The present invention provides a method for designing an impedance matching circuit. The impedance matching circuit is for matching a power amplifier and an antenna circuit. The antenna circuit originally includes an antenna and a first antenna impedance matching circuit. For suiting the design modification of the power amplifier, the method provides a second antenna impedance matching circuit, and matches it with a first power amplifier impedance matching circuit to constitute an overall circuit. The impedance of the overall circuit forms a first locus on the Smith Chart, and is made to have a phase error meeting a predetermined specification. Next, the second power amplifier impedance matching circuit is designed and matched with the first antenna impedance matching circuit to constitute another overall circuit. And the impedance of this overall circuit forms a second locus on the Smith Chart. As the second locus overlaps the first locus, the system has a phase error meeting a predetermined specification.

An antenna impedance matching circuit designed for matching an antenna and a power amplifier impedance matching circuit designed for matching a power amplifier are necessary components of receiving/transmitting circuit of wireless communication systems. Modifying the power amplifier impedance matching circuit is a more complicated way of improving overall impedance matching. Therefore, instead, it is typical to modify the antenna impedance matching circuit to meet the requirement.
However, modifying the antenna impedance matching circuit needs lots of time for testing and simulating. It would delay the design schedule or result in cost increase under some conditions. For example, it is costly and time-consuming for a wireless circuit to obtain certification from a certification institute. Therefore once the antenna circuit including the antenna and the antenna impedance matching circuit is certified, keeping it unchanged would be a designer's first choice. Therefore the power amplifier impedance matching circuit would be modified instead. The most common method of modifying the impedance matching circuit is a "trial and error" one, which costs much effort. Hence another method for designing the impedance matching circuit to make the phase error meet the specification without altering an already certified circuit is needed.

Impedance matching circuit design method


Embodiments relate to facilitating a meeting. A method for facilitating a meeting of a group of participants is provided. The method generates a graph of words from speeches of the participants as the words are received from the participants. The method partitions the group of participants into a plurality of subgroups of participants. The method performs a graphical text analysis on the graph to identify a cognitive state for each participant and a cognitive state for each subgroup of participants. The method informs at least one of the participants about the identified cognitive state of a participant or a subgroup of participants.

The present invention relates generally to facilitating a meeting, and more specifically, to facilitating a meeting based on a graphical text analysis of the speeches by the meeting participants.
In a meeting, the participants may go through different states of mind or cognitive states depending on the course of the conversation that takes place among the participants. These cognitive states may include interests, current knowledge, goals, desires, emotional states (e.g., anger, frustration, irritation, happiness, satisfaction, etc.), to name a few. These cognitive states may be revealed implicitly or explicitly through the words that the participants speak during the meeting. For instance, in a classroom setting, the words that a student utters may show cognitive development of the student in the context of the lesson that a teacher is presenting.

Facilitating a meeting using graphical text analysis

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A data processing apparatus having a bus speed counter for determining the bus speed of a previous bus cycle. This previous bus speed information is then used to optimize bus utilization. This bus speed information is particularly useful for determining whether to run prefetch bus cycles during the execution of a conditional branch instruction. If previous bus cycles have been slow, prefetch procrastination can occurs until the branch condition resolves.

Microprocessors typically have the capacity to make instruction prefetch requests before the instruction being prefetched is actually needed by the microprocessor. These requests are held pending until such time as the instruction can be obtained, typically from external memory. Once an instruction is obtained, it is held in an instruction pipe to await execution. Microprocessors will sometimes execute a change of flow, also called a branch. A typical non-branching instruction assumes that the next instruction to be executed is located at the next sequential address following itself. A branch instruction, on the other hand, specifies the address of the next instruction to be executed, and it is not typically the next sequential address following the branch. A type of branch instruction, the conditional branch, branches based upon a specified condition. If the condition is true, the address of the next instruction to be executed is that specified by the conditional branch instruction. If the condition is false, the next instruction to be executed is assumed to be located at the next sequential address following the conditional branch instruction. The address specified by the branch instruction is referred to as the "branch destination". In a conditional branch, when the specified condition is true and a branch occurs it is referred to as a "branch taken". When the condition is false and the branch is not taken it is referred to as a "fall through", since the instruction execution simply "falls through" to the instruction at the next sequential address following the branch instruction.
Modern processors are also typically pipelined so that the sequence of steps associated with performing an instruction; such as prefetch, decode, and execution, overlap in time with the adjacent steps of preceding instructions. For example a sequence of instructions A,B,C might pipeline within a processor such that while A is executing, B is being decoded and C is being prefetched. As a result of the overlap, the effective execution time of an instruction is less than the sum of its prefetch, decode and execute times. In most pipelined processors, prefetches are performed assuming that no branch will occur. This assumption allows instructions to be easily prefetched and decoded in advance of when they are needed, since the next address to prefetch is simply an increment of the previously prefetched address. When a branch occurs in a pipelined processor, any prefetched instructions are invalidated (or flushed) and prefetching restarts at the branch destination address. Since the pipeline has been flushed, the first instruction cannot overlap its prefetch and decode time with that of any previous instructions, and thus there is a delay associated with executing the first instruction following a branch. This delay associated with pipelining is often referred to as the "branch penalty" and effects both conditional and unconditional branches.
In addition to the branch penalty, there can be a delay associated with stopping the prefetching of the fall through instruction path and starting the prefetch of the branch taken path. Typically there is a period of time between detecting a branch instruction and starting the prefetch for the branch destination. If an unnecessary prefetch were to be started and take longer than this period of time, it would needlessly delay the prefetch of the branch taken path. For the unconditional branch case, the instruction decode can be used to detect the branch and stop prefetch requests early in the instruction. For the conditional branch case the correct decision of whether to stop prefetch requests can not be made until after the specified condition test has been resolved. If the branch resolves to a fall through case, the best decision would to have been to allow the prefetch. If the branch resolves to a branch taken case, the best decision would have been to not run the unnecessary prefetch.
In general there have been several schemes suggested for helping to reduce branch delay. Such methods have involved detecting the branch as early as possible and attempting to predict whether the branch will be taken or will fall through. These schemes have included;
1) explicitly specifying within a field of the branch instruction whether to anticipate a branch taken or the fall through, PA1 2) associating different conditional branch test conditions with their tendency to be executed more often as branch taken or as fall through, PA1 3) prefetching both the branch taken and fall through paths, and PA1 4) associating the branch forward or backward direction with their tendency to be executed more often as branch taken or as fall through.

Microprocessor which optimizes bus utilization based upon bus speed


A probe assembly for use with an ink reservoir level sensing apparatus comprises an insulating support frame formed of an electrically insulating material. The insulating support frame includes a lower portion to be positioned in a lower portion of an ink reservoir and an upper portion configured to be positioned in an upper portion of the ink reservoir. The insulating support frame has a lower probe and an upper probe each partially encapsulated by the electrically insulating material of the insulating support frame such that the lower and upper probes are physically and electrically isolated from each other, and positioned with respect to each other such that at least a portion of the lower probe is positioned in the lower portion of the frame, and the upper probe is positioned above the lower probe in the support frame extending to the upper portion of the frame. An outer probe is attached to the insulating support frame using attachment features that are formed integrally with the insulating support frame. The outer probe is positioned on the insulating support frame extending from the lower portion of the frame to the upper portion of the insulating support frame.

Several methods are currently used to determine the height of ink in the ink supply reservoirs in printers such as solid ink jet printers. The word "printer" as used herein encompasses any apparatus, such as digital copier, bookmaking machine, facsimile machine, multi-function machine, etc. which performs a print outputting function for any purpose. Examples of the methods include: (1) conductive level sense probe; (2) over-driven thermistor; and (3) vibrating beam.
The conductive level sense probe involves a single-point method of determining if the reservoir is full. When the height of the ink rises to a level touching the probe, an electrical current can pass from the probe through the ink to ground, thereby registering that the ink is at the height of the probe tip.
The over-driven thermistor also involves a single-point method of determining ink height. When the thermistor is covered by ink, the thermistor is quenched to a lower temperature. This causes the thermistor to send a different resistance reading to a controller indicating that the ink is at the height of the thermistor.
The vibrating beam or "twanger" is a form of continuous ink level sensing. The resonance of the beam changes as a function of the amount of the beam immersed in ink (i.e., the ink level).


A multi-piece front casting assembly for operably coupling components of a front suspension to a frame rail of a vehicle frame assembly. The casting assembly including an upper casting welded to the frame rail and having a pair of attachment locations extending laterally outwardly for operably coupling an upper control arm thereto, a attachment location extending laterally inwardly for operably coupling a rocker arm for a shock/spring assembly thereto, a suspension cross member attachment location, an engine cooling module attachment, a bumper mounting attachment, and two body structure attachment locations for securing the body structure to the frame assembly. The casting assembly further includes a front lower casting and a rear lower casting, each welded to the frame rail and having an attachment location for operably coupling a lower control arm thereto.

