The present invention relates to a disposable medical syringe which has a hollow plunger to receive a used inoculation needle. The syringe has a hollow syringe barrel, open on one end and closed on the other. A hollow plunger assembly, which extends out the open end of the syringe barrel, has a hollow tube with a fixed seal attached at one end. At the other end of the plunger assembly, a needle holder is sized to slide within the hollow tube. The sliding seal and needle holder are biased toward each other by a stretched, resilient tube that has a fluid passageway passing through the sliding seal, resilient tube, and needle holder. The needle holder is normally locked at one end of the plunger assembly by a locking means. As the syringe is collapsed, the syringe barrel trips the locking means to permit the needle holder, and attached inoculation needle, to be retracted into the hollow tube. The three components--inoculation needle, hollow tube, and syringe barrel--are telescoped together by this action to compact the throw-away unit with the used inoculation needle resting in a position protected by the double outer walls.

This invention relates to an improved single use hypodermic safety syringe, and more specifically to a plunger within the syringe which permits a conventional inoculation needle to be retracted to a position within the plunger.
Hypodermic syringes are well known in the art having been used for many years in the medical profession. In recent years the problem of a person using a syringe and becoming infected by an inadvertent prick from a used inoculation needle has intensified the search for a hypodermic syringe which protects those who might have to handle it.
Several devices have used a spring-loaded cover to shield an inoculation needle after it has been withdrawn from a person receiving an inoculation. For instance see U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,311 to Stern et at., U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,868 to Klein, or U.S. Pat. No. 4,966,592 to Burns et al. In each of these devices, the shield becomes rather unwieldy because it has to have a rather large cross-section so as so slide around the syringe barrel. The large cross-section prevents the person using the hypodermic syringe from accurately locating an insertion point because the insertion point is covered by the shield. Also since the inoculation needle is capped after the needle is used, an elongated shape is maintained. The elongated shape makes it easier to snap off both the guard and inoculation needle if the syringe barrel is inadvertently held for some reason and someone hits the syringe.
Several other devices have inoculation needles moving through a protective guard which is smaller than the syringe barrel near the insertion tip of an inoculation needle. For instance see U.S. Pat. No. 2,925,083 to Craig, U.S. Pat. No. 4,911,693 to Paris, or U.S. Pat. No. 5,135,510 to Maszkiewicz et al. The insertion point can be seen easier with the latter mentioned devices since the guard is of much smaller diameter, but the inoculation needle still remains at the end of an elongated device. It is much easier to snap an elongated device when it gets inadvertently held near one end. The leverage is such that there are times when an inoculation needle could be exposed just because the syringe barrel got caught in some unusual manner.
None of the above inventions have recognized the fact that an inoculation needle can be drawn back into the syringe barrel to compact the unit that is thrown away. Other inventions illustrate devices which use a spring to retract an inoculation needle inside a plunger. For instance see U.S. Pat. No. 4,994,034 to Botich et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,017,187 to Sullivan, or U.S. Pat. No. 5,019,044 to Tsao. These devices, however, can not accept conventional inoculation needles as the needles used in these devices are either spring loaded during assembly, or are specially configured for the device to function properly. In addition, all off these devices have a plunger entering from the rear of a syringe barrel in a manner similar to that used in a conventional syringe. This means there has to be some type of sliding surface between the syringe barrel and the plunger which is open to the atmosphere. This sliding surface is a possible source of contamination.
Thus there appears to be a need for a syringe which can hold inoculation fluid in a volume which does not have sealing surfaces exposed to the atmosphere. This would reduce the possibility of possible contamination as the plunger is pulled out and pushed in. In addition a need exists to have a syringe which uses conventional needles which can be retracted into both the plunger and, the syringe barrel. This would simplify the devices used use in current medical facilities. A need also exists to have a double surface surrounding a used needle to provide additional protection against exposure as compared with those instances where only a single surface of a syringe barrel is used. And lastly, a device should be compacted in its disposal state so as to reduce the possibility of inadvertent breakage of an elongated object when the device is caught in some unusual manner.


A scanner identifies a document size on the basis of the intensity of light outputted in a photometric condition different from a first photometric condition, by photometric units provided to a position subject to determination that is a position excluding a position where light of an intensity not less than a first threshold value is received in the first photometric condition, among a plurality of positions to which the photometric units are provided. The first photometric condition is a condition where a document cover is open and a light-emitting unit is not emitting light.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a technique for identifying a document size on the basis of a measured intensity of light.
2. Related Art
Conventionally known is a technique for identifying a document size of a document being scanned on the basis of the intensity of light received by a one-dimensional image sensor (for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication 2007-28185). In Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication 2007-28185, the amount of change in the intensity of light received at the one-dimensional image sensor is acquired until a state where a document cover is open changes to a state where the document cover is closed, and the document is determined not to be present at a position where this amount of change does not exceed a threshold value and the document is determined to be present at a position where the amount of change does exceed the threshold value. The length of the document is identified in the direction of the one-dimensional image sensor by determining whether or not the document is present in this manner for each of the positions of the one-dimensional image sensor.
However, in a case where ambient light is incident at an angle close to parallel to a document platen, then the intensity of the light received by the one-dimensional image sensor does not change significantly even when the document cover is closed. As such, a problem has emerged in that the document size is wrong.

Scanner with document size identification capability


A hand-wheel actuator for preventing over rotation of a hand-wheel shaft. The hand-wheel actuator comprises a housing that defines an opening aligned about an axis. The hand-wheel shaft extends along and is rotatable about the axis. A drive gear is rotationally coupled to the hand-wheel shaft, wherein the drive gear is at least partially disposed in the opening and includes a drive gear tooth. A stop gear is coupled to the housing and includes a plurality of stop gear teeth for engagement with the drive gear tooth and prevents rotation of the drive gear over a predetermined threshold.

