Encapsulating packets includes receiving packets at a queue of an encapsulator. The following operations are repeated until certain criteria are satisfied. A number of packets are accumulated at the queue. A current encapsulation efficiency associated with the accumulated packets is determined. A next encapsulation efficiency associated with the accumulated packets and a predicted next packet is determined. If the current encapsulation efficiency satisfies an encapsulation efficiency threshold and if the current encapsulation efficiency is greater than the next encapsulation efficiency, the accumulated packets are encapsulated. Otherwise, the packets continue to be accumulated at the queue.

Encapsulating packets in a communication system may involve the use of multiple queues for buffering packets waiting to be encapsulated. Packets at different queues, however, may experience different waiting times prior to encapsulation, also known as packet delay variation. Packet delay variation may introduce unwanted jitter into the communication system. Moreover, encapsulation according to known techniques may result in sub-optimal bandwidth usage of a communications channel. Furthermore, packets associated with Internet Protocol (IP) traffic may involve datagrams of variable size, which may affect encapsulation for optimal bandwidth usage. Consequently, encapsulating packets while controlling jitter and enhancing bandwidth utilization has posed challenges.

Method and system for encapsulating variable-size packets


A MEMS microphone includes a substrate, a lower membrane supported on the substrate, an upper membrane suspended above the lower membrane, a first electrode supported on the lower membrane, and a second electrode supported on the upper membrane. The lower membrane and the upper membrane enclose a cavity in which the first electrode and the second electrode are located. The lower membrane and the upper membrane are each formed of silicon carbonitride (SiCN). The first electrode and the second electrode are each formed of polysilicon.

Previously known MEMS microphone chip designs included a fixed electrode formed by a thick, perforated epipoly layer, below which was a patterned polysilicon membrane with anchor structures and springs attached via oxide spacers. In order to fabricate such chips, the polysilicon and sacrificial oxide layers are deposited and then the latter are etched away by gas phase etching. Thus the membrane is released and free to move. However, the fabrication process resulted in the front side of the membrane being opened and susceptible to particle and moisture contamination.
Newer MEMS chips have been designed to be less susceptible to particle contamination. For example, a Pancake design (based on the "Steel City" approach) as been developed which uses two completely closed, flexible, mechanically coupled membranes with a polysilicon electrode in between. The displacement of the membrane due to sound pressure leads to capacity changes within the inner electrodes, which in turn can be read out from the ASIC.
The fabrication process for MEMS chips, according to the pancake approach, have typically required wet chemical etching processes to release the membranes. It is critical that the MEMS chip then go through a stiction-free drying process. Such drying processes can be complex and elaborate.
What is needed is a method of fabricating a particle-immune MEMS microphone chip that does not require wet chemical etching and that has additional advantages known MEMS microphone designs.


A device, method and system for assigning alerts to sensor analytics engines is provided. A device one or more of generates and receives an alert to perform a search for a target object. The device determines a geographic area in which to perform the search for the target object. The device determines sensors available in the geographic area for use in the search for the target object. The device, in response to the sensors meeting a threshold condition, assigns the alert to a sensor analytics engine to search for the target object using the sensors. The device, in response to the sensors not meeting the threshold condition, provides the alert to one or more communication devices to initiate a human-based search for the target object.

Alerts, such as public-safety alerts and the like, are used to initiate human-based searches for target objects, such as humans, vehicles, animals, etc. However, such alerts may result in heavy use of human-based resources as first responders, volunteers, etc. search for the target object.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help improve understanding of embodiments of the present disclosure.
The system, apparatus, and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present disclosure so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.

Device, process and system for assigning alerts to sensor analytics engines


A hard disk drive that includes a voice coil motor and a micro-actuator. The micro-actuator is controlled by a servo that utilizes a micro-actuator controller and a corresponding micro-actuator transfer function. The servo enters a mode to self-determine at least one transfer function coefficient of the micro-actuator controller.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a servo routine of a hard disk drive.
2. Background Information
Hard disk drives contain a plurality of magnetic heads that are coupled to rotating disks. The heads write and read information by magnetizing and sensing the magnetic fields of the disk surfaces. Each head is attached to a flexure arm to create a subassembly commonly referred to as a head gimbal assembly ("HGA"). The HGA's are suspended from an actuator arm. The actuator arm has a voice coil motor that can move the heads across the surfaces of the disks.
Information is typically stored in radial tracks that extend across the surface of each disk. Each track is typically divided into a number of segments or sectors. The voice coil motor and actuator arm can move the heads to different tracks of the disks.
FIG. 1 shows a typical track that has a number of fields associated with each sector. A sector may include an automatic gain control ("AGC") field 1 that is used to adjust the strength of the read signal, a sync field 2 to establish a timing reference for the circuits of the drive, and ID 3 and Gray Code 4 fields to provide sector and track identification.
Each sector may have also a servo field 5 located adjacent to a data field 6. The servo field 5 contains a plurality of servo bits A, B, C and D that are read and utilized in a servo routine to position the head 7 relative to the track. By way of example, the servo routine may utilize the algorithm of ((A−B)−(C−D)) to create a position error signal ("PES"). The PES is used to create a drive signal for the voice coil motor to position the head on the track.
Some disk drives contain a micro-actuator that can provide micro-control of the head position. For hard drives with a micro-actuator the servo will have three loops. A loop for the voice coil motor, a loop for the micro-actuator and an overall loop for the system.
Each servo loop has a corresponding transfer function. For example, the voice coil motor loop has a transfer function and the micro-actuator has a transfer function. Each transfer function can typically be defined by the following equation:ym=A[λ cos((2π/N)k)+β sin((2π/N)k)]  (1)where λ and β are coefficients that contain the magnitude and phase of the transfer function.
The transfer function of a micro-actuator may vary from part to part. Additionally, the transfer function may vary with temperature and time. It is therefore desirable to determine the transfer function of the micro-actuator.
One way to obtain the transfer function of the micro-actuator is determine the transfer function of the voice coil motor and the overall transfer function of the servo system and then calculate the micro-actuator transfer function using the overall and voice coil motor transfer function. This approach can lead to inaccurate results. It would be desirable to more accurately determine the transfer function of a micro-actuator.

Online identification of secondary actuator transfer function via system decoupling in multiple-stage actuator servo systems in disk drives


Antagonists of glucagon-like peptide 2, have been identified. Their effects on the growth of gastrointestinal tissue are described. Its formulation as a pharmaceutical, and its therapeutic and related uses in treating bowel tissue, are described. Also described are methods of identifying antagonists of glucagon-like peptide 2.

Expression of the glucagon gene yields a tissue-determined variety of peptide products that are processed from the 160 residue proglucagon product. The organization of these peptides within the proglucagon precursor was elucidated by the molecular cloning of preproglucagon cDNAs from the anglerfish, rat, hamster and bovine pancreas. These analyses revealed that preproglucagon contains not only the sequence of glucagon and glicentin, but also two additional glucagon-like peptides (GLP-1 and GLP-2) separated from glucagon and each other by two spacer or intervening peptides (IP-I and IP-II). These peptides are flanked by pairs of basic amino acids, characteristic of classic prohormone cleavage sites, suggesting they might be liberated after posttranslational processing of proglucagon (Drucker, Pancreas, 1990, 5(4):484). Analysis of the peptides liberated from proglucagon in the pancreatic islets of Langerhans, for instance, suggests the primary pancreatic peptide liberated is the 29-mer glucagon, whereas glicentin, oxyntomodulin, IP-II and the glucagon-like peptides are more prevalent in the small and large intestines. This demonstration that the glucagon-like peptides are found in the intestine has prompted research into the precise structure and putative function(s) of these newly discovered gut peptides. Most studies have focussed on GLP-1, because several lines of evidence suggested that GLP-1 may be an important new regulatory peptide. Indeed, it has been determined that GLP-1 is the most potent known peptidergic stimulus for insulin release, an action mediated in a glucose-dependent manner through interaction with receptors on pancreatic .beta. cells. GLP-1 and its derivatives are in development for use in the treatment of diabetics.
With respect to its biological role of GLP-2, co-pending application U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/422,540, incorporated in its entirety herein by reference, discloses that mammalian GLP-2 acts as a trophic agent, to promote growth of intestinal tissue. The effect of GLP-2 is marked particularly by increased growth of the small intestine. Furthermore, co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/631,273, incorporated in its entirety herein by reference, discloses that analogs of vertebrate GLP-2 can have enhanced intestinotrophic activity.

Antagonists of intestinotrophic GLP-2 peptides


A lighting device comprises a solid state light emitter, first and second electrodes connected to the emitter, an encapsulant region comprising a silicone compound and a supporting region. The encapsulant region extends to an external surface of the lighting device. At least a portion of the first electrode is surrounded by the supporting region. The encapsulant region and the supporting region together define an outer surface which substantially encompasses the emitter. A method of making a lighting device, comprises electrically connecting first and second electrodes to an emitter; inserting the emitter into mold cavity; inserting an encapsulant composition comprising a one silicone compound; and then inserting a second composition to substantially surround at least a portion of the first electrode.