Historically, the body structures of automotive vehicles have fallen into one of two categories--body over frame vehicles and unibody vehicles. In both instances, steel has been used as the preferred material for the structural components of these vehicles due to its cost, strength, stiffness and formability. More recently, automobile manufacturers have explored the use of alternate materials, where suitable, in the manufacture of an automotive vehicle. For example, structural or reinforced molding compounds have been utilized in various exterior body panels, hoods, trunk lids, bumpers, etc. Similarly, other metal compositions such as aluminum or magnesium have been utilized. The use of these alternate materials for body structures has primarily been in nonstructural applications. More specifically, the frame and major body panels which provide strength and stiffness to the vehicle have continued to be fabricated from steel.


A method comprises: aligning a plasma torch within an iris cavity of an iris along a first axis between first and second iris slots having heights less than 70% of the diameter of the torch; and generating an electromagnetic field having field lines along a second axis. The field comprises a component that is substantially transverse to the first direction. An apparatus is also described.

Plasma sources for spectrochemical analysis sometimes include a plasma torch coupled to an electromagnetic waveguide so that electromagnetic radiation (e.g., microwave radiation) can be used to generate and sustain the plasma.
One known type of plasma source includes a waveguide so oriented that the magnetic field of the electromagnetic radiation is oriented along a common axis of the plasma torch, and the magnetic field strength is at a maximum at the position of the plasma torch. This type of plasma source ideally establishes a plasma having a circular or elliptical cross-section, and with a slightly less dense (cooler) plasma along the axial dimension.
While that known plasma source provided significant improvement over other known plasma sources, the performance of the plasma source was found to be compromised if the length of the waveguide deviated even by small amounts from the optimum. Notably, minor variations in the length of the waveguide, as can be expected to occur in a routine manufacturing environment, were found to result in the establishment of undesirable asymmetric plasmas, that adversely affect the analytical performance of the plasma source.
There is therefore a need to provide an improved electromagnetic waveguide and plasma source that overcomes at least the shortcomings of the known waveguides and plasma sources described above.

Electromagnetic waveguide and plasma source


The invention relates to a device and to a corresponding method for practicing the golf swing with a guide (10) along which a golf club can be guided on a specified path. In order to allow the specification of a golf club path without unnecessarily limiting the freedom of movement of the golf player, the guide (10) has at least one subsection (15) which lies in the specified path in a first position and deviates from the specified path in a second position. Furthermore, a device (16, 17) is provided which can bring the subsection (15) from the first position into the second position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device and a corresponding method for practicing the golf swing.
2. Discussion of Background Information
The golf swing is considered to be one of the most difficult movement sequences in sport and is usually learnt and practiced under the instruction of a golf instructor. An alternative or additional possibility for practicing the golf swing are training devices, with the aid of which the golf player can practice the typical movement sequence with and also without golf instructors.
An important requirement for a specific golf swing is that the golf club is always guided in the correct plane. This requires a good posture and the correct combination of body twist, wrist angle, underarm rotation and arm swing.
Known from the prior art are training devices having a circular or arcuate guide, to which the golf club can be coupled and guided along by means of one or more guide elements attached to the shaft of the club.
It is the object of the present invention to provide a device and a corresponding method which enables an improved golf swing training.

Device and method for practicing the golf swing


A "bump-feed" type line head (108) and replaceable spool (116) for a flexible line trimmer are specially adapted for removing and mounting the spool in a single manual movement to the line head to facilitate spool and line replacement. A U-shaped retention spring (118) is snap-fitted without separate fasteners within a hub in the line head on which the spool is journalled. The spring includes knob-shaped sections (122) protruding through the hub, beneath the spool, for retaining the spool on the hub without interfering with a bump-feed indexing mechanism. Pulling the spool from or pushing the spool onto the hub tends to deflect the knobs inwardly, allowing removal of the spool from the hub. The spool includes an integrally formed reel (116) and an integrally formed button (130) connected in a single movement to the bottom of the reel using undercut surfaces (136)(138), forming a cavity having a radius sufficient to accommodate extension of the knobs beneath the spool.

To overcome what is generally perceived to be the major deficiency of flexible line trimmers, a great deal of effort has been directed in the past to methods of making replenishing broken cutting line more convenient for users without substantially complicating and increasing the cost of a line trimmer. A standard approach is to sell a supply of replacement line on a spool and have the user mount it in a line head that is coupled to the motor of the line trimmer. A line head typically includes a hub, coupled to the output shaft of a motor, and a housing or shroud extending outwardly from the hub and down around the spool to protect the spool from dirt and debris. The user places the spool on the hub, feeds a small length of line through an opening in the housing, and places a cover over the spool to retain and protect the spool within the line head. The spool is locked to the hub so that rapid spinning of the line head flails the line. When line breaks, the spool is unlocked and spun on the hub to unwind line through the opening.
Several methods have been used to lock and unlock the spool against the hub. Early line heads used a manual release mechanism. To replace line, the trimmer was stopped and turned upside down. The locking mechanism was released manually and the spool turned to unwind and feed line. To avoid having to stop and turn the trimmer upside to feed line, most current line heads have a "bump-feed" mechanism that indexes the spool through a predetermined angle of rotation each time it is bumped against the ground, thus allowing the user to feed a predetermined amount of line while the trimmer is running. There also exist line heads which automatically index the spool without any intervention of the user. Generally, these heads sense a change in the centrifugal force acting on a component of the spinning head or on the flailing line to release the spool for rotation and pay-out line when the line becomes short.
Though bump-feed and automatic line heads provide a great deal of convenience for the user, once a supply of flexible line on a spool is exhausted, the line trimmer must be turned on its side or upside down and held in an unwieldy position to replace the empty spool with another spool pre-wound with line and reattach the cover. Covers of line heads are often attached to the line head in a manner that demands such dexterity and strength to unfasten and remove that many users become frustrated by the task of replacing a spool.
One approach to make spool replacement easier is to locate the spool in the handle of the trimmer, near the user. Examples of these configurations are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,369,577 of Gise, et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,285,128 of Schnell, et al. However, the line must then be fed through the handle shaft of the trimmer motor and then through line head, replacing one potentially frustrating task with another. U.S. Pat. No. 4,633,588 to Pittinger, Jr., on the other hand, retains the spool in the line head, but attempts to provide for an improved spool fastening mechanism that does not require removal of a cover. Instead, its fastening mechanism is released through a pin extending through the bottom of the spool. This pin-actuated release mechanism has, however, several disadvantages. It has several moving parts and is relatively complicated. It thus tends to be more expensive to manufacture and is more susceptible to sticking or interference from accumulation of dirt and debris around the pin and the fastening mechanism. The spool could thus be prematurely released during use or the pin become very difficult to push to release the spool.


A first and second inner dies are combined to form a molding cavity, in which a fluidic material is charged and hardened for molding a tubular member, which has a side surface at least partially defining a projected portion being higher at one end than the other end. The first inner die forms an inner space of the tubular member. The second inner die forms the projected portion. A first actuating unit draws the first inner die from the other end along a first moving path, which is substantially linear along an axis of the tubular member. A second actuating unit draws the second inner die from the other end along a second moving path, which bulges toward the inner space and passes through the inner space.

In a molding process of a resin product, which has an undercut portion, a resin product needs to be removed from molding dies subsequent to opening the molding dies, without damaging the undercut portion. For example, JP-A6-114893 proposes molding dies including multiple dies around an undercut portion. The molding dies are configured to be opened when an undercut portion is removed from the molding dies.
FIG. 13 is a front view showing a molded product 2, which includes a tubular member 1, and one example of a moving path of an inner die 3 according to a prior art. According the prior art, an molding apparatus has an inner die 3 for forming the inner space of the tubular member 1 of the molded product 2. In a case where a molded product 2 does not have a large portion 5, and a tubular member 1 is trapezoid in cross section when taken along an axis of the molded product 2, an inner die 3 can be slid to the left side in FIG. 13 and drawn from an inner space of the tubular member 1 through an end 4, which has a large opening. However, in the structure shown in FIG. 13, a large portion 5 is integrated with the end 4 of the tubular member 1. That is, the molded product 2 has an undercut portion. Accordingly, the inner die 3 cannot be axially drawn from the inner space of the tubular member 1 from the end 4 to the right side in FIG. 13, as imaginarily shown in FIG. 13.

Molding apparatus and method for molding


A method and apparatus are provided for harvesting thigh meat and oyster meat from a poultry thigh that includes a thigh bone with a hip knuckle and a knee knuckle. The poultry thigh is held at a knuckle, after which meat present on the thighbone below the knuckle is scraped from the thighbone away from the knuckle. The meat is subsequently separated from the thighbone and collected for further handling. The poultry thigh is suspended from the hip knuckle and the oyster meat is disconnected from the hip knuckle prior to scraping the meat from the thighbone away from the hip knuckle.

