Photoluminescent phosphor powders and a method for making phosphor powders. The phosphor powders have a small particle size, narrow particle size distribution and are substantially spherical. The method of the invention advantageously permits the economic production of such powders. The invention also relates to improved devices, such as display devices and lighting elements, incorporating the phosphor powders.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to photoluminescent phosphor powders, methods for producing photoluminescent phosphor powders and devices such as flat panel displays and lighting elements incorporating the powders. In particular, the present invention is directed to photoluminescent phosphor powders having well controlled chemical and physical properties. The present invention also relates to a method for producing such powders by spray-conversion.
2. Description of Related Art
Phosphors are compounds that are capable of emitting useful quantities of radiation in the visible and/or ultraviolet spectrums upon excitation of the material by an external energy source. Due to this property, phosphor compounds have long been utilized in cathode ray tube (CRT) screens for televisions and similar devices. Typically, inorganic phosphor compounds include a host material doped with a small amount of an activator ion. Phosphor powders, particularly photoluminescent phosphor powders, are used in fluorescent lighting elements including common industrial lights and backlights for display screens.
More recently, phosphor powders have been utilized in many advanced display devices that provide illuminated text, graphics or video output, including flat panel display devices such as plasma displays. Plasma display panels utilize a gas trapped between transparent layers that emits ultraviolet light when excited by an electric field. The ultraviolet light stimulates phosphors on the screen to emit visible light. Plasma displays are particularly useful for larger displays, such as greater than about 20 diagonal inches.
In addition, photoluminescent phosphor powders can also be used as a means of identifying an article of manufacture, such as a confidential document, currency, postage, and the like.
There are a number of requirements for phosphor powders, which can vary dependent upon the specific application of the powder. Generally, phosphor powders should have one or more of the following properties: high purity; high crystallinity; small particle size; narrow particle size distribution; spherical morphology; controlled surface chemistry; homogenous distribution of the activator ion; good dispersibility; and low porosity. The proper combination of the foregoing properties will result in a phosphor powder with high luminescent intensity and long lifetime that can be used in many applications. It is also advantageous for many applications to provide phosphor powders that are surface passivated or coated, such as with a thin, uniform dielectric or semiconducting coating.
Numerous methods have been proposed for producing phosphor particles. One such method is referred to as the solid-state method. In this process, the phosphor precursor materials are mixed in the solid state and are heated so that the precursors react and form a powder of the phosphor material. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,925,703 by Kasenga et al. discloses a method for the production of a manganese activated zinc silicate phosphor (ZnSiO4:Mn). The method includes a step of dry blending a mixture of starting components such as zinc oxide, silicic acid and manganese carbonate and firing the blended mixture at about 1250° C. The resulting phosphor is broken up or crushed into smaller particles. Solid-state routes, and many other production methods, utilize such a grinding step to reduce the particle size of the powders. The mechanical grinding damages the surface of the phosphor, forming dead layers which inhibit the brightness of the phosphor powders.
Phosphor powders have also been made by liquid precipitation. In these methods, a solution which includes phosphor particle precursors is chemically treated to precipitate phosphor particles or phosphor particle precursors. These particles are typically calcined at an elevated temperature to produce the phosphor compound. The particles must often be further crushed, as is the case with solid-state methods.
In yet another method, phosphor particle precursors or phosphor particles are dispersed in a solution which is then spray dried to evaporate the liquid. The phosphor particles are thereafter sintered in the solid state at an elevated temperature to crystallize the powder and form a phosphor. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,948,527 by Ritsko et al. discloses a process for producing Y2O3:Eu phosphors by dispersing yttrium oxide in a europium citrate solution to form a slurry which is then spray dried. The spray dried powder was then converted to an oxide by firing at about 1000° C. for two hours and then at 1600° C. for about four hours. The fired powder was then lightly crushed and cleaned to recover useful phosphor particles.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,644,193 by Matsuda et al. discloses phosphor powders having an average particle size of up to 20 μm. The phosphors can include rare earth oxides, rare earth oxysulfides and tungstates. The particles are produced by fusing phosphor particles in a thermal plasma and rapidly cooling the particles.
Despite the foregoing, there remains a need for photoluminescent phosphor powders with high luminescent intensity that include particles having a substantially spherical morphology, narrow particle size distribution, a high degree of crystallinity and good homogeneity. The powder should have good dispersibility and the ability to be fabricated into thin layers having uniform thickness. Phosphor powders having these properties will be particularly useful in flat panel displays, such as plasma display panels.

Photoluminescent phosphor powders, methods for making phosphor powders and devices incorporating same


A film wrapping machine comprises a pair of diametrically opposed film roll mounting and dispensing carriage assemblies, mounted upon a rotary ring member, for simultaneously dispensing wrapping film. A vertically movable frame member, upon which the rotary ring member is rotatably mounted, is effectively moved at a speed of ascent or descent that is approximately twice the speed as that of a vertically movable frame member incorporated within a conventional film wrapping machine so as to permit the dual film roll mounting and dispensing carriage assemblies to dispense the wrapping or packaging film within a time frame that is approximately twice as fast as that of the conventional film wrapping machine and yet in a slightly overlapped mode as desired for packaging purposes.

Film wrapping or packaging machines or apparatus, for wrapping articles, packages, or palletized loads within wrapping film, are of course well known in the art. Examples of such film wrapping machines or apparatus are disclosed within U.S. Pat. No. 6,195,961 which issued to Turfan on Mar. 6, 2001, U.S. Pat. No. 5,787,691 which issued to Turfan on Aug. 4, 1998, U.S. Pat. No. 5,517,807 which issued to Morantz on May 21, 1996, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,587,796 which issued to Haloila on May 13, 1986. As disclosed within FIG. 1, which substantially corresponds to FIG. 1 of U.S. Pat. No. 6,195,961, and which is representative of the conventional film wrapping or packaging machines, a film wrapping or packaging machine is generally indicated by the reference character 10 and is seen to comprise a four-post upstanding framework 12 through which extends a conveyor 14 for conveying articles, packages, or palletized loads, to be wrapped or packaged, to a wrapping station 16 which is located substantially at the center of the region or area which is peripherally defined by means of the upstanding posts of the framework 12.
An upper frame member 18, vertically movable in a reciprocating manner with respect to the framework 12, rotatably supports a ring or circular track member 20 upon which is mounted a plastic film roll mounting and dispensing assembly or carriage 22 upon which is mounted a roll 24 of plastic wrapping film. Consequently, when the upper frame member 18 is moved in vertically upward and downward directions, and the ring or track member 20 is rotated with respect to the vertically movable upper frame member 18, film from the film roll 24, mounted upon the film roll mounting and dispensing assembly or carriage 22, can be withdrawn therefrom and applied onto the articles, packages, or palletized loads which are to be wrapped within film packaging material and which are disposed or located at the wrapping station 16.
While the aforenoted conventional film wrapping or packaging machine is satisfactory from an overall operational point of view, it is desirable to effectively shorten the cyclic time required to wrap or package each article, package, or palletized load within the wrapping or packaging film. In addition, it is also desirable to effectively lengthen or extend the service life of the roll of wrapping or packaging film such that the need to replace the roll of wrapping or packaging film occurs less often. In this manner, more articles, packages, or palletized loads can effectively be wrapped or packaged within wrapping or packaging film dispensed from a particular roll of wrapping or packaging film than has been previously possible whereby more continuous article, package, or palletized load wrapping or packaging operations can be performed and completed without the need to replenish depleted rolls of wrapping or packaging film which necessitates a predetermined amount of operational downtime through means of a suitable wrapping or packaging film roll exchange operation.

Film wrapping machine simultaneously utilizing two film carriage assemblies


Methods and apparatuses to obtain an ordered set of satellite positioning system (SPS) satellites, in view of a mobile SPS receiver, via one or two-way communication with the mobile SPS receiver. The mobile SPS receiver receives, in one embodiment, an ordered set of SPS satellites from a cellular transmission site. The ordered set of satellites are those in view of the mobile SPS receiver at a given time; such that the mobile SPS receiver may search for the SPS satellites according to an order of the ordered set of SPS satellites. The order of the ordered set may be obtained by various methods one of which is by minimizing the geometric dilution of precision (GDOP) Satellite; health data may be included in the transmission.