A large proportion (some estimates are as high as twenty-five percent) of the electricity generated in the United States each year goes to lighting. Accordingly, there is an ongoing need to provide lighting which is more energy-efficient. It is well-known that incandescent light bulbs are very energy-inefficient light sources—about ninety percent of the electricity they consume is released as heat rather than light. Fluorescent light bulbs are more efficient than incandescent light bulbs (by a factor of about 10) but are still less efficient as compared to solid state light emitters, such as light emitting diodes.
In addition, as compared to the normal lifetimes of solid state light emitters, e.g., light emitting diodes, incandescent light bulbs have relatively short lifetimes, i.e., typically about 750-1000 hours. In comparison, light emitting diodes, for example, have typical lifetimes between 50,000 and 70,000 hours. Fluorescent bulbs have longer lifetimes (e.g., 10,000-20,000 hours) than incandescent lights, but provide less favorable color reproduction.
Another issue faced by conventional light fixtures is the need to periodically replace the lighting devices (e.g., light bulbs, etc.). Such issues are particularly pronounced where access is difficult (e.g., vaulted ceilings, bridges, high buildings, traffic tunnels) and/or where change-out costs are extremely high. The typical lifetime of conventional fixtures is about 20 years, corresponding to a light-producing device usage of at least about 44,000 hours (based on usage of 6 hours per day for 20 years). Light-producing device lifetime is typically much shorter, thus creating the need for periodic change-outs.
Accordingly, for these and other reasons, efforts have been ongoing to develop ways by which light emitting diodes and other solid state light emitters can be used in place of incandescent lights, fluorescent lights and other light-generating devices in a wide variety of applications. In addition, where light emitting diodes (or other solid state light emitters) are already being used, efforts are ongoing to provide light emitting diodes (or other solid state light emitters) which are improved, e.g., with respect to energy efficiency, color rendering index (CRI Ra), contrast, efficacy (lm/W), cost, and/or duration of service.
A variety of solid state light emitters are well-known. For example, one type of solid state light emitter is a light emitting diode. Light emitting diodes are well-known semiconductor devices that convert electrical current into light. A wide variety of light emitting diodes are used in increasingly diverse fields for an ever-expanding range of purposes.
More specifically, light emitting diodes are semiconducting devices that emit light (ultraviolet, visible, or infrared) when a potential difference is applied across a p-n junction structure. There are a number of well-known ways to make light emitting diodes and many associated structures, and the present invention can employ any such devices. By way of example, Chapters 12-14 of Sze, Physics of Semiconductor Devices, (2d Ed. 1981) and Chapter 7 of Sze, Modern Semiconductor Device Physics (1998) describe a variety of photonic devices, including light emitting diodes.
The expression "light emitting diode" is used herein to refer to the basic semiconductor diode structure (i.e., the chip). The commonly recognized and commercially available "LED" that is sold (for example) in electronics stores typically represents a "packaged" device made up of a number of parts. These packaged devices typically include a semiconductor based light emitting diode such as (but not limited to) those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,918,487; 5,631,190; and 5,912,477; various wire connections, and a package that encapsulates the light emitting diode.
As is well-known, a light emitting diode produces light by exciting electrons across the band gap between a conduction band and a valence band of a semiconductor active (light-emitting) layer. The electron transition generates light at a wavelength that depends on the band gap. Thus, the color of the light (wavelength) emitted by a light emitting diode depends on the semiconductor materials of the active layers of the light emitting diode.
Because light that is perceived as white is necessarily a blend of light of two or more colors (or wavelengths), no single light emitting diode junction has been developed that can produce white light. "White" LED lamps have been produced which have a light emitting diode pixel formed of respective red, green and blue light emitting diodes. Another "white" LED lamp which has been produced includes (1) a light emitting diode which generates blue light and (2) a luminescent material (e.g., a phosphor) that emits yellow light in response to excitation by light emitted by the light emitting diode, whereby the blue light and the yellow light, when mixed, produce light that is perceived as white light.
Light emitting diodes can thus be used individually or in any combinations, optionally together with one or more luminescent material (e.g., phosphors or scintillators) and/or filters, to generate light of any desired perceived color (including white). Accordingly, the areas in which efforts are being made to replace existing light sources with light emitting diode light sources, e.g., to improve energy efficiency, color rendering index (CRI Ra), efficacy (lm/W), and/or duration of service, are not limited to any particular color or color blends of light.
A wide variety of luminescent materials (also known as lumiphors or luminophoric media, e.g., as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,600,175, the entirety of which is hereby incorporated by reference) are well-known and available to persons of skill in the art. For example, a phosphor is a luminescent material that emits a responsive radiation (e.g., visible light) when excited by a source of exciting radiation. In many instances, the responsive radiation has a wavelength which is different from the wavelength of the exciting radiation. Other examples of luminescent materials include scintillators, day glow tapes and inks which glow in the visible spectrum upon illumination with ultraviolet light.
Luminescent materials can be categorized as being down-converting, i.e., a material which converts photons to a lower energy level (longer wavelength) or up-converting, i.e., a material which converts photons to a higher energy level (shorter wavelength).
Inclusion of luminescent materials in LED devices has been accomplished by adding the luminescent materials to a clear or substantially transparent encapsulant material (e.g., epoxy-based, silicone-based, glass-based or metal oxide-based material) as discussed above, for example by a blending or coating process.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,963,166 (Yano '166) discloses that a conventional light emitting diode lamp includes a light emitting diode chip, a bullet-shaped transparent housing to cover the light emitting diode chip, leads to supply current to the light emitting diode chip, and a cup reflector for reflecting the emission of the light emitting diode chip in a uniform direction, in which the light emitting diode chip is encapsulated with a first resin portion, which is further encapsulated with a second resin portion. According to Yano '166, the first resin portion is obtained by filling the cup reflector with a resin material and curing it after the light emitting diode chip has been mounted onto the bottom of the cup reflector and then has had its cathode and anode electrodes electrically connected to the leads by way of wires. According to Yano '166, a phosphor is dispersed in the first resin portion so as to be excited with the light A that has been emitted from the light emitting diode chip, the excited phosphor produces fluorescence ("light B") that has a longer wavelength than the light A, a portion of the light A is transmitted through the first resin portion including the phosphor, and as a result, light C, as a mixture of the light A and light B, is used as illumination.
Although the development of light emitting diodes has in many ways revolutionized the lighting industry, some of the characteristics of light emitting diodes have presented challenges, some of which have not yet been fully met. For example, as flux densities and flux energies of LEDs have increased dramatically, it has been seen that many standard LED encapsulation materials (e.g., optically clear epoxy) optically degrades (e.g., turns yellow, brown or black). This optical degradation has been seen to be caused by high flux density and/or high flux energy, and has been seen to be exacerbated by high temperatures.
There is an ongoing need for ways to use light emitting diodes in a wider variety of applications, with greater energy efficiency, with improved color rendering index (CRI Ra), with improved efficacy (lm/W), and/or with longer duration of service.


The present invention relates to methods and compositions for maintaining or enhancing feeding characteristics of post-receiving stressed animals using a saponin composition. In an embodiment, the invention includes a method for increasing feed intake of an animal after a post-receiving stressful event comprising administering an effective amount of a composition comprising saponins to the animal. In an embodiment, the invention includes a method for increasing weight gain of an animal after a post-receiving stressful event comprising administering an effective amount of a composition comprising saponins to the animal.

Animals that have undergone a post-receiving stressful event such as handling, weighing, vaccination, implanting, ultrasonic back fat screening, pregnancy testing, etc., can exhibit reduced feed intake after the stressful event. The loss in feed intake has been observed to typically fall within a rage of 5-15% loss of feed intake on a dry matter basis. This reduced feed intake typically lasts for a period of 2-10 days. However, a significant percentage (30%) of these stressful events produce losses in feed intake that never fully recover.
Losses in feed intake can result in economic losses for cattle owners and feedlots alike. Specifically, a 10% drop in feed intake over a 5-day period can mean a loss of approximately 10 pounds of feed intake on a dry matter basis. When applied across the 25 million cattle produced in the US each year, a drop in 10 pounds of feed intake translates to a loss of approximately 25-50 million pounds of beef and 250 million pounds of feed not consumed for a total economic impact of 35-60 million per stress event (assuming a fat cattle price of $0.80/pound, a ration cost of $0.07/pound and a feed conversion rate of 5-10 pounds of feed per pound of gain). The economic impact is even greater when considering the significant percentage of animals that never recover from a stressful event for which feed intake is depressed for the remainder of their lives. These steers that never fully recover may have decreased average daily gain numbers on the order of 0.4 pounds per day. Thus, for example, over an 80-day period this decrease can result in 32 pounds less gain.
Therefore, a need exists for methods and compositions for maintaining or enhancing feeding characteristics of animals.

Methods and compositions for maintaining or enhancing feeding characteristics in post-receiving stressed animals


A method and apparatus for optimizing data record quality on a disk for a pair of read and write heads, in which the write head is bigger, by adaptively varying linear and track density of overlapping recorded tracks to achieve a target storage capacity. In the method, target storage capacity and radial writing direction are selected. Read and write widths of heads are determined. A linear density and offset distance pairing for optimizing record quality at target storage capacity is determined, wherein offset distance is less than write width but greater than read width. The write head writes a track at the linear density, is offset in the radial direction by the offset distance, and the offset distance is stored. The write head writes a new track at the linear density. Offsetting, storing offset, and writing a new track are repeated until desired data is written into a cluster.

