The plasma generator includes a plasma generation chamber which is pumped and into which plasma generation gas is introduced. An antenna provided outside the plasma generation chamber, a RF source supplying a RF power with the antenna to excite the antenna. A part or whole of the plasma generation chamber is made of dielectric. The antenna radiates the RF through the dielectric and includes an antenna element which longitudinal direction is vertical to the direction for the plasma. The plasma generation chamber has a side wall intersecting the longitudinal direction of the antenna element at both sides. A part or whole of a plasma generation chamber is made of dielectric having relative permittivity .epsilon..sub.S. The antenna radiates a RF through the dielectric and is comprised of multiple antenna elements which longitudinal directions are on a plane vertical to the direction for the plasma. A shield is provided at the opposite side of the electric interposing the antenna, and, the electric distance between the antenna and the shield is shorter than the length made from adding 1/.epsilon..sub.S times of the thickness of the dielectric with the distance between the dielectric and the antenna. A surface treatment apparatus using the plasma generator, includes a substrate holder for placing a substrate to be treated in parallel with the longitudinal direction of the antenna elements in the plasma generation chamber.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a plasma generator which generates a high-density plasma at low pressure, and a surface treatment apparatus which executes a surface treatment using this plasma generator with a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Apparatuses for executing a surface treatment of a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer or liquid crystal display (LCD) substrate using a plasma are well-known as plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) apparatuses, and dry etching apparatuses. Among those apparatuses, it is necessary to generate a high-density plasma to obtain higher treatment rates. It is also required to generate high-density plasmas at a lower pressure to prevent contamination of the substrate.
To improve ionizing efficiency in generating a high-density plasma at a lower pressure, helicon wave plasma generators, electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma generators and inductively-coupled type radio-frequency (RF) plasma generators have been developed. As an example of those prior plasma generators, FIG. 10 shows a schematic front view of an inductively-coupled RF plasma generator disclosed in the Japanese unexamined publication No. H3-79025.
The plasma generator shown in FIG. 10 comprises plasma generation chamber 1 having dielectric window 11, RF coil 2 provided outside plasma generation chamber 1 and close to window 11, RF source 3 to supply a RF power with RF coil 2 through matching box 31.
Plasma generation chamber 1 is an air-tight chamber equipped with a pumping system (not shown). Plasma generating gas is introduced into plasma generation chamber 1 by a gas introducing system (not shown). Substrate 40 is held on the upper surface of substrate holder 4 which is provided at the lower side in plasma generation chamber 1. At a plane parallel to substrate 40 RF coil 2 is formed into a spiral having an axis vertical to the plane of substrate 40.
By the RF power supplied from RF source 3 an inductive electric field is applied in plasma generation chamber 1 through dielectric window 11. The plasma generating gas introduced into plasma generation chamber 1 changes into a plasma, forming a discharge by the inductive electric field. This plasma is called "inductively coupled plasma" (ICP) because RF coil 2 and the plasma are inductively coupled through dielectric window 11 when the plasma is generated.
So-called high-density plasma generators, as shown in FIG. 10, can generate a high-density plasma of the 10.sup.11 cm.sup.-3 at pressures of 10.sup.-3 Torr. However, those high-density plasma generators have a problem in that high-energy electrons, which adversely affect a surface treatment, may be produced simultaneously when high-density plasma is generated.
More specifically, for example, the SiO.sub.2 /Si selective etch process by plasma etching methods using reaction gas such as C.sub.4 F.sub.8 has been studied. This selective etch process utilizes a phenomenon in which the etching would be stopped on an Si layer where a carbon polymer film is deposited, while the etching would not be stopped on an SiO.sub.2 layer where no polymer film is deposited because oxygen in the layer produces volatile CO, CO.sub.2 and COF.sub.2.
Through the study of the inventors, it was found that in the SiO.sub.2 /Si selective etch process the selectivity of SiO.sub.2 /Si may decrease when the RF energy applied to the plasma increases. The reason for this is that the increased applied energy produces a large number of high-energy electrons, which may excessively dissociate a C.sub.4 F.sub.8 gas. Though the exact mechanism cannot be described, it is supposed that the Si layer would be etched because the carbon polymer film is deposited involving fluorine chemical species which are activated by the high-energy electrons, or the carbon polymer film is deposited under the existence of active fluorine or fluoride.
In anisotropic etchings, such as a reactive ion etching (RIE) where an electric field is applied vertically to a substrate for acceleration of reactive ions, the substrate is occasionally damaged by high-energy electrons. The high-energy electrons which cause such problems can be produced with high possibility when the high-density plasma generator shown in FIG. 10 is used. This is because the apparatus shown in FIG. 10 uses an RF of several MHz more than 10 MHz such as 13.56 MHz, where there is a high probability of electrons changing their moving directions following the alternating field inducted in plasma generation chamber 1. This is also a result of the low probability of electrons moving to the surface of plasma generation chamber 1 and losing their energy by collision with the surface.
Applying an RF greater than 0 MHz with RF coil 2 enables a reduction in the probability of electrons following the alternating field. But, it is very difficult to excite an RF greater than 100 MHz with RF coil 2 having the spiral shape shown in FIG. 10. Moreover, reducing the probability of electrons following the alternating field, which can restrain the production of high-energy electrons, may make it difficult to generate a high-density plasma, which is the merit of the apparatus.
On the other hand, ECR plasma generators using a microwave can generate a high-density plasma at a low pressure because electrons perform the cyclotron movement because of the effect of a magnetic field. However, the ECR condition requires a high magnetic field strength close to 1000 gauss, which may result in movement caused by the effect of a magnetic field. However, the ECR condition requires a high magnetic field strength close to 1000 gauss, which may cause a problem where a surface treatment loses uniformity by its influence. Charged particles, i.e., ions and electrons transferred along the magnetic lines easily result in a problem of the charge-up damage of the substrate, in which the substrate is damaged through the dielectric film breakdown caused by in-substrate-surface potential differences coming from the non-uniform charge-up because those charged particles may charge up the substrate in accordance with the magnetic profile on the substrate.
Meanwhile, as shown in the Japanese unexamined publication No. H7-307200, a technique of applying an RF in a plasma generation chamber by a radial antenna was proposed recently. In the study of the inventor, it was realized that high-density plasmas with low electron temperature can be generated by applying a RF from 100 MHz to 1 GHz by this type of antenna and this technique can be utilized with high-quality surface treatments without the excessive gas dissociation which may reduce the selectivity of SiO.sub.2 /Si.
However, problems described below were also found. First of all, in the composition where the antenna is provided in the plasma generation chamber as shown in the JUP No. H7-307200, the antenna is exposed to the plasma, resulting in a problem in that the antenna is sputtered. The sputtered material of the antenna reaches the substrate to cause contamination.
The inventors fabricated the antenna shown in the JUP No. H7-307200 and tried to generate a plasma, applying an RF with some antenna elements composing the radial antenna (for example, two rods 180 degrees apart from each other). Then, it was also found that generating a uniform plasma on a plane parallel to the plane where each antenna element is radially disposed (this plane is hereinafter called "antenna plane") is difficult because the generated plasma tends to be dense at the space beneath the antenna elements where the RF is applied. This tendency dose not change when the number of antenna elements where the RF is applied is increased. Even when the RF is applied with all antenna elements, the plasma tends to be dense at a specific space beneath a specific antenna element.

Plasma generator with a shield interposing the antenna


A bone-modification device includes a plurality of cutting guides, wherein at least one of the guides is used to resect or otherwise modify a bone to receive a prosthetic element of a particular size, and one or more additional guides to modify or resect the bone in conjunction with a prosthetic element of a different size. In one disclosed example, the guides are configured to resect a distal femur so as to receive a femoral prosthesis in conjunction with knee-replacement surgery, wherein a plurality of guide sets are provided for anterior, posterior, and associated chamfer cuts for a plurality of differently sized femoral prosthesis. In this instance, the guide preferably features one or more sets of spaced-apart saw-receiving slots, including a first slot to resect the bone to receive a femoral prosthesis of a first size, and a second slot to resect the bone to receive a femoral prosthesis of a second size, different from the first.