As technology advances in the automobile industry, direct mechanical linkages between the steering wheel and tires may be replaced with a HWA and road-wheel actuator (RWA), which are not directly connected by a mechanical linkage. During travel of the automobile, the HWA and RWA cooperate with one another, through electrical communication (e.g., wires, sensors, and a central processing unit), to directionally control travel of the automobile. More specifically, sensed movement of the respective hand-wheel and/or tires is electrically communicated to the respective HWA or RWA to cause movement of the hand-wheel and/or tires. However, such advancement in automobile technology, and the complexity in the same, present unique challenges. For example, a hand-wheel coupled to a HWA is typically free to rotate. In other words, the hand-wheel, with the hand-wheel shaft, may rotate any number of rotations, and in any direction. However, too much rotation of the hand-wheel may result in damage to certain components, such as a clock spring, among other issues.
The problems discussed above were not present in automobiles with the direct mechanical linkages between the hand-wheel and tires. The direct mechanical linkage between the hand-wheel and the tires limited the rotation of the hand-wheel when the tires were turned to a maximum angle. Specifically, the mechanical linkage provided a "hard stop" to the rotation of the hand-wheel when the tires were turned to a maximum angle.

Steering Solutions IP Holding Corporation


Method of holding in place a transcutaneous implant by applying an adhesive in liquid form to the implant and the area of the patient's skin about the needle and allowing the adhesive to set. The implant is constituted by an infusion needle, a catheter or any transcutaneous implant. Whenever the adhesive is in liquid form, it has such a surface tension that it will flow along the implant and the skin to reach a terminal point, which is the point at which the implant is inserted. The adhesive is applied in liquid form and flows along the implant and the skin to reach the point at which the implant is inserted, and then allowed to set to hold the implant in place.

Transcutaneous needles and catheters, once inserted into a patient's organs or vessels, must be kept in place for considerable lengths of time, sometimes for days consecutively. In present practice, this is done by suturing the implant to the skin or applying a tape, or like adhesive strip or film, to the skin on both sides of the needle. The tape or adhesive strip is passed over the needle and keeps it tight against the skin. This way of holding these transcutaneous implants in place is awkward and not effective and sometimes very disturbing to the patient, particularly if it used for many hours or even days consecutively. In many cases, it may actually be painful to the patient or even cause irritation and ulceration and not be effective in stabilizing the implant and invasive stitching of the implant to the skin may be needed.
Additionally, the opening created by the insertion of the transcutaneous implant such as a needle into the patient's skin may permit the entrance of microbes (contamination) and infection in general. The adhesive tape or film may create a moist, occlusive microenvironment that promotes the onset and propagation of such an infection.
It should be understood that while reference is made to transcutaneous needles, in particular to infusion needles, and while this is the most typical application of the invention, the invention can be applied to holding in place needles, catheters, tubes, wires, etc., that are transcutaneous, e.g. infusion needles, catheters, tubes, soprapubic catheters, electrical leads (such as pacemaker), spinal and gastrotomy catheters and tubes, etc., and in general any implant, and this extension of the invention should be understood as implicitly repeated every time that a reference is made to the use of the invention for holding transcutaneous implants or infusion needles in place.
It is therefore a purpose of this invention to provide means for holding an infusion needle in place that are more efficient, comfortable and easier to apply than those known in the art.
It is another purpose of this invention to provide such means that seal the opening created by the insertion of the needle into the patient's skin and prevents infection.
It is a further purpose of this invention to provide a novel use for known chemical compounds.
It is a still further purpose of the invention to provide a novel use for known chemical compounds which consists in applying them to retain infusion needles in place in a patient's veins and sealing the opening created by the insertion of the needle.
It is a still further purpose of this invention to provide means for holding infusion needles in place that consist in the use of chemical substances which are available on the market and intended for other uses.
It is a still further purpose of this invention to provide means for effectively holding infusion needles in place that is completely painless and non-irritating to the patient.

Means for retaining transcutaneous catheters and needles in place


A disassembly bench is for unlocking and disassembling a first component and a second component of a watch with secured fastening including handling devices to transmit a relative disassembly movement between this first component and this second component. The bench also includes centrifuging devices and/or pneumatic or hydraulic devices for simultaneous application of a centrifugal force and/or an overpressure or an underpressure to such a watch to press into a position of free passage one or more slides arranged to immobilize this first component and this second component in a locked position. A watchmaking set includes such a disassembly bench and such a watch with secured fastening.

Dive watches or watches with complications must not be capable of being opened by any person because of the particular constraints of tightness, cleanliness, lubrication or also adjustment. Some watches have to be returned to the factory for internal repairs in order to guarantee to the user that all their function characteristics are maintained and their aesthetic appearance is faultless. It is therefore advantageous in the factory or in licensed after-sales service to have devices available that enable watches with secured fastening to be opened that are designed to be unopenable for watchmakers who do not have the appropriate set of tools, and hence for any user.
The design of an unopenable watch in the absence of a particular tool must not overly complicate the production of this watch, its assembly operations must remain as conventional as possible.

Bench for disassembling a watch with secured fastening

The Swatch Group Research and Development Ltd


A system, method, and apparatus are provided for prioritizing the measurements made on manufactured parts while maintaining specified part quality standards. According to the method, system and apparatus, the process used by the CMM is modified so that the number of measurements made is reduced in accordance with the results of the analysis provided herein. A CMM apparatus is modified in accordance with the analysis results. A method for part measurement prioritization in a measuring system and method includes describing a set of features to be measured on a plurality of substantially identical parts, separating the set of features into sensitive features and non-sensitive features, dividing the non-sensitive features into a plurality of groups, and prioritizing the part measurements to measure the sensitive features and provide alternating measurements of the non-sensitive features.

