medical imaging environment. This is significant because a robot that could precisely operate within the closed bore of high intensity magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) equipment could offer a means to yield significant improvements in various types of medical procedures. For example, such a robot would make possible the performance of remote procedures within the scanner under MRI guidance. This could allow one to insert a needle precisely at the center of a small tumor visualized in the image for performing a tumor-centered biopsy. Such biopsy procedures are typically performed with randomized sampling techniques. The use of a robot could reduce the incidence of false-negative sampling.
It is possible to build pneumatic, or non-electric, actuated motors from materials that do not produce a magnetic field. However, pneumatic actuation has previously been used primarily in industrial and commercial applications for its low cost, compact size, high power to weight ratio, reliability, and low maintenance. In many cases these characteristics make it preferable over electric actuation, especially when a supply of air is readily available.
The major limitation of pneumatic actuators, rotary or linear, has been their reduced precision in controlled motion. This is mainly caused by air compressibility and friction in the valve and actuator which make the pump-line-actuator dynamic system highly nonlinear.
Novel hardware and pneumatic-servo control solutions have been proposed to deal with these problems and impressive results have been achieved in force control and rotary speed regulation. Nevertheless, these complex solutions require special care so that most of their practical applications are still limited to unregulated pneumatic motion. A new approach to a pneumatic actuator is needed to circumvent these pneumatic-servo problems and to make possible the development of a medical robot for use in medical imaging environments.
3. Objects and Advantages
There has been summarized above, rather broadly, the prior art that is related to the present invention in order that the context of the present invention may be better understood and appreciated. In this regard, it is instructive to also consider the objects and advantages of the present invention.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a stepper motor that can be used for medical applications which require the motor to be located in or in close proximity to medical imaging equipment.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a stepper motor that can be used in a surgical environment.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a motor that can provide precise, backlash-free motion.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a motor that does not utilize electrical power or electrical components for its operation.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a precise motor that can be powered by fluid power means.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become readily apparent as the invention is better understood by reference to the accompanying summary, drawings and the detailed description that follows.


A fuel reservoir with a diesel tank for receiving diesel fuel and a reduction agent tank for receiving urea. A partition wall is provided between the diesel tank and the reduction agent tank, and a diesel return line extends into the diesel tank. The diesel tank is fitted with a wash plate which has at least one passage opening and lies opposite the partition wall forming a diesel preheating chamber. The at least one passage opening is arranged in the wash plate such that diesel from the diesel return line is captured and held in the diesel preheating chamber.

A fuel reservoir is described in German Patent Publication DE 10 2007 012 948 A1, in which a fuel reservoir has a diesel tank and a reduction agent tank in which generally urea is stored. The urea is added metered to the exhaust gases as a reduction agent.
To reduce hunting movements of the fuel, in this case diesel, in the diesel tank and reduce the flow in the tank, a wash plate with passage openings is provided in the interior of the diesel tank.
On use of a reduction agent, in particular urea, there is a risk of freezing at low temperatures. This is the case in particular if the walls of the reduction agent chamber are in direct contact with the environment or the vehicle exterior. To prevent this risk, therefore, additional heating for the reduction agent tank has already been proposed.
German Patent Publication DE 197 29 003 C2 describes a tank for a vehicle with an exhaust cleaning system operated with a reduction agent. Here the diesel tank and the reduction agent tank are joined into one unit. For heat transmission, the partition walls between the reduction agent tank and the diesel tank are formed with good thermal conductivity.


The present invention discloses a sample holder for a miniature device for use in a parallel lapping tool that is equipped with a hollow-centered sample holder assembly such that the condition of the sample being prepared can be continuously monitored from either the top side or the bottom side of the holder, and at least three adjusting screws that are used to adjust a plane of lapping to be the same as the plane of interest in said miniature device to be observed such that once the plane is obtained, only the sample displacement knob situated at the center of the holder needs to be adjusted to further advance the sample for removal of more material.