This invention relates generally to orthopaedics and, in particular, to apparatus and methods of use enabling multiple bone resections to be performed for different-sized implants using a common fixture.
Prosthetic joint components are being installed with increasing frequency due to the enhanced stability and longevity of improved implants and surgical techniques. As a consequence, younger patients are electing joint-replacement surgery to enhance movement or alleviate pain.
In many joint-replacement situations, it is common practice to use bone-cutting guides to perform resections that correspond to the surfaces of a final implant used for fixation. In the case of primary knee-replacement surgery, for example, a stem is introduced into the distal femoral intramedullary canal to which various measurement and cutting appliances are attached.
Typically, a distal cutting guide is first installed on the stem, which is used to create a flat surface on the very end of the bone. A sizing jig is then attached in contact with this surface. Such jigs typically include adjustable feelers which touch the bone anteriorly and posteriorly, enabling the surgeon to obtain a visual indication of the correct-size implant for the patient""s physiology.
Having determined the appropriate size, pins (or drill holes) are introduced into the end of the bone, and a cutting guide specifically adapted for a particular size of implant is fitted onto the pins, enabling the anterior, posterior and chamfer cuts to be performed. Typically, the location of the pins also takes into account the degree of joint rotation required, which is on the order of three degrees of external rotation for knee-replacement surgery.
Although the system just described functions adequately in most cases, it does present certain drawbacks which tend to consume time and compromise accuracy.
Broadly and in general terms, this invention provides a device incorporating a plurality of cutting guides, wherein at least one of the guides is used to resect or otherwise modify a bone to receive a prosthetic element of a particular size, and one or more additional guides to modify or resect the bone in conjunction with a prosthetic element of a different size. Although the specification and drawings focus on primary total knee arthroplasty, it will be apparent to one of skill in the art of orthopaedic surgery that the inventive principles disclosed here are equally applicable to other joints and bone-modification situations that might benefit from apparatus and methods enabling multiple bone resections to be performed for different-sized implants using a common fixture.
A device for cutting a bone to receive one of a plurality of differently sized prosthetic elements according to the invention comprises a body having a plurality of bone-cutting guides, including a first guide associated with cutting the bone to receive one of the prosthetic elements, and a second guide associated with cutting the bone to receive a different one of the prosthetic elements. In the preferred embodiment the guides take the form of parallel, spaced-apart slots extending through at least a portion of the body, though alternative guides may be provided for different cutting tools such as osteotomes and routers.
In a preferred embodiment, the device further includes a fixture enabling the body to be moved relative to bone to assist the practitioner in determining which of the prosthetic elements and associated guide should be used to resect the bone. The fixture may further include one or more bone-measurement gauges to provide additional assistance in determining which of the prosthetic elements and associated guides should be used. The various guides may also be oriented relative to the body and/or its direction of movement to account for external joint rotation.
Where the bone-cutting guides are configured to resect a distal femur so as to receive a femoral prosthesis in conjunction with knee-replacement surgery, a plurality of guide sets may be provided for anterior, posterior, and associated chamfer cuts for a plurality of differently sized femoral prosthesis. In this case, the body will preferably feature one or more sets of spaced-apart saw-receiving slots, including a first slot to resect the bone to receive a femoral prosthesis of a first size, and a second slot to resect the bone to receive a femoral prosthesis of a second size, different from the first.

Bone cutting guide and method to accommodate different-sized implants


The invention relates to a gateway for connecting telecommunications networks, and to an associated method, in which a user channel data converter is connected via at least one additional user channel data interface to a switching center, and a signaling channel data converter is inserted between an already existing user/signaling channel data interface such that signaling information (SD(cic4)) which is transmitted on this data interface is filtered out for the additional user channel data interface. This results in a connection for a packet-switching telecommunications network without any major intervention in the network structure of a line-switching telecommunications network.

Line-switching telecommunications networks generally connect two subscriber terminals directly to one another via a number of line sections and switching centers in order to interchange messages (for example speech, data, text and/or pictures) That is, transmission in fixed allocated timeslots. Control information and signaling messages transmitted between switching centers for connection control. When using service features. Digital, computer-controlled telecommunications networks, in particular, offer a considerably greater performance scope than analog telecommunications networks, for which reason a new powerful signaling system has been introduced in digital computer-controlled telecommunications networks.
The ITU (International Telecommunication Union) has thus specified the central signaling system no. 7 (CCS7, common channel signaling system no. 7) for line-switching telecommunications networks, and this is optimized for use in digital networks.
In contrast to the previously normal channel-based signaling, in the case of CCS7, the signaling messages are passed via separate signaling paths or signaling data channels. One signaling data channel in this case transports the signaling messages for a large number of user channels.
In a line-switching telecommunications network, the signaling data channels for CCS7 connect so-called message transfer points (MTP) to one another. These message transfer points together with the signaling channels thus form an autonomous signaling network, which is superimposed on an associated user channel network.
Signaling points (SPC, signaling point code) are in this case the sources and sinks of the signaling traffic within the line-switching telecommunications network, and are primarily formed by switching centers or signaling nodes. In this case, the message transfer points transmit received signaling messages preferably using a destination address (destination point code, DPC) to another message transfer point. Such a message transfer point may either be integrated in a signaling end point, i.e. a switching center, or may form a dedicated signaling node in the signaling network. Furthermore, depending on the size of the signaling network, one or more levels of such message transfer points are possible.
All signaling points (SPC, signaling point code) in a predetermined signaling network are identified by, for example, a 14-point code within a numbering plan defined by the ITU, and can thus be addressed specifically in a signaling message. In the central signaling system no. 7 (CCS7), such a signaling message is provided by the message signaling unit (MSU, message signal unit).
In addition to the destination address (destination point code, DPC) and a source address (origin point code, OPC), a speech circuit address (circuit identification code, CIC) is essentially also stored in these signaling messages or message signaling units (MSU) transmitted in the signaling network. This speech circuit address (CIC) has 12 bits according to the ITU Standard, which are used to allocate the signaling message to a specific user channel. A speech circuit address (CIC) is in this case permanently allocated to each user channel, thus resulting in an extremely efficient line-switching telecommunications network.
However, as a result of the tremendous development of the INTERNET, there is an increasing need to connect such conventional line-switching telecommunications networks to so-called packet-switching or packet-oriented telecommunications networks, such as the INTERNET. However, as has already been mentioned above, since a line-switching telecommunications network with an associated signaling network represents an essentially closed system, a large number of problems arise if two telecommunications networks are simply coupled together.
FIG. 1 shows a simplified illustration of such different telecommunications networks, which are connected to one another via a conventional gateway. According to FIG. 1, the line-switching telecommunications network 1 (PSTN, public switched telecommunication network) comprises a large number of switching centers 3 and 4 (VST), which are connected via a large number of user and signaling channel data interfaces (lines). By way of example, a subscriber terminal device 6 (TE) is connected to at least one of the switching centers of the line-switching telecommunications network 1.
A gateway 5, which converts both the user channel data and the signaling channel data to the appropriate formats for the respective telecommunications networks is therefore required to produce a connection for a further subscriber terminal 7 (TE) which is connected to a packet-switching or packet-oriented telecommunications network 2 (INTERNET). To be more precise, and as shown in FIG. 1, the switching center 3 is connected via a user channel data interface and a signaling channel data interface to the gateway 5. On the other hand, the gateway 5 represents a data interface IP to the packet-switching telecommunications network 2, which is preferably the INTERNET. This results in the two different telecommunications networks being connected in a relatively simple manner, and this is normally referred to as a "stand-alone gateway".
However, conventional solution is subject to a disadvantage due to the fact that the gateway 5 must receive an additional signaling point code SPC3 in order that it can be specifically selected or addressed via the central signaling system no. 7 of the line-switching telecommunications network 1. In consequence, this means that, when there are a large number of such "stand-alone gateways", there must be a massive enlargement in terms of the signaling point codes SPC for the telecommunications network 1, which on the one hand is extremely costly and on the other hand involves a high risk for the intrinsically closed network structure, since each new element changes the network structure and can cause unpredictable disturbances in the telecommunications network.
FIG. 2 shows a further option for providing a gateway for connecting different telecommunications networks, based on an unpublished company-internal prior art. The same reference symbols in this case denote the same or similar elements, for which reason they will not be described in detail in the following text.
In order to avoid enlarging the signaling point code by introducing a stand-alone gateway, the gateway as shown in FIG. 2 is subdivided into a user channel data converter 50′ and a signaling channel data converter 51′, with the user channel data converter 50′ converting only that user channel data which comes from the switching center 3 to a corresponding IP format. The actual evaluation and conversion of the signaling data is carried out in the switching center 3 or in a signaling channel data converter 51′ which is directly integrated in it and which actuates the user data channel converter 50′ via a specific signaling data interface MGCP (media gateway control protocol) in order to select appropriate address information for the packet-switching telecommunications network 2. Consequently, the extremely critical enlargement of the signaling point code (SPC) in the line-switching telecommunications network is avoided, since the switching center 3, with its signaling point code SPC1, now provides not only the gateway and the user channel data converter 50′ but also the message transfer point for the switching center 3 in the central signaling system no. 7 for the line-switching telecommunications network 1. Since the network structure is not changed, there is no risk of disturbances in the telecommunications network 1, which continues to have extremely short downtimes. However, a solution such as this has the disadvantage that a manufacturer of such a solution must have very detailed knowledge of the respective switching centers in the line-switching telecommunications network 1 and, in consequence, this can be done only by system manufacturers of the telecommunications network 1.
A further option (not illustrated) for providing a gateway for connecting different telecommunications networks is to provide the user channel data converter 50′, which is illustrated in FIG. 2, such that it is likewise integrated in the switching center 3, so that there are no external components whatsoever, and a solution can be offered, "from the same source". However, like the solution described above, this is likewise disadvantageous owing to the fact that only system manufacturers with detailed knowledge of the respective switching center 3 can provide such integration of the gateway.
Furthermore, the document Anquetil L-P et al.: "Media Gateway Control Protocol and Voice over IP Gateways", Electrical Communication, Alcatel Brussels, BE, 1 Apr. 1999, pages 151–157 uses a media gateway controller for connecting a line-switching telecommunications system based on SS7 to a packet-switching telecommunications system based on the IP. Complex signaling gateways are in this case used for passing on the signaling information.