Oyster meat from poultry is also known as musculus iliotro-chantericus caudalis.
EP-A-1 639 898; U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,195,554; and 7,344,436 each disclose methods and apparatus for separating thigh meat and oyster meat from the thighbone in which the thighbone is clamped at the knee joint so that the thighbone can be swung to be tilted forward while transferred. A sinew that connects the oyster meat to the cartilage at the end of the thighbone is introduced into a narrow slot, at which the sinew is cut to separate the oyster meat and the thigh meat from the cartilage so that it may fall down. This known method and apparatus is inaccurate in that it relies on an particular tilting of the thighbone in order to arrange for the sinew to be received into the narrow slot.
WO2012/102609 relates to a method of mechanically deboning animal thighs for separating and collecting meat therefrom and an apparatus for performing this method. The thighbone of the animal is held at a hip knuckle with a bone holder, and the thighbone is engaged adjacent the bone holder with a meat stripper. A problem of this known apparatus and method is that it does not secure the harvesting of the oyster meat. In practice the position of the oyster meat is undetermined which results in that occasionally the oyster meat is lost.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,067,927 discloses a method and an apparatus for harvesting thigh meat from a poultry thigh that includes a thigh bone with a hip (implicit) knuckle and a knee (implicit) knuckle, wherein the poultry thigh is held at an upper knuckle, after which meat present on the thighbone below the upper knuckle is scraped from the thighbone away from the up-per knuckle. The meat is subsequently separated from the thighbone and collected for further handling. The document is silent on harvesting of oyster meat from the thighbone. The document further specifies that the upper knuckle is supported by a bone receiving yoke. The document further discloses that prior to scraping, cutting blades cut in the areas of the meat and muscles of the poultry thigh just below the upper knuckle of the thighbone. Considering the shape of the thighbone depicted in FIGS. 5-10 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,067,927 (narrow at the knuckle and progressively increasing in diameter farther away from the knuckle), it appears that the upper knuckle is the knee knuckle of the poultry thigh which is also consistent with the normal way in which poultry is suspended.

Method and apparatus for harvesting thigh meat and oyster meat from a poultry thigh


An integrated circuit and methods for laying out the integrated circuit are provided. The integrated circuit includes a first and a second transistor. The first transistor includes a first active region comprising a first source and a first drain; and a first gate electrode over the first active region. The second transistor includes a second active region comprising a second source and a second drain; and a second gate electrode over the second active region and connected to the first gate electrode, wherein the first source and the second source are electrically connected, and the first drain and the second drain are electrically connected.

Static random access memories (SRAM) are commonly used in integrated circuits. SRAM cells have the advantageous feature of holding data without requiring a refresh. Typically, an SRAM cell includes two pass-gate transistors, through which a bit can be read from or written into the SRAM cell. This type of SRAM cell is referred to as a single port SRAM cell. Another type of SRAM cell is referred to as dual port SRAM cell, and each of the SRAM cells includes four pass-gate transistors.
FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary circuit diagram of a typical eight-transistor dual port SRAM cell, which includes pull-up transistors PU-1 and PU-2 and pull-down transistors PD-1 and PD-2. Pass-gate transistors PG-1 and PG-2 form a first port (port-A) of the dual port SRAM cell. Pass-gate transistors PG-3 and PG-4 form a second port (port-B) of the dual port SRAM cell. The gates of pass-gate transistors PG-1 and PG-2 are controlled by word-line port-A WL, while the gates of pass-gate transistors PG-3 and PG-4 are controlled by word-line port-B WL. A latch formed of pull-up transistors PU-1 and PU-2 and pull-down transistors PD-1 and PD-2 stores a bit. The stored bit can be read through port-A using bit-lines port-A BL and port-A BLB, or through port-B using bit-lines port-B BL and port-B BLB. Conversely, a bit can be written into the SRAM cell through either port-A or port-B.
Advantageously, with two ports, the bit stored in the SRAM cell can be read from port-A and port-B simultaneously. This allows for parallel operations by different applications. Additionally, if a first SRAM cell and a second SRAM cell are in a same column or a same row, a read operation to the first SRAM cell can also be performed simultaneously with a write operation on the second SRAM cell.
Conventionally, to support parallel operations, in which two ports may be at the "on" state at the same time, the pull-down transistors PD-1 and PD-2 each need to sustain twice the drive current of each of the pass-gate transistors PG-1 through PG-4. Accordingly, in conventional designs, pull-down transistors PD-1 and PD-2 were designed twice as wide as pass-gate transistors PG-1 through PG-4. FIG. 2 illustrates a conventional layout of transistors PG-1 and PD-2. The dotted region is an active region, and shaded regions are gate polys. The active region is L-shaped, with a wide portion for forming pull-down transistor PD-2 being twice as wide or even greater than a narrow portion for forming pass-gate transistor PG-1. Due to optical effects, the intersection region between the wide portion and the narrow portion is rounded. If a misalignment occurs, and the gate poly of pass-gate transistor PG-1 is moved up, the actual gate width of pass-gate transistor PG-1 will be greater than desired. Accordingly, a mismatching occurs between pass-gate transistor PG-1 and pass-gate transistors PG-2 through PG-4, which in turn affects the SRAM cell performance.
An additional problem is the current crowding at the intersection region. In the intersection region, the currents are not evenly distributed. Therefore, some portions of the pull-down devices PD-1 and PD-2 may have greater current densities then other portions.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is an SRAM cell that may incorporate dual ports thereof to take advantage of the benefits associated with the parallel operations while at the same time overcoming the deficiencies of the prior art.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


An object of the present invention is to provide nonvolatile, rewritable, easily-manufactured, and inexpensive storage element, storage device, and semiconductor device, which are superior in switching characteristics and which has low operation voltage. In an element including a first conductive layer, a second conductive layer facing the first conductive layer, and a layer containing at least one kind of an organic compound provided between the first conductive layer and the second conductive layer, the organic compound can be electrochemically doped or dedoped. By feeding current in this element, the organic compound provided between the conductive layers is electrochemically doped, i.e., electrons are transported, whereby the conductivity can be increased by about three to ten digits.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and particularly relates to a semiconductor device capable of storing, erasing, and rewriting data by using an organic compound for a storage circuit. Moreover, the present invention relates to a storage circuit (storage device) capable of storing, erasing, and rewriting data by using an organic compound.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, identification technology where an ID (identification number) is assigned to each object so as to reveal data on the object such as history thereof has been attracting attention, which is utilized for production, management, and the like. Above all, semiconductor devices capable of sending and receiving data without contact have been developed. As such semiconductor devices, in particular, an RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tag (also called an ID tag, an IC tag, an IC chip, an RF (Radio Frequency) tag, a wireless tag, an electronic tag, or a wireless chip), and the like have been introduced into companies, markets, and the like.
Many of these semiconductor devices currently put into practical use have antennas and circuits using a semiconductor substrate made of Si or the like (such circuits are also referred to as IC (Integrated Circuit) chips), and the IC chip is formed by using a storage circuit (also referred to as a storage device or a memory), a controlling circuit, and the like. In particular, by providing a storage circuit capable of storing a large amount of data, a more sophisticated and higher-value-added semiconductor device can be provided.
In general, the following is given as a storage circuit (storage device) to be provided to a semiconductor device: a DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory), an SRAM (Static Random Access Memory), an FeRAM (Ferroelectric Random Access Memory), a mask ROM (Read Only Memory), an EPROM (Electrically Programmable Read Only Memory), an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable and Programmable Read Only Memory), a flash memory, or the like. Among these, a DRAM and an SRAM are volatile storage circuits; therefore, once the power is turned off, data is erased. Accordingly, data needs to be written every time the power is turned on.
Among nonvolatile memories, users can freely write and erase data in an EPROM, an EEPROM, a flash memory, and an FeRAM. With the progress of information technology in recent years, memories capable of storing, erasing, and reading a larger amount of data at high speed have been demanded, and size reduction, cost reduction, and integration of nonvolatile memories have been important issues. However, an EPROM has a drawback that UV rays need to be used to erase data. Although an EEPROM and a flash memory are nonvolatile storage circuits, since an element including two gate electrodes is used, the number of manufacturing steps increases. In contrast, since an FeRAM uses a ferroelectric thin film material and a material and a process that are used for a Si process can be used for an FeRAM, an FeRAM is superior in its characteristics and also has potential to be manufactured at low cost. However, there has been a delay in practical application of this FeRAM, resulting from technical difficulty in thinning a ferroelectric film.

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


A leak detector operating according to the counterflow principle comprises a first high vacuum pump that operates in series with a primary pump. A second high vacuum pump is branched at a connecting point and an entry side thereof is connected to a mass spectrometer. A light test gas in the form of helium flows through the second high vacuum pump in a direction opposite to a transport direction. A conduit connecting an inlet to the entry side of the first high vacuum pump is devoid of restricted flow zones and valves in such a way that the pumping capacity of the leak detector is high for helium, thereby reducing the response time thereof. A valve for blocking the conduit leading via the first high vacuum pump is arranged between the exit side thereof and the entry side of the primary pump.

