The invention provides automatic machinery with the capability to communicate to an operator or technician or other machine user with a description of a machine condition, such as, for example, a machine problem, if the machine requires attention.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to communicating diagnostic information about machines and systems to an operator, technician or other user.
2. Description of Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 5,414,494, to Aliens, et al., incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, discloses a method of automatic notification of diagnostic information concerning status and condition of a copy machine to selected remote devices. During operation of the copy machine, a controller continually scans and monitors appropriate memory locations for selected conditions, such as, for example, various jam and malfunction conditions or recorded cumulative numbers of such conditions. When a particular condition or threshold is reached as a result of machine control monitoring of the machine sensors and switches, or a coincidence of present machine conditions with stored reference or reporting conditions occurs, the copy machine will trigger an automatic transmission or notification to selected remote stations. Upon detecting any given condition, such as an out of paper condition, a predetermined fault condition, or an end of job, the machine automatically initiates a call to a pager using a modem, then sends one or more coded message to the pagers, including codes which represents the condition diagnosed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,875 to Weinberger discloses a system for automatically and remotely monitoring the operational status of one or more copy machines to permit identifying copiers with operational problems to create service requests for those copy machines. Weinberger uses a central processing unit which is remotely located from the copiers in a separate computer.
In various exemplary embodiment of the systems and methods according to this invention, in which a single machine is used, a diagnostic machine condition signal is generated for a plurality of different conditions. Each different condition or category of conditions is transmitted to a user on a different frequency. The signals may be modulated to carry voice messages or codes for radio receivers and voice and/or written messages for pagers.
A machine user or technician can be provided with a transceiver in the form of a headset, with earphones, and possibly a microphone. In this manner, a user or technician can listen to a voice message. If the user is provided with a microphone, the user can send a voice message, or other control signal, back to the machine to cause a change in the condition detected or otherwise affect the machine such as, for example, to turn off the machine or a portion of the machine or have the machine run self-diagnostic tests. Alternatively, the user or technician can simply go to the machine and manually address the condition the machine apprised the user or technician of. In other exemplary embodiments, a wireless telephone may be used if the transmitter is fitted with an automatic dialing and message unit which plays a message to the user or technician after the user or technician answers the telephone, whether the telephone is wired or wireless. If a pager is used, then a message can be sent to the pager for viewing by the user or technician.
When plural machines are involved, each machine may be provided with a transceiver. Each machine""s transceiver may operate at a different frequency or group or frequencies from the other machines to provide a method of identifying which machine""s signal is being received by a user or technician. Additionally, each condition diagnosed and transmitted to a user or technician may additionally operate at a different frequency. The different condition frequencies will differ for each machine but will be within the unique range of frequencies transmitted by a particular machine.
In various other exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods according to this invention, a transmission frequency is selected to (1) select the status or identity of the recipient, such as, for example, an operator, a technician, or some other user, based on the type of attention needed by the machine, (2) the priority of, attention needed by the machine, (3) the location of an available attention provider, and/or (4) to reduce or avoid interference among transmission frequencies.
In various other exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods according to this invention, the machines are allowed to communicate with each other so that, for example, a machine closest to a machine user or technician may be used to transmit and/or display operational information from another machine. Alternatively, in various other exemplary embodiments, one or more machines are selected to receive diagnostic information signals from other machines and configured to more effectively or efficiently transmit that information to a user or technician. The one or more selected machines can also be configured to send signals to the other machines from which diagnostic information is received, for example, to turn the other machines off, place the other machines in a standby status, or to have the other machines perform self-maintenance procedures.
This invention is not limited to a wired connection between the machines and a user terminal and is not limited to using a wireless pager. For example, various exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods of this invention use cellular phones, modems, loud speakers, and/or alarms, as well as pagers and modems.
In various other exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods according to this invention, a machine user or technician is provided with a frequency scanner S to monitor all of the frequency transmission channels of the machines, so that the user or technician will almost immediately be aware of a diagnostic information signal being sent from one or more of the machines as well as the nature of the condition being diagnosed. However, where a single signal transceiving machine is used to communicate with the other machines and is the only machine which sends a signal to a machine user or technician, a scanner need not be used unless the single signal transceiving machine users more than one transmitting frequency.
These and other features and advantages of this invention are described in, or are apparent from, the following detailed description of various exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods according to this invention.

System to communicate information from a plurality of machines to a remotely located receiver


An ultra wide angle zoom lens for a projection display system including a liquid crystal panel displaying an image; a second lens group having a positive refractive power, formed by combination of two or more lenses, and correcting chromatic and spherical aberrations of incident light from the liquid crystal panel; a total reflection mirror reflecting the incident light from the second lens group in a predetermined direction; and a first lens group having a negative refractive power, formed by combination of two or more lenses, and correcting distortion and astigmatism of the incident light from the total reflection mirror. Here, a projection lens is constructed so that a magnification of the projection lens is adjusted by movement of the second lens group along an optical axis, and the first lens group is moved forward and backward according to the adjusted magnification of the projection lens so that lens focusing can be adjusted.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a projection optical system, and more particularly, to an ultra wide angle zoom lens for a rear projection television (TV), which can be used in all fields irrespective of a thickness and display screen size of a TV system.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Recently, with the increase in demand for large-size screens and high-definition images, projection systems that enlarge and project small images using a projection lens have gained popularity. The projection systems are roughly classified into a front projection system and a rear projection system depending on a direction of an image projected on a screen. The rear projection system has received much attention due to its advantageous ability of displaying relatively bright images even in bright surroundings.
An example of the rear projection system includes a projection TV. In the projection TV, a cathode ray tube (CRT) mode has been mainly used as a light source for displaying small images. However, it is difficult to construct a slim-size projection TV having the CRT mode due to a size of the CRT. For this reason, it is difficult to provide a large-size screen, a slim depth and the luminance required for high resolution in the projection TV.
To solve such problems, a projection TV based on a flat display, that can provide a large-size screen at a thin thickness, has been suggested.
Examples of the flat display include a liquid crystal display (LCD), a plasma display panel (PDP), a field emission display (FED), and an electro-luminescence (EL) device.
Among them, the projection TV using the LCD projects light emitted from a light source onto the LCD and displays an image of a liquid crystal panel on a screen using a projection lens system. Since the image is enlarged and projected on the screen using the liquid crystal panel of high image quality and a small size, a large-size screen image can be easily provided along with a slim-sized projection system. Moreover, the projection display system based on a liquid crystal panel can provide relatively high resolution and high luminance compared to the CRT. Therefore, a large-sized screen can be provided.
The projection display system based on a liquid crystal panel includes an optical engine, a total reflection mirror and a screen. The optical engine includes an illuminating system, a liquid crystal panel and a projection lens system.
In the projection display system, the illuminating system generates light and irradiates the generated light onto the liquid crystal panel. The liquid crystal panel displays an image by controlling transmissivity of incident light from the lighting system in accordance with an image signal. The projection lens system enlarges and projects the image from the liquid crystal panel and displays the image on the screen, thereby enabling a viewer to view the image displayed on a screen.
In this case, the image projected by the projection lens system is totally reflected by the total reflection mirror to change a light path. The image reflected by the total reflection mirror moves through the changed light path to the screen and then is displayed on the screen. If the projected image is directly projected from the rear of the screen without any change of the light path by the total reflection mirror, the thickness of the system becomes great. Accordingly, it is desirable to change the light path using the total reflection mirror so as to reduce the thickness of the system.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a related art projection display system based on a liquid display panel.
Referring to FIG. 1, the related art projection display system includes an illuminating system, a liquid crystal panel and a projection lens system. The illuminating system includes a light source having an elliptical or parabolic reflection mirror 10 and a lamp 12, first and second fly eye lenses (FEL) 22 and 24, a polarizing beam splitter array (PBS array) 26 and a condensing lens 28 arranged between the light source 12 and a first dichroic mirror 30. The liquid crystal panel includes dichroic mirrors 30 and 34 and total reflection mirrors 32, 38 and 42. The projection lens system includes a dichroic prism 46 and a projection lens 48. Additionally, the projection display system further includes first and second relay lenses 36 and 40, Red/Green/Blue (RGB) liquid crystal panels 44R, 44G and 44B, and a screen 50.
An operation of the projection display system will now be described in detail with reference to FIG. 1.
Referring again to FIG. 1, visible lights emitted from the lamp 12 are reflected by the elliptical or parabolic reflection mirror 10 and move to the first FEL 22. The first FEL 22 divides incident lights on a cell basis and focuses the divided lights upon respective cells of the second FEL 24. The second FEL 24 converts incident lights into parallel lights and sends them to the PBS array 26. The PBS array 26 splits incident lights into linearly polarized lights having the same axis, namely a P-wave and an S-wave, and then converts the P-wave into an S-wave by a wavelength plate attached partially on its rear surface.
Accordingly, incident lights are all converted into linearly polarized lights of one direction, namely S-waves, whereby nearly all the lights emitted from the light source are inputted to the RGB liquid crystal panels 44R, 44G and 44B. At this time, the condensing lens 28 condenses lights outputted from the PBS array 26 to the liquid crystal panels 44.
The first and second dichroic mirrors 30 and 34 are arranged between the condensing lens 28 and the RGB liquid crystal panels 44R, 44G and 44B.
That is, the first total reflection mirror 32 and the red liquid crystal panel 44R are arranged to one side of the first dichroic mirror 30, and the second dichroic mirror 34 is arranged to another side of the first dichroic 30.
The green liquid crystal panel 44G is arranged to one side of the second dichroic mirror 34, and the first relay lens 36, the second total reflection mirror 38, the second relay lens 40, the third total reflection mirror 42 and the blue liquid crystal panel 44B are arranged to another side of the second dichroic mirror 34.
The dichroic prism 46 is arranged on three surfaces of the RGB liquid crystal panels 44R, 44G, and 44B, and the projection lens 48 and the screen 50 are arranged to the remaining side of the dichroic prism 46.
At this time, the total reflection mirror 32 totally reflects red light from the first dichroic mirror 30 to thereby transmit the reflected red light to the red liquid crystal panel 44R. Here, the red liquid crystal panel 44R is a transmissive LCD, which transmits the red light transmitted by the first total reflection mirror 32 to the dichroic prism 46.
Also, the second dichroic mirror 34 reflects a green light out of the lights having passed through the first dichroic mirror 30 while transmitting a blue light out of the lights having passed through the first dichroic mirror 30. Accordingly, the green light reflected by the second dichroic mirror 34 is transmitted to the green liquid crystal panel 44G. Here, the green liquid crystal panel 44G is a transmissive LCD, which transmits the green light transmitted by the second dichroic mirror 34 to the dichroic prism 46.
Also, the blue light having passed through the second dichroic mirror 34 is transmitted through the first relay lens 36, the second total reflection mirror 38, the second relay lens 40 and the third total reflection mirror 42 to the blue liquid crystal panel 44B. In this case, the first and second relay lenses 36 and 40 are field lenses, which delay a focus of the blue light prior to transmission of the blue light to the blue liquid crystal panel 44B. Here, the blue liquid crystal panel 44B is a transmissive LCD, which transmits the blue light transmitted by the third total reflection mirror 42 to the dichroic prism 46.
In this manner, the RGB liquid crystal panels 44R, 44G and 44B respectively reproduce a light image of each color by means of the received R, G and B lights in accordance to an image signal. In this case, an S-wave inputted to each of the RGB liquid crystal panels 44R, 44G and 44B is converted into a P-wave by each liquid crystal panel.
In this manner, the dichroic prism 46 combines received red, green and blue lights by using three-color image information from the RGB liquid crystal panels 44R, 44G and 44B. That is, the dichroic prism 46 reflects red and blue lights toward the projection lens 48 while transmitting a green light to the projection lens 48, thereby combining red, green and blue images.
Thereafter, the projection lens 48 enlarges the images from the dichroic prism 46 to then project the enlarged images on the screen 50.
The so-constructed projection display system can be small and lightweight.
Additionally, research for reducing the thickness of the projection display system while increasing its screen size, have been conducted. To make the size of the screen large and reduce the thickness of the system, it is necessary to decrease a projection distance between the screen 50 and the projection lens 48.
For this, the projection lens system includes a first lens group having a positive refractive power, and a second lens group having a negative refractive power. At this time, a total reflection mirror for changing the light path is disposed between the first lens group and the second lens group to form an "L" shaped projection lens system, whereby the thickness and the height of the system can be reduced.
However, in the "L" shaped projection lens system, the negative refractive power of the second lens group is great in order to obtain a short projection distance. Accordingly, aberrations such as distortion, coma, and astigmatism greatly occur.