Gateway for connecting telecommunications networks and a corresponding method


A frame component of a vehicle, such as a header beam that couples between the A-pillars of a vehicle frame, includes an extruded hollow member having top and bottom exterior walls and side walls that together enclose an elongated internal volume of the hollow member. A pair of interior walls extends along the internal volume separating outer load sections adjacent to the side walls from a central attachment section. The outer load sections are void of apertures for supporting continuous load paths. A formation on the bottom exterior wall protrudes into the internal volume in the central attachment section. The formation includes an inset surface angled, located, and otherwise configured for attaching a subassembly to the frame component.

It is generally understood that vehicle frames typically have a header beam that spans between the A-pillars of the vehicle frame to support the roof and windshield. In addition to providing structural support, header beams and other frame components are commonly used as attachment points for other subassemblies of the vehicle, such as visors and overhead consoles. Providing attachment points along the length of a frame component can have a tendency to reduce the structural integrity of the frame component, making the use of lightweight extruded metal for header beams more difficult. As it becomes more desirable for vehicles to be built with lighter materials, it is increasingly desirable to utilize components made with extruded metal that have few structural discontinuities and adhere to higher safety standards.

Formation in hollow extruded vehicle frame component for subassembly attachment and method of forming the same


Improved block exposure techniques for a semiconductor wafer that use a block mask with an exposure pattern separated into blocks are disclosed. Each block comprises a plurality of block elements having parts of the exposure pattern and installed on the block mask. A plurality of block elements having predetermined patterns are extracted from the exposure pattern. Each of the predetermined patterns is present in at least one partial area of an associated one of the block elements. A combination of a plurality of extracted block elements having patterns arrangeable in a single block is specified based on pattern present areas of the individual extracted block elements. The patterns of combined extracted block elements are laid out in a single block and an irradiation mode of that block is changed from a full irradiation mode to a partial irradiation mode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an exposure method for semiconductor wafers and, more particularly, to block exposure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Because current LSI technology is seeking to develop larger scale integration and further miniaturized structures, it needs techniques for improving the speed and precision of exposing an LSI pattern on a semiconductor wafer. Block exposure is one of such exposure techniques.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional variable rectangular exposure unit 10. In this unit 10, a beam from a beam source 11 is irradiated on a first plate 12 and the beam, after passing a rectangular window 13 of the first plate 12, is deflected by an electromagnetic deflector 14. The cross-sectional shape of the beam which passes a rectangular window 16 formed on a second plate 15, i.e. the exposure pattern, depends on how the deflected beam is placed over the rectangular window 16. After passing the second plate the beam is further deflected by another electromagnetic deflector 17 to expose a predetermined area on a semiconductor wafer 18. This variable rectangular exposure technique cannot expose more than one pattern with a single shot of the beam.
FIG. 2 shows a conventional block exposure unit 20. In place of the second plate 15 shown in FIG. 1, this unit 20 uses a block mask 21 which has a plurality of blocks 22 each having a pattern. This block exposure can expose a plurality of patterns with a single shot of a beam. Because the patterns set on the block mask 21 affect the exposure speed and the exposure precision, it is desirable for the block mask 21 to have as many patterns as possible.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating procedures for generating data for block exposure. The block mask 21 of FIG. 2 is produced in accordance with this flowchart. In step 30 in FIG. 3, basic data (mask pattern data) from a basic data file 41 is input to a control unit (not shown) of the exposure unit 20 of FIG. 2, and various pattern processes are executed in step 31. Data collected after pattern processing is set as intermediate data in an intermediate data file 42.
Intermediate data from the intermediate data file 42 is input in step 32, and in step 33 a process of extracting a block element from the intermediate data is performed based on control statements 43. The extracted block pattern data is stored in a block pattern data file 46. For example, when the intermediate data is the pattern of memory cells 50 as shown in FIG. 4, block elements 51, 52 and 53 are extracted from the file 46 to avoid repetition.
When the intermediate data is an end portion of a cell array or a horizontally or vertically long pattern 55, as shown in FIG. 5, block elements 56, 57 and 58 are extracted from the file 46 to avoid repetition.
In step 34 of FIG. 3, the block pattern data extracted from the file 46 is received and is sent as block element data to a block data file 44. In step 35, it is determined whether the number of block elements output to the block data file 44 is equal to or greater than the number of block elements that can be installed on the block mask. The processes in steps 33-35 are repeated until the number of block elements equals or exceeds the number that can be installed.
In step 36, block pattern data is divided or segmented into rectangular shapes for exposure of the block mask based on the block data read from the block data file 44. The segmented data are output to a segment data file 45. In step 37, the segmented block data is read from the segment data file 45 and converted to exposure data which is in turn output to an exposure data file 47.
In step 38, pattern data that is different from the block elements extracted from the intermediate data file 42 is segmented into rectangular shapes, which are supplied to the segment data file 45. In step 39, segment data that is different from the extracted block elements is read from the segment data file 45 and converted to exposure data which is in turn sent to the exposure data file 47.
According to this conventional method, as shown in FIG. 4, block elements 51 to 53 extracted for fabricating the memory cells 50 are directly installed on the block mask (not shown). Also, as shown in FIG. 5, the block elements 56-58 extracted from the end portion of a cell array or the horizontally or vertically long pattern 55 according to the block size are set on the block mask (not shown) block by block even though patterns exist only at the end portion of a block. This may lead to lower exposure efficiency.
Further, the number of patterns to be installed as block elements is limited by the number of patterns that can be installed on the block mask. Therefore, those patterns which cannot be set on the block mask should be exposed by using the conventional exposure techniques. This results in a slower exposure speed and lower exposure precision.
Thus, a more efficient and faster exposure method resulting in higher precision is needed.


In some embodiments, a power manager may be coupled to a load circuit and configured to receive an input signal indicating a line disturbance on a power supply line and to reduce a load requirement of the load circuit in accordance with the received signal. The power manager may be configured to selectively reduce power to components with low entrance latency while continuing to provide full power to components with high entrance latency. Other embodiments are disclosed and claimed.

A power supply powered from the utility grid is susceptible to disturbances on the utility voltage, which includes, for example, brown outs and line outages. In some applications, it may be preferable for a power supply to continue to deliver output power even when the input voltage has dropped to zero for one fundamental line cycle (e.g. about 16 msec at 60 Hz and about 20 msec at 50 Hz). Capacitors may be used as energy storage elements to provide power during disturbances on the power line. In general, more capacitance is required with higher output power and higher minimum voltage requirements.
Power conversion losses may account for about 50% of the wattage utilized in modern day data centers resulting in reduced server density and low rack utilization. Overall the power and cooling capacity available to silicon loads for information processing is greatly reduced which in turn increases the total cost of ownership (TCO) of data centers. Efficient power delivery may be important to reduce power consumption, increase server density and also provide increased MIPS/watt metric for server applications.