The invention relates to a leak detector operating according to the counterflow principle and comprising a first high vacuum pump the entry side of which is connected to the inlet of the leak detector, a second high vacuum pump the entry side of which is connected to a mass spectrometer, a primary pump the entry side of which is connected to the exit sides of the two high vacuum pumps, and a bypass connecting the inlet of the leak detector to the primary pump and including a first valve.
A leak detector of this kind is described in EP 0 283 543 A1. It serves to detect leaks in a vacuum-tight apparatus. To this end, a light test gas is introduced into the apparatus to be tested and this apparatus is placed in a vacuum-tight room from which the available gas is sucked off. Alternatively, test gas can be sprayed from outside onto a test piece the interior volume of which is connected to the inlet of the leak detector. In the sucked-off gas, constituents of the test gas can be detected by a mass spectrometer and be evaluated. If there are test gas portions, this suggests a leak in the apparatus. The leak detector according to the counterflow principle referred to comprises a primary pump and a first high vacuum pump which are operated in series. A second high vacuum pump connects the mass spectrometer to the entry side of the primary pump. In a suction stage, the way via the first high vacuum pump is blocked by closing a valve arranged upstream of this pump and the container including the test piece is pumped dry via a bypass including a valve. When the pressure in the container has decreased below a value of about 100 mbar, a throttle valve in the conduit leading to the first high vacuum pump is opened so that test gas may flow through the first high vacuum pump. If, in the course of this, test gas (helium) enters into the conduit system, it enters into the second high vacuum pump in the counterflow and through the latter into the mass spectrometer. If helium has not been detected by the mass spectrometer in this stage, a further leak detection with higher sensitivity is started by releasing the connection of the test piece to the first high vacuum pump through another valve of a large nominal diameter. The preevacuation valve in the bypass is closed then. Thereafter, the test piece is evacuated to a pressure of about 10−4 mbar, leakage rates in the order of about 10−5 to 10−10 mbar 1/s being detectable.
Because of the valves arranged in front of the entry side of the first high vacuum pump, this pump is able to operate continuously at full speed under vacuum conditions. The valves arranged upstream, however, have a flow resistance and thus a throttling effect. Therefore, the full suction capacity of the high vacuum pump is not available at the test connection in a non-throttled manner. Particularly, the helium suction capacity of the high vacuum pump cannot be utilized to the full extent thereof which would be convenient to achieve minimum response times.

Leak detector comprising a vacuum apparatus


An improved decorative light bulb holder structure comprises a light bulb holder, a socket shell, and a light bulb, and can provide convenience in assemblage and wire routing. The light bulb holder has a specially designed connection column at one end that, in conjunction with two electrical wires, can be closely embraced by the socket shell to reach a sealing effect and to prevent the penetration of moisture.

In a prior art structure, a miniature light bulb is mounted on a holder and then they together with two electrical wires are housed in a socket shell. FIG. 1 shows a conventional light bulb holder structure that includes a holder (1) and a light bulb (2). The holder (1) is equipped on one end with a connection column (11). The connection column (11) has semi-circular grooves (12) on two sides and communicates with the main body of the holder (1) by means of the openings (14). A light bulb (2) is mounted on the holder, with two electrical wires thereof passing through the openings (14) and outwardly bent to cling to two sides of the lower portion of the connection column (11). Next, the subassembly is inserted into a socket shell. With such a conventional structure, when the light bulb is assembled with the holder, two electrical wires (21) are seated inside the grooves (12). The operators have to use fingers to pick up wires and bend them outwardly. Thus the operation is not easy and it is possible to let fingers injured by lead wires. Besides, the connection column (11) of the holder (1) has sharp side edges (13) along the grooves (12). Such sharp edges give the structure poor closeness and can not efficiently prevent moisture from penetration into the interior of the holder. This leads to a possibility of electrical leakage and short-circuit.
In view of the above problems, the primary object of the invention is to provide an improved light bulb holder and socket shell structure in which the shortcomings of the conventional structure have been overcome. Now the features and advantages of the invention will be detailed with reference to the accompanying drawings.


Switch architecture is provided for interfacing a high speed broad bandwidth communication network to a communication fabric having a bandwidth which is a fraction of the high speed broad bandwidth with the network and the fabric having different data packet formats. A multiplex/inverse multiplex unit is provided for converting data packets at the first carrier rate and in the first format to data packets in the second format, and a switch converter then converts the data packet headers in the second format into switch format headers for transmission of the data packets through ports of the communication fabric. A splitter receives the data packets from the switch converter and routes the data packets to one of a plurality of the fabric ports in accordance with the connection identifier in the switch format header, the data packets to one of a plurality of fabric ports being at a second carrier rate. A sequencer receives data packets from a plurality of fabric ports at the second carrier rate and includes a resequencing circuit for split data packets received from the plurality of fabric ports. A second switch converter converts the data packet headers received from the sequencer into data packet headers in the second format, and the second format converter receives and converts the data packets from the second switching converter at the second carrier rate into data packets in the first format and at the first carrier rate. The multiplex/inverse multiplex unit can be used to adapt any high rate data stream to a lower rate switch fabric data stream.

This invention relates generally to communications technology, and more particularly, the invention relates to the interfacing of a broad band network to a lower bandwidth network fabric. In an illustrative application, a synchronous optical network (SONET) is interfaced with an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network fabric.
The communications industry is rapidly expanding in network technologies for the broad band transmission of voice, video and data. Two such technologies are SONET, which is a high speed synchronous carrier system based on the use of optical fiber technology, and ATM which is a high speed low delay multiplexing and switching network. SONET is high speed, high capacity and suitable for large public networks, whereas ATM is applicable to a broad band integrated services digital network (BISDN) for providing convergence, multiplexing, and switching operations.
Disclosed in FIG. 1A and in copending patent application 939A-358, supra, is a switch architecture including line interface units (LIMs) 2, a switch fabric 4, and a controller 6. The data path for cells traveling through an ATM network is to enter the line interface, pass through the fabric, and then exit through another line interface.
For signaling and management functions, cells are removed from the outgoing stream and sent to the controller. The controller can also transmit cells through the network by passing the cells to a LIM. The cells are then transmitted through the fabric and finally transmitted out an exit line interface. Passing control through the fabric before going to the controller or leaving the switch allows multiple controllers to each monitor a small number of line interfaces with call control and network management message passed to a centralized processor when the architecture is expanded to a larger number of ports.
FIG. 1B is a functional block diagram of a line interface which supports all by-line and by-connection functions including physical layer link termination, translation of ATM header information into routing tags for use by the fabric, policing of traffic, and cell rate decoupling (insertion and deletion of unassigned cells). The interface also measures cell loss, cells tagged, cells passed and the number of cells dropped for each connection. The controller configures and monitors the line interface and the fabric components, and also provides all call access control functions including call set-up, maintenance, and tear-down. It processes the information measured by the line interface to maintain connection and link statistics for network management.
FIG. 2 illustrates connection information in the ATM header and the switch cell header used internally within the switch itself. An ATM header contains a virtual path identifier (VPI) and a virtual circuit identifier (VCI) which together uniquely denote a single connection between two communicating entities. Other information, including a payload type and header error control fields, is included for use by the network in transporting the cells.
The switch header contains a connection identifier to denote the connection. A portion of the connection identifier may be replaced by a sequence number as described later in this document. Additionally, the switch header contains routing information so that the cell can be routed through the switch fabric 4 of FIG. 1A.
The ATM address translation and rate policing/shaping block (see FIG. 1B) converts cells between the two formats by mapping each bit pattern formed by a combination of VPI and VCI fields in the ATM header to a specific connection identifier in the internal switch header.
Therefore, cells that enter the switch have the ATM header removed and replaced with a switch header determined by the combination of the VPI and VCI fields in the ATM header. After those cells have been routed through the switch fabric, the switch header is replaced by an ATM header with the VPI and VCI fields set according to the value of the connection identifier.
FIG. 3 illustrates the switch fabric which routes cells to the proper outputs and maintains queue-level statistics on congestion, the number of cell periods during which backpressure is applied, and cell loss. The fabric is a 16 port buffered Benes interconnection network with 4.times.4 switch routing elements. In cell routing, as each cell passes through each individual switch routing element (SRE) from input to output, the SRE routes it to the proper output(s), depending on settings of bits within the routing tag. The fabric control port, which is directly connected to the control bus, allows the controller to program the SREs, and read their status. The fabric base clock (FBCLK) sets the rate at which data are acted on by the SREs, and transferred from one SRE to the next. This determines the internal link rate of the fabric.
As illustrated in FIG. 4, the switch routing element (SRE) is a 4.times.4 fully non-blocking routing element. Cells are clocked into each sync buffer at the rate they are transmitted by the sender. The data from the four sync buffers is multiplexed through the switch bus. The output selection blocks read the routing tag for each cell, and route the tag towards the respective output ports if the pattern matches the bit pattern for that port. Two levels of priority are supported by the output selection block. If its buffer fills beyond a programmable threshold, the output selection block may be programmed to SEND an overflow signal to the backpressure control block. Cells are simply dumped if the output selection block buffer overfills. Upon receiving a backpressure signal from outside the SRE, the output selection block may be programmed to ignore the signal, or slow the rate of data transfer through that port. Upon receiving a backpressure indication, the backpressure control block routes the signals to one or more sync buffers which synchronize the signal with the incoming data block.
Each SRE is individually addressed and maintains statistics on the number of cells dropped per output buffer, the number of cells tagged with FCI per output buffer, and the current state of each output buffer. Each output buffer can be programmed as to which type of routing field (selection or multitask) it uses and to where the routing field used for cell routing is located within the routing tag. This field can be read by the control processor. The SRE as a whole can be programmed to select a backpressure mode and this field can be read by the control processor.
The present invention is directed to a multiplexer/inverse multiplexer for use in a switch architecture as described above wherein the information to and from a high speed broad bandwidth network is transferred through a lower speed switch fabric. More particularly, the inverse multiplexing allows the use of switches that can be optimized for most common traffic rates.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,065,396, a high rate data stream is split into multiple output connections into which timing signals are periodically inserted. At the destination, the timing signals are checked and used to multiplex the received signals into a single data stream. This approach works only on continuous data streams, like those found in T1 lines or SONET links. Furthermore, the approach requires that the transit delays of subpaths remain constant. The proposed approach allows both the rate of the inverse multiplex data stream to vary as well as the delays of the subpath.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,317,561, the incoming data is split over multiple fabrics, with the individual cells marked with sequence numbers. At the output of the fabrics, the multiple streams are re-sequenced to produce the output. A primary disadvantage of this scheme is that multiple fabrics are required to carry a single port, rather than allowing multiple ports on the same fabric to be used for a higher rate connection. Another disadvantage is that only a single high rate data stream is split over the multiple ports.

