The present invention provides devices and methods for Raman amplification and dispersion compensation. According to one embodiment of the present invention, a dispersion compensating device includes a dispersion compensating fiber having a dispersion more negative than about −50 ps/nm/km over a wavelength range of about 1555 nm to about 1615 nm; a Raman gain fiber having a dispersion more positive than about −40 ps/nm/km over a wavelength range of about 1555 nm to about 1615 nm; and a pump source operatively coupled to the dispersion compensating fiber and the Raman gain fiber, the pump source operating at a pump wavelength, wherein the dispersion compensating fiber has a Raman Figure of Merit at the pump wavelength, and wherein the Raman gain fiber has a Raman Figure of Merit at least about equivalent to the Raman Figure of Merit of the dispersion compensating fiber, and wherein the dispersion compensating fiber and the Raman gain fiber are arranged in series between the input and the output of the device. The device provides higher Raman gain than a conventional Raman-pumped dispersion compensating device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to optical communications, and more specifically to devices and methods providing dispersion compensation and Raman amplification of an optical signal.
2. Technical Background
As the bit rates of optical communications systems increase, the deleterious effects of dispersion in the optical fibers used in long-distance transmission become increasingly important. Dispersion causes optical pulses to spread out in time; the lower wavelength components of the pulse travel along the fiber at a different rate than do the higher wavelength components of the pulse. Typically, long-distance transmission fibers (e.g. LEAF®, available from Coming Incorporated of Corning, N.Y.) have a small but non-negligible positive dispersion, causing the higher wavelength components to arrive at a network node before the lower wavelength components. This temporal spreading can cause loss of signal fidelity and an increase in bit error rate.
Conventional methods of dispersion compensation use dispersion compensating fiber to reverse the effects of dispersion in the transmission fiber. Dispersion compensating fiber typically has a large negative dispersion to counteract the positive dispersion of the transmission fiber. In one type of conventional dispersion compensating device, a dispersion compensating fiber is packaged on a spool in a module. The length and dispersion properties of the dispersion compensating fiber are chosen to balance the dispersion of the span of transmission fiber to which it is coupled. A positively chirped optical signal from the transmission fiber is propagated through the dispersion compensating fiber, and the negative dispersion of the dispersion compensating fiber removes the positive chirp from the optical signal.
Stimulated Raman scattering is a well-known nonlinear phenomenon that can allow many conventional optical fibers to provide broadband amplification. A weak signal in the 1550-1620 nm wavelength range can be amplified by propagation in an optical fiber with strong pump radiation (typically in the 1430-1480 nm wavelength range). The higher energy pump radiation scatters off atoms in the optical fiber core, loses some energy to those atoms, and propagates down the fiber with the same wavelength as the signal. The amount of amplification provided by stimulated Raman scattering in an optical fiber is proportional to the Raman scattering coefficient of the material of the optical fiber core, and is inversely proportional to the product of the fiber's effective area and its absorption loss. One conventional method to achieve signal amplification in a dispersion compensating device is to directly pump the dispersion compensating fiber. Typical dispersion compensating fibers are effective Raman gain media due to their nonlinear nature and small effective area.
Raman pumping of the dispersion compensation fiber is not always sufficient to provide a desired amount of gain. For example, dispersion compensating devices designed to compensate for relatively short spans of transmission fiber have relatively short lengths of dispersion compensating fiber. The short length of the dispersion compensating fiber in such devices limits the amount of Raman gain that can be achieved.

Devices and methods for raman amplification and dispersion compensation


Systems and methods are provided to determine consensus values for duplicate fields in a document or form.

Many organizations utilize extraction services to obtain information from documents and forms automatically. These organizations typically utilize a portal, application, or other service that allows a user to upload an image of the document that he/she wants to import. The image then typically goes through a pipeline with one or more deployed models or services to classify the document and extract data from it e.g., in the form of key-value pairs. A key-value pair typically includes a key, which can be a constant or a descriptor that defines the data (e.g., color, gender, price, income, etc.), and a value, which can be a variable belonging to the set defined by the key (e.g., red, male, $500, $75,000, respectively). For example, for a tax preparation service, users often upload images of tax documents, such as W-2 forms, bank statements, or other documents and information is extracted from these images and utilized by the service to prepare the user's tax return.
Oftentimes, however, there are documents/forms that contain multiple copies of the same document/form on a page, or the same information is presented at multiple locations on the same page. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, a document 100 includes multiple W-2 forms 101-104 on a single page. If every region of a corresponding image has acceptable quality, it is likely that a key-value extraction-engine would extract multiple key-value pairs from the image of the document (i.e., one pair from every copy present in the image). Extraction engines then have to pick a "final" value based on these multiple key-value pairs. Extraction engines currently rely on raw confidence scores that often accompany the output of optical character recognition (OCR) services, selecting the key-value pair with the highest confidence score to be the final extracted value. However, these confidence scores are not always the most representative of the extraction's accuracy. In addition, in a page with duplicate copies of a document, there may be copies that are not completely populated or even completely blank. Such inconsistencies can lead to inaccuracies in value determination, which in turn leads to an inaccurate analysis based on the extracted values and ultimately user dissatisfaction—which are undesired.

Systems and methods for determining consensus values


A radiation detector with high detection sensitivity. The radiation detector according to the present invention includes an Al2O3 substrate, a Fe2O3 thin film layered on the Al2O3 substrate, a CaxCoO2 (where 0.15<x<0.55) thin film that is layered on the Fe2O3 thin film and that has CoO2 planes that are aligned inclined to the surface of the Al2O3 substrate, a first electrode disposed on the CaxCoO2 thin film, and a second electrode disposed on the CaxCoO2 thin film in a position opposed to the first electrode in the direction in which the CoO2 planes are aligned inclined.

When a temperature difference is generated between both ends of a thermoelectric conversion material, an electromotive force (a thermal electromotive force) is generated in proportion to the temperature difference. The phenomenon that thermal energy is converted into electrical energy in a thermoelectric conversion material is known as the Seebeck effect. The electromotive force V that is generated is expressed as V=SΔT, where ΔT is a temperature difference and S is the Seebeck coefficient peculiar to the material.
In a thermoelectric conversion material that exhibits isotropic physical properties, the electromotive force generated by the Seebeck effect is generated only in the direction in which the temperature difference has been generated. On the other hand, due to the inclined arrangement of the crystal axes, the thermoelectric conversion material that exhibits anisotropy in its electrical transport properties generates an electromotive force in the direction orthogonal to the direction in which the temperature difference has been generated. The electrical transport properties denote the behavior of electrons and positive holes having electric charges that move in a substance. As described above, the phenomenon that due to the inclined arrangement of the crystal axes of the material, an electromotive force is generated in the direction that is different from the direction in which the temperature difference has been generated (a heat flow direction) is referred to as an anisotropic thermoelectric effect or an off-diagonal thermoelectric effect.
FIG. 13 is a diagram of a coordinate system for explaining the anisotropic thermoelectric effect. As shown in FIG. 13, the crystal axes abc of the sample 101 are inclined to the spatial axes xyz. In the sample 101, when a temperature difference ΔTz is applied in the direction along the z axis, an electromotive force Vx is generated in the direction orthogonal to the z axis, i.e. the direction along the x axis. The electromotive force Vx is represented by Formula (1):
                              [                      Mathematical                                                                          Formula                                                                          1                    ]                                                                                V          x                =                              l                          2                            d                                          Δ                                                                                T              z                        ·            Δ                                                                                S            ·            sin                                                                        2                    α                                    (        1        )            where 1 denotes the width of the sample 101, d denotes the thickness of the sample 101, α denotes the inclination angle of the a-b plane to the surface (the x-y plane) of the sample 101, and ΔS denotes the difference (the difference that occurs due to anisotropy) between the Seebeck coefficient Sc in the c-axis direction and the Seebeck coefficient Sab in the a-b in-plane direction.
Conventionally, a radiation detector using an inclined layered thin film of YBa2Cu3O7-d (hereinafter referred to as "YBCO") has been proposed as a radiation detector that utilizes the anisotropic thermoelectric effect (see, for example, Patent Literature 1). The inclined layered thin film denotes a thin film that is layered on a substrate and that has a structure in which the crystal axis is inclined to the surface of the substrate and a plurality of layers are layered together. The YBCO thin film has an anisotropic crystal structure in which a CuO2 layer having electrical conductivity and Y and BaO layers that have insulation properties are layered alternately along the c-axis direction. When the YBCO thin film is layered (inclined and layered) on a suitable substrate surface in such a manner that the c axis is inclined to the substrate surface, a similar system to that shown in FIG. 13 is formed. The CuO2 plane corresponds to the a-b plane shown in FIG. 13. When an electromagnetic wave is incident on the surface of the YBCO thin film that has been inclined and layered as described above, a temperature difference is generated in the direction perpendicular to the surface of the YBCO thin film. As a result, an electromotive force is generated in the direction parallel to the surface of the YBCO thin film by the anisotropic thermoelectric effect. Reading this electromotive force allows the electromagnetic wave that has been incident on the surface of the YBCO thin film to be detected. A radiation detector using the YBCO thin film can detect an electromagnetic wave at a sensitivity of approximately 100 mV/K.
From Formula (1), the electromotive force Vx that is generated by the anisotropic thermoelectric effect is proportional to the difference ΔS that occurs due to anisotropy of the Seebeck coefficient, the aspect ratio 1/d of a sample, and a sine value of sin 2α of an angle that is twice the inclination angle α. In the YBCO thin film, the difference ΔS is smaller than 10 μV/K, and the upper limit for maintaining the inclination angle α of the CuO2 plane at a single angle is limited to approximately 10 to 20° (see, for example, Non-Patent Literature 1 and Non-Patent Literature 2). Accordingly, the radiation detector that includes the YBCO thin film used therein cannot be said to have sufficiently high sensitivity for being used practically. In order to improve the sensitivity of a radiation detector that includes an inclined layered thin film used therein, there are methods in which, for example, a material with a larger difference ΔS is used and the inclination angle α of the thin film is brought close to 45 degrees as much as possible. Since the range of the inclination angle α in the inclined layered thin film depends on the combination of the thin film material and the substrate material on which the thin film material is layered, it is preferable that a suitable substrate material be selected so that the inclination angle α can be controlled widely up to around 45°.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a radiation detector in which a YBCO thin film partially doped with Pr is used. According to Patent Literature 1, the radiation detector has a sensitivity approximately twenty times higher than that of a radiation detector with a non-doped YBCO thin film used therein. It is suggested that the reason for this is because the Seebeck coefficient of the YBCO thin film is increased by Pr doping. However, Non-Patent Literature 3 describes that in a Pr-doped YBCO thin film, the Seebeck coefficient increases in the direction of the a-b in-plane but remains unchanged in the c-axis direction. Furthermore, Non-Patent Literature 3 describes that the difference ΔS becomes smaller in the Pr doping range that is employed in the YBCO thin film used for the radiation detector of Patent Literature 1. Therefore, using light with a wavelength (308 nm) that was different from light with a wavelength of 248 nm used in Patent Literature 1, the response of the Pr-doped YBCO thin film to light irradiation was actually measured by the same experimental method as in Non-Patent Literature 3. As a result, it was confirmed that the Pr-doped YBCO thin film had a smaller electromotive force that was generated by the anisotropic thermoelectric effect.
The improvement in sensitivity of the radiation detector with the Pr-doped YBCO thin film used therein is probably attributed to an increase in absorption coefficient of the YBCO thin film with respect to light with a wavelength of 248 nm due to Pr doping. That is, although the radiation detector of Patent Literature 1 is highly sensitive to light with a wavelength of 248 nm, it cannot be said that the detection sensitivity is improved in other wavelength ranges.