In the automotive industry, as in many other industries, metal parts are manufactured in large volume. Processes for manufacturing the parts may include casting and machining. In the automotive industry in particular, manufacturers prefer that parts used in engine manufacture be within tolerance for long and consistent operation of the engine. A quality metric, quality index, or quality standard may be defined based on the extent to which a part is measured to be within tolerance. A nonconforming part is one that does not meet prescribed quality standards or manufacturing tolerances.
After or during their production, many parts used in engine manufacture are measured to assess their quality. Many manufacturing and production plants use a Coordinate Measuring Machine, or CMM. The CMM is a measuring machine tool that may have three axes with corresponding displacement transducers, a probe head to probe the workpiece in a plurality of spatial directions, a control unit, and a processor with software to perform calculations and present results.
The basic function of coordinate metrology consists of the measurement of the actual shape of a workpiece, its comparison with the desired shape, and the evaluation of the metrological information, such as size, form, location, and orientation. The actual shape of the workpiece is obtained by probing the surface at discrete measuring points. Thus, one step in coordinate metrology is selecting the set of features to be measured, the measuring points. Every measuring point is expressed in terms of its measured coordinates. The practice of metrology using the CMM can be defined as: generating the measured data by probing measuring points of the actual workpiece with the probe in the CMM; calculating the parameters of the workpiece such as size, form, location and orientation (e.g. diameter of a hole, the distance between two holes, the angle of a surface relative to a datum, and so on); and, evaluating the required workpiece features by comparing the calculated parameters with the drawing dimensions and tolerances.
Currently, in standard manufacturing procedure, all features or measuring points of a part are measured. The full measurement of the part requires significant time (generally 30 to 100 minutes). For example, the full measurement of a cylinder head may require 50 measured features and may take more than 100 minutes. Often, human resources are involved in placing the part within and removing the part from the CMM system and monitoring the measurements taken by a CMM system.
Thus, it is desirable to reduce the amount of time required to take the measurements of parts in the automotive and other industries so that fewer CMM systems are needed. Further it is desirable that fewer human operators are needed for the measurement process. It is also desirable to increase the number of parts measured during a given time so that production capacity may be increased while maintaining standards for parts.

Part measurement prioritization system and method


Disclosed herein is a semiconductor memory device which can simultaneously perform a read access and a write access independently. The semiconductor memory device according to the present invention can access a plurality of data through the global sense amplifying unit and the global bit line, and enables the read controller and the write controller to independently control the global bit line and the bit line sense amplifying unit to be connected to each other to thereby perform the read access and the write access simultaneously.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device, and more particularly to a semiconductor memory device which can simultaneously perform a read access and a write access independently.
2. Background of the Related Art
A semiconductor memory device can be largely classified into a random access memory (RAM) and a read only memory (ROM). The RAM is divided into a dynamic RAM in which one transistor and one capacitor constitute one unit cell and a static RAM which six transistors or four transistors and two load resistors constitute one unit cell. The dynamic RAM efficient in integration and fabrication is widely used in various fields including a main memory of a computer, etc.
FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing the construction of a semiconductor memory device according to a prior art.
Referring to FIG. 1, the semiconductor memory device includes a bank 100 having a row address decoder and a column address decoder, a command controller 200 and a data input/output buffer 300. The command controller 200 receives a plurality of command signals RAS, CAS, WE, CS, CKE, CK, etc., from the outside so as to control the operations performed in the bank 100, such as, for example, read, write, refresh, etc. The bank 100 reads and outputs data of a unit cell corresponding to an address input thereto, or writes the data being input in the unit cell. Also, the data input/output buffer 300 buffers the data which is inputted/outputted to/from the bank 100 and inputs/outputs the buffered data from/to the outside.
A typical semiconductor memory device includes a plurality of banks, for example four banks. Since the respective banks have the same structure, only one bank 100 is shown in FIG. 1 for the sake of simplicity.
In addition, in FIG. 1, there are shown a minimum number of blocks necessary for explanation of the present invention among a plurality of blocks included in the semiconductor memory device.
A bank 100 includes eight segments 120a to 120h each having a plurality cell blocks and input/output sense amplifying units 110 and 130 for amplifying data outputted from the segments 120a to 120h for application to the data input/output buffer 300 or applying data inputted thereto from the data input/output buffer 300 to the segments 120a to 120h.
A segment (for example, reference numeral 120a) includes a row address decoder 121 for decoding a row address to output the decoded row address, a column address decoder 122 for decoding a column address to output the decoded column address, and a cell region 120a_1 composed of a plurality of unit cells, and adapted to receive the decoded row address from the row address decoder 121 and the decoded column address from the column address decoder 122. The cell region 120a_1 includes a plurality of cell blocks 124a to 124h each having a plurality of unit cells and a plurality of bit line sense amplifying units 123a to 123i alternately arranged between the cell blocks 124a to 124h so as to sense and amplify data outputted from the cell blocks.
The semiconductor memory device shown in FIG. 1 exemplifies a memory having a capacity of 256 Mb. In case where the semiconductor memory device consists of four banks, each bank has a capacity of 64 Mb. Each bank can consist of, for example, a total of eight segments, each of which has a capacity of 8 Mb. A segment (for example, reference numeral 120a) includes a total of eight cell blocks 124a to 124h. A cell block (for example, reference numeral 124a) includes 256 word lines WL and 4 K (4*1024) bit lines BL. In addition, each cell block includes 256*4 K unit cells. It is assumed that a segment has a capacity of 8 Mb and each of the eight cell blocks includes 256 word lines as described above.
FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram showing one example of a bit line sense amplifying unit and a cell block shown in FIG. 1.
Particularly, FIG. 2 partially shows a first cell block 124a and a second cell block 124b, and a bit line sense amplifying unit 123b.
Referring to FIG. 2, the first cell block 124a includes 256*4 K unit cells each consisting of a MOS transistor and a capacitor. Each of the word lines WL is connected to a gate terminal of each MOS transistor constituting each unit cell, and each of the bit lines BL is connected to a drain terminal of the MOS transistor constituting each unit cell while intersecting each of the bit lines BL and /BL. Each MOS transistor constituting a unit cell is connected at a source terminal thereof to one side of each capacitor constituting each unit cell, and the other side of each capacitor is connected to a cell plate power source (for example, ground power source). Although not shown, the second cell block 124b also has the same construction as that of the first cell block 124a.
The bit line sense amplifying unit 123b includes a bit line sense amplifier 123b_4, a precharger 123b_3, an equalizer 123b_2, a data output part 123b_5 and connection parts 123b_1 and 123b_6. The bit line sense amplifier 123b_4 is enabled in response to bit line sense amplifier enable signals RTO and /S to thereby to amplify a difference between signals applied to the bit lines (for example, BL0 and /BL0). The precharger 123b_3 is enabled in response to a precharge enable signal BLEQ′ outputted when the bit line sense amplifier 123b_4 is disabled to thereby to precharge the bit lines (for example, BL0 and /BL0) with a bit line precharge voltage Vblp. The equalizer 123b_2 is enabled in response to an equalization signal BLEQ to thereby allow the voltage levels of a pair of bit lines (for example, BL0 and /BL0) connected to the first cell block 124a to be equal to each other. The data output part 123b_5 serves to output a data signal amplified by the bit line sense amplifier 123b_4 in response to a column control signal (for example, CDO) generated by a column address, to data lines DB0 and /DB0. Also, the connection parts 123b_1 and 123b_6 serves to selectively connect the bit line sense amplifier 123b_4 to the cell blocks 124a and 124b adjacent to the bit line sense amplifying unit 123b.
In this case, the number of bit line sense amplifiers included in the bit line sense amplifying unit 123b is determined depending on the number of bit line pairs included in adjacent cell blocks, and the bit line sense amplifying unit 123b is connected to the first cell block 124a or the second cell block 124b in response to sense amplifier connecting signals BISH and BISL. Although not shown in FIG. 2, the bit line pairs BL1 and /BL1 in 124a are connected to a bit line sense amplifier included in the bit line sense amplifying unit 123a and BL1 and /BL1 in 124b are connected to a bit line sense amplifier included in the bit line sense amplifying unit 124b.
In order to read data from the cell blocks in the conventional semiconductor memory device shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, it is required that the word lines should be first enabled and data of the cell block connected to the enabled word lines should be then outputted to the data line. In the meantime, in order to write data in a cell block, it is required that the word lines are enabled and data provided through the data line should be then written in the cell block connected to the enabled word lines. However, the semiconductor memory device according to such a conventional prior art entails a problem in that since data is written or read in or from the cell block through the data line according to the access mode, a write access and a read access cannot be simultaneously performed independently.