Ultra wide angle zoom lens in projection display system


To broadcast different types of transmission having different tiers of coverage in a wireless broadcast network, each base station processes data for a wide-area transmission in accordance with a first mode (or coding and modulation scheme) to generate data symbols for the wide-area transmission and processes data for a local transmission in accordance with a second mode to generate data symbols for the local transmission. The first and second modes are selected based on the desired coverage for wide-area and local transmissions, respectively. The base station also generates pilots and overhead information for local and wide-area transmissions. The data, pilots, and overhead information for local and wide-area transmissions are multiplexed onto their transmission spans, which may be different sets of frequency subbands, different time segments, or different groups of subbands in different time segments. More than two different types of transmission may also be multiplexed and broadcast.

I. Field
The present invention relates generally to communication, and more specifically to data transmission in a wireless communication network.
II. Background
Wireless and wireline broadcast networks are widely deployed to provide various contents to a large group of users. A common wireline broadcast network is a cable network that delivers multimedia content to a large number of households. A cable network typically includes headends and distribution nodes. Each headend receives programs from various sources, generates a separate modulated signal for each program, multiplexes the modulated signals for all of the programs onto an output signal, and sends its output signal to the distribution nodes. Each program may be distributed over a wide geographic area (e.g., an entire state) or a smaller geographic area (e.g., a city). Each distribution node covers a specific area within the wide geographic area (e.g., a community). Each distribution node receives the output signals from the headends, multiplexes the modulated signals for the programs to be distributed in its coverage area onto different frequency channels, and sends its output signal to households within its coverage area. The output signal for each distribution node typically carries both national and local programs, which are often sent on separate modulated signals that are multiplexed onto the output signal.
A wireless broadcast network transmits data over the air to wireless devices within the coverage area of the network. A wireless broadcast network is different from a wireline broadcast network in several key regards. First, signals transmitted by different base stations in the wireless broadcast network interfere with one another if these signals are not the same. In contrast, the output signal of each distribution node is sent on dedicated cables and thus experiences no interference from other distribution nodes. Second, each base station in the wireless broadcast network typically transmits a single radio frequency (RF) modulated signal that carries data for all programs being broadcast by that base station. In contrast, each distribution node in the wireline broadcast network may multiplex individual modulated signals for different programs onto different frequency channels. Because of these differences, the techniques used to distribute programs in a wireline broadcast network are generally not applicable for a wireless broadcast network.
There is therefore a need in the art for a wireless broadcast network that can efficiently broadcast different types of content with different coverage areas.

Local and wide-area transmissions in a wireless broadcast network


The present invention provides a method of depositing a metal film on a substrate in a non-oxidizing atmosphere and then forming a metal oxide film by oxidizing the metal film in an oxidizing atmosphere.

The present invention relates to methods of manufacturing semiconductor devices having a gate insulating film made of a high dielectric constant material.
In recent years, advances have been made in reducing the size of MOSFETs (metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors) that use silicon dioxide (SiO2: relative dielectric constant ε=3.9) or the like as the gate insulating film. As the size of the MOSFET is made progressively smaller, however, the capacitance (in other words, the gate insulating film capacitance) of the MOSFET drops, and as a result, the MOSFET no longer operates. Consequently, one solution that has been proposed for keeping the capacitance of the MOSFET from dropping is to reduce the film thickness of the gate insulating film of the MOSFET. However, if silicon dioxide is used as the gate insulating film, then reducing the thickness of the gate insulating film leads to the problem of increased gate leak current caused by tunneling current, and the MOSFET loses its ability to function as a transistor. As a result, it becomes difficult to further reduce the thickness of the gate insulating film. In other words, it is necessary that the film thickness of the gate insulating film of a MOSFET is kept above a certain level in order to prevent the capacitance of the MOSFET from dropping.
However, maintaining the film thickness of the gate insulating film above a certain level does not solve the problem of a drop in the capacitance of the MOSFET. Accordingly, another conceivable method for solving this problem is the use of a high-dielectric constant material (metal oxide) such as hafnium oxide (HfO2: relative dielectric constant ε=approximately 30) or zirconium oxide (ZrO2: relative dielectric constant ε=approximately 25) as the material for the gate insulating film. Using a metal oxide that has a high dielectric constant for the gate insulating film allows the physical film thickness to be increased while achieving a thin EOT (equivalent oxide (SiO2) thickness). To date, gate insulating films employing ZrO2, for example, have been disclosed (T. Yamaguchi et al., Study on Zr-Silicate Interfacial Layer of ZrO2-MIS Structure Fabricated by Pulsed Laser Ablation Deposition Method, Extended Abstracts of the 2000 International Conference on Solid State Devices and Materials, Sendai, Japan, August 2000, pg 228 to 229).
FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view showing a conventional semiconductor device manufacturing method. More specifically, it shows is a method of forming a metal oxide film as the gate insulating film. Here, a device capable of performing sputtering is employed as the film deposition system. As shown in FIG. 11, a substrate 1 made of silicon is placed inside a chamber (not shown) of the film deposition system. Hafnium (Hf) metal is employed as the target 11. Also, a gas mixture 12 including argon (Ar) gas and oxygen (O2) gas is filled into the chamber. When a voltage is applied inside the chamber filled with the gas mixture 12, an electrical discharge occurs within the chamber, and this results in the formation of a metal oxide film 2 on the silicon substrate 1 due to reactive sputtering. If Hf metal is employed as the target 11, then the metal oxide film 2 that is formed directly on the silicon substrate 1 is theoretically a hafnium oxide film (HfO2). By controlling the sputtering time, an HfO2 thin film of about 3 to 10 nm thickness can be obtained as the metal oxide film 2.
However, in conventional methods for forming metal oxide films, the silicon substrate 1 and the metal oxide film 2, that is, the HfO2 film, are exposed to an atmosphere that includes oxygen gas (the gas mixture 12 in FIG. 11). Consequently, as shown in FIG. 12, in practice, silicon diffuses from the silicon substrate 1 into the HfO2 film and oxygen diffuses from the gas mixture into the HfO2 film and the silicon substrate 1. As a result, as illustrated in FIG. 13, an interface layer 3 is formed between the silicon substrate 1 and the metal oxide film 2 made of the HfO2 film. This interface layer 3 is conceivably a silicon-rich silicate (SixMyO2, where M is a metal (Hf in the case of FIG. 13) and x+y=1 (x>0, y>0)).
In other words, in conventional methods of forming metal oxide films, two layers, that is, a low-dielectric constant interface layer 3 and a high-dielectric constant HfO2 thin film (metal oxide film 2), are formed on the silicon substrate 1. This means that a capacitor with a low capacitance and a capacitor with a high capacitance are connected in series, and the overall capacitance of the transistor is dictated by the capacitance of the capacitor with the lower capacitance. Consequently, even if attempts are made to increase the capacitance by using a material that has a high dielectric constant, if an interface layer is formed on the substrate, then the capacitance of the entire transistor (that is, the entire gate insulating film including the interface layer) drops, and as a result, MOSFET performance cannot be increased.

Semiconductor device manufacturing method

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


The present invention relates to the use of p38 MAP kinase inhibitors and p38 MAP kinase inhibition to promote wound healing.

In mammals, injury triggers an organised complex cascade of cellular and biochemical events that result in a healed wound. Wound healing is a complex dynamic process that results in the restoration of anatomic continuity and function; an ideally healed wound is one that has returned to normal anatomic structure, function and appearance.
Mark R. Frey, Anastasia Golovin, and D. Brent Polk (2004) J. Biol. Chem., 10.1074/jbc.M406253200 (published online ahead of print Aug. 16, 2004) "EGF-stimulated intestinal epithelial cell migration requires Src family kinase-dependent p38 MAPK signaling" discloses that genetic or pharmacological blockade of p38 signaling in the intestinal epithelium inhibited the ability of EGF to accelerate wound closure.
The purpose of this invention is to actively promote/enhance the wound healing process, as delayed or compromised wound healing remains a significant unmet need.


The present invention provides a method for inspecting a panel-bonding semi-finished product, which includes (1) placing a panel-bonding semi-finished product on a tray in a feeding station; (2) using a conveyance mechanism to convey the tray and the panel-bonding semi-finished product to a final display test station; (3) proceeding with a final display test on the panel-bonding semi-finished product and ending the test if the result fails and proceeding to the next step if the result passes; (4) conveying the tray and the panel-bonding semi-finished product to a final visual check station; (5) proceeding with final visual check for the panel-bonding semi-finished product that passes the final display test and if the result fails, ending the inspection and if the result passes, then proceeding to the next step; (6) conveying the tray and the panel-bonding semi-finished product to a quality inspection station; (7) proceeding with quality inspection on the panel-bonding semi-finished product; (8) conveying the tray and the panel-bonding semi-finished product to a packaging station; and (9) proceeding with packaging of the panel-bonding semi-finished product.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of liquid crystal displaying technology, and in particular to a method for inspecting a semi-finished product of panel bonding.
2. the Related Arts
Liquid crystal displays have a variety of advantages, such as thin device body, low power consumption, and being free of radiation, and are thus widely used. Most of the liquid crystal displays that are currently available in the market are backlighting liquid crystal displays, which comprise a liquid crystal panel and a backlight module. The operation principle of the liquid crystal panel is that, with liquid crystal molecules interposed between two parallel glass substrates, a driving voltage is applied to the two glass substrates to control the rotation direction of liquid crystal molecules in order to refract out light emitting from the backlight module for generating images. Since the liquid crystal panel itself does not emit light, light must be provided by the backlight module in order to normally display images. Thus, the backlight module is one of the key components of a liquid crystal display. The backlight modules can be classified in two types, namely a side-edge backlight module and a direct backlight module, according to the position where light gets incident. The direct backlight module comprises a light source, such as a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL) or a light-emitting diode (LED), which is arranged at the backside of the liquid crystal panel to form a planar light source directly supplied to the liquid crystal panel. The side-edge backlight module comprises an LED light bar, serving as a backlight source, which is arranged at an edge of a backplane to be located rearward of one side of the liquid crystal panel. The LED light bar emits light that enters a light guide plate (LGP) through a light incident face at one side of the light guide plate and is projected out of a light emergence face of the light guide plate, after being reflected and diffused, to pass through an optic film assembly to form a planar light source for the liquid crystal panel.
In the contemporary liquid crystal display manufacturing industry, after a bonding process of a liquid crystal panel, a semi-finished of which circuitry has been bonded will be shipped to a client to allow the client to carry out assembly of the panel and a backlight board. As such, the operation cost of the company and the manufacture cost of the client can be lowered down. Thus, shipment by semi-finished products is now the main stream of sales in the industry.
Referring to FIG. 1, heretofore, in the manufacturing of a semi-finished product of panel bonding, after the bonding operation, a tray and a cassette are used to bear a bonded product and an operator uses a cart to convey the semi-finished product to a display voltage adjustment and test station, where adjustment and test of voltage is carried out by using A P-gamma chip, and then conveyed to a final display (FD) test station to carry out operations of display checking, product classification evaluation, and posting. Afterwards, the operator moves the product to a packaging station to carry out operations of manual retrieval of panel, posting and barcode pasting, final visual (FV) check, quality inspection, panel disposition, packaging, and box barcode pasting, to thereby completing the processing of the semi-finished product before shipment.
However, during the manufacturing of a panel-bonding semi-finished product, various problems exit, including the test time carried out by using the P-gamma chip being long, making it not possible to satisfy the needs for test space of the P-gamma chip, all steps being not in synchronization with each other, and operators needing to wait, leading to low manufacture efficiency and insufficient throughput. With the increasing size expansion of the liquid crystal panel, the operation difficulty of operators will raised and various problems, such as panel breaking and damage of product caused by electro-static discharge (ESD), may occur during conveyance and pick-up and placing of panels and inspection operations of the panels, so that it is hard to ensure the yield rate of the semi-finished products. In light of these shortcomings, no improvement has been yet developed in the liquid crystal display manufacturing industry.

Method for inspecting panel-bonding semi-finished product

Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd


A method to overcome a disadvantage that the signal charges decrease depending upon the storage time in a photo-electric conversion unit of a solid-state image pickup device. At the moment t2 when a prescribed exposure time (t1−t2) passes, the incident light is cut off by a cut off means such as a mechanical shutter of an interlace solid-state image pickup device. Then, at the time t3, a voltage VBsub is applied to N− semiconductor substrate 107 to raise up the potential barrier Δφ of the vertical OFD for the signal charges, whereby the leakage of the signal charges due to the self-induced drift, or the thermal diffusion is suppressed. Then, signal charges are read out from the odd lines at the time t4, and signal charges are read out from the even lines at the time t5.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for driving solid-state image pickup devices.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When a color VTR (video tape recorder) camera for an interlace signal for the standard TV receiver is used for a solid-state image pickup devices such as a electronic still camera, or an image input device for personal computers, a signal processing for converting the pixel number and the scanning format is required, because the progressive format for monitors of personal computers is different from the interlace format.
Therefore, the progressive format solid-state image pickup devices which can read out all the pixels without the conversion processes are employed for the electronic still camera or the input device for the personal computers.
Nevertheless, the interlace format solid-state image pickup devices are used often, because they can be manufactured by fewer steps, their image cells can be highly integrated, and they can be used also as the color VTR camera, as described in TAKEMURA Hiroo "CCD Camera Technique" Radio Gijutu Co., Showa 61 (1986) Nov. 3, First Edition, pp 23–30, pp46–50.
There is shown in FIG. 7 a plan view of a conventional interlace solid-state image pickup device with a vertical charge transfer unit wherein signal charges are transferred by double layered electrodes and four phased pulses.
The conventional interlace solid-state image pickup device as shown in FIG. 7 comprises photo-electric conversion unit 101, vertical charge transfer unit 102, horizontal charge transfer unit 103, and output circuit 104. Concretely, one step vertical charge transfer unit 102 is connected with two horizontal photo-electric conversion units 101, or in other words, 1/2 step vertical charge transfer unit 102 is connected with one horizontal photo-electric conversion units 101.
There is shown in FIG. 8 a plan view of enlarged cells which comprises photoelectric conversion unit 101, vertical charge transfer unit 102, first charge transfer electrode 105, and second charge transfer electrode 106.
There is shown in FIG. 9 a cross sectional view of the cells along the lines I-I′ of FIG. 8. The cell as shown in FIG. 9 comprises N− semiconductor substrate 107, P− semiconductor substrate 108, N semiconductor region 109, P+ semiconductor 110, first charge transfer electrode 105 of first poly-silicon 111, second charge transfer electrode 106 of second poly-silicon 112, shading film 113 such as aluminum film, insulating film 114, and cover insulating film 115.
The conventional interlace solid-state image pickup device operates under the timing chart as shown in FIG. 10.
Firstly, in order to reset the charges in photo-electric conversion unit 101 at t1, a reverse bias voltage VHsub is applied to N−semiconductor substrate 107 as shown in FIG. 11. Hereupon, the charges in photo-electric conversion unit 101 are swept out into N−semiconductor substrate 107, because N semiconductor region 109 and P−semiconductor region 108 become complete depletion layers. Such an structure is generally called a vertical over-flow drain (OFD) structure as described in Journal of Television Society Vol. 37, No.10 (1983) pp782–787.
Next, a voltage VBsub is applied to N− semiconductor substrate 107 to start storing signal charges corresponding to the incident light, while surplus charges which can not be stored in photo-electric conversion unit 101 are excluded into N−semiconductor substrate 107 by using vertical OFD. Such an exclusion of the surplus charges is called blooming control.
Next, at the moment t2 when a prescribed exposure time (t1−t2) passes, the incident light is cut off by a cut off means such as a mechanical shutter which is positioned in front of the solid-state image pickup device.
Then, at the time t4, signal charges, for example, such as signal charges 11,12,13,31,32,33,51,52,53 in photo-electric conversion unit 101 are read out into vertical charge transfer units 102 which transfer vertically the signal charges line by line into horizontal charge transfer unit 103 which transfers the signal charges horizontally to output them from output circuit 104.
Finally, at the time t5, signal charges, for example, such as signal charges 21,22,23,41,42,43,61,62,63 in photo-electric conversion unit 101 are read out into vertical charge transfer units 102 and then outputted likewise from output circuit 104. Thus, the signal charges from all of the pixels for one frame of display can be acquired, as described in TAKEMURA Hiroo "CCD Camera Technique" Radio Gijutu Co., Showa 61 (1961) Nov. 3, First Edition, pp23–30, pp46–50.
However, the above-mentioned conventional device has a disadvantage that the read out saturation signal decreases with increasing read out cycles wherein the photo-electric conversion unit is read out several times part by part.

Method for driving solid-state image pickup device


In an ATM network, a traffic management system is provided to allow simple nd effective implementation of rate-based available bit rate, or ABR, flow control at ATM switches, with the subject system using an innovative queue length based approach to calculate the cell rate that a source system can use to send cells. In one embodiment, the cell rate is calculated as an exponential function of the cell queue length at a switch, and the rate value is carried back to a source system via resource management, or RM, cells. The exponential rate calculation function provides a large stability region for a network for better flow control performance than other systems, with the subject system being easy to implement in ATM switches.

In transmission of data over a cell switched digital communication network, such as an asynchronous transfer mode or ATM network, problems arise when multiple sources send data cells at widely varying rates through a switch node or link of the network at an aggregated rate which taxes the ability of that switch node or link to handle the data. Congestion occurs at the node of a network when data arrives at the node at a rate exceeding the rate at which the node can process and forward the data to other nodes. The excess data then accumulates in buffer storage at the node, which fills at a rate which is the difference between the arrival rate and the processing and forwarding rate. If the congestion persists for long periods of time, the buffer storage will be filled to maximum capacity and any additional data must be discarded.
In an effort to minimize such data loss, an available bit rate or ABR flow control scheme has been developed to prevent or inhibit excess data from entering the network. With ABR flow control, the rate at which the data is permitted to enter the network is controlled to not exceed an allowable cell rate, or ACR, and this ACR is adjusted via a feedback signal, usually in a form of resource management, or RM, cells from a network reflecting the congestion of the network. One such ABR flow control scheme is described in an ATM Forum document af-tm-0056.000 entitled "Traffic Management Specification Version 4.0" authored by the ATM Forum Technical Committee, April 1996.
However, the ABR flow control scheme described in the above ATM Forum document describes mostly the source and destination system behaviors and leaves the switch system behavior unspecified. Although several example switch mechanisms have existed in the past, these mechanisms are either known to not work well, e.g., with fairness and stability problems, or are complicated to implement in switches, e.g., requiring accurate estimation of the ABR traffic load and fair sharing of bandwidth for each ABR connection. Furthermore, none of the switch mechanisms have analytical proof for stability and performance. Most of them were only shown to work by simulations in very small scale networks under very limited traffic conditions. In order to have a complete ABR flow control scheme for vendors to implement in existing ATM networks, it is thus very important to develop an ATM Forum compliant ABR flow control mechanism which is both easy to implement and effective in achieving the objective of ABR flow control, namely making efficient use of network resources.

Queue length based ABR flow control system

Mitsubishi Electric Information Technology Center America, Inc. (ITA)


A sensor assembly includes a housing and a circuit board assembly. The housing includes a first accommodation cavity, a second accommodation cavity, a first connection portion, a second connection portion, and a third accommodation cavity. The first connection portion is connected to the first accommodation cavity and one end of the third accommodation cavity, and the second connection portion is connected to the second accommodation cavity and the other end of the third accommodation cavity. The circuit board assembly is accommodated within the first accommodation cavity, the second accommodation cavity, the first connection portion, the second connection portion and the third accommodation cavity. The width of the first connection portion and the second connection portion is less than the width of the first accommodation cavity, the second accommodation cavity and the third accommodation cavity. The first connection portion and the second connection portion are each provided with a buffer groove along the width direction.

The measurement of bioelectricity (e.g., electroencephalogram, electrocardiogram, electromyography, etc.) has been widely applied in the monitoring and diagnosis of various nerve system diseases, as well as bioelectric feedback rehabilitation.
With the development of mobile Internet technology, electrocardiogram measurement and monitoring have become possible outside of the hospital. With regard to the current out-of-hospital electrocardiogram measurement and monitoring, real-time electrocardiogram measurements are performed on users by means of a wearable sensor assembly so as to enable motion monitoring and chronic disease management. Such wearable sensor assemblies are mainly for healthy or chronic patient groups, and this type of population typically has the ability to live independently and thus engage in more frequent motion in daily life. The motion of a wearer will cause the sensor assembly to produce motion artifacts during a measurement process, and the generation of artifacts greatly interferes with the collection of electrocardiogram signals. Therefore, reducing motion artifacts in a measurement process is a technical problem that needs to be solved by such sensor assemblies.

SHENZHEN MINDRAY BIO-MEDICAL ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.


A timing control circuit includes a synchronous detecting portion which detects a synchronous pattern data of a received signal which has been demodulated based on a first control signal and generates a detection result, a first counter portion which generates a first signal at each first cycle based on the detection result, a second counter portion which generates a second signal at each second cycle based on the detection result, and a first control portion which generates the first control signal based on the first and second signals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to wireless communication techniques and, more particularly, to a timing control circuit and method for timing control in Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) communication systems.
This is a counterpart of and claims priority to Japanese patent application Serial Number 330141/2001, filed Oct. 29, 2001, the subject matter of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
A simple type mobile phone system called PHS (Personal Handy phone System) is disclosed in the document, "Personal Handy phone System, RCR STD-28, Association of Radio Industries and Businesses". In this system, the base station and the mobile station communicate with each other using a frame which has a 5 msec (millisecond) length. This system has three stage protocol phases. One is a link channel establishment phase which establishes a handshake in a wireless section. Another is a service channel establishment phase which establishes a call-connection between the base station and the mobile station after the link channel establishment phase. The third is a communication phase which establishes the transmission of communications and data. The generic name for a channel using the base station and the mobile station in the link channel establishment phase is a logical control channel (LCCH). The logical control channel (LCCH) has a broadcast channel (BCCH) which is a downlink oneway channel for broadcasting control information from the base station to the mobile station. In the communication phase, the communication between the base station and the mobile station is established using a service channel (SCH).
However, the above document does not disclose a manner of receiving the communication data using the time intervals from the receiving control information to the control information to be received next.

Timing control circuit and method thereof


The invention relates to methods for preventing or reducing antigen-stimulated, granulocyte-mediated inflammation in tissue of an antigen-sensitized mammal host by delivering an immunostimulatory oligonucleotide to the host. In addition, methods for using the immunostimulatory oligonucleotides to boost a mammal host""s immune responsiveness to a sensitizing antigen (without immunization of the host by the antigen) and shifting the host""s immune responsiveness to a Th1 phenotype to achieve various therapeutic ends are provided. Kits for practicing the methods of the invention are also provided.

The invention relates to methods and oligonucleotide compositions for use in reducing or suppressing granulocyte-mediated inflammation in a host tissue and in modulating the host""s immune responsiveness to an antigen.
In vertebrates, endothelial cell adhesion by granulocytes (eosinophils, basophils, neutrophils and mast cells) is followed by the release of inflammatory mediators, such as leukotrienes, major basic protein and histamine. In susceptible individuals, the resulting inflammation can damage affected host tissues.
The most common pathologic inflammatory condition is asthma, which is characterized by marked eosinophil infiltration into respiratory airways, followed by inflammation-induced tissue damage. Other pathologic inflammatory conditions associated with granulocyte infiltration into affected tissues include nasal polyposis, allergic rhinitis, allergic conjunctivitis, atopic dermatitis, eosinophilic fasciitis, idiopathic h y pereosinbphilic syndrome and cutaneous basophil hypersensitivity, as well as inflammation and fibrosis resulting from increased production of granulocytestimulatory cytokines, such as interleukin (IL)-5 and certain interferons (1NF).
Routine treatment of such conditions is typically directed toward inhibiting the activity of inflammatory mediators released after granulocyte adhesion to endothelia (e.g., by delivering a corticoid composition to the affected tissues). Where the identity of an inflammation inducing antigen is known, some immune protection against further antigen challenge can be provided through immunization. However, although effective in stimulating production of neutralizing antibodies, canonical immunization does not effectively stimulate longer term cellular immunity. Moreover, antigen immunization stimulates host production of IL-4 and IL-5. IL-5 encourages granulocyte adhesion to endothelia while IL-4 induces immunoglobulin switching to the IgE isotype at the risk of anaphylaxis.
The invention provides means to rapidly suppress antigen-stimulated inflammation in a mammalian host by suppressing granulocyte infiltration into a host tissue. The invention also provides immunization-free means to provide protection to an antigen-sensitized mammalian host against subsequent antigen challenge without risk of anaphylaxis. These aims are achieved by the invention through delivery of an immunostimulatory oligonucleotide (ISS-ODN) to the host without codelivery of an immunizing antigen.
Surprisingly, ISS-ODN have anti-inflammatory properties in addition to their immunostimulatory properties. ISSODN are therefore useful in the treatment and prevention of inflammation associated with antigen-stimulated granulocyte infiltration of tissue, such as occurs in the respiratory passages of asthmatics during an asthma attack. Advantageously, delivery of ISS-ODN according to the invention suppresses antigen-stimulated granulocyte infiltration into host tissue even before the ISS-ODN affect the host""s immune response to the antigen. Thus, the invention provides an antigen-independent method to reduce antigen-stimulated inflammation by suppressing cellular adhesion, thereby avoiding the release of inflammatory mediators which would be stimulated through granulocyte-binding of endothelial cells.
An example of a therapeutic application for the invention is in the control of asthma, whereby the ISS-ODN are delivered into pulmonary tissue intranasally or by systemic routes. In asthmatics, eosinophil infiltration of lung tissue occurs mainly during the late phase of an allergic response to a respiratory allergen. Canonical immunotherapy can modulate the host immune response to the allergen and eventually stem the tide of eosinophils into the host airways. However, practice of the invention suppresses eosinophil infiltration of host airways well before the host immune system responds to the respiratory allergen, thereby providing a form of protection against the airway narrowing and respiratory tissue damage which characterize an acute asthma attack.
In another aspect, the invention provides means to shift a present host cellular immune response to an antigen away from a Th2 phenotype and into a Th1 phenotype. To this end, ISS-ODN are delivered by any route through which antigen-sensitized host tissues will be contacted with the ISSODN. ISS-ODN administered in this fashion boost both humoral (antibody) and cellular (Th1 type) immune responses of the host. Unlike canonical immunotherapy, immunity is stimulated by this method of the invention even when no additional antigen is introduced into the host. Thus, use of the method to boost the immune responsiveness of a host to subsequent challenge by a sensitizing antigen without immunization avoids the risk of immunization-induced anaphylaxis, suppresses IgE production in response to the antigen challenge and eliminates the need to identify the sensitizing antigen for use in immunization. An especially advantageous use for this aspect of the invention is treatment of localized allergic responses in target tissues where the allergens enter the body, such as the skin and mucosa.
Suppression of the Th2 phenotype according to the invention is also a useful adjunct to canonical immunotherapy to reduce antigenstimulated IL-4 and IL-5 production. Thus, the invention encompasses delivery of ISS-ODN to a host to suppress the Th2 phenotype associated with conventional antigen immunization (e.g., for vaccination or allergy immunotherapy).
The shift to a Th1 phenotype achieved according to the invention is accompanied by increased secretion of IFN a, P and y, as well as IL-12 and IL-18. Each of these cytokines enhance the host""s immune defenses against intracellular pathogens, such as viruses. Thus, the invention encompasses delivery of ISS-ODN to a host to combat pathogenic infection.
Angiogenesis is also enhanced in the Th1 phenotype (ostensibly through stimulation by IL-12). Thus, the invention encompasses delivery of ISS-ODN to a host to stimulate therapeutic angiogenesis to treat conditions in which localized blood flow plays a significant etiological role, such as in diabetic retinopathy.
Pharmaceutically acceptable compositions of ISS-ODN are provided for use in practicing the methods of the invention. The ISS-ODN of the invention include DNA or RNA oligonucleotides which are enriched with CpG dinucleotides, including those which are comprised of the primary structure 5xe2x80x2-Purine-Purine-[C]-[G]-Pyrimidine-Pyrimidine-3xe2x80x2.
Where appropriate to the contemplated course of therapy, the ISS-ODN may be administered with other anti-inflammatory or immunotherapeutic agents. Thus, a particularly useful composition for use in practicing the method of the invention is one in which an anti-inflammatory agent (e.g., a glucocorticoid) or immunotherapeutic agent (e.g., an antigen, cytokine or adjuvant) is mixed with, or conjugated to, an ISS-ODN.
The ISS-ODN can also be provided in the form of a kit comprising ISS-ODN and any additional medicaments, as well as a device for delivery of the ISS-ODN to a host tissue and reagents for determining the biological effect of the ISS-ODN on the treated host.

Immunization-free methods for treating antigen-stimulated inflammation in a mammalian host and shifting the host""s antigen immune responsiveness to a Th1 phenotype

The Regents of the University of California


A wiper blade of a wiper system of a vehicle includes a blade rubber, two backing plates, a holder and a resilient fin. The backing plates are received in backing grooves of the blade rubber. The holder is rotatably connected to a wiper arm of the wiper system and detachably holds the blade rubber, which has the backing plates. The resilient fin is connected to the holder and limits lifting of the wiper blade from a windshield surface of the vehicle when the vehicle is running.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wiper blade and a wiper system having the same.
2. Description of Related Art
A wiper system that wipes a windshield of a vehicle uses a wiper blade, which can effectively wipe the windshield even when the windshield is a curved glass. Specifically, one such wiper blade includes a lever assembly, which includes a plurality of levers rotatably connected to a blade rubber. The blade rubber and backing plates are held by the lever assembly to spread urging force, which is applied from a wiper arm connected to the lever assembly, to the entire length of the blade rubber. Such a wiper blade is called as a tournament wiper blade and is widely used.
Apart from the tournament wiper blade, another type of wiper blade has been proposed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-531325 corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 6,523,218. Here, backing plates, which are received in backing grooves of a blade rubber and have a predetermined rigidity, are curved into a predetermined curved shape that corresponds to a curvature of the windshield. Urging force of a wiper arm connected to the wiper blade is spread to the entire length of the blade rubber through the backing plates without using the levers.
Due to the absence of the levers, a height of the wiper blade measured in a direction perpendicular to the windshield surface is reduced to achieve a lower profile of the wiper blade in comparison to the tournament wiper blade. Because of the lower profile, such a wiper blade shows high performance at the time of driving the vehicle at the relatively high speed and thereby restrains lifting of the wiper blade from the windshield and generation of wind noise. Furthermore, such a wiper blade normally includes a fin to further improve the performance at the time of driving the vehicle at the relatively high speed.
In the wiper blade disclosed in the above-described Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-531325, the backing plates are received in the grooves of the blade rubber, and cuts are made along the length of the blade rubber. Securing claws of retainers are received in the cuts of the blade rubber to hold the backing plates in the grooves. Thus, these retainers, which are exposed at an exterior of the wiper blade, deteriorate an appearance of the wiper blade. Furthermore, the blade rubber and the fin are integrally molded. Thus, when the blade rubber is worn, the blade rubber and/or the backing plates need to be replaced together with the fin. As a result, the integrated blade rubber and fin cause an increase in replacement costs of the blade rubber.
Apart from the above disclosed wiper blade, there has been also proposed a wiper blade, in which a blade rubber is bonded to one side of a single backing plate by adhesive, and a fin is bonded to the other side of the backing plate by adhesive. In this case, it is difficult for an ordinary user to bond the blade rubber to the curved backing plate in an appropriate manner at the time of replacing the blade rubber. Thus, the blade rubber replaced by the ordinary user often cannot achieve good performance.
Another type of wiper blade has been proposed in, for example, German Patent No. 2313939. A blade rubber, which wipes the windshield, is made of a rubber material. A backing plate, which spreads urging force to the entire length of the blade rubber is received in the blade rubber. After long term of use, the blade rubber is worn, and the backing plate changes its shape. Thus, a wiping performance of the wiper blade is deteriorated, and the blade rubber needs to be replaced together with the backing plate. In the above-described German patent No. 2313939, notches are formed in the backing plate, and distal ends of hooks of a holder connected to a wiper arm are bent relative to the notches to securely engage the hooks of the holder with the notches of the backing plate and thereby to restrain longitudinal movement of the backing plate and the holder. Thus, at the time of removing the holder from the backing plate, a dedicated tool is required to deform the hooks, and the removal of the holder from the backing plate using such a tool is difficult. Furthermore, when the backing plate and the holder are removed, the hooks of the holder may be deformed inappropriately and are difficult to reinstall. This results in difficulties in the replacement of the blade rubber of the wiper blade.

Wiper blade provided with detachable blade rubber and wiper system having the same


An electrical connection strip with a releasable mounting for attaching to mounting brackets of different configurations. The electrical connection strip includes an elongated block of electrically non-conductive material and a first mounting assembly. The mounting assembly comprises two longitudinal members that extend from an end of the block with a cross member running between them. Attached to the cross member is a vertical locking member which extends above and below the longitudinal members. The vertical locking member includes a locking formation located above the longitudinal members and a boss located below the longitudinal members. The locking formation and boss are configured to cooperatively engage a locking recess in a tabbed mounting bracket and tabless mounting bracket respectively. A rotational fixity member comprises a region of the longitudinal members formed with a first notch and a second notch with each notch configured to receive an edge of the tabless mounting bracket and an edge of the tabbed mounting bracket respectively. A preferred embodiment also includes a second mounting assembly which is located opposite the first mounting assembly and is a mirror image of it.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to connection strips used for high density wiring in telecommunication systems, and more particularly relates to a novel mounting assembly that allows a single connection strip to be securely mounted on a variety of mounting brackets that are commonly available in the industry while being easily releasable from the brackets.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Connection strips for high density wiring in telecommunication systems are well-known devices. One such device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,160,273 to Carney, issued Nov. 3, 1992, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
A connection strip is generally configured to attach to a mounting bracket. In the telecommunications industry there are a variety of mounting bracket configurations that are presently being used because the connection strip manufacturers customarily design their connection strips to attach to their mounting brackets.
One such mounting bracket is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,309 to Carney et al., issued Oct. 18, 1994 which discloses a tabbed mounting bracket, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. The tabbed mounting bracket disclosed in this patent includes an excluding protrusion as illustrated by item 44 in FIGS. 2 and 5 of the present application. A second mounting bracket is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,481,885 to Forberg et al. issued Aug. 4, 1981, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. This patent discloses a tabbed mounting bracket that does not include an excluding protrusion on the mounting tab. Another mounting bracket is manufactured by Quante AG, or one of its subsidiaries, (hereinafter "Quante") for the Quante SID C connection strip. The Quante mounting bracket is tabless and its pertinent structure is illustrated in FIG. 3 of the present application. A tabless mounting bracket similar to the Quante bracket is known as a "Modular Cross Connect Backmount" and is disclosed in drawings prepared by BT Network and Systems, a division of British Telecommunications plc.
The Carney et al. '309 patent also discloses a releasable mounting. Prior to this disclosure the removal of a connection strip generally required the use of various tools to remove the bracket. The releasable mounting disclosed therein is equipped with release tabs which when pulled back allow the connection strip to be removed from the mounting bracket. Since both tabs must be pulled to release the connection strip, the process of removing the block generally requires the use of two hands by a technician.
In view of the foregoing there is a need for a connection strip that is capable of being mounted on a variety of mounting brackets and is easily releasable by the use of a single hand.

Electrical connection strip with releasable mounting for mounting on brackets of different configurations


An impact buffer having a high buffering effect includes two or more impact buffering members with different hardness, contacted with at least one surface of a side surface part of an HDD unit positioned orthogonally to the rotation surface of a magnetic disk of the HDD unit, supports the HDD unit, buffers an impact applied to the HDD unit by expansion and contraction, further moderates the rotation of the HDD unit in the direction causing a head arm to move onto the disk at rest, prevents the head detachment, and can overcome the weaknesses of the head arm and an inertial latch structure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an impact buffer, an impact buffering device, and an information processor having the impact buffering device.
2. Background Art
Recently, the carrying/using frequency of an information processor such as a notebook-size personal computer (hereinafter referred to as "notebook computer") has been increased, the weight and size of the information processor have been decreased, and the portability thereof has been improved. The information processor is therefore required to withstand an impact by an unexpected drop during carrying/using it or a harsh environment such as vibration during using it on a vehicle. For instance, a hard disk drive unit (hereinafter referred to as "HDD unit") can go out of order due to the impact of a drop to damage important data. Therefore, an information processor such as a notebook computer that is carried and used is desired to have higher impact resistance, to be further lightened in weight, and to be further downsized.
A conventional impact buffer and impact buffering device will be described hereinafter.
For instance, Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. H05-319347 discloses an impact buffering device having a coil spring and a viscosity resistor employing a cylinder. Thus, an impact buffering device generally has a mechanism employing a viscosity resistor that is constituted by combining a plurality of components such as a cylinder and a spring such as a coil spring.
Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. H10-141408 discloses an impact buffer having foam and an auxiliary cover for protecting the foam. When a foam member is used as in this impact buffer, high impact buffering performance is obtained, and the size and weight can be reduced. For reducing the size and weight of a device, use of a foam member is appropriate, hence the impact buffering performance is high and the production cost for mass production is small because of the simple structure thereof, advantageously.
Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2005-256982 discloses an example employing a foam member as an impact buffering device for protecting an HDD unit of a notebook computer. FIG. 5 is a schematic sectional view of the state where impact buffer 204 for protecting HDD unit 206 is butted and mounted on HDD unit 206 that is apt to be affected by an impact in a conventional notebook computer.
As shown in FIG. 5, the notebook computer has HDD unit 206 apt to be affected by an impact and elastic impact buffer 204 employing a foam member for protecting HDD unit 206. The notebook computer further has HDD case (box) 207 for storing HDD unit 206 and impact buffer 204.
HDD unit 206 has the following elements:                magnetic head 205;        head arm 208 mounted to rotating shaft 210;        magnetic disk (sometimes called a platter) 209 on which magnetic data is recorded; and        head arm rotation stopper 211 for fixing head arm 208 to prevent it from moving freely from a shunting position.
Head arm rotation stopper 211 has an inertia latch structure described later. HDD unit 206 is mounted to casing 214 of the notebook computer via impact buffer 204.
The operation of HDD unit 206 includes operation where magnetic head 205 reads data recorded on magnetic disk 209 or records data on magnetic disk 209. During operation of HDD unit 206, magnetic head 205 is moved to a target position on magnetic disk 209 in a head loading state. Here, in the head loading state, a predetermined separation distance is kept from the surface of magnetic disk 209 for rotating magnetic head 205 at a high speed. Magnetic head 205 and head arm 208 during this operation are shown by broken lines in FIG. 5. During either of non-operation and operation, when HDD unit 206 is in an idling state where no access request is made, magnetic head 205 is moved into a member for shunting (not shown) that is disposed at a position separated from magnetic disk 209. Magnetic head 205 in this state is shunted to the position separated from the disk by head unloading operation. Here, the head unloading operation is performed for locking magnetic head 205 at that position. Magnetic head 205 and head arm 208 during this operation are shown by solid lines. In FIG. 5, counterclockwise arrow 232 shows a head loading direction of head arm 208, and clockwise arrow 233 shows a head unloading direction of head arm 208.
However, a complicated structure such as that of the impact buffering device discussed above is not appropriate for size and weight reduction, and the production cost and maintenance cost are apt to increase. For improving the impact buffering performance of the impact buffer or impact buffering device employing a foam member, generally, the characteristic of the foam member is improved or the foam shape such as volume and mounting area of the foam is optimized. However, further improvement of the buffering performance, further reduction of hazardous gas generated from the foam, and further weight reduction or the like of the impact buffering device are required.
When the impact buffering performance is improved, the foam volume can be enlarged, the weight of the impact buffering device can be increased in response to the enlargement, and the hazardous gas generated from the foam can be increased. Therefore, generally, high impact buffering performance and reduction of the size and weight of the device, and reduction of the amount of generated hazardous gas are mutually contradictory.
Generally, the impact buffering phenomenon can be modeled using the following equation of motionmz+cy+kx=0.
Here, z is an acceleration of a matter, y is a velocity of the matter, x is a displacement of the matter, m is a mass of the matter, c is a viscous damping coefficient of a viscous resistor, and k is a spring constant of a spring.
The impact buffering member employing a foam member such as resin foam has characteristics of both the spring and the viscous resistor. Therefore, an impact buffer having both desired spring constant (k) and viscous damping coefficient (c) must be used in response to an application. The higher viscous damping coefficient (c) is, the more impact energy is consumed in the impact buffer. However, foam having an ideal characteristic having desired spring constant (k) and viscous damping coefficient (c) is difficult to be produced in response to application. In other words, it is difficult to produce an evolutionary foam shape that exhibits high impact buffering performance. For example, the optimization of the foam shape such as the volume and mounting area of the foam has been considered, but it is difficult to exhibit a sufficient buffering performance in a limited space.
The internal structure corresponding to the dropping impact of HDD unit 206 is described with reference to FIG. 6A through FIG. 6F. In FIG. 6A through FIG. 6F, only parts receiving the impact of casing 214, HDD case 207, and impact buffer 204 are shown. FIG. 6A through FIG. 6F are schematic sectional views for describing the operations of a conventional impact buffering member, impact buffer 204, and HDD unit 206 when a user accidentally drops the notebook computer.
FIG. 6A and FIG. 6D are schematic sectional views showing a state where HDD unit 206 is dropping. FIG. 6B and FIG. 6E are schematic sectional views showing states where HDD unit 206 is tilting to the side of the center of gravity after dropping and colliding against the ground or the like. FIG. 6C and FIG. 6F are schematic sectional views showing states where the restoring force of impact buffer 204 works after HDD unit 206 drops and collides against the ground or the like.
As shown in FIG. 6A and FIG. 6D, the center-of-gravity position of HDD unit 206 is assumed to be on the right side of the center line (dashed line) of the substantially rectangular casing surface of HDD unit 206.
First, using FIG. 6A, FIG. 6B and FIG. 6C, operation when the installation space on impact buffer 204 and thickness of an elastic member are sufficient to withstand an impact by a drop is described.
As shown in FIG. 6A, thickness L1 of impact buffer 204 for protecting HDD unit 206 is assumed to be sufficient to absorb the impact by the drop of HDD unit 206. When HDD unit 206 drops toward the ground or a desk in the direction of arrow 240, casing 214 of the notebook computer collides against the ground or the desk in a short time, as shown in FIG. 6A. As a result, as shown in FIG. 6B, displacement of the center-of-gravity position of HDD unit 206 from the center line of the substantially rectangular casing surface of HDD unit 206 causes HDD unit 206 to rotate clockwise (direction of arrow 213). Impact buffer 204 sufficiently absorbs the impact. Then, as shown in FIG. 6C, the restoring force of impact buffer 204 causes HDD unit 206 to rotate counterclockwise (direction of arrow 212) to slowly restore it. At this time, the rotation of HDD unit 206 is slow, so that the head detachment (described later) does not occur.
Next, using FIG. 6D, FIG. 6E and FIG. 6F, operation when the installation space on impact buffer 204 and thickness of an elastic member are restricted is described.
As shown in FIG. 6D, thickness L2 of impact buffer 204 for protecting HDD unit 206 is assumed to be thinner than L1 and is not sufficient to absorb the impact by the drop of HDD unit 206. When HDD unit 206 drops on the ground or a desk, as shown in FIG. 6E, displacement of the center-of-gravity position of HDD unit 206 from the center line of the substantially rectangular casing surface of HDD unit 206 causes HDD unit 206 to also rotate clockwise (direction of arrow 213). HDD unit 206 cannot completely absorb the impact by the rotation, so that impact buffer 204 is crushed into a state near a rigid body. Therefore, rotation moment sharper than that in FIG. 6B occurs. A case where this rotation moment occurs in latch non-operation mode of the inertial latch structure is described hereinafter in detail.
As shown in FIG. 6E, when HDD unit 206 drops on the ground or the desk, the displacement of the center of gravity of HDD unit 206 first causes HDD unit 206 to rotate clockwise (direction of arrow 213). Impact buffer 204 cannot absorb the impact, so that the lower right corner of HDD unit 206 collides against HDD case 207. Then, the rebound of the collision and the restoring force of impact buffer 204 cause HDD unit 206 to rotate counterclockwise (direction of arrow 212). HDD unit 206 therefore rotates counterclockwise (direction of arrow 212) so as to press impact buffer 204 downward while impact buffer 204 absorbs the impact. Then, as shown in FIG. 6F, the lower left corner of HDD unit 206 collides against HDD case 207, and head arm 208 can rotate counterclockwise (direction of arrow 232) due to this impact and inertia to move from the shunting position onto magnetic disk 209.
Head arm 208 is kept in weight balance with respect to rotating shaft 210, so that only the surface dropping impact of HDD unit 206 in each plane direction acts. Therefore, when HDD unit 206 does not rotate, the rotation moment of head arm 208 does not occur, and head arm 208 does not rotate.
However, generally, the direction of the dropping impact does not become stable, and HDD unit 206 rotates in the direction responsive to the positional relationship between the landing surface and the center of gravity of HDD unit 206 during acting of the dropping impact.
Head arm 208 therefore starts to rotate relatively to HDD unit 206 due to the inertia. In other words, when the thickness of the elastic member of impact buffer 204 is not sufficient, impact buffer 204 cannot sufficiently absorb the impact by the drop. As a result, as shown in FIG. 6F, when the impact of the collision applied to HDD unit 206 is large, head arm 208 continues to rotate due to the inertia. Then, head arm 208 rotates from the shunting position in the direction of arrow 232, and can move and adhere onto magnetic disk 209.
During non-operation of HDD unit 206, head arm 208 is fixed to the shunting position with the inertial latch structure of head arm rotation stopper 211. When HDD unit 206 rotates in the direction of arrow 212, the impact received by HDD unit 206 is transferred to head arm 208 as it is. As a result, with some impact timing, the inertial latch structure of head arm rotation stopper 211 comes off, and head arm 208 starts to rotate in the direction of arrow 232. When the impact is large, head arm 208 continues to rotate due to the inertia, becomes detached from the shunting position, and moves and adheres onto magnetic disk 209. These phenomena are called head detachment.
Here, when an impact causes HDD unit 206 to rotate, the inertial latch structure latches head arm 208 to regulate the rotation before head arm 208 rotates and moves to a breakdown position.
HDD unit 206 essentially includes a structure capable of engaging a latch regardless of the direction of the rotation of HDD unit 206. When HDD unit 206 starts to rotate in the opposite direction (direction of arrow 212) after operation of the inertial latch structure, however, time lag occurs in latch operation until restart of the inertial latch structure. When head arm 208 rotates counterclockwise (direction of arrow 232) due to inertia as in FIG. 6F and the left end of HDD unit 206 collides against HDD case 207 in a short time during the time lag, the inertial latch structure does not work, the motion of head arm 208 cannot be inhibited, and head detachment occurs sometimes.
In other words, when the factors of both the rotation of the head arm and timing of non-operation of the inertial latch structure conspire, head detachment occurs disadvantageously.

Impact buffer, impact buffering device, and information processor having impact buffering device


A method, computer system, and a computer program product for content navigation within a media player is provided. The present invention may include displaying, by a computing device, a media content and a corresponding textual content. The present invention may include receiving, from a user, input regarding the textual content. The present invention may include modifying a playback of the media content based upon the input regarding the textual content to generate a modified media content. The present invention may include playing the modified media content.

The present invention relates generally to the field of computing, and more particularly to media playback systems.
A method of enhancing user experience while watching and/or listening to video and/or audio content on a media playback system may include reading corresponding textual content (e.g., lyrics, a transcript, and/or any textual document related to an audio and/or a video file) and issuing commands to control the media playback system based on upon this textual content. A user may read the textual content while simultaneously listening to the video and/or audio content and may control the media playback system by providing annotation on the corresponding textual content.

Programmatically controlling media content navigation based on corresponding textual content

International Business Machines Corporation


A transcatheter, percutaneously implantable, prosthetic heart valve is provided that comprises a lattice frame and two or more integrated cusp and leaflet folded structures attached to the lattice frame. The two or more integrated cusp and leaflet folded structures each comprise a flat sheet of biocompatible membrane that is folded to include a substantially conical shape according to a flat folding pattern. The substantially conical shape is further formed by joining apposing sides of the substantially conical shape along a seam. The two or more integrated cusp and leaflet folded structures are each attached along their respective seams to the lattice frame in a direction substantially parallel to an axis of the lattice frame. Embodiments of valves described herein have application within the entire vascular system.

The native heart valves, and in particular, the aortic valve, has a complex geometry that endows both ideal opening and closing geometries through an anatomic joining of a tubular inflow structure of the left ventricular outflow tract and an expansion of the valve sinuses above the hinging point of the valve leaflets defined by the aortic valve annular ring, part of the fibrous "skeleton" of the heart.
For the purposes of discussion and definition in the ensuing descriptions, the "upper", downstream outlet structure of the native aortic valve above its hinging point contains three valve "cusps" of a generally spherical contour with central mobile portions termed "leaflets" that are induced by fluid pressure gradients to meet centrally to close and to move radially outward to open in valve operation. The cusps are further continuous with downstream curved tissue walls meeting the tubular great vessel, the aorta, at the "sino-tubular junction". Each cusp and its upper, downstream extension above the level of leaflet closure ("coaptation") are a continuous structure of a generally spherical contour and together define the envelope of the "sinus of Valsalva. Typically, surgical prosthetic valves are implanted by excision of the diseased native valve leaflets at the level of the annular ring, and suturing of the prosthetic valve at this point, thus replacing only the opening geometry of the valve and leaving the outer structures of the cusps and the sinuses of Valsalva, the anatomy that confers proper closing geometry, generally intact.
Surgical valve prostheses are generally constructed as analogs to this central portion of the native valve geometry involved in the opening phase of the valve cycle. This approach to modeling the replacement valve prosthesis is enabled by the nature of the surgical technique: the replacement valve is sutured into the valve seat under direct vision. In contrast, a percutaneous stent-mounted heart valve ("PHV") is typically a construct in which the operating valve membrane leaflets are mounted and confined within the tubular envelope of a collapsible frame for effective transvascular delivery.
Further, in order to preclude valve regurgitation, the base of each leaflet must lie in exact apposition to the valve seat to form a seal, a condition that is difficult to satisfy without implantation under direct vision. Even then, since the diseased native valve would not be removed and its axial geometry is often distorted, it may not be possible to seat a PHV exactly under any circumstances. Thus, a cylindrical cuff layer, interior or exterior to the frame, is usually employed that acts as a seal and provides some latitude in the positioning and alignment of the PHV along the axis of flow, allowing for reliable and effective PHV implantation and minimizing the risk of significant valve regurgitation. Finally, the diseased native valve leaflets, when pushed outward by the deployed PHV frame, may themselves form a barrier separating the sinuses of Valsalva from the leaflets of the PHV, then disrupting the native closing geometry of the valve so that the sinuses are no longer continuous with the pressurized space above the PHV leaflets.
These issues illustrate some of the challenges to the formation of a PHV; that is, how to confine operating leaflets within a partially sealed tubular structure while preserving ideal opening and closing valve behavior without the benefit of the natural mechanism of the sinuses of Valsalva in a single valve and leaflet geometry, such as the separate and distinct upper and lower geometries of the native valve. As such, there is a need for additional devices, systems and/or methods that address one or more of the problems or shortcomings noted above.

Percutaneously deliverable heart valve including folded membrane cusps with integral leaflets


The present invention relates to hydrophilic, i.e., water loving coatings (hereafter referred to as “WLC”). Polyurethane epoxy alkylene oxide coatings usable as coatings on for example, medical devices are a preferred WLC.

Hydrophilic, i.e., water loving coatings (hereafter referred to as "WLC") are a utilitarian chemistry that may be used for hydrophilic and hydrophobic polyurethane epoxies as a replacement of isocyanate-based coatings on, for example, medical devices. WLC chemistry is attractive since prior art isocyanates-based coating compositions and coatings that may be used present possible health concerns. Another concern, with isocyanates, is the isocyanate sensitivity to water which reacts therewith to evolve carbon dioxide. That side reaction produces a very rough coating due to micro roughness when carbon dioxide exits the coating forming small pin holes. However, once the isocyanate is end capped to form polyurethane epoxy (glycidyl carbamate) in accordance with this invention, reactions with water and off gassing are no longer a concern and health concerns are significantly reduced. The use of WLC chemistry, in medical devices, and other coating areas, is thusly very attractive particularly for medical device applications.

Oxirane (ethylene oxide) polyurethane coatings


In an electronic control unit, a case has a peripheral side portion formed with a concave groove in which a connector is fitted with a clearance portion between the concave groove and the connector. The connector has first inclined portions connecting its lateral surface (one of its base surfaces) and its longitudinal surface (the other of its base surfaces). Each first inclined portion is inclined with respect to the lateral surface at a first angle. The concave groove comprises a base surface opposite to a lateral surface of the connector and second inclined portions opposite to first inclined portions of the connector, respectively. Each second inclined portion is inclined with respect to the base surface at a second angle. The second angle is larger than the first angle. A seal member is disposed in the clearance portion between the connector and the concave groove of the case so that the seal member seals the clearance portion therebetween.

The present invention relates to an electronic control unit containing an electronic device and preferably applied to engine control units (ECUs) for engines.
An electronic control unit suitable for use in the ECUs has a printed circuit board where a plurality of electronic devices, such as a microcomputer, are mounted. The electronic control unit also has a case in which the printed circuit board is contained.
A conventional electronic control unit is illustrated in FIG. 12. In FIG. 12, a connector J2 is attached to one side wall J1a of a case J1 for containing the printed circuit board.
That is, the case J1 is formed at its one side wall J1a with a concave groove J3 having a substantially trapezoidal shape. The connector J2 is fixedly fitted in the concave groove J2 through a seal member J4. The seal member J4 is disposed between an outer peripheral portion of the connector J2 and an inner peripheral portion of the concave groove J3 to be closely adhered on them. This gives a waterproof connection between the connector J2 and the case J1.
The outer peripheral portion of the connector J2 includes a lateral surface J7 and a longitudinal surface J8. The longitudinal length of the longitudinal surface J8 is longer than that of the lateral surface J7. The first and longitudinal surfaces J7 and J8 are parallel to each other.
The outer peripheral portion also includes an inclined side surface J5 connecting one end of the lateral surface J7 and one end of the longitudinal surface J8, and an inclined side surface J6 connecting the other end of the lateral surface J7 and other end of the longitudinal surface J8. The inclined side surfaces J5 and J6 are not paralleled to each other.
The inner peripheral portion of the concave groove J3 includes a base surface J9 opposed to the lateral surface J7. The inner peripheral portion of the concave groove J3 also includes an inclined side surface J10 connected at its one end portion to one end of the base surface J9 and opposite to the inclined side surface J5. The inner peripheral portion of the concave groove J3 also has an inclined side surface J11 connected at its one end portion to the other end of the base surface J9 and opposite to the inclined side surface J6.
The connector inclined angle X between the lateral surface J7 and the inclined side surface J5 and that between the lateral surface J7 and the inclined side surface J6 are equal to each other. Similarly, the case inclined angle Y between the bottom surface J9 and the inclined side surface J10 and that between the bottom surface J9 and the inclined side surface J11 are equal to each other. In addition, the connector inclined angle X and the case inclined angle Y are also equal to each other.
In the structure of the electronic control unit, if the connector J2 thermally expands, as shown in FIG. 13, the dimensional change of the longitudinal surface J8 is larger than that of the lateral surface J7. This causes the seal member J4 in part of its longitudinal surface J8 side to be highly compressed so that a crack may occur in the seal member J4.
If the crack occurs in the seal member J4 between the connector J2 and the case J1, it might be difficult to maintain the airtightness environment of the electronic control unit.
This problem may become much more prominent when the connector J2 is made of a material with a first linear expansion coefficient and the case J1 is made of another material with a second linear expansion coefficient that is different from the first liner expansion coefficient.
In addition, if the case inclined angles are shapely inclined, when fitting the connector J2 into the inner peripheral portion of the concave groove J3, on which the seal member J4 is previously adhered, the connector J2 may press the seal member J4 in part of its longitudinal surface J8 side into the base surface J9 side of the case J1 (low side in FIG. 14A).
If the part of seal member J4 in its longitudinal surface J8 side is pressed into the base surface J9 side of the case J1, the fill quantity of the seal member J4 may be insufficient at the gaps G between the longitudinal side portion of the connector J2 and each other end portion of each of the inclined side surfaces J10 and J11 (see FIG. 14B).
The full quantity of seam member J4 may be inadequate in maintaining the airtightness of the electronic control unit between the connector J2 and the case J1.


A serpentine robotic crawler capable of multiple movement moves is disclosed. The serpentine robotic crawler includes a plurality of frame units, coupled together by at least one actuated linkage. Each frame unit includes a continuous track, enabling forward movement of the serpentine robotic crawler. The at least one actuated linkage has at least 7 degrees of movement freedom, enabling the serpentine robotic crawler to adopt a variety of poses.

Robotics is an active area of research, and many different types of robotic vehicles have been developed for various tasks. For example, unmanned aerial vehicles have been quite successful in military aerial reconnaissance. Less success has been achieved with unmanned ground vehicles, however, in part because the ground environment is significantly more difficult to traverse than the airborne environment.
Unmanned ground vehicles face many challenges when attempting mobility. Terrain can vary widely, including for example, loose and shifting materials, obstacles, vegetation, limited width or height openings, steps, and the like. A vehicle optimized for operation in one environment may perform poorly in other environments.
There are also tradeoffs associated with the size of vehicle. Large vehicles can handle some obstacles better, including for example steps, drops, gaps, and the like. On the other hand, large vehicles cannot easily negotiate narrow passages or crawl inside pipes, and are more easily deterred by vegetation. Large vehicles also tend to be more readily spotted, and thus are less desirable for discrete surveillance applications. In contrast, while small vehicles are more discrete, surmounting obstacles becomes a greater navigational challenge.
A variety of mobility configurations have been adapted to traverse difficult terrain. These options include legs, wheels, and tracks. Legged robots can be agile, but use complex control mechanisms to move and achieve stability. Wheeled vehicles can provide high mobility, but provide limited traction and require width in order to achieve stability.
Tracked vehicles are known and have traditionally been configured in a tank-like configuration. While tracked vehicles can provide a high degree of stability in some environments, tracked vehicles typically provide limited maneuverability with very small vehicles. Furthermore, known tracked vehicles are unable to accommodate a wide variety of obstacles, particularly when the terrain is narrow and the paths are tortuous and winding.


A profiled section includes a first surface and a second surface, such that the second surface has an opening to at least partially receive an element of a locking member. The wing is structured and arranged parallel to the second surface. Further, an element is coupled to the first and second surfaces and to the wing. The instant abstract is neither intended to define the invention disclosed in this specification nor intended to limit the scope of the invention in any way.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a profiled section for a door or bay frame that enables the use of an electric lock called an "electromagnetic locking member".
A locking member is made of two parts, the locking member itself, made of a magnet, and a metallic counterplate made of soft iron. Each of these parts is nested in the profiled section, generally made of aluminum, and forming the frame which, for this purpose, has an appropriate aperture. The profiled sections used up until now have a tubular cross-section and two parallel surfaces. One of the major problems is to attach the counterplate, which must be floatingly mounted.
2. Background and Material Information
The prior art discloses a counterplate attached by a flexible mounting connection to a median portion of an intermediate piece. The intermediate piece is shaped as a stirrup, and attached to a profiled section at right angles with the counterplate entry aperture, such that a front screw or a screw jack is supported against the inner surface of the profiled section opposite the aperture.
This method is costly because it requires the manufacture of an intermediate piece that is difficult to position and attach. Moreover, the screw jacks tend to deform the visible surface of the profiled section which, in addition, must have a part that extends parallel to the opposing surface, preventing the visible surface of the profiled section from having an appealing appearance.


An end effector assembly includes a first jaw and a second jaw, at least one of which is moveable between an open positon and a closed position, a third jaw that is carried on and translates along the first jaw, and a third jaw closing mechanism that brings the third jaw into a position approximating the first jaw.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Generally, forceps may be utilized for laparoscopic surgery. The forceps may be employed to control delicate movements inside a patient and may include an assembly to grip tissue. The tissue, however, may be damaged when manipulated with devices such as hooks or other aggressive elements.
Certain devices employ articulation components to trap tissue. For example, a typical articulation component is a device with two plates with at least one plate being moveable. With such devices, however, tissue may slip out of the plates when grasped by the plates since the tissue moves in the direction where there is less pressure applied to it.
In another type of device, parallel closure jaws with teeth have been proposed to grip tissue. Unless the jaw alignment is closely controlled, however, scissoring can occur between the teeth, which cuts tissue that is supposed to be grasped atraumatically.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for forceps that can grip tissue without damaging the tissue.

Forceps with active jaw entrapment of tissue