An adhesive composition comprising an acrylate monomer and/or a methacrylate monomer, an organic peroxide and a reducing agent, which contains zeolite or calcium oxide.

As reactive acrylic adhesives, anaerobic adhesives, second generation acrylic adhesives (SGA) and thermosetting adhesives have recently been known.
An anaerobic adhesive will be cured when the adhesive composition is pressed between the materials to be bonded, so that air is shut off. Accordingly, a portion of the adhesive squeezed out when pressed and being in contact with air, will not be cured. Such an adhesive is widely used since it is of one-pack type and thus excellent in the operation efficiency.
A second generation acrylic adhesive is of a two-pack type, but it is not required to accurately measure the two liquids, and it can be cured in from a few minutes to a few tens minutes at room temperature by very rough measurements, followed by mixing, or by mere contact of the two liquids. Thus, it has excellent operation efficiency. Besides, it has high peel strength and impact strength, and curing of a squeezed out portion is also excellent. Therefore, this adhesive is widely employed.
A thermosetting adhesive comprises an acrylate monomer and/or a methacrylate monomer, and an organic peroxide, as the main components, and is a one-pack type adhesive which will be cured by thermal decomposition of a peroxide.
However, a product having a steel sheet or a galvanized steel sheet bonded thereto is frequently subjected to baking finish to obtain a final product, and when conventional acrylic adhesives are subjected to such a high temperature as baking finish (e.g. at a level of from 160.degree. to 180.degree. C.), the bonded portion is likely to deteriorate, whereby the bond strength tends to substantially decrease.
Various proposals have been made for preventing heat deterioration of acrylic adhesives. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications No. 173174/1983 and No. 174476/1983 propose to use highly heat resistant polysiloxane or ethylene-acrylate rubber as an elastomer component to prevent the heat deterioration. On the other hand, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 129372/1987 proposes to incorporate an epoxy acrylate to an acrylate component and/or a methacrylate component to prevent the heat deterioration. Further, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 147477/1983 discloses that the heat deterioration can be prevented by using a butadiene elastomer and a phosphorus-containing compound in combination in the absence of a free organic acid.
However, the above methods are all directed to preventing the heat deterioration of the adhesive resins themselves, and there has been no instance in which prevention of heat deterioration is attempted in connection with the materials to be bonded. In many cases, a steel sheet or a galvanized steel sheet has chemical conversion treatment applied to improve corrosion resistance as a prime coat for baking finish. In such chemical conversion treatment, a metal to be treated is chemically reacted with a corrosive solution (a chemical conversion bath) prepared under a specific condition, whereby a strongly adherent insoluble corrosion product will be formed on the metal surface, which serves as a corrosion resistant layer, as a prime coat for painting or as a lubricating coat for plastic processing. A phosphate treatment, a chromate treatment or an oxalate treatment may be mentioned as such a surface conversion treatment.
When a metal having such treatment applied is used as a material to be bonded, it has been impossible by conventional techniques to prevent the deterioration of the bond strength due to heat deterioration of the adhesive.
In a case of a urethane type coating material or adhesive, it sometimes happens that free isocyanate groups react with moisture to form carbon dioxide gas, and the gas bubbles cause a deterioration of the surface condition or a deterioration of the bond strength. To prevent such gas bubbles, it has been proposed to incorporate a certain specific zeolite (Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 37331/1973). However, in an acrylic adhesive as in the present invention, free isocyanate groups as present in a urethane-type adhesive do not exist, and no gas bubbles will form. Accordingly, it has not been known to incorporate zeolite to an acrylic adhesive.
It is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems.

Adhesive composition and metal-bonded composite


An LGA connector includes an insulative housing with a plurality of electrical terminals received therein, a stiffener defining a cavity in a middle portion thereof for partially receiving the housing therein. The insulative house is generally rectangular-shaped, which defines a surrounding wall, each corner of the surrounding wall defines a stopper which protruding outwardly. In assembly, when the housing is pushed into the cavity of the stiffener to a predetermined position, the stoppers will abut against the bottom portion for preventing the housing from being excessively pushed into the cavity or being push out of the cavity in a underside direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to pressure contact connectors, and more particularly to a land grid array ("LGA") connector that applies a stiffener to strengthen a housing.
2. The Background of the Invention
Connectors for removably mounting an LGA chip on a PCB are known as LGA connectors. A typical LGA electrical connector includes an insulative housing, a multiplicity of terminals received in the housing in a rectangular array, a fasten frame partially surrounding the housing, a metal clip attached to the fastening frame, and an operational lever.
An typical LGA connector includes an insulative housing, a stiffener defining a cavity in a middle portion thereof for partially receiving the housing, a metal clip pivotably attached to an end of the stiffener, and a lever pivotably attached to an opposite end of the stiffener. The clip has an engaging portion extending outwardly and arcuately from an end thereof. The housing defines a generally rectangular room for receiving an electronic package such as an LGA central processing unit (CPU) therein. When the lever is pushing downwardly, the lever will press the engaging portion for urging the CPU to electrically connect with the connector.
However, due to that the housing is just pushed into the stiffener, there are no other auxiliary measures to promise a firm and reliable combination of the housing and the stiffener, therefore, the housing will probably move up and down in the cavity of the stiffener, or flee out of the stiffener in a underside direction in the course of conveyance or when housing is pushed down by mistake.
What is needed, therefore, is an LGA connector that housing can be surely fixed in the cavity of the stiffener.


An optical transceiver includes a single integrated circuit chip to integrate the drive, receive, control, and monitoring functions of the optical transceiver. The single chip may further have an advance replacement algorithm and monitoring algorithm for the opto-electronic devices of the optical transmitter and receiver to generate flags and/or an advance replacement indication. Methods, apparatus, and systems are disclosed.

Optical transceivers are used in optical communications systems to convert data from electronics format into optical format and vice versa. A typical optical transceiver comprises a number of separate optical, optical-electrical, and electrical components including a semiconductor laser (LD) or light emitting diode (LED), an LD or LED driver IC, a P-I-N photodiode or Avalanche Photodiode (APD), a trans-impedance amplifier (TIA) and a limiting amplifier (LA). An LD can be a Fabry-Perot (FP) laser, a distributed feedback (DFB) laser, or a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL). An LED can be either an edge emitting type or a surface emitting type of LED. These are discrete devices typically packaged separately in device packages, such as a thin outline (TO) can, or integrated circuit packages, such as a j-lead surface mount package.
The semiconductor laser is usually packaged together with a power monitoring photodiode and coupled with a lens system to form a transmission optical sub-assembly (TOSA). The laser driver controls the laser operation and maintains a constant average laser output power through an auto-power control (APC) feedback loop, while modulating the laser to convert electronics data into optical data. The APC feedback loop, associated with the laser driver, compensates for laser power changes due to temperature variations and laser aging. The laser driver IC modulates the LD or LED output power to convert electronics data into optical data.
The P-I-N photodiode is usually packaged together with the TIA in a single package and coupled to a lens system to form a receiver optical subassembly (ROSA). The photodiode receives and converts optical data into electrical data in electric current format, while the TIA converts the input electric current into voltage with linear amplification. The limiting amplifier amplifies and converts the analog input voltage signal from the trans-impedance amplifier into a constant voltage output. The output of the limiting amplifier is usually in either PECL or CML (current mode logic) format. Other features, such as Loss of signal (LOS) detect and squelch function, are usually integrated into the limiting amplifier. LOS indicates if the photodiode is receiving data and squelch function completely shuts down the data output from LA when the input signal falls below a predetermined level. The laser driver and LA, along with APC loop and other passive circuit elements, are electrical components that are mounted onto a printed circuit board (PCB) called electrical subassembly (ESA).
The APC can be implemented with either analog or digital resistors to form a feedback loop by monitoring the laser output power through the monitoring photodiode mounted inside the laser package. Alternatively, a microprocessor can be used along with an A/D converter in connection with the laser monitoring photodiode and a D/A converter in connection with the laser driver to control the laser bias current, thus to set the laser average output power at constant. The same microprocessor can also be used to control the modulation amplitude of the laser driver, thus to control the laser operation extinction ratio.
Sometimes, it is desirable to monitor certain operational parameters of the optical transceivers, such as laser bias current, laser average output power, average power or optical modulation amplitude received by the receiver, voltage applied to the transceiver and transceiver temperature. This monitoring capability can be achieved through a digital monitoring controller that includes a few A/D converters, non-volatile memory, SRAM, memory mapping, lookup table, and digital communication interfaces, such as a serial interface. The same monitoring functionality can alternatively be accomplished through the use of micro-controllers along with some non-volatile memory. The monitoring circuitry and microprocessor or micro-controller being electrical components, are mounted with the laser driver and LA, along with APC loop and other passive circuit elements, are onto the same printed circuit board (PCB) to become part of the electrical subassembly (ESA).
The monitoring circuitry and microprocessor or micro-controller has increased the number of circuit elements mounted to the printed circuit board and increased optical transceiver costs and the requirement for PCB area. With an increased usage of PCB area to provide the increased functionality, it makes it more difficult to reduce the size of the optical transceiver. Additionally, the increased number of circuit elements increases power consumption for a given optical transceiver. Moreover, as optical transceivers contribute to overall system hardware costs, it is desirable to improve over the prior art.