In the fabrication process for integrated circuit (IC) devices, methods of microscopic examination are frequently used for quality control purpose and for examination of defects. For instance, either an optical microscope at high magnification or a transmission electron microscope can be used to examine features in an IC device for process verification and quality assurance. The microscopes can be used to examine passivation layers and via formation between metal conductor layers, and defects in polygate formation.
To prepare samples of IC devices for microscopic examination, an extremely smooth surface on the sample must first be prepared. Conventionally, a lapping or polishing apparatus is utilized for preparing such samples for microscopic examination. In a lapping tool, a lapping or polishing wheel having an abrasive surface such as a diamond abrasive paper is used to remove surface layers on an IC device. In order to insure an accurate and even removal of the surface layers, the IC device must be securely held in a sample holder. Conventionally, numerous commercially available sample holders are used for such purpose.
One of such commercially available sample holder is shown in FIG. 1A. In the parallel lapper 10, a micronmeter 12 is used to advance a die such that surface layers of minute thickness on the die 20 can be removed. The die 20 is shown in FIG. 1B. A die holder 16, which is a liquid filled diaphragm is used to hold the die 20 for attaching to a disc (not shown) in the lapping tool 10. The parallel lapper 10 can be held by hand and pressed upon a grinding wheel, or a polishing disc 22. A typical polishing or lapping disc used is a diamond abrasive paper. In the lapping tool 10 shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, while the thickness of the surface layer of the die 20 removed can be controlled by the micronmeter 12, the planarity of the new surface on the die 20 cannot be accurately controlled. In other words, a larger thickness may be removed from one edge of the die than the other edge of the die. This causes great processing difficulties in preserving a specific feature or a defect in the die surface that is to be examined.
An improved parallel lapper 30 is shown in FIG. 2. In parallel lapper 30, three equally spaced micronmeters 32 are mounted in a sample holder disc 26 while an IC die is held by a sample mount 28. The parallel lapper 30 provides the benefit of improved control of the planarity of the sample surface to be polished. By suitably adjusting the three micronmeters 32, an accurate thickness of the sample surface can be removed. However, each time an additional layer on the die surface is to be removed, all three micronmeters 32 must be simultaneously adjusted. The adjustment presents a laborious task in using the parallel lapper 30 for preparing a sample surface on an IC die. Moreover, in order to determine whether a desirable surface has been obtained, i.e., the surface which contains the defect to be examined, the IC die held on the sample mount 28 must be examined in an inverted microscope to make such determination. The condition of the IC die cannot be observed from the top of the parallel lapper 30.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a sample holder for a miniature device for use in a parallel lapping tool that does not have the drawbacks and shortcomings of the conventional sample holders.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a sample holder for an electronic device for use in a parallel lapping tool that is equipped with a hollow-centered sample holder assembly such that the condition of the sample surface and the lapping process can be readily monitored from the top of the sample holder assembly.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a sample holder for an IC device for use in a parallel lapping tool that is equipped with a hollow-centered sample holder assembly and at least three adjusting screws equally spaced circumferentially from each other and radially from the center of the holder such that a plane of polish can be adjusted to parallel a plane of interest in the IC device.
It is another further object of the present invention to provide a sample holder for an IC device for use in a parallel lapping tool that is equipped with a hollow-centered sample holder assembly threadingly engaging the sample holder body such that, after a plane of polish is adjusted to parallel a plane of interest, the thickness of the layer removed from the sample surface can be readily adjusted by advancing the sample holder assembly.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a sample holder for an IC device for use in a parallel lapping tool that has a sample holder body of disc shape, a threaded center aperture and at least three threaded apertures situated equally spaced circumferentially from each other and radially from the center aperture.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a sample holder for an IC device for use in a parallel lapping process which is equipped with a hollow-centered sample holder assembly and a sample mounting knob equipped with a substantially clear window for mounting the IC device thereto.
It is still another further object of the present invention to provide a method for mounting an electronic device to a sample holder for use in a parallel lapping tool by providing a hollow-centered sample holder assembly mounted in a sample holder body for adjusting the thickness of the sample surface to be removed and at least three adjusting screws for adjusting a plane of polish to be parallel with a plane of interest in the electronic device and then mounting the electronic device to the hollow-centered sample holder assembly.
It is yet another further object of the present invention to provide a method for parallel lapping an integrated circuit device by first providing a hollow-centered sample holder assembly mounted in a sample holder body for adjusting the thickness of surface layer to be removed and at least three adjusting screws for adjusting a plane of polish to a plane of interest and then lapping an IC device mounted to the sample holder assembly in a parallel lapping tool while observing the progress of lapping through the hollow-centered holder assembly.