Line interface unit for adapting broad bandwidth network to lower bandwidth network fabric


A computer-implemented method for implementing a full space dynamic address translation (“DAT”) structure and a subspace DAT structure is provided. A non-limiting example of the computer-implemented method includes determining, by a processor, that switching between the full space DAT structure and the subspace DAT structure is enabled by examining a bit in a control register. The method determines, by the processor, that there is a new context different from an existing context based on the bit in the control register indicating that switching is enabled, and switches, by the processor, the context of the DAT structures based on determining that the new context is different from the existing context.

The present invention generally relates to memory access and more specifically, to operational context subspaces.
Dynamic address translation (DAT) tables are used to map virtual addresses to real addresses in a memory structure. Each address space has unique DAT tables and real page frames to back the virtual pages. DAT is the process of translating a virtual address during a storage reference into the corresponding real address. If the virtual address is already backed in central storage, the DAT process may be accelerated through the use of a translation lookaside buffer (TLB). If the virtual address is not backed in central storage, it is brought in from auxiliary storage. DAT is implemented by both hardware and software through the use of page tables, segment tables, region tables, and TLBs.


Luminescent inorganic nanoparticles comprising: (a) a core made from a first metal salt or oxide being surrounded by (b) a shell made from a second metal salt or oxide being luminescent and having non-semiconductor properties. These nanoparticles can be advantageously used in (fluorescence) resonance energy transfer ((F)RET)-based bioassays in view of their higher (F)RET efficiency.

Over the last decade, nanoparticles, i.e. particles having sizes below 1 micrometer, have attracted a great deal of interest in research and industry due to their unique properties. Research and development in the optoelectronic area have focused on luminescent particles in view of their possible application in light emitting diodes (LED), displays, optoelectronic devices in nanometer dimensions or as a light source in low threshold lasers.
Among luminescent materials, a distinction is often made between semiconductor and non-semiconductor materials.
Semiconductor nanoparticles (often referred to as "quantum dots", such as II-VI or III-V semiconductors which may be doped or not, are characterized by a quantum confinement of both the electron and hole in all three dimensions which leads to an increase in the effective band gap of the material with decreasing crystalline size. Consequently, it is possible to shift both the optical absorption and emission of semiconductor nanoparticles to the blue (higher energies) as the size of the nanoparticles gets smaller.
Water-soluble core/shell semiconductor nanocrystals are, for instance, described in WO 00/17655.
If being compared with quantum dots, it constitutes the particular attractivity of nanocrystalline non-semiconductor-based luminescent materials, in particular, lanthanide-doped metal oxides or salts, that their fluorescent emission is relatively narrow and does not depend to a greater extent on the host material and the size of the nanoparticles. It is rather only the type of lanthanide metal which determines the emission color. PCT/DE 01/03433 assigned to the same applicants discloses a generally applicable synthesis method for lanthanide-doped nanoparticles of this type. These nanoparticles can be produced in sizes (below 30 nm) no longer interacting with the wavelength of visible light, thereby leading to transparent dispersions, e.g., in organic or aqueous solvents.
Other publications relating to lanthanide-doped non-semiconductor based luminescent nanoparticles are, for instance:    K. Riwotzki et al.: Angewandte Chemie, Int. Ed. 40, 2001, pages 573-576 with respect to LaPO4:Ce,Tb;    K. Riwotzki, M. Haase, J. Phys. Chem. B; Vol. 102, 1998, pages 10129-10135 with respect to YVO4:Eu, YVO4:Sm and YVO4:Dy;    H. Meyssamy, et al., Advanced Materials, Vol. 11, Issue 10, 1999, pages 840-844 with respect to LaPO4:Eu, LaPO4:Ce and LaPO4:Ce,Tb;    K. Riwotzki et al., J. Phys. Chem. B 2000, Vol. 104, pages 2824-2828, <<(Liquid phase synthesis doped nanoparticles: colloids of luminescent LaPO4:Eu and CePO4:Tb particles with a narrow particle size distribution>>;    M. Haase et al., Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 303-304 (2000) 191-197, "Synthesis and properties of colloidal lanthanide-doped nanocrystals";    Jan W. Stouwdam and Frank C. J. M. van Veggel, Nano Letters, ASAP article, web release May 15, 2002, "Near-infrared emission of redispersible Er3+, Nd3+ and Ho3+ doped LaF3 nanoparticles"; and    G. A. Hebbink et al., Advanced Materials 2002, 14, No. 16, pages 1147-1150, "Lanthanide(III)-doped nanoparticles that emit in the near-infrared"
Semiconductor-based nanoparticles ("quantum dots") have already been considered for use in bioassays. Bawendi et al., Physical Review Letters, 76, 1996, pages 1517-1520, report, for instance, FRET-effects in specifically labeled biological systems. Further, WO 00/29617 discloses that proteins or nucleic acids can be detected by means of "quantum dots" as label in (F)RET assays. U.S. Pat. No. 6,468,808 B1 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,326,144 B1 also describe biomolecular conjugates of quantum dots and their use in fluorescence spectroscopy.
(F)RET (fluorescence resonance energy transfer) and the related resonance energy transfer (RET) are based on the transfer of excitation energy from a donor capable of emitting fluorescence to an acceptor in close vicinity. With this technique it is possible, for instance with suitable fluorescent labels in biological systems, to determine distances on a molecular level in the range of from about 1 to 8 nm. The energy transferred to the acceptor can relax without emission by internal conversion (RET) and then leads only to the cancellation (quenching) of the donor fluorescence. Alternatively, the acceptor emits the accepted energy also in the form of fluorescence (FRET). These phenomena are well understood and, in the case of dipole-dipole interaction between donor and acceptor, can be explained by the theory of Förster (for instance, J. R. Lakowicz, Principles of Fluorescence Spectroscopy, Kluwer Academic Press, New York, 1990, pages 368-445). The energy transfer reduces the intensity of the donor fluorescence as well as its lifetime and simultaneously initiates, sensitizes, or increases the acceptor fluorescence. The efficiency of the energy transfer is dependent on the inverse 6th power of the intermolecular separation and decreases proportionally to R06/(R06+R6). R0, the so-called Förster radius characterizes that distance between donor and acceptor for which the efficiency of the energy transfer is 50%.
The F(RET) efficiency can be either determined via the fluorescence intensity of the donor with acceptor (QDA) and without acceptor (QD), respectively, by means of the equation 1−(QDA/QD) or by comparing the lifetimes of the donor in the presence (TDA) of and absence (TD) of the acceptor probe on the basis of the equation 1−(TDA/TD).
The use of "quantum dots" in bioassays suffers, however, from various disadvantages. Since the emission wavelengths of fluorescent "quantum dots" depends on the size of the particles, only a very narrow size distribution can be used. This represents a challenge for synthesis and/or size selection techniques. Moreover, "quantum dots" normally show relatively low quantum efficiencies which is caused by emission-free electron-hole pair recombinations. To overcome this deficiency, CdSe/CdS core/shell structures have been proposed wherein the CdS coating protects and enhances the photostability of the luminescent CdSe core (X. Peng et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 119, 1997, pages 7019-7029).
Typically, (F)RET-based assays are conducted with organic dye molecules, such as fluoresceine or rhodamine. For many applications a general drawback associated with these organic fluorescent dyes is their insufficient stability towards incident light. Their photo-toxicity can further damage biological material in the close environment. Other undesirable properties are their broad emission bands and the small stoke shifts, i.e. the difference between excitation and emission maximum, as well as the relatively narrow spectral excitation bands which require often the use of several light sources and/or complicated photo systems.
Accordingly, it is one object of the present invention to provide fluorescent inorganic materials which are particularly suitable for (F)RET-assays, in particular bioassays, and overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages.
It is a further object of the present invention to increase the (F)RET efficiency. A higher (F)RET efficiency increases the sensitivity of the method and improves for instance the signal/noise ratio.
In addition, (F)RET-based assays require donor molecules having high quantum yields (the ratio of emitted to absorbed protons) in order to increase the overall sensitivity of the assay. Therefore, it is a further object of the present invention to provide inorganic fluorescent particles having high quantum yields, which make them also particularly attractive for other applications than in bioassays.
According to a further object of the present invention, a specific process for the manufacture of these fluorescent materials is to be provided.
Finally, it is an object to provide a bioassay based on inorganic nanoparticulate materials.