Semiconductor memory device for simultaneously performing read access and write access

University-Industry Cooperation Group of Kyung Hee University


Mechanisms and techniques provide a system for obtaining and providing location information related to a target device. The system transmits a location request message onto a network towards a target device. Each node in a network, possible including the target device, can respond with a location signature message containing location information associated with a plurality of different location information services. Each location information service provides location information having a different location granularity in relation to the target device. The system processes the location information for at least one of the location information services in the location signature message to derive a location of the target device in relation to at least one desired location granularity. By receiving location information of different types and different location granularities from different nodes in the network, and possibly from the target device, a location requesting application can derive an accurate location of the target device.

Computer networks such as the Internet allow users of computer systems to operate software applications that support the exchange of many types of information. As an example, a user of a portable computer system such as a laptop or handheld computerized device can operate a web browser software application as a client to communicate with web server computer systems on the Internet for access various types of information. The web server computer system may return web pages or other data to the client in response to receiving user requests for such data. Some web-based applications rely on the ability to obtain location information concerning a physical or geographical location of the client and/or server computer systems.
As a specific example, a user of a web browser may navigate to a web site on the world wide web that provides mapping information in order to obtain a geographical map that illustrates the surrounding area (i.e., the physical or geographical surroundings) of the user of the client computer system. To obtain location information related to the client, the web server may send a request to the web browser client prompting the user to enter location information concerning that user's specific location so that the mapping web server can return a map that corresponds to that users location. Upon receiving the location information entered by the user, the web server can access the mapping database to produce and serve a map back to the user's web browser identifying the geographical features relevant to user's location based on the location information provided by the user. As an example, the web server may prompt the user for a zip code in which that user is currently located. In response to receiving the zip code, the web server can serve a map of the town to which that the zip code is related.
Certain types of computer network applications can automatically retrieve location information concerning a location of a target device such as the client computer system in the example above. As another example, some computerized devices can be equipped with a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver that monitors satellite transmissions of GPS satellites in order to perform a triangulation calculation to determine accurate latitude, longitude and altitude locations of the device that contains the GPS receiver. The computerized device may operate a software application that can respond to requests from a remote computer system for information concerning the GPS position of the computerized device. Such requests may be received, for example, over a wireless network. A specific example of such a device location tracking system exists in the shipping and freight industry. Mobile freight carriers such as tractor-trailer trucks can be equipped with the aforementioned computerized devices and GPS receivers. Such computer systems can report location information concerning the exact position of the freight carrier on route to delivery of freight to a particular destination.

Methods and apparatus for obtaining location information in relation to a target device


A method is presented for fabricating a non-planar field effect device. The method includes the production of a Si based material Fin structure that has a top surface substantially in parallel with a {111} crystallographic plane of the Si Fin structure, and the etching of the Si Fin structure with a solution which contains ammonium hydroxide (NH4OH). In this manner, due to differing etch rates in ammonium hydroxide of various Si based material crystallographic planes, the corners on the Fin structure become clipped, and angles between the horizontal and vertical planes of the Fin structure increase. A FinFET device with clipped, or rounded, corners is then fabricated to completion. In a typical embodiment the FinFET device is selected to be a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) device.