Power manager with selective load reduction


A circular material cutter having a disk-shaped base with a rotating top member attached thereto via a spring and shaft assembly. The top member has a handle formed on its top surface and four legs which extend downwardly from the top surface radial edge, and which have cutting wheels rotatably mounted on their bottom ends of the legs. The shaft and spring assembly extends upwardly from the radial center of the base and is held in a spring receiving portion which extends downward from the radial center of the top member. The shaft and spring assembly allows the top member to be rotated above the base, and also biases the top member away from the base when the device is not in use, to keep the cutting wheels in a retracted position. To use the device, one places the device on sheet material to be cut, pushes down on the top member, and twists it 90.degree. using the handle, thereby causing the four cutting wheels to cut a circular piece from a sheet of material. An adjustable embodiment permitting selected circles of different radii to be cut is also described.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for aiding in cutting circular pieces from sheet material, and more specifically, to a material cutter with a plurality of cutting wheels which are rotated to cut arcs approximating a circle from a sheet of material.
2. Description of Related Art
When performing home crafts such as making a quilt, it is often necessary to cut a circular piece from a sheet of fabric, paper or other material. Many devices making it easier to perform this task have been disclosed in the prior art. These include devices with one or more blades which are moved in a circular motion across the top of a sheet of material to cut a circular piece therefrom. However, none of the previously disclosed circular cutters provides a base which securely holds the material to be cut interiorly of the cutting blades during cutting; which does not leave imperfections in the cut circle of material; and which also biases the cutting blades in an unexposed, retracted position when the device is not in use.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,456,346, issued Jul. 22, 1969 to John M. Snyder, discloses a circular cutter for material such as carpets having a disk-shaped member with a pointed axle and a single blade protruding from its bottom surface. The Snyder device is operated by pushing the axle through the material to be cut and twisting the top member 360.degree. to move the blade in a full circle around the axle. This carpet cutter would leave blemishes if used on fabrics, and it does not possess retractable blades.
U.S Pat. No. 1,428,828, issued Jul. 25, 1922 to Maurice A. Butterfield, shows a circular material cutter with a top member which is twisted 180.degree. to move two cutting wheels in a circle across the material to be cut. The circular material cutter of Butterfield differs from the present invention in that the cutting wheels are not in a retracted position when the device is not in use, the material to be cut is not held securely beneath a disk-shaped base, and the device does not have a compact structure to make it safe and easy to store.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,593,467, issued Jun. 10, 1986 to Tibor Safar shows a device for cutting a circular piece from a sheet material having a beam with two blades mounted thereon which is attached to a base member via a spring and shaft assembly that serves to bias the blades to a retracted position when the device is not in use. The device of Safar differs from the present invention in various ways including that the base member holds the waste portion of the sheet material being cut, rather than holding the piece interior to the cut. Also, the device utilizes a vacuum holder to hold in place the circular piece being cut out.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,621,574 issued Nov. 23, 1971 to Gerald F. Yanke and Erica Road, shows a circular material cutter having a disk-shaped base member that holds the piece being cut and a rotating arm with a blade mounted on its radial end which is moved in a circle around the base to cut the piece from a sheet material. The device of Yanke and Road differs from the present invention in that the cutting blade is not biased toward a retracted position when the device is not in use.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,173,913 (Nicholson) and 4,426,781 (Kufrin) show devices for cutting circular pieces from a sheet material, each device being operated by moving a blade-carrying member through a complete circle across the material being cut. These devices differ from the present invention in that they must be turned through 360.degree., making it difficult to complete the cut in a single motion. Also, the devices do not securely hold the piece being cut beneath a disk-shaped base to avoid damaging the piece.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,230,400 (Cadirola), 2,066,381 (Albertson) and German document number 2,910,642 (Ihata et al.) show circular material cutters having rotating arms with cutting wheels mounted on the ends thereof which are moved in a circle around the base member to cut a circular piece from a sheet material. The above mentioned devices differ from the present invention in that the cutting wheels are not in a retracted position when the devices are not in use; the material to be cut is not held securely beneath a disk-shaped base; and the devices do not have a compact structure to make them safe and easy to store.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,645,390 (Pecha et al.) and 3,934,343 (Witecki) and German Patent No. 119286 (Weibel) are mentioned to show other examples of circular material cutters which differ greatly from the present invention.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singularly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Thus a circular material cutter solving the aforementioned problems is desired.


A method for detecting HIV infection in a mammal is disclosed. The method contains the steps of isolating exosomes from a urine sample of a mammal and detecting the presence of HIV-specific biomarker in said isolated exosomes. A method for diagnosing a mammal with an HIV-associated disease, in particular, HIV-associated nephropathy is also disclosed.

HIV tests are generally performed on serum or plasma. The detection of a HIV antibody is presumptive evidence of HIV-1 infection, and is typically confirmed by the Western blot procedure. Detection of virus by p24 antigen determination or detection of viral RNA by RT-PCR is also used to determine the amount of virus in circulation. CD4/CD8 T cell ratios and other immune function tests are often used to monitor immune status and progression to AIDS. More recently, HIV tests using saliva or epithelia cells in the mouth have also been developed. However, currently there is no test available to measure antigen or antibody in urine. The detection of HIV proteins in the urine may provide a more rapid method to detect HIV infection or progression of disease, particularly renal complications.
HIV-Associated Nephropathy (HIVAN), a renal disease that disproportionately afflicts people of African descent, is characterized by kidney hypertrophy and rapid progression and stage renal disease. HIVAN is caused by direct infection of the renal cells with the HIV-1 virus and leads to renal damage through the viral gene products. It could also be caused by changes in the release of cytokines during HIV infection. The etiology of HIVAN is still unknown. It is estimated that 90% of HIVAN sufferers are people of African descent, suggesting a genetic predisposition to the disease (Wyatt, C. M., Klotman, P. E. HIV-Associated Nephropathy. in the Era of Antiretroviral Therapy. American Journal of Medicine Review 2007).
Renal biopsies of patients showing focal segmental glomerulosclerosis with tubular dilation and inflammation, microcystic tubules, degenerating glomerular capillaries in conjunction with marked proteinuria is diagnostic for HIVAN (supra). This method, however, is an invasive procedure and is sometimes rejected by patients because of its invasiveness. Therefore, there exists a need for diagnostic test from HIV or an HIV associated disease that is reliable, rapid, cost-effective and less invasive.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Detection of HIV-related proteins in urine


A mortar system includes a launch unit that comprises a mortar ignition cartridge provided with a flashtube. The flashtube incorporates a ring-like nozzle that is positioned within the flashtube, which acts to restrain the motion of the black powder pellets as well as to choke the flow of the resultant combustion products. The nozzle separates the flashtube into two compartments: a flashtube venting chamber and a pellet combustion chamber. The mortar ignition cartridge combustion chamber acts as the product-gas venting area of the flashtube. The combustion of the black powder pellets essentially takes place in the pellet combustion chamber. The present design modification improves the overall performance of the mortar system.

The reliable performance of a propellant driven munition system is dependent on the performance of its propulsion unit. The ignition train has historically been the weakest link in the repeatability of the munition system. Coupling the initiation of the ballistic cycle through various intermediate steps until a smooth transition to full combustion is achieved is the key to reliability.
In a mortar system, the mortar propulsion system is initiated by either an electric or a percussion element in the primer head, which in turn ignites a black powder pellet(s) (igniter) in the base of the flashtube. The combustion products (including gases) are then vented through flash holes in the flashtube, igniting the propellant in the mortar ignition cartridge. The combustion products in the mortar ignition cartridge then vent through holes in the mortar boom. Gas pressure from the combustion products starts the motion of the mortar projectile through the launch tube and the pressure and temperature of the products ignites any additional propellant increments attached to the boom.
Dynamic and hydrodynamic processes occur during the ignition and combustion phase of the launch. The black powder pellet is seated on a small shoulder at the base of the flashtube. Once the black powder pellet starts to be consumed by the combustion process, its diameter starts to reduce and it becomes free to travel within the flashtube, driven by local pressure gradients.
Thus, the black powder pellet becomes free to oscillate within the flashtube, covering and uncovering flash holes in the flashtube and creating pressure oscillations within the mortar ignition cartridge. As combustion is driven by the local pressure that the propellant experiences, the oscillations within the flashtube can generate pressure waves within the mortar ignition cartridge, which can propagate even further into the main combustion chamber.
Since pressure is the driving force of the flashtube venting, it can cause the steel pin end of the flashtube to more vigorously initiate local combustion. This can cause further pressure waves within the mortar ignition cartridge, which can be transferred to the combustion in the launch tube.
At low zones of propelling charge, which has the lowest loading density of propellant in the mortar system, the effect of the waves may be minimal. At higher zones and loading densities, the pressure waves can cause erratic performance and, in the most severe instances, break fins off the mortar boom. This in turn causes an inaccurate trajectory and at worst a safety problem.
As a result, present mortar systems can have severe pressure waves in the flashtube that transfer and grow in the mortar ignition cartridge and the launch tube.
What is therefore needed is a nozzle for use in the flashtube of the mortar launch unit, in order to improve the performance of the mortar. The nozzle should create more homogeneous combustion among the black powder pellet(s) in the flashtube. The nozzle should result in a decrease in the variation, in terms of mass flow rate, of venting products from the flashtube vent holes. The nozzle should create a more consistent muzzle velocity of the mortar. The nozzle should result in a decrease in pressure waves within the flashtube and therefore within the mortar ignition cartridge. Prior to the advent of the present invention, the need for such a nozzle has heretofore remained unsatisfied.

Nozzled mortar ignition system for improved performance

The United States of America as Represented by the Secretary of the Army


An ophthalmologic apparatus, includes: a first concave mirror and a second concave mirror having a concave surface-shaped first reflective surface and a concave surface-shaped second reflective surface; an SLO optical system configured to project light from an SLO light source onto a subject's eye via the first concave mirror and the second concave mirror, and to detect returning light from the subject's eye; a first optical scanner configured to deflect the light from the SLO light source to guide the light to the first reflective surface; a second optical scanner configured to deflect light reflected by the first reflective surface to guide the light to the second reflective surface; an OCT optical system including a third optical scanner, and configured to split light from an OCT light source into measurement light and reference light, to project the measurement light deflected by the third optical scanner onto the subject's eye, and to detect interference light between returning light of the measurement light from the subject's eye and the reference light; an optical path coupling member disposed between the first optical scanner and the first concave mirror, and combining an optical path of the SLO optical system and an optical path of the OCT optical system; and a correction unit configured to correct detection result of the interference light detected by the OCT optical system or an image formed based on the detection result.

There is a demand for ophthalmologic apparatuses capable of easily observing and imaging fundus of a subject's eye with a wide field of view for screening or treating eye diseases. As such ophthalmologic apparatuses, scanning laser ophthalmoscopes (SLOs) are known. The SLO is an apparatus configured to form an image of the fundus by scanning the fundus with light to detect returning light of the light with a light receiving device.
Further, in recent years, attention has been drawn to optical coherence tomography (OCT) which is used to measure the morphology of an object to be measured or to image using light beam emitted from a laser light source or the like. Since OCT does not have invasiveness to human body as X-ray CT (Computed Tomography) does, development of application of OCT in medical field and biology field is particularly expected. Apparatuses using such OCT are applied to the diagnosis of various eye diseases, because of the ability to acquire high precision images.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2018-61622 discloses an ophthalmologic apparatus for realizing the measurement function using SLO and the measurement function using OCT. In the ophthalmologic apparatus disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2018-61622, the light on the combined optical path of the SLO optical system and the OCT optical system combined by the dichroic mirror is reflected by the slit mirror, the reflected light is deflected by the galvano mirror, is reflected by the ellipsoidal mirror, and is guided to the subject's eye. The galvano mirror is shared for scanning in the X direction of SLO and OCT.

Ophthalmologic apparatus and method for controlling the same


A radiation image storage panel is composed of a phosphor layer containing an energy-storing phosphor and a light-reflecting layer contains particles of light-reflecting material, a binder, and a surface-treatment agent.

When exposed to radiation such as X-rays, an energy-storing phosphor (e.g., stimulable phosphor, which gives stimulated emission off) absorbs and stores a portion of the radiation energy. The phosphor then emits stimulated emission according to the level of the stored energy when it is exposed to electromagnetic wave such as visible or infrared light (i.e., stimulating light). A radiation image recording and reproducing method utilizing the energy-storing phosphor has been widely employed in practice. In that method, a radiation image storage panel, which is a sheet comprising the energy-storing phosphor, is used. The method comprises the steps of: exposing the storage panel to radiation having passed through an object or having radiated from an object, so that radiation image information of the object is temporarily recorded in the panel; sequentially scanning the storage panel with a stimulating light such as a laser beam to emit stimulated light; and photoelectrically detecting the emitted light to obtain electric image signals. The storage panel thus treated is subjected to a step for erasing radiation energy remaining therein, and then stored for the use in the next recording and reproducing procedure. Thus, the radiation image storage panel can be repeatedly used.
The radiation image storage panel (often referred to as energy-storing phosphor sheet) has a basic structure comprising a support and an energy-storing phosphor layer provided thereon. However, if the phosphor layer is self-supporting, the support may be omitted. Further, a protective layer is normally provided on the free surface (surface not facing the support) of the phosphor layer to keep the phosphor layer from chemical deterioration or physical damage.
The phosphor layer generally comprises a binder and an energy-storing phosphor dispersed therein. However, the phosphor layer may comprise agglomerate of an energy-storing phosphor without binder, and in fact that phosphor layer is already known. The phosphor layer containing no binder can be formed by a vapor phase deposition method or by a firing method. Further, the phosphor layer may comprise energy-storing phosphor agglomerate impregnated with a polymer material, which is already known, too.
Japanese Patent Provisional Publication 2001-255610 discloses a variation of the radiation image recording and reproducing method. While an energy-storing phosphor of the storage panel used in the ordinary method plays both roles of radiation-absorbing function and energy-storing function, those two functions are separated in the disclosed method. In the method, a radiation image storage panel comprising an energy-storing phosphor (which stores radiation energy) is used in combination with a phosphor screen comprising another phosphor which absorbs radiation and emits ultraviolet or visible light. The disclosed method comprises the steps of causing the radiation-absorbing phosphor of the screen (and of the panel) to absorb and convert radiation having passed through an object or having radiated from an object into ultraviolet or visible light; causing the energy-storing phosphor of the panel to store the energy of the converted light as radiation image information; sequentially exciting the energy-storing phosphor with a stimulating light to emit stimulated light; and photoelectrically detecting the emitted light to obtain electric signals giving a visible radiation image.
The radiation image recording and reproducing method (or radiation image forming method) has various advantages as described above. However, it is still desired that the radiation image storage panel used in the method have a sensitivity as high as possible and, at the same time, give a reproduced radiation image of high quality (in regard to sharpness and graininess).
For improving the sensitivity of radiation image storage panel, a light-reflecting layer is often provided between the support and the phosphor layer. Japanese Patent Provisional Publication 2001-124898 discloses a radiation image storage panel in which a light-reflecting layer is provided on one side of the phosphor layer containing a stimulable phosphor. The light-reflecting layer contains light-reflecting material, and shows a scattering length of 5 μm or less at the wavelength where a stimulating light excites the stimulable phosphor. By providing a light-reflecting layer showing such a short scattering length, the storage panel is improved not only in the sensitivity but also in the sharpness. That is because the stimulating light is reflected with enough reflectivity to prevent from diffusing, and accordingly the storage panel gives a reproduced radiation image of high quality with high sensitivity.
In order to prepare a light-reflecting layer giving the above-described short scattering length, it is necessary to pack densely the light-reflecting material in the form of fine particles (i.e., it is necessary to lower the ratio of binder/reflecting material in the light-reflecting layer) in the reflecting layer. However, if a coating solution for the reflecting layer contains a relatively large amount of the reflecting material, a coating solution suffers from various troubles. For example, the particles of reflecting material are prone to be insufficiently dispersed; the resultant reflecting layer is apt to have uneven thickness; and defects (e.g., lines or spots due to unevenly spread coating solution) are often formed in the coated layer. The insufficient dispersion lowers reflectivity of the reflecting layer, uneven layer thickness disadvantageously makes image-signals with such uneven S/N ratios that the resultant storage panel has uneven sensitivity, and the troubles occurring in the coating procedure increase the production cost.


Contaminated particulate materials of varying particle sizes are washed and separated by size by a steam washing process which concentrates the contaminant in the small size fraction.

Water washing of contaminated soil using solutions of surfactants and chelating agents is known. Such systems use substantial volumes of liquid water to dissolve or wash away contaminants from the surface of the bulk soil particles.
In other decontamination systems, volatile contaminants are removed by vaporization with steam under conditions which maintain the steam and the entrained contaminant in the vapor phase for removal by vacuum or vapor flow means.
Separation of particulate materials and segregation by size is well known. A variety of devices and systems are known. For example, spiral separators, vibrating screens and sieves and the like.
Soil washing is a volume reduction technique for treating soil or other particulate materials contaminated by a variety of chemical and physical agents such as oils, chemical waste etc. The particulate material is slurried with water and subjected to one or more stages of scrubbing with classification according to particle size between successive stages. Separation of the washed coarser particles from the more highly contaminated fine particles achieves a substantial reduction in the volume of material requiring further treatment or disposal.
Soil washing techniques are based on the theory that the contaminants are concentrated in fine size portion of the material and that the contaminants associated with the coarser or larger size particles tend to be associated with the surface of the particle.