Luminescent core/shell nanoparticles suitable for (F)RET-assays

Centrum fur Angewandte Nanotechnologie (CAN) GmbH


A dimmable fluorescent lamp including a feedback circuit for drawing sufficient current to maintain an appropriate charge across the buffer capacitor. A bypass capacitor provides a path for diverting a portion of the power which would otherwise be fed back to the buffer capacitor during low level dimming. Consequently, overboost voltages across the buffer capacitor during low level dimming are substantially reduced.

This invention relates generally to a ballast for a fluorescent lamp, and more particularly to a dimmable, single stage fluorescent lamp.
A conventional single stage fluorescent lamp, such as disclosed in PCT Patent Application No. WO 96/07297, includes a ballast having an output (i.e. inverter) stage. No additional stage, such as a switch mode power supply, is required in maintaining a sufficient D.C. voltage across a buffer capacitor. Instead, the lamp ballast includes a feedback path for drawing sufficient current from the ballast input to maintain an appropriate charge across the buffer capacitor.
Many lamp ballasts are not designed for dimming. Unacceptably high overboost voltages can occur across the buffer capacitor during low level triac dimming (e.g. at about 10% of full light output) due to too much power fed back to the buffer capacitor through the feedback path.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an improved dimmable fluorescent lamp in which the amount of power fed back to the buffer capacitor during low level dimming is reduced. The improved dimmable fluorescent lamp, in particular, should substantially reduce overboost voltages across the buffer capacitor during low level dimming.

Philips Electronics North America Corporation


The invention discloses a monolithic integrated circuit with at least one signal connection carrying a signal and with an interference suppression device integrated in the circuit to reduce radiated interference. The interference suppression device has at least one stripline having a section whose beginning is coupled to the signal connection and whose end is short-circuited, wherein a length of the section is chosen as a function of a predefinable frequency, in particular as a function of a frequency of the radiated interference that is to be suppressed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a monolithic integrated circuit having at least one signal connection carrying a signal and having an interference suppression device integrated into the circuit to reduce radiated interference.
2. Description of the Background Art
Circuits of this nature are primarily based on a shielding of elements that are to be protected from radiated interference by electrical conductors which are to be arranged with the greatest possible area around the elements in question and are to be connected to a reference potential, in particular a ground potential of the circuit.
One example of such a prior art circuit is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,307,252 B1. There, a signal conductor that is to be protected from radiated interference is enclosed on three sides by conductors that serve as shielding and are electrically connected to one another.
The described arrangement, as well as other conventional circuits that are shielded in accordance with the Faraday principle, have the disadvantage that, firstly, a relatively large metal area is used inside the integrated circuit to form shielding conductors, and secondly, no targeted reduction of radiated interference or conducted interference at specific frequencies is possible.

Monolithic integrated circuit with integrated interference suppression device


Heat is indirectly transferred between a process fluid and ambient air in apparatus that includes an evaporative heat transfer cell operative in a wet mode or a dry mode, a dry heat transfer cell and a fan. The air may bypass the dry heat transfer cell to flow through a first air passage or may flow through a second air passage through the dry heat transfer cell and in either event, then through the evaporative heat transfer cell. The air may partially flow through and partially bypass the dry heat transfer cell, and then through the evaporative heat transfer cell. The evaporative heat transfer cell optionally may include a direct contact evaporative heat exchanger.

The present invention relates to a hybrid heat exchange apparatus or unit that may be used in different modes as a dry, sensible-heat transfer unit or as an evaporative, latent heat transfer unit, or in a combination mode using both the evaporative and dry cell operation modes, and typically may be used as a condenser to condense gaseous process fluid or as a cooler to cool process fluid in the form of a liquid or non-condensable gas at the temperatures and pressures at which the apparatus is operating.
More particularly, the present invention relates to a hybrid heat exchange apparatus for indirectly transferring heat between a process fluid and ambient air and includes an evaporative heat transfer cell operative in a wet mode or a dry mode, a dry heat transfer cell and a fan for moving air from the ambient atmosphere through the apparatus. The apparatus may be controlled manually or automatically for turning on or off a distributor assembly of cooling liquid in the evaporative heat transfer cell and for controlling air flow through the apparatus. Air is controlled to bypass the dry heat transfer cell to flow through a first air passage or to flow through a second air passage through the dry heat transfer cell and then through the evaporative heat transfer cell. The air flow from the first or second air passages then flows through the evaporative heat transfer cell. The system controller also may allow the air to partially flow through and partially bypass the dry heat transfer cell and then flow through the evaporative heat transfer cell. In another embodiment, ambient air from the first or second air passages may then pass through direct contact evaporative heat exchanger in the evaporative heat transfer cell, while ambient air also flows through a third air passage directly from the ambient atmosphere through an indirect first process fluid coil assembly in the evaporative heat transfer cell. By controlling the flow based on ambient temperature and humidity conditions, the most efficient and economical control of the hybrid heat exchange apparatus can be achieved, while also avoiding potential icing and freezing problems that could otherwise exist in freezing conditions.
Various types of heat exchange apparatus are used in a variety of industries, from simple building air conditioning to industrial processing such as petroleum refining, power plant cooling, and other industries. Typically, in indirect heat exchange systems, a process fluid used any of such or other applications is subject to heating or cooling by passing internally through a coil assembly made of heat conducting material, typically a metal, such as aluminum, copper, galvanized steel or stainless steel. Heat is transferred through the walls of the heat conducting material of the coil assembly to the ambient atmosphere, or in a heat transfer apparatus, to other heat transfer fluid, typically air and/or water flowing externally over the coil assembly where heat is transferred, usually from hot processing fluid internally within the coil assembly to the cooling heat transfer fluid externally of the coil assembly, by which the processing fluid is cooled and the heat transfer fluid is warmed.
In one type of indirect heat transfer, heat is transferred to the atmosphere by dry or sensible heat transfer cells, where there are two fluids: a gas, typically in the form of an air stream externally flowing through a coil assembly of tubes, and a process fluid flowing internally through a coil assembly, which usually have fins to help dissipate the heat. Sensible heat is exchanged as the air stream passes over the coil assembly containing the process fluid stream. As used herein, this type of heat exchanger will be referred to as a "dry heat transfer cell."
In another type of indirect heat transfer, heat is transferred using indirect evaporative exchange, where there are three fluids: a gas, typically in the form of an air stream, a process fluid flowing internally through a coil assembly of tubes, and an evaporative cooling liquid, typically water, which is distributed over the exterior of the coil assembly through which the process fluid is flowing and which also contacts and mixes with the air or other gas flowing externally through the coil assembly. The process fluid first exchanges sensible heat with the evaporative liquid through indirect heat transfer between the tubes of the coil assembly, since it does not directly contact the evaporative liquid, and then the air stream and the evaporative liquid exchange heat and mass when they contact each other, resulting in more evaporative cooling. Because a cooling liquid is used, sometimes this type of heat exchange is known as a wet type of heat exchange. As used herein, this type of heat exchanger will be referred to as an "indirect evaporative heat transfer cell."
In other embodiments of an evaporative heat transfer cell, air or other gas and water or other cooling liquid may be passed through direct heat transfer media, called wet deck fill, where the water or other cooling liquid is then distributed as a thin film over the extended fill surface for maximum cooling efficiency. The air and water contact each other directly across the fill surface, whereupon a small portion of the distributed water is evaporated, resulting in direct evaporative cooling of the water, which is usually collected in a sump for recirculation over the wet deck fill and any coil assembly used in the apparatus for indirect heat exchange. As used herein, this type of heat exchanger will be referred to as a "direct contact evaporative heat exchanger."
As used herein, the term "evaporative heat transfer cell" refers generically to either or both of an "indirect evaporative heat transfer cell," and to a "direct contact evaporative heat exchanger" unless one type is specified or described more specifically. In evaporative heat transfer cells, the water or other cooling liquid and the air or other gas involved may flow in a concurrent flow (where the liquid and gas flow in the same direction), a countercurrent flow (where the liquid and gas flow in opposite directions, typically the liquid flowing downwardly and the gas flowing upwardly), or a cross-current flow, sometimes referred to as "cross flow," (where the liquid and gas flow generally transversely with respect to each other, typically the liquid flowing downwardly and the gas flowing across, sideways or generally transverse to the liquid flow direction).
Both dry and evaporative heat transfer cells are commonly used to reject heat as coolers or condensers. Thus, the apparatus of the present invention may be used as a cooler, where the process fluid is a single phase fluid, typically liquid, and often water, although it may be a non-condensable gas at the temperatures and pressures at which the apparatus is operating. The apparatus of the present invention may also be used as a condenser, where the process fluid is a two-phase or a multi-phase fluid that includes a condensable gas, such as ammonia or FREON® refrigerant or other refrigerant in a condenser system at the temperatures and pressures at which the apparatus is operating, typically as part of a refrigeration system where the process fluid is compressed and then evaporated to provide the desired refrigeration. Where the apparatus is used as a condenser, the condensate is collected in one or more condensate receivers or is transferred directly to the associated refrigeration equipment having an expansion valve or evaporator where the refrigeration cycle begins again.
In most climates, evaporative heat transfer cells offer significant process efficiency improvements over dry heat transfer cells. Evaporative coolers reject heat at temperatures approaching the lower ambient wet bulb temperatures, while dry coolers are limited to temperatures approaching the higher ambient dry bulb temperatures. In climates of lower relative humidity, the ambient wet bulb temperature may be 15° F. (−9.4° C.) to 30° F. (−1.1° C.) below the ambient design dry bulb temperature. As a result, in an evaporative cooler, the evaporative liquid stream may reach a temperature significantly lower than the ambient dry bulb temperature, offering the opportunity to increase the efficiency of the cooling process and to lower the overall process energy requirements. Evaporative condensers offer similar possibilities for increased efficiency and lower energy requirements. However, even in view of potentially increased process efficiencies and lower overall process energy requirements, evaporative cooling and evaporative condensing are often not used due to concern about consumption from evaporation of water typically used as the evaporative liquid, and the potential for the water to freeze during cold weather operation.
When designing heat exchange apparatus, both dry heat transfer cells and evaporative heat transfer cells are usually sized to perform their required heat transfer duty under the most challenging thermal conditions, typically expressed as the summer design wet bulb or dry bulb temperature. While it is often critical that the heat exchange apparatus be able to transfer the required amount of heat at these design conditions, the duration of these elevated atmospheric temperatures may account for as little as 1% of the time that the apparatus is operating. The remainder of the time, the apparatus has more capacity than required, resulting in the waste of energy and evaporative liquid.
The present invention, a hybrid heat exchange apparatus, provides more efficient heat transfer, typically cooling by heat rejection, most effectively but not exclusively, at low ambient temperature and low relative humidity, while avoiding freezing and ice formation in the apparatus.