Integrated driving, receiving, controlling, and monitoring for optical transceivers


Mechanisms for selecting a pipeline of a question and answer (QA) system to process an input question are provided. An input question is received and analyzed to identify at least one feature of the input question. Clustering of the input question, with one or more previously generated clusters of questions, is performed based on the at least one feature of the input question. Based on results of the clustering, a matching cluster, of the one or more previously generated clusters, is identified with which the input question is associated. A QA system pipeline associated with the matching cluster is identified and the input question is processed using the identified QA system pipeline to generate one or more candidate answers for the input question. Each cluster in the one or more previously generated clusters has an associated QA system pipeline.

The present application relates generally to an improved data processing apparatus and method and more specifically to mechanisms for routing questions to appropriately trained question and answer system pipelines using clustering of the questions.
With the increased usage of computing networks, such as the Internet, humans are currently inundated and overwhelmed with the amount of information available to them from various structured and unstructured sources. However, information gaps abound as users try to piece together what they can find that they believe to be relevant during searches for information on various subjects. To assist with such searches, recent research has been directed to generating Question and Answer (QA) systems which may take an input question, analyze it, and return results indicative of the most probable answer to the input question. QA systems provide automated mechanisms for searching through large sets of sources of content, e.g., electronic documents, and analyze them with regard to an input question to determine an answer to the question and a confidence measure as to how accurate an answer is for answering the input question.
One such QA system is the Watson™ system available from International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation of Armonk, N.Y. The Watson™ system is an application of advanced natural language processing, information retrieval, knowledge representation and reasoning, and machine learning technologies to the field of open domain question answering. The Watson™ system is built on IBM's DeepQA™ technology used for hypothesis generation, massive evidence gathering, analysis, and scoring. DeepQA™ takes an input question, analyzes it, decomposes the question into constituent parts, generates one or more hypothesis based on the decomposed question and results of a primary search of answer sources, performs hypothesis and evidence scoring based on a retrieval of evidence from evidence sources, performs synthesis of the one or more hypothesis, and based on trained models, performs a final merging and ranking to output an answer to the input question along with a confidence measure.
Various United States patent application Publications describe various types of question and answer systems. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0125734 discloses a mechanism for generating question and answer pairs based on a corpus of data. The system starts with a set of questions and then analyzes the set of content to extract answer to those questions. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2011/0066587 discloses a mechanism for converting a report of analyzed information into a collection of questions and determining whether answers for the collection of questions are answered or refuted from the information set. The results data are incorporated into an updated information model.

Routing of questions to appropriately trained question and answer system pipelines using clustering

International Business Machines Corporation


Marking apparatus and method is described wherein an array of marker pins are carried by translational assembly which, in turn, is driven from stepper motors which perform in conjunction with high helix lead angle lead screws. Solenoid actuated pneumatic valves are employed to actuate the marker pins within an array thereof and the entire assemblage of motors, valves, translational mechanism, and control features are retained within a compact housing structure. The control system and associated translational mechanism is capable of driving the marker head assembly in matrix, raster, and continuous modes of operation. Speed of marking is enhanced through the employment of a masking procedure wherein the translational mechanism drives the marker head assembly only to locations where active character forming pixels are present.

As industry has continued to refine and improve production techniques and procedures, corresponding requirements have been levied for placing identifying, data related markings upon components of manufactured assemblies. With such marking, the history of a product may be traced throughout the stages of its manufacture and components of complex machinery such as automobiles and the like may be identified, for example, in the course of theft investigation.
A variety of product marking approaches have been employed in the industry. For example, paper tags or labels carrying bar codes may be applied to components in the course of their assembly. For many applications, such tags or labels will be lost or destroyed. Ink or paint spraying of codes such as dot matrix codes have been employed for many manufacturing processes. Where the production environment is too rigorous, however, or subsequent painting steps are involved, such an approach would be found to be unacceptable.
The provision of a permanent or traceable marking upon hard surfaces such as metal traditionally has been achieved with marking punches utilizing dies which carry a collection of fully formed characters. These "full face dies" may be positioned in a wheel or ball form of die carrier which is manipulated to define a necessarily short message as it is dynamically struck into the material to be marked. As is apparent, the necessarily complex materials involved are prone to failure and full face dies exhibit rapid wear. Generally, the legibility and abrasion resistance of the resultant marks can be considered to be only fair in quality. Additionally, the marking punch approach is considered a poor performer in marking such surfaces as epoxy coatings and the like.
Laser activated marking systems have been employed. However, such systems are of relatively higher cost and the abrasion resistance and "readability after painting" characteristics of laser formed characters are considered somewhat poor.
In 1985, U.S. Pat. No. 4,506,999 by Robertson, entitled "Program Controlled Pin Matrix Embossing Apparatus" described and claimed a computer driven dot matrix marking technique which had been successfully introduced into the marketplace. This marking approach employs a series of tool steel punches which are uniquely driven using a pneumatic floating pin impact concept to generate man readable and/or machine readable dot characters or codes. Marketed under the trade designation "PINSTAMP", these devices carry the noted steel punches or "pins" in a head assembly which is moved relative to the workpiece being marked in selected skew angles to indent a dot or pixel defining permanent message or code into a surface. The approach enjoys the advantage of providing characters of good legibility as well as permanence. Additionally, a capability for forming the message or codes during forward or reverse head movements is realized. This approach permits marking upon such surfaces as epoxy coatings. Use of the basic dot matrix character stamping device is limited, however, to piece parts which are both accessible and of adequate size.
Robertson, et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 4,808,018, entitled "Marking Apparatus with Matrix Defining Locus of Movement", issued Feb. 28, 1989, describes a dot matrix character impact marking apparatus which is capable of forming messages or arrays of characters within a very confined region. With this device, a linear array of marker pins is moved by a carriage in a manner defining an undulating locus of movement. This locus traces the matrix within which character fonts are formed by the marker pin. The carriage and head containing the marker pin are pivotally driven by a cam to provide vertical movement and by a Geneva mechanism to provide horizontal movement. Pixel positions for the matrices are physically established in concert with pin or carriage locations by a timing disk and control over the pins is generated in conjunction with an interrupt/processor approach. Each marking pin within the head assembly of this portable device is capable of marking more than one complete character for a given traverse of the head between its limits of moment.
Robertson, et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 5,015,106, issued May 14, 1991, and entitled "Marking Apparatus with Multiple Line Capability" describes a dot matrix character impact marking apparatus which achieves a multiple line capability wherein a carriage component carrying one or more marker pin cartridges moves within a singular plane locus of movement. This multiple line capability advantageously has permitted a broad variety of line configurations, for example in widely spaced positions at a workpiece. The device further employed a retrace method in generating a locus of marking movement somewhat similar to the formation of a raster in conjunction with television systems. A modular approach for the device was provided utilizing a forward housing carrying the locus defining component of the device which was then actuated from a rearwardly disposed motor containing housing component which served to drive cam assemblies at the forward portion. The carriage component of the device carried a manifold which, in turn, carried one or more marker pin cartridges, the pins of which were driven from an externally disposed valved and pressurized air supply. As before, the device performed in conjunction with a predetermined character defining matrix of pixel positions, each position of the matrix being identified to the system by a timing disk physically maneuvered with the drive components.
The success of the above products has led to further calls on the part of industry for even more compact marking systems of lower weight and higher rates of marking speed. Further, interest has developed in providing a broad range of marking capabilities for the type devices at hand. In this regard, it has been deemed desirable to achieve a matrix form of character marking utilizing a single plane undulatory motion of the pin cartridge carrying carriage, as well as providing a capability for the above-described raster form of locus of movement. This flexibility should be achievable through the utilization of software changes as opposed to the insertion of hardware-based timing components and the like. Further, it is desirable that the instruments providing for such marking be both alterable and repairable by field based personnel. A still further call has been made on the part of industry for such devices to retain the capability for full form character formation. This requires the actuation of the marker pins in a manner wherein discrete dots or pixels are not observable, the indentations formed by these pins being so closely nested as to evoke the image of a continuous line forming each character. As is apparent, A need has existed for marker pin based systems exhibiting enhanced levels of marking flexibility and compactness.

Marking apparatus with multiple marking modes


A shared-housing ultrasound transducer and machine-vision camera system is disclosed for registering the transducer's x, y, z position in space and pitch, yaw, and roll orientation with respect to an object, such as a patient's body. The position and orientation are correlated with transducer scan data, and scans of the same region of the object are compared in order to reduce ultrasound artifacts and speckles. The system can be extended to interoperative gamma probes or other non-contact sensor probes and medical instruments. Methods are disclosed for computer or remote guiding of a sensor probe or instrument with respect to saved positions and orientations of the sensor probe.

1. Field of the Invention
Generally, this application relates to position and orientation determination devices for surgery and other contexts. Specifically, this application relates to computer vision and ranging tracking systems for medical instruments and sensor probes.
2. Background
Currently, hand-held sensor systems are being used for several applications, ranging from environmental surveys of chemical, biological and radioactive environments, to medical investigations for diagnostics, disease characterization and intraoperative guiding and imaging. Because they are hand-held, they can be immediately positioned and oriented with almost all of the outstanding flexibility and adaptability of a human operator's hands.
In some instances, a user may wish to know exactly how and where a sensor system is pointed. Yet, the flexibility and adaptability of hand-held sensors also can make them difficult to track. Prior art approaches at spatial registration of sensors and instruments are bulky, cumbersome, expensive, or not practical. There are several examples in which sensor systems were outfitted with a Global Positioning System (GPS) antenna, Inertial Navigation Unit (INU), magnetic sensors, or optical markers.
Unfortunately, GPS only provides coarse, limited spatial resolution and does not work reliably when satellite GPS signals are weak. INU systems drift over time. Magnetic sensors are generally useful for tracking objects within a small volume of space, around 0.1 to 1 square meters (m3). In a controlled laboratory environment, magnetic sensors can provide location resolution of about 1 millimeter (mm) inside volumes around 0.2 m3 and orientation precision to within a degree. However, when used in realistic applications where metallic objects are present, or when other magnetic fields are generated by adjacent electronic equipment, the position resolution decreases to several centimeters within a 0.2 m3 volume. This position resolution is too coarse for many applications, including medical diagnostic and medical interventions where multiple electronic instruments and metallic objects are used. Optical markers attached to probes require a direct and continuous line of sight to an external Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) camera system. Generally, CMM camera systems are bulky, expensive and impractical for most applications in where hand-held systems are used or desirable.
U.S. Patent Application No. 2009/0259123 A1 proposes a CMM-type system for tracking hand-held sensors and instruments for intraoperative navigated sentinel lymph node dissection. The system proposed therein uses external infra-red cameras to track coded infrared reflective markers attached to the hand-held probes or hand-held instruments. One drawback of this approach is that a continuous line of sight needs to exist between external cameras placed above a surgery table and all of the markers placed on probes, instruments, and samples. The hands, arms, and heads of the surgeons may easily break the line of sight during surgery procedures.
U.S. Patent Application No. 2012/0253200 A1 uses an augmentation device in the form of a bracketed structure to be appended to an existing imaging probe to project a pattern of structured light onto the skin or an organ of a patient to facilitate stereo object recognition.
There is a need for better, less expensive, and more accurate and precise tracking of hand held sensors and medical instruments.

Methods and systems for tracking and guiding sensors and instruments


A method and system for managing electronic mail (email) based on a user oriented penalty count (PC) random rejection. The invention determines a threshold for a specific user and assesses a cumulative PC for usage of a resource that exceeds the user specific threshold. Different operating states are determined based on a status associated with the resource. In a normal operating state, virtually all sent email is processed. In a selective-rejection state, sent email from a user with a cumulative PC is rejected randomly, while others are processed. In a random-rejection state, sent email from a user without a cumulative PC is randomly rejected based on a resource usage factor and an adjustment multiplier, while sent email from a user with a cumulative PC is completely rejected. The user may be assigned an exempt status that enables processing of virtually all email from the user independent of user's PC.

In today's network environment electronic mail (email) systems are rapidly replacing traditional communication systems. Modern email systems include exchange of large files, voice, video, and the like. Proliferation of email systems has brought about security concerns.
Denial of service attacks, including mail flooding, are common problems affecting the security of an email system. In the present state of the art, one possible response is to reject all incoming email during a mail flooding or denial of service attack incident. However, such a response may be undesirable as emails from legitimate senders may be rejected along with emails from a problem sender.
Thus, it is with respect to these considerations and others that the present invention has been made.

User oriented penalty count random rejection of electronic messages


A system and a method for generating dithering patterns associated with a digital image are provided. The method includes generating a first table index value indicative of a location in a first table where first, second, and third color intensity values associated with a plurality of pixels on the display device are stored. The method further includes transmitting the first table index value from a computer to a second device via a communication bus. The method further includes accessing the first table using the first table index value to obtain the first, second, and third color intensity values associated with the plurality of pixels, the accessing being performed by the second device. The method further includes generating first, second, and third dithering patterns associated with the plurality of pixels based on the first, second, and third color intensity values, respectively, and position values indicative of positions of the plurality of pixels.

Digital images generated by a computer are generally displayed on a display device. Each digital image is generally displayed by controlling an output of a relatively large number of pixels on the display device. Generally, the computer transmits red, green, and blue color intensity values associated with a pixel to an image processing device. Thereafter, the image processing device selects one pixel control value for the pixel from a table wherein the pixel control value is used to control operation of the pixel.
There are significant drawbacks, however, with the foregoing methodology. In particular, the computer transmits an index value for each pixel to the image processing device. Thus, when generating a digital image represented by thousands of pixels, the computer is required to transmit thousands of index values through a communication bus to the image processing device. As a result, the desired bandwidth for transmitting the index values may exceed the bandwidth of the communication bus between the computer and the image processing device. When this occurs, a presentation of a plurality of digital images by the display device may become undesirably "choppy" or discontinuous.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system and a method for generating dithering patterns for a plurality of pixels that utilizes a single index value for controlling operation of the plurality of pixels.

System and method for generating dithering patterns associated with a digital image


A safety switch for a guard device associated with a machine or a device, the safety switch has a switch housing, a switch head connected to the switch housing and having a drive device actuatable by a key insertable into and removable from the switch head, a switch actuating device which is displaceable counter to a restoring force into a position corresponding to a first switch position by an actuating force generated by the drive device and without this actuating force exerted by the restoring force assumes a position corresponding to a second switch position, a sensor detecting a presence and an absence of the switch head, and an actuator arranged in the switch housing and operating so that under a control of the sensor in the event of loosening of the switch head from the switch housing exerts a force on the switch actuating device in a direction of motion to the restoring force, that is equal to or greater than the restoring force, depending on whether the switch actuating device is to be held in a previously assumed position or is to be returned thereto.

The invention relates to a safety switch for a guard device associated with a machine or device.
Guard devices of this type prevent persons from being able to get within the danger range of a machine or device as long as the machine or device is in operation. To that end, the door or the like that allows access is monitored by a safety switch, which allows the machine or device to be turned on only if the door or the like is closed, and which stops the machine or device if the door or the like is opened.
The known safety switches of the type referred to at the outset are actuated by means of a key, which can be introduced into a channel provided in the head of the switch and removed from it again. Both when the key is inserted into the switch head and when it is removed, a switchover of the switch takes place, in the one case preferably by compulsion, because of the force exerted on the key.
The known safety switches have the serious disadvantage that whenever the switch head comes loose from the switch housing, especially in response to externally exerted force, breakage occurs that causes disconnection; the tappet of the safety switch, because of the restoring force exerted on it, changes over to the switching state in which the machine or device can either be turned on or stays on. If the disconnection of the switch head from the switch housing occurs when the door or the like of the guard device is open or is being opened, then the protection sought by means of the guard device and the safety switch is entirely lacking.


This invention is directed to a polymer thick film white reflective flexible dielectric composition comprising urethane resin, thermoplastic phenoxy resin, and white reflective powder. Dielectrics made from the composition can be used in various electronic applications to protect electrical elements and particularly to reflect light in 3D circuits containing LED's.

Dielectrics have long been used to protect electrical elements. They have also been used as isolating layers. Although they have been used for years in these types of applications, the use of dielectrics as reflective elements is not common. This is particularly important in circuits containing LED lighting where one wants to maximize the available brightness through reflectivity. Additionally, more and more circuitry is being developed where the base substrate that the LED's are attached to needs to be bent and shaped in a non-planar fashion. Thus, the white reflective dielectric must also be flexible i.e., it must withstand a 90 degree bend with no cracking. One of the purposes of this invention is to alleviate this issue and produce a flexible reflective construction in which the light generated from LED's can be maximized.

Flexible white reflective dielectric for electronic circuits


A powder feeding apparatus drops powder from a tank storing the powder to an oblique portion, and accumulates the powder on a plate disposed below the oblique portion. The plate is provided with a flat surface portion and a groove portion which is inverted from the flat surface portion to a lower part. The scraper moves powder which has accumulated to a higher level than a constant height on the flat portion and the groove portion, to an outer-side of the flat portion and smoothes the powder on the flat portion and the groove portion to a constant height. An ejector takes in powder which has accumulated on the groove portion of the plate by a suction opening, disposed at a front side of the scraper, in a relative moving direction of the plate, and discharges the powder from the discharge opening.

There is known a conventional powder feeding apparatus which feeds powder to a processing object.
Japanese Patent Literature 1 discloses a powder feeding apparatus in which powder is dropped on to a rotating plate from a through hole provided on the bottom of a tank which stores the powder. After a top surface of the powder accumulated on an accumulation surface of the rotating plate is cut to a constant height using a cutter plate, the powder is then discharged from a discharge opening provided on an outer periphery of the rotating plate.
The powder feeding apparatus may thus continuously provide powder, in relation to the processing object, from the discharge opening of the rotating plate.

Powder feeding apparatus and method thereof


A system for obtaining a desired cooling effect that utilizes a water-soluble endothermic salt solution and pure water. The cooling effect is created by cycling between two phases, a refrigeration phase and a dehydration phase. In the refrigeration phase, a water-soluble endothermic salt solution is used as a refrigerant to absorb heat by pumping through a first heat exchanger which cools an object or an area. In the dehydration phase, the cooling process is regenerated by pumping the now heated endothermic salt solution through a distillation membrane, where the solution and pure water are continuously commingled and separated from one another through a distillation membrane to optimize the thermodynamic efficiency of the system. At least two pumps provide the motive energy to move the endothermic salt and pure water through the closed loop piping system. The concentrated salt solution leaving the distillation membrane is further cooled using a second heat exchanger to facilitate crystal formation. Once crystal formation occurs, pure water is added back to the concentrated salt solution to restart the refrigeration phase, and thus, the cooling process.