A monitoring system for preventing crime in a home, includes a plurality of terminals for monitoring whether predetermined monitoring points are in a stationary or nonstationary state. Further, the monitoring system includes a central processing device for controlling the setting/canceling of alarm operations of the terminals. The central processing device has a communication unit that receives stationary/nonstationary information from the terminals and transmits predetermined information including commands to the terminals. Each terminal has a communication unit that transmits stationary/nonstationary information to the central processing device and receives the predetermined information from the central processing device. Thus bidirectional communication can be achieved between the central processing device and the terminals. The terminals may include a terminal with an emergency call unit which, in an emergency, calls or notifies another, and a terminal having a notification unit which indicates that a nonstationary state has been accepted by a predetermined point of contact.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a monitoring system which monitors occurrence of a nonstationary state by a central processing device and a terminal, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a monitoring system suitable for preventing crime in a residence.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, in order to cope with an increasing number of property crimes, a demand for systems which monitor residences has increased. A conventional monitoring system for monitoring burglary or the like is constituted by a combination of a plurality of sensor terminals for detecting a burglar and a central processing device for issuing a warning.
For example, a monitoring system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,920,270 has a plurality of sensor terminals and a residence information board. The monitoring system is designed such that when a sensor terminal detects the burglary, a warning is generated from a loudspeaker arranged on the residence information board.
In another monitoring system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,461,365, when a terminal held by a user detects an occurrence of an emergency situation, the information of the emergency situation is transmitted to a central processing device by air, and a warning is generated from the central processing device.
In still another monitoring system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-16715, an information terminal held by a user and a monitoring unit (imaging device) serving as a central processing device can be communicated, and the system has a function of monitoring a state of a place near the monitoring unit and has a function to output the sound which is transmitted from the information terminal and amplified.
In the monitoring system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,920,270, a place where warning sound is generated corresponds to the position of a central processing device serving as a residence information board, and is not a position where a terminal is installed and where the burglary occurs. Thus, the threatening effect to the burglar is insufficient.
In the monitoring system disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,461,365, when an emergency situation occurs, it can be checked at only a position where the central processing device is installed whether the information of the emergency situation is accurately accepted by a receiver around the central processing device. A user cannot easily recognize that the information is accurately accepted at the position where the user transmits a signal.
According to the monitoring system described in Japanese Patent Laying-Open Publication No. 2002-16715, for example, it is difficult to monitor the sound or voice of burglary or threaten the burglar when the burglary occurs at a place distant from a place where the monitoring unit serving as a central processing device is disposed.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A protective and measure device for multiple cold cathode fluorescent lamps includes an electronic ballast functioning as a high-frequency power source for driving multiple cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs), primarily by parallel connecting one end of each of a plurality of CCFL to a measure element to measure the LED power source provided by the measure element's photocoupler, and concurrently serially connect the photocoupler's collect-emitter terminal, followed by employing comparators to assess the open circuit, over current, and under current among multiple cold cathode fluorescent lamps. Said electronic ballast serves to protect CCFLs, and thus contribute to the quality and protection required for large LCD monitors.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is used in the field of the backlighted display of large- or super-size LCD monitors, which requires parallel connection of multiple cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) as light source. The high-frequency power source is typically supplied by an electronic ballast or power exchanger to ensure multiple cold cathode fluorescent lamps of single task working frequency, circuit stability, brightness efficiency, high quality and low distortion. The present invention provides measuring to such ends and serves as a protective device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Typical application of CCFL as the backlighted display of LCD monitors requires an inverter and one or two CCFLs. When employed on large LCD monitors or large LCD TV screens, five to ten inverters may be required that will ensue the following drawbacks:                1. In case one of the tens of CCFLs is defective, the fault cannot be effectively detected, resulting in affecting LCD monitor quality;        2. As variations in high frequency exist among the inverters producing multiple frequency interferences to the LCD monitor, it increases the cost to introduce electromagnetic interference purging;        3. As multiple inverters' high-frequency voltage outputs will invariably vary, the brightness of CCFLs will be inconsistent, thus affecting the LCD monitor quality;        4. Cost of employing multiple inverters is higher than single electronic ballast or a single inverter.
Thus, addressing foregoing deficiencies of typical application of CCFL as the backlighted display of LCD monitors, an innovative solution is proposed. A type of device functioning to measure and protect the circuits of CCFLs is designed so that when any one of tens of CCFLs fails, said device can effectively detect the defect to maintain the LCD monitor quality, while concurrently solving the typical multi-inverter practice's drawbacks of frequency interference, structural complexity and unnecessary high cost. These problems have long awaited for solutions by users and the inventor alike. After years of electronics related studies together with field research and development experience, aspiration arises to come up with an efficient solution. After repeated designing, investigating, model making and improving, a superior type of electronic device for measuring and protecting the circuits of CCFL has been designed specifically to address said problems.

Protective and measure device for multiple cold cathode fluorescent lamps


Catheter devices and methods for intravascular heating and/or cooling of human or veterinary patients. The catheter devices generally comprise catheters having inflow and outflow lumens and at least one curvilinear balloon connected to the inflow and outflow lumens such that heat exchange fluid may be circulated through the balloon(s). The catheter is inserted into the vasculature and heated or cooled fluid is circulated through the balloon(s) to heat or cool blood flowing in heat-exchange proximity to the balloon(s), thereby effecting heating or cooling of all or a portion of the patient's body.

Under ordinary circumstances, thermoregulatory mechanisms exist in the healthy human body to maintain the body at a constant temperature of about 37° C. (98.6° F.), a condition sometimes referred to as normothermia. Normothermia is generally a desirable condition, and to maintain normothermia, the thermoregulatory mechanisms act so that heat lost to the environment is replaced by the same amount of heat generated by metabolic activity in the body.
For various reasons, a person may develop a body temperature that is below normothermia, a condition known as hypothermia, or a temperature that is above normothermia, a condition known as hyperthermia. These conditions are generally harmful and are usually treated to reverse the condition and return the patient to normothermia. In certain other situations, however, they may be desirable and may even be intentionally induced.
Accidental hypothermia may result when heat loss to the environment exceeds the body's ability to produce heat internally or when a person's thermoregulatory ability has been lessened due to injury, illness or anesthesia. For example, a person exposed to a cold environment such as a hiker wandering in a very cold climate for too long, or a sailor overboard in cold water, may become dangerously hypothermic. Likewise, anesthesia generally disables a patient's thermoregulatory ability, and it is often the case that, during long surgery with significant exposure of the patient's internal body cavities, a patient becomes significantly hypothermic. Such hypothermia is generally harmful, and must be quickly reversed to restore the victim to health.
Simple methods for treating hypothermia have been known since very early times. Such methods include wrapping the patient in blankets, administering warm fluids by mouth, and immersing the patient in a warm water bath. If the hypothermia is not too severe, and the need to reverse the hypothermia is not to urgent, these methods may be effective. However, wrapping a patient in a blanket depends on the ability of the patient's own body to generate heat to re-warm the body. Administering warm fluids by mouth relies on the patient's ability to swallow, and is limited both in the temperature of the liquid consumed and the amount of fluid that may be administered in a limited period of time. Immersing a patient in warm water is often impractical, particularly if the patient is simultaneously undergoing surgery or some other medical procedure
More recently, hypothermia may be treated by the application of a warming blanket that applies heat to the skin of the patient. Applying heat to the patient's skin, however, may be ineffective in providing heat to the core of the patient's body. Heat applied to the skin has to transmit through the skin by conduction or radiation which may be slow and inefficient, especially if the patient has a significant layer of fat between the warming blanket and the body's core.
Paradoxically, if the patient is suffering significant core hypothermia, the application of warmth to the patient's skin, whether by immersion in hot water or application of a warm blanket, may actually exacerbate the core hypothermia and may even induce shock. The body's thermoregulatory responses to cold that work to conserve heat in the body's core include vasoconstriction and arterio-venous shunting (AV shunts). Vasoconstriction occurs when the capillaries and other blood vessels in the skin and extremities constrict so that most of the blood pumped by the heart circulates within the core rather than through the skin and extremities. Similarly, in AV shunting, naturally occurring blood shunts exist between some arteries providing blood to capillary beds in the skin and extremities and veins returning blood from those capillary beds and extremities. When the body is cooled, the vessels in the capillary beds constrict, and the shunts may be opened, causing blood to by-pass those capillary beds altogether. Thus when the body is cold, the tissues in the extremities, and particularly at the surface, have little blood flowing to them and may become quite cold relative to the body's core temperature.
When heat is applied to the skin of such a patient, the temperature sensors in the skin may cause the vasoconstriction to reverse and the AV shunts to close. When this happens, blood from the core floods into the very cold tissue on the body surface and extremities, and as a result the blood loses heat to those tissues, often far more than the amount of heat being added by the surface warming. As a result, the victim's core temperature may plummet and the patient may even go into shock.
Partly in response to the inadequacies of surface application of heat, methods have been developed for adding heat to a patient's body by internal means. A patient being administered breathing gases, for example a patient under anesthesia, may have the breathing gases warmed. For some situations, particularly mild hypothermia requiring the addition of small amounts of heat, this method may be effective, but it is limited in the amount of heat that can be administered without injuring the lungs. Similarly, a patient receiving IV fluids may have the fluids warmed, or a bolus of warm fluid may be administered intravenously. Again, this may be effective in the case of mild hypothermia, but the amount of heat that may be added to a patient's body is limited because the temperature of the IV fluid is limited to a temperature that will not be destructive to the blood, generally thought to be about 41° C.-49° C., and the amount of fluid that is acceptable to administer to the patient.
A more invasive method may be used to add heat to a patient's blood, particularly in the case of heart surgery. A cannula is attached to a vein, usually the inferior vena cava (IVC) of a patient, the vein clamped off and virtually all the patient's blood shunted through the cannula to an external pump. The blood is then pumped back into the patient's body, generally to the arterial side of the patient's circulation. Blood removed from a patient may be heated or cooled externally before it is reintroduced into the patient's body. An example of such a by-pass arrangement is the Cardio-Pulmonary By-pass system (CPB) often used in open heart surgery.
This by-pass method, once it is initiated, is both fast and effective in adding or removing heat from a patient's blood and in exercising control over the patient's body temperature in general, but has the disadvantage of involving a very invasive medical procedure which requires the use of complex equipment, a team of highly skilled operators, is generally only available in a surgical setting, and because of these complexities, requires a long time to initiate. In fact, it generally cannot begin until after the patient's thorax has been surgically opened. For all these reasons, it is generally not useful for emergency treatment of hypothermia. By-pass also involves mechanical pumping of blood, which is generally very destructive to the blood resulting in cytotoxic and thrombolytic problems associated with removal of blood from the body, channeling the blood through various tubes, artificially oxygenating the blood, and returning the blood subjected to these stresses to the circulatory system, including the brain. Because of the potential harmful impact on the patient, most surgeons attempt to limit the time a patient is subjected to by-pass to less than four hours.
Methods for adding heat to the core of the body that do not involve pumping the blood with an external, mechanical pump have been suggested. For example, a method of treating or inducing hypothermia or hyperthermia by means of a heat exchange catheter placed in the bloodstream of a patient was described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,208 to Ginsburg, the complete disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. That patent discloses and claims a method of increasing a patient's body temperature by adding heat to the blood by inserting a heat exchange catheter having a balloon with heat exchange fins into the vascular system and circulating heat exchange fluid through the balloon while the balloon is in contact with the blood.
Although accidental hypothermia is generally harmful and requires treatment, in some instances it may be desirable to induce hypothermia or permit it to persist in a controlled situation. Hypothermia is generally recognized as being neuroprotective and may be induced for that reason. Neural tissue such as the brain or spinal cord, is particularly subject to damage by vascular disease processes including, but not limited to ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke, blood deprivation for any reason including cardiac arrest, intracerebral or intracranial hemorrhage, and head trauma. Other where hypothermia may be protective include treatment of myocardial infarction, and heart surgery, neurosurgical procedures such as aneurysm repair, endovascular aneurysm repair procedures, spinal surgeries, procedures where the patient is at risk for brain, cardiac or spinal ischemia such as beating heart by-pass surgery or any surgery where the blood supply to the heart, brain or spinal cord may be temporarily interrupted. In each of these instances, damage to brain tissue may occur because of brain ischemia, increased intracranial pressure, edema or other processes, often resulting in a loss of cerebral function and permanent neurological deficits. Hypothermia may be intentionally induced because it is advantageous in such situations. In fact, in some of these situations, such as beating heart by-pass surgery, hypothermia currently occurs as a normal side effect of anesthesia disabling a patient's normal thermoregulatory responses in conjunction with prolonged exposure of the chest cavity. The resultant hypothermia may not itself be harmful if adequate control over the patient's temperature is established, and where the hypothermic condition is controlled as to depth and duration, it may be permitted to persist or even induced. Control of the depth of hypothermia and reversal of hypothermia after the operation are both important, and if that control is not possible, hypothermia is generally thought to be undesirable.
Although the exact mechanism for neuroprotection is not fully understood, lowering the brain temperature is believed to effect neuroprotection through several mechanisms including, the blunting of any elevation in the concentration of neurotransmitters (e.g., glutamate) occurring after ischemic insult, reduction of cerebral metabolic rate, moderation of intracellular calcium transport/metabolism, prevention of ischemia-induced inhibitions of intracellular protein synthesis and/or reduction of free radical formation as well as other enzymatic cascades and even genetic responses.
Besides its benefit as a prophylactic measure, for example during surgery to prevent damage in case of neurologic ischemia, it is also sometimes desirable to induce whole-body or regional hypothermia for as a treatment in response to certain neurological diseases or disorders such as head trauma, spinal trauma and hemorrhagic or ischemic stroke. Hypothermia has also been found to be advantageous as a treatment to protect both neural tissue and cardiac muscle tissue after a myocardial infract (MI). Again, the exact mechanism of benefit is not known, but inducing hypothermia in such situations, after the initial ischemic insult, may lessen damage by decreasing reperfusion injury, interrupting various chemical cascades that would otherwise damage the cells involved, protecting membrane integrity and perhaps even preventing certain genetic changes leading to apoptosis.
Intentionally inducing hypothermia has generally been attempted by either surface cooling or by-pass pumping. Surface cooling has generally proved to be unacceptably slow, since the body heat to be removed must be transmitted from the core to the surface, and has sometimes been altogether unsuccessful since the body's thermoregulatory mechanisms act to oppose any attempt to induce hypothermia and generally succeed in preventing surface cooling from reducing the core temperature of the body. For example, the vasoconstriction and AV shunting may prevent heat generated in the core from being transmitted to the surface by the blood. Thus the surface cooling may only succeed in removing heat from the skin and surface tissue and thus cooling the surface, and not succeed in reducing the core temperature of the patient.
Another thermoregulatory mechanism that may thwart attempts to reduce core temperature by surface cooling is shivering. There are numerous temperature sensors on the body's surface, and these may trigger the body to begin shivering. Shivering results in the generation of a significant amount of metabolic heat, as much as five times more than the resting body, and especially where vasoconstriction and AV shunting reduce blood to the surface of the body, surface cooling such as by a cooling blanket can only reduce the temperature of the patient very slowly, if at all. Even if the thermoregulatory mechanisms are disabled by anesthesia or other drugs, it has generally been found that the cooling by surface measures such as blankets is unacceptably slow for inducing hypothermia. If the patient has fever and thus an elevated set point temperature (the temperature which the body's thermoregulatory responses act to maintain), the patient may even shiver at a temperature above normothermia. In such situations, it has been found that surface cooling is often unable to reduce the patient's temperature even to normothermia. Furthermore, besides often being ineffective and generally being unacceptably slow, surface cooling lacks sufficient control over the target temperature of the patient, since the methods are inadequate to quickly adjust the patient's body temperature and therefore may result in overshoot or other uncontrolled body temperature problems that cannot be adequately managed.
Inducing hypothermia using by-pass techniques is generally effective, fast and controllable, but is also subject to the shortcomings of the by-pass method for adding heat to control accidental hypothermia; it requires a very invasive procedure in an operating room under full anesthesia, with intubation, expensive equipment and highly trained personnel. Even in the situation of open heart surgery or neurosurgery where the patient is in the operating suite and has highly skilled personnel in attendance anyway, the by-pass mechanism requires pumping the blood with a mechanical pump through external circuit, which is generally thought to be very destructive of the blood and is generally not maintained for very long, preferably four hours or less, and cooling cannot be begun before the patient's thorax is opened and a shunt surgically installed, itself a procedure that might induce some neurological ischemia, or continued, nor warming effected, after the patient's thorax is closed. Thus any advantage of pre-cooling before the patient is opened, or continued after or re-warmed after the patient is closed, is not attained by this method, and the patient is exposed to the undesirable effects of external pumping.
Cold breathing gases and cold infusions have generally not been used to induce hypothermia. Breathing cold gases is generally ineffective to induce hypothermia since the lungs are generally structured to be able to breathe very cold air without rapidly inducing hypothermia. Injection of cold infusate would generally be unacceptable as a method of inducing and maintaining hypothermia because infusing the large volume of liquid that would be necessary to induce and maintain hypothermia for a useful length of time would be unacceptable.
The previously mentioned heat exchanged cathetger placed in the bloodstream of a patient overcomes many of these inadequacies of the other methods of combating accidental hypothermia, or intentionally inducing hypothermia. Particularly in view of the body's own thermoregulatory attempts to maintain normothermia, a very efficient heat exchange catheter is highly desirable.
Under certain conditions heat is generated within the body or heat is added from the environment in excess of the body's ability to dissipate heat, and a persons develops a condition of abnormally high body temperature, a condition known as hyperthermia. Examples of this condition may result from exposure to a hot and humid environment or surroundings, overexertion, or exposure to the sun while the body's thermoregulatory mechanisms are disabled by drugs or disease. Additionally, often as a result of injury or disease, a person may establish a set point temperature that is above the normal body temperature of about 37° C. a condition generally known as fever. In another condition, malignant hyperthermia, a condition not well understood, the body may fail to dissipate enough heat and the temperature of the body may spiral to dangerous levels without the body's normal mechanisms being effective to return the patient to normothermia.
Prolonged and severe hyperthermia may have serious and very negative effects. For example, a child with prolonged and high fever as a result of spinal meningitis might suffer permanent brain damage. In stroke, the presence of even a mild fever has been found to correlate with very negative outcome. In such cases, it may be very desirable to counteract the body's attempt to establish a higher temperature, and instead to maintain at temperature at or near normothermia. However, the unaided body is acting to maintain a temperature above 37° C. and the body's own thermoregulatory mechanisms, such as AV shunting and shivering may render surface cooling altogether ineffective in reestablishing normothermia. The advantages of an effective core cooling method are sorely needed in such situations.
As with hypothermia, counter-parts to simple methods for treating undesirable hyperthermia exist, such as cold water baths and cooling blankets, as well as more effective but complex and invasive means such as cooled breathing gases and blood cooled during by-pass. These, however, are subject to the limitations and complications as described above in connection with hypothermia. In addition, as is the case when attempting to induce hypothermia, the thermoregulatory responses of the body such as vasoconstriction, AV shunting and shivering, may act directly to combat the attempt to cool the patient and thereby defeat the effort to treat the hyperthermia. In order to achieve the reduction of accidental, diseased or malignant hyperthermia, a catheter with sufficient heat exchange effectiveness to override the body's thermoregulatory defenses is needed.
For various reasons, it may be desirable to induce and/or maintain hyperthermia. For example, certain cancer cells may be sensitive to temperature elevations, and thus it may be possible to destroy those cancerous cells by elevating a patient's temperature to a level that is toxic to the cancer cells but the rest of the body can tolerate. As another example, a high temperature may be toxic to certain viruses at a level that the rest of the body can tolerate. Raising the patient's temperature above that which the virus can tolerate but within a temperature range the body can tolerate would help to rid the body of the virus. A heat exchanger that can add heat to the bloodstream of a patient at a sufficient rate to maintain the patient in a state of hyperthermia would therefore be desirable.
Besides intentionally induced hypothermia or hyperthermia, it is sometimes desirable to control a patient's temperature to maintain a target temperature, sometimes but not always normothermia. For example, in a patient under general anesthesia during major surgery, the anesthesiologist may wish to control the patient's body temperature by directly adding or removing heat. In such a situation, the patient's normal thermoregulatory responses are reduced or eliminated by anesthesia, and the patient may lose an extraordinary amount of heat to the environment. The patient's unaided body may not generate sufficient heat to compensate for the heat lost and the patient's temperature may drift lower. The anesthesiologist may wish to control the temperature at normothermia, or may prefer to allow the patient to become somewhat hypothermic, but control the depth and duration of the hypothermia. A device and method for precisely controlling body temperature by efficiently adding or removing heat to control a patient's temperature would be very desirable.
In addition to controlling the patient's body temperature, fast and precise control of the adjustments to a patient's thermal condition is very important when a patient's temperature is being manipulated. When using heat transfer from the surface to the core of a patient as by the application of warming or cooling blankets, besides being slow and inefficient, the control of the patient's core temperature is very difficult, if not impossible. The temperature of the patient tends to "overshoot" the desired low temperature, a potentially catastrophic problem when reducing the core temperature of a patient, especially to moderate or sever levels. The body's own metabolic activity and thermoregulatory responses may make even gross adjustments of core temperature by surface cooling difficult, slow, or even impossible. Speedy and precise control is generally not possible by such methods at all.
Control of body temperature using by-pass techniques is generally fairly precise and relatively fast, especially if large volumes of blood are being pumped through the system very quickly. However, as was previously stated, this method is complex, expensive, invasive and it is this very pumping of large quantities of blood that may be seriously damaging to the patient, particularly if maintained for any significant period of time, for example for or more hours.
An efficient heat exchanger might make possible the manipulation of temperature of a select portion of a patient's body. Generally, the temperature throughout the body is relatively constant and generally does not vary significantly from one location to another. (One exception is the skin, which because of exposure to the environment may vary significantly in temperature. In fact, many of the thermoregulatory mechanisms discussed above depend on the ability of the skin to maintain a different temperature, generally a lower temperature, than the temperature of the core of the body.) The mammalian body generally functions most efficiently at normothermia. In some instances, however, regional hypothermia or hyperthermia (hypothermia or hyperthermia of only a part of the body while the rest of the body is at a different temperature, preferably normothermia) may be advantageous. For example, it could be advantageous to cool the head for purposes of neuroprotection of the brain or cool the heart to protect the myocardium from suffering infarction during or after ischemia, or heating a cancerous region to destroy cancerous cells, while maintaining the rest of the body at normal, healthy temperature so that the disadvantages of whole body hypothermia or hyperthermia would not occur. Additionally, where the entire body is cooled, shivering and other thermoregulatory mechanisms may act to counter attempts to cool the body, and if only a specific region were targeted for cooling, those mechanisms might be obviated or eliminated.
A heat exchanger in contact with body fluid, such as blood, which was directed to the target area, might alter the temperature of that region if the heat exchanger was efficient enough to cool the blood sufficiently to cool the tissue in question even if the body temperature, i.e. the initial temperature of the blood flowing past the heat exchange region was normothermic. A heat exchange catheter with a highly efficient heat exchange region would be required for such an application. Where the catheter is inserted percutaneously into the vasculature, it is also highly desirable to have as small an insertion profile as possible to allow as small a puncture as possible, yet allow maximum surface area of the heat exchange region in contact with the flowing blood. Such a catheter is the subject of this application.
For all the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a means to add or remove heat from the body of a patient in an effective and efficient manner, while avoiding the inadequacies of surface heat exchange and avoiding the dangers of internal methods including by-pass methods. There is the need for a means of rapidly, efficiently and controllably exchanging heat with the blood of a patient so the temperature of the patient or target tissue within the patient can be altered or controllably maintained at some target temperature.
Positioning a catheter centrally within the flowing bloodstream may be important for various reasons. Contact between a hot or cold heat exchange region and the walls of a body conduit such as a blood vessel may affect the tissue at the point of contact. In some applications, such as where the user seeks to tack the surface of a dissected vessel to the wall of the vessel, or to thermally treat or ablate the tissue in question, the contact between the balloon and the surrounding body structure is important, even critical. Where, however, the contact is undesirable, it would be advantageous to have a means to prevent the heat exchange region from resting against the vessel wall.
Where temperature control of the temperature of the blood is the goal, it is also advantageous to position the heat exchange region in the center of a flow of body fluid, for example in the center of the lumen of a blood vessel so that the blood flow would surround the entire balloon and no portion of the balloon surface would be sheltered from the flow and thus prevented from exchanging heat at the balloon surface with the body fluid. This would also help prevent blood to pool in areas of low flow or lack of flow, which has been shown to cause blood to clot.
It would be particularly advantageous if the heat exchange surface could be configured to maximize the surface area in contact with the blood while minimizing the obstruction to fluid flow within the vessel. This is desirable both because maximum flow is important for maximum heat exchange and because maximum flow will assure that there is adequate blood supply to tissue downstream of the heat exchange region. Thus the rate of the blood flow past the heat exchange region should be maximized at the same time that the surface area of the heat exchange region within the stream of flowing blood is maximized. A catheter that could achieve these seemingly contradictory goals would be highly desirable.
Additionally, where heat exchange is occurring between two flowing fluids, it is most efficient to have counter-current flow. That is, the flow of the heat exchange liquid is counter to the flow direction of the fluid with which it is exchanging heat. Since a heat exchange catheter might be inserted into blood vessels in various ways that would result in the natural blood flowing being different in different instances (i.e. proximal to distal, or distal to proximal) it would advantageous to have a catheter wherein the direction of the fluid flow in the portion of the balloon exposed to the flow of the body fluid could be adjusted to flow in either direction to permit the catheter could be inserted into the blood vessel in either direction, and the direction of the flow of the heat exchange fluid adjusted to flow counter to the flow in the vessel.
If the heat exchange catheter is to be inserted into the vasculature of a patient, it is very advantageous to have a small insertion profile, that is to say a diameter of the device at insertion that is a small as possible. This permits the insertion of the device through as small sheath, puncture, or incision. Yet the surface area of the heat exchange region should be maximized when the catheter is functioning to exchange heat with the blood. Once again, these goals seem contradictory, and a heat exchange catheter that could achieve both characteristics would be highly advantageous.


An integrated circuit sensor that enables, regardless of a type of an inspection object, the inspection object and a front surface of the integrated circuit sensor to be in reliable contact with each other in a large region is provided. A through silicon via (11) that electrically connects an inside of an integrated circuit sensor (4) and an outside of the integrated circuit sensor (4) is formed in the inside of the integrated circuit sensor (4) so as to reach a rear surface of the integrated circuit sensor (4), which faces the front surface of the integrated circuit sensor (4).

An integrated circuit sensor that detects pH, permittivity, or magnetic permeability of an inspection object, which is made contact with a front surface of the integrated circuit sensor in which a sensor is formed in an integrated circuit, or detects a change thereof is proposed. In PTL 1, a technique of detecting pH distribution of an inspection object that is in contact with an integrated circuit sensor in which a plurality of sensors are formed in an integrated circuit is described. Meanwhile, in NPL 1, a technique of performing sensing by utilizing a change in an oscillation frequency, which is caused by a magnetic particle included in an inspection object which is in contact with a top of an integrated circuit sensor in which an oscillator is formed in an integrated circuit, is described.

Integrated circuit sensor and sensor substrate


A rotor for an electric motor includes a plurality of annularly disposed rotor magnets, a frame made of a steel plate and having an annular wall disposed outside the annularly disposed rotor magnets so as to be located at a side opposed to the stator with respect to the rotor magnets, the annular wall having an open end, a ring member made of a magnetic material and disposed along the annular wall of the frame at an inner or outer circumferential side of the annular wall, and a resin molded member comprising a resin for integrating the rotor magnets, the frame and the ring member together.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to electric motors, and more particularly to a rotor for electric motors in which rotor magnets and a rotor frame are integrated by a resin and a method of making the rotor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art has provided outer rotor type electric motors in which a bottomed short cylindrical rotor having a relatively large diameter is used. The rotor comprises a bottomed short cylindrical frame having a large diameter and made of a steel plate and a number of rotor magnets mounted on an inner circumferential surface of an annular wall of the frame. With regard to mounting the rotor magnets on the inner circumferential surface of the frame wall, the prior art has proposed a method of integrating the rotor magnets and frame by means of a resin. More specifically, the rotor magnets and frame are accommodated in a cavity of a forming mold. Subsequently, a molten resin is poured into the cavity to be hardened so that the rotor magnets and frame are enclosed in the hardened resin to be integrated together.
The thickness of the annular wall of the frame needs to be increased in the above-described rotor so that magnetic paths are sufficiently secured for the rotor magnets. However, the increase in the thickness of the annular wall results in an increase in the thickness of a bottom wall of the frame. That is, the bottomed short cylindrical frame is formed by pressing a steel plate and accordingly, the thickness of the steel plate needs to be increased so that the thickness of the annular wall of the frame is increased. This also increases the thickness of the bottom wall of the frame. Thus, the entire thickness of the frame is increased. This disadvantageously increases the entire weight of the rotor.