Sample holder for parallel lapping tool and method of using

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


The invention relates to a system for detachably fixing a surface component (16) to a background (18), especially a tile to a wall or on a bottom, whereby projections connected to the surface component when secured to the background and/or recesses engage with recesses connected to the background and/or projections, said recesses and projections being correspondingly embodied in such a way that they have deformable undercuts in the direction of the distance of said component from the background, the projections and recesses connected to the background being embodied on a forming film (4). The projections and recesses embodied on the surface component (4) are formed by a hardenable bonding material (22) which is applied to the forming film (4) joined to the background (18, 26) and/or to the surface component before it is pressed onto the forming film, said material bonding with the surface component when hardened.

The installation of tiles, floor boards, etc. is associated with much time and effort on the one hand, and leaves many problems unresolved on the other hand. For example, it is possible only with much difficulty to obtain a reliable seal between the surface of the tiles and the sub-surface with the connecting materials currently in use, such as mortar, adhesive etc. Furthermore, tile or plate elements can be removed from the sub-surface only with substantial time and effort. The removal of plate elements from the sub-surface is necessary, for example, when tiles or floor boards need to be replaced in showroom kitchens, when tiles or floor boards have to be replaced in a residential house, etc.
A method of fixing panels to a sub-surface is known from DE 40 26 472 C2. In connection with such fastening, a plastic layer with elevations and/or recesses is applied to the backsides of the panels, and a coating with recesses and/or elevations is provided on the sub-surface, whereby the elevations and/or recesses of the coating correspond with those of the plastic layer in such a way that they clamp together, so that the panels can be press-fit onto the coating layer of the sub-surface and are securable thereon in a form-fit manner. The coating layer that can be secured on the sub-surface is formed, for example, by means of a shaped foil made of polypropylene or ABS that, for example, can be nailed to the sub-surface. The elevations and/or recesses may be configured in such a manner that they easily engage each other by means of undercuts. A characteristic feature of the known type of fastening is that the panels have to be individually provided with the plastic layer, which is expensive. Furthermore, it is not possible to re-position the panels pressed onto the sub-surface due to the engagement between the recesses and the elevations, which are arranged in a grid-like configuration, so that it is not possible, for example, to compensate for tolerances existing between tiles.
A similar detachable fixing of tiles to a sub-surface is known from DE OS 1 926 226, where the sub-surface and the backsides of the tiles are each provided with a profiled support plate, whereby the profiled support plates are provided with projections and recesses that engage each other in a locking manner with an undercut and can be elastically deformed, so that they are detachable.

Method and system for detachably fixing a planar component to a sub-surface


Systems and methods for a ring laser gyroscope with electrically isolated dither motor are provided. In one embodiment, a ring laser gyroscope, the gyroscope comprises: a laser block comprising a discharge gas filled chamber ring, a cathode, an anode and at least one other electrode; a dither motor mechanically coupled to the laser block and to a sensor chassis, wherein the laser block is secured to the sensor chassis by the dither motor; and an electrical isolator positioned between the dither motor and the laser block, wherein the electrical isolator electrically isolates the dither motor from the sensor chassis.

Ring laser gyroscopes are known to exhibit a reduction of lifetime at elevated temperatures. Previously identified solutions to obtain longer gyro life at elevated temperature have involved changing the anode and cathode electrode biasing on the ring laser gyroscopes. One problem with these prior solutions is that the each require significant electronic changes to the circuits that control energization of the discharge gas, and add complexity to the ring laser gyroscopes control electronics that may be more costly, and impacts system users of ring laser gyroscopes that design separate, unique electronics to control the RLG in an inertial system.
For the reasons stated above and for other reasons stated below which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the specification, there is a need in the art for alternate systems and methods for providing ring laser gyroscopes with an electrically isolated dither motor.


Uterine activity is sensed by passing light through the patient's abdominal wall and detecting the light reflected from abdominal tissues. The intensity of the reflected light varies with the state of contraction of the patient's uterus. The use of light for monitoring uterine activity avoids the problems of size, fixation, and measurement accuracy exhibited by the conventional tocodynamometer technique.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the non-invasive sensing, detecting, and/or monitoring of uterine activity, including uterine contractions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Tocodynamometers have been and are being used to non-invasively monitor uterine contractions. Such devices mechanically sense the hardness of the abdominal wall. These devices suffer from a number of problems, the primary one of which is that they provide relative data which in many cases does not reflect the actual intensity of uterine contractions. Also, the devices are large, require belts for attachment to the patient, and are sensitive to movement of the device relative to the patient's abdomen.