A refrigerant is a substance or mixture, usually a fluid, used in a heat pump and refrigeration cycle. In most cycles it undergoes phase transitions from a liquid to a gas and back again. Many working fluids have been used for such purposes. Fluorocarbons, especially chlorofluorocarbons, became commonplace in the 20th century, but they are being phased out because of their ozone depletion effects. Other common or emerging refrigerants used in various applications are ammonia, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and non-halogenated hydrocarbons such as propane.
The ideal working fluid would have favorable thermodynamic properties, be noncorrosive to mechanical components, and be safe, including freedom from toxicity and flammability. It would not cause ozone depletion or climate change. Since different fluids have the desired traits to different degrees, trade-offs are necessary when choosing a fluid.
There exist hundreds of thousands of refrigerating systems across the United States and millions worldwide. The most utilized of these is the vapor compression system, which relies upon four phases of action performed upon a refrigerant to produce a desired cooling effect. The first phase consists of work performed by a compressor wherein a refrigerant vapor is compressed from low to high pressure. Next, a condenser is used to discharge heat to the surroundings by changing the refrigerant from a high-pressure vapor to a high-pressure liquid. This liquid then enters an expansion valve which changes the liquid to a low-pressure vapor-liquid mixture. Finally, this mixture enters an evaporator, which removes heat from the environment by changing the refrigerant vapor-liquid mixture to a low-pressure vapor, which is then sent back to the compressor.
Examples of common refrigerants in the United States include 404A HFC as a refrigerant in deep freezers, R-507 HFC for use in freezers, R-134a HFC for use in automobile air conditioning systems, and R-22 HFC for most every other cooling device. These refrigerants are costly and, as noted above, each have their own impact upon the environment.
An alternative refrigerant utilizes water-soluble salts that absorb heat from the environment when they are dissolved in water. Such water-soluble salts when mixed together with a water solvent form a solution that can be used as a working fluid for refrigeration. The dissolution of such salts in water creates an endothermic process which is capable of absorbing heat from the surrounding environment, resulting in a solution that is colder than the salt or the water. Not all salts that are added to water result in an endothermic process. Some salts evolve heat during dissolution by an exothermic process and other salts barely absorb or evolve any heat upon dissolution.
Salts are typically ionic compounds, made of positive ions (cations) and negative ions (anions). The process of dissolving a salt in water, called solvation or hydration, involves three main steps: breaking the attractions between the individual salt molecules within their crystalline lattice to form salt ions; breaking the attractions between the individual water molecules in the solvent; and spontaneous mixing of the salt ions with the water molecules to form a salt solution.
Separating the crystalline salt into its constituent ions is always endothermic because energy is required to overcome the forces that hold the crystalline salt together. Separating the water molecules from each other to make room for the salt ions is also endothermic because energy is required to overcome the intermolecular forces among the water molecules. Mixing the salt with the water is exothermic because energy is released as the salt ions interact through intermolecular forces with the water molecules during the process of hydration. The water that is mixed with a hydroscopic endothermic salt to induce the salt to dissolve into a solution is commonly called the water of hydration.
If it takes more energy to separate the crystalline salt into its constituent ions than is released when the water molecules hydrate the ions, then the temperature goes down and the process is endothermic. If it takes less energy to separate the crystalline salt into its constituent ions than is released when the water molecules hydrate the ions, the temperature goes up and the reaction is exothermic. The measure of this energy, or heat content, is referred to as enthalpy. As a salt dissolves in a solvent, the "heat of solution"—the change in enthalpy—can be measured as a change in the temperature of the solution. If the process of dissolving absorbs heat, the temperature of the solution decreases and the heat of solution is positive and the process is described as endothermic.
According to Hess's law, the overall enthalpy change upon solution formation, called the enthalpy of solution, is the sum of the changes in enthalpy for each step:
ΔHsoln=ΔHsolute+ΔHsolvent+ΔHmix                endothermic (+) endothermic (+) exothermic (−)If the sum of the endothermic terms is greater in magnitude than the exothermic term, then the ΔHsoln is positive and the solution process is endothermic. Here a positive heat of solution and the tendency toward greater entropy will drive the formation of a solution as long as the endothermic salt is soluble in the solvent.
Endothermic salts vary significantly in enthalpy and solubility depending upon their composition. An optimum endothermic salt for a refrigeration process will comprise a substance that has a positive heat of solution and is very soluble in water and whose solubility in water increases with the temperature of the solution. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 9,039,924 discloses that when a dry endothermic salt having a solubility of around 150 gm/100 ml of water at a temperature of around 20° C., a solubility of around 410 gm/100 ml water at a temperature of around 60° C. and a heat of solution greater than 25 KJ/mol is dissolved in 100 ml of water having a temperature of 20° C., the temperature of the resulting endothermic salt solution can decrease from around 20° C. to less than −7° C. in less than 15 seconds.
Upon hydration, an endothermic salt solution that has attained a temperature much colder than the surrounding environment can be used to cool beverages, foodstuffs and other materials up until the temperature of the endothermic salt solution reaches thermal equilibrium with the environment. At that point, the solution has no more beneficial effect as a coolant unless it can be regenerated by dehydration. A critical property of an endothermic salt for a refrigeration process is its capability to be regenerated by dehydration using a rapid and energy-efficient method of dehydration.
Salt solutions are typically regenerated by dehydration using thermal processes such as conventional drying, evaporation in dry air, or mechanical vapor compression processes. Such processes that are designed to quickly dehydrate salts utilize expensive and complicated process equipment to heat the salt solutions to their boiling point to flash off the water of hydration and generate the dry crystalline salts. Processes that utilize dry air evaporation where the dry air is in direct contact with the water to be evaporated require extensive contact time between the dry air and the salt solutions and often entrain salt particles in the dry air.
Endothermic salt solutions can also be dewatered or dehydrated by membrane filtration. Pressurized membrane filtration processes such as reverse osmosis (RO), microfiltration (MF), ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF) are commonly used to desalinate dilute salt solutions and other brackish waters containing less than 5% salt. These pressurized membrane systems apply high pressure to the salt solution in contact with the feed side of a membrane to induce liquid water to permeate through very small pores within the membrane material. Since the hydrated diameter of a liquid water molecule is typically much smaller than the hydrated diameter of the other ions in the salt solution, the membrane pores are designed to be large enough to allow the liquid water molecules to permeate but too small to allow the other ions to readily pass through.
One of the more effective membrane dehydration processes is RO but studies have shown that water recovery by RO is hydraulically limited. RO desalination of salt solutions such as seawater containing around 3% salt typically operates at pressures above 1,000 psi to achieve 60 percent water recovery, and RO treatment of brackish water containing less than 1% salt is limited to approximately 80 percent water recovery by mineral scale formation. Other pressure-driven membrane separation processes such as MF, UF and NF have some value in removing scale-forming calcium and magnesium minerals but are not selective for removing monovalent salts from salt solutions.
Pressurized membrane filtration systems are thus subject to many limitations when used to dewater concentrated salt solutions containing more than 5% salt. The high pressure used to drive the liquid water through the pores also drives small particles and larger ions into the permeable surfaces of the membrane, blocking the pores and building up a boundary layer on the feed side of the membrane that is resistant to the permeation of liquid water. The rate at which water permeates from the salt solution through the membrane is called the flux and is measured as the volume of water that permeates through the membrane per unit area of the membrane per unit time, typically expressed as the liters of water permeated per square meter of membrane per hour (LMH). As the boundary layer forms, the flux decreases because of concentration polarization across the membrane and the flow of liquid water through the membrane eventually is terminated. All pressurized membrane technologies are susceptible to concentration polarization and fouling when used to treat highly concentrated salt solutions and show significant reduction in flux over time.
Low pressure membrane separation processes such as forward osmosis (FO) appear to have advantages over more traditional pressurized membrane separation technologies when used to treat concentrated salt solutions. In the FO process, a semipermeable membrane is used to permeate liquid water from a salt solution into a more highly concentrated draw solution having a higher osmotic pressure compared to the salt solution. The difference in osmotic pressure across the membrane drives the diffusion of water through the membrane from the lower osmotic pressure feed to the higher osmotic-pressure draw solution and there is no need to apply additional hydraulic pressure to the feed side of the membrane as is the case for MF, UF, NF and RO. The water that permeates through the membrane into the draw solution dilutes the concentration of the draw solution, which must then be re-concentrated for reuse by another suitable process.
During FO diffusion, the salt ions in the salt solution feed stream are rejected by the membrane while the water passes through the membrane, resulting in a very concentrated salt solution. The FO process thus significantly reduces the volume of the feed stream without thermal treatment or the application of external pressure to the membrane. Because FO separation occurs at ambient pressure, less energy is required to transport water across the membrane and significantly less fouling of the membrane occurs compared to pressurized membrane processes. FO will only occur when the osmotic pressure of the salt solution feed stream is less than the osmotic pressure of the draw solution.
Because highly concentrated salt solutions often exhibit very high osmotic potential, it is a difficult task to develop draw solutions whose osmotic potential is sufficiently high to draw water from the highly concentrated salt solution feedstock. Such draw solution candidates must also be able to readily release the water through regeneration. The regeneration of the draw solution requires additional processing which consumes energy. FO is typically coupled with another process step to extract clean water from the draw solution to regenerate the concentrated draw solution. This additional process step can be a thermal process such as evaporation and distillation, pressurized membrane processes such as UF, NF or RO or a hybrid thermo-membrane process such as membrane distillation (MD). The success of FO desalination depends upon how easily and efficiently the draw solute can be separated from the water.
Membrane distillation (MD) can be effectively used to permeate water from highly concentrated salt solutions without using FO when there is sufficient temperature difference between the highly concentrated salt solution feed and the distillate to drive the permeation. MD is a low temperature, low pressure membrane-assisted distillation processes that permeates water vapor through a hydrophobic membrane in response to a driving force created by the temperature difference between the feed and distillate. MD is not limited by the osmotic pressure of the concentrated salt solution feed and does not require a high osmotic pressure draw solution.
MD uses a hydrophobic membrane and a heat source to generate a temperature difference between the salt solution feed on the higher temperature side of the membrane and the fresh-water product or distillate on the low temperature side. The temperature difference results in a vapor pressure differential across the membrane which is the driving force for water vapor flux through the pores of the membrane such that only water vapor passes through the membrane.
There are at least four types of membrane distillation configurations. The first of these is direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) wherein both the feed stream and the permeate stream are in direct contact with the membrane surfaces. DCMD has these important attributes: (a) the permeation of water vapor occurs at the feed—membrane surface; (b) the vapor movement is caused by the vapor pressure difference across the membrane induced by the temperature difference between the feed and the permeate; (c) the permeate is condensed inside the membrane module; (d) the ions in the feed should not significantly penetrate in the membrane due to the hydrophobic nature of the membrane; and (e) operation occurs well below liquid entry pressure level of the membrane. The advantages of the DCMD membranes are that they have (a) a high permeate flux, (b) are simple in design and operation and (c) internal heat recovery is available. The disadvantages of the DCMD is (a) their low thermal efficiency, (b) high impact of temperature and concentration polarization, (c) chance of contamination in the permeate is high, and (d) heat loss by conduction.
The second configuration is air gap membrane distillation (AGMD). With this configuration, the feed solution is in direct contact with the hot, feed side of the membrane surface and an air gap is introduced between the permeate side of membrane surface and a condensation surface. The advantages of the AGMD are (a) low heat loss due to poor conduction of heat by the air, (b) high thermal efficiency and (c) the possibility of internal heat recovery. The disadvantages are (a) lower permeate flux, (b) the need for a larger footprint to accommodate the condenser and (c) an increased resistance to mass transfer across the membrane.
The third configuration is the sweeping gas membrane distillation (SGMD). With this configuration, inert gas is used to sweep the vapor at the permeate side of the membrane to condense outside of the membrane module, creating a gas barrier to reduce heat loss in the system. The advantages of this membrane are (a) high mass transfer rate, (b) low heat loss by conduction and (c) an ability to remove volatile compounds from the aqueous solution. The disadvantages of this membrane are (a) that heat recovery is difficult, (b) dealing with sweeping gas is intricate, and (c) small volumes of permeate can diffuse in a large sweep gas volume which requires a larger condenser.
The fourth membrane configuration is vacuum membrane distillation (VMD). With this membrane a pump is used to generate a vacuum in the permeate side of the membrane to decrease vapor pressure and increase the driving force. This membrane configuration is widely used for water purification as it is an attractive and cost-competitive membrane separation technology. This membrane configuration is useful for removing volatile compounds from aqueous solutions.
Advantages of the VIVID are: (a) high permeate flux; (b) less conductive heat loss; (c) reduced thermal and concentration boundary layers on the permeate side of the membrane; (d) more water gets evaporated from solution and is released from membrane as permeate; (e) vacuum conditions make the permeate flow much easier, leading to a higher flux; high driving force to facilitate a greater permeate flux compared to other configurations; and (f) (g) negligible conductive heat loss because of the low pressure on the permeate side of the membrane. Several disadvantages of the VIVID configuration are (a) problematic membrane pore wetting and flooding, (b) difficulty in recovering heat and (c) condensation takes place outside the membrane module, requiring an external condenser.
Additionally, there are multiple membrane types available. A listing of exemplary membrane types includes: (1) single hydrophobic layer membranes; (2) bi-layered hydrophobic/hydrophilic membranes; (3) hollow fiber single hydrophobic layer; and (4) bi-layered hydrophobic/hydrophilic membranes. Membranes are typically constructed from polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE) and polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF).
Membranes are typically enclosed within a module. The modules are designed to optimize the available surface of the membrane material for separation according to the application. Typical modules can be flat plate, hollow-fiber, spiral wound, or tubular in their configuration. Other suitable hollow fiber hydrophobic membranes are made from polypropylene and polyethylene. Graphene and graphene-oxide membranes have also shown considerable promise in salt solution desalination. Perforene™ for example, contains holes as small as one nanometer in diameter and the membrane is capable of trapping sodium, chlorine and other ions, while allowing water molecules to readily pass through. Other membrane compositions that are similar to graphene such as covalent organic framework membranes (COF), metal organic framework membranes (MOF) and Porphryn polymerized membranes (PPM) also show considerable promise.
An important consideration in the design and operation of membrane distillation system is that an increase in feed temperature significantly increases the membrane flux. In other words, the vapor pressure of the feed solution increases with the increase in temperature which in turn increases the driving force across the membrane surface. In addition, an increase in the temperature gradient positively affects the diffusion coefficient, leading to an increase in vapor flux. It has also been determined that increasing the volumetric flow rate will enhance permeate flux and reduce temperature polarization due to the decrease in the thermal boundary layer thickness that reduces the convective heat transfer coefficient.
Factors that affect membrane distillation include fouling which reduces the membrane area for water vaporization due to membrane pore clogging which in turn reduces the flux. The degree of fouling depends on the size of the foulant and the pore size of the membrane. Contamination deposition on the membrane accelerates wetting of the membrane whereby water enters the larger pores of the membrane by breaking the surface tension of the interface between liquid and vapor on the membrane surface. Fouling can be caused by feed water characteristics, membrane properties, operating conditions and foulant characteristics that facilitate the interaction between the membrane surface and the organic, inorganic and microbial constituents present in the liquid stream.
Fouling typically occurs when contaminants within a fluid to be purified or separated out from the feed stream precipitate on top of the membrane. Fouling also occurs when microorganisms present in the feed stream colonize the membrane surface, producing a biofilm. One form of fouling called scaling occurs when elements within the feed stream such as calcium, magnesium, silica and barium form precipitates on the membrane as the concentration of the feed stream increases during membrane distillation. Fouling is less of a problem when dealing with feed streams that do not contain contaminants and are comprised of pure chemical solutions, such as is the case with concentrated salt solutions of a known chemical composition and purity.
Although fouling from contaminants is minimized when processing pure salt solutions, premature crystal formation on the membrane surface during MD is a factor that can affect membrane durability and performance. Highly concentrated salt solutions and supersaturated salt solutions may form thick layers of deposited crystals on the surface of membranes that can greatly reduce flux and damage membrane pore structure under non-optimum processing conditions. Mixtures of salt solution and precipitated crystals also form crystallate slurries that can be difficult to pump without damaging pump impellers and seals. Whether such crystal deposition impedes performance and longevity of membranes, pumps and piping is found to be dependent upon the morphology of the crystals.
The dehydration of concentrated salt solutions to the point where crystallization of the salts can occur in the concentrated salt solution with minimal loss of the driving force is a significant advantage of the MD process with respect to refrigeration. Dehydration at very low hydraulic pressures of less than 1 bar and the possibility to utilize low-grade waste heat from renewable and/or industrial sources to heat the salt solution feedstock are other positive attributes of MD. High water fluxes greater than 20 LMH can be achieved with temperature differences less than 30° C. across the membrane. MD thus appears to have great potential as an integral part of an endothermic salt refrigeration process.
The use of waste heat to dehydrate concentrated salt solutions represents a valuable advantage of MD for refrigeration and cooling. According to U.S. Department of Energy, up to 50% of industrial energy input in the US is released as low-grade waste heat. Recapturing this waste heat can be difficult due to the limit set by the Carnot efficiency, which at a temperature of 60° C. is only 14.6%. For comparison, the electrical energy required for typical RO plants employed for the desalination of seawater that are equipped with energy recovery devices range from 4 to 6 kWh per cubic meter of seawater processed by the plant. The Scarab MD system for the same process has an electrical energy consumption as low as 0.6 kWh per cubic meter, which is almost ten times lower than the RO process. For example, thermally driven cooling systems using waste heat, such as adsorption chiller, have been shown to lower electrical energy demand.
Using waste heat for refrigeration and chilling also reduces the demand for both electrical generation and fresh water. For example, the total water usage for thermoelectric power for 2015 was 133,000 Mgal/day, nearly 100 percent of which was withdrawn from surface-water sources which were predominantly freshwater. Total water usage for thermoelectric power accounted for 41 percent of total water usage, 34 percent of total freshwater usage, and 48 percent of fresh surface-water for all uses. Thus thermo-electric generation uses over 47% of water withdrawn in the US— more than agricultural and industrial water use combined.
The majority of water used in thermo-electric power plants is for cooling. Withdrawing water for cooling requires electricity and wastes a most valuable natural resource—fresh water. Even though the thermal energy required for MD is higher than RO, the cost for this energy input is comparatively small compared to electrical energy when waste heat is the source. By using the heat added to the salt solution during cooling to increase the efficiency of the distillation membrane, waste heat is utilized while enhancing dehydration of the concentrated salt solution.

System for cooling an object or a space with an endothermic salt solution and a distillation membrane


An inventive leadframe includes an outer frame, a die pad, and a plurality of leads each having land portions and connections. The land portions each have an upper surface serving as a bonding pad to be connected with a metal wiring, and a lowermost part serving as an external terminal. The connections are each devoid of its lower part so as to be thinner than the land portion, and are provided between the outer frame and the land portions, between the land portions associated with each other in each lead, and between the land portions and the die pad. Furthermore, the inventive leadframe is provided with no member that functions as a suspension lead for connecting the outer frame and the die pad to each other during plastic encapsulation.

The present invention relates to a plastic-encapsulated semiconductor device that is plastic-encapsulated at a portion thereof in which a semiconductor chip is mounted on a leadframe, and that exposes land electrodes each serving as an external terminal at the bottom surface of the device, and also relates to a leadframe used for the plastic-encapsulated semiconductor device.
In recent years, in order to cope with the downsizing of electronic equipment, high-density packaging of semiconductor components has been more and more required. In keeping with this trend, semiconductor devices are reduced not only in size but also in thickness. Furthermore, a variety of new ideas and new devices are being tested for the reduction of production cost and the improvement of productivity. Hereinafter, a conventional leadframe used for a plastic-encapsulated semiconductor device, and how the leadframe is formed will be described.
FIG. 12 shows the structure of a conventional leadframe used for a plastic-encapsulated semiconductor device disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-77274. As shown in FIG. 12, the conventional leadframe includes: a die pad 1001 on which a semiconductor chip is to be mounted; suspension leads 1003 each having a tail end which is connected to an outer frame 1002 and a front end at which an associated one of four corners of the die pad 1001 is supported; and linear land leads 1004 and leads 1005 each having a front end facing the die pad 1001 and a tail end connected to the outer frame 1002. As used herein, "suspension lead" refers to a lead that is suspended between a die pad and an outer frame of a leadframe. The bottom portions of the land leads 1004 and leads 1005 each constitute an external terminal (land portion 1008). Each lead 1005 is formed so that, in addition to the bottom portion thereof, an outer lateral portion thereof constitutes an external terminal to be connected to a motherboard. Besides, the front end of each land lead 1004 is extended beyond that of each lead 1005 and is located closer to the die pad 1001.
The die pad 1001 is provided with an upwardly protruding circular protrusion 1006 located at an approximate center of the surface of the die pad 1001. The protrusion 1006 is formed by performing a pressing process in which a plate constituting the die pad 1001 is pressed so that the plate is half-sheared and is partially protruded upward. The protrusion 1006 substantially functions as a portion for supporting a semiconductor chip, and when a semiconductor chip has been mounted thereon, a gap is formed between the top surface of the die pad 1001 (except a region thereof at which the protrusion 1006 is formed) and the bottom surface of the semiconductor chip. At a region of the top surface of the die pad 1001 surrounding the protrusion 1006, a groove 1007 is provided. When a semiconductor chip, which has been mounted on the die pad 1001, is encapsulated with plastic encapsulant, the plastic encapsulant is allowed to get into the groove 1007.
With the use of the leadframe formed as described above, a semiconductor chip is mounted on the die pad, connected to each lead with a metal wiring, and encapsulated with plastic encapsulant, thereby forming a plastic-encapsulated semiconductor device. In the resulting device, the bottom surface of each land portion 1008 whose front end is curved is located at the bottom surface of the plastic-encapsulated semiconductor device, i.e., the bottom surface of the plastic package, and the bottom portion of each lead 1005 whose front end is curved is located outwardly of each land portion 1008 so that two rows of the external terminals are arranged in a zigzag manner. Thus, a Land Grid Array (LGA) package is provided.

Leadframe, plastic-encapsulated semiconductor device, and method for fabricating the same

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A thermosetting composition that includes a co-reactable solid, particulate mixture of a film forming material having functional groups, a crosslinking agent having at least two functional groups that are reactive with the functional groups in the film forming material, and a monocarboxylic acid. Multi-component composite coatings, coated substrates, and related methods are also provided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to thermosetting compositions that contain copolymers of vinyl monomers. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a co-reactable solid particulate mixture thermosetting composition that includes functional copolymers containing isobutylene type monomers and a monocarboxylic acid.
2. Description of Related Art
Reducing the environmental impact of coating compositions, in particular that associated with emissions into the air of volatile organics during their use, has been an area of ongoing investigation and development in recent years. Accordingly, interest in powder coatings has been increasing due, in part, to their inherently low volatile organic content (VOC), which significantly reduces air emissions during the application process. While both thermoplastic and thermoset coating compositions are commercially available, thermoset coatings are typically more desirable because of their superior physical properties, e.g., hardness and solvent resistance.
Low VOC coatings are particularly desirable in the automotive original equipment manufacture (OEM) market due to the relatively large volume of coatings that are used. However, in addition to the requirement of low VOC levels, automotive manufacturers have very strict performance requirements of the coatings that are used. For example, automotive OEM clear top coats are typically required to have a combination of good exterior durability, acid etch and water spot resistance, and excellent gloss and appearance. While liquid top coats containing, for example, capped polyisocyanate and polyol components, can provide such properties, they have the undesirable drawback of higher VOC levels relative to powder coatings that have essentially zero VOC levels.
Coating compositions containing polyol and capped polyisocyanate components ("isocyanate cured coatings") are known and have been developed for use in a number of applications, such as industrial and automotive OEM topcoats. Such isocyanate cured coating compositions are described in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,997,900, 5,439,896, 5,508,337, 5,554,692, and 5,777,061. However, their use has been limited due to deficiencies in, for example, flow, appearance, and storage stability. Isocyanate cured coating compositions typically include a crosslinker having two or more capped isocyanate groups, e.g., a trimer of 1-isocyanato-3,3,5-trimethyl-5-isocyanatomethylcyclohexane capped with e-caprolactam, and a hydroxy functional polymer, e.g., an acrylic copolymer prepared in part from a hydroxyalkyl acrylate and/or methacrylate.
Solid particulate coating formulations referred to in the industry as "powder coatings" are finding increasing use in painting metal substrates, both as primer coatings and as top or clear coats of the base coat and clear coat composite coatings. Conventional powder coating compositions can contain a variety of polymeric film-forming materials with functional groups including, but not limited to, polyacrylates, polymethacrylates, polyesters, polyamides, polyethers, polysilanes, and polysiloxanes. In certain instances, polycarboxylic acid functional crosslinking agents, such as for example, dicarboxylic acids, are commonly used in the powder coating compositions. One example of a dicarboxylic acid commonly used in powder coating compositions is dodecanedioic acid. Such dicarboxylic acids are typically more costly than monocarboxylic acids.
The automotive industry provides corrosion protection and decorative appearance for motor vehicles by multilayered paint composites on the various types of surfaces of motor vehicles. The finishing layers of this composite usually include the popular base coat clear coat composites. The base coat is a pigmented layer and the clear coat is a nonpigmented or only slightly pigmented layer that is applied separately to the base coat and cured to some degree with the base coat. To provide improved coating composites for motor vehicles, the industry is seeking solutions to the problem of blemishes, smudges, and coating imperfections that occur due to the action of acid rain and road dirt, and debris that may strike areas of the vehicle, as well as car wash brushes, which can result in unaesthetic marring of the clear coat. Mar resistance is the property of a coating film which enables the film to remain unimpaired by light abrasion, impact, or pressure.
It would be desirable to develop thermosetting "powder coating" compositions that include functional copolymers and a monocarboxylic acid that provide excellent acid resistance and mar resistance at low VOC levels and can have good appearance and low cost.


An outlet that includes first and second substrates, and a plurality of electrical contacts. The first substrate includes an electrical circuit adjacent to and spaced apart from a first ground plane. Each of the electrical contacts is connected to the circuit. The second substrate includes a second ground plane electrically connected to the first ground plane. The circuit is spaced apart from the second ground plane. The electrical contacts are positioned adjacent to the first and second substrates. Together the first and second ground planes may form a localized, electrically floating, isolated ground plane. The outlet may be connected to a cable and/or configured to be mounted to a panel for use with a rack. The outlet may be implemented as a Category 7A and/or Next Generation type outlet having an overall height that allows two rows of twenty-four like outlets to be mounted within one rack unit (“1RU”).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed generally to connectors used for high-speed data communications referred to as outlets or jacks and more particularly to such connectors configured in accordance with the Augmented Registered Jack 45 standard ("ARJ45").
2. Description of the Related Art
Various Classes of structured cabling performance are defined by the International Standards Organization ("ISO"). ISO/IEC 11801 defines Classes D, E and EA which can be implemented using Category 5e, 6, and 6A components (cables, outlets, and patch cords), respectively.
Class D cabling is specified to 100 MHz (megahertz), Class E to 250 MHz and Class EA to 500 MHz. Using sophisticated methods of digital signal processing, electronic manufacturers can produce transceiver devices that are capable of achieving up to 10 Giga bits per seconds throughput data rates on these types of cables.
Registered Jack 45 ("RJ45") is a designation used to describe a modular connector (8P8C) and wiring configuration often used in structured cabling systems. The physical connector is defined by international standard IEC 60603-7. The RJ45 designation refers to both outlets (jacks) and the corresponding mating connector, the plug. Category 5, 6, and 6A performance can be achieved using various implementations of the RJ45 outlet and associated mating patch cords and cables. A patch cord is a length of cable typically terminated on both ends with a plug.
ISO/IEC 11801 also defines Class F and FA cabling standards which can be used for Ethernet and other technologies. Class F cabling is implemented using Category 7 cables, outlets and patch cords while Class FA cabling is implemented using Category 7A cables, outlets and patch cords. To reduce crosstalk and system noise compared to Category 6 cables, Category F and FA cables include additional shielding added for individual wire pairs and the cable as a whole. Class F cabling is rated for transmission frequencies of up to 600 MHz while Class FA cabling is rated for transmission frequencies of up to 1000 MHz. One type of connector that has been shown to be suitable for both Category 7 and Category 7A is the Augmented Registered Jack 45 (ARJ45) type connector which is defined by international standard IEC 61076-3-110. As with the RJ45 designation, AJR45 can refer to both the outlet (jack) and its mating connector, the plug.
Standards organizations ISO and TIA (Telecommunication Industry Association) are currently working on specifications for a "Next Generation" of cabling that will be capable of working to even higher frequencies (approximately 1.5-2 GHz). In conjunction with the proper electronic transceivers, "Next Generation" cabling should be capable of achieving rates of data transmission of approximately 40 Giga Bits per second. To date the ARJ45 interface has been shown to be capable of easily meeting all of the proposed transmission performance requirements needed for this application.
FIG. 1 illustrates a lateral cross-section of an exemplary Category 7A cable 10. The cable 10 includes a plurality of elongated wires 14 surrounded by an elongated shield 15, which is itself surrounded by an outer cable jacket 16. The shield 15 is electrically conductive and may be constructed from braided wire and/or metal foil.
The cable 10 includes eight wires "W-1" to "W-8" organized into twisted-wire pairs "P1" to "P4" each used to transmit a differential signal. For ease of illustration, the twisted-wire pair "P1" will be described as including the wires "W-4" and "W-5," the twisted-wire pair "P2" will be described as including the wires "W-1" and "W-2," the twisted-wire pair "P3" will be described as including the wires "W-3" and "W-6," and the twisted-wire pair "P4" will be described as including the wires "W-7" and "W-8." The twisted-wire pair "P1" is surrounded by a shield "S1." The twisted-wire pair "P2" is surrounded by a shield "S2." The twisted-wire pair "P3" is surrounded by a shield "S3." The twisted-wire pair "P4" is surrounded by a shield "S4." Each of the shields "S1" to "S4" is electrically conductive and may be constructed from metal foil.
The cable 10 also includes a drain wire 18 positioned inside the elongated shield 15 between the twisted-wire pairs "P1" to "P4." The drain wire 18 is electrically conductive and may be in contact with the shields "S1" to "S4."
A Category 7A cable may be terminated at one end or both ends by a Category 7A type plug, or a Category 7A outlet.
A plurality of outlets may be mounted in a patch panel that is in turn mounted within a rack. The patch panel typically allows for approximately 18 inches of usable horizontal distance in which to fit outlets or other equipment. Panels come in different heights. A standard panel occupies approximately 1.75 inches of vertical height in the rack and is therefore referred to as a one rack unit panel or "1 RU panel." For Category 5e, 6, and 6A outlets, overall dimensions and mounting features are fairly standardized among manufacturers and typically one or two rows of 24 outlets can be fit into a 1 RU panel. Often the same panel can be used for different manufacturers' outlets. However for the limited number of Category 7 and 7A outlets available today, overall dimensions are far less standardized and may not all be fit as such.
A need exists for a new outlet design capable of meeting the transmission performance requirements for Category 7A as well as those required for "Next Generation" cabling systems. In addition to transmission performance, the outlet should have overall dimensions that allow for 24 or 48 to be installed into a 1 RU space. Ideally, the overall dimensions and mounting features of the outlet should be similar to Category 5e, 6, and 6A outlets and usable within the same panel. The present application provides these and other advantages as will be apparent from the following detailed description and accompanying figures.

High density high speed data communications connector


An apparatus is provided to determine the speed and direction of a rotating shaft, including a rotor with three circumferentially spaced teeth connected to the shaft. The spacing of the center of the second rotor tooth is wider than the spacing of the center of the first tooth and the spacing of the center of the third tooth is wider than the spacing of the center of the second tooth. A sensor detects the center of each tooth and produces a signal in response thereto. The signal is received by a computer. The computer determines the speed and direction of rotation of the shaft by determining a first time period to reach the center of the first tooth, a second time period to reach the center of the second tooth and a third time period to reach the center of the third tooth.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an apparatus for determining the speed and direction of a rotating shaft, and more particularly an apparatus using a rotor having teeth or gaps with unequal spacing.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Electronic controllers are provided on modern vehicles to monitor the operation of the vehicle and provide information to the engine, transmission and other systems to control the functions thereof. One parameter which is monitored in several systems of the vehicles is the speed of rotating components. Some rotating components are provided in the transmission, driveline, and wheels.
Most prior art systems detect the speed of these components, but often do not provide directional information. In such systems, a sensor detects the rotation of a rotating component. Typically, a rotor is provided with a plurality of evenly spaced teeth, fixed to a rotating shaft. The rotor rotates with the shaft and a pickup sensor is placed in a position adjacent the rotor to sense the teeth as the rotor moves beneath the sensor. A controller is provided to receive a signal from the sensor. By counting the teeth and measuring time, the controller may calculate the speed of the shaft.
Additional sensors are required in most prior art systems to determine the direction of rotation of the component. In such a system, two sensors are placed in a particular spatial relationship with the teeth of the rotor. The sensors determine relative times at which an edge is detected. Thereafter, the controller may determine the direction of rotation. The additional sensor adds cost to the system and reduces reliability.
Another apparatus for measuring direction of rotation provides a feature, such as an oversized tooth, or, alternatively, deletes a tooth on the rotor. Such a system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,972,332, issued Nov. 20, 1992, to Luebbering et al ('332 patent). The apparatus in the '332 patent includes a rotor with such a feature. The '332 patent includes one undersized tooth surrounded by a standard size tooth, and two consecutive under sized teeth separated from the first undersized tooth by three standard sized teeth. The apparatus detects both the rising and falling edges of the teeth to determine speed and direction of the rotor. The direction of the rotor is determined by identifying the single undersized tooth.
When the apparatus of the '332 patent detects three standard sized teeth followed by two undersized teeth, a first direction is established. If the above sequence is not detected, the controller determines the shaft is rotating in the opposite direction. The apparatus of the '332 patent thus requires several teeth to rotate past the sensor before the rotational direction may be determined, and thus a relatively long time must pass before the direction is determined. Furthermore, because the method used in the '332 patent detects the edge of the teeth, a Hall Effect sensor must be used to accurately detect the edges of the tooth. A Hall Effect sensor is an active sensor, including an integrated circuit requiring a voltage input, and is a relatively complicated sensor. A Hall Effect sensor may have occasional reliability problems and is sensitive to temperature variation in its operating environment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,371,460, issued Dec. 6, 1994, to Coffman et al, describes another system for measuring the speed and direction of rotation of a shaft. A rotor is provided in the '460 patent with pairs of teeth having different widths. The teeth of various width are spaced circumferentially about the rotor. As with the '332 patent, the '460 patent measures the edges of the teeth and determines the width of the tooth after detecting each edge of the tooth. The apparatus of the '460 patent then establishes the sequence of the teeth and determines in which direction the shaft is rotating. As with the '332 patent, the '460 patent requires a Hall Effect sensor to detect the edge of the teeth, as described above. Furthermore, because the teeth are provided in pairs, the gaps between the teeth must also differ, otherwise the method taught in the '460 patent would be not functional, as an alternating wide and narrow tooth would be observed whether the shaft were rotating clockwise or counterclockwise.
It would be desirable to provide an apparatus for measuring the speed and direction of a rotating shaft using a simple sensor. It would also be desirable to provide such an apparatus having compensation for acceleration.

Speed, direction, and acceleration sensor for a rotating shaft having a rotor with teeth having unequal spacing


An adhesion force between a polyester cord and adherend rubber is improved by an adhesive composition comprising vinylpyridine-styrene-butadiene copolymer latex particles having at least two kinds of monomer compositions and a thermosetting resin comprised of resol type condensate and novolak type condensate of resorcin-formaldehyde.

A polyester material having an ester bond in its main chain is a linear polymer represented by polyethylene terephthalate and is high in the initial modulus, excellent in the dimensional stability under heating and in the cost, so that it is very useful as a reinforcement for rubber articles such as tire, belt, air spring, rubber hose and the like in forms of filament, cord, cable, cord fabric, canvas and the like.
However, when the polyester material is used as a reinforcement for such rubber articles, since the polyester material is minute in the molecular structure and less in the number of functional groups, adhesion to rubber to rubber is insufficiently obtained by an adhesive composition, effective for adhering materials such as nylon rayon or the like and rubber, comprising a resorcin-formaldehyde condensate obtained by a resol-forming reaction and a rubber latex including vinylpyridine-styrene-butadiene terpolymer.
For this end, there have formerly and numerously been proposed a method wherein surface of a polyester cord is subjected to an alkali-amine treatment to increase the number of an active group such as --OH, --COOH, --NH.sub.2 or the like on the surface, a method wherein a compound having a functional group which is capable of a hydrogen bonding or a primary bonding is introduced onto the surface of the polyester cord using an isocyanate compound or an epoxy compound and then treated with an adhesive solution, and such adhesive compositions.
However, the strength of the polyester cord is degraded by the alkali-amine treatment.
Further, the isocyanate compound or the epoxy compound is high in reactivity and reacts with water as a solvent of the adhesive solution or resorcin-formaldehyde condensate in the adhesive solution, so that it is very difficult to provide an adhesive solution of one package composition and also the adhesion property is damaged. For this end, it is required to divide the adhesion treating step into two stages and hence extra installations and steps are necessary, which are unfavorable from a viewpoint of resource-saving and energy-saving.
Also, the treatment with the isocyanate compound or the epoxy compound is unfavorable from a viewpoint of environmental conservation because of the scattering of these compounds into air during the adhesion treatment, and of injurious effect of fumes and steam created during the heat treatment upon humans, and the like.
Moreover, the polyester cord treated with the isocyanate compound or the epoxy compound is hardened and the handling thereof is difficult in production. In addition, there is a most serious problem that when such a polyester cord is used at a high temperature under a high strain, there are caused rapid deterioration of adhesion and degradation of cord strength. Hence the service life of an rubber article using such a cord as a reinforcing material lowers considerably.
As reasons of these phenomena, there can be mentioned facts that since the isocyanate compound or the epoxy compound is primarily bonded to the polyester surface to thereby form a kind of graft polymer on the surface, the adhesion breakage of the bonded portion is easily caused by hydrolysis of polyester, aminolysis with a residue of vulcanizing agent in a rubber composition and the like in use at a high temperature, and that the bonded portion is weak to mechanical input due to the large difference of rigidity between surface and inside of the polyester under high strain, and the like.
For the weight reduction has been proceeded from a viewpoint of energy-saving, and hence it is necessary to further improve the stability and fatigue life to thermal input and mechanical input as compared with the conventional ones. From this reason, the use of an isocyanate compound or an epoxy compound is also unfavorable in the treatment for the polyester material.
On the other hand, a method of adding a resin imparting adhesion/tackiness as an adhesion promoter to the above-mentioned adhesive solution and adhesive compositions thereof are numerously proposed as an adhesive for the polyester. They enable the adhesion work at one-package type and are excellent in the energy-saving and cost-saving and also the lowering of strength of a cord treated with such an adhesive is small.
Because water having good operability and properties to environment is mainly used as a solvent, there are numerously proposed resins easily soluble in water such as phenolic resin and the like as an adhesion/tackiness imparting resin added. For example, when using a resin obtained by a novolak-forming reaction between resorcin and formaldehyde in the presence of a neutral or acidic catalyst, the adhesion force is improved. But if rubber latex defined in the invention as mentioned below is not used in the adhesive solution, the adhesion performances are insufficient and particularly the adhesion deterioration is caused by thermal input during vulcanization step, when the adhesion to adherend rubber should be enhanced, and it can not be said that the above resin is satisfactory.
Furthermore, there has been proposed, for example, a reaction product between p-chlorophenol and formaldehyde, a reaction product between resorcin and triallyl cyanurate and the like. They are, however, insufficient in the adhesion performances and cause an adhesion deterioration particularly at a higher temperature, so that it can not be said that they are satisfactory.
Recently, in pneumatic tires provided with rubber made members such as carcass and the like using polyester cords as a reinforcing material, since tire performances are improved and a temperature at vulcanization step is made higher than the conventionally used temperature to obtain better productivity, and hence thermal input to the polyester cord becomes much severer over a period ranging from this vulcanization step up to use, there is a possibility that even the aforementioned adhesive compositions become insufficient in heat resistance.
As mentioned above, the properties required in the adhesive composition suitable for use in the polyester material or the like for rubber reinforcement are that it is one-package form, the storing stability is good, it is free from toxicity and environmental pollution, the cord strength is not lowered by the adhesion treatment, the adhesion property is high, the sufficiently high adhesion force at higher temperatures applied during vulcanization step and in use can be maintained, in another words, heat resistance is sufficient, and the like.

Adhesive compositions and pneumatic tire


An apparatus and method are presented for non-contact manipulation of a semiconductor die during semiconductor device manufacturing. Multiple die manipulation circuits are formed within specific regions of die areas of a semiconductor wafer. The die manipulation circuits may be formed upon a frontside surface of the wafer or upon a backside surface of the wafer. Following separation of the semiconductor dice from the wafer, a die is positioned above a horizontal surface of a die manipulation apparatus. Each die manipulation circuit receives alternating current (a.c.) power via an alternating magnetic field and uses the a.c. power to produce a static magnetic field. The static magnetic field opposes static magnetic fields formed around one or more levitation coils of the horizontal surface, causing the die to be levitated above the horizontal surface. By varying the relative strengths of the magnetic fields created by the levitation coils, "waves" of magnetic flux may be formed. Such waves of magnetic flux may be used to move the die parallel to the horizontal surface, or to rotate the die in a horizontal plane about an axis normal to the horizontal surface. Each die manipulation circuit includes a pickup coil, a levitation coil, a rectifier, and a capacitor. The horizontal surface of the die manipulation apparatus includes transmitter coils in addition to levitation coils. Each transmitter coil receives a.c. electrical power and produces an alternating magnetic field in response to the a.c. electrical power.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to semiconductor device manufacturing and more particularly to the manipulation of a semiconductor die during semiconductor device manufacturing.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
Several semiconductor devices (e.g., integrated circuits) are typically formed upon a single semiconductor wafer during a series of semiconductor wafer fabrication operations. A semiconductor wafer has two opposed and substantially planar sides; a frontside surface and a backside surface. After a single-crystal ingot of a semiconductor material (e.g., silicon) has been grown, the ingot is sliced to form multiple wafers. A sequence of shaping and polishing steps are performed upon each wafer in order to produce frontside surfaces suitable for fabricating semiconductor devices. In contrast, the backside surfaces are typically subjected to mechanical damage by abrasion, grooving, or sandblasting during wafer manufacture in order to enhance the use of the frontside surface for the fabrication of semiconductor devices.
During wafer fabrication, the frontside surface of a semiconductor wafer is partitioned into rows and columns, forming separate die areas. One or more semiconductor devices are formed within these die areas using a complex sequence of layering, patterning, doping, and heat treatment processes. Following wafer fabrication, the semiconductor devices formed within each die area are tested for proper operation. Die areas containing non-functional semiconductor devices are identified and either physically marked (e.g., with a drop of red ink) or noted by an appropriate entry in a computer database. The semiconductor dice or "chips" are then separated from the semiconductor wafer by sawing between the defined die areas. Following an optical inspection to ensure the operational dice were not damaged during the sawing operation, each semiconductor die containing operational semiconductor devices is mounted within a protective semiconductor device package.
Following separation from the semiconductor wafer, each individual die must be properly positioned for required operations such as, for example, die inspection, semiconductor device testing, and device packaging. Manipulations of semiconductor dice during such required operations are currently performed using air tables or vacuum wands. The upper surface of an air table has many small holes drilled therethrough. Pressurized air forced through the holes is used to levitate dice above the upper surface of the table, allowing a semiconductor die to be precisely positioned for a required operation. Slender rods are used to vary the position of a levitated die. When the air pressure is reduced, the force of gravity causes the die to come to rest upon the upper surface of the table. A vacuum wand has an air inlet port at one end. Reduced air pressure (i.e., vacuum) at the inlet port of the vacuum wand is used to pick up and position a semiconductor die.
Both air tables and vacuum wands require physical contact with a semiconductor die in order to manipulate the die. Such physical contact may result in damage to the semiconductor die, or may introduce ionic contaminants onto the surface of the die. Such ionic contaminants may deleteriously alter the operational characteristics of the semiconductor device, or may even cause the device to cease to function. In addition, an air table is only able to levitate a semiconductor die when pressurized air exiting the holes in the upper surface of the table can reach one or more surfaces of the die. An air table cannot be used to precisely position a semiconductor die over a solid object which substantially blocks the flows of pressurized air (e.g., a semiconductor device package).
Furthermore, both air tables and vacuum wands require die manipulation by a human operator (i.e., a user). Required semiconductor device manufacturing operations tend to be tedious and repetitive. Human operators make mistakes and suffer from fatigue over time. The frequency of mistakes made by human operators increases with fatigue, as does the amount of time required to perform a given task. Automated systems, on the other hand, tirelessly perform tedious and repetitive tasks the same way every time, reducing variability in both the end result and the amount of time required to accomplish a given task.
It would thus be beneficial to have a method and apparatus for manipulating a semiconductor die during a semiconductor device manufacturing operation which does not involve physical contact with the die, works in the presence of common semiconductor device packages, and allows for automation of the manipulation process. The desired manipulation method and apparatus would significantly reduce the possibility of physical damage and ionic contamination to a semiconductor die during a required operation, allow positioning of the semiconductor die above a device package during a packaging operation, and eliminate human variability and error in the performance of the required operation.

Apparatus for the non-contact manipulation of a semiconductor die