Today's integrated circuits include a vast number of devices. Smaller devices and shrinking ground rules are the key to enhance performance and to improve reliability. As FET (Field-Effect-Transistor) devices are being scaled down, the technology becomes more complex, and changes in device structures and new fabrication methods are needed to maintain the expected performance enhancement from one generation of devices to the next. The mainstay material of microelectronics is silicon (Si), or more broadly, Si based materials. One such Si based material of importance for microelectronics is the silicon-germanium (SiGe) alloy.
There is great difficulty in maintaining performance improvements in devices of deeply submicron generations. Several avenues are being explored for keeping device performance improvements on track. With shortening gate lengths, the so called short channel effects (SCE), most notably the "drain induced barrier lowering" (DIBL) pose severe roadblocks to miniaturization. These effects can be mitigated by introducing basic structural changes in the devices, such as, for instance, using multiple gates.
A proposed way out of this problem is the use of double gated devices. Such a device is not simply a planar structure conducting on one surface, but conducting on two sides of the device body. The reasons that a double gate device can be downscaled further than a regular planar device are relatively complex, but they have been already given in the technical literature, for instance in: "Device Design Considerations for Double-Gate, Ground-Plane, and Single-Gated Ultra-Thin SOI MOSFET's at the 25 nm Channel Length Generation," by H.-S. P. Wong, et al, 1998 IEDM Tech Dig., pp. 407-10.
A variation of the double gated device is the so called FinFET, or Tri-Gate, device. These devices are non-planar, or three dimensional, structures hosted by a Fin structure. In FinFETs, the body of the transistor is formed in an island rising out of a planar background, typically having both vertical and horizontal surfaces. The gate of the FinFET is engaging the top surface, as well as, the vertically oriented body on both faces, or sides, resulting in three connected planes being used for transistor channel formation. FinFETs/Tri-Gates have several advantages, such as better SCE, better down-scaling potential, and thus, are promising extensions of the mainline semiconductor technology.
A problem with FinFET devices arises precisely from the fact that the channel is formed on multiple connected planes. Where the plains of the FinFET body meet they form an angle, typically of 90°. This gives rise to the well known corner effect device problem. In the corner the electric field pattern during device operation is different than in the planar region of the device. This results in undesirable device effects, most notably in a lowered threshold voltage for the corner region. The more acute the angle at which the top plane and side planes meet, the more pronounced the corner effect is. For the sake of good device performance it would be desirable to eliminate as much as possible sharp corners in FinFET devices by rounding the intersections between the connected planes. One known approach to rounding corners is to expose the Fin structure silicon islands to a H2-anneal. However, the control of this process is quite cumbersome, leading to poor reproducibility during manufacturing.
In general, FinFET devices and their manufacturing is well suited to semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI), usually silicon-on-insulator, technology. SOI devices typically are fabricated in a thin semiconductor layer disposed over an insulator layer. Most commonly, the insulator layer is a so called buried oxide layer on a silicon (Si) substrate.

Corner clipping for field effect devices

International Business Machines Corporation


A spinning device for producing a yarn by a circulating air flow, comprising a hollow spinning cone arranged in a spinning housing and rotatably mounted about a central longitudinal axis and a nozzle block which can be loaded with compressed air to generate the circulating air flow. The spinning cone (19) is mounted via a bearing arrangement (30) in the rear housing part (15) such that the installation angle position of the spinning cone (19) can be adjusted selectively inside the air spinning device (5).

The invention relates to a spinning device for producing a yarn by means of a circulating air flow and, more particularly, comprising a hollow spinning cone arranged in a spinning housing and rotatably mounted about a central longitudinal axis, and a nozzle block which can be loaded with compressed air to generate the circulating air flow.
Air spinning devices for producing textile yarns are known in various embodiments and described in the patent literature.
German Patent Publication DE 40 36 119 C2 describes an air spinning device, for example, in which a fiber yarn drawn in an upstream drafting arrangement is introduced through a nozzle block into an air spinning device and arrives via a fiber band guide, which also acts as a twist stop in the inlet opening of a spinning spindle which rotates during the spinning process and is acted upon via a drive belt. On entry of the fiber band into the rotating spinning spindle, the free fiber ends are looped by means of a circulating air flow around the conical spindle head of the spinning spindle and, while the yarn is being drawn into the spindle, wind spirally around the so-called core fibers. Thus, the core fibers, together with the so-called winding fibers, form a new yarn.
The drawback in this known air spinning device, however, is that the device is relatively maintenance-intensive due to its rotatably mounted, driven spinning spindle.
A comparable device for producing a yarn by means of a circulating air flow is known from German Patent Publication DE 199 26 492 A1. In this air spinning device, the fiber band to be spun is also introduced via a fiber band guide and a nozzle block into the air spinning device and arrives in the inlet opening of a stationarily arranged hollow spinning cone. In other words, the spinning cone of this known air spinning device is not rotatably mounted, but rigidly connected to the housing of the air spinning device. As already mentioned above in conjunction with German Patent Publication DE 40 36 119 C2, the fiber band is subjected to a circulating air flow in the region of the inlet opening of the spinning cone, which air flow places the free fiber ends of the fiber band around the head of the spinning cone. When the fiber yarn is subsequently drawn into the hollow spinning cone the free fiber ends also loop spirally, as so-called winding fibers, around the core fibers and thus form a yarn.
Air spinning devices according to German Patent Publication DE 199 26 492 A1 are distinguished above all by a relatively simple design construction and are relatively low in maintenance. However, it has been shown that in the case of air spinning devices of this type with a fixed spinning cone, even though it is made of a very wear-resistant material, preferably an industrial ceramics material, there is the risk of traces of wear occurring over time in certain areas of the head of the spinning cone and these have negative effects on the functioning capacity of the device.

Spinning device for producing a yarn by means of a circulating air flow


A pharmaceutical or medicinal preparation comprising a mixture of herbs including Glycine max, Asparagus racemosa, Boerhavia diffusa, Withania somnifera, Saraca indica, and Coleus forskohlii, or a mixture of the active ingredients that have been extracted from those herbs. The herbal formulations of the present invention are effective for the treatment of hormone dependent conditions and circulatory conditions in the human body, and to stimulate the immune system.

Hormone dependent physiological and pathological conditions, circulatory conditions, and stimulation of the immune system in the human body are conventionally treated or regulated using drugs. Such treatments include chemically synthesized preparations, or other therapies, including radiation or chemotherapy, which often have adverse side effects. Such conventional drugs or therapies are typically used to treat or maintain hormone dependent physiological and pathological conditions in the human body in order to, for example, maintain the normal physiological functions of the female reproductive system, regulate the menstrual cycle and all the aberrations that occur due to subtle hormonal imbalances, maintain normal breast health, treat breast disease and breast cancer, maintain benign hyperplasia of the prostate and prostate cancer, treat symptoms associated with leucorrhoea, menorrhagia, metrorrhagia, menometrorrhagia, premenstrual syndrome and premenstrual dysphoric disorder, and treat circulatory conditions and maintain the circulatory system. Such conventional drugs are also used to stimulate and maintain the immune system and immune responses.
There is a need for improved medicinal preparations for use in the treatment or regulation of such physiological and pathological conditions, without the adverse toxic effect associated with conventional modes of treatment of such conditions. It is an object of the present invention to provide such a preparation.

Herbal composition for treatment and maintenance of hormone dependent conditions and circulatory conditions, and immunostimulation


A microphone art for a cellular telephone has a first tubular member telescoping with a second tubular member secured to a face of the cellular telephone. The tubular members are preferably arcuately-shaped, similar to a face of the telephone, and spring-loaded so that releasing a detent permits the second tubular member to extend from the first under the influence of a spring.

Since their introduction, wireless communication systems including pagers, cellular telephones and low-tier radio telephones, have become increasingly popular. Such devices provide an extremely convenient means for communication.
Wireless communication systems, particularly cellular telephones and low-tier radio telephones, are convenient because they allow their users to save time. The user of a wireless telephone unit need not waste time looking for an available telephone in order to place a call. A wireless telephone unit also allows its user to take advantage of time spent traveling. For example, with a wireless telephone, the user can be transacting business or making appointments while driving, riding or walking.
A representative portable cellular telephone with accessories is commercially available from SONY as model CM-RX100, as representatively shown in FIGS. 1 to 4. As seen in FIG. 1, the cellular telephone designated generally by the reference numeral 10 includes a power switch 11 for turning the cellular telephone 10 on or off. An incoming indicator 12 flashes when receiving a call to apprise the user of incoming traffic. A dial shuttle 13 recalls the speed dialing number and the last dialed numbers when turned up or down in the standby mode. When pressed, the dial shuttle 13 enters the function mode F and can then be turned up or down for selection. By pressing the dial shuttle 13 for one second, a function menu is automatically scrolled. Scrolling may be terminated by pressing any button except the power switch 11. A display 14 is provided on the face of the telephone 10.
A keypad 10a is included with a STORE button 15 for storing a phone number and a CLEAR button 16 which releases the number or letter entered and exits the mode when pressed for one second. The keypad 10a also includes the conventional buttons for numerals 1 to 9 and 0, with star and # buttons.
An antenna 18 in an antenna socket 19 is extendable or fixed to receive or transmit telephony. A ringer is shown at numeral 20, with a speaker 21. An ABC button on the face of the telephone 10 is used to enter and exit the alphabetical mode; a RECALL button 24 recalls a stored phone number; a SEND button 25 is used to make a call and also used for conferences and interrupt calls; and an END button is used to end calls or exit the mode. As shown in the bottom view seen in FIG. 3, a connector 27 connects optional car batter cord or handsfree kit and a battery charge contact 28 is provided. The circuitry and technology for making such a telephone are known, as evidenced by this commercially available model.
As seen in FIG. 2, a hand strap attachment 29 a battery cover release button 30 and a battery cover 31 are provided.
A feature of this prior art cellular telephone is an arm microphone 22 which is stored in a position shown in FIG. 1 and is extended to the open position shown representatively in FIG. 4 for making a call. In this model, opening the arm microphone 22 makes a call or answers an incoming call, while closing the arm microphone ends the call.
Other examples of non-axially extendable arm microphones are seen in DES. Pat. No. 352,708 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,404,390.
However, such extendable arm microphones have in the main not been aesthetically incorporated into attractive face designs for the cellular telephone and have usually been manually operated by hand between a closed and an open position. Nor have such arm microphones been spring loaded to extend automatically or semi-automatically for the convenience of the user. Thus, there is an opportunity for additional improvements to such arm microphones which are addressed by this invention.

Cellular telephone with extendible microphone


The suture device of the present disclosure disposes rigid components on suture, enabling the device to resist tensile and compressive loads and to protect soft tissue from suture pull-through. The suture device generally comprises of at least one rigid segment as well as a standard high tensile strength suture to create a segmentally rigid suture device. The at least one rigid segment may be comprised of any of a number of materials that are appropriate for use in the human body and provide the desired strength and stiffness for a particular application. Although the segmentally rigid suture device could be used with any prior art suture configuration, a grip stitch, a knot tying grip stitch, a straight-line grip stitch, and a reverse straight-line grip stitch suture configuration are described.

Tearing or avulsion of soft tissue from bone is a relatively common type of injury, especially in sports, and can occur in many types of orthopedic injuries, such as torn or ruptured tendons and/or ligaments. In the shoulder, for example, portions of the rotator cuff tendons can tear within themselves or avulse from their insertion into the bone. FIGS. 1A-1B show superior views of a shoulder having a typically torn rotator cuff. Here, the tear is associated with the supraspinatus tendon as it inserts into the humerus. The subscapularis tendon and the coracoid process are also shown in FIG. 1A for reference.
The tear 10 shown in FIG. 1A is categorized as a simple tear because the tear branches normal to the muscle fibers, while the tear in FIG. 1B branches in both parallel and normal directions to the muscle fibers. In the case of both of these tears, such a torn rotator cuff can lead to pain, weakness, and loss of function.
In many cases, the rotator cuff is repaired by surgically reconnecting the edges of the torn muscle or tendon. Repairs may also include reconnecting the edges of any interstitial tear in the tendons, as well as approximating or reattaching the torn edge of the soft tissue to the bone where it originated. Common techniques for repairing tears to soft tissue and the avulsion of soft tissue from bone include using sutures through bone tunnels, suture anchors, friction anchors, tacks, screws with spiked washers and staples, or any combination of these techniques.
Any repair of a rotator cuff injury should have a secure fixation to soft tissue and should preserve the range of motion through which a muscle is expected to function after the repair. The fixation should also serve to provide a means for the soft tissue to anatomically reattach to a position in the shoulder, the humeral head in this case. In the shoulder, the soft tissues may experience wide ranges of motion, as shown by the views in FIGS. 2A-2B of a shoulder during internal and external rotations. In addition to these rotations, the shoulder may also be moved through adduction and abduction motions not shown. The various motions indicate that the soft tissue may undergo dramatic variations in stresses and that a wide variation in possible stresses at a particular point can occur. A surgical repair of injured soft tissue, such as the tears shown in FIGS. 1A-1B, preferably accounts for different requirements at various points along the injured site in order to alleviate concerns associated with the repair.
Failure of the repair is often instigated on the soft tissue site where, typically, suture is passed through the tendon in a number of ways. Failure occurs when the suture slices through the tendon while under tension. Common methods to alleviate this problem use multiple suture passes into the tendon using simple or mattress stitches. An alternative method uses complex stitches such as the massive cuff stitch.
FIG. 3A shows an example of the massive cuff stitch. A mattress stitch 131 is made horizontally in the tendon 20 and the suture tails are tied together, and a simple suture 130 is passed vertically medial to the mattress stitch 131 and is extended to a bone fixation point (not shown) by the suture tails 132. However, as seen in FIG. 3B, as the simple suture tails 136 receive a high enough load upon muscle contraction, the pass of the simple suture 130 tends to cut through the tendon 20 until it engages the tensile load of the mattress suture 133 at point 135. The distance that the suture 130 cuts though the tendon 20 can form a gap at the bone/tendon interface, which can inhibit the tendon 20 from healing to the bone.
The disclosed methods and products detailed below serve in part to address this and other issues.

Segmentally rigid suture and suturing technique


A frequency monitor circuit (FMC) that is part of an integrated circuit chip for monitoring the frequency of one or more clocks present on the chip is disclosed. The FMC includes a reference window generator, operative to output a reference window signal of a given duration, and a clock counter, operative to count all pulses, in any one of the clocks, that occur within the duration of the reference window and to output a corresponding pulse count. The FMC further includes two or more comparators, each operative to compare the pulse count with a respective given threshold value and to output a corresponding indication of frequency deviation. In one configuration, in which the clock is generated on the chip by a frequency multiplier, the reference window generator and the clock counter are shared between the frequency monitor circuit and the frequency multiplier.

Digital systems and modules are ubiquitous, serving for a variety of purposes, including data processing, communication and control. In the context of the present specification, a digital system or module may be any of a wide range of sizes and packages, from a single semiconductor chip, through a multiple chip board or module to an assembly of boards or modules. Any of these may form a part of a more general system, such as an electronic system, an electrical power system, an appliance, a vehicle, etc.
Typically a clock signal is provided within the digital system to which various other signals are synchronized or from which they are derived. A clock signal typically consists of a train of pulses at a constant frequency. In the following description a clock signal will be simply referred to as a clock. Often there are provided within a system one or more additional clocks, generated independently of the first clock, although in many cases they are related to, derived from, or synchronized with, the first clock. Any of the clocks may be generated, by respective clock generators, within the system under consideration or outside it.
Usually the first clock has a highly stable frequency and is therefore often called a reference clock, while the other clocks, referred to as ancillary clocks, are generated in a manner that causes their respective frequencies to be inherently less stable. Often, the frequency of an ancillary clock is much higher than that of the reference clock. Typically, a high frequency ancillary clock is generated under some relation to the reference clock. Two well known means for such generation are the Phase Locked Loop (PLL) and the Frequency Multiplier (Fmul).
Due to various causes, the frequency of an ancillary clock may not always be stable, even if the clock is generated in synchrony with the reference clock. This is particularly true for frequencies much higher than that of the reference clock. Two particular effects are often noticeable in synchronous types of clock generators: (1) short-term fluctuations, namely those occurring between moments of synchronization, and (2) inherent drift. The meaning of inherent drift is that the frequency tends to drift away from its nominal value and is kept at that value only by the effect of the synchronization. If the tendency to drift becomes strong enough, the situation may become unstable and the synchronization may become ineffective or erroneous.
It is often desirable to detect frequency drift tendencies before they cause drastic effects. In other cases it is often desirable to detect frequency deviations exceeding certain given threshold values. The need for such detection may arise during production of chips that contain ancillary clock generators, for example, in order to possibly control production parameters or to reject a chip when unacceptable frequency deviations have been detected. A need for such detection may similarly arise during normal usage of the digital system, for example, in order to warn of an actual or impending malfunction due to frequency deviations. For the case of detection during production, it is further desirable that the means for detection be provided on the same chip as the clock generator under consideration, thus avoiding the need for a special test setup.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,633,609 to Duncan discloses an internal monitor circuitry that detects whether a clock signal is present at its input. The circuit does not, however, detect the frequency of the clock signal, nor any deviations of the frequency from a given value. U.S. Pat. No. 5,497,110 to Smith discloses a frequency monitor and error detector circuit that compares an input alternating current (ac) signal with a reference frequency, which is much higher than that of the alternating current (ac) signal. The times of zero transitions of the alternating current (ac) signal are compared with those of the nearest cycles of the reference frequency in order to yield a measure of frequency deviation, which is processed in a logic circuit to obtain a go/no-go decision.
The circuitry of the Smith patent includes an inherently analog circuit and is thus not very suitable for realization on a digital integrated circuit (IC) chip. Furthermore, the Smith patent is directed to electric power frequencies and is not suitable for the high frequencies prevalent in modern digital systems, to which the present invention is directed. Moreover, the circuitry of the Smith patent is relatively complex and thus may not be economical.
Therefore there is a need in the art for a compact on-chip digital circuit for monitoring the frequency of any clock present on the integrated circuit chip.


There is provided a configuration enabling prevention in advance of leakage and outflow of secret information in the local network, such as private data and content whose copyright and use right is restricted. A plurality of identification information of a communication destination device are acquired at different data processing levels. Identification information acquired by data processing at a level of a physical layer or a data link layer of the OSI reference model and identification information acquired by data processing at a layer level of a network layer or higher are received and these identification information are matched.