A case body of an ink cartridge has a recording ink storage chamber containing a recording ink and a waste-ink storage chamber containing an ink coagulant. The recording ink is supplied to a recording head of an ink jet recording apparatus. A head cleaning unit collects waste-ink from the recording head and feeds it to the waste-ink storage chamber. A heater heats the waste-ink and the ink coagulant in the waste-ink storage chamber, so that the ink coagulant melts and mixes with the waste-ink. The mixture of the ink coagulant and the waste-ink is cooled and solidified into gel. The gelled mixture of the waste-ink and the ink coagulant can be easily taken out of the waste-ink storage chamber by heating to liquefy it again, facilitating recycling the case body.

An ink jet recording apparatus has been known, which has a recording head for discharging ink as droplets onto a recording paper to print an image. The ink jet recording apparatus is provided with at least an ink container containing ink, to supply the ink from the ink container to the recording head. In an example, the recording head is provided with nozzles and an oscillation plate driven by a piezoelectric element. Making use of pressure change in the nozzles, which is caused by oscillating the oscillation plate, the ink is sucked from the ink container into the nozzles, and is discharged through ink outlets of the nozzles. Because the ink is a consumable material, the ink container is often formed as a cartridge that is removably attached to the ink jet recording apparatus, so that the ink may be supplied conveniently.
In the ink jet recording apparatus, the ink can stick to the ink outlets of the nozzles as it is dried to be viscous. Paper particles from the recording paper or dusts can also stick to the ink outlets. If the ink outlets are clogged with such obstacles, the recording head cannot discharge the ink, or ejects the ink in wrong direction. Besides that, if air bubbles enter inside the nozzles, ink discharging from the outlets becomes unstable.
To avoid these troubles, many of the ink jet recording apparatuses are provided with a capping mechanism that covers the outlets of the nozzles, as arranged on a discharging surface, with a cap while the recording head is at rest, to prevent the ink from being dried at the outlets, and/or a head cleaning device, such as a vacuum recovery mechanism that sucks viscous portions of the ink or air bubbles together with the ink out of the nozzles while covering the nozzles with a cap that is connected to a suction pump, or a wiping mechanism that wipes the obstacles like sticky ink and paper particles off the discharging surface, using an elastic wiper made of rubber or the like.
The ink sucked or wiped out of the recording head, hereinafter called waste-ink, is conventionally collected, for example through the suction pump, into a waste-ink container that is removably attached to the ink jet recording apparatus. The waste-ink container is changed with another when the waste-ink accumulated in the waste-ink container gets to a certain amount. In order to prevent spilling the waste-ink from the container as it is detached from the recording apparatus, Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. Hei 10-244665 suggests inserting a high water absorbent polymer in the waste-ink container, so that the collected waste-ink is absorbed and coagulated by the polymer.
In order to make it easy and convenient for the user or operator to change the waste-ink container, it is desirable to form the waste-ink container as a cartridge, and insert a high water absorbent polymer or the like in the cartridge so as to prevent leakage of the waste-ink.
For the purpose of reducing load on the environment, the above-described ink cartridges are collected after use by the manufacturers, so as to recycle the containers of the used ink cartridges after disposing of the residual ink appropriately. As for the waste-ink container formed as a cartridge, hereinafter called the waste-ink cartridge, it is also desirable to collect and recycle the waste-ink cartridge after it is filled up with the waste-ink and removed from the ink jet printer. However, if the waste-ink is coagulated by the high water-absorbent polymer or the like in the waste-ink cartridge and the waste-ink cartridge has a tight case body for preventing leakage of the waste-ink, it is hard to take out the waste-ink from the waste-ink cartridge. In that case, the waste-ink cartridge must be disassembled to take out the waste-ink, which raises the requisite number of processes for recycling and thus raises the cost for recycling.

Ink cartridge, ink jet recording apparatus and waste-ink cartridge


The present invention provides an electro-optical device and a method of manufacturing the same capable of suppressing an influence due to an irregularity of a switching element or a wiring line on a functional element. An organic EL apparatus can include on a substrate an organic EL device, a wiring for supplying a power to the organic EL device, and a switching element. An insulating layer can be formed on the substrate, and a concave part is formed in the insulating layer to dispose the switching element.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an electro-optical device having functional elements on a substrate, a method of manufacturing the same, and an electronic apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
An organic electroluminescent display device (organic EL device) having organic electroluminescent elements corresponding to each pixel has excellent display capabilities, such as high brightness, spontaneous luminance, DC low voltage driving acceptability, high speed response, luminescence by a solid organic film, and the like. It is possible for the display device to be thinner, lighter and to have low power consumption, so thus the organic EL device is expected to be a display device placed after a liquid crystal display device in the future. In an organic EL device, an organic EL element controls power being supplied to electrodes by using a switching element such as a thin film transistor (TFT).

Electro-optical device, method of manufacturing the same, and electronic apparatus


A method and apparatus for tracking and mitigating phase noise in a communication receiver are disclosed. The phase noise tracking and mitigation apparatus operates in a recursive manner and includes a quantizer for determining data symbols from noise-compensated input values, a phase noise estimator for determining raw phase noise values from the data symbols and a first sequence of uncompensated input values, an error concealment module for removing unreliable samples from the raw phase noise values, a filter operable to filter the raw phase noise values to produce filtered phase noise values, and a phase-noise compensator for determining noise-compensated output values dependent upon the filtered phase noise values and the first sequence of uncompensated input values. Filter coefficients, and initial noise-compensated input values are determined from one or more second sequences of uncompensated input values corresponding to known symbols corrupted by phase noise.

Wireless communication in millimetre wave radio frequency bands (mmWave) provides data communication at rates of multi-gigabits per second. An example of the application is described in the IEEE 802.11ad specification for a very high throughput Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) in the 60 GHz band. Along with the benefits and potentials of communication in mmWave bands, come many challenges in hardware, software and system engineering. Phase noise is one of the prominent challenges associated with hardware impairments in both transmitters and receivers.
Wireless communication devices utilize local oscillators that provide frequency and timing signals. Phase noise is produced by phase instability, which is inherent to all local oscillators, and may be the limiting factor for the link performance of high-order modulation and coding schemes.
A variety of phase noise receiver-based mitigation schemes has been presented, but many schemes are impractical for application in single-chip RF transceivers that are developed for mobile applications with low cost, low power consumption and small footprint requirements. Some schemes assume prior knowledge of statistical properties of the phase noise, which may not be available in advance and may change with the time. Some schemes rely on decision feedback from a channel decoder and therefor introduce undesirable latency into the receiver. Other schemes use adaptive filters, such as Kalman filters, that have high complexity and risk instability. Simpler schemes, such as those based on linear interpolation, have reduced performance.
It would be useful to provide a method and apparatus for phase mitigation that is computationally efficient, robust, does not introduce excessive latency and does not require advance knowledge of phase noise characteristics.