Radiation detector and radiation detection method


This frequency tripler system uses a cascade of integrated transistor circuit differential limiting amplifiers and tunable notch filters that can directly serve one or more outputs, such as a direct clock or local oscillator drive. With this topology, filtering is distributed between two or more stages of differential limiting amplifiers and tunable notch filters. This enables suppression of smaller fundamental tone by the differential limiting amplifiers along with the tunable notch filters and yields a strong third harmonic signal to directly drive high performance mixers and digital-to-analog converters.

Frequency multipliers, such as frequency doublers and frequency triplers, are used to generate accurate and low-noise sources for many applications in radar and synthesizers. The inherent square law nonlinearity in semiconductor diode devices can be employed for the realization of frequency doublers which are reasonable efficient. However, when compared with frequency doublers, prior frequency triplers are generally very inefficient.
By way of example, a prior art frequency tripler or third harmonic generator 10 at microwave frequencies is illustrated in FIG. 1(a). This prior art frequency tripler 10 uses an antiparallel diode pair (D1 and D2) that has odd symmetry in its nonlinear I-V characteristic. Additionally, matched pair of devices, such as this diode pair (D1 and D2), are not easily available in discrete diode device technology This type of frequency tripler 10 also is lossy (>10 dB) and needs a fair bit of drive (>10 dBm). The output of this type of frequency tripler 10 needs to be gained up before driving a mixer or a digital-analog-converter (DAC). Further, this type of frequency tripler 10 needs bandpass filters (F1 and 3F) which are lossy and also are not easy to realize in integrated circuit technology with low-loss. Overall, this type of prior art frequency tripler 10 is cumbersome to design and suffers lack of isolation between input and output ports.
Another type of prior art frequency tripler 12 with a doubler drive 14 and mixer 16 is illustrated in FIG. 1(b). The mixer 16 produces a fundamental signal and third harmonic signal at equal levels. With this type of prior art frequency tripler 12, phase cancellation or filtering of the fundamental harmonic is needed. Additionally, with this type of frequency tripler 12 the second harmonic generation and mixing are all lossy, inefficient, and require quite a bit of further amplification of the third harmonic signal and filtering with a filter 18 before being able to effectively serve one or more outputs, such as a direct clock or local oscillator drive.

Radio frequency tripler systems and methods thereof


The present invention relates to a molded product manufactured from a high heat resistant bio-based polycarbonate ester. More specifically, the molded product has excellent heat resistance, and thus can be applied to various fields such as those of automobiles, electrical electronics, displays, aviation, machines, lighting, medicine or food.

A bio-based polycarbonate ester prepared by melt polycondensation of 1,4:3,6-dianhydrohexitol with a carbonate or 1,4-cyclohexanedicarboxylate is a bioplastic that contains a bio-based monomer derived from a bio-source, that is 1,4:3,6-dianhydrohexitol. The bio-based polycarbonate ester has high transparency of PMMA (poly(methyl methacrylate)) and high heat resistance of bisphenol A (BPA) polycarbonate.
The structural features of such bio-based polycarbonate esters lie in that they do not contain BPA that causes environmental hormones and that it is also possible to improve the ductility of the molecular structure of 1,4:3,6-dianhydrohexitol by copolymerizing a 1,4-cyclohexanedicarboxylate monomer having an aliphatic ring molecular structure. In addition, it is possible to compensate the disadvantage of a carbonate bond by replacing some of the carbonate bonds with an ester bond.
Meanwhile, 1,4-dimethyl-cyclohexanedicarboxylate (DMCD) or 1,4-cyclohexanedicarboxylic acid (CHDA), which is a hydrolysis product of DMCD, has a cyclohexane ring structure in its molecule center. Thus, in the case where it is incorporated into a polymer chain, it is possible to improve not only the UV stability and weatherability of the polymer, but also such properties of the polymer as gloss retention, yellowing resistance, hydrolytic stability, corrosion resistance, and chemical resistance owing to the unique combination of flexibility and hardness in the molecular structure. If such an aliphatic ring structure as DMCD or CHDA is present in a polymer chain, secondary mechanical relaxation of the polymer due to the molecular flip motion of the aliphatic ring would take place to thereby improve the mechanical properties of the polymer, particularly to enhance the impact strength thereof.
Meanwhile, highly heat-resistant materials that have a glass transition temperature (Tg) of 170° C. or higher and can be applied to such various fields as automobiles, electronic devices, industrial lighting, and medical uses have been developed in recent years with an increased demand therefore. On the other hand, a bio-based polycarbonate ester prepared by melt polycondensation of 1,4:3,6-dianhydrohexitol with a carbonate or 1,4-cyclohexanedicarboxylate has a Tg of 170° C. or lower, which requires an enhancement in the heat resistance thereof for use as a highly heat-resistant material.
For the purpose of enhancing the heat resistance of BPA polycarbonates, copolymerized polycarbonates have been developed using various monomers with bulky and rigid structures. However, the monomers having a bulky and rigid structure are expensive because it is difficult and complicated to synthesize them. In addition, it is necessary to substitute a large amount of BPA to sufficiently enhance the heat resistance, which gives rise to a problem of impairing the excellent mechanical characteristics as well as transparency and fluidity of the BPA polycarbonates.

Molded product manufactured from high heat resistant polycarbonate ester


Film thickness measurement systems and methods are provided that utilize a signal generator having a Gunnplexer design and a resonant frequency detector to correlate the shift in resonant frequency experienced by a resonant cavity having one face abutting a test object. The shift is resonant frequency is determinative of a linear or near linear correlation between film thickness and the resonant frequency shift.

Non-destructive measurement of a film thickness is an important objective for many industries. For example, in the aircraft industry paint for functional and decorative purposes is often applied to control surfaces which may have near critical weight. Also, prior to applying a surface paint, care must be taken to make sure that an adequate amount of primer is applied. To act as a proper corrosion inhibitor the primer must typically be applied uniformly to a desired thickness. For example, in some aircraft applications, a desired thickness is between 0.4 and 1.0 mils (thousandths of an inch) to the surface of the substrate. Moreover, depending on the model of aircraft over 500 pounds of primer paint may be applied to each aircraft according to customer specifications. Since the weight and distribution of paint on control surfaces may sometimes affect the performance of the aircraft it is desirable to apply and measure the paint in a controlled means and generally to keep the thickness to a minimum. This measurement is desirable to insure that the primer is sufficiently thick for corrosion protection, but not so thick as to unnecessarily add to the weight of the airplane and affect fuel efficiency. After the primer thickness is determined to be of sufficient thickness, a top coat can be applied.
Control surface components that are made of a metallic material can have their coatings measured by several conventional commercial tools. However, increasingly more components are now manufactured from composite materials such as carbon fiber epoxy or fiberglass. These materials are difficult to measure using conventional techniques since they are only semi-conductive at best.
Another conventional alternative is to wait for the paint to dry and measure thickness indirectly by weighing the component in question. This can result in an undesirable cycle delay of, for example, up to three hours. When primer needs to be measured on a composite component, the component is first weighed and then painted. Since no direct measurement technology is available for composite materials, when the primer is suspected of being too thick or uneven, the component typically must be disassembled and repainted at significant cost and risk of damage.
Commercial ultrasonic measurement systems, such as Panametric 45L Deluxe®, are available which give some paint measurement thickness data for some types of composites. The Panametric 45L Deluxe® is useable for relatively thick coatings, but for thin coatings of paint this ultrasonic system is not sufficiently reliable to meet usual aircraft specification requirements.
Additionally, the non-destructive measurement of film thickness is of concern to other industries such as both the automotive industry and the paper production industry. In the automotive industry, the analysis of the primer paint thickness is important, for example, to determine whether additional touchup work is required for some of the exotic paint applications common to the industry. In the paper industry, maintaining a check on the uniformity of the paper with a sensor can be an important quality control issue. In both these industries, and with the increasing use of composite materials, it has become apparent that current methods of measurement that work on metallics or thick films but not on semi-conductive materials or thin films are not sufficient.
Therefore, there is a need in various industries for systems and methods that are capable of non-destructively measuring the thickness of thin film materials and verify that the thickness is within specifications.

Thickness measuring systems and methods using a cavity resonator


A multimedia presentation system includes: a display unit (120) for displaying multimedia information and an On Screen Display (OSD) menu; a control unit (110) including the multifunctional button for receiving a user operation, generating a control signal corresponding to the operation, and transmitting the control signal; and a processing unit for receiving the control signal, and performing corresponding one or more operations for the display unit according to the control signal. The operations include turning on or turning off the display unit, entering the OSD menu, and confirming one or more operations on the OSD menu. A related method implementing the system is also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to multimedia presentation systems and methods, and particularly to a multimedia presentation system with a multifunctional button, and a related multimedia presentation method.
2. Background of the invention
The development of multimedia technology has brought consumers multimedia presentation systems such as television (TV) viewing systems (e.g., cable TV, digital TV) and computers with monitors. These systems provide a plurality of functions for a user to control various parameters of the systems. Generally, a user is provided with a control unit which has many buttons. Each button corresponds to a single function, and can only control one particular parameter. The more functions provided by the multimedia presentation system, the more the number of buttons needed on the control unit.
A large number of buttons may detract from the aesthetic appearance of the control unit, and can be inconvenient for user operation. In addition, the large number of buttons adds to production costs.
Accordingly, what is need is a system and method which can achieve many functions via one single button.

Multimedia presentation system and method therefor


A relay device includes plural relay units, each having a coil for opening/closing a contact point, a base plate made of resin and having wiring metal pieces, and a control circuit mounted on the base plate for controlling current supply to the coil. The control circuit has a function of stabilizing the holding current irrespective of environmental variation. Thus, the holding current can be further reduced and heating and power consumption can be reduced without losing the function of keeping the contact point state.

A relay device achieved by modularizing plural relay units on a common wiring board (base plate) is used for a vehicle or the like, because many relays can be integrated within a small limited space. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,686,821B2 (JP-A-2002-343216) proposes a relay device, which uses a base plate as a wiring board. The based plate is provided by subjecting a lead-frame-shaped press-molding article using wiring metal pieces to insert resin molding. The end portions of these wiring metal pieces are bent and used as connection terminals.
Furthermore, JP-A-2000-83310 proposes a relay device in which a print board having an integrated circuit element (IC) mounted thereon is perpendicularly fixed to a base plate.
Recently, miniaturization of relay devices is more and more required, and the interval between the respective relay units in each relay device is narrowed. Therefore, coil heating caused by current supplied to respective coils affects adjacent relay units through this narrow interval or through wiring metal pieces of the base plate from the terminals.
It is difficult to radiate heat generated by the coils because each relay unit is surrounded by other relay units or the like. As a result, an increase in coil temperature substantially limits the miniaturization of the relay device. Furthermore, a power saving requirement to the relay device is more and more demanded year by year.
In order to solve this problem, it is considered that a coil-applied voltage is reduced after a contact point operation based on a current supply to coils has been completed, thereby reducing the heating of the coils. In this case, however, dispersion in the manufacturing of coils or an increase of temperature causes an increase of coil resistance. Thus, the coil-applied voltage (holding voltage) must be reduced in consideration of the increase of the coil resistance. As a result, for example, when current is supplied to only one relay unit or when the external temperature is low, and thus an increase of coil resistance is small, the holding voltage cannot be actually reduced although it is expected to be originally reduced to a lesser value.

Relay device having holding current stabilizing and limiting circuit


A touch panel system (1) according to one aspect of the invention includes: a stylus pen (15) including a drive circuit (26) that generates a first driving voltage based on a first code sequence and a second driving voltage based on a second code sequence, and a sensor circuit (40) that drives a pen point (38) with a multiplexed voltage obtained by multiplexing the first driving voltage and the second driving voltage; and a touch panel controller (2) that detects a position of the stylus pen (15) touching a touch panel.

A touch panel system in which an input operation on a touch panel is able to be performed when a user touches, with his/her finger or a touch pen, a touch panel which has a plurality of electrostatic capacitances formed at respective intersections of a plurality of first signal lines and a plurality of second signal lines is becoming pervasive. For example, in a touch panel system of a capacitive sensing method, change in an electrostatic capacitance in a touch panel, which is caused when a finger of a user or a touch pen makes contact with the touch panel, is detected, and a position at which the change in the electrostatic capacitance is caused in the touch panel is recognized as an input position to the touch panel.
Moreover, in these years, a technique relating to a touch panel system which includes, as a pen for touching a touch panel with, a stylus pen provided with a function of outputting a signal by driving a pen point is attracting attention. Furthermore, a technique for improving convenience of a user in a touch panel system by sending, for example, information indicating a writing pressure (writing pressure information), information indicating inclination of a stylus pen, or the like from the stylus pen to a touch panel is also being developed.
PTL 1 discloses a pointer (stylus pen) which performs transmission in association with a time difference between two codes of a code for detecting a position of the pointer and a code for indicating writing pressure information and a position detection apparatus which detects, from the time difference between the two codes transmitted from the pointer, a pressure applied to the pointer.
PTL 2 discloses a technique for transmitting writing pressure information by controlling an oscillation frequency of a stylus (stylus pen) in accordance with a pressure on a stylus end.

Touch panel system, stylus pen, and electronic device


A semiconductor silicon single crystal wafer having a flat surface plane in a crystallographic orientation slightly deviated from the (001) axis was subjected to an oxidation treatment to form an oxidized surface film to such an extent that ordered stepwise level differences are formed in the interface between the oxidized surface film and the silicon surface followed by removal of the oxidized surface film with a hydrofluoric acid solution containing hydrogen chloride and having a pH not higher than 1 in such a fashion that the oxidized surface film is dissolved away by dipping the wafer in the acid solution while keeping equivalency relative to each of the stepwise level differences so that the wafer surface can be concurrently cleaned and flattened in an atomic level as evidenced by the scanning tunneling microscopic photographs.

The present invention relates to a method for the flattening and cleaning treatment of the surface of a single crystal of semiconductor silicon, which is widely used as a substrate of various kinds of electronic devices. In particular, the invention relates to a method for the treatment of removal of the surface contamination and the atomic scale corrugation at the same time, which is formed by the removal of the oxidized surface film on single crystal silicon surface oriented toward (001) crystallographic direction.
In recent semiconductor industry, almost all the electronic devices currently under use in various kinds of electronic instruments are formed on the substrate of a single crystal of semiconductor silicon. Among these electronic devices, central processing units or integrated circuits such as so-called microchips and memory devices are produced by forming an extremely fine network of electronic circuit on the (001) surface of a silicon single crystal wafer. Along with the trend in recent years toward finer and finer patterning of the electronic circuits, the requirements for the flatness and cleanness of the silicon wafer surfaces are increasing year by year.
For example, in the case of a 4-megabyte DRAM, which is a widely used memory device in present days, the smallest line-width of the circuit pattern to be formed on the (001) surface of a silicon single crystal wafer is about 0.5 .mu.m. However the required fineness to form more integrated circuit is expected to decrease down to about 0.25 .mu.m early in the coming new century. In order to accomplish such extreme fineness of the circuit network, the flatness of the (001) surface of a silicon wafer is further improved and any trace of contamination is avoided.
As a general method for cleaning of the surface of a silicon wafer, first the surface of the silicon wafer is oxidized to form an oxidized surface film, which is then removed by dissolving away with a hydrofluoric acid solution, and at the same time the surface free bonds of the outermost silicon atoms to be exposed by the oxide removal are terminated by the hydrogen atoms. The surface of a silicon wafer as formed is inherently covered by an oxidized surface film and, when the oxidized surface film is removed, the bare silicon surface is highly active so that the bare surface is immediately oxidized by the oxygen in the atmospheric air and contaminant materials from atmospheric air adsorb to the surface resulting in an oxidized and contaminated surface.
This problem can be solved at least partly by undertaking the method as mentioned above. Dissolving the oxidized surface film by the hydrofluoric acid and at the same time terminating the surface silicon bonds by the hydrogen atoms, the silicon surface becomes resistive against oxidation and the adsorption of the contaminants even in atmospheric condition because of the extremely strong bonding between the silicon and the hydrogen atoms.
However there are two problems about the conventional treatment method by using a hydrofluoric acid solution. First, the (001) surface of the silicon is subject to etching by the hydroxyl ions contained in the hydrofluoric acid solution. Second, the (001) surface is oxidized by the oxygen dissolved and contained in the hydrofluoric acid solution during the oxide removal process and the oxidized parts by the dissolved oxygen are to be removed by the hydrofluoric acid again. Hence the flatness of the resulting (001) surface decreases because of the surface etching with the process described above. Furthermore, in the cleaning and hydrogen termination treatment for the (001) surface by using hydrofluoric acid solution, it is unable to avoid that a surface strain is produced due to the repulsive force between the hydrogen atoms in the dihydride molecules formed on the surface or the intermolecular interaction between the precursor molecules formed on the surface during the removal process of the oxidized surface film. These strain contained in the silicon surface enlarge the surface energy but, in addition, the surface energy is effectively reduced by the relaxation due to the roughness of the (001) silicon surface. When the silicon surface is flattened by removing the roughness, strain is unevenly accumulated over the surface and the areas with accumulated strain enlarge the surface energy than the areas free from strain. Then, the area containing strain is easily attacked by the hydrofluoric acid, hydroxyl ions and molecular oxygen dissolved in the solution, and resulting surface flatness decreases.
Thus, the treatment method described above is only applicable to the flattening and cleaning of the only limited area of the (001) silicon surface, and there have existed no effective ways of the surface flattening and cleaning treatment over the whole (001) silicon surface.

Method for the flattening treatment of silicon single crystal surface

Japan as represented by Director General of Agency of Industrial Science and Technology


An expandable device for wireless audio input is provided in the present invention. The expandable device for wireless audio input is compatible with an audio provider, wherein the audio provider is used for converting an audio to a wireless signal to output the wireless signal. The expandable device for wireless audio input is used for outputting an audio signal to an audio output device, wherein, the audio output device includes a first audio jack. The expandable device for wireless audio input includes a first audio jack plug, a wireless receiver and a second audio jack. The first audio jack plug is used for outputting a first audio signal. The wireless receiver receives the wireless signal outputting from the audio provider and converts the wireless signal into the first audio signal to transmit to the first audio jack plug. When a second audio signal is inputted from the second audio jack plug, the second audio signal is provided to the first audio jack plug.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a technology for audio input interface, and more particularly to an expandable device for wireless audio input.
2. Related Art
With the progress of the technology, the electronic technology has been progressed from the earliest vacuum tube and transistor to the integrated circuit chip, which has the quite wide applications. Thus, the electronic products have gradually become the indispensable essentials in the life of the modern human beings. At present, electrical product, such as DVD player, audio amplifier, and so on, has functions of audio output and audio play. In addition, some electrical product also has function for playing the inputted external audio signal, that is, the speaker of the electrical product is adopted for producing sound in response to the external audio signal input.
Electrical product with function for playing the external audio signal may include an audio process module, a control module, an audio amplifier, an audio I/O module and an audio playback device. When playing the music is required, the control module is operated to generate a control signal. The audio process module responds the control signal to decode the audio file to output a decoded audio signal, and the audio amplifier amplifies the decoded audio signal to output a driving signal adapted for driving the audio playback device, such that the audio playback device plays the music carrier by the decoded audio signal. The audio I/O module couples to the audio process module and the audio amplifier for outputting audio signal outputted from the audio process module.
When a user wants to play the external audio signal input through the electrical product, the audio I/O module can receives the external audio signal input and transmits the external audio signal input to the audio amplifier to amplify the external audio signal input to obtain the driving signal for driving the audio playback device. However, the number of the external audio jack of the electrical product is limited, and one external audio jack can only receive one external audio signal input from the external device. When pluralities of external audio signal inputs is required to be inputted in the electrical product, the first issue that the user meets is the lack of the audio jack.

Expandable device for wireless audio input


A substrate support comprises top, middle and bottom plates which are brazed together. The top plate has a top surface with a plurality of outwardly projecting mesas dispersed across a recessed pocket, a network of recessed grooves, a vacuum port terminating in the recessed grooves, and plurality of gas ports. The middle plate has a plurality of middle feedthroughs aligned to corresponding top feedthroughs of the top plate, and the bottom plate has a plurality of bottom feedthroughs aligned to the middle feedthroughs of the middle plate. The top and middle plates are joined by a first brazed bond layer and the middle and bottom plates are joined by a second brazed bond layer.

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a substrate support for holding a substrate in a substrate processing chamber.
In the fabrication of electronic circuits and displays, semiconductor, dielectric, and electrically conducting materials are formed on a substrate, such as for example, a semiconductor wafer, ceramic or glass substrate. The materials are formed for example, by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), physical vapor deposition (PVD), ion implantation, oxidation, nitridation and other such processes. Thereafter, the deposited substrate materials can be etched to form features such as gates, vias, contact holes and interconnect lines. These processes are typically carried out in a process chamber, as for example described in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,491,978, to Kalyanam et al., which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In such processes, the substrate is placed on a substrate support and exposed to a process zone in the chamber. The support often includes a heater to further regulate the temperatures of the substrate during processing. A plasma is typically formed in the process zone by inductively or capacitively coupling energy to a process gas, or by coupling microwaves to a process gas, and this plasma processes the substrate to deposit or etch material on the substrate.
As the dimensional requirements for the layers and features formed on the substrate being increasingly smaller, the temperature uniformity across the substrate has to become more and more uniform and with narrower allowable ranges of temperatures across the substrate. For example, in CVD processes, temperature variations across the substrate surface can result in the deposition of a CVD layer having varying thickness. The tolerance range for such thickness variations becomes ever smaller as the deposited layer becomes thinner. Similarly, in etching processes different etching rates across the substrate can result in the etching of features having different shapes or sizes across the substrate. Thus it is desirable for the substrate support to minimize temperature variations across the substrate that can result in processing anomalies.
The ever-tighter temperature ranges needed across the surface of the substrate during processing is difficult to achieve with conventional supports. One conventional support comprises a chuck formed of aluminum, stainless steel, or ceramic, that has a substrate receiving surface, various vacuum ports and purge or heat transfer gas conduits, and underlying support plates. The metal pedestal and underlying support plates are welded together so that welding butt joints positioned across the surface of a plate contact an adjacent plate. In one embodiment, an electron beam is then focused on a welding butt joint to weld the butt joint to an adjacent plate. However, such conventional supports often fail to provide the desired narrow temperature range across the substrate because the electron beam weld butt joints positioned around the gas and vacuum conduits are often not smoothly or continuously welded to one another. This causes vacuum pressure or purge/heat transfer gas leakage from these joints resulting in non-uniform temperatures across the substrate. The welding process also often induces localized stresses in the plates after assembly which causes the support to warp or buckle after a number of process cycles. Warping of the plates resulting in gaps between the plates that have varying thicknesses or spacing resulting in uneven heat transfer rates from the overlying substrate and through the underlying support plates.
Another problem with conventional supports arises from their heater and vacuum port configurations. Typically, a single vacuum port is used on the support surface to hold the substrate, and this provides an uneven or even weak vacuum chucking pressure across the backside of the substrate. As a result, the substrate is more likely to pop-out when there is a fluctuation in backside pressure caused by leakage of vacuum pressure from welded joints along the vacuum path in the support. Also, excessive suction force immediately adjacent to the single port can cause the substrate to warp during processing. An improperly held substrate can also have temperature variations arising from regions having poor contact or gaps with the underlying support. Supports with built-in resistance heater elements which are not properly positioned between the plates further results in non-uniform heat applied to the overlying substrate, resulting in asymmetrical processing across the substrate.
Thus it is desirable to have a substrate support capable of maintaining the substrate at uniform and consistent temperatures and within a tight range. It is also desirable to have vacuum and gas ports and conduits that minimize loss of vacuum pressure during processing, uneven vacuum force on the substrate, and leakage of gas from joints. It is further desirable to have heaters that apply a uniform heat load to the substrate during processing.

Substrate support having brazed plates and resistance heater


The present invention relates to an absorbent personal care and/or cleansing product for cosmetic and/or dermatological applications comprising at least one non-woven absorbent sheet comprising 10 to 100 wt. % lyocell fibers and 0 to 90 wt. % of at least one other natural, man-made natural and/or synthetic fiber, wherein the lyocell fiber has a fiber titer in the range from 0.5 to 3.5 dtex, wherein the absorbent sheet has a basis weight in the range from 20 to 500 g/m2, and a tensile strength in the range from 5 to 1000 N/5 cm in machine direction and in cross direction. Further, the present invention relates to the use of said absorbent product as puffs, pads, wipes, tissues, towels, toweletts, sponges, brushes, cotton balls, gloves, mitts, cotton tip swabs or as a part thereof in cosmetic and/or dermatological applications, in particular as a basis onto which a cosmetic composition and/or dermatological cleansing and/or skin care composition, in particular in the form of a lotion, is being placed and/or into which said composition is being impregnated.

Absorbent sheet products have become very popular for personal care applications for both adults and babies. Examples include face or body cleansing wipes, wipes for skin treatment, and skin conditioning wipes. These wipes or pads are nowadays commonly used to apply skin care compositions or make-up to the skin as well as for the removal of, for example, feces, urine or make-up.
In order to achieve such products which are well accepted by the consumer high standards, for example, in terms of softness, absorption and mechanical strength have to be met. Especially when used for make-up removal in rather sensitive areas like the area around the eyes the customer is very critical in the choice of products. It is, for example, immediately noticed if a pad or wipe lacks softness. Also, it is considered to be disadvantageous if an absorbent substrate tends to fray or fuzz as is for example the case with dabbers. Nevertheless, pieces of non-woven or cotton wool are still frequently used as a basis for make-up removal lotions.
In skin caring or cleansing operations active ingredients are usually not directly applied to the skin but with the use of pads or wipes to insure a more regular distribution. Also, the fingers are kept free of any oily lotions. Skin cleansing operations usually require pads and wipes which regularly take up soilage or make-up. In all cases the pad material should not irritate the skin even when repeatedly used. In addition, the absorbent capacity should meet high standards. In the recent years major efforts have been spent to improve the softness and absorbency characteristics of wipe and pad materials.
Initially, wet wipe products were made of traditional non-woven materials based on paper making technology (pulp based products). These products although accepted suffer in the softness of the fabric material. The introduction of the spunlacing non-woven technology offers products that compared to traditional paper based products are superior in terms of softness and strength. This is mainly due to the use of long soft fibers such as the rayon and PET-PP or mixtures of these fibers in the spunlacing process and also to the fact that during the spunlacing process no binder is added to the fabric.
However, even with these products, especially having higher basis weights, e.g. of about 80 g/m2 or more, it is difficult to maintain the original structure of the wipe when impregnated with, for example, soilage or lotions. Ordinary pads usually collapse upon impregnation with these compounds thereby losing their absorbency, strength and softness characteristics.
Hence there is still a need for absorbent pads or wipes for cosmetic and/or dermatological applications. As becomes apparent in the following there have been several attempts to remedy the deficiencies of existing cosmetic or dermatological wipes and pads.
According to JP 2003095868 A a make-up wipe when comprising a non-woven fabric which contains ultra-fine fibers having a single fiber fineness of less than 0.5 dtex should be capable of efficiently removing a cosmetic without irritating the skin. The ultra-fine fibers have to occupy around 20% of the surface area of the non-woven fabric.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 5,626,571 the softness of non-woven webs or fabrics can be improved by a mechanical post-treatment, for example, by incrementally stretching a non-woven web. This can be achieved by employing opposed pressure applicators having three-dimensional surfaces which at least to a certain degree are complementary to one another, or by permanently stretching an inelastic base non-woven in the cross-machine direction. However, these non-woven fabrics still exhibit a relatively low abrasion resistance and tend to fuzz during application. This disadvantage can according to WO 02/31245 be overcome with a non-woven web having a consolidation area of at least 30% which is obtained by thermal bonding. With this modification the softness of the web should not be affected.
In addition, bond patterns have been utilized to improve strength abrasion resistance in non-woven fabrics while maintaining the softness as for example disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,964,742.
Wipes having an improved softness which are less harsh on the skin compared to woven cloth or paper based pads and which are stronger than cotton based non-woven wipes shall according to EP 750 062 A1 be provided by non-woven webs having a basis weight of from 20 to 130 g/m2. These wipes have to exhibit a specific coefficient of friction and have to be produced by hydroentangling or needlepunching.
In WO 03/022116 a cosmetic sheet product for skin applications is disclosed which has high absorbent capacity for active agents, good releasability of absorbed active agents and a good combination of softness and strengths. This soft non-woven fibrous cosmetic wipe material has to contain a non-woven fibrous layer having a z-direction loft from the backing of at least 0.5 mm where the non-woven fibrous layer material is bonded to a backing layer. This z-direction loft is formed by arcuate portions between areas of bonding of the non-woven layer to the backing which arcuate portions comprise from 20 to 99% of the wipes cross-sectional wiping area. Such a wipe can be formed from a broad range of non-woven fabrics and fibers and is not any longer limited to the use of conjugate fibers having at least two crimps per inch or to non-wovens that are bonded at all fiber cross-over points as required by U.S. Pat. No. 5,605,749. According to this latter document to obtain a pad for personal or industrial use which exhibits good compression resilience, high physical strength and abrasion resistance rather complex and specific requirements have to be met.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 4,775,582 also meltblown non-woven wipes are suitable for personal care uses.
EP 750 062 A1 requires the basis weight of non-woven webs to be from 20 to 130 g/m2 and to be produced by hydroentangling or needlepunching in order to be useful as skin cleansing wipes.
From U.S. Pat. No. 5,928,973 a non-woven needlepunch fabric can be derived consisting of 60 to 90 wt.-% lyocell fiber having a length of 2.54 to 15.32 cm, 10 to 40 wt.-% polyester fiber having a length of 2.54 to 15.32 cm and 0 to 30 wt.-% of other textile fibers, wherein the lyocell fibers have a denier in the range of 0.75 to 6 prior to fibrillation and wherein the fabric has been formed by subjecting the fibers to carding, cross-lapping and needlepunching. Particularly preferred fibers comprise crimped lyocell and polyester fibers. However, the fabrics according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,928,973 are still rather harsh and tight and are lacking a sufficient degree of softness paired with a required degree of bulkiness. Fabrics as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,928,973 are therefore mainly used in automotive or battery applications, as for example described in WO 96/13071.
Also for floor cleaning wipes non-woven substrates are frequently used. In WO 03/050230 such a floor cleaning wipe is described the water-insoluble substrate of which has been impregnated with a liquid composition which is not an emulsion. The water-insoluble substrate consists of two layers wherein the first layer is a polyester non-woven fabric and the second layer is made from a needlepunched cellulose non-woven fabric.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,569,828 B1 discloses a cleaning wipe for dish washing applications wherein the water insoluble substrate consists of a top layer of coarse fibers, for example, made from polypropylene fibers, an absorbent center layer made from cellulose fibers and a bottom layer of fine fibers, for example, made of polyester fibers. Only the center absorbent layer is impregnated with a cleansing composition which also comprises a water-soluble cellulosic polymer besides a surfactant, a solubilizing agent and a preservative.
The cosmetic wipe described in WO 02/072052 is impregnated with an oil-in-water emulsion which can also be a PIT emulsion containing a C12-30 carboxylic acid mono- or diglyceride. The sheet material is preferably made from non-wovens such as wood pulp, polyolefin, polyester or polyamide fibers. Preferably, a mixture of cellulose pulp and a binding material is employed. This non-woven sheet material can be made by a variety of processes such as airlaying, wetlaying or carding. The wipes according to WO 02/072052 should be soft and also provide a softer feel after the application of the wipe without the need to have to add specific fabric softeners to either the finished product or the fibers used as raw materials.
DE 199 17 275 B4 is about a non-woven cleansing wipe made from microstaple fibers and absorbent secondary staple fibers wherein the microstaple fibers are multi-component split fibers from at least two different polymers and wherein the secondary staple fibers are made from viscose lyocell fibers according to the chemical fiber spinning process. In case such a cleansing wipe consists of more than one non-woven layer these layers can be joined by entanglement, lamination or needlepunching. These cleansing wipes exhibit a high abrasion resistance as well as a high absorbent capacity for soilage and also a high strength.
The problem related to conventional non-woven wipe materials still is that they are not well suited to maintain their structure and do collapse when impregnated with lotions or wetted. In addition, it would be desirable to have access to a non-woven which does not loose its soft touch sensation when rubbed on the skin without the need to use large amounts of material.
The object of the present invention has been to provide an absorbent product, e.g. a pad, suitable for cosmetic applications even with rather sensitive areas such as the skin around the eye which is soft and bulky, does not irritate the skin, takes up make-up efficiently and is suited to apply cosmetic and dermatologic lotions to the skin without the risk that the fiber will ravel out, and which maintains its original structure when impregnated with said lotions or when being wetted or having taken up removed make-up.
A further object of the present invention has been to provide an absorbent product which is superior in retaining fluids, such as cosmetic and dermatological lotions, and which in particular holds a liquid such as the aforementioned lotion after having been disposed onto or impregnated into the absorbent product whereby this liquid is prevented from a downward movement due to gravity.

Absorbent personal care and/or cleansing product for cosmetic and/or dermatological applications comprising at least one absorbent sheet


Determining a type of annular material in a wellbore comprises measuring an acoustic noise of one or more reference materials and thereby generating a corresponding one or more acoustic profiles, monitoring the annular material with an acoustic sensor positioned in the wellbore and thereby obtaining an acoustic response of the annular material, comparing the acoustic response with the one or more acoustic profiles using a processor communicably coupled to the acoustic sensor, and characterizing the annular material based on the comparison of the acoustic response and the one or more acoustic profiles.

Completing an oil or gas well often includes a cementing procedure to allow well casings lining a wellbore to be bonded to the formation. During this procedure, cement slurry is pumped downhole into the wellbore casing and subsequently returned uphole via a wellbore annulus defined between the wellbore casing and a wall of the wellbore. The cement slurry displaces other fluids as it travels in the casing and the annulus. In reverse-cementing operations, the cement is instead pumped into the annulus and then back up to the surface location via the interior of the casing.
A successful placement of cement slurry within the wellbore annulus covers subterranean fluid zones for efficiently and safely producing hydrocarbons from the well. After placement, the cement slurry undergoes a hydration reaction during which the cement slurry transforms from a liquid state to a solid state. Monitoring the placement of the cement slurry and its transition from liquid to solid may help determine when the cement slurry has cured and is ready for subsequent well operation. This could result in good cement quality, enhanced mud removal, increased well integrity, and in time and cost savings.
Solidified cement slurry forms a cement sheath, which is subjected to stresses from the subsequent well operations. Monitoring the integrity of the cement sheath after the cement slurry has cured also helps produce the well safely and economically, and helps in modifying the downhole operations to optimize well production. For example, a hydraulic fracturing operation can be monitored, assessed, and modified as needed to ensure correct placement of the fractures. As another example, if water is detected in the near wellbore zone, then perforations close to the zone may be automatically shut-off in a total automatic completion installation.
Presently, no technique is available for downhole monitoring of the drilling fluid removal from the annulus, cement slurry placement and subsequent well integrity. Some of the existing techniques disclose placing electronic devices behind casing to monitor fluid and cement flow during and after a cementing operation. In these techniques, the electronic devices obtain measurement data from radio frequency identification (RFID) tags dispersed in cement or mud as these fluids flow in the annulus. In other cases, the electronic devices measure the dielectric properties of fluids flowing in the annulus.
These measurements are based on emitting high frequency electromagnetic (EM) wave energy into the fluids in the annulus. The high frequency EM waves experience high attenuation in wellbore fluids, such as water-based mud and cement slurry. Consequently, the depth of investigation of devices using high frequency EM waves is typically shallow. Furthermore, to overcome the energy loss, more power is required to transmit the EM energy into fluids to increase the depth of investigation. Since there is no readily available energy source behind casing, this power requirement constrains the design and operation of active electronic devices behind casing.

Method and apparatus for identifying fluids behind casing


A ram air inlet includes a channel with an intake in a wing leading edge, front and rear flaps arranged in the channel for selectively closing or opening the channel, and an actuator connected to the flaps. A front end of the front flap is pivotably connected by a fixed bearing to an aircraft structure adjacent the intake. A rear end of the rear flap is moveably and pivotably mounted to the aircraft structure via a movable bearing arrangement, e.g. a pivot bearing linearly movable in guide tracks, or a flexible lever connected to a fixed pivot bearing, or a swinging bearing pivotably connected to a fixed bearing. The opposite ends of the flaps are pivotably connected to each other by a third bearing. The actuator drives the third bearing to pivot the front flap between opened and closed positions, while the rear flap pivots and moves in the wing chord and/or thickness directions.

Conventional passenger transport aircraft typically include an air conditioning system including one or more air conditioning plants or packs, commonly based on an air cycle process, in which highly compressed process air, namely bleed air from a propulsion engine or an auxiliary power unit (APU) engine, is compressed and expanded, while being cooled by heat exchange at one or more stages. Through this air cycle, the process air is cooled and dehumidified. The cooling of the process air through a heat exchanger during the air cycle may, among other things, be carried out in a main or primary heat exchanger operating as a ram air heat exchanger. In this regard, cooler ambient air from the outside environment surrounding the aircraft flows through one set of passages of this heat exchanger, while removing heat from the hot process air that flows through the other set of passages of this heat exchanger. This cool ambient air is typically ram air entering a ram air intake and flowing through a ram air channel to the main or primary heat exchanger. The ram air intake is typically arranged on the outside fuselage at a location exhibiting an increased ram or stagnation air pressure due to the apparent incident wind of the oncoming air during flight of the aircraft. After passing through the heat exchanger, the ram air is then exhausted through an outlet channel that exits the aircraft fuselage at an area of relatively lower pressure in comparison to the stagnation or ram pressure existing at the ram air intake.
In many conventional aircraft types, the air conditioning packs are installed in the lower portion of the aircraft fuselage, or particularly in the area of the so called "belly fairing", such as in the Airbus A319, A320, A321, A330 and A340 aircraft. To provide the cooling ram air to the air conditioning packs located in the belly fairing, these aircraft typically include ram air inlets or intake openings in the lower belly area of the aircraft fuselage.
In the planning and construction of aircraft, it is desired or intended to move the air conditioning packs from the location in the belly fairing to a location at the sides of the interior of the fuselage, near the wing roots. Especially with such a location of the air conditioning packs, the previously existing location of ram air inlets is not optimal, for example due to long ram air channels that would be required. There is thus a need to provide an arrangement of ram air inlets at exterior locations of the aircraft subjected to the highest stagnation or ram air pressure of the outside ambient air during flight of the aircraft, while also achieving the shortest and most direct configuration of the ram air channels leading to the air conditioning pack heat exchangers, in order to reduce the overall weight, while increasing the cooling efficiency and the maximum cooling capacity of the air conditioning system. However, on the other hand, a location and configuration of the ram air inlets must ensure that the overall aerodynamic resistance, e.g. the total coefficient of drag, of the aircraft is not significantly increased by these ram air inlets.
It is further known to provide inlet closure flaps for selectively opening or closing the ram air intake openings so as to control the inlet flow of ram air. For example, in the Airbus A320 aircraft, it is known to arrange only a single individual inlet flap in the ram air intake. On the other hand, in the Airbus A330 and A340 aircraft, it is known to provide both an inlet flap and an outlet flap for controlling the flow of the ram air.
It has been found that the existing ram air inlet flap arrangements still leave room for improvement, i.e. for optimizing the airflow control and flow characteristics of the ram air through the air intake channel, as well as the total air resistance or drag generated by the air inlet arrangement in the open position, the closed position, and any intermediate position.

Aircraft ram air inlet with multi-member closure flap


A furniture item includes a main body with an electrical device installed thereon. A power line electrically connects the electrical device to an external power source and is concealed in a power line channel formed in one or more of the walls of the main body. A switch may be connected to the main body and electrically connected to the electrical device, for controlling the electrical device. A main body door moveable from a first position to a second position may trigger the switch to enable and disable electrical connection between the external power source and the electrical device.

As living standards improve, the demand for a higher quality of life is steadily increasing. Traditional furniture can no longer meet people's requirements in daily life, giving way to more and more intelligent furniture in everyday life. For example, some furniture items, such as sofas and beds, are equipped with electrical devices to perform functions such as audio playback and lighting. The electrical device added to the furniture item can use an external power source to power the electrical device with the use of an exposed, external power line that electrically connects the electrical device to an external power source such as a wall socket. The exposed power line affects the overall visual appearance of the furniture item and use of the electrical device can be inconvenient due to the presence of the exposed power line. Further, use of the exposed power line over time can result in damage to the power line and corresponding risks of electric shock, damage to the electrical device, and an increased risk of electrical fire.
In view of the above deficiencies of exposed power lines used for providing power to electrical appliances in furniture items, a need exists for a furniture item equipped with an electrical appliance and concealed power line channel for safely maintaining the power line inside the furniture item and facilitating connection between the electrical appliance and an external power source without sacrificing aesthetics.

Furniture item with concealed power line


An evaporator 10 for evaporating a liquid includes a plurality of harps 20 disposed within a duct or chamber such that a heated fluid flow 22 (e.g., heated gas or flue gas) passes through each successive row of harps 20 of the evaporator 10. Each of the harps 20 includes a lower header 24, a plurality of lower tubes 26, an intermediate equalizing chamber 28, a plurality of upper tubes 30, and an upper header 32. The lower tubes 30 are in fluid communication with the lower header 24 and extend upward vertically from the lower header. The upper ends of the lower tubes 26 are in fluid communication with the equalizing chamber 28. The upper tubes 30 are in fluid communication with the equalizing chamber 28 and extend upward vertically from the equalizing chamber. The upper ends of the upper tubes 30 are in fluid communication with the upper header 32.

Current once-through evaporator technology may be employed with large HRSGs to provide two stages of heat exchange. The first stage produces steam/water mixture. The second stage evaporates the water to dryness and superheats the steam. In general, each stage of the HRSG includes a parallel array of heat transfer tubes where internal mass flow rate is controlled by buoyancy forces, and is proportional to the heat input to each individual tube. One type of evaporator uses vertical tubes arranged in a sequential array of individual tube bundles, where each tube bundle (or harp) has a row of tubes that are transverse to the flow of the hot gas. The individual harps are arranged in the direction of gas flow, so that each downstream harp absorbs heat from gas of a lower temperature than the harp immediately upstream. In this way, the heat absorbed by each harp in the direction of gas flow is less than the heat absorbed by the upstream harp. This type of evaporator is similar to that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,189,491 entitled "Steam Generator", filed on Jun. 14, 1999, which is incorporated herein by reference.
HRSGs using this principle require the distribution of a water/steam mixture (two-phase flow) from the outlet of a primary evaporator into a secondary evaporator, where dry-out and superheat takes place. The secondary evaporator is formed from one or more harp bundles with multiple inlets on the bottom header. Each inlet provides two-phase flow through a branch connection into the lower header. Each inlet to a header of the secondary evaporator receives two-phase flow from a mixing device downstream of the primary evaporator.
Two-phase flow from one inlet connection is distributed along the length of a portion of the header to outlet tubes in the upper portion of the header. Each outlet tube is an individual evaporator tube in the respective row of the secondary evaporator.
It is known by those skilled in the art that separation of two-phase flow can occur in the bottom header of the secondary evaporator, leading to non-uniform distribution of water/steam mixture into the secondary evaporator heat exchanger tubes within a particular tube row (or harp). For equal mass flow rates, in tubes receiving a higher steam fraction, the water/steam mixture will evaporate to dryness sooner, leading to higher degree of superheat at the exit of the individual tube. In tubes receiving a higher water fraction, the water/steam mixture will evaporate to dryness later, leading to lower degree of superheat at the exit of the individual tube. The thermal expansion of an individual evaporator tube is determined by the integral of the temperature rise of the internal fluid along the length of the tube.
The integrated average temperature of the tube with the higher superheat at the outlet will be higher that the integrated average temperature of tube with lower superheat at the outlet. When adjacent tubes in an individual harp inlet header receive different water/steam fractions, the integrated average of the tube temperature will be different for each tube. Since the tubes are constrained at the upper and lower end by being joined to a common header at both ends, differential temperature in adjacent or nearby tubes will cause a differential thermal stress to develop in the tubes. During startup and load ramps, the non-uniform flow distribution in the inlet headers of the secondary evaporator will vary in location and degree. It has been demonstrated that the location of high differential thermal stress will change during these conditions. An individual tube may transition from a state of no differential thermal stress, to a state of high stress during startup or load ramps. This change of stress has been shown to lead to an alternating stress at the tube joint at the branch connection. When the magnitude of this stress is sufficiently high, and when the number of occurrences reaches a predictable amount, the tube joint is susceptible to failure from low-cycle fatigue.
The evaporator of the present invention applies the principles of an equalizing chamber within the first and/or second stage evaporator to mitigate the effects of the two-phase flow separation at the inlet of the second stage of the evaporator, as will be described in greater detail.

Continuous steam generator with equalizing chamber


A gsprite engine circuit reads a display list identifying gsprite image layers to be composited for display, retrieves gsprite image data from an external memory, and transforms the gsprite data to display device coordinates. The gsprite image layers represent independently rendered graphical objects in a graphics scene. The gsprite engine can simulate the motion of the graphical objects in a sequence of display images by performing affine transformations on the gsprite image layers. The interface to the gsprite engine circuit includes the display list and gsprite header blocks. The display list enumerates the gsprites to be composited as a display image. The header blocks describe a gsprite transform, which can be an affine transform, used to transform gsprites to display device coordinates. The header blocks also provide an array of references to image blocks or "chunks" comprising the gsprite.

With the wide-spread use of computers in all aspects of modern life, there is an increasing demand to improve the human-machine interface through the use of visual information. Advances in graphical software and hardware have already improved the human-machine interface drastically. Interactive graphics such as windowing environments for desk-top computers, for example, have improved the ease of use and interactivity of computers drastically and are common-place today. As the price-performance ratio of hardware drops, the use of computer generated graphics and animation will become even more pervasive. Unfortunately, the cost of producing truly interactive and realistic effects has limited its application. There is a need, therefore, for new graphics processing techniques and architectures that provide more interactive and realistic effects at a lower cost.
Although there are numerous ways to categorize graphics processing, one common approach is to describe an image in terms of the dimensions of the objects that it seeks to represent. For example, a graphics system may represent objects in two dimensions (e.g., having x and y coordinates); in which case the graphics are said to be "two-dimensional", and three dimensions (e.g., having x, y, and z coordinates), in which case the graphics are said to be "three-dimensional."
Since display devices such as cathode ray tubes (CRTs) are two-dimensional (2-D), the images displayed by computer graphic systems are generally 2-D. As discussed in greater detail below, however, if the computer maintains a graphical model representing the imaged object in three-dimensional space, the computer can alter the displayed image to illustrate a different perspective of the object in 3-D space. In contrast, although a 2-D graphic image can be transformed prior to display (e.g., scaled, or translated), the computer can not readily depict the object's appearance from a different perspective in 3-D space.
The increasing ability of modern computers to efficiently handle 2-D and, particularly, 3-D graphics has resulted in a growing variety of applications for computers, as well as fundamental changes in the interface (UI) between computers and their users. The availability of 3-D graphics is becoming increasingly important to the growth of entertainment related applications including production quality film animation tools, as well as lower resolution games and multimedia products for the home. A few of the many other areas touched by 3-D graphics include education, video conferencing, video editing, interactive user interfaces, computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM), scientific and medical imaging, business applications, and electronic publishing.
A graphics processing system may be thought of as including an application model, application program, graphics sub-system, as well as the conventional hardware and software components of a computer and its peripherals.
The application model represents the data or objects to be displayed, assuming of course that the image processing is based upon a model. The model includes information concerning primitives such as points, lines, and polygons that define the objects' shapes, as well as the attributes of the objects (e.g., color). The application program controls inputs to, and outputs from, the application model--effectively acting as a translator between the application model and graphics sub-system. Finally, the graphics sub-system is responsible for passing user inputs to the application model and is responsible for producing the image from the detailed descriptions stored by the application model.
The typical graphics processing system includes a physical output device which is responsible for the output or display of the images. Although other forms of display devices have been developed, the predominant technology today is referred to as raster graphics. A raster display device includes an array of individual points or picture elements (i.e., pixels), arranged in rows and columns, to produce the image. In a CRT, these pixels correspond to a phosphor array provided on the glass faceplate of the CRT. The emission of light from each phosphor in the array is independently controlled by an electron beam that "scans" the array sequentially, one row at a time, in response to stored information representative of each pixel in the image. Interleaved scanning of alternate rows of the array is also a common technique in, for example, the television environment. The array of pixel values that map to the screen is often referred to as a bitmap or pixmap.
One problem associated with raster graphics devices is the memory required to store the bitmap for even a single image. For example, the system may require 3.75 megabytes (MB) of random access memory to support a display resolution of 1280.times.1024 (i.e., number of pixel columns and rows) and 24 bits of color information per pixel. This information, which again represents the image of a single screen, is stored in a portion of the computer's display memory known as a frame buffer.
Another problem with conventional raster graphics devices such as CRTs is the relatively quick decay of light emitted by the device. As a result, the display must typically be "refreshed" (i.e., the raster rescanned) at a rate approaching 60 Hz or more to avoid "flickering" of the image. This places a rigorous demand on the image generation system to supply image data at a fixed rate. Some systems address this problem by employing two frame buffers, with one of the buffers being updated with pixmap information corresponding to subsequent image frame, while the other buffer is being used to refresh the screen with the pixmap for the current image frame.
The demands placed upon the system are further exacerbated by the complexity of the information that often must be processed to render an image from the object stored by the application model. For example, the modeling of a three-dimensional surface is, in itself, a complex task. Surface modeling is performed by the application model and may involve the use of polygon meshes, parametric surfaces, or quadric surfaces. While a curved surface can be represented by a mesh of planar polygons, the "smoothness" of its appearance in the rendered image will depend both upon the resolution of the display and the number of individual polygons that are used to model the surface. The computations associated with high resolution modeling of complex surfaces based upon polygon meshes can be extremely resource intensive.
As intimated above, there is a demand to produce more realistic and interactive images. The term, "real-time," is commonly used to describe interactive and realistic image processing systems. In a "real-time" system, the user should perceive a continuous motion of objects in a scene. In a video game having real-time capabilities, the active characters and view point should respond with minimal delay to a user's inputs, and should move smoothly.
To produce such real-time effects, an image rendering system has to generate a new image at a sufficiently high rate such that the user perceives continuous motion of objects in a scene. The rate at which a new image is computed for display is referred to as the "computational" rate or the "computational frame" rate. The computation rate needed to achieve realistic effects can vary depending on how quickly objects move about the scene and how rapidly the viewing perspective changes. For a typical application, a real-time graphics system recomputes a new image at least twelve times a second to generate a series of images that simulate continuous motion. For high-quality animation applications, however, the computational rate must be significantly higher.
Another critical issue for real-time systems is transport delay. Transport delay is the time required to compute and display an image in response to input from the user, i.e. motion of a joystick to move a character in a scene. To the extent transport delay time is noticeable to a user, "real-time" interactivity is impaired. Ideally, the user should not perceive any transport delay. However, in practice there is always some delay attributed to rendering objects in a scene in response to new inputs and generating a display image. Improvements in real-time interactivity are highly desirable without discarding data, which can interfere with image quality.
As introduced above, conventional graphics systems typically include a frame buffer. To generate an image, the graphic system renders all of the objects in a scene and stores the resulting image in this frame buffer. The system then transfers the rendered image data to a display. In a conventional graphics architecture, the entire frame buffer is erased and the scene is re-rendered to create a next frame's image. In this type of system, every object must be redrawn for each frame because the frame buffer is cleared between frames. Every object therefore is updated at the same rate, regardless of its actual motion in the scene or its importance to the particular application.
This conventional architecture presents several hurdles to producing highly realistic and interactive graphics. First, every object in a scene for a particular frame is rendered with the same priority at the same update rate. As such, objects in the background that have little detail and are not moving are re-rendered at the same rate as objects in the foreground that are moving more rapidly and have more surface detail. As a result, processing and memory resources are consumed in re-rendering background objects even though these background objects do not change significantly from frame to frame.
Another drawback in this conventional architecture is that every object in the scene is rendered at the same resolution. In effect, the rendering resources consumed in this type of approach are related to the size of the screen area that the object occupies rather than the importance of the object to the overall scene. An example will help illustrate this problem. In a typical video game, there are active characters in the foreground that can change every frame, and a background that rarely changes from frame to frame. The cost in terms of memory usage for generating the background is much greater than generating the active characters because the background takes up more area on the screen. Image data must be stored for each pixel location that the background objects cover. For the smaller, active characters, however, image data is generated and saved for only the pixels covered by the smaller characters. As a result, the background occupies more memory even though it has lesser importance in the scene. Moreover, in a conventional architecture the entire background has to be re-rendered for every frame, consuming valuable processing resources.
One way to address some of the difficulties outlined above is to use a hardware-based animation technique called "sprites". A sprite is a two-dimensional image in a small rectangular region of memory that is mixed with the rest of the frame buffer memory at the video level. The location of a sprite at any time is specified in registers in the frame buffer. To move the sprite about the screen, the system alters the values in these registers. The sprites can either hide the frame buffer values at each pixel, or can be blended with them. Sprites can be used in animation by moving or scaling the sprite or sprites on top of a background image. One of the most popular uses of sprites is in video games, where a scene is animated by moving or scaling sprites over a fixed background.
While sprites provide a less costly method to achieve animation, they do not adequately address the problems associated with rendering 3-D objects in a real-time graphics system outlined above. The conventional use of sprites to generate a display image is limited because the sprites only represent static two-dimensional images. The two-dimensional is pre-defined, cannot be updated (it is static or "fixed"), and is merely scaled or translated to achieve a simple form of animation. Some sprite processing techniques partially represent the depth dimension by allowing sprites to overlap each other. Even if the sprites are overlapped, they can not simulate the effect of a three-dimensional object moving in three dimensions.
Because conventional sprites are limited to pre-defined images, they cannot achieve the more compelling attributes of objects moving in three dimensions in a three-dimensional scene. Consider an example of a wobbling cylinder moving from the foreground to the background of a graphics scene. A single, two-dimensional sprite image cannot accurately represent the motion of the cylinder because simple scaling and translation of a single two-dimensional image cannot capture all of the positional changes to the projection of the cylinder into two-dimensional screen space as it moves throughout the scene. A sprite of a side view of the cylinder could be translated or scaled, but this sprite could not represent complex motion or wobbling of the cylinder.
Conventional sprites are limited in this way because they do not represent corresponding 3-D graphical objects that can be re-rendered. Stated another way, conventional sprites are not updated or re-rendered in the same way that 3-D graphical objects in a graphics scene are re-rendered to generate frames of animation. Thus, while conventional sprites provide a simpler and less expensive technique to achieve animation, they do not provide the more compelling and realistic effect of a rendered 3-D object.

Processor for controlling the display of rendered image layers and method for controlling same


This disclosure describes techniques for operating a client device to communicate with a wireless access point to validate data within a frame by comparing channel quality metrics and duration metrics to thresholds. Information received within a validity window may be treated as correctly received even if the frame fails a subsequent verification process or if reception of the frame is terminated prior to the end of the frame.

A wireless network may comprise an access point and at least one client device. The access point may be coupled to a network, such as the Internet, and enable the client device to communicate via the network (and/or communicate with other devices coupled to the access point). Generally, the wireless access point may send data to the at least one client device in the form of one or more frames. To reduce power consumption, a client device may operate in a low power consumption mode (e.g., a sleep mode) in some circumstances, such as when the client device is not being used for communications (e.g., with the access point). Under the IEEE 802.11X (e.g., 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n) standards for WI-FI communications, a client device may periodically awake from a low power consumption mode, and receive a beacon from an access point. The beacon may include information regarding present or future communications between the client device and the access point. According to one example, the beacon may include information such as a traffic indication map (TIM) and/or a delivery traffic identification message (DTIM) information elements (IE) that indicates whether frames of data are waiting to be communicated to the client device. Further, the beacon may also contain other information pertinent to the operation of the network, delivered as an IE or in other suitable manners.
To provide further power saving advantages, techniques have been developed to maximize time spent in low power mode, allowing the device to return to a low power mode of operation before an entire beacon is received by the client device. For example, a client device may awake from a low power mode of operation to receive a first portion of a beacon. As discussed above, a portion of the beacon may include information related to communications with the access point, such as an indication of whether one or more frames of data are forthcoming from the access point (e.g., waiting to be sent to the client device). In some embodiments, this information is contained in the DTIM. If the information from the access point indicates no frames of data are forthcoming, the client device preferably returns to a low power consumption mode of operation before receiving subsequent portions of the beacon. As will be appreciated, such techniques allow the client device to spend a greater portion of time in low power mode, reducing the overall power consumption associated with access point communications. Such strategies are generally referred to herein as early beacon termination (EBT) techniques and are known in the art.
Despite the power saving advantages represented by EBT techniques, it would be desirable to optimize certain performance aspects. Typically, wireless communication devices are designed so that important system parameters will not be updated on the basis of a received frame unless the integrity of that frame can be confirmed. One example is the time synchronization function (TSF) used to keep the clocks on the client device and the access point coordinated. Since synchronization is critical to proper functioning, the client device will not update its TSF unless there is reasonable confidence in the validity of the timing information transmitted by the access point. However if the client device is not able to validate the TSF for a sufficient period of time, clock drift that affects each device may result in the client device being out of synchronization with the access point, impairing performance. Another important system parameter relates to coordinated channel switching involving the access point and a client device. The access point may indicate an imminent switch to a different channel, such as to avoid interference, using the channel switch announcement (CSA) IE. Since transmission will be interrupted if the client device switches channels erroneously, it is generally desirable to have a high degree of confidence in the validity of the CSA IE before implementing a switch.
Positioning of the DTIM within the beacon may not be mandated by the wireless specifications, but often occurs relatively early and before validation information which typically comes towards the end of transmissions. In the IEEE 802.11X protocols, for example, frames end with a frame check sequence (FCS) IE that allows the client device to verify the integrity of the received frame. Similarly, other network information may also be contained in the beacon and positioned at various point relative to the FCS. Accordingly, when a period time elapses during which the access point has no frames to transmit to the client device, EBT will result in the client device returning to low power mode before the FCS. In turn, information transmitted by the access point cannot be verified and parameters such as TSF and CSA may not be updated. System parameters relying on other network information may be similarly affected.
Another aspect of the impact of EBT strategies results from the architecture of the beacon frame. As noted earlier, IEEE 802.11X protocols generally result in the DTIM occurring relatively early in the beacon frame. This is followed by a variable number of additional IEs and finally by the FCS. As a practical matter, channel conditions change constantly in atypical wireless communication system. Thus, there are situations in which the channel is good enough for valid reception during the DTIM, but the quality will erode over the successive IEs and ultimately fail the FCS. This may occur when the time between the DTIM and the FCS exceeds the coherence time of the channel or if there is a deep fade in the signal during the period. While the former may be equalized to some extent by efficient pilot interpolation, which is optionally applied due to varying degrees of implementation complexities, the latter would certainly result in irrecoverable errors and lead to FCS failures. Under prior EBT mechanisms, the client device simply discards the frame even though the DTIM was set because the channel has degraded to the point that the FCS fails, even though the DTIM or other network information may have been received while the channel was still valid. Correspondingly, under such situations, the performance of the client device will suffer since it is disregarding valid data, such as missing the opportunity to respond to the access point with a power save poll (PS-POLL) to enable the access point to deliver waiting frames to the client device or failing to update important system parameters.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a wireless communication system that features the power saving benefits represented by an EBT function while minimizing the impact on performance. To that end, it would be desirable for a client device to be able to update important system parameters even when the client device is not receiving a beacon transmission in its entirety. It would also be desirable to provide such a wireless communication system that can utilize a valid DTIM or other IE even when the channel degrades over time and causes the FCS to fail. This disclosure is directed to systems and methods that accomplish these and other goals.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System and method for information verification based on channel awareness