GPS receivers normally determine their position by computing times of arrival of signals transmitted simultaneously from a multiplicity of GPS (or NAVSTAR) satellites. These satellites transmit, as part of their message, both satellite positioning data as well as data on clock timing, so-called "ephemeris" data. The process of searching for and acquiring GPS signals, reading the ephemeris data for a multiplicity of satellites and computing the location of the receiver from this data is time consuming, often requiring several minutes. In many cases, this lengthy processing time is unacceptable and, furthermore, greatly limits battery life in miniaturized portable applications.
GPS receiving systems have two principal functions. The first is the computation of the pseudoranges to the various GPS satellites, and the second is the computation of the position of the receiver using these pseudoranges and satellite timing and ephemeris data. The pseudoranges are simply the times of arrival of satellite signals measured by a local clock. This definition of pseudorange is sometimes also called code phase. The satellite ephemeris and timing data is extracted from the GPS signal once it is acquired and tracked. As stated above, collecting this information normally takes a relatively long time (30 seconds to several minutes) and must be accomplished with a good received signal level in order to achieve low error rates.
Most GPS receivers utilize correlation methods to compute pseudoranges. These correlation methods are performed in real time, often with hardware correlators. GPS signals contain high rate repetitive signals called pseudorandom (PN) sequences. The codes available for civilian applications are called C/A (coarse/acquisition) codes, and have a binary phase-reversal rate, or "chipping" rate, of 1.023 MHz and a repetition period of 1023 chips for a code period of 1 millisecond. The code sequences belong to a family known as Gold codes, and each GPS satellite broadcasts a signal with a unique Gold code.
For a signal received from a given GPS satellite, following a downconversion process to baseband, a correlation receiver multiplies the received signal by a stored replica of the appropriate Gold code contained within its local memory, and then integrates, or low-pass filters, the product in order to obtain an indication of the presence of the signal. This process is termed a "correlation" operation. By sequentially adjusting the relative timing of this stored replica relative to the received signal, and observing the correlation output, the receiver can determine the time delay between the received signal and a local clock. The initial determination of the presence of such an output is termed "acquisition." Once acquisition occurs, the process enters the "tracking" phase in which the timing of the local reference is adjusted in small amounts in order to maintain a high correlation output. The correlation output during the tracking phase may be viewed as the GPS signal with the pseudorandom code removed, or, in common terminology, "despread." This signal is narrow band, with a bandwidth commensurate with a 50 bit per second binary phase shift keyed (BPSK) data signal which is superimposed on the GPS waveform.
The correlation acquisition process is very time consuming, especially if received signals are weak. To improve acquisition time, most GPS receivers utilize a multiplicity of correlators (up to 36 typically) which allows a parallel search for correlation peaks.
Conventional GPS receiving equipment is typically designed to receive GPS signals in open spaces since the satellite signals are line-of-sight and can thus be blocked by metal and other materials. Improved GPS receivers provide signal sensitivity that allows tracking GPS satellite signals indoors, or in the presence of weak multipath signals or signals that are pure reflections. The ability to acquire such weak GPS signals, however, typically causes other problems. For example, the simultaneous tracking of strong and weak signals may cause the receiver to lock on to a cross-correlated signal, which is not a true signal. Instead of finding a weak true peak, a stronger cross-correlated peak may be acquired. Tracking a weak satellite signal does not guarantee that it is a direct signal. This weak signal may be a reflected signal or a combination of direct and indirect signals. The combined signals are referred to as multipath signals. The path of the reflected signal is typically longer than the path of the direct signal. This difference in path length causes the time-of-arrival measurement of the reflected signal to be typically delayed or the corresponding code phase measurement to contain a positive bias. In general, the magnitude of the bias is proportional to the relative delay between the reflected and direct paths. The possible absence of a direct signal component makes the existing multipath mitigation techniques (such as a narrow correlator or a strobe correlator) obsolete.
The GPS navigation message is the information transmitted to a GPS receiver from a GPS satellite. It is in the form of the 50 bit per second data stream that is modulated on the GPS signals.
The data message is contained in a data frame that is 1500 bits long. It has five subframes each of which contains GPS system time. Each subframe consists of 10 words of 30 bits each. Subframes 1 through 3 are repeated every 30 seconds. There are twenty-five pages of data appearing in sequence in the fourth and fifth subframes; one every 30 seconds. Thus, each of these twenty-five pages repeats every 750 seconds.
Subframes 4 and 5 contain two types of health or status data for the GPS satellites: (a) each of the 32 pages which contain the clock/ephemeris related almanac data provide an eight-bit satellite health status work regarding the satellite whose almanac data they carry, and (b) the 25th page of subframe 4 and 5 jointly contain six-bit health status data for up to 32 satellites. Additional satellite health data are given in subframe 1.
Typically, a GPS receiver will receive information concerning the status (e.g. "health") of a satellite and then process the GPS signals by not acquiring and not tracking unhealthy satellites while it acquires and tracks GPS signals from healthy satellites. Alternatively, standalone GPS receivers can be designed to acquire and track unhealthy satellites but avoid using their signals in the location computation after having read the health status data from the ephemeris message from an unhealthy satellite's signal (see the related provisional patent application Method and Apparatus for Using Satellite Status Information in Satellite Positioning Systems, Serial No. 60/228,258, filed on Aug. 25, 2000, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.)
Satellite position systems have used various types of assistance data to improve the performance of an SPS receiver. For example, an SPS receiver may receive Doppler estimates from an external source (e.g. a radio transmission to the SPS receiver). Another type of assistance data may be the identification of satellites in view of the estimated or known location of the SPS receiver. In the past, the identification of these satellites has not included any indication of whether the satellites may have a poor geometry relative to the estimated location of the SPS receiver or relative to each other. Also, in the past, the identification of satellites in view of an SPS receiver has not included an indication of poor geometry with satellite health data.

Methods and apparatuses for using assistance data relating to satellite position systems


Methods for a new, drug-free therapy for treating solid skin tumors through the application of nanosecond pulsed electric fields (“nsPEFs”) are provided. In one embodiment of the invention, the cells are melanoma cells, and the applied nsPEFs penetrate into the interior of tumor cells and cause tumor cell nuclei to rapidly shrink and tumor blood flow to stop. This new technique provides a highly localized targeting of tumor cells with only minor effects on overlying skin.

Electric fields have been employed in several different types of cancer therapy. Some of these involve radio frequency or microwave devices that heat the tumor to greater than 43° C. to kill the cells via hyperthermia (K. K. Tanabe, S. A. Curley, G. D. Dodd, A. E. Siperstein, S. N. Goldberg (2004) Cancer. 100:641-650; D. Haemmerich, P. F. Laeseke (2005) Int. J. Hyperthermia. 21:755-760). Others use pulsed electric fields to permeabilize the tumor cells to allow the introduction of toxic drugs or DNA (M. L. Lucas, R. Heller (2003) DNA Cell Biol. 22:755-763; Y. Kubota, Y. Tomita, M. Tsukigi, H. Kurachi, T. Motoyama, L. M. Mir (2005) Melanoma Res. 15:133-134; A. Gothelf, L. M. Mir, J. Gehl (2003) Cancer Treat. Rev. 29:371-387). Previous studies have shown that fibrosarcoma tumors, treated in situ with nanosecond pulsed electric fields, exhibited a reduced growth rate compared to control tumors in the same animal (S. J. Beebe, P. Fox, L. J. Rec, K. Somers, R. H. Stark, K. H. Schoenbach (2002) IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science. 30:286-292).
The main characteristics of nanosecond pulsed electric fields (nsPEF) are their low energy that leads to very little heat production and their ability to penetrate into the cell to permeabilize intracellular organelles (K. H. Schoenbach, S. J. Beebe, E. S. Buescher (2001) Bioelectromagnetics. 22:440-448; E. S. Buescher, K. H. Schoenbach (2003) IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation. 10:788-794) and release calcium (P. T. Vernier, Y. H. Sun, L. Marcu, S. Salemi, C. M. Craft, M. A. Gundersen (2003) B B R C. 310:286-295; E. S. Buescher, R. R. Smith, K. H. Schoenbach (2004) IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science 32:1563-1572; J. A. White, P. F. Blackmore, K. H. Schoenbach, S. J. Beebe (2004) J. Biol. Chem. 279:22964-22972) from the endoplasmic reticulum (J. A. White et al. (2004) J. Biol. Chem). They provide a new approach for physically targeting intracellular organelles with many applications, including the initiation of apoptosis in cultured cells (S. J. Beebe, P. M. Fox, L. J. Rec, E. L. Willis, K. H. Schoenbach (2003) FASEB J. 17:1493-1495; S. J. Beebe, J. White, P. F. Blackmore, Y. Deng, K. Somers, K. H. Schoenbach (2003) DNA Cell Biol. 22:785-796; S. J. Beebe, P. F. Blackmore, J. White, R. P. Joshi, K. H. Schoenbach (2004) Physiol Meas. 25:1077-1093) and tumors (S. J. Beebe et al. (2002) IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science) enhancement of gene transfection efficiency (S. J. Beebe et al. (2003) DNA Cell Biol; S. J. Beebe et al. (2004) Physiol Meas.) and reducing tumor growth (S. J. Beebe et al. (2002) IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science).
The use of electric fields on biological cells to rupture the cell membrane can lead to cell death via necrosis, a nonphysiological type of cell destruction, while the use of nsPEFs on biological cells to permeabilize intracellular organelles can initiate cell death via apoptosis. When treating biological cells within tissue in situ, being able to initiate cell death via apoptosis would allow the destruction of specific undesired cells in situ without engendering the non-specific damage to surrounding or nearby tissue in the body due to inflammation and scarring that is normally observed with necrosis. Investigations of the effects of ultrashort, high intensity pulsed electric fields or nanosecond pulsed electric fields (nsPEF) on mammalian cells have demonstrated distinct differences on cell structure and function compared to classical plasma membrane electroporation. It was previously demonstrated that nsPEF invoked signal transduction mechanisms that initiate apoptosis cascades in several human cell lines including HL-60 cells (Beebe, S. J., et al. (2002) IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci. 30, 286-292; Beebe, S. J., et al. (2003) FASEB J. 17, 1493-1495).
The efficacy of this nsPEF treatment is believed to depend on two separate electric field parameters: pulse duration and amplitude. The effect of pulse duration can be understood by considering the process of membrane charging when the cell is placed in an electric field. Ions in the cell interior will respond to the electric field by moving in the field direction and charging the highly resistive membrane until they experience no further force. By definition this will only occur when their redistribution establishes an equal and opposite field so that the net electric field in the cell interior is zero. However this redistribution takes a certain amount of time that is characterized by the charging time constant of the plasma membrane, typically in the 0.1 to 1 microsecond range. If the nsPEF is shorter than this charging time, the interior charges will not have sufficient time to redistribute to counteract the imposed field and it will penetrate into the cell and charge every organelle membrane for a duration which is dependent on both the charging time constant of the cell's plasma membrane as well as that of the organelle membrane (K. H. Schoenbach, R. P. Joshi, J. F. Kolb, N. Chen, M. Stacey, P. F. Blackmore, E. S. Buescher, S. J. Beebe (2004) Proc. IEEE. 92:1122-1137).
A second critical nsPEF parameter is the amplitude of the pulse. Both the force exerted on charges and the electroporation of lipid membranes depend on the strength of the electric field. When the electric field across a cellular membrane exceeds about 1 volt (2 kV/cm for a cell 10 μm in diameter), water-filled pores form in the membrane's lipid bilayer and the size and lifetime of these pores are dependent on the strength and duration of the electric field pulse. For amplitudes exceeding 2 kV/cm and pulse durations in the millisecond range, large pores form resulting in electroporation of the membrane that has been used to introduce normally impermeant anticancer drugs into targeted tissues (M. L. Lucas et al (2003) DNA Cell Biol.; Y. Kubota et al (2005) Melanoma Res.; A. Gothelf et al (2003) Cancer Treat. Rev.; J. Teissie, M. Golzio, M. P. Rols (2005) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1724:270-280). For these long pulses, the pulse amplitude is limited to about 2 kV/cm to avoid thermal effects. Since heating is proportional to pulse duration and the square of the field strength, the much shorter pulses in the nanosecond range can have a higher field strength while delivering the same low level of thermal energy to the tissue. A 20-fold higher field strength of 40 kV/cm can be employed to generate structural changes in the plasma membrane that result in a smaller electrical barrier as well as higher voltage gradients across cellular organelles for the duration of the pulse (Q. Hu, S. Viswanadham, R. P. Joshi, K. H. Schoenbach, S. J. Beebe, P. F. Blackmore (2005) Phys. Rev. E Stat. Nonlin. Soft. Matter Phys. 71:031914-1-031914-9). A typical tumor cell nucleus measuring 10 μm in diameter will experience a voltage gradient of roughly 40 V across its diameter during each pulse. This electric field is large enough to cause electrodeformation (R. P. Joshi, Q. Hu, K. H. Schoenbach, H. P. Hjalmarson (2002) Phys. Rev. E Stat. Nonlin. Soft. Matter Phys. 65:021913).
Previous studies provided direct evidence for cellular DNA as a direct or indirect target of nsPEF. Using a cornet assay, Stacey, et al. (M. Stacey, J. Stickley, P. Fox, V. Statler, K. Schoenbach, S. J. Beebe, S. Buescher (2003) Mutat. Res. 542:65-75) found that ten 60 ns pulses of 60 kV/cm caused a rapid 2.6-fold increase in the mean image length of DNA electrophoresis tracks in Jurkat cell extracts and a 1.6-fold increase in the comet assay from HL60 cell extracts. In both cases this was a very significant change (p<0.001). This elongation in DNA electrophoresis tracks is normally interpreted to indicate fragmentation of the DNA into smaller pieces that is associated with apoptotic cell death. An indication of changes in the DNA following nsPEF treatment comes from images of the nucleus labeled with acridine orange, a vital fluorescent dye that intercalates into DNA and RNA, Chen et al. (N. Chen, K. H. Schoenbach, J. F. Kolb, S. R. James, A. L. Garner, J. Yang, R. P. Joshi, S. J. Beebe (2004) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 317:421-427). A single 10 ns pulse of 26 kV/cm caused a dramatic decrease in fluorescence intensity in the nucleus evident as early as 5 min after the pulse. This change could be due to an outflow of DNA or to conformational changes in the DNA.
The ability to selectively modify specific cells in ways that lead to apoptosis could provide a new method for the selective destruction of undesired tissue (e.g., cancer cells, fat cells or cartilage cells) while minimizing side effects on surrounding tissue. An electrical method of treatment that results, not only in tumor growth inhibition, but in complete tumor regression, without hyperthermia, drugs, or significant side effects, would be a great advancement in the field of cancer therapy and other in situ therapies. These and various other needs are addressed, at least in part, by one or more embodiments of the present invention.

Nanosecond pulsed electric fields cause melanomas to self-destruct

Old Dominion University Research Foundation


An apparatus and method of determining link qualities of a plurality of links between an access point and a plurality of client devices is disclosed. The method includes detecting all client devices associated with the access point. A list of the associated client devices is generated. The access point transmits keep alive packets according to the list. The access point counts responds to the keep alive packets from each of the client devices. The access point estimates a link quality between the access point and each client device based on the counted responses. An apparatus and method of determining link qualities of a plurality of links between an access node of a wireless mesh network and a plurality of client devices is also disclosed. The method includes detecting all client devices associated with the access node. A list of the associated client devices is generated. The access node transmits keep alive packets to each of the associated client devices according to the list. The access point counts responds to the keep alive packets from each of the client devices. The access point estimates a link quality between the access point and each client device based on the counted responses.

Wireless networks are gaining popularity because wireless infrastructures are typically easier and less expensive to deploy than wired networks. However, wireless networks can be susceptible to environmental conditions, interference and self-interference.
Access points of wireless networks can provide client devices with wireless access to the networks. For example, FIG. 1 shows a wireless network in which client devices 150, 152, 154, 156 are provided with wireless connections to access points 120, 122, 124. The access points 120, 122, 124 are typically wire connected to a wired network 110 that is connected to the internet 100. Because the links between the access points 120, 122, 124 and the client devices 150, 152, 154, 156 are wireless, the links can be susceptible to the previously mentioned environmental conditions, interference and self-interference.
Providing the access points and client devices with knowledge of the quality of the links between the access points and the client devices, allows operators of the access points and/or the client devices to proactively take actions to improve the quality of the links. For example, identification of a poor link can be communicated to a client device operator allowing the operator to adjust the location of the client device or adjust an antenna of the client device, thereby improving the quality of the link. Client device link qualities can also be monitored by a network manager.
It is desirable to provide measurement and analysis of link qualities of client devices association with an access point of a wireless network, without adversely effecting the operation of the wireless network.

Determination of link qualities between an access point and a plurality of clients


Document summarization is performed by scoring individual words in sentences in a document or document cluster. Sentences from the document or document cluster are selected to form a summary based on the scores of the words contained in those sentences.

Automatic document summarization is a process by which a document is fed to a computer or other processing device and a textual summary is generated for the document. Multi-document summarization is similar, except that a document set comprising a plurality of different documents (which is also referred to as a document cluster) is fed to the processing device and a summary is generated that summarizes the entire set of documents.
Document summarization, and especially multi-document summarization, is an increasingly important task. As document clusters grow larger, there is a greater need to summarize those documents in order to assist users. In some applications, the user needs to quickly find the most important information overall (in which case a generic summarization is helpful). In other applications, the user needs to quickly find information that is most relevant to the specific user (in which case a topic-focused summarization is helpful). Examples of applications where multi-document summarization can be helpful include news applications, email threads, blogs, reviews of various types, and information retrieval search results.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

Document summarization by maximizing informative content words


A method and apparatus for forming void-fill packaging wherein a tubular plastics material (11) is periodically fed via driver rollers (15) along a longitudinal guide path (12), first and second transverse spaced parallel heat seals are formed substantially across the plastics material via a transverse heat sealer (36, 38) to define a chamber (104) between the seals, a fluid is discharged into the chamber via a nozzle (20) positioned along the guide path and adapted to extend inside the tubular plastics material adjacent to one longitudinal edge of the plastic material, a third heat seal is formed via a longitudinal heat sealer (78) to seal the chamber (104), and the longitudinal edge of the tubular plastic material is cut via a cutting element (22) so that the movement of the tubular plastics material is not hindered by the nozzle.

This invention relates to apparatus for forming void-fill packaging, and to a method of using the apparatus and the material.
Void-fill packages, such as air-cushion packages, are well-known. They are used in parcels to help protect the contents from shock and damage, and are inserted into spaces or voids which exist between the contents and the sides of the parcel.
Void-fill packaging is created using a roll of tubular plastics material which is preformed with transverse perforations. Separate pieces of apparatus are also used to form, between the perforations, transverse and longitudinal heat seals by which a fluid discharged into the tubular plastics material is held therein.
The use of a plurality of discrete machines to preform the perforations and to form the transverse and longitudinal heat seals leads to a decrease in productivity and an increase in associated costs.
The present invention seeks to overcome this problem.

Apparatus and method for forming void-fill packaging


A semiconductor defect inspection apparatus using a method of comparing an inspected image with a reference image includes the following: (1) a light source and an illuminating optical system, (2) plural defect optical imaging systems and photo detectors for scattered light detection, (3) a substrate holder and a stage for a scan, (4) means for obtaining the misalignment information on an adjacent die image using the inspection image of a defect optical imaging system with the highest spatial resolution, and means for transmitting the misalignment information to all the defect inspection image processing units, (5) means for correcting misalignment information so that a design and adjustment condition of each optical imaging system may be suited, and means for calculating a difference image between dies based on the corrected misalignment information, and (6) a defect detection and image processing unit for performing defect determination and detection processing based on the difference image between the dies.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for defect inspection to detect a small pattern defect, a foreign substance, etc. from the difference between the images of an inspected object using light and a reference, and especially to a method and apparatus for inspecting optically the defect of a semiconductor device, a photo mask, a liquid crystal, etc.
In manufacturing of a semiconductor device, a substrate (wafer) is processed by hundreds of manufacturing processes, and a semiconductor device is formed therewith. In each process, a foreign substance may adhere on the substrate (wafer) or a pattern defect may be produced by variation in manufacturing process, which are causes for producing a semiconductor device with inferior characteristics. In the defect inspection system of a semiconductor device, the needs for a classification are growing of various kinds of DOI (Defect Of Interest) and defection of a defect not to be wanted to detect, as well as detection of smaller defects or foreign substances with progress of fine pattern forming process. In order to meet such needs, plural defect inspection apparatuses equipped with optical imaging systems and image processing systems (hereafter called a probe head) are developed, manufactured and on the market in recent years, aiming at the increase in detectable kinds of defect and the improvement in defect detecting performance by using the detection signal in each optical imaging system. These defect inspection apparatuses are actually used in the semiconductor production line.
After the completion of processes such as a lithography, a film forming process, and an etching process, etc. the defect inspection apparatus for a semiconductor device inspects the substrate surface to defect or a foreign substance generated in the processes, and issues an instruction to clean the apparatus used in the process and prevents inferior goods to be otherwise generated by delivering a substrate with a fatal defect to the following process by detecting a defect at an early stage.
In the middle of formation process of a semiconductor device with a substrate, the substrate is loaded to the defect inspection apparatus. The surface of the substrate (wafer) is imaged in the middle of formation of a semiconductor device, and based on the images thus obtained, a defect determination processing is performed by utilizing a defect signal decision threshold disclosed in JP-A-2003-83907, 2003-98113, and 2003-271927, etc., a defect determination is made and the number defects etc. on the substrate are outputted.
When the number defects Nt detected is less than the threshold Nc of defect set up beforehand, the substrate is send to the next process as it is. When the detected defective number Nt is large, the propriety of the substrate reproduction is decided after issuing the cleaning implementation instruction to a previous process device. When the substrate is decided to be refreshable, after washing the substrate in a washing process, this inspection process is applied again, and then sent to the next process.
The substrate (wafer) in the middle of formation of a semiconductor device is an inspected object having the same pattern of portions 1 and 1′ regularly in a line as shown in FIG. 4 (hereafter called a die). The defect inspection method and defect inspection apparatus of the present invention is to compare the images of adjacent dies at the same position in the corresponding coordinates in the dies, respectively, and decide a defective detection based on the differences between the two.
However, if a whole scanning system vibrates or inclines when a stage scanning, a gap will arise in the image formation position of a optical imaging system, making unable to obtain the signals from the same corresponding part of dies for every die opening. This is the major cause of a misalignment of the images between adjacent dies.
An inspection apparatus with plural probe heads is proposed and developed in recent years, and has been applied to a semiconductor production line.
In an optical inspection apparatus with such plural probe heads, a probe head must be installed so that the heads may not interfere with one another. For this reason a case arises where it is difficult to give object lenses the same numerical aperture and some object lenses have to be designed to have smaller apertures, resulting in lower optical resolving power with the system. Accordingly, misalignment calculation accuracy falls when carrying out image misalignment calculation between reference image and inspection image as the preceding step of calculating the difference image between dies. And falling down of the misalignment calculation accuracy causes a decrease in the calculation accuracy of a difference image, and resulting in deterioration of the defect detecting performance.

Method and apparatus for inspecting a semiconductor device


An electrical connector includes a dielectric body, a plurality of terminals integrally molded to the dielectric body, an insulating housing, two shielding elements, and a shielding shell surrounding the dielectric body, the insulating housing and the shielding elements. The insulating housing has a top wall, a bottom wall, two side walls and a rear wall. A top surface of the top wall and a bottom surface of the bottom wall of the insulating housing are recessed inward to form two fastening cavities. The dielectric body together with the terminals is assembled to the insulating housing. The two shielding elements are fastened to the two fastening cavities, respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an electrical connector, and more particularly to an electrical connector having a shielding function.
2. The Related Art
A crosstalk phenomenon will affect integrity of received signals, so terminals will have no way of receiving the correct signals to result in a misjudgment. Most common crosstalk noises are other people's words heard occasionally when two people are calling each other.
A conventional electrical connector includes an insulating housing, and a plurality of terminals and a shielding shell. The terminals are mounted to the insulating housing and arranged in two rows. The shielding shell surrounds the insulating housing together with the terminals. Because of phenomena of proximal and distal crosstalks of the conventional electrical connector, signals transmitted by the terminals will be mingled with interference signals to lower signal transmission qualities. When a size of the electrical connector for transmitting high-frequency signals is made smaller and smaller, the crosstalk phenomenon among the terminals will be more obvious.
However, a shielding function of the shielding shell shielding the terminals is weaker that makes the conventional electrical connector hardly decrease electromagnetic coupling of the high-frequency signals, so that signal interferences of the crosstalks are easily caused.


A display and a controller are used to implement a tire pressure optimization system for a vehicle. The controller is programmed to receive inflation pressure information indicative of a vehicle tire's inflation pressure, and identify an operating state of the vehicle as being in an optimum state when the inflation pressure information indicates optimum performance, in a warning state when the inflation pressure information indicates the inflation pressure is beyond a warning pressure threshold, or in an advisory state when the inflation pressure information indicates an undesirable performance characteristic outside of the warning state and the optimum state. The controller is programmed to operate the display to output an optimum state indication when the operating state is in the optimum state, a warning indication when the operating state is in the warning state, and an advisory indication when the operating state is in the advisory state.

The United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) requires vehicle manufacturers to equip vehicles with a tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) to detect when one or more of a vehicle's tires are significantly under inflated. Recommended tire inflation pressures are defined by the vehicle manufacturers and provided to drivers in the form of placards, usually located on the driver's side door. At present, the NHTSA requires the driver of a vehicle to be alerted with a telltale if the tire inflation pressure in one or more of the tires is below the higher of a pressure 25% below the vehicle manufacturer's placard pressure or a specified minimum pressure for the specific type of tire on the vehicle. The required telltale is commonly implemented in the form of a malfunction indicator light in the vehicle's instrument panel.

Tire condition advisory system with optimum, advisory and warning states


A packaging substrate is formed of an array of packaging units. Each packaging unit has a chip pad carrying a chip, a plurality of pins arranged around the chip pad and spaced from one another and the chip pad by an open space, an insulative member formed of a plurality of insulative member layers and filled up the open space, and a set of electrical elements, which includes a plurality of plated through holes cut through the insulative member layers, first lead wires embedded in the insulative member to electrically connect the plated through holes to one another, and second lead wires that connect the plated through holes to a respective adjacent pin.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a substrate for integrated circuit (IC) package and more particularly, to such a packaging substrate, which allows electric connection between two remote pins.
2. Description of the Related Art
Following fast development of technology, it has become the market trend to provide electronic products having lighter, thinner, shorter and smaller characteristics. To fit this market trend, high-performance ICs are developed. From the application of early metal lead frame package technology to current flip chip technology, packaging substrate fabrication has been continuously improved. The invention pertains to improvement on QFN (Quad Flat No-lead) packaging substrate technology.
QFN semiconductor packaging technology has been intensively used in semiconductor foundries for years for packaging semiconductor products. Several QFN packaging technology based patents have been disclosed. Recently, there are manufacturers to secure pins to the packaging substrate by means of half-etching the packaging substrate to make openings among the pins of the lead frame and then filling up the openings with an insulative member to form a platform. The platform can has a chip pad that carries a chip. Passive components or multiple electronic elements may be installed in the platform, increasing space utilization of the packaging substrate.
The aforesaid method of filling up the openings with an insulative member to form a platform greatly increase the usable area of the packaging substrate, however the passive components can only be electrically connected to the adjacent pins, i.e., the aforesaid method does not allow electric connection between two remote pins.


The invention is a soft sided carrying case for fishing poles. The case has a handle made out of polypropolene webbing and a zipper for opening and closing. The case on the inside has straps or tie downs for holding the fishing poles in place. These straps or tie downs are fasten permanently on one end and on the other end have a releasably fastener such as velcro, buttons or snaps. The fishing poles are placed in the case and the tie downs are ran over 7 the fishing poles and are fasten down by the releasable fastener. In the preferred embodiment the inter and outer covering of the case is nylon. Foam is placed between the inter and outer covering of the case. To provide stiffness to a case a masonite board is also added to the foam and stuffing between the inter and outer covering on the top and bottom of the case.

Fishermen have found that it is very difficult to carry rods and reels to the fishing site. Usually the lines get all tangle. Therefore, an objective of this invention is to design a fishing rod carrying case that eliminate the problems of tangle lines. A further objective of this invention is to ensure that the rods and reels will stay clean both when being carried to the fishing site and in storage. The inventor has design his case so that it will float and thus, if rod and reel in the case drops into water, it will float to the top and be easily retrieve. Also a case of this type must be light in weight, inexpensive to manufacture, look good and be easy to use. Therefore, it is an objective of this invention to make a light weight inexpensive carrying case that looks like luggages that is easy to use for carrying rods and reels.
One case for a fishing rod case is found in the U.S. Patent to Beck, U.S. Pat. No. 4,222,193 granted Sep. 16, 1998. This patent is a tubular sleeve made out of braided plastic filaments that covers a fishing rod. Beck's Patent unlike the applicant does not cover both the rod and reel. One of the objective of the applicant patent is to design a fishing rod carrying case that carries both the rod and reel so that an individual fisherman does not have to take the reel from the rod every time he stores it. Also this case carries the rod at full length and not broken down. Most rods break down into two or more pieces. Since most rods are five to six feet long a case that carries a non broken down rod is very awkward to carry. Thus, one of the objective of the invention is to make a carrying case that is not awkward to carry. Further, this carrying case does not look like a piece of luggage. One of the objective of the inventor was to design a carrying case for a rod and reel that looked like a piece of luggage. Lastly since this is just a covering over the rod the rod could easily be damages if the individual struck the rod case with the rod inside on an object while carrying it. This is especially true as to Beck's Patent since Beck carries the full length rod which would be awkward to carry and thus, could easily be struck against objects when being carried. To overcome this problem U.S. Patent to Evans U.S. Pat. No. 4,546,877 granted October 1985 has a tube portion to fit over the rod portion up to where the reel is attached. Then in Evans a small bag like structure fits over the reel. However, by using a solid tube like portion for the carrying case one eliminates the advantages of the soft sided carrying case. These advantages being that soft sided carrying cases do not age as quickly as hard sided cases and do not scuff as easy. Further, a soft sided case can be washed in a washer to clean it where as a hard case can not. Further, a soft sided case is usually lighter in weight then the hard sided cases. One of the objective of this invention is to create a soft sided case that has sufficient strength that the rods and reel carry in side will not be damage if the case is bumped or dropped. The Evans's Patent also has similar disadvantages as to the Beck's Patent in that it carries the rod in a non broken down position which makes it very awkward to carry and secondly it clearly does not look like a piece of luggage. Also, since it carries the rod in a non broken down position the case must be made of a length that is sufficient enough to handle the longest rods on the market which will thus make the case even more awkward for carrying most rods.
A further objective of the invention is to make a fabric covered case that is water proof and not subject to mold, mildew or rot.


Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to managing power provided to a semiconductor circuit to prevent undervoltage conditions. A measured voltage value describing a measured supply voltage at a first subcircuit of a semiconductor circuit can be received, the measured voltage value having a first resolution. A selected metric indicative of a supply voltage present at the first subcircuit can be received, the selected metric having a second resolution higher than the first resolution. The selected metric is calibrated to obtain a calibrated metric when a transition of the measured voltage value occurs.

The present disclosure relates generally to semiconductor circuits, and in particular to preventing undervoltage conditions in semiconductor circuits.
In a processor there is circuit switching activity at each clock cycle which results in noise on the common supply rail (e.g., power grid noise). A sudden local increase in switching activity can induce a local droop in the supply voltage to the common supply rail of the power distribution network. This local droop then propagates over the chip area and affects the supply voltage in other regions.
Semiconductor circuit voltage is a rapidly varying quantity within processors. For example, the voltage provided to a chip can change by 100 mV within a few nanoseconds when a processor changes its activity. With tight voltage margins on present semiconductor designs, it is increasingly important to detect undervoltage conditions as fast as possible. This is typically completed by using on-chip measurement circuitry such as Chip Power Model (CPM) or simulation engines such as distributed delayed instruction per cycle (dIPC).
An issue with CPM is the limited voltage resolution (e.g., ˜20 mV) per CPM sample. This can prevent detecting small voltage changes. Distributed dIPC may not be able to accurately determine an absolute voltage level on the chip, though it is fast and accurate in determining voltage fluctuations (e.g., with voltage resolution of approximately ˜1 mV). Accordingly, though CPM can accurately determine the absolute voltage level on the chip, CPM may not be able to detect small voltage fluctuations, and though distributed dIPC can detect small voltage fluctuations, distributed dIPC may not be able to accurately determine a voltage level on the chip.

Fine resolution on-chip voltage simulation to prevent under voltage conditions

International Business Machines Corporation


A carrier for mounting a piezoelectric device, e.g., a surface acoustic wave (SAW) device, on a circuit board and a method of mounting a piezoelectric device on a circuit board using such a carrier are disclosed. The carrier includes a carrier bottom, a plurality of metal contacts, and a carrier lid attached to the carrier bottom. The carrier bottom has an opening extending partially through the carrier bottom from a top surface thereof and the opening is configured such that when a piezoelectric device to be mounted in the carrier is inserted into the carrier bottom, the piezoelectric device is at least partially recessed within the carrier bottom. The metal contacts include a cantilevered end configured for electrical connection to a piezoelectric device. The carrier lid is configured to retain a piezoelectric device within the carrier bottom and to apply substantially even pressure across a top surface of a piezoelectric device. The method includes mounting the carrier bottom to the circuit board prior to insertion of the piezoelectric device and connection of the carrier lid.

Piezoelectric devices have a wide range of uses in science and industry. One exemplary application of a piezoelectric device is a surface acoustic wave (SAW) device. Such SAW devices may be used, for example, as filters, oscillators and transformers, all of which are devices that are based on the transduction of acoustic waves. SAW devices are generally constructed using a crystalline piezoelectric material which has necessary properties to produce a surface acoustic wave when the device input is stimulated using an electronic signal. Electronic devices including SAW devices therein, will include one or more interdigital transducers (IDTs) to convert the surface acoustic waves to electrical signals (and vice versa), relying on the piezoelectric effect of the crystalline piezoelectric material. One common application of SAW devices is in mobile phones.
SAW devices may also be used as sensors in many areas, including, for example, chemical, optical, thermal, pressure, acceleration, torque and biological. One particular use of SAW devices as a sensor involves the application of a bio-coating to the SAW device to enable the device to detect the presence of biological agents, such as particular viruses and bacteria. SAW technology could be used, for example, to produce an infectious disease detection cartridge, and in one instance this detection cartridge may be low-cost enough to be disposable. A particular challenge in this regard, however, is how to interface, mechanically and electrically, to the sensor itself.
One method of making an electrical connection to a piezoelectric device is wire bonding, e.g., welding. However, when mounting piezoelectric devices, and in particular a bio coated SAW device, to a circuit board, there are several considerations which must be addressed. For example, a bio-coated SAW device is sensitive to heat. While a SAW device, generally, is not heat sensitive, coatings incorporating such biological materials may be damaged by exposure to high temperatures. Wire bonding, which as mentioned is conventionally used for other SAW devices, involves steps that would heat the device to an unacceptable degree in the context of a biosensor. Thus, wire bonding cannot be used for mounting a bio-coated SAW device to the circuit board. Further, piezoelectric devices in general are, by their nature, sensitive to mechanical stress. Stress induced by mechanical contact during mounting must be minimized. Also, a reliable, low-loss connection is needed for the radio frequency (RF) signal input and output from the device. Of course, any successful commercialization requires the mounting method to be low cost as well.
Accordingly, there is a need and desire for a low-cost, reliable method of mounting piezoelectric devices, and in particular a bio-coated SAW device, e.g., a biosensor, on a PC board.

Carrier for mounting a piezoelectric device on a circuit board and method for mounting a piezoelectric device on a circuit board


A method and apparatus for damping stick-slip oscillations in a drill string. In one embodiment a method includes damping the stick-slip oscillations using a drilling mechanism at the top of said drill string. The speed of rotation of the drilling mechanism is controlled using a PI controller. The control is characterized by tuning the PI controller so that the drilling mechanism absorbs most torsional energy from the drill string at a frequency that is at or near a frequency of the stick-slip oscillations.

Drilling an oil and/or gas well involves creation of a borehole of considerable length, often up to several kilometers vertically and/or horizontally by the time production begins. A drillstring comprises a drill bit at its lower end and lengths of drill pipe that are screwed together. The whole drillstring is turned by a drilling mechanism at the surface, which in turn rotates the bit to extend the borehole. The drilling mechanism is typically a top drive or rotary table, each of which is essentially a heavy flywheel connected to the top of the drillstring.
The drillstring is an extremely slender structure relative to the length of the borehole, and during drilling the string is twisted several turns because of torque-on-bit between about 500 and 10,000 Nm. The drillstring also displays a complicated dynamic behaviour comprising axial, lateral and torsional vibrations. Simultaneous measurements of drilling rotation at the surface and at the bit have revealed that the drillstring often behaves as a torsional pendulum i.e. the top of the drillstring rotates with a constant angular velocity, whereas the drill bit performs a rotation with varying angular velocity comprising a constant part and a superimposed torsional vibration. In extreme cases, the torsional part becomes so large that the bit periodically comes to a complete standstill, during which the drillstring is torqued-up until the bit suddenly rotates again at an angular velocity that is much higher than the angular velocity measured at the surface. This phenomenon is known as stick-slip.
Stick-slip has been studied for more than two decades and it is recognized as a major source of problems, such as excessive bit wear, premature tool failures and poor drilling rate. One reason for this is the high peak speeds occurring during in the slip phase. The high rotation speeds in turn lead to secondary effects like extreme axial and lateral accelerations and forces.
A large number of papers and articles have addressed the stick-slip problem. Many papers focus on detecting stick-slip motion and on controlling the oscillations by operational means, such as adding friction reducers to the mud, changing the rotation speed or the weight on bit. Even though these remedies sometimes help, they are either insufficient or they represent a high extra costs.
A few papers also recommend applying smart control of the top drive to dampen and prevent stick-slip oscillations. In IADC/SPE 18049 it was demonstrated that torque feed-back from a dedicated string torque sensor could effectively cure stick-slip oscillations by adjusting the speed in response to the measured torque variations. In Jansen. J. D et al. "Active Damping of Self-Excited Torsional Vibrations in Oil Well Drillstrings", 1995, Journal of Sound and Vibrations, 179(4), 647-668, it was suggested that the drawback of this approach is the need for a new and direct measurement of the string torque, which is not already available. U.S. Pat. No. 5,117,926 disclosed that measurement as another type of feedback, based on the motor current (torque) and the speed. This system has been commercially available for many years under the trade mark SOFT TORQUE®. The main disadvantage of this system is that it is a cascade control system using a torque feedback in series with the stiff speed controller. This increases the risk of instabilities at frequencies higher than the stick-slip frequency.
IADC/SPE 28324 entitled "Application of High Sampling Rate Downhole Measurements for Analysis and Cure of Stick-Slip in Drilling" discloses control of a drilling process using driving equipment that includes a PID, a motor, a gear box and rotary table. The PID tries to maintain the desired rotary speed of the drill string and it is suggested that the PID can be adjusted to prevent stick-slip. However, a simulation result shows poor damping of stick-slip oscillations and it is concluded in the paper that PID is too simple a servo-control system to prevent stick-slip.

Method and apparatus for reducing stick-slip


A pick mechanism, having a clutch mechanism, for picking media sheets from an input tray and introducing them into a paper path of an image forming apparatus. The clutch mechanism comprises a plurality of balls positioned between an inner race and an outer race. Angular backlash between the inner race and the outer race may result in variations in the timing of the media sheets. An algorithm is further included to estimate the pick timing of the media sheets. The algorithm calculates an estimated pick time for a subsequent media sheet that incorporates the known engagement variations of the ball clutch pick mechanism.

Many types of image forming devices pick a media sheet from a storage location and move the media sheet to an imaging location for receipt of a toner image. The timing of the media sheet relative to the imaging location is important for adequate toner image receipt and image formation. Improper timing results in top writing line margin error with the toner image positioned at the wrong location relative to the top margin of the media sheet.
Expected time allocations are used to determine the timings for picking a media sheet from an input tray such that it reaches a transfer point to receive the toner image. Deviations from the expected times require additional demand on the system and may result in inadequate image formation.
One deviation in the expected time allocations is caused by the friction of the pick mechanism as the media sheet leaves the input tray. The pick mechanism contacts the media sheet at the input tray and transports the sheet a distance where it is introduced and driven by the paper path. At the introduction point into the paper path, the media sheet may still be in contact with the pick mechanism. The pick mechanism may impede the movement of the sheet by the paper path resulting in the sheet moving slower than expected and thus deviating from the expected time.
The Model Z65 printer available from Lexmark International, Inc. uses a ball-clutch design for picking media sheets from an input tray. The Z65 ball-clutch includes a one ball—two pocket design which reduces or prevents friction on the media sheet when controlled by two separate sections of the paper path. However, the ball-clutch causes deviations in the amount of time necessary to pick the media sheet from the input tray. The Z65 printer is able to use a ball clutch because image transfer on Z65 does not occur until the media sheet is in the proper position (i.e., the media sheet reaches the transfer point prior to the imaging). Therefore, pick timings for Z65 printer are not as critical and deviations of the one ball—two pocket design can be accounted for. Serial printers which feature toner image formation on an intermediate mechanism which intersect a media sheet at a transfer point require more critical timing because the imaging operation may start before the media reaches any sensors in the paper path. Any variation in the pick timings translate into top writing line margin error that should be corrected by the printer before the media sheet reaches the transfer point. Only a finite amount of error can be corrected.

Pick mechanism and algorithm for an image forming apparatus


A photoinitiated cationically curable composition is provided, including at least one substantially saturated epoxy component comprising at least two glycidyl ether groups; at least one acrylonitrile/butadiene copolymer; and at least one cationic photoinitiator. The compositions exhibit excellent strength properties as well as reduced color formation upon curing, particularly after post-curing thermal treatments. Methods of bonding substrates with such compositions and articles prepared therefrom are also provided through the invention.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to photoinitiated cationic epoxy compositions having good impact strength and toughness, as well as low color after curing.
2. Brief Description of Related Technology
Photoinitiated, cationically curable adhesive compositions based on epoxy resins have many benefits and advantages desirable to end user consumers. For example, such compositions provide cured products having physical properties comparable to those provided by thermosetting compositions, are less inhibited by oxygen than photoinitiated free radical curable compositions (resulting in faster and more thorough cure), and exhibit less shrinkage during cure than otherwise comparable photoinitiated free radical curable compositions (such as those based on acrylic chemistry).
Photoinitiated cationic adhesive compositions have, therefore, been used in various well-known applications such as liquid crystal displays and as laminates in digital video discs. However, current photoinitiated cationic adhesive compositions exhibit color formation after curing, such as a yellowing or browning of the composition. Moreover, such photoinitiated cationic adhesive compositions are typically further subjected to thermal processing, such as during a subsequent heat curing step (i.e. a "post-cure") to ensure full curing of the composition, or other heat treatment of the composition for certain applications, depending on the intended use. Such thermal processing typically enhances the color formation, resulting in further yellowing or browning of the composition. In many applications, this color formation is undesirable, thereby reducing the usefulness of such adhesive compositions for certain applications, for example in the medical industry, such as adhesives for medical devices.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,777,460 to Palazzotto et al. discloses curing agents for cationically curable compositions which reduce coloring of the compositions. The curing agents include combinations of various photochemically active and non-photochemically active salts.
Thus, there has been an ongoing desire to find photoinitiated adhesive compositions that not only have good impact strength and toughness, but that also exhibit little to no color change after cure and/or after thermal exposure.

Photoinitiated cationic epoxy compositions and articles exhibiting low color


A method and system of managing calls over a data network includes admitting a call if a throughput requirement is met. After a call request, the call request defining a throughput requirement, is received for establishing a call, a network resource responds with a throughput requirement request. A throughput measurement is performed between the destination terminals. A throughput measurement response, including the throughput measurement, is transmitted to the network resource. Further, a plurality of communities may be defined, each including one or more terminals. A call may be admitted between communities based on the throughput requirement being met in a connection between each respective terminal. Additionally, one or more of a plurality of resource elements may be selected in response to the call request based on the throughput requirement being met. The resource elements, which may include codecs (coders/decoders), packet sizes (for carrying audio data), and others, may be used in the requested call.

Packet-based data networks are widely used to link various nodes, such as personal computers, servers, gateways, and so forth. Packet-based data networks include private networks, such as local area networks (LANs) and Wide Area Networks (WANs), and public networks, such as the Internet. The increased availability of such data networks has increased communication among nodes, whether the nodes are located in close proximity to each other (such as within an organization) or at far distances from each other. Popular forms of communications across such data networks include electronic mail, file transfer, network printing, web browsing, and other exchanges of digital data.
With the increased capacity and reliability of data networks, voice communications over both private and public data networks have become possible. Voice communications in a conventional public switch telephone network (PSTN) provides users with dedicated end-to-end circuit connections for the duration of each call. Unlike PSTN network, voice communications over data networks, such as IP (Internet Protocol) networks, has to compete the network bandwidth with other non-voice data (e.g. electronic mail, file transfer, web access, and other traffic). This makes the performance of voice data packets unpredictable if there is insufficient provision of quality of service.
In an IP network, each data packet is routed to a destination node based upon the destination IP address contained within the header of each packet. Each data packet may be routed over separate network paths before arriving at the final destination for processing. Transmission speeds of the various packets may vary widely depending on the conditions of the data paths over which the data packets are transferred. During peak usage of data networks, significant delays may be added to the transfer of voice data packets causing poor quality of voice communications. If there is insufficient provision of QoS in a congested network, voice data packets may be dropped in-transit to the destination due to inadequate or unavailable capacity of portions of data networks may result in gaps, silence, and clipping of audio at the receiving end.
A need thus exists for a method and system to improve the quality of voice calls or other audio communications over data networks.


An eyelid implant for implanting in an upper eyelid of a person having a main body with a water-drop shape. The main body has a head end with a center of gravity at substantially a center point thereof, and a tail end. The diameter of the head end is greater than a diameter of the tail end. At least one suture hole extends completely through the main body. At least one suture channel extends partially through the main body to a predetermined depth. A suture is passed through the at least one suture hole for securing the eyelid implant to an eyelid of a user and said implant causes said eyelid to close.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to implants and, more specifically, to a gold weight eyelid implant that is shaped to conform substantially to the cornea and the eyeball in order to achieve an optimum center of gravity for maximum efficiency in aiding closure of the eyelid as well as an unobtrusive cosmetic result.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are other gold eyelid weights designed for implantation. Gold eyelid weights are well known in the art and are used for the treatment and functional rehabilitation of patients with deficient eyelid closure or ocular exposure, a complication often caused by facial nerve palsy. The implantation of gold eyelid weights in patient's eyelids has proven to be a safe, effective means for utilizing gravity to assist in satisfactory eye closure and partial recreation of a natural eye blink reflex.
There are, however, downsides in conventional gold eyelid weights known in the art, specifically the typical rectangular shape and uniform thickness thereof. The gold eyelid weight and eyelid travel adjacent the cornea, a bulbous projection emanating from the eyeball. A rectangular gold eyelid weight has a center of gravity close to the upper surface of the cornea and the eyeball thereby requiring a larger size gold eyelid weight to offset the center of gravity and accomplish full lid closure. Unfortunately, these larger size gold eyelid weights are prominently visible beneath the upper eyelid skin and are cosmetically undesirable.
Numerous types of eyelid implants have been provided in the prior art. For example U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,137,728, 4,595,713, 5,164,188 and 6,482,428 all are illustrative of such prior art. While these units may be suitable for the particular purpose to which they address, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as heretofore described.


A method and system for voice recognition are disclosed. In one example embodiment, the method includes receiving voice input information by way of a receiver on a mobile device and performing, by way of at least one processing device on the mobile device, first and second processing operations respectively with respect to first and second voice input portions, respectively, which respectively correspond to and are based at least indirectly upon different respective portions of the voice input information. The first processing operation includes a speech-to-text operation and the second processing operation includes an alternate processing operation. Additionally, the method includes generating recognized voice information based at least indirectly upon results from the first and second processing operations, and performing at least one action based at least in part upon the recognized voice information, where the at least one action includes outputting at least one signal by an output device.

Mobile devices such as cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and smart phones, as well as a variety of other electronic devices, increasingly include voice recognition capabilities. Through their ability to recognize incoming voice signals from users (or others), such mobile devices or other electronic devices are able to achieve high levels of interactivity with the users (or others) and to provide numerous valuable functions that depend upon voice input.
Although technologies for performing voice recognition have been improving, accurate voice recognition remains a technical challenge. Although a variety of voice recognition technologies have been developed including, for example, acoustic matching and speech-to-text voice recognition, existing voice recognition technologies nevertheless each have their own strengths and weaknesses (further example, acoustic matching can produce more success with name-matching and speech-to-text can produce more flexibility for interpreting commands).
Therefore, although any given mobile device or other electronic device will typically be designed to utilize a particular type of voice recognition technology deemed to be suitable for the mobile device or other electronic device (or the particular applications on or performance goals for such mobile device or other electronic device) on which it is being implemented, nevertheless the implementation of the voice recognition technology on the mobile device or other electronic device will be limited in certain respects.
In view of the above, it would therefore be advantageous if improved methods or systems for performing voice recognition at or in relation to mobile devices or other electronic devices could be developed.

Method and system for voice recognition employing multiple voice-recognition techniques


A tactical foregrip assembly for use with a firearm, the assembly having an independently rotatable grip mount assembly and an independently rotatable light mount assembly. The invention comprises a stationary mount assembly attachable to the receiver of a firearm, a grip mount assembly radially rotatable about and electrically coupled to the stationary mount assembly, and a light mount assembly radially rotatable about and electrically coupled to the stationary mount and engagable with said grip assembly. The present invention allows the operator to provide light to illuminate an area while simultaneously positioning himself in a manner so as to maximally use available cover.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an accessory mounting platform for firearms. More specifically, the invention is a tactical foregrip assembly that provides a dynamically positionable foregrip in combination with an independently-positionable light assembly.
2. Description of the Related Art
Public safety and military personnel are often faced with the need to safely arrest and remove persons from structures that contain multiple rooms. Such room clearing operations, however, can be and often are life threatening situations in which an operator is vulnerable to receiving fire. Operator position, visibility, and time are critical in such operations.
Typical foregrip and accessory mounting systems do not allow the operator to rotate the grip or light so that the operator may optimize his or her position behind cover. For example, in a typical accessory mounting system, an attached light assembly is permanently mounted on a bottom rail or on one of two side rails affixed to the firearm. When mounted on a bottom rail, the weapon sling can often interfere with the projected light, which would require the operator to divert his or her attention from a threat or threat area to repositioning the sling. When mounted on a side rail, the orientation of the light causes unnecessary exposure to the operator when circumventing corners. For example, if the light is mounted on a left side rail, to negotiate a left turn (e.g., a 90-degree left turn in a hallway), the firearm must be positioned far enough into the hallway to allow the light to be projected down the threat area. If the operator desires to align an eye with the firearm sight, this results in increased exposure to the operator, who must rollout the firearm as well as his or her body around the turn further than in a well-lighted area. The same problem occurs when if the light is mounted on a right side rail and a right turn must be negotiated.
Similarly, the typical foregrip is fixed in a vertical direction. To drop to a maximally-prone position using a firearm with such a fixed vertical foregrip, the operator typically assumes a "rollover prone" position where the operator is laying sideways with one hand positioned underneath the weapon. This, however, alters the flight path of the bullet as it would be fired from an upright firing position. For example, a gun sighted in at one hundred yards in an upright position, when fired in the "rollover prone" position (e.g., aimed and fired sideways by the operator), must be aimed above and to the side of the target.


An electronic circuit employed in a microprocessor system inserts a programmable number of wait states in a machine cycle of the microprocessor in response to a specific operational code of the microprocessor's instruction set being detected on a system data bus. A particular application of the wait state generation circuit is to provide enough time for a control signal to propagate along a plurality of daisy-chained peripherals before the microprocessor machine cycle ends. The wait state generation circuit may be provided as part of the microprocessor on a single integrated circuit chip.

The basic arrangement of a typical microprocessor based computer system is well known. Connected to a common system data bus are a microprocessor, various types of memory, peripheral input/output circuits, and the like. In addition to being commonly connected by the system data bus, a number of control and status lines also interconnect the circuit elements. The microprocessor communicates with all these system circuits, one at a time.
A popular and widely used microprocessor system is a family of Z80.RTM. brand components marketed by Zilog, Inc. of Campbell, Calif., assignee of the present application. In order to reduce hardware interconnections between a microprocessor chip and a number of peripheral input/output chips that might be utilized in a given system, the Z80 system contemplates connecting the peripheral circuit chips with each other and the microprocessor by use of a daisy chain interrupt circuit scheme. This system prioritizes the various peripherals in order to resolve competing interrupt requests from two or more of them. The microprocessor, of course, can service only one peripheral at a time. A detailed technical discussion of the Z80 microprocessor and peripherals is set forth in a book entitled "Z80 Family Data Book", dated January 1989, available from Zilog, Inc. The Z80 family components interrupt structure, including the daisy-chained interconnection of Z80 peripherals, is described at pages 293-304 of this book.
In such a peripheral connection system, there is an inherent propagation delay of an interrupt enable signal through the daisy chain circuit. When the Z80 system was first introduced many years ago, the microprocessor was operated at a slow enough clock speed that its multiple clock period machine cycles were long enough to allow sufficient time for this signal to propagate along the entire peripheral daisy chain circuit during such cycles. This is required for certain peripheral interrupt acknowledge and return from interrupt communications between the microprocessor and a selected peripheral.
However, in more recent times, clock speeds increased and the same microprocessor machine cycles are accomplished in a much shorter period of time while the propagation delay of a given daisy-chained peripheral circuit has not been reduced by the same proportion. As a result, a problem in acknowledging an interrupt request from a peripheral was noted in certain situations. If the highest priority peripheral issues an interrupt request, at the beginning portion of the microprocessor interrupt acknowledge machine cycle that is in response to an interrupt signal issued by the lowest priority peripheral, enough time must be provided in the interrupt acknowledge machine cycle to allow a logic low interrupt enable signal of the highest priority peripheral to travel the full length of the chain and inhibit the lowest priority peripheral from thinking that the interrupt acknowledge machine cycle issued by the microprocessor is for it. One of the methods to resolve this problem is to add a circuit that inserts one or more wait states in the interrupt acknowledge machine cycle to delay the active edge of the microprocessor control signal IORQ, as described on pages 300 and 301 of the Zilog book cited above.
More recently, with microprocessor speeds increasing even further, it has been found that a return from interrupt (RETI) operation can require more time to effect than allowed during a microprocessor opcode fetch machine cycle, depending upon the type and number of peripherals that are daisy-chained together. A logic high signal must propagate completely down the daisy chain during that machine cycle in order to assure that the correct one peripheral is enabled to act upon the RETI instruction.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a technique and circuit for solving such a timing problem in a straightforward and simple way that does not compromise operation of the system.

Programmable wait states generator for a microprocessor and computer system utilizing it


A hand-held produce data collector which captures wavelength information from a produce item. The produce data collector includes a light emitter for illuminating a produce item, collecting optics for collecting light reflected from the produce item and separating the reflected light into a plurality of wavelength portions of light, a photosensor for capturing wavelength information from the wavelength portions of light, control circuitry, and a hand-held housing containing the light emitter, the collecting optics, the photosensor, and the control circuitry. The control circuitry may store reference wavelength information and compare the captured wavelength information to the reference wavelength information to identify the produce item.

The present invention relates to produce recognition devices and more specifically to a hand-held produce recognition system and produce data collector.
Bar code readers are well known for their usefulness in retail checkout and inventory control. Bar code readers are capable of identifying and recording most items during a typical transaction since most items are labeled with bar codes.
Items which are typically not identified and recorded by a bar code reader are produce items, since produce items are typically not labeled with bar codes. Bar code readers may include a scale for weighing produce items to assist in determining the price of such items. But identification of produce items is still a task for the checkout operator, who must identify a produce item and then manually enter an item identification code. Operator identification methods are slow and inefficient because they typically involve a visual comparison of a produce item with pictures of produce items. Operator identification methods are also prone to error, on the order of fifteen percent.
In order to improve the accuracy of the produce recognition process, reference information on produce items must be collected and stored. Since produce items are typically located remotely from a central store server, it would be desirable to provide a hand-held produce recognition system and produce data collector.
In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, a hand-held produce recognition system and produce data collector are provided.
The produce data collector includes a light emitter for illuminating a produce item, collecting optics for collecting light reflected from the produce item and separating the reflected light into a plurality of wavelength portions of light, a photosensor for capturing wavelength information from the wavelength portions of light, control circuitry, and a hand-held housing containing the light emitter, the collecting optics, the photosensor, and the control circuitry. The control circuitry may store reference wavelength information and compare the captured wavelength information to the reference wavelength information to identify the produce item.
A method of collecting produce data includes the steps of providing a hand-held housing, illuminating a produce item through an aperture in the housing, collecting light reflected from the produce item, separating the reflected light into a plurality of wavelength portions of light, generating electrical signals for the wavelength portions of light, and converting the electrical signals to digital wavelength information. The method may include additional steps to add a recognition function, including the steps of receiving reference digital wavelength information from a computer, and comparing the digital wavelength information to the reference digital wavelength information to identify a produce item.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a hand-held produce recognition system.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a hand-held produce data collector for use by store employees who must collect reference data on produce items.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a hand-held produce data collector for use by store employees who must take inventory of produce items.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a hand-held produce data collector which communicates with a host computer.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a hand-held produce data collector which is battery powered.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a hand-held produce data collector which communicates with a host computer.

Hand-held produce recognition system and produce data collector


A hermetic package comprising a substrate (110) having a surface with a MEMS structure (101) of a first height (102), the substrate hermetically sealed to a cap (120) forming a cavity over the MEMS structure; the cap attached to the substrate surface by a vertical stack (130) of metal layers adhering to the substrate surface and to the cap, the stack having a continuous outline surrounding the MEMS structure while spaced from the MEMS structure by a distance (140); the stack having a bottom metal seed film (131) adhering to the substrate with a first width (131a), and further a top metal seed film (132) adhering to the cap with a second width (132a) smaller than the first width, the top metal seed film tied to a layer (135) including gold-indium intermetallic compounds, layer (135) having a height greater than the first height.

The wide variety of products collectively called microelectromechanical system (MEMS) devices are small, lightweight devices on the micrometer to millimeter scale, which may have mechanically moving parts and often movable electrical power supplies and controls, or they may have parts sensitive to thermal, acoustic, or optical energy. MEMS devices have been developed to sense mechanical, thermal, chemical, radiant, magnetic and biological quantities and inputs, and produce signals as outputs. Because of their moving and sensitive parts, MEMS devices have a need for physical and atmospheric protection. Consequently, MEMS devices are typically formed or placed on or in a substrate surrounded by an enclosed housing or package, which shields against ambient and electrical disturbances, and against stress.
A typical MEMS device integrates mechanical elements, sensors, actuators, and electronics on a common substrate. The manufacturing approach for such a device aims at using batch fabrication techniques similar to those used for other microelectronics devices. MEMS devices can thus benefit from mass production and minimized material consumption to lower their manufacturing cost, while simultaneously realizing the benefits of well-controlled integrated circuit processing technology.
Example MEMS devices include mechanical sensors, such as pressure sensors with microphone membranes and inertial sensors such as accelerometers, coupled with integrated electronic circuit of the chip. The mechanically moving parts of a MEMS device are fabricated together with the sensors and actuators in the process flow of the electronic integrated circuit (IC) on a semiconductor chip. The mechanically moving parts may be produced by an undercutting etch or removal of a sacrificial layer at some step during the IC fabrication. Examples of specific bulk micromachining processes employed in MEMS sensor production to create the movable elements and the cavities for their movements are anisotropic wet etching and deep reactive ion etching.
While the fabrication of these MEMS devices can benefit from wafer-level processes, their packages do not have to be fully hermetic, i.e., impermeable to water molecules. Consequently, they may use sealants made of polymeric compounds typically used in adhesive bonding. On the other hand, there are MEMS devices requiring substantially fully hermetic packages, such as digital micromirror devices (DMDs), which include torsion hinge DMDs, cantilever hinge DMDs and flexure hinge DMDs. Each movable mirror element of all three types of hinge DMD includes a relatively thick metal reflector supported in a normal, undeflected position by an integral, relatively thin metal hinge. In the normal position, the reflector is spaced from a substrate-supported underlying control electrode which may have a voltage selectively impressed thereon by an addressing circuit. A suitable voltage applied to the electrode can electrostatically attract the reflector to move or deflect it from its normal position toward the control electrode and the substrate. Such movement or deflection of the reflector causes deformation of its supporting hinge which stores potential energy that mechanically biases the reflector for movement back to its normal position when the attracting voltage is removed. The deformation of a cantilever hinge comprises bending about an axis normal to a hinge axis. The deformation of a torsion hinge comprises deformation by twisting about an axis parallel to the hinge axis. The deformation of a flexure hinge, which is a relatively long cantilever hine connected to the reflector by a relatively short torsion hinge, comprises both types of deformation, permitting the reflector to move in piston-like fashion.
An example DMD MEMS device is a spatial light modulator such as a DLP™ DMD device available from Texas Instruments.
A typical DMD includes an array of individually addressable light modulating pixel element micromirrors, the reflectors of each of which are selectively positioned to reflect or not to reflect light to a desired site. In order to avoid an accidental engagement of a reflector and its control electrode, a landing electrode may be added for each reflector. It has been found, though, that there is a risk that a deflected reflector may stick to or adhere to its associated landing electrode. It is postulated that such stiction (static friction that needs to be overcome to enable relative movement) effect may be caused by intermolecular attraction between the reflector and the landing electrode or by high surface energy substances adsorbed on the surface of the landing electrode and/or on the portion of the reflector which contacts the landing electrode. Substances which may impart such high surface energy to the reflector-landing electrode interface include water vapor or other ambient gases (e.g., carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitrogen) and gases and organic components resulting from or left behind following production of the DMD.
The problem of stiction has been addressed by applying selected numbers, durations, shapes and magnitudes of voltage pulses to the control electrode, or by passivating or lubricating the portion of the landing electrode engaged by the deformed reflector, and/or the portion of the deformed reflector which engages the landing electrode. Passivation is effected by lowering the surface energy of the landing electrode and/or the reflector through chemically vapor-depositing on the engageable surfaces a monolayer of a long-chain aliphatic halogenated polar compound, such as perfluoroalkyl acid. An effective method of passivation is to enclose a source of passivation, such as a predetermined quantity to time-released passivant material, in a closed cavity with the micromirrors at time of device manufacture.
Conventional hermetic packaging of MEMS devices usually involves a packaging process that departs from the processes normally used for non-MEMS device packaging. MEMS hermetic packaging is expensive not only because the package often includes a ceramic material, or a metallic or glass lid, but also because the package must be configured to avoid contact with moving and other sensitive parts of the MEMS device and to further allow a controlled or reduced atmosphere inside the package. The high package cost is, however, in conflict with market requirements for many applications of MEMS devices, which put a premium at low device cost and, therefore, low package cost.
Further, the conventional fabrication of hermetic MEMS packages also encounters many technical challenges, such as those caused by potentially high temperatures in connection with welding of a hermetic lid to the package base. As an example, a recently proposed package with a sealing process using a glass core involves temperatures considerably above 450° C., typically between 525 and 625° C. dependent on the sealing glass selected. These temperature ranges are a risk for the reliability of silicon integrated circuits and for proper functioning of many MEMS device components, and inhibit passivation and lubrication methods. Similar and sometimes even higher temperatures are involved when packages use techniques such as anodic bonding and glass frit bonding.
It would be advantageous to have a more fully hermetically packaged MEMS device which could target low cost industrial, automotive and consumer applications not currently reached by higher cost packaged devices.
It would be advantageous to have a more fully hermetically sealed MEMS device fabrication process flow in which both the front-end process flow as well as the packaging process flow would take advantage of semiconductor batch processing techniques applied in the fabrication of non-MEMS integrated circuit devices and would take advantage of installed automated machines.
It would be advantageous to have a more fully hermetically sealed MEMS device including appropriate passivating and lubricating agents, or controlled gaseous pressure in internal cavities.

Hermetically sealed MEMS device and its fabrication