Phase noise mitigation for wireless communications


The invention provides improved solution-phase electrochromic devices, wherein the solution of reversibly variable transmittance is tinted with a tint-providing compound, and solutions of reversibly variable transmittance for use in the improved devices of the invention. An electrochromic device of the invention can be used, for example, as the component of reversibly variable transmittance in a variable-reflectance motor vehicle mirror. Among such mirrors provided by the invention are blue-tinted mirrors.

Solution-phase electrochromic devices and various applications thereof are described in, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,902,108 (the '108 Patent), 3,806,229, and 3,451,741; U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 515,511, filed Apr. 30, 1990, and 720,170 and 720,177, both filed Jun. 25, 1991, all three of which are commonly owned with the present Application; European Patent Application Publication Nos. 0 012 419, 0 430 684, 0 430,686, and 0 435 689; and Chang, "Electrochromic and Electrochemichromic Materials and Phenomena," in Kmetz and von Willisen, eds., Non-emissive Electrooptic Displays, Pergamon Press, New York, New York, USA, pp. 155-196 (1976). All of these patents, patent applications and articles are incorporated herein by reference.
In typical solution-phase electrochromic devices, and particularly such devices which are single-compartment and self-erasing, a solution is held in a thin layer in a compartment formed by two walls, which are typically of glass or clear plastic and at least one of which (including the electrode layer described below) is transparent to light (electromagnetic radiation of wavelength in the visible range), and by spacers or sealant between, and holding apart, the two walls and forming the periphery of the compartment holding the solution. The sides, which face each other and are in contact with the solution, of the two walls are each coated with an electrode layer, which is a layer of material, such as tin oxide, tin-doped indium oxide, indium tin oxide, fluorine-doped tin oxide, gold, rhodium or the like, which is electrically conductive and forms an electrode in contact with the solution. When a sufficient potential difference is applied between the electrode layers, across the solution, the transmittance of the solution changes at at least one wavelength in the visible range and, as a consequence, the solution changes color, becomes darker, or becomes clearer. Typically, the solution in such a device will be clear or slightly colored (tinted) in its zero-potential, equilibrium state and will be darkened through electrochemical reaction(s) when a potential difference is applied. In a solution-phase device, the electrochromic compounds (those which have a change in transmittance in the visible wavelength range upon electrochemical oxidation (anodic electrochromic compound) or reduction (cathodic electrochromic compound) remain in solution upon oxidation or reduction in operation of the device. In the preferred single-compartment, self-erasing devices, there is one solution compartment, both anodic and cathodic electrochromic compounds are together in the same solution and free to diffuse throughout the entire solution, and self-erasing occurs, when there is no potential difference between the electrode layers, as oxidized anodic compound reacts with reduced cathodic compound to return both to their zero-potential equilibrium states. Solutions of variable transmittance in solution-phase electrochromic devices may comprise components in addition to solvent and electrochromic compounds. Such components may include inert, current-carrying electrolyte; thickening or gelling agents such as polymethylmethacrylate; and UV-stabilizing agents, which are compounds which inhibit degradation of the electrochromic compounds upon exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation.
In practical applications, such as dimmable rearview mirrors for motor vehicles, variable transmittance windows, or display devices, the electrochromic compounds and other components in the solutions of variable transmittance in solution-phase electrochromic devices must be stable to a range of environmental conditions (e.g., temperature variations, changes in intensity of UV radiation) and over a large number, typically on the order of at least 10,000 to 100,000, cycles of darkening and clearing (i.e., applying and removing electrochemical potential), which also may occur over a range of environmental conditions.
Generally, adding a component, particularly one which consists of a potentially reactive organic compound, to the solution of variable transmittance of a solution-phase electrochromic device, destabilizes the device to variations in environmental conditions and cycling between dark and clear states. This destabilization may occur, for example, on account of chemical reactions of the added component, with oxidized anodic or reduced cathodic electrochromic compound, that result in degradation of the electrochromic compound. Such destabilization generally disadvantageously reduces the cycle life of a solution-phase electrochromic device, i.e., the number of times the device can be varied in transmittance to light by application of a potential between the electrodes and returning the potential (across the solution) to zero or near zero and retain, in the cycling, an acceptable change in transmittance. Reduction in the cycle life of an electrochromic device reduces, and may eliminate, the practical value and commercial acceptability of the device, the solution of variable transmittance employed in the device, or apparatus, which employ the device as a component of variable transmittance.
Some commercially available, sideview or outside rearview mirrors for use on motor vehicles have a blue tint (a slightly blue coloration). The associated, enhanced reflectance on the blue end of the visible light spectrum, as compared to the green, yellow and red portions of the spectrum, has been purported to improve rear vision at night, because the spectral sensitivity of the human eye is somewhat shifted to the blue end of the spectrum on going from day (photopic) vision to night (scotopic) vision. Blue-tinted mirrors, as compared to achromatic mirrors, may have some effect on glare from headlights of following vehicles at night since these mirrors tend to reflect less of the longer wavelength green, yellow and red light that predominates in most motor vehicle headlights and provide better contrast by enhanced reflectance of the shorter wavelength blue light which is more abundant in reflected moonlight and certain types of street lights than in headlights. In addition, since blue tinted mirrors have generally appeared on luxury vehicles, the blue tint of the mirrors has come to be associated with luxury or elegance.
With electrochromic, dimmable, outside rearview mirrors, the concern for glare from following-vehicle headlights is significantly diminished, because the reflectance of the electrochromic mirror can be reduced to levels where little or no glare is perceived by drivers during night driving. However, presumably because of the luxury or elegance factor associated with conventional (non-electrochromic) rearview motor vehicle mirrors, the desire for a blue tint in the high reflectance state of the dimmable, electrochromic mirrors, especially those to be used outside the vehicle, has remained.
The blue tint of conventional mirrors can be obtained by using colored coatings in contact with the reflector or by placing interference coatings, which reflect predominantly blue light, on a flat substrate like a sheet of glass. Similar types of colored or interference coatings could be placed somewhere in the structure of an electrochromic rearview mirror, but this would be undesirable because it would add cost and complicate manufacturing.
A problem in the art, then, has been to find a way to conveniently add desirable tints (slight colorations) to solution-phase electrochromic devices in their zero-potential, equilibrium states. With such devices used as variable transmittance components of variable reflectance ("dimmable") rearview mirrors for motor vehicles, a desired tint is blue. With such devices employed as the variable transmittance components in other types of variable transmittance or variable reflectance apparatus, tints of colors other than blue (e.g., yellow) are sometimes desirable.

Tinted solution-phase electrochromic devices


A system for providing high resolution image output for pilotage and two color operation for threat detection is disclosed. The system comprises a focal plane array comprising a plurality of pixels arranged into groups of equal numbers, wherein each pixel comprises at least two detectors for receiving electromagnetic energy and a readout integrated circuit.

Digital detection of visual and infrared (IR) images is a very widely used technology, having applications ranging from consumer-oriented cameras and video apparatuses to law enforcement and military equipment. For virtually all of these applications, there is a growing demand for higher image pixel counts, higher pixel density, increased sensitivity, improved dynamic range, lower power consumption, faster image processing, and the ability to switch between modes offering different balances of these characteristics, dependent on the requirements present at a given time.
At the heart of all digital imaging systems, which may be referred to generally as Solid State Area Array Imaging Devices (SSAAIDs), is the Focal Plane Array ("FPA"), which is a two-dimensional array of elements upon which an image is focused, whereby each of the FPA elements or "pixels" develops an analog output "signal charge" that is proportional to the intensity of the electromagnetic radiation that is impinging on it after a given interval of time. This signal charge can then be stored, measured, and used to produce an image.
The storage and measurement of the electromagnetic radiation that has impinged on a pixel over a given amount of time is accomplished using a Read-Out Integrated Circuit (ROIC). Some existing digital pixel Read-Out Integrated Circuits (ROICs), such as that shown in FIG. 1, use counter latches for both storage and readout of data, preventing simultaneous readout and integration. This reduces the time available for both integration and readout, reducing sensitivity and increasing required data rates for moving information off of the chip, respectively.
Furthermore, some existing digital pixel ROICs use counter laches for coarse conversion only. Coarse conversion only limits dynamic range and resolution while increasing power. While adding a separate fine conversion counter would allow counter laches to be used for both coarse and fine conversions, this would also increase pixel size and/or the number of ROIC layers when using traditional counter laches. While these issues might be mitigated through the use of stacked digital layers, this would result in significantly more expensive fabrication and assembly processes. Moving to a smaller geometry (e.g. a 14 nm process) might mitigate such issues, but would also be very expensive.
Still further, attempts to support simultaneous, dual-mode operation, for example, the ability to support a high-resolution mode for pilotage and a two-color mode for threat detection simultaneously, is not possible for smaller pixel sizes using the aforementioned current systems and techniques, including stacking of layers. This is, in part, due to the counters used in current pixel and FPA designs not being able to handle the additional information and rolling over, leading to uncertainty in the signal magnitude.
What is needed, therefore, are systems and methods for enabling simultaneous, high-resolution image output and two-color operation that are scalable down to relatively small pixel sizes.

BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc.