A slat support and deployment apparatus comprising a master slat support and deployment assembly and a slave slat support and deployment assembly is disclosed. The master and the slave slat support and deployment assembly each include an arm having a free end attachable to the same slat at spaced locations along its length for deployment and retraction of said slat in a direction generally parallel to a wing in response to simultaneous movement of said arms. The master and the slave slat support assemblies each include a coupling for attaching said free end of each arm to a slat and the coupling that couples the free end of the arm of each slat support and deployment assembly to a slat is configured to allow movement of that slat relative to said free end of said arm of each slat support and deployment assembly during deployment and retraction of said slat.

Aircraft need to produce varying levels of lift for take-off, landing and cruise. A combination of wing leading and trailing edge devices are used to control the wing coefficient of lift. The leading edge device is known as a slat. On larger aircraft there may be several slats spaced along the wing edge. During normal flight the slats are retracted against the leading edge of the wing. However, during take-off and landing they are deployed forwardly of the wing so as to vary the airflow across and under the wing surfaces. The slats usually follow an arcuate or curved path between their stowed and deployed positions. By varying the extent to which the slat is deployed along said path, the lift provided by the wing can be controlled.
An assembly is required to support and guide movement of a slat between stowed and deployed positions.
A slat support and deployment assembly has already been described in the Applicant's own earlier application No. EP2433863, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The aforementioned application refers to a support assembly for deployment and retraction of an aero surface from an aircraft that includes a guide track, a primary support arm having one end coupled to a carriage mounted on the track such that the primary support arm is rotatable relative to the carriage about multiple axes, and a control arm having one end coupled to the primary support arm and a second end pivotably attachable to a fixed support forming part of the structure of the aircraft. The assembly is configured such that, when the carriage is driven along the guide track, the control arm causes the primary support arm to pivot about said multiple axes to deploy and/or retract an aero surface pivotally attached to an opposite end of the primary support member along an arcuate path.
A more detailed description of the structure and function of the slat deployment assembly will now be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, which have been taken from our earlier application identified above.
Referring primarily to FIG. 1, the assembly 1 comprises a carriage 2 having a body 3 mounted on an elongate track 4. The track 4 is rigidly attached to the wing structure of an aircraft so that it remains stationary relative to a rib 5 forming part of the wing structure. The track 4 has a flange 6 that may be placed against part of the wing structure. Holes (not shown) may extend through the flange 6 to allow bolts or other conventional fasteners to be inserted therethrough to facilitate attachment of the track 4 to the wing structure. The track 4 also has a carriage mounting portion 7 attached to the flange 6 via a thinner, necked region 8.
A rotatable threaded drive shaft 9 extends along the track 4 within a recess 10 in the track 4 and threadingly engages within a drive coupling portion 11 of the carriage 2 that extends into the recess 10 such that, when the threaded shaft 9 rotates, in response to rotation of a drive motor (not shown) drivingly coupled to the shaft 9, the carriage 3 slides along the elongate track 4, its direction depending on the direction of rotation of the shaft 9.
The carriage 3 is supported on the track 4 by a pair of upper and lower bearings (not shown) each inserted into a recess in the carriage 3.
The carriage 3 has spaced parallel wall portions 12 extending from the body 3 between which is mounted an axle 13 having a generally square-shaped cross-section. The axle 13 is mounted to the carriage 3 for rotation about its longitudinal axis 'H' relative to the carriage 3.
A primary support arm 14 has a pair of upper and a pair of lower arm portions or legs 14a, 14b. Each of the upper arm portions 14a and each of the lower arm portions 14b extend from a cylindrical mounting boss 15a, 15b located at one end of the upper and lower arm portions 14a, 14b. The axle 13 locates in the space between these mounting bosses 15a, 15b at the end of each arm portion 14a, 14b and the primary support arm 14 is coupled to the axle 13 by a pin (not shown) that extends through the axle 13 and a hole 16 in each mounting boss 15a, 15b, thereby pivotally connecting the primary support arm 14 to the axle 13 for rotation about an axis 'I', which is at 90 degrees to axis 'H'. The pivotal connection of the axle 13 to the carriage 3 for rotation about axis 'H' and the pivotal connection of the primary support arm 14 to the axle 13 for rotation about axis 'I' together form a universal joint to enable free movement of the primary support arm 14 relative to the carriage 3 as the carriage 3 slides along the guide track 4.
The primary support arm 14 has a cylindrical boss 17 with an aperture 18 at its opposite end to receive a pin (not shown) so as to pivotally couple the primary support arm 14 to a slat about axis J-J, as will become apparent from a description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention.
A secondary support or control arm 18 is coupled to the primary support arm 14 between opposite ends of the primary support arm 14 via a cylindrical barrel rotating in an annulus with a slot with the arm pivoting about the pin to form a universal joint assembly 19. The primary support arm portions 14a, 14b each have an intermediate mounting boss 20a, 20b positioned between each of the upper arm portions 14a and each of the lower arm portions 14b midway along the length of the primary support arm 14. Each of the mounting bosses 14a, 14b are parallel to and spaced from each other. A shaft 21 is connected to and extends between the intermediate mounting bosses 20a, 20b and has a central part-spherical region that forms a male bearing seat or surface. One end of the secondary control arm 18 that connects to the primary support arm 14 has a collar 22 that defines an inner or female part spherical bearing surface that locates around, and mates with, the part spherical bearing surface formed on the shaft 21, so that the control arm 18 can rotate relative to the primary support arm 14 in all directions.
The control arm 18 of the invention comprises support arm portions 23 which diverge at an angle away from the collar 22 and, from each other. Each support arm portion 23 terminates in an annular member 24 that is received within an opening 25 in the rib 5. A pin (not shown) is associated with each annular member 24 and locates in the rib 5 so that it passes through each annular member 24 to facilitate pivotal connection of each annular member 24 to the rib 5 for rotation of the secondary control member 18 about an axis K.
Axes I and J at opposite ends of the primary support member 14 are parallel to each other and remain so during deployment and retraction of the slat. However, it will be noted that axis K extending through the annular members 24 is at an angle relative to axes I and J i.e. it is displaced through a compound angle in both directions so that it is rotated about the longitudinal axis H of the axle 13 as well as being displaced through an angle such that it not perpendicular to the longitudinal axis H. This arrangement produces an arcuate path to the free end of the primary support arm 14 when the carriage 3 slides laterally along the track 4 and the primary support arm 14 rotates about axes H and I.
To deploy a slat coupled to the primary support arm 14, the motor is driven to rotate the threaded shaft 9 so that the carriage 3 moves in a first direction S along the track 4. As the carriage 3 moves, the primary support arm 14 rotates relative to the carriage 3 about the axis I, and also relative to the control arm 18 about the spherical joint 19. At the same time, the axle 13 rotates about its axis H such that the primary support member 14 also moves downwardly, the spherical ball joint 19 between the primary and secondary support members 14, 18 allowing this movement. As a result, the free end of the primary support arm 14 follows an arcuate path in an outward direction away from the track 4, i.e. in the direction of arrow 'T' in FIG. 1.
To retract the slat, the direction of rotation of the threaded shaft 9 is reversed so that the carriage 3 moves along the track 4 in the opposite direction thereby causing the primary support member 14 to follow a return arcuate path back towards the track 4.
It will be appreciated that at least two slat deployment assemblies are required to effectively support and control the deployment of each slat. The slat support assemblies are spaced from each other in a direction along the length of the wing in order to provide adequate support for, and controlled deployment of, the slat along its entire length. FIG. 2 shows such an arrangement, with a slightly modified slat and carriage assembly, each of which are attached to a slat 26. Despite this modification, the principle and operation described with reference to FIG. 1 remains the same.
During assembly, it is important to ensure that when a slat is coupled to the slat support assemblies, the slat is properly aligned with the wing and, in particular, that the upper trailing edge of the slat sits flush with, and against, the leading edge of the wing when the slat is in a closed or withdrawn position, such as during level flight.
It is also apparent that there may be slight differences in the deployment path followed by each slat support assembly during deployment, caused by build tolerances, misalignment or uneven wear between slat support assemblies. This can result in undue stress being placed on the slat if one or more of the slat support assemblies coupled to the same slat is effectively attempting to drive the slat in a slightly different direction or into a different position between its stowed and deployed positions.
The effects of wing bending must also be considered so that no undue stress is placed on the slat during deployment or retraction.
In one embodiment of the present invention, it has been assumed that the slat itself is sufficiently flexible to absorb any misalignments caused by build tolerances or uneven support assembly deployment, as well as withstand any deflection caused by wing bending. This embodiment therefore only provides a slat support assembly coupling that is provided with means to enable fine-adjustment of the position of the slat relative to the slat support assembly and so relative to the wing to which the slat support assembly is mounted, so that the shut-line between the trailing edge of the slat and the leading edge of the wing to which the slat is mounted can be precisely adjusted during assembly to ensure that the upper surface of the slat and the upper surface of the wing lie flush with each other when the slat is in its stowed position.
In another, preferred embodiment of the invention, there is provided a slat support coupling that has a construction that accommodates and adjusts for any misalignments and wing bending deflections, so that the slat itself experiences only minimal stress.
From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that the present invention seeks to overcome or alleviate one or more of the problems referred to above.