Hard disk drives are used in almost all computer system operations. In fact, most computing systems are not operational without some type of hard disk drive to store the most basic computing information such as the boot operation, the operating system, the applications, and the like. In general, the hard disk drive is a device which may or may not be removable, but without which the computing system will generally not operate.
The basic hard disk drive model includes a storage disk or hard disk that spins at a designed rotational speed. An actuator arm with a suspended slider is utilized to reach out over the disk. The arm carries a head assembly that has a magnetic read/write transducer or head for reading/writing information to or from a location on the disk. The complete head assembly, e.g., the suspension and head, is called a head gimbal assembly (HGA).
In operation, the hard disk is rotated at a set speed via a spindle motor assembly having a central drive hub. There are tracks at known intervals across the disk. When a request for a read of a specific portion or track is received, the hard disk aligns the head, via the arm, over the specific track location and the head reads the information from the disk. In the same manner, when a request for a write of a specific portion or track is received, the hard disk aligns the head, via the arm, over the specific track location and the head writes the information to the disk.
Over the years, the disk and the head have undergone great reductions in their size. Much of the refinement has been driven by consumer demand for smaller and more portable hard drives such as those used in personal digital assistants (PDAs), Moving Picture Experts Group audio layer 3 (MP3) players, and the like. For example, the original hard disk drive had a disk diameter of 24 inches. Modern hard disk drives are much smaller and include disk diameters of less than 2.5 inches (micro drives are significantly smaller than that). Advances in magnetic recording density are also primary reasons for the reduction in size.
However, the increase of recording density requires decreased read and write track width and tight track width tolerance. It is becoming difficult to manufacture read and write heads to the tolerances required by today's small track sizes. When the write track width exceeds track pitch, erasure of adjacent tracks occurs. When the write track width is smaller than read width, the read head can easily pick track edge noise and interference data, data error rate degrades.
One solution to the problem is to use wider write heads, vary track and linear density, and write wide tracks that overlap each other, instead of tracks that are independent of each other. The track width is dependent on the offset between adjacent tracks at writing, not the write head track width. This gives the advantage of much relaxed tolerance requirement for the write head.

Method and apparatus for optimizing record quality with varying track and linear density by allowing overlapping data tracks

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Netherlands B.V.


A time-of-flight camera may be used to generate depth images of a scene, where the scene includes retroreflective materials. The time-of-flight camera may capture first sensor data by illuminating the scene at a first energy level, and by exposing a sensor for a first duration. If portions of the sensor are saturated by light reflected from retroreflective materials, corrupted pixels are detected within the first sensor data. A second set of sensor data may be captured by illuminating the scene at a second energy level, or by exposing the sensor for a second duration. The corrupted pixels may be identified and masked from the first sensor data, which may be blended with corresponding portions of the second sensor data to generate a depth image.

A "time-of-flight" camera is a depth-sensing or range-sensing system that operates by illuminating a scene using a light source (e.g., a modulated light source) and capturing light that is reflected from various points of the scene following the illumination. Time-of-flight cameras are typically equipped with an illuminator for illuminating a scene, and a sensor for capturing reflected light from the scene. The reflected light that is captured by a time-of-flight camera sensor may be interpreted to generate a depth image or profile of portions of the scene within a field of view of the time-of-flight camera. Some time-of-flight cameras may capture and interpret reflected light, and generate depth images or profiles of portions of scenes from such reflected light, several dozen times per second. Depth images or profiles generated by time-of-flight cameras can be very accurate.
A retroreflector is an object or surface that reflects light with minimal scattering, typically with rays having vectors that are parallel to and opposite in direction from a source of the light. Retroreflective materials are commonly used in applications where enhanced visibility is desired, such as by applying retroreflective materials to surfaces of objects of importance in areas or environments having varying weather or lighting conditions, e.g., safety cones, street signs, highway barriers, or road stripes. Retroreflective materials may also be worn by workers who operate in such areas. For example, protective or working clothing such as jackets, vests, pants, shirts, hats, gloves or the like may be formed from fabrics having one or more strips, bands, layers, panels or other sectors of retroreflective material. Alternatively, some such clothing may be formed from retroreflective material in their entirety.
In some applications, the effectiveness of a time-of-flight camera may be diminished where one or more retroreflective materials are present within a field of view of the time-of-flight camera. In particular, retroreflectivity may cause pixel sensors of a time-of-flight camera to be saturated, which distorts or corrupts a set of depth data generated by the time-of-flight camera, and results in one or more distortions or corruptions within a depth image generated from the set of depth data. For example, where a small number of pixel sensors of a time-of-flight camera detect light reflected from retroreflective materials, and are saturated by the reflected light, a corresponding portion of a depth image generated from data captured by the time-of-flight camera lacks accurate depth signals in this portion within the depth image. Where a large number of pixel sensors detect light reflected from retroreflective materials, portions of the depth image corresponding to the retroreflective materials are visibly blank, and an additional buffer, or halo, appears around the retroreflective materials due to light scattering within optical sensors of the time-of-flight camera. Retroreflective materials may therefore disrupt the processes by which depth images are generated for a scene using time-of-flight cameras, and result in the generation of depth images having substantially limited value.

Temporal high dynamic range imaging using time-of-flight cameras


The invention concerns pulse echo distance measurement and in particular a method and apparatus for calculating such a distance by sensing multiple reflections of a given pulse signal. By sensing multiple reflections, and not just the primary echo, internal time delays which would otherwise cause systematic errors may be simply eliminated and the multiple readings obtained may be utilized to provide system self-diagnostic checks, eliminate spurious information and provide an accurate measure of distance. A particular advantage of the method is that very small distances between sensor and target may be measured.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an improved method and apparatus for use in pulse echo distance measurement.
2. Description of the Related Art
Pulse echo methods are well known for use in distance measuring. In such methods a pulse of radiation is transmitted towards a target, reflected at the target, and received by a sensor and the time elapsed between transmission and the time when the first or primary echo is received from the target is measured. Multiplying this travel time by the pulse propagation velocity gives twice the distance to the target. Types of radiation commonly used are electromagnetic radiation (radar), optical radiation (lidar) or acoustics (sonar). The target may be a solid object whose position is to be pinpointed or the target may be the boundary between a liquid and a gas or between two or more liquids to measure the depth of one or more of the liquids. The liquid may be flowing within a channel, for example, a river or may be non-flowing, in a natural basin or within a tank. Typically in such systems, the signal is an ultrasonic signal using a submerged ultrasonic sensor or the sensor may be fixed to a rigid structure in air above a target surface, looking down on the target. In a further prior art arrangement, a fixed submerged sensor is mounted to a structure such as a bridge and utilized to monitor a distance from the sensor to the surface of, for example, a river bed. Variations in distance imply that either the bridge is shifting or that the bridge foundations are being eroded.
Such prior art devices determine the value relating to the primary echo. This is achieved by measuring the time elapsed between applying an electronic stimulus to the transmitting element and the detection of the first reflected electronic echo signal from the receiving element. This measurement contains delays not related to the pulse travel time through the liquid due to the delay between the stimulus to the transmitting element and the actual transmission of a signal and the time travelled within the sensor until it reaches its surface before being directed towards the target. Similarly there is a delay between the signal reaching the sensor surface and travelling to the receiving element and then the detection of the echo signal from the receiving element. These delays which may vary with operating conditions have to be removed by calibration. This can lead to either expensive calibration or errors in the system. The primary echo can be confused by spurious echoes from materials within the liquid, by missing echoes and when the primary echo falls within the blanking period (to be discussed later). This can cause unnecessary errors.


A support structure for supporting a display includes a post extending between a first end and a second end, an arm movably coupled to the post, and a grip assembly for moveably coupling the arm to the post. The grip assembly includes a housing, an actuator assembly, a retention component movably positioned in the housing, and a resilient member that biases the retention component to a first position, in which, the grip assembly is engaged to the post.

The present invention relates to a support structure and more particularly to a support structure for a screen.
Displays, such as computer monitors, TVs, etc., are often used in working environments. Typically, displays are supported by support structures. It is often desired by users to be able to adjust the height of the displays in order to gain a better view of the display. However, many support structures for displays are difficult to adjust and require great effort by the user to adjust the height. In addition, many displays are supplied with incorporated support structures that are either difficult to adjust or do not allow a range of movement required for a full ergonomic solution.

COLEBROOK BOSSON & SAUNDERS (PRODUCTS) LIMITED


A micro-structure transfer system may include a printhead and a pressure control device to control a pressure of fluid coupled with the printhead. The pressure control device forms a meniscus of fluid at a number of nozzles defined within the printhead to pick up a number of micro-structures. A printhead for transferring micro-structures includes a number of fluid chambers, a number of nozzles defined in an orifice plate through which fluid may exit the chambers, and a pressure control device to control a pressure of fluid within each of the chambers. The pressure control device forms a meniscus of the fluid at a number of nozzles defined within the printhead to pick up a number of micro-structures.

Micro- and nano-fabrication are processes of fabricating structures of micrometer and nanometer scales. Structures of this scale may be referred to as micro-structures. Micro-light emitting diodes (μLEDs) are LEDs fabricated at micrometer or smaller scales, and may be used in display devices to serve as individual pixel elements. The μLEDs provide greater contrast and faster response times, while consuming far less energy than other display device technologies. However, due to the extremely small size of micro-structures such as μLEDs, manufacturing electrical devices such as a μLED display device that includes the micro-structures may be difficult due to their extremely small size. This may prove particularly difficult if the micro-structures are transferred from one substrate to another during the manufacturing process.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers designate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


An interactive enthalpy exchange system for infant care includes a pouch for receiving an infant, and a heat source arranged in the pouch. The heat source includes a first heat source and a second heat source different from the first heat source. Control circuitry is operatively coupled to the heat source, the control circuitry configured to control interactive enthalpy between the first heat source and the second heat source to maintain a temperature within the pouch at a prescribed temperature.

Roughly 15 million infants are born premature every year. Prematurity is a daunting challenge we face all over the world, despite advances in healthcare. Due to the lack of standardized healthcare infrastructure available for the pregnant mother and newborn infant, prematurity is more prevalent in rural areas and developing countries. With a disproportionately large body surface and little subcutaneous fat with respect to the total body weight, newborns, especially a majority of the low birth weight infants (LBW<2.5 Kg) and very low birth weight infants (VLBW<1.5 Kg), are at higher risk for hypothermia. Hypothermia is defined as the consequence when total heat loss exceeds an infant's ability to generate heat and maintain normothermia.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a newborn with a temperature of 36.0-36.4° C. is under cold stress (mild hypothermia), which should give rise to concern; 32.0-35.9° C. is in danger and must be warmed right away (moderate hypothermia), and <32° C. has a grave outlook with urgently required skilled care (severe hypothermia). Prolonged hypothermia is linked to impaired growth with increased neurological deficits, increased vulnerability to infections (e.g., sepsis), and negative effects on auto-immune functions, all leading to increasing infant morbidity and mortality rates in the world. Helping to maintain normothermia of a newborn infant's first few days of life is important to long-term sustenance and a reduction of morbidity rates overall. Fragile LBW and VLBW premature infants are susceptible to deleterious injuries, as a result of repeated handling and constant movement. It is best to maintain a stable, warm environment in the first few days of life until the infant is able to regulate its body temperature or until the infant is in the hands of trained caregivers in nearby dispensaries/hospitals, where standardized care can be accessed.
Thermal stability is important for survival of premature LBW and VLBW newborn infants. Although body heat is lost in four ways (conduction, convection, radiation and evaporation), normothermia can be attained with external sources. Thermal stability can be achieved indirectly via forced air warming in incubators, directly via radiation with radiant warmers (e.g., remote heating with heat lamps etc.) and through a reduction in evaporation by wrapping the infant with a thermal insulator (e.g., plastic wrap etc.) to preserve humidity. Indirect and remote heating methodologies used in complex stationary/transport incubators and radiant warmers readily available in advanced countries require high power (up to 2 A at 240 VAC is roughly 480 watts 500 W) and are very expensive ($25,000-150,000). They are unfit for use in remote locations in developing countries as they require continuous power and rigorous cleaning. Due to the presence of airborne pathogens as a result of closed-loop warming, thorough disinfection with harsh industry chemical agents is essential for incubators, a lack of which can give rise to cross-contamination between patients. For these reasons, incubators are not accepted as a standard of care in most developing countries. Radiant warmers currently accepted are unsuitable for transport and cannot be used outside of the hospital setting.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,934,537 B2, May 3, 2011 to Kolowich discloses the use of a thermally equalizing phase change material intended to first bring down a hot beverage temperature by heat absorption followed by releasing thermal energy back from the phase change material stacked between an inner and outer receptacle to the beverage to help maintain it in a warm state for an extended period.
A transwarmer disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,058,563, to Manker et al. discloses the use of an inorganic, salt-based warming gel to support infant transport and radiology exams for up to 2 hours. This is not economical and therefore unreasonable for maintaining normothermia in the first few days of life.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,257,417 B2, Sep. 4, 2012 to Chen et al. takes this concept a bit further with the use of organic based phase change material mattress that can be used roughly 50 cycles for up to 4 hours per use. U.S. Pat. No. 8,834,548 B2, Sep. 16, 2014 to Liang et al. provides a suitcase shaped warmer for this phase change material mattress based on water heating or electric heating for reuse. This was followed by US patent application no. US2015/0066119 A1, Mar. 5, 2015 of Panicker et al. which discloses monitoring patient temperature with an electronic display with integrated visual alarms prompting user intervention.
In general, every incubator/warmer manufacturer has some kind of monitoring equipment built-in to their device. The phase change material (PCM) works well when the temperature is elevated to above the solid-liquid transition temperature, however the PCM becomes very solid below this transition temperature as the material cools off rapidly. Hypothermia induced as a result of removing heat in the first few days of the fragile infant can be dangerous. Repeated handling to change the mattress every few hours can also be harmful to the infant.

Apparatus and method for maintaining enthalpy with secondary mechanisms


Technical solutions are described for determining a route for multiple users traveling to a common destination. An example method includes determining, by a multiuser route generator, a multiuser route for a plurality of users traveling to the common destination, the multiuser route comprising a waypoint, the waypoint being a location to which each of the plurality of users travel independently, and travel to the common destination jointly thereafter. Determining the multiuser route includes receiving departure locations of the users, determining the waypoint, and calculating a first total of travel parameters associated with the users traveling to the waypoint independently and jointly thereafter that is lesser than a second total of travel parameters associated with the users traveling to the common destination independently. The method further includes sending the multiuser route to navigation devices of the respective users, the navigation devices navigating the respective users along the multiuser route.

The present invention generally relates to navigation systems, and particularly to route planning in travel and transport (logistics) to provide an optimized route planning for multiple travelers with the same destination.
Route planning requires finding an ideal route from a departure point to a destination point. In a navigation system like a car navigation apparatus, a smartphone, or any other device used for navigation, the process for navigating a user is performed by searching for an appropriate route to travel from the departure point to the destination point and displaying a result of the search on a display screen. In one or more examples, the navigation system navigates the user by providing audio-visual cues for following the route that has been identified.

Optimized route planning for multiple travelers with the same destination

International Business Machines Corporation


A disk drive having a disk, a head actuated over the disk, a volatile semiconductor memory (VSM), a command queue, and control circuitry operable to receive a plurality of write commands from a host, store the plurality of write commands in the command queue, store write data for the plurality of write commands in the VSM, and flush, from the VSM to the disk, a portion of the write data corresponding to a predetermined number of tracks.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to information storage devices, and in particular to a disk drive.
2. Description of the Related Art
Disk drives comprise a disk and a head connected to a distal end of an actuator arm which is rotated about a pivot by a voice coil motor (VCM) to position the head radially over the disk. The disk comprises a plurality of radially spaced, concentric tracks for recording user data sectors and embedded servo sectors. The embedded servo sectors comprise head positioning information (e.g., a track address) which is read by the head and processed by a servo controller to control the velocity of the actuator arm as it seeks from track to track.
Disk drives may comprise a volatile semiconductor memory for caching user data before it is written to the disk. This improves performance of the disk drive as seen by the host since the disk drive can immediately return a "ready" status in response to a write command rather than require the host to wait until the user data has been written to the disk. The write data stored in the write cache is flushed to the disk at a later time, such as during an idle mode or when a flush command is received from the host. Deferring the flushing of write data from a write cache to the disk is typically referred to as write-back caching.

Data flush from cache to disk based on track limit


Moldings made with a polyester resin which comprises a cyclic compound represented by a following formulaA1-B-A2(in the formula, A1 and A2 are the same or different and show groups represented by a below-described formula,

The present invention relates to, a resin component, a resin component for molding and a method for producing it, and more particularly to a resin component for molding including a biodegradable resin and a method for producing it.
In the field of a resin component and a resin component for molding, a biodegradable resin decomposed in a natural atmosphere and the moldings thereof have been hitherto required in view of natural atmospheric protection. The biodegradable resin such as an aliphatic polyester has been especially vigorously studied. Specially, polylactic acid ordinarily has a high melting point (170 to 180° C.) and the moldings made of the polylactic acid are ordinarily transparent and they have commenced to be put into practice depending on their uses. Generally, the moldings made of the polylactic acid are poor in their heat resistance and have glass transition temperature (Tg) of about 60° C. Accordingly, the moldings made of the polylactic acid are disadvantageously deformed when the temperature exceeds the above-described temperature. In the use of the casing of an electric product or a structural material, a heat resistance to the temperature of about 80° C. is required. Therefore, to utilize the moldings for uses requiring the heat resistance, various kinds of investigations have been carried out. The heat resistance referred to in this specification means a sufficiently high rigidity (modulus of elasticity) at about 80° C. as high as 100 MPa.
To increase the heat resistance of biodegradable polyester, for instance, the addition of inorganic filler has been studied. As the inorganic filler, talc or mica or the like having the heat resistance has been studied. For the purpose of improving mechanical characteristics and hardening a resin, a hard inorganic filler having the heat resistance is added to the resin, like what is called reinforcing steel embedded in concrete. However, the mechanical characteristics are imperfectly improved only by adding the inorganic filler to the resin.
The polylactic acid as a typical example of the biodegradable polyester is a polymer capable of having a crystal structure. However, since the moldings of the polylactic acid is ordinarily amorphous, the moldings are apt to be thermally deformed. Thus, a proposal has been provided that the polylactic acid is crystallized and hardened under a heat treatment, for instance, during molding or after molding to improve the heat resistance. When the polylactic acid is crystallized in such a method, it takes extremely much time to crystallize the polylactic acid. For example, a molding cycle of about one minute is ordinarily required in an injection molding. However, it unrealistically takes too much time to completely crystallize the moldings of the polylactic acid in a die. When the polylactic acid is crystallized in such a method, the size of a crystal is of the order of micron to of the order of sub mm. Thus, the crystals themselves of the polylactic acid inconveniently cause a factor of light scattering to become thick in white, so that a transparency is lost. In order to solve these problems, that is, to accelerate the crystallization, the addition of, what is called a nucleus agent begins to be studied.
The nucleus agent forms a primary crystal nucleus of a crystalline polymer to accelerate the growth of the crystal of the crystalline polymer. Further, in a broad sense, the nucleus agent may be regarded as a material for accelerating the crystallization of the crystalline polymer. That is, a material for accelerating the crystallization speed of the polymer may be regarded as a nucleus agent. When the nucleus agent such as the former is added to a resin, the crystals of the polymer become fine, so that the rigidity of the resin is improved or the transparency is improved. Otherwise, when the polymer is crystallized during molding, the entire speed (time) of the crystallization is accelerated. Thus, a molding cycle can be advantageously shortened.
The above-described effects can be exhibited in other crystalline resins as examples. For example, in polypropylene (abbreviate it as PP, hereinafter), the nucleus agent is added thereto, so that the rigidity or the transparency thereof is improved. Nowadays, the PP whose materiality is improved has been put into practical use in many moldings. The nucleus agent includes, for instance, a sorbitol material and its operational function is not completely clarified. However, a three-dimensional network formed by this material is considered to effectively operate. Further, a nucleus agent of metal salt type is also put into practical use for the PP. As such a nucleus agent, for instance, hydroxy-di (t-butyl benzoate) aluminum, sodium bis(4-t-butylphenyl) phosphate, or sodium methylene bis(2,4-di-t-butylphenyl) phosphate, etc. may be exemplified.
However, few effective nucleus agents have been found for aliphatic polyester such as polylactic acid. The above-described talc functions also as a nucleus agent. Talc may seem to be used as an effective nucleus agent depending on its use. In case talc is used as the nucleus agent, when an amount of addition thereof is not several ten %, a satisfactory effect cannot be obtained. Furthermore, when the amount of addition of talc is increased, the component of the resin inconveniently becomes brittle. In such an amount of addition, the component of the resin becomes white and the transparency thereof cannot be absolutely expected.
Even in the aliphatic polyester, the nucleus agent for accelerating the crystallization has been studied so far. For example, as the nucleus agent for accelerating the crystallization, the use of sorbitol material is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. hei 10-158369. This publication discloses that the sorbitol material has satisfactory results as a nucleus agent for crystallization in the PP and the sorbitol material is added to polylactic acid to effectively act thereon. In addition thereto, methods for adding a nucleus agent to polyester to accelerate the crystallization thereof are disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. hei 9-278991, Japanese Patent Application laid-Open No. hei 11-5849 and Japanese patent Application Laid-Open No. hei 11-116783.
However, any of the techniques has not been put into practical use.

Abstract: P shows a benzene ring which may be replaced by a material, and B shows a bivalent hydrocarbon group which may be replaced by a material) and polyester capable of having a crystal structure.


In a passenger conveyor, in order to reduce installation dimensions and, more particularly, a height of the passenger conveyor, the passenger conveyor is constructed to be driven by a linear motor, with stators and moving members of the linear motor being formed such that surfaces thereof facing each other are located in horizontal planes and generated magnetic flux of the stators is perpendicular to the facing surfaces. The moving members are mounted on the respective treadboards.

This invention relates to a passenger conveyor, such as an escalator and an electrically-operated road (moving side-walk), moving in a horizontal or an inclined direction for carrying passengers, and also to a treadboard construction for use in such a passenger conveyor and, more particularly, to a passenger conveyor driven by a linear motor and treadboard construction for such a passenger conveyor.
Passenger conveyors of the aforementioned type in which treadboards are driven by a linear motor are known, for example, from U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,731,166 and 4,738,346 and Japanese Patent Unexamined Publications 62-100395 and 62-136489.
There is also known a technique, for example, from GB 2096966A, in which an endless flexible belt such as a moving handrail is driven by a linear motor.
In the above conventional technique for driving the treadboards by the linear motor, the dimensions of installation of the passenger conveyor have not been taken into consideration, and, therefore, a problem arises in that the passenger conveyor has an increased size. The purpose of the above conventional technique for driving an endless flexible belt, such as a moving handrail, by the linear motor is different from the purpose of the passenger conveyor of the type in which a number of treadboards are connected together in an endless manner, and the dimensions (particularly, the height) of installation of the passenger conveyor utilizing this technique have not been taken into consideration, as is the case with the first-mentioned prior art.

Passenger conveyor and treadboard construction for passenger conveyor


A digital demodulator employing a digital differential detection mechanism based on extracting phase differences directly from the I and Q signals after downconversion to zero-IF and image rejection are performed. The phase of the input I and Q signals is determined using the principle that the phase is equivalent to arctan

In digital communications systems, a carrier signal is modulated with the digital data to be transmitted over the channel, where it typically suffers various forms of distortion, such as additive noise. The digital data is often transmitted in bursts wherein each burst consists of a number of data bits. Upon reception, the signal must be demodulated in order to recover the transmitted data.
It is common for receivers to employ direct conversion (i.e. homodyne receiver) to perform the demodulation of the received signal. The received signal is mixed with a local oscillator signal at the carrier frequency to produce I (in-phase) and Q (quadrature) baseband signals. An advantage of direct conversion receivers is that they are efficient in terms of cost and current consumption. The advantage is derived from having the incoming RF signal directly downconverted to baseband, in both I and Q components, without use of any IF frequencies.
In other receivers, the incoming RF signal is mixed down first to an intermediate frequency (IF) signal and subsequently to baseband. The IF frequency may be any convenient frequency. For example, in a Bluetooth receiver, the front-end may output a low frequency IF signal (e.g., Near-Zero IF) as low as half the bandwidth of the signal (i.e. 0.5 MHz in this case).
Considering Gaussian FSK (GFSK) modulation and considering the presence of frequency offsets, the zero-IF I and Q signals can be expressed mathematically by the following.IZIF=A cos [Φ(t)+ΔωIFt+θn]QZIF=A sin [Φ(t)+ΔωIFt+θn]  (1)where A is a constant, ΔωIF represents the frequency offset, Φ(t) represents the phase shift created by the modulating data and θn represents the contribution of random noise to the phase. Note that it is assumed there is no gain or phase mismatch. In Bluetooth low-IF systems, ωIF is usually 500 kHz and the local oscillator frequency used for downconversion from RF to IF is given by LO=ωC−ωIF where ωc denotes the carrier frequency. The downconverted I signal is expressed mathematically as follows.I=A cos(ωIFt+Φ(t)+θ)  (2)After downconversion from IF to zero-IF, the output signal is given byI=A cos(Φ(t)+θ)  (3)Differential detection of this signal calculates(Φ(t)+θ(t))−(Φ(t−T)+θ(t−T))=>ΔΦ  (4)where T represents the symbol time. In Bluetooth systems, the symbol time T is 1 microsecond. The result of differential detection yields sin(ΔΦ), which for small values of φ can be approximated as simply ΔΦ.
Numerous prior art analog techniques are available to perform the demodulation required to generate accurate output data. The modem trend, however, is to provide single chip solutions to communication applications. This requires all digital realization of all or most of the receiver circuitry in the radio. Digital realization of the radio for inclusion in single chip implementations is desirable because it offers a high performance solution at low current consumption and low gate count and hence reduced size and cost. These benefits are driving the current trend to realize as much of the radio digitally for placement on a single chip.
Any digital demodulator implementation, in particular digital demodulation of GFSK, must be able to perform in the presence of additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN), interference and frequency offsets. Frequency offsets are another form of distortion of the received signal, since they are random and must be resolved adequately in the receiver to minimize the performance degradation they cause. Considering a communication system constructed to receive GFSK in accordance with the Bluetooth standard, the receiver must be constructed to deal with frequency offsets in order to generate a reliable output signal. There exist several sources of frequency offset errors in a Bluetooth communication system as highlighted below.
First, the Bluetooth specification permits a frequency error of up to 75 kHz in the transmitted signal. Second, the Bluetooth specification also permits up to 20 ppm of frequency inaccuracy in the receiver crystal reference, which could result in up to 50 kHz of frequency offset in the receiver's local oscillator which is used in the downconversion. Further, an additional frequency offset of up to 40 kHz is allowed in the transmitted signal during transmission of long packets. Lastly, an additional 15 kHz of frequency offset may be due to clock jitter caused by using clocks derived from dividing the master local clock signal, wherein the local clock signal is hopping from frequency to frequency resulting in jitter. This frequency offset could be avoided by using more accurate clocks without clock division. Note that the first two frequency offsets are constant in nature and due to the open loop configuration of the transmitter permitted under the Bluetooth standard.
Thus, an IF signal at the receiver's demodulator input may have a total of up to 180 kHz in frequency offset. Considering a nominal frequency deviation of +/−160 kHz for a modulation index of h=0.32, in accordance with the Bluetooth specification, a possible frequency offset of 180 kHz makes reception virtually impossible. Note that using a lower modulation index of 0.28, which the Bluetooth specification allows, makes the problem even worse.
Thus, there is a need for a digital demodulator, suitable for single chip implementations, that meets the requirements of the Bluetooth specification and that overcomes the problems and disadvantages of the prior art.

Gaussian frequency shift keying digital demodulator

Abstract: (          Q      I        )    .A lookup table stores the values of the arctan function preferably in a reduced size format. The size of the lookup table can be reduced significantly by storing arctan values for the first quadrant only (i.e. 0 to 90°) and taking advantage of the fact that the phase values for the other three quadrants can be derived from those of the first with some correction applied depending on the signs of the I and Q input samples. Phase extraction logic is provided that is operative to map the phase into the entire 0 to 360° range of phase values (i.e. −π to +π radians) based on the signs of the I and Q signals. The phase difference between a current phase value and the previous phase value is then calculated. It is these phase differences that reflect the frequency deviations present in the transmitted signal which represent the original modulating signal. A ‘click’ removal filter circuit is provided to remove the discontinuities in the phase difference output that occur when the 2π radians value is crossed.


An air filter apparatus for engine intake-air in which a filter support member is stretched in a filter attaching frame of an outer frame structure member, and filter is supported on the filter support member, wherein the filter is integrally incorporated with the filter support member.

An engine intake-air cleaner apparatus is incorporated in an intake-air system of an engine in order to remove dust from intake-air and to reduce noise of intake-air.
There exists a conventional air-cleaner apparatus adapted as an air-filter apparatus to be removably fitted in an air-cleaner casing which is attached to an air-cleaner conduit. In this air-filter apparatus, a filter support member such as a net or the like is stretched in a filter attaching frame of an outer structural member which is held in the air-filter casing so as to support an air-cleaner filter with the use of the filter support member.
There exists another air-filter apparatus which is attached directly to the intake-air port of an air cleaner casing. In this air-filter apparatus, a filter support member such as an inner net is stretched in a filter attaching frame of an outer structural member such as a funnel attached to an air-cleaner conduit, and an air-cleaner filter is supported with the use of the filter support member.
In conventional air-filter apparatuses for an air-cleaner apparatus, although the filter is held by any means in the filter attaching frame of the outer frame structure member, the filter is merely set and held on the filter support member.
Further, in the conventional air-filter apparatuses, the filter support member is generally formed of hard metal materials such as stainless steel wires or a perforated stainless steel sheet.
However, conventional air-filter apparatuses have several disadvantages.
First, the filter support member repeatedly knocks the filter which is vibrated by pulsation of the intake-air in an engine so as to cause occurrence of a dust beat phenomenon by the filter. The dust beat phenomenon causes, in turn, dust caught on the inlet side part of the outer surface of the filter to gradually enter the inside of the filter, and is finally sucked into the engine from the outlet of the filter, resulting in the lowering of the dust collecting effect.
Second, the filter which is vibrated by pulsation of the intake-air in the engine and the filter support member made of hard metal materials repeatedly beat each other for a long time. As a result, the filter support member tends to break at the proximal part thereof which is attached to the outer frame structural member, so as to deteriorate the filtering function.
In addition, since the filter support member is made of hard metal materials, it bumps upon another part so as to possibly cause a damage such as bending or the like during physical distribution, and installation.
One object of the present invention therefore is to provide an engine intake-air filter apparatus which can prevent a filter from causing occurrence of the dust beating phenomenon.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an engine intake-air filter apparatus which prevents a filter from causing occurrence of a dust beating phenomenon, and which prevents damage to the filter during physical distribution, installation or usage of the filter apparatus.
One example of conventional air-cleaner apparatuses will be hereinbelow explained with reference to FIG. 12 illustrating an air-filter apparatus 1 attached directly to the intake-air port of an air-cleaner apparatus in which a flared opening of a funnel 2 is covered with an inner net 3 and an outer net 4 between which an air-cleaner filter 5 having a two-layer structure is laid.
The end parts of the inner net 3 are fixed to a flat part 6 of a funnel 2 while the end parts of the outer net 4 are removably secured to the end parts of the flat part 6. Further, each of these inner and outer nets 3, 4 is originally a rectangular net which is formed into a substantially semi-spherical shape. Further, an air-cleaner filter 5 is a wet-type filter which is impregnated with oil (having a coefficient of viscosity of 3 to 5 pa.s) in order to enhance the dust collecting effect.
However, in the air-filter apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 12, the inner net 3 and the outer net 4 are laid respectively over the front and rear surfaces of the filter 5, and accordingly, the intake-air opening area of the filter 5 is decreased so that the intake-air resistance possibly increases.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an air-cleaner filter which reduces the intake-air resistance so as to enhance the output power of an engine.
In the conventional filter apparatus 1, it is desirable to increase the flared opening of the funnel 2 in order to enhance the intake-air efficiency.
However, if the size of the funnel is increased, the air-filter apparatus 1 requires a larger-size which is unpreferable for an air-filter apparatus adapted to be located in a limited space.
Further, since the outer net 4 is a rectangular net which is formed into a substantially spherical shape, a curved part thereof is deformed, that is, its rectangular shape is deformed into a diamond-like shape or the like, and more specifically, each of the comers thereof is greatly deformed. This deformation hinders the flow of the intake-air, and accordingly, the intake-air efficiency is possibly lowered.
Further, since the air-cleaner filter 5 is impregnated with oil having a small coefficient of viscosity, in case the size of pores in porous resin (such as polyurethane resin) which forms the air-cleaner filter is large, the impregnation of oil would be insufficient. Accordingly, the air-cleaner filter 5 is made of porous resin which is impregnated with the oil, resulting in increased flow-passage resistance of the air-cleaner filter 5. In view of this point, the intake-air efficiency is lowered.
An object of the present invention is to provide an air-cleaner apparatus which can enhance the intake-air efficiency without increasing the size of the air-cleaner apparatus.


To form substrate isolation for a nonvolatile memory, floating gate polysilicon (410) is formed over a semiconductor substrate (110), then silicon nitride (130) is deposited, and then the nitride, the floating gate polysilicon and the substrate are etched to form isolation trenches (140). Dielectric (150) is formed in the trenches and over the silicon nitride. The dielectric thickness is relatively small so that the top surface (150T) of the dielectric over the trenches lies at all times below the top surface of silicon nitride. The dielectric deposition and polishing times are therefore reduced. Other embodiments are also provided.

The present invention relates to fabrication of integrated circuits, and more particularly to fabrication of dielectric in trenches formed in a semiconductor substrate for a nonvolatile memory.
Dielectric-filled trenches in a semiconductor substrate have been used to provide isolation between active areas of an integrated circuit. The active areas contain circuit elements such as transistor regions, interconnect lines, etc. FIG. 1 illustrates fabrication of the dielectric-filled trenches in a monocrystalline silicon substrate 110. Silicon dioxide layer 120 (xe2x80x9cpad oxidexe2x80x9d) is grown on substrate 110. Silicon nitride 130 is deposited on oxide 120. A photoresist mask (not shown) is photolithographically formed on nitride 130 to define trenches 140. Nitride 130, oxide 120 and substrate 110 are etched through the mask openings. Trenches 140 are formed in substrate 110 as a result.
A thick silicon dioxide layer 150 is formed over the structure. Oxide 150 fills the trenches 140 and covers the nitride 130. Oxide 150 is polished using a chemical mechanical polishing process (CMP) that stops on nitride 130. The resulting structure is shown in FIG. 2. Then nitride 130 and oxide 120 are removed (FIG. 3). The thickness of trench oxide 150 may be reduced by an etch at this stage if desired.
FIGS. 4-5 illustrate a modified trench fabrication process for a flash memory. Silicon dioxide 120 is formed on substrate 110. Oxide 120 will be used as a tunnel oxide for the flash memory cells. Conductive polysilicon 410 is deposited on oxide 120. Polysilicon 410 will be used to fabricate floating gates for the memory cells. Then silicon nitride 130 is deposited. A photoresist mask (not shown) is photolithographically formed on nitride 130 to define isolation trenches 140. Nitride 130, polysilicon 410, oxide 120, and substrate 110 are etched through the mask openings. Trenches 140 are formed as a result. Polysilicon 410 is thus self-aligned to the trenches. Then silicon dioxide 150 is deposited as in FIG. 1, and polished by a CMP process that stops on nitride 130. See FIG. 5, and see K. Shimizu et al., xe2x80x9cA Novel High-Density 5F2 NAND STI Cell Technology Suitable for 256 Mbit and 1 Gbit Flash Memoriesxe2x80x9d, IEDM Technical Digest, 1997, pages 271-274. Silicon nitride 130 is later removed.
It is desirable to reduce the thickness to which the oxide 150 is deposited because the reduced oxide thickness will result in reduced oxide deposition and polishing times.
The invention is defined by the appended claims which are incorporated into this section by reference. Summarized below are some features of the invention.
In the structure of FIG. 3, the top surface 150T of oxide 150 must not be allowed to fall below the top surface of silicon substrate 110. If the top surface 150T of oxide 150 falls below the top surface of substrate 110, then some conductive material formed later during fabrication could be caught up in the trench above the oxide 150, and could reduce the resistance of the parasitic transistor in the trench area. To ensure that the top surface of oxide 150 does not fall below the top surface of substrate 110, oxide 150 is deposited to a large thickness. At the stage of FIG. 1, the top surface of oxide 150 lies above the top surface of nitride 130 in the trench areas.
The same holds true for FIG. 4.
The inventor has observed that due to the presence of polysilicon 410 in the structure of FIG. 4, there is a wider margin of error with respect to the thickness of oxide 150 when oxide 150 is deposited. The top surface 150T of oxide 150 can be located below the top surface of nitride 130, as shown in FIG. 6, because the top surface of nitride 130 is positioned higher above substrate 110 due to the presence of polysilicon 410.
Other embodiments and variations are described below. The invention is defined by the appended claims.

Fabrication of dielectric in trenches formed in a semiconductor substrate for a nonvolatile memory


The present technology provides a tape-shaped magnetic recording medium including a magnetic layer, an underlayer, a base layer, and a back layer. The magnetic recording medium has an average thickness tT of 5.4 μm or less, when a thermomechanical analysis is performed on the magnetic recording medium in a temperature range of 40° C. to 150° C. at a temperature rise rate of 1° C./minute, a switching temperature for switching from thermal expansion to thermal contraction is 70° C. or more, and a contraction start temperature is 90° C. or more at which a length in a longitudinal direction is shorter than the length at 40° C., and a Poisson's ratio is 0.40 or less.

For example, with the development of IoT, big data, and artificial intelligence, the amount of data collected and stored has increased significantly. A magnetic recording medium is often used as a medium for recording a large amount of data.
With respect to a magnetic recording medium, various technologies have been proposed so far. For example, the following Patent Literature 1 discloses a magnetic recording medium including a substrate of the magnetic recording medium, a magnetic layer provided on a surface of the substrate for recording information, a protective film for protecting the magnetic layer, a lubricating layer formed on the protective film, and a back-coat layer provided on a back surface of the substrate, in which a reversal temperature (Ti) exceeds 100° C.


Briefly, a method and a wireless communication system that may include at least one mobile station and at least one base station to reply to an incoming call addressed to the mobile station with a predefined message. The mobile station may be configured to reply to the incoming call based on the preferences of a user of the mobile station.

Mobile communications devices, for example, handsets of a cellular communication system, may be used to send and receive calls between a caller and a recipient, e.g., a handset user. Types of calls may include voice calls, video calls, text calls, data calls and the like.
In certain situations, the recipient may not be able to receive incoming calls. Those situations may occur when, for example, the handset is not in operation, the handset is not under the coverage of a cellular communication system, the handset user is attending a social event or a meeting, the handset is operated in a restricted zone where operation of wireless communication devices is not authorized, e.g., some hospitals, or in other situations in which a user does not respond to calls.
Thus, the user may not respond to some of the calls and the caller may have no indication whether or not the intended recipient receives the call.
It will be appreciated that, for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements shown in the figures have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggerated relative to other elements for clarity. Further, where considered appropriate, reference numerals may be repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements.


The invention enhances reliability and achieves higher speeds for semiconductor devices with a stacked structure. A semiconductor device includes a die pad, a plurality of semiconductor chips stacked on one surface of the die pad, leads extending toward the die pad, first wires that are bonded to first pads of a first semiconductor chip among the plurality of semiconductor chips and to second pads of a second semiconductor chip among the plurality of semiconductor chips, second wires that are bonded to the leads and to the first pads or the second pads, and a sealing material that seals the plurality of semiconductor chips and exposes another surface of the die pad.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to semiconductor devices, methods for manufacturing the same, circuit substrates and electronic devices.
2. Description of Related Art
The related art includes semiconductor devices having a stacked structure that realize high density mounting. For example, a related art configuration includes a plurality of semiconductor chips stacked one on top of the other on a die pad of a lead frame, in which the semiconductor chips are electrically connected to leads by wires. In this case, electrodes of each of the semiconductor chips are directly bonded to the leads by the wires.
However, the distance between the electrodes of the semiconductor chips and the leads is greater than the distance between the electrodes of the different semiconductor chips. Also, when the wires are routed around from the leads as starting points to each of the semiconductor chips, the entire length of the wires becomes long. For this reason, the resistance of the wires becomes greater, which has sometimes prevented enhancements toward higher speeds. Also, since the wires are long, they are therefore apt to become short-circuited with other wires.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Semiconductor device having multiple semiconductor chips stacked in layers and method for manufacturing the same, circuit substrate and electronic apparatus


A drive-in dowel including an inner sleeve (2) having a load application element (3), a cone-shaped widening section (5) formed at a front, in a setting direction (S), end of the inner sleeve (2), and a substantially cylindrical support section (6) adjoining the cone-shaped widening section (5) and having an outer diameter (w) which is smaller than a largest diameter (d) of the cone-shaped widening section (5), and an outer sleeve (7) arranged coaxially with the inner sleeve (2) and having, in its front, in the setting direction (s), region, a plurality of expansion tabs (8) separated from each other by longitudinal slots and radially expandable upon the outer sleeve (7) being impact driven over the cone-shaped widening section (5) of the inner sleeve (2), with the expansion tabs (8) being provided with annularly arranged, chisel-like cutters (11).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a drive-in dowel including an inner sleeve having load application means, preferably, in a form of an inner thread, and a cone-shaped widening section formed at a front, in a setting direction, end of the inner sleeve and an outer sleeve arranged coaxially with the inner sleeve, and having, in a front, in the setting direction region thereof, a plurality of expansion tabs separated from each other by longitudinal slots and radially expandable upon the outer sleeve being impact driven over the cone-shaped widening section of the inner sleeve.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Anchoring of conventional drive-in dowels is based primarily on an expansion principle. The used percussion or impact-driven expansion dowels are primarily formed of two parts and includes, e.g., a sleeve-shaped dowel body with a conical bore and a spreading member. In order to anchor the dowel in a prepared bore, the spreading member is percussion driven into the expandable region of the sleeve-shaped dowel. This causes expansion of the expandable region and a force-locking connection of the radially expanded expandable region of the dowel with the bore wall. However, the multi-part construction of the known dowel can cause several problems. E.g., the spreading member can be incorrectly inserted in the dowel body bore. Also, the spreading member can fall out of the bore and become lost. Further, with the spreading member being arranged and held outside of the dowel body bore, it can happen that upon a miss, the spreading member becomes inclined and would wedge.
The prior art discloses also a driven-in dowel the anchoring of which in a bore of a structural component is effected by axial displacement of two concentrically arranged sleeves. Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 2,171,985 discloses a percussion driven expansion dowel formed of an inner sleeve having an inner thread and supported against a bore bottom and an expansion sleeve displaceable over the inner sleeve. In the front end region of the inner sleeve, there is provided a section conically widening in a setting direction. The expansion sleeve has a plurality of expansion tabs separated by longitudinal slots from each other. The expansion tabs expand radially upon the expansion sleeve being percussion driven over the conical section of the inner sleeve. The anchoring of the expansion dowel is effected as a result of application of an expansion force which is imparted by the radially expanded expansion tabs to the bore wall.
The anchoring in accordance with expansion principle requires application of a high expansion force. This leads to large distances between axes and edges of formed attachment points. Because these distances not always can be maintained, there are provided systems, which are based on expandable drive-in dowels and which are anchored in bores of structural components as a result of a form-locking connection. Such systems make use of undercuts which are usually formed in the region of a bore bottom. The anchoring is effected with expansion tabs which are provided on a sleeve-shaped dowel body and which expand radially into an undercut, forming a form-locking connection. In many cases, in which form-lockingly anchoring undercut systems are used, it is often necessary to form an undercut at an exactly predetermined depth in a separate step with a special tool. Only after an undercut is formed in a bore wall, an undercut dowel can be inserted in the bore and form-lockingly anchored by percussion driving the expansion tabs over the sleeve cone section.
Also known are undercut self-cutting systems with which an undercut-forming dowel when being percussion driven into a bore, automatically forms an undercut by tangentially shaving the wall material. The known undercut self-cutting systems permit to obtain, within acceptable time limits, a form-locking connection. However, such undercut self-cutting systems can be used in small load application regions, with tensile loads less than 20 kN. As an alternative to the undercut self-cutting systems, undercut pressing dowels are used which represent an intermediate stage between percussion driven expansion dowels and undercut self-cutting dowel. With the undercut pressing dowels, the expansion elements, upon their radial expansion, are pressed into a form-locking engagement with a bore wall. The undercut pressing dowels form a form-locking engagement by volumetric displacement or repression. However, for an impressed depth greater than 1 mm, the necessary pressure force disproportionally increases. This is because the force increases at least in a square degree in comparison with a displaced volume. This leads to a destruction of the bore wall material and to degradation of the initial rigidity of the undercut pressing dowel. At a pressed-in depth of about 5 mm, cracks in concrete can be formed which substantially reduces the load bearing capability of a dowel.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to eliminate or at least substantially reduce the drawback of the prior art drive-in dowels. Another object of the present invention is to provide a drive-in dowel which can be easily form-lockingly anchored in a structural component. Expensive undercut-forming special tools should be eliminated. The energy consumption necessary for effecting anchoring should be relatively small and should be obtainable with axial impacts with a hammer. Further, forming undercuts with a depth of 5 mm and greater should be possible, without a disproportional increase of the energy consumption with increase of the undercut depth. The drive-in dowel should not form cracks or crevices in structural component and should have a secondary expansion capability. The drive-in dowel should also have a simple construction and be cost-effective. The drive-in dowel should further provide a user with an indication of when the anchoring has been obtained.


A bar soap including an embedded premium item. A translucent, glycerin soap is cast in a plastic blister package which is pre-loaded with a selected, premium item. During container filling, the soap is cast to embed the premium item within the soap. A backing card containing text and graphics peculiar to the premium item and soap is bonded to the container under heat and pressure with a suitable adhesive. Multiple packages are mounted to a merchandising strip for display and sale.

The present invention relates to novelty soaps and, in particular, to a bar soap including a premium item that is cast in place at a mold cavity which forms a portion of the packaging container.
Numerous soaps have been developed which contain a variety of items. Depending upon the intended user and/or consumer, the soap may include any of a variety of novelty or premium items of interest to the consumer. Many soaps intended for children particularly include toys. Examples of such soaps can be found at U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,827,549; 2,677,913; 3,085,883; 3,165,252; 3,359,206; 3,399,206; 4,861,505; 5,183,429; and 5,316,689.
The construction and packaging of each of the foregoing soaps relies on separate molding and packaging processes. That is, the premium item is typically cast into the soap in a separate molding operation at suitable molding forms shaped to receive and contain the premium item and soap material.
Once cast, the soap is packaged in a suitable wrapper. Most frequently, a paper wrapper is folded and bound about the soap. Suitable graphics and text describing the soap are included on the packaging. The packaging may also be transparent to permit the consumer to view the soap before purchase. The soap of the U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,689 is packaged in a multi-section container that also serves as a storage container between usage.
Because such soaps are typically sold with relatively small profit margins, it is desirable to reduce processing and handling to a minimum. The present packaging process was therefore developed to cast a soap directly into a packaging container and which container, in turn, is affixed to a backing piece or card containing appropriate text and graphics to describe the product and also attract consumer interest. Premium items of consumer interest are suitably added to the container prior to or during the pouring of the soap material.

Method of molding an packaging of a novelty soap


There is provided an objective optical system used for information recording/reproducing for three types of optical discs. The objective optical system includes an objective lens, and a diffraction structure formed on an optical surface. The diffraction structure includes a first area for contributing to converging the third light beam. The first area includes first and second steps defined by first and second optical path difference functions, respectively. The first step is configured such that diffraction orders at which diffraction efficiencies for the first, second and third light beams are maximized are 1st order, 0-th order and 0-th order, respectively. The first step satisfies a condition:−0.36×102<P12×f1+5.0×103×(n1−n3)<1.80×102  (1)

The present invention relates to an objective optical system which is installed in a device employing multiple types of light beams having different wavelengths, such as an optical information recording/reproducing device for recording information to and/or reproducing information from multiple types of optical discs differing in recording density.
There exist various standards of optical discs (CD, DVD, etc.) differing in recording density, protective layer thickness, etc. Meanwhile, new-standard optical discs (HD DVD (High-Definition DVD), BD (Blu-ray Disc), etc.), having still higher recording density than DVD, are being brought into practical use in recent years to realize still higher information storage capacity. The protective layer thickness of such a new-standard optical disc is substantially equal to or less than that of DVD. In consideration of user convenience with such optical discs according to multiple standards, the optical information recording/reproducing devices (more specifically, objective optical systems installed in the devices) of recent years are required to have compatibility with the above three types of optical discs. Incidentally, in this specification, the "optical information recording/reproducing devices" include devices for both information reproducing and information recording, devices exclusively for information reproducing, and devices exclusively for information recording. The above "compatibility" means that the optical information recording/reproducing device ensures the information reproducing and/or information recording with no need of component replacement even when the optical disc being used is switched.
In order to provide an optical information recording/reproducing device having the compatibility with optical discs of multiple standards, the device has to be configured to be capable of forming a beam spot suitable for a particular recording density of an optical disc being used, by changing a NA (Numerical Aperture) of an objective optical system used for information reproducing/registering, while also correcting spherical aberration which varies depending on the protective layer thickness changed by switching between optical discs of different standards. Since the diameter of the beam spot can generally be made smaller as the wavelength of the beam gets shorter, multiple laser beams having different wavelengths are selectively used by the optical information recording/reproducing device depending on the recording density of the optical disc being used. For example, for DVDs, a laser beam with a wavelength of approximately 660 nm (so-called red laser light) shorter than approximately 790 nm for CDs (so-called near-infrared laser light) is used. For the aforementioned new-standard optical discs, a laser beam (e.g., so-called "blue laser" around 408 nm) with a wavelength still shorter than that for DVDs is used in order to deal with the extra-high recording density.
Examples of objective optical systems for suitably converging the multiple types of light beams onto respective ones of the multiple types of optical discs are disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication Nos. 2006-164498A (hereafter, referred to as document #1), 2006-134366A (hereafter, referred to as document #2) and 2006-12394A (hereafter, referred to as document #3).
The objective optical system disclosed in document #1 is configured such that at least one of optical surfaces of an objective lens and an optical element located on the front side of the objective lens is provided with a diffraction surface. The diffraction surface is configured such that the diffraction order at which the diffraction efficiency is maximized for the blue laser light is an even order. Each of the blue laser and the red laser is incident on the objective optical system as a collimated beam, and the near-infrared light is incident on the objective optical system as a non-collimated beam (a diverging beam). As described above, the objective optical system disclosed in document #1 achieves the compatibility with the multiple types of optical discs by appropriately selecting the diffraction effect and the degree of divergence of a light beam.
The objective optical system disclosed in document #2 has an objective optical element and a temperature compensation element. The objective optical element is provided with a plurality of types of diffraction surfaces. By this structure, the objective optical system achieves both of the compatibility with the multiple types of optical discs including the high density optical disc (e.g., HD DVD) and the temperature compensation. In contrast to the objective optical system disclosed in document #1, each of the blue laser light, the red laser light and the infra-red laser light is incident on the objective optical system as a substantially collimated beam.
Document #3 discloses an objective optical system including an objective lens or an optical element which is formed of two types of elements made of different types of materials joined together. The objective lens or the optical element is provided with a diffraction structure on a joint surface. The structure of the objective optical system of document #3 aims to achieve the high level of use efficiency of light for all of the multiple types of laser beams through utilization of the diffraction effect and the difference between refractive indexes of the materials.
However, the objective optical systems disclosed in document #1-#3 have the following drawbacks. The objective optical system disclosed in document #1 employs the diffraction structure configured such that the diffraction order at which the diffraction efficiency is maximized for the blue laser is an even order. Therefore, for at least one of the multiple types of laser beams, it is necessary to enter the laser beam to the objective optical system as a non-collimated laser beam. If a non-collimated laser beam is incident on the objective optical system, off-axis aberrations, such as a coma, may occur when an objective lens shifts in a plane perpendicular to an optical axis of the objective lens for a tracking operation.
In the objective optical system disclosed in document #2, each of the blue laser, the red laser, the near-infrared laser is incident on the objective optical system as a collimated beam. Therefore, occurrence of off-axis aberrations (e.g., a coma) can be suppressed. However, when such a configuration where each of the multiple types of laser beams is incident on the objective optical system as a collimated beam is adopted, the diffraction efficiency may decrease for at least one of the multiple types of laser beams depending on the relationship between the wavelength of each laser beam and the diffraction effect.
The protective layer of CD is thicker than those of the other types of optical discs. Therefore, when CD is used, a working distance between a record surface of the optical disc and a surface of the objective lens adjacent to the record surface becomes short relative to the working distance defined for the other types of optical discs. Therefore, when CD is used, it is required to lengthen the back focus of the objective optical system to secure an adequate working distance. However, in the objective optical system of document #2, each of the multiple types of laser beams is incident on the objective optical system as a collimated beam. In this case, the back focus of the objective optical system becomes shorter relative to a configuration where a diverging beam is incident on the objective optical system. Therefore, if the configuration of document #2 is adopted, a possibility that the objective lens contacts the optical disc (CD) arises.
The configuration of the objective optical system of document #3 requires additional manufacturing processes for joining different materials together and for appropriately forming the diffraction structure on the joint surface, and such additional manufacturing processes are required to be performed with a high degree of accuracy. As a result, manufacturing cost increases.

Objective optical system and optical information recording/reproducing device having the same

Abstract: The second step is configured such that diffraction orders at which diffraction efficiencies for the first, second and third light beams are maximized are 2nd order, 1st order and 1st order, respectively.