The present invention provides a semiconductor device comprising: a substrate; a first insulating film formed on a principal surface of the substrate; a second insulating film formed on the first insulating film; a plurality of fuses formed on the second insulating film; and a blocking layer disposed in the first and second insulating films, the blocking layer being formed of a material capable of reflecting laser light irradiated to blow the plurality of fuses. The blocking layer overlaps a region in which the plurality of fuses are formed when viewed from the principal surface of the substrate. The plurality of fuses may be each formed in two or more insulating film layers laminated to one another on the second insulating film.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a manufacturing method thereof, and more particularly to a semiconductor device which includes redundant circuitry having fuses therein.
2. Background Art
In recent years, semiconductor devices have been miniaturized and increased in capacity and speed, resulting in an increase in the number of devices formed therein. This has increased the influence of the device defective portions on manufacturing yield. Therefore, to ensure adequate manufacturing yield, many semiconductor devices have a redundant circuit configuration in which a plurality of spare (or redundant) memory cells are formed among ordinary memory cells.
With this arrangement, if a memory cell is found to include a defective bit, the defective bit is replaced by a spare memory cell (provided beforehand) to salvage the semiconductor device. One widely used method for replacing a defective bit by a spare memory cell is known as laser trimming, which cuts off a wiring layer(s) (functioning as a fuse) by use of a laser beam.
If laser trimming is applied to a semiconductor device structure in which wiring such as signal wiring and power supply wiring and internal devices such as transistors are formed in the layers under the fuses, these internal devices may be damaged when a fuse is blown by the laser beam. Therefore, semiconductor devices are often configured such that the region right under fuses and regions therearound have no devices other than fuses formed therein.
Further, to prevent defects due to a fuse blow by laser trimming, a method for blowing a fuse is proposed which applies a plurality of different wavelength laser beams to fuse wiring having a multilayer structure (see, e.g., Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2002-134616).
However, as described above, in the above structure that no devices other than fuses are formed in the regions right under fuses and regions therearound, which means that these regions are available only for formation of fuses. This may restrict miniaturization of semiconductor devices. To address this problem, a blocking layer may be provided right under the region in which fuses are formed in order to block the laser beam. Since this blocking layer does not allow the laser beam to pass, devices can be formed in the regions under the blocking layer.
Incidentally, in general, the fuses and wiring in the same layer are formed at once. This means that the fuses may be formed of the same material as the wiring (copper, etc.). However, copper, for instance, has low laser light absorptivity. A high energy laser beam is needed to cut off a fuse formed of a material having low laser light absorptivity (such as copper). When the above blocking layer (for blocking a laser beam) is irradiated with such a high energy laser beam, however, the layer may melt and hence the laser beam may reach layers under the blocking layer.
Further, with the miniaturization of semiconductor devices, the distances between the fuses have decreased. Therefore, when blowing a fuse by laser irradiation, it is necessary to prevent the adjacent fuses from being accidentally blown. Further, the opening formed as a result of blowing a fuse may reach the oxide film on an adjacent fuse or even the adjacent fuse itself, exposing them. In such a case, the exposed adjacent fuse (made of metal) may corrode, resulting in an electrical disconnection.

Semiconductor device including a laser light blocking layer which overlaps fuses


In a liquid crystal display apparatus including two electrodes and a twisted-mode type liquid crystal layer inserted between the electrodes, an electric field in the liquid crystal layer between the electrodes is changed within one pixel, when a voltage is applied between the electrodes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a twisted nematic (TN)-mode liquid crystal display (LCD) apparatus capable of improving gray scale display characteristics.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a prior art TN-rode LCD apparatus, twisted-mode type liquid crystal is inserted between two plane electrodes. In the prior art LCD apparatus, when the twisted angle of liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal is larger than a value around 270.degree., the tilt angle of liquid crystal molecules has an S shaped relationship to the voltage applied between the electrodes. Therefore, the transient orientation state of liquid crystal molecules during a rising voltage is different from that during a falling voltage. As a result, when an intermediate voltage between a high voltage and a low voltage is applied between the electrodes there are two orientation states of liquid crystal molecules mixed within one pixel. Thus, a large hysteresis is generated in the voltage-to-light transmittance characteristics, so that a gray scale display is impossible.

TN-mode liquid crystal display wherein a leveling layer is formed on the surface of an uneven electrode


High-performance low-power isolated bootstrapped gate drive apparatus and methods are disclosed for driving high-side and floating transistors. The gate drivers use edge-triggered capacitive-coupled inputs. The gate drivers may include detection and delay circuitry to facilitate zero-voltage-switching of the high side or floating transistor and providing more robust rejection of false triggering. A capacitively coupled differential input edge triggered gate driver provides exceptional immunity to false triggering. The gate drivers may be used in transformer coupled drive circuits using transformers that need only support coupled pulses wide enough to be recognized as an edge by the input circuit.

Driving MOSFETs in high-side applications often requires some means for level-shifting the signal and withstanding high voltage. A wide variety of isolated and non-isolated high side gate drive techniques, including direct, level-shifting, and bootstrap drivers, are described in Balogh, Design and Application Guide for High Speed MOSFET Gate Drive Circuits, Texas Instruments 2002.
A prior art bootstrap high-side drive circuit 11 is shown in FIG. 1 connected to drive the gate of high-side transistor 20 in power conversion circuitry 5. The circuit 10 includes high side driver 11 having VCC connection 12, ground connection 14, input connection 13, output 16, bias connection 15 and source connection 17. Ground-referenced control signals output by the controller 27 at control output terminal 28 are received on the input 13 of the driver 11 which is also referenced to ground 29. The driver output 16 provides a turn ON pulse to the gate of transistor 20 referenced to the source output 17 which is connected to the transistor source terminal 24. A bootstrap bias circuit, including bias capacitor 19 and diode 21, provides energy to power the driver output stage. The bias capacitor 19 is charged through diode 21 when the source terminal 24 experiences negative-going voltage transitions. A level shifter translates the ground (29) referenced input signal 28 to a relatively high voltage control signal for use by the output stage.
Typically the transformers, high voltage integrated circuits, opto-couplers or discrete components added to provide the necessary drive to turn the transistor on or off increase the cost and size of the drive circuitry. Many solutions result in lower switching performance to provide the requisite impedance or isolation between the drive circuit and the transistor.

Capacitively coupled floating gate driver


In a digital IF downconversion circuit, in-phase and quadrature signal components are processed in the form of a single serial digital bit stream through a set of simple logic in combination with a reconstruction filter. A source digital oscillator supplying digital signal mixers employs an oversampled digital word of four bits in length, all of which are binary weighted, to achieve at least sixteen levels of accuracy for a sine wave mixing signal without significant phase or amplitude error. The mixer mixes the digitized serial bit stream according to the clock with output of a four-bit wide table representing the source oscillator and the in-phase and quadrature signals are recombined digitally, followed by binary weighting using weighted resistors coupled into a filter. Thus, image rejection is a digital function which is unaffected by resistor tolerance.

This invention relates to digital IF downconversion and particularly to digital IF downconversion of relatively wide bandwidth signals at microwave frequencies.
Digital IF downconversion has the advantage of flexibility for multi-mode operation, such as is useful for multiple modes of cellular communication and controllable accuracy and thus good performance with wide bandwidth signals wherever the sampling rate and coefficient accuracy is adequate for the frequencies of interest. In typical operation, the full bandwidth range is captured in an analog-to-digital converter employing a bandpass sigma-delta converter, followed by a final digital filtering channel.
The challenge of processing a wideband digital IF converted signal is rejection of unwanted image and spurious signals which when they occur on the frequency of interest block the desired signal (and hence are called blockers). For this purpose, a DSP filter that is programmed for the appropriate mode of operation is commonly used following wideband downconversion.
FIG. 1 illustrates one typical configuration of a downconverter circuit 100 with an image reject stage. Radio Frequency (RF) signals are processed through an in-phase (I) channel 102 and a quadrature phase channel 104 implemented by downconverting mixers 106 and 108 referenced to an analog reference signal of an analog source 110, wherein the reference signals are precisely 90 degrees out of phase (as represented by a 90 degree or π/2 delay element 112). The reference signal has a typical operating frequency of 100 kHz below the nominal RF frequency. The analog signals are processed through conventional sigma-delta analog to digital converters 114, 116 to produce respective one-bit wide serial bit streams. Each channel of the circuit 100 includes a decimator 118, 120 to convert the high-speed serial bit streams to parallel bit streams. There are typically four or eight parallel streams in each path. The parallel bit streams are each supplied to respective fractional filters to make the sampling integer in nature. There is a corresponding compensation filter function for extracting the desired signal of the defined bandwidth. These two functions may be combined in a digital finite impulse response (FIR) filter 122, 124 whose characteristics are defined by a set of filter coefficients.
It is known that out-of-bandwidth attenuation degrades as fewer bits are used to represent filter coefficients. Thus, overall performance depends on the number of bits employed to represent the filter characteristic. The outputs of the FIR filters 122, 124 are mixed and summed digitally in a mixing/summing stage 126 to cancel the unwanted components and to generate as output I and Q multi-bit digital bit streams representing the pure I component and the pure Q component of the wanted signal with maximum image rejection. The digital I and Q components are then processed through digital-to-analog converters 128, 130 (operating at the Nyquist rate) to recover the signal as I and Q analog components 132, 134 at baseband.
This conventional image cancellation scheme has a number of practical drawbacks. According to the conventional approach, in order to achieve targeted performance levels, it has been a practice to use relatively power-consumptive parallel processing techniques operative on the in-phase and quadrature signal components in the form of digital word streams. Not only do these techniques consume more power than is desirable, they also require deployment of relatively large integrated circuits. In a typical configuration, the decimators 118, 120, FIR filter 122, 124, the summing stage 126 and the DACs 128, 130 require on the order of 25,000 gates to implement, which translates to almost 3 square millimeters of valuable circuit area and relatively high power consumption. Both power and circuit size are premium in a portable battery operated digital device such as a cellular telephone.
A representative description of one published prior art implementation is Rudell et al., "A 1.9 GHz Wide-Band IF Double Conversion CMOS Receiver for Cordless Telephone Applications," IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Vol. 32, No. 12, December 1997.
Another representative reference is Canadian patent application 2,284,948 published Apr. 4, 2001 of Birkett et al.
What is needed is a more efficient image reject circuit in a digital IF downconversion circuit for a portable digital device such as a cellular telephone.

Image reject circuit using sigma-delta conversion

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


[Object] To provide a medical observation device and a control method.

Recently, due to advancements in surgical techniques and surgical equipment, surgeries for performing various treatments (also called microsurgery) while observing an affected site with an observation device for medical use, such as a surgical microscope or an endoscope, are coming to be conducted frequently. Also, such observation devices for medical use are not limited to devices that enable optical observation of the affected area, and also include devices that display an image of the affected area captured by an imaging section (camera) or the like as an electronic image on a display such as a monitor.
In addition, when displaying, on a display, an image of an affected area captured by an imaging section of an observation device, the image often is displayed as a flat two-dimensional (2D) image. However, since a sense of perspective is difficult to obtain from a 2D image, and the relative distance between the affected area and a treatment tool may be difficult to grasp, in recent years, technology that displays a captured image of an affected area as a stereoscopic three-dimensional (3D) image has also been developed.
In this manner, in an observation device (hereinafter, sometimes referred to as a "stereoscopic observation device") that displays a captured image of an affected area as a stereoscopic 3D image, for example, images of the affected area (hereinafter, also referred to as "viewpoint images") are captured by a plurality of imaging sections from mutually different viewpoints. Then, by causing left and right eyes to observe viewpoint images captured by mutually different imaging sections, it becomes possible to cause a user to observe an image of the affected area as a stereoscopic 3D image that is based on a parallax between the viewpoint images.
For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses one example of a mechanism that captures a parallax image of a subject with multiple imaging units, and thereby cause a stereoscopic 3D image of the subject to be observed on the basis of the parallax image. Also, the stereoscopic observation device disclosed in Patent Literature 1 is provided with an imaging optical system that includes an objective optical system and two image-forming optical systems for the right eye and the left eye, which have a different optical axis than the optical axis of the objective optical system and which cause light condensed by the objective optical system to form an image.

Medical observation device and control method

Abstract: [Solution] Provided is a medical observation device including: an imaging optical system including an objective optical system that condenses light from a subject and two image-forming optical systems which have optical axes different from an optical axis of the objective optical system and which cause light condensed by the objective optical system to form an image; and a control unit configured to cause an autofocus operation to be executed by causing a focusing optical member included in the objective optical system to move.


A parking braking system for a vehicle uses an electronic braking system (EBS) as a primary source for generating a parking brake force via pneumatic brake actuators. Each pneumatic actuator actuates a piston that is adapted to rotate a pivoted lever, which moves to apply brake pads against a brake disc. The parking braking system includes a hand control that controls actuation of the pneumatic brake actuators. Vehicle brakes for non-parking braking purposes are controlled by electronic signals generated in response to a driver's foot-generated braking demand. An electronic controller is adapted to control a supply of pressurized air to the pneumatic brake actuators in accordance with the driver's braking demand. When parking braking is selected by actuation of the hand control, the vehicle brakes are applied and mechanically locked into place with a stop device that engages the pivoted lever to hold the respective vehicle brake in a parking braking condition, irrespective of whether a brake force generated by the EBS is subsequently reduced.

The present invention relates to parking braking systems for vehicles having Electronic Braking Systems (EBS).
With the advent of EBS (see for example EP Patent 0205277), there has been a step change in the way that braking is controlled and distributed on heavy commercial vehicles. However, except in some specific areas such as continuous pad wear sensing, the brakes themselves have yet to take advantage of this change.
The conventional approach to parking brakes in vehicles fitted with EBS uses spring brake actuators 12 as shown diagrammatically in FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings. In this system, a hand-operated valve 10 is used, via a relay valve 11, to allow a parking brake to be applied. The hand-operated valve 10 operates on an inverse air principle in that the hand-operated valve 10 is arranged to release air pressure to allow the spring force of respective spring brake actuators 12 at each wheel to be applied. A suitable parking brake reservoir 14 is required to store the pressurized air for use within the system. Where the system is used with a vehicle having a trailer, a separate relay valve (not shown) is required to allow selective operation of trailer brakes. When the driver operates the hand-operated valve 10, an inverse pneumatic signal is produced, i.e. the pressure output from the hand-operated valve 10 falls with increasing demand. This causes the spring brake actuators 12 to be applied since, in the normal running mode (no braking) the spring brakes are held off by compressed air.
As evident from FIG. 1, the layout and construction of the conventional parking brake system requires the use of bulky spring actuators 12, a parking reservoir 14 and associated pipework. All of these components require fitting and service which all adds to labor and material costs for OEMs and end users.
The present invention seeks to make better use of the facilities afforded with EBS to enable an improved parking brake system.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,127,495 discloses an electrically powered parking braking system that includes a hydraulic drum brake having two brake shoes which are movable outwardly relative to a friction surface of a drum, and an activation device for generating an activation-force to move the shoes outwardly to a first position into contact with the drum sufficiently to prevent the drum from rotating. This system also includes a solenoid activated linkage mechanism for maintaining the shoes substantially in the first position. Operation of the hydraulic drum brake is achieved via a proportional controller using electrical signals generated in response to brake master cylinder pressure or brake pedal effort.

Parking-braking in vehicles having an electronic braking system


A post system having a capability for aligning and maintaining a post thereof to a vertical attitude during installation that consists of a post adjustable mounting which, in one embodiment, is a pair of interactive tapered washers for arrangement as a stack, and in a second embodiment is a ball segment and seat, with both of which embodiments for clamping together utilizing a single bolt fastener for arrangement between a ground stake top surface and a post bottom end or post insert base. The relative positioning of which tapered washers to one another or the positioning of the ball segment in the seat to provide an off-set from a straight line through which post adjustable mounting, allowing the post itself or the post insert to be angled relative to the top of the ground stake. The single bolt coupling is fitted through aligned holes in the ground stake base, post adjustable mounting and post bottom end or post insert base for maintaining the post or post insert positioning, and which post insert is for receiving a post fitted and secured thereover. The erected post can be utilized as a fences post, sign post, or the like, and can be used for mounting a container, such as a box or tube intended for receiving delivered items, such as mail and/or newspapers, and accordingly, the invention further includes a tab, slot and wedge fastener arrangement for cantilever mounting of a tube, or the like, to extend from which post, and includes a frame for mounting a mail box onto the post top or onto the cantilevered tube.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention related to adjustable mounting posts and mail box mounting systems and in particular to a post ground anchor capable of tilting to bring the post to the vertical and to mail box and newspaper tube mounting systems for coupling to the erected post.
2. Prior Art
Posts and even ground mounting arrangements therefor for adjusting or tilting the post to a vertical attitude are not new. A recent patent to Deike, U.S. Pat. No. 4,603,520, shows an example of a mounting base for a sign post that will accommodate rotational, tilting and height adjustment. Where, like one embodiment the present invention, the Deike patent shows a ball and seat arrangement for providing tilting capability to a sign post, Deike utilizes four corner bolts to maintain that post tilted attitude rather than a ball and seat with a single bolt mounting like that of the present invention. Further, there is no teaching of a mail or newspaper box mounting to the mounting post in the Deike patent.
Additionally, a number of ground anchor arrangements for mounting posts, such as road side type sign posts, have been developed. Examples of such are shown in a U.S. patents to Galloway, et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,011,597, that involves an auger type post mount; Smith, U.S. Pat. No. 3,152,668, that teaches an anchor with a guy wire; Brisse, U.S. Pat. No. 3,186,523, that shows a wire anchoring system; Deike, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,676,965 and 4,320,608, for sign post support sockets; and Klenk, et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,339,899, that sets out a system for coupling a power transmission tower to a support base. None of which above cited patents involve a post and ground mount for a mail box system, like that of the present invention, whereby the post can be quickly and easily aligned to the vertical and provide for securely mounting a mail box, or the like, onto which post.
Additional to the above cited U. S. patents, a ball and socket mount utilizing a single bolt and nut combination for positioning and securing a transit to a horizontal attitude is provided in a transit system identified as an automatic level, manufactured by Nikon Corp. of Japan, Manufacturers Part No. AX-1 and AX-1S. Which Nikon system is, of course, for a different use and application than the arrangement of the system of the present invention.


A support shelf adapted for attachment to a crutch, the crutch including a pair of spaced, opposed downwardly converging rods, the support shelf including a member having a generally flat top surface and a peripheral edge portion extending therearound, the member including a pair of grooves extending inwardly from the spaced oppositely facing portions of the peripheral edge, the grooves being adapted for cooperatively receiving the downwardly converging rods of the crutch for wedging the member between the rods to hold the member with the top surface thereof in a generally horizontal orientation when the rods are in a generally upstanding orientation, the member optionally being of two piece construction for clamping to the rods, and further optionally being of hinged construction for movement between a deployed position and a stored position.

Often, crutch users experience discomfort, pain and fatigue when standing and/or walking using the crutch. Such discomfort and the like can be relieved by stopping and resting the affected body portion on a suitable surface located at the required elevation. Often, however, such surfaces suitable for resting are not available or convenient, such that the discomfort and pain is ongoing.
Additionally, crutch users often find it difficult to carry items such as a briefcase, purse, package and the like while using a crutch, as holding such items entails use of a hand normally needed for grasping a handle on the crutch.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems as set forth above.


A liquid spill containment system inserted into an open airflow structure such that minimum interference with existing airflow occurs while simultaneously directing liquid spill particles into spill containers. A deflector is located below an upper partition portion of the open airflow structure. Spill containers are positioned below the deflector. The deflector and containers are located with respect to each other such that liquid particles coming through the open airflow structure are directed by the deflector into a container while, simultaneously, airflow entering the open air structure is exited unimpeded.

Fluids when not properly contained can be destructive. Such destructiveness can be of immense scale or minute. For example, on the larger scale, rivers can flood, destroy property and injure people. Toxic liquid chemical spills can destroy items the spills come in contact with. On the smaller scale, fluids such as water, entering into electronic equipment such as radios, computer terminals can cause short circuiting of electrical wiring and even create electrical shock potential for users. On an intermediate scale, fluids and spills can affect building structures.
Modern semiconductor fabrication facilities utilize sophisticated technical manufacturing equipment, materials and chemicals such as acids and other fluids, and processing mechanisms such as pipes, feed systems and sinks, and are operated by personnel who work in various locations within the facilities. Many such facilities include multi-level building constructions with floors and ceilings separating upper and lower level vertically aligned rooms and work areas.
One critical aspect of a semiconductor fabrication facility is the necessity for a "clean room" environment, such that during manufacture the microscopic semiconductor "chips" do not become contaminated with foreign particles. Such clean rooms are designed such that circulated air flow is maintained uniform so that such particles are convected by air away from the chip products being manufactured. To accomplish such air flow, clean room floors are typically constructed with patterns of holes to allow air to flow from upper to lower levels in a constant "down flow" manner with a goal that the structures will avoid causing eddies, turbulence or other air flow interference.
Safety professionals in companies who have semiconductor fabrication facilities with such down flow configurations are concerned with safety matters regarding such open style floors and potential spills and leaks, particularly those involving toxic or corrosive chemicals typically used in the semiconductor fabrication process, which could penetrate the flooring used in such facilities. Injuries to personnel and damage to equipment can occur as a result of such leak or spill penetrations. For example, leaking sinks of acid could fall on expensive high voltage electrical equipment or come into physical contact with personnel who may be in the lower area. These spill problems can result in multi-million dollar costs to a semiconductor manufacturer if not effectively and efficiently addressed. Clean-up and replacement of damaged equipment can be costly. Product delays can result in lost profits. Injuries to personnel can be severe.
Therefore, a need exists for efficient cost effective spill containment while at the same time maintaining the uniform airflow needed in such facilities. Various prior approaches have been employed, all of which have disadvantages.
Several approaches involve merely instituting employee procedures. For example, all operations in an upper level are stopped while another worker is in the lower level (sub fab) area, or areas in the lower level below which chemical dispensing and possible spills may occur are chained off and contain "dangerous area" warning signs. If access to the "dangerous area" is required, hazardous work permits are issued and appropriate safety apparel, such as chemical resistant clothing, goggles, face shields, gloves, and the like would be worn when personnel access the area. While not causing an interruption in airflow, such procedures in addressing spill problems are inefficient, cumbersome and subject to human error.
Another approach is to install chemical resistant "umbrellas" on or over critical equipment in the lower level sub fab area and have personnel routinely wear appropriate safety apparel. "Spill pans" might also be located under equipment in the upper level. Such umbrellas and spill pans would typically need to be associated with each piece of equipment involved and would be costly additions to the equipment, particularly where chemical resistant materials are needed. Such umbrellas would not effectively protect personnel unless routinely carried by the workers in the lower level areas. In addition, such spill pans and umbrellas can adversely affect the uniform airflow.
Another technique involves installing a large container, or series of small containers packed close together, below the open flooring and spanning the entire room to capture any spills, or funnel spills into a adjacent receptacle(s) in the room below. However, again, such a large container or series of containers would interfere with the needed uniform airflow.
Another approach to spill containment is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,180,331 titled "Subfloor Damper and Spill Container" issued to Daw et al where a spill container system is employed below open flooring. However, while the Daw approach captures spills and recognizes the need to maintain airflow, the Daw approach adds additional mechanical structural complexity to adjust for airflow interference created by its various embodiments. In addition, the size relationships of various elements used to practice the Daw invention do not optimize the amount of spill capture for a given pressure loss.
While the prior approaches may deal with solving spill containment, most do not address the need for simultaneous spill containment and airflow continuity. Where both are addressed (as in the Daw approach), complexities are added. What is needed is a simple, cost effective, easy to use and install, efficient approach for simultaneously addressing spill containment and uniform airflow. The invention as described herein provides such an approach.

Method and apparatus for liquid spill containment


A slider of a moving portion slides on a sliding surface of a guide portion according to a selected range of an automatic transmission. A plurality of through holes are provided on the sliding surface. A detecting portion detects the range of the transmission based on the position of the moving portion. Particles on the sliding surface are scraped by a slider of the moving portion. The scraped particles drop into the holes to prevent a slider from being stuck.

JP-2002-175744A shows a conventional range detector for a vehicular automatic transmission. In such a range detector, a movable member slides on sliding surface of a guide member according to a selected rage of the automatic transmission. A range detector detects the position of the movable member to identify the range of the automatic transmission.
When the movable member is positioned in the same position for a long period, dust particles are adhered on the siding surface of the guide member. Particularly, in the range detector positioned in the automatic transmission as shown in JP-2002-175744A, since the operation fluid flows around the movable member, metal particles produced by abrasions of friction elements and gears and contained in the operation fluid tend to be adhered on the sliding surface of the guide member. Such a particles are introduced between the movable member and the sliding surface, which may generate a large sliding resistance. In this case, the movable member hardly moves smoothly, and the sliding member, the guide member, and the detector may be failed, which causes a malfunction of the range detector.

Range detector for vehicular automatic transmission


To control a temperature of a rotating member for fixing an image during standby, an image forming device can suppress overshoot of the temperature of the rotating member occurred when a fixing state is switched to a standby state. Determining the standby temperature is higher than the fixing temperature (Step S103: YES), a CPU 61 controls a temperature of a heating roller 51 to be kept substantially at a first temperature (Step S104). After a lapse of first given time (Step S105: YES), the CPU 61 stops rotation of the heating roller 51, a fixing roller 52 and the pressure roller 54 (Step S107). The CPU 61 controls the temperature to be kept substantially at the second temperature (Step S108). After a lapse of second given time (Step S109: YES), the CPU 61 controls the temperature to be kept substantially at the standby temperature, and switches to the standby state.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming device that forms an image on a recording sheet having an unfixed image transferred thereon by thermally fixing the unfixed image, and relates to an image forming method executed in the image forming device.
(2) Description of the Related Art
In this kind of image forming device, when a recording sheet is carried to a fixer, a temperature of a fixing roller for heat-fixing an image is controlled. When a recording sheet is not carried to the fixer, the image forming device stands by, stopping rotation of the roller for noise abatement, energy saving and such, and controlling the temperature of the roller so as to make quick response in a case of receiving an emergent execution instruction for image formation.
Hereinafter, a preset temperature of a roller at heat-fixing is referred to as a fixing temperature, and a preset temperature of a roller on standby is referred to as a standby temperature.
FIG. 16 is a view to show a temperature transition of a roller in a conventional image forming device, and show an example when both the fixing temperature and the standby temperature indicate 180° C. Note that the bold solid line indicates a preset temperature set for the temperature control, and the thin solid line indicates a detected temperature of a circumferential surface of the roller.
As shown in FIG. 16, if the roller is stopped immediately after the completion of the fixing process (point a in FIG. 16), an amount of heat discharge is decreased and the detected temperature of the roller rises sharply (point b in FIG. 16).
The sharp rise in the detected temperature causes excessively high temperature in the roller, which may result in deterioration of members in the vicinity of the roller. Accordingly, this sharp rise in the temperature needs to be suppressed as much as possible. Hereinafter, the rise in the temperature due to this sharp rise is occasionally referred to as overshoot.
In response to the above, a conventional technique is proposed as follows. After the fixing process is completed, and before the roller is stopped, the roller is rotated without being heated for a certain period of time for heat release. After the temperature of the roller is decreased to some extent, the roller is stopped (See Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication H6-202526, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication H11-249489).
FIG. 17 is a view to show temperature transition of the roller on the assumption that the above conventional technique is applied, and shows an example in which both the fixing temperature and the standby temperature are 180° C., and in which the temperature is once decreased to 155° C. after the fixing process.
As shown in FIG. 17, after the completion of the fixing process, the preset temperature is decreased to 155° C. with the roller kept rotating (point a in FIG. 17). Following this, the rotation of the roller is stopped, and the operation is switched to be in the standby state (point b in FIG. 17), and the temperature is controlled to be 180° C. which is the standby temperature. Then, the detected temperature rises sharply. However, compared with the case in which the control is not performed (FIG. 16), the peak temperature (point c in FIG. 17) of the increasing temperature can be kept low.
However, the fixing temperature is usually changed according to an environmental temperature, a type of a recording sheet and such. The aforementioned control is effective when the fixing temperature is set as high as or higher than the standby temperature. However, the fixing temperature is set lower than the standby temperature and accordingly there is a large gap between the fixing temperature and the preset temperature, which presents new problems of the overshoot.
The following is a detailed explanation of the problems.
FIG. 18 shows an example in which the fixing temperature is 145° C. and the standby temperature is 190° C.
In this case, as shown in FIG. 18, after the completion of the fixing process, the preset temperature is decreased to 120° C. with the roller kept rotating (point a in FIG. 18). Following this, the preset temperature is increased to 190° C. and the temperature control is started (point b in FIG. 18). However, since the preset temperature is significantly increased from 120° C. to 190° C. at the point b in FIG. 18, the detected temperature overshoots to a large extent (point c in FIG. 18).
This overshoot causes excessively high temperature of the roller, which may deteriorates members in the vicinity of the roller. Accordingly, it is necessary to suppress this overshoot as much as possible.
In addition, if the control shown in FIG. 18 is not performed, as shown in FIG. 19, when the preset temperature (145° C.) for fixing is much lower than the preset temperature (190° C.) in the standby state, the following occurs. If the rotation of the roller is stopped immediately after the completion of the fixing process (point a in FIG. 19), the temperature of the roller rises, and the image forming device is switched to be in a standby state and controls the temperature of the roller to be 190° C., which results in heating the roller. Thus, the detected temperature overshoots to a large extent (point b in FIG. 19).

Image forming device and image forming method wherein a standby fixing temperature is higher than a low-temperature fixing temperature

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.


A water management and leak detection has a containment system to contain hot water tank leaks and and electrical circuits that manage water flow and electricity to the hot water tank.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to alarm systems but more particularly to alarm warning against leakage of a water tank.
2. Background
Hot water tanks have a certain life expectancy and although most people appreciate a good hot shower, they tend to forget that it comes from a hot water tank since that object is generally hidden in the basement or deep into some closet or locker, out of sight out of mind—that is until they find themselves knee deep in water.
In apartment dwellings or multiple unit condos, a lot of damage can result from a hot water tank leak with water leaking down one or more storeys. For this reason, a number of inventions have dealt with this potential problem. Since leaks generally occur on the inner section and that water is usually stopped by the layer of insulation and then the outer sheet of metal, water essentially seeps out from the bottom and the prior art teaches the use of a shallow container placed underneath the tank to receive leaked water. Optionally, a pump such as a ship bail pump can be used to pump the water from that shallow container into a drain.
A number of other inventions teach various electromechanical means to detect a water leak, shut down electrical power to the water tank should a leak be detected and of course, shut down a main valve so that water intake is stopped thus limiting the amount of water that will leak.
More elaborate inventions provide total management of water and leak or any damage in the water line. There is even some remote controlled leak detection and flood prevention systems.
With the evolution of microelectronics and electromechanical devices, it is relatively easy to build a complete water management system using of the shelf components but there is still room for a practical means of containing the water that has already leaked and may continue to leak even after teh water valve is shut simply because a tank holds a lot of water.

Water management and leak detection for hot water tank


The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing an operable divergent/convergent variable geometry exhaust nozzle for jet propelled aircraft. A multiplicity of hinged, overlapping, nozzle blades circumferentially surround the exhaust nozzle thereby providing a divergent cylindrical exhaust nozzle that may be convergingly reduced to a conical configuration by action of a remotely controlled solenoid.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to jet propelled aircraft. Although the disclosure herein specifically relates to remotely controlled, flying scale model aircraft, the invention as disclosed and claimed herein may also be used on full size aircraft and for other related uses. In the scale model aircraft industry great efforts are taken to accurately reproduce the particular full size operational aircraft being modeled, both in appearance and operational characteristics. Although great strides have been achieved in the industry, one area affecting both appearance and scale model performance has been neglected; that being the jet exhaust nozzle. Operational full size jet aircraft of the present day are commonly equipped with exhaust nozzles having controllable variable area geometry; that is to say that the exit diameter of the jet nozzle may be varied depending upon the particular flight regime within which the aircraft is being operated. Two particular flight regimes that require different exhaust nozzle configurations, for both full size and scale model aircraft, are take-off and in flight cruse. Full size operational aircraft employ maximum exhaust nozzle diameters for take-off and decrease or restrict the exhaust nozzle diameter during in flight cruse. It is an established fact that jet propelled aircraft, full size or scale model aircraft, cannot have a cruising velocity, or air speed, greater than the exit velocity of the jet engine exhaust at the tail pipe exhaust nozzle. It is also established that the optimum exhaust nozzle configuration to produce maximum thrust at take-off (requiring a large diameter nozzle opening) is not optimum at cruse where less than take-off thrust is required to propel the aircraft at a constant velocity or air speed. Therefore, full size operational aircraft are equipped with variable area geometry exhaust nozzle whereby the diameter of the nozzle may be decreased or restricted to a smaller, more optimum, diameter for in flight cruse (thereby providing increased exhaust gas velocities permitting increased flight velocities) and open to full diameter or take-off and landing.
Scale model jet aircraft using ducted fan technology to obtain a propelling thrust from the exhaust nozzle, experience similar nozzle configuration problems as their full counterparts; that being that a large diameter exhaust nozzle configuration is desired for take-off however, a smaller or reduced diameter nozzle diameter is desired for in flight cruse.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 2,634,578 issued to G. W. Kallal on Apr. 14, 1953 for a "Device For Varying The Effective Area Of Discharge Orifices Of Jet Engines Or Afterburners Therefor" teaches a variable area jet exhaust nozzle which relies upon the high pressure gases within and exiting the nozzle to force the nozzle to its full open position. The nozzle exit diameter may be decreased by winding, upon a motor driven drum, a cable which is threaded through a series of guides circumferentially spaced about the external rearward periphery of the nozzle. Thus to convergingly reduce the nozzle exit diameter, the drum is rotated so as to wind in the control cable thereby reducing the nozzle exit diameter. To expand the nozzle exit diameter, a brake or other type of locking mechanism upon the drum is released thereby permitting the cable to unwind from the drum permitting the nozzle exit diameter to increase by action of the high pressure exhaust gases acting upon the inside surface of the nozzle. It is therefore apparent that the variable area nozzle as taught in the U.S. Pat. No. 2,634,578 can only be operated when the engine is operating and high pressures gases are flowing therethrough.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,535 issued to P. B. Ivie, on Jul. 25, 1989 for a "Variably Convergent Exhaust Nozzle For A Model Ducted Fan Unit" teaches a variable area exhaust nozzle for use on a scale model jet propelled aircraft wherein the nozzle comprises a multiplicity of circumferentially spaced apart, axially extending, inner leaves circumscribed by a multiplicity of, axially extending, overlapping spaced apart outer leaves. The outer leaves are affixed to hinges having hinge arms extending the full axial length of each leaf thereby providing structural rigidity to each outer leaf. Threaded through guides at the rearward end of each hinge arm is one of two control cables; each cable controlling half of the hinge arms or 180 degrees of the nozzle. The control cables are attached to a servo motor that, when the control cables are pulled taught, the diameter of the nozzle exit end is caused to constrict or decrease.
Similar to the nozzle taught in U.S. Pat. No. 2,634,578, discussed hereinabove, the nozzle of U.S. Pat. No. 4,850,535 has no positive mechanical means for opening the nozzle to its full divergent configuration. Both nozzles must rely upon gas pressure, within the nozzle, to return the nozzle to its full open position.


An image sensor includes: a first pixel having a first photoelectric conversion unit that generates an electric charge through photoelectric conversion of light, and a first output unit that generates a first signal based upon the electric charge generated by the first photoelectric conversion unit and outputs the first signal; a second pixel having a second photoelectric conversion unit that generates an electric charge through photoelectric conversion of light, and a second output unit that generates a second signal based upon the electric charge generated by the second photoelectric conversion unit and outputs the second signal; and an adjustment unit that adjusts a capacitance at the first output unit upon outputting of the first signal and the second signal from the first output unit.

There is an image-capturing device known in the related art that adds together (combines) electric charges generated in two light receiving elements and reads out the potential corresponding to the sum of the electric charges (see PTL 1). There is an issue yet to be effectively addressed in the image-capturing device in the related art in that the conversion gain at which the electric charge sum is converted to a potential is bound to fluctuate.

Image sensor and image-capturing device with pixels having amplifiers


There is a clock recovery circuit to correct the timing relationship between a data signal and clock signal. The clock recovery circuit comprises a phase detector having an input for receiving a clock signal having a period, an input for receiving a data signal, and an input for receiving a window signal. The window signal has a period equal to the period of the clock signal and phase difference of −90° with respect to the clock signal. The phase detector generates an up output and a down output while maintaining a phase relationship of the up output and the down output in response to the phase relationship between the clock signal and the data signal.

Data networking has become significantly important over the past several years. Information moves form one point to another via wired, wireless, and or optical networks. For example, Local Area Networks (LAN) in many organizations allow for a centralized server, often containing a database, which may be shared by clients. Coupled with the Internet, these LAN systems become Wide Area Networks (WAN) enabling the moving of information worldwide.
Linking together the clients and servers often rely on Network Interface Cards (NICs). These devices may be bridges, routers, switches, and hubs moving data among users, among users and servers, or among servers. Inherent to wired, wireless, and optical networks is data may become distorted as they move from one node to another. The distortion of the data causes errors. Therefore, each of these NICs, bridges, routers, switches, and hubs must "clean up" or retime the data for use either by the device itself, a device attached to it, or for retransmission.
A useful circuit for this is the phase-locked loop (PLL). PLLs accept distorted data, and provide a clock signal and retimed or recovered data as outputs. However, as data rates are approaching one Gigabit and beyond, the ability of PLLs to accept and clean up distorted data becomes compromised.
A number of solutions have been proposed to address the above challenge. A common phase detector used for clock recovery is an Alexander phase detector (otherwise known as a bang-bang phase detector) as described in the article titled, "Clock Recovery from Random Binary Signals by J. D. H. Alexander and published in IEEE Electronics Letters (Vol. 11, pp. 541-542, October 1975). Another phase detector is use is a Hogge phase detector described in the article titled, "A Self Correcting Clock Recovery Circuit" by Charles R. Hogge and published in the IEEE Journal of Lightwave Technology (Vol. LT-3, pp. 1312-1314, December 1985). Both publications are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety.
Both the Alexander and the Hogge phase detector can handle random data patterns at very high data rates. However both require a clock at the same frequency as the data (i.e. 1 bit per clock cycle). As the technology approaches one Gigabit and beyond, generating a clock at such a high frequency becomes problematic.

Linear half-rate phase detector for clock recovery and method therefor


A system for adaptive notification in a data communications network. The system includes a data transport network in communication with a client and a server. The client comprises a client-side adaptive notification processor in communication with the data transport network. The server comprises a server-side adaptive notification processor in communication with the data transport network.

The use of client-server applications has risen dramatically in the past decades. One of the processes that is important for a wide class of client-server applications is asynchronous notification. Asynchronous notifications may be defined as communication from a server to a distributed client application. The client may be comprised of one or more of a plurality of client entities. A typical application of asynchronous notifications is the delivery of alarms to administrators in a network surveillance system. Mechanisms for handling asynchronous notifications in distributed systems can be classified as "push" or "pull" techniques.
A push mechanism sends new information to the client as soon as it is available on the server. Such a mechanism may be inadequate for supporting large numbers of clients in a Web based application because of the need to maintain persistent connections with each client. Push systems generally require the full client state to be maintained on the server side of the system, so that the server application has the information that it needs to push information to the clients.
A pull, or polling, mechanism involves the client periodically contacting the server to determine if any new information is available. The client polling setup is completely controlled by the client, and the polling rate must generally be established a priori to accommodate the worst possible scenario. The communications network bandwidth used by this pull mechanism is proportional to the number of clients. But because of the a priori establishment of poll rates, during periods of light workloads with a small number of clients, network resources are underutilized. Similarly, during periods of heavy workloads beyond the expected worst case scenario, network resources are overloaded by the client polling mechanism; this congestion leads to significant degradation of the service and potentially complete failure. Therefore, an inherent scalability constraint exists due to the limited traffic capacity of the network.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems identified above.

Adaptive polling for asynchronous notification


A metal detector (1) having an oscillator coil (10) which radiates an electromagnetic field in the vicinity of an article to be tested. The field is detected by a primary set of receiver coils (15) which are in close proximity to the oscillator coil (10), as well as by a secondary set of receiver coils (18) located relatively more distant from the oscillator coil. Moving or vibrating metal external to the detector cavity (7) surrounded by the coils (15, 18) will produce a modulated waveform (48) in the primary coils (15) which is similar in period to the modulated waveform (56) produced by the secondary coils (18), while metal passing through the detector cavity (7) will produce a waveform (24) from the primary coils (15) which has a period which differs from the period of the waveform (31) produced by the secondary coils (18). By inverting the secondary coil output signal (42) and adding the inverted signal to the output signal (46) produced by the primary coils (15), a composite signal (68) is produced in which the effect of vibrating or moving metal external to the detector cavity (7) is reduced or eliminated.

A conventional metal detector includes an oscillator coil which generates a high frequency electromagnetic field within the region of a measuring zone commonly referred to as a detector head. The detector head is formed to include an enclosed volume having an entrance and an exit aperture. The detector head also contains the coil form on which the oscillator coil is wound. An article suspected of containing metal is passed through the detector head aperture by means of, for example, a conveyor. Ideally, all of the electromagnetic field remains within the enclosed volume of the detector head, but in practice some of the field escapes through the aperture. Also residing within the detector head are a pair of receiver coils, symmetrically spaced on either side of the oscillator coil and typically wound on the same coil form. The receiver coils are wired so as to be in series opposition. Through the positioning of the oscillator/receiver coil assembly and by other means well known to those skilled in the art, the signal induced by the oscillator onto each of the receiver coils is of the same magnitude but of opposite polarity. As a result, the net voltage output of the interconnected receiver coils is zero volts.
When metal passes through the detector head aperture, the electromagnetic field within the detector head is disturbed or distorted. The change in the electromagnetic field induces a difference in the signal received by each of the receiver coils. The net voltage sum of the two receiver coils is no longer zero. This perceived change or difference of signal in the receiver coils is then amplified and analyzed to determine if the characteristics of the distorted field are consistent with the presence of metal.
Similarly, the product being tested for the presence of metal also induces a difference in the signal produced by each of the receiver coils. Even though the product is nonmetallic, it will typically have properties such as permeability and conductance that will effect the behavior of an electromagnetic field. This effect itself may be small compared to the change due to metal, but the volume of the product is much greater than that of the metal to be detected. This effect may result in a product signal that is many times greater than the signal from the metal to be detected. Phase sensitive signal analysis is typically used to extract the metal signal from the product signal.
Since the electromagnetic field also protrudes outside of the detector aperture, the presence of metal (and to a lesser extent other materials, such as other products about to be tested) in such exterior regions will also distort the electromagnetic field outside as well as inside the detector head. If the metal or product residing outside of the detector head is in motion, this typically vibrating type of motion creates a time varying change in the electromagnetic field.
Such a change in the electromagnetic field appears as a change or difference in the signal produced by each of the receiver coils and is thus detected as moving metal. In the state of the art metal detector, moving metal outside of the aperture is indistinguishable from metal passing through the aperture. Such a situation can result in the metal detector incorrectly rejecting a metal free article or improperly activating an alarm, either of which results in a loss of production.
A possible solution to the problem of detecting metal outside of the detector head aperture is to decrease the sensitivity of the of the receiver coils, which results in a larger minimum size of detectable metal. Another solution is to track and thereby learn the moving metal characteristics, which may also result in a loss of sensitivity to metal passing through the aperture. A final solution is to attempt to better contain the electromagnetic field entirely within the detector head, which results in a much higher cost of the electronics or the detector head.
An example of such a metal detector is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,572,121, which addresses the problem of creating a virtual metal free zone by generating primary and secondary electromagnetic fields in opposition to each other. The interaction of the secondary opposing field with the primary field limits the distance or range that the primary field extends from the detector head and creates a barrier to further extension of the primary field. This prevents the primary field from being influenced by the presence of metal beyond that finite distance.
The aforementioned technique is not entirely satisfactory. In order to contain the primary field, a field of the opposite polarity is generated which itseld extends outside of the detector head. The new field is also sensed by the detector coils as was the primary field, only with the opposite polarity. Shaping the field using metal forms and shapes is also relatively ineffective because the resonant frequency of the forms is so high when compared to the relatively long wavelengths associated with the oscillator frequency.

Quad coil vibration cancelling metal detector


A cap assembly for use in conjunction with a container having a base portion and a top portion. The base portion has a neck and a lip. The neck and lip are dimensioned to be attached to the container. The base portion has a straw hole and an air hole. The top portion is attached to the base portion by a flexible bridge. The top portion has a gripping flange for sealing the straw hole and an air hole stopper for sealing said air hole. Also integral to the top portion is a clip for holding the top portion to said base portion. A straw is adapted to be positioned within the straw hole of the base.

It is well known to straws to drink liquid out of cans, bottles, and wide variety of other containers. A straw allows a user to create a partial vacuum to draw liquid out of a container and into their mouth so that it can be swallowed. There are many reasons why using a straw may be preferable to drinking directly from the container. To begin, it is often unsanitary to drink from the exposed parts of a container. These parts of the container often become dirty when the container is shipped or awaits purchase. By using a straw, a user avoids direct contact with any of the exposed portions of the container. Another reason for using a straw is to avoid contact with sharp—and therefore sometimes dangerous—parts of a container, e.g., the mouth of an aluminum can. Yet another reason for using a straw is the added convenience it brings to drinking from a container. Specifically, when a straw is being used, the container does not need to be tipped in order to drink.
Straws typically must be purchased separately from drinks, or they are provided gratis to a drink buyer at the point of sale. Straws that are separate from containers often become misplaced. Therefore, it has been known to attach straws to some containers, e.g., drink boxes. Even more convenient is providing a drink container which includes a self-contained straw. As evidenced by prior art patents, there have been many attempts to provide such a container.
For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,194,674 to Pearson is for a container with a built in straw. The patent discloses a drinking straw that is formed with a flexible corrugated section of material that is fixed to a flexible tab. The tab may be bonded between the sealing flaps of a paper container with the straw held inside the container. Alternatively, the tab can be fixed between the seal disk and cap of a bottle so that the straw may be suspended inside a bottle. This reference provides no teaching of a cap system that is recloseable.
Another example is U.S. Pat. No. 4,109,817 to Payne et al. for a straw assembly for a liquid container. The patent discloses a straw assembly for a liquid container having a pull tab closure over an opening in its top. The straw—which has a float mounted thereon—is free to extend to its full length when the container is opened. The device disclosed in this reference is not recloseable. Moreover, this is a relatively complicated design.
Thus there is a need for a recloseable cap system for a beverage container that integrates a straw for convenient user access.

Retractable straw for drinking containers


A controller includes a feature quantity generation unit that generates, from data associated with a control target, a feature quantity appropriate for detecting an abnormality in the control target, a machine learning unit that performs machine learning using the feature quantity, an abnormality detection unit that detects the abnormality based on an abnormality detection parameter determined from a learning result of the machine learning, and the feature quantity, an instruction unit that instructs the abnormality detection unit to detect the abnormality, and a data compression unit that compresses data about the feature quantity and provides the compressed data to the machine learning unit and the abnormality detection unit. The instruction unit transmits a request for detecting the abnormality to the abnormality detection unit. The abnormality detection unit detects the abnormality without returning a response to the request.

Factory automation (FA) technology involving controllers, such as programmable logic controllers (PLCs), is widely used at various production sites. The recent development of information and communication technology (ICT) has increased the performance and functionality of such controllers used in the field of factory automation.
The increased performance includes shortened cycles of data input in and output from a controller. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2012-194663 (Patent Literature 1) describes a technique for allowing a central processing unit (CPU) of a PLC to output and receive control data in fixed communication cycles shorter than the maximum execution duration of a control program.
The shortened cycles of data input and output enable higher accuracy of, for example, control, monitoring, abnormality detection, and abnormality prediction.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2013-008111 (Patent Literature 2) describes an abnormal symptom diagnosis apparatus that diagnoses a machine for abnormal symptoms. The abnormal symptom diagnosis apparatus described in Patent Literature 2 uses multidimensional sensor data obtained by multiple sensors in machines and transmitted from each machine through a communication network. The abnormal symptom diagnosis apparatus diagnoses abnormal symptoms by, for example, data mining on the multidimensional sensor data.

Controller, control program, and control method


A valve timing mechanism of an internal combustion engine of a motor vehicle, having a camshaft having at least one cam (18), via which a switchable valve timing mechanism element (1) can be loaded with a cam stroke (s), in which locking means (12) are arranged on the valve timing mechanism element (1), which locking means (12) have a locking play (16) which is active in the direction of a valve stroke, in which the cam (18) has a base circle region (α) and a ramp region (19) with an opening ramp (γ) which adjoins the base circle region (α), and in which at least one ramp section (21) is formed on the opening ramp (γ) in order to compensate for the locking play (16). In order to provide a valve timing mechanism of an internal combustion engine, which produces sufficient idle travel of a locking play (16) of the switchable valve timing elements (1) being loaded by the cam ramps of the cams (18), and nevertheless manages with a relatively short length of the cam ramps, the cam (18) is shaped in the locking play ramp section (21) for compensating for the locking play (16) in such a way that, during a run-off movement over a cam counterelement (17) of the valve timing mechanism element (1), in the event of a rotation of the camshaft, it runs off with an increased cam velocity (v) in comparison with adjacent ramp sections (20,24), at least in one part of the locking play ramp section (21).

Valve timing mechanisms having switchable valve timing mechanism elements, for example switchable tappets, levers or supporting elements and correspondingly switchable cylinders, are installed in motor vehicles in order to optimize the efficiency, the fuel consumption and the exhaust gas emissions, in order, depending on the application, to switch on or switch off valves in defined operating states, to load them with different valve strokes or to actuate them with different valve control times. Switchable valve timing mechanism elements of this type are affected with a locking play of the locking means which are used, for structural reasons, in order to implement a locking action.
As is described, for example, in DE 102 10 747 A1, two pistons which lie diametrically opposite one another can be configured here as locking means. In the event of a locking action, the pistons bridge two axially movable components, which are arranged inside one another, of the valve timing mechanism element which is configured, for example, as a roller tappet. This results in an additional idle travel which acts on a valve stroke and has to be taken into consideration in the design of the cams on a camshaft, via which the gas exchange valves of the internal combustion engine are actuated.
This is expressed in the design of a ramp section within an opening ramp which adjoins a base circle region of the respective cam, which ramp section additionally has to be overcome before the actual opening process of the gas exchange valve when the cam is moved out via the valve timing mechanism element. Said ramp section therefore increases the overall length of the cam ramp. In addition to the compensation of the locking play, an increase in the locking play as a result of wear is also to be taken into consideration. In general, the mechanical rigidity of the valve timing mechanism elements is also to be considered in the compensation of the idle travel.
Furthermore, both switchable and nonswitchable valve timing mechanism elements are frequently installed in internal combustion engines, with the result that the respective ramp lengths are different. If further ramp portions are added to the ramps which are already different in any case, the cam ramps of the corresponding cams become relatively long and it becomes more difficult with an increasing length of the cam ramps to match an internal pressure of the switchable and nonswitchable cylinders via the cams.
A further ramp portion is required, in particular, in order to compensate for lowering of the frequently used hydraulic valve play compensating elements (HVA) in the internal combustion engine. HVAs serve to compensate automatically for a valve play which results from the thermal expansion and the wear of the transmission elements of the cam stroke, which emanates from the camshaft, on the gas exchange valves, in order to ensure a satisfactory operation of the internal combustion engine. The valve play compensating elements are usually configured as hydraulic tappets, having a control valve which is loaded in the closing direction via a spring and is therefore predominantly closed in the base circle region of the cam by the force of the spring. As a result, said compensating elements transmit a cam stroke directly to the gas exchange valves, as virtually rigid elements.
Valve play compensating elements are also increasingly used, in which the control valve is loaded in the opening direction. Compensating elements of this type are known as RSHVA (reverse spring hydraulic valve play compensating elements) and are described, for example, in DE 10 2004 018 386 A1, DE 10 2004 035 588 A1 and DE 10 2005 010 711 A1 which are not prior publications. In these compensating elements, the control valve is held open in the cam base circle region by the force of the spring. As a compensating element of this type can be closed by hydrodynamic and hydrostatic forces only by an oil flow which flows at the beginning of the cam elevation from a high pressure space to a low pressure space of the tappet, the compensating element initially produces an idle stroke, before the actual valve stroke begins. This idle stroke has the effect of reducing the wear on the valve timing mechanism and, in particular, has a positive effect on the idling quality (rotational speed stability during idling) of the engine. In order to compensate for the idle stroke of the RSHVAs, however, a further ramp portion is necessary, which results in a still further increased overall ramp length of the relevant cams.
As a result of the individual ramp portions, in particular in the case of a valve timing mechanism having a switchable tappet with RSHVA, a critical overall length of the cam ramp can therefore be achieved, which can result in creeping opening of the corresponding gas exchange valves or a filling loss of the corresponding cylinders. This can have an unfavorable influence on the valve overlap and therefore the valve control times. In addition, unfavorable thermal effects as a result of the creeping filling outflow are also not to be precluded. As a consequence of this, the actual advantages of switchable valve timing mechanism elements and RSHVAs, in particular with regard to the idling quality, can be reduced unfavorably, at least partially.
DE 199 02 446 A1, DE 196 30 443 A1 and DE 196 29 313 B4 are to be mentioned for a cam design having an opening ramp and a closing ramp. In said documents, the cam design is described for taking a hydraulic play compensating element into consideration. However, a person skilled in the art does not find any indications in said publications of a locking play or an additional reverse spring idle stroke being taken into consideration in the design of the opening ramp.

Valve timing mechanism of an internal combustion engine


Slide compound saws (1, 100, 150) may include a table (3b) defining a table surface. A saw unit (20) may be pivotable relative to the table surface. A first slide bar (31, 51, 251, 351) may be slidably coupled to the table and may be disposed substantially in parallel with the table surface. The first slide bar may define a first sliding distance (S1) of the saw unit in a direction substantially parallel to the table surface. A sliding device (24, 33, 52, 61, 62, 252, 352) may slidably couple the first slide bar to the saw unit. The sliding device may define a second sliding distance (S2) of the saw unit in the direction substantially parallel to the table surface. Preferably, the saw unit can slide up to a distance S1 plus S2 in the direction substantially parallel to the table surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to slide compound saws, which saws generally include a saw unit that can pivot vertically relative to a table surface and that can slide linearly relative to and along the table surface in order to cut a workpiece.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Laid-open Publication No. 11-90730 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,352 teach slide compound saws, in which a saw unit having a circular saw blade can slide relative to a table surface via two slide bars. A workpiece (such as wood) is placed on the table surface, the saw unit is vertically moved (or pivoted) toward the workpiece, and then the saw unit is thereafter moved (or slid) in a direction parallel to the table surface. As a result, a workpiece having a relatively large width can be cut.
In addition, these known slide compound saws include a lock for releasably preventing the saw unit from displacing or sliding along the slide bars. In particular, the lock includes a fixing screw that is designed to abut or press against one of the slide bars. When the fixing screw securely abuts the slide bar, the saw unit can not slide or move linearly with respect to the table surface. However, the saw unit still can be vertically moved or pivoted towards the table surface in order to cut the workpiece. Thus, when the fixing screw securely abuts the slide bar, the slide compound saw functions as a usual power circular saw. On the other hand, when the fixing screw does not abut the slide bar, the saw unit can slide parallel to the table surface in order to cut a relatively wide workpiece.


Methods and apparatus for allocating access to a buffer of a host device to buffer data transferred between a controller of the host device and one or more remote devices are disclosed. The host device is configured to couple to each of the one or more remote devices through one or more corresponding dedicated lanes. Buffer access is allocated by determining, for each of one or more remote devices coupled to the host device, a number of dedicated lanes between the host device and each of the one or more remote devices and allocating access to the buffer of the host device for each of the one or more remote devices responsive to the determined number of dedicated lanes.

There is ever-increasing demand for higher input/output (I/O) bandwidth to interconnect electronic devices. PCI-Express is a leading contender for delivering much higher I/O bandwidth than is available in conventional computing platforms. PCI-Express uses dedicated lanes between pairs of electronic devices rather than a conventional data bus through which all data for multiple electronic devices is routed.
In a PCI-Express system, I/O bandwidth of a host device may be divided among multiple remote devices through the allocation of dedicated lanes. For example, a host device with a PCI-Express connection having 16 dedicated lanes may allocate 8 of those lanes for communication with one remote device and another 8 lanes for communication with another remote device. In this example, the I/O bandwidth for the host device is equally divided between the two remote devices.
The host device needs to buffer data transmitted to the remote devices and received from the remote devices. A proposed host device buffering solution includes using separate transmit/receive buffers for each remote device. In this proposed solution, the host device would include a transmit and receive buffer pair for each I/O connection port of the host device through which a remote device can communicate with the host device. This approach has two drawbacks. First, multiple buffers require multiple address decode blocks that increases overall silicon usage, which is a precious computer architecture commodity. Second, transmit and receive buffer pairs go unused when a remote device is not coupled to I/O connection ports associated with those buffer pairs, thus wasting buffering capacity.
Cost and speed are two critical factors in the success of a computer architecture. Buffering solutions affect the cost and speed of the computer architecture. Improvements in cost and speed may be obtained by reducing silicon usage and efficiently using buffering capacity. Accordingly, improved buffering solutions that are not subject to the above limitations are needed. The present invention addresses this need among others.

Methods and apparatus for allocating access to a host device buffer


A document feeder includes a conveying path extended from a document supplying position to a reading position, a first conveying roller pair provided upstream from the reading position and nipping and conveying the document, a second conveying roller pair provided downstream from the reading position and nipping and conveying the document faster than the first conveying roller pair, a post-reading conveying path extended downstream from a nipping position of the second conveying roller pair, the post-reading conveying path being located above a plane tangent to the second conveying roller pair at the nipping position running in a reverse sheet feed direction, and a third conveying roller pair provided on the post-reading conveying path and nipping and conveying the document conveyed from the second conveying roller pair at a conveying force equivalent to that of the second conveying roller pair.

There has been proposed an image reading device mounted on a copying device, a scanning device or a multi-function device having copy functions and scan functions. The image reading device has an automatic document feeder (ADF) which nips and conveys a document to a discharge tray through the conveying path from the sheet teed tray. Further, there has been proposed an automatic document feeder which carries out conveying for reading the document at a midpoint of conveyance by reversing leading and trailing ends of a document by switching the document back at the midpoint of conveyance in order to read image sprinted on both first and second sides of the document (refer to JP-A-10-87108, for example).
FIG. 15 shows a conveying route of a related image reading device having an ADF capable of reading both sides of a document. As shown in FIG. 15, a document P, which is placed on a sheet feed tray 100 with the first side (page 1) facing upward, is conveyed to a conveying path 102 by a sheet feed roller 101. In the conveying path 102, the document P is conveyed to the conveying rollers 103 mounted appropriately, and the first side of the document P is read by an image reading unit such as a reduced-optical charge coupled device (CCD) or a contact image sensor (CIS) while passing through a reading position X. When the trailing end of the document P after the first side has been read is detected by a sensor, a sheet discharge roller 104 is halted when the document is nipped in the vicinity of the trailing end of the document P.
As shown in FIG. 16, the sheet discharge roller 104 is reversed, and the document P is conveyed to a switchback path 105. The document P advances again from the switchback path 105 to a position upstream of the reading position X on the conveying path 102. Accordingly, the leading end of the document P and the trailing end are reversed with each other. Then, the document P is conveyed by the conveying rollers 103, and the second side of the document P is read by the image reading unit while passing through the reading position X. When the trailing end of the document P after the second side has been read is detected by a sensor, the sheet discharge roller 104 is again halted when the document is nipped in the vicinity of the trailing end. Thereafter, the document P is conveyed reversely through the switchback path 105. The document P which advances again from the switchback path 105 into the conveying path 102 is in a state that the trailing end and the leading end of the document are again reversed with each other, that is, the first side is faced to the reading position X. Then, the document P is conveyed through the conveying path 102 and discharged to the sheet discharge tray 106, with the first side facing downward. Thereby, the first side and the second side of the document P are read and the document P is discharged to the sheet discharge tray 106 sequentially in the order placed on the sheet feed tray 100.
In the conveying process of document P by the ADF, the document P passing through the reading position X is conveyed respectively being nipped by the conveying rollers 103 mounted at the respective positions upstream and downstream from the reading position X. In general, the downstream conveying roller 103 is set to be greater in peripheral speed (speed on the roller face) than the upstream conveying roller 103. Thereby, the document P is conveyed in a way of being pulled by the downstream conveying roller 103 at the reading position X and therefore no curling is developed in the documents P.
When the trailing end of a document P in a sheet feed direction passes through the upstream conveying roller 103 at the reading position X, tension applied to the document P by the respective conveying rollers 103 upstream and downstream at the reading position is released. Thus, it is considered that behavior of the document P become unstable. In general, a difference in the peripheral speed between the respective conveying rollers 103 upstream and downstream from the reading position is set within a range which will not cause the above-described unstable behavior of the document P. However, when a sheet discharge roller 104 is arranged further downstream from the downstream conveying roller 103, the peripheral speed of the sheet discharge roller 104 may affect the behavior of the document P. Further, when a conveying path 102 is configured differently or a switchback path is provided separately, the behavior of the document P may be changed by the configuration of the conveying path downstream from the reading position. Therefore, a combination of factors influencing the behavior of the document P results in unstable behavior of the document P at the reading position. There is a fear that image reading of the document P may be affected by an image reading unit. However, factors influencing behavior of the document P substantially remain unknown. Thus, it is difficult to feed the document P at the reading position taking every factor into account.