Along with recent widespread of data communication networks, so-called home networks allowing communications between household electric appliances, computers and other peripheral apparatuses connected to the network are prevailing also in homes. The home network provides users with convenience and comfort, such as sharing a data processing function between apparatuses connected to the network and transmitting and receiving content to and from the apparatuses, and is predicted to become more common.
On the other hand, however, it is required to consider a countermeasure against illegal accesses in the network of this type. A device in a home network, such as a server, often stores content requiring copyright management, including private content and paid content.
Content and secret information stored in the server in a home network have a possibility of being illegally acquired, for example, by an external access via the Internet. If such an illegal access is allowed, secret is leaked and there arises a severe problem in terms of management of the content copyright.
When content requiring copyright management such as movies and music is transmitted via a network, the content transmission range is limited to a range in which the usage is permitted, for example, only among devices in a home network. However, recent widespread of the Internet poses a problem of illegal content transmission via the Internet.
Under the Copyright Law of Japan, digital content as one of literary works is protected from illegal use such as copying and falsification without permission. Article 30 of the Copyright Law of Japan stipulates that it shall be permissible for a user to copy by himself a work for the purpose of his personal use, family use or other similar uses, without limiting the kind of a work and a type of copying. Article 49, Paragraph (1) of the Copyright Law of Japan also stipulates that if a copy made for the purpose of personal use is used for other purposes, reproduction right of the author is transferred, and prohibits so-called uses of copies for other purposes.
In these days of active uses of digital content, many technologies have been developed to protect copyright. For example, Digital Transmission Content Protection (DTCP), which is the industry standards or digital transmission content protection, defines a mechanism for transmitting content whose copyright is protected. For example, refer to a non-patent document 1 [DTCP Specification Volume 1 Version 1.3 (Informational Version).
The DTCP defines digital content transmission on a home network using IEEE 1394 and the like as a transmission line. It is presumed that content transmission via a home network is of personal use or family use as stipulated in the Copyright Law of Japan. The DTCP defines an authentication protocol between devices during content transmission and a transmission protocol of encrypted content.
Namely, a server as a content provider performs authentication with a client as a content receiver, and encrypts a transmission channel by using a key shared during the authentication procedure, and transmits content. By using the DTCP, content can therefore be transmitted under protection. Since the client cannot acquire an encryption key unless authentication with the server succeeds, the client cannot enjoy the content. [Non-patent document 1] DTCP Specification Volume 1 Version 1.3 (Informational Version).

Communication apparatus and associated method of controlling distribution of content to network devices


A method, non-transitory computer readable medium and apparatus for providing a master privacy policy in a communications network are disclosed. For example, the method receives a privacy control parameter to configure a master privacy policy, stores the master privacy policy in the communications network, and applies the master privacy policy to configure a third party service provider privacy policy for a third party service provider based upon the master privacy policy.

An ever increasing number of Internet services (e.g., Facebook®, Google®, Twitter®, Amazon.com®, Apple®, and the like) require more and more user identifiable information. How to protect this information becomes increasingly critical for both the users and the service providers. Each one of the service providers may have their own privacy policies and the users are required to manage each one of these policies separately. For example, the users may be required to constantly update and change the privacy policies for each one of the service providers. As the number of service providers continues to grow, managing each of the privacy policies separately becomes a very difficult task for all parties involved.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for a master privacy policy mechanism in a communications network


A document disposal management system, which includes a print unit that performs combined printing of plural documents, each of the plural documents being embedded with document identification information and combination identification information; a management unit that manages comparison image data associated with the document identification information and a similarity value used as a threshold value; a determination unit that receives a request containing combined image data and pairs of document identification information and combination identification information, compares each of the combined image data with the comparison image data to calculate a similarity value, and determines approval/disapproval of disposal; a request unit that separates and extracts the combined image data and the pairs of document identification information and combination identification information from the scanned image output, and requests for determination; and a controller that performs control to dispose of or prohibit disposal based on the determination result.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a document disposal management system, a document disposal management device, a document disposal management method and a recoding medium storing a document disposal management program.
2. Related Art
It is a common practice in system environment, for example, established in offices or the like by network connection among client PCs, printers, multifunctional devices, and document management servers, to hold and manage operation history of various operations including printing of electronic documents on a recording medium (paper), scanning and copying of documents printed on paper, and transfer of documents for the purpose of enhancing the security of the documents.
Nowadays, in particular, from the viewpoint of information security focusing on the e-document bill and ISO15489, there has arisen a demand for an even higher level of history management on when and who performed what operation to which document.
Document operations managed in such document operation history management naturally includes disposal of documents.

Document disposal management system, document disposal management device, document disposal management method and recording medium storing document disposal management program


A pill inserted into a body of a patient acquires in-vivo information on the body of the patient. The in-vivo information on the body of the patient is input to a receiver from the pill through a receiving antenna. The pill receives a power-supply signal from the receiver through a power receiving antenna, and a power recovering circuit recovers power from the power-supply signal. A level determining circuit compares the power recovered with a predetermined value to determine the strength of the power-supply signal, and wirelessly transmits the determination result signal to the receiver.

1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless in-vivo information acquiring system that acquires in-vivo information on a body of a patient using a capsule-type endoscope, and a body insertable device.
2) Description of the Related Art
In the field of endoscopes, swallowable capsule-type endoscopes (hereinafter, "pill") have been on the market in recent years. The pill includes an imaging function and a wiring function. The pill has a mechanism such that the pill is swallowed by a patient for observation (diagnosis), travels along the inside of organs of the patient such as stomach and small bowel due to peristalsis of the organs, and successively imaging the inside of the organs in an observation period since the pill is swallowed until it is naturally excreted from the body of the patient.
In the observation period by the travel of the pill along the inside of the organs, data for images captured by the pill inside the body is successively transmitted to the outside through wireless communications, and the data is stored on memory. By carrying a receiver including such a wireless communication function and a memory function, the patient can act freely during the observation period since the pill is swallowed until it is excreted. After the observation, a doctor or a nurse displays the image of the organs based on the image data stored on the memory and performs diagnosis.
As for a supply of the power, there are systems such as a battery supply system in which a battery is incorporated in this type of pill, because the pill remains inside the body of the patient, and supplies power to the inside of the pill, and a power transmission system that supplies power to the inside of the body by transmitting the power from the outside of the body of the patient to the pill.
The latter case of the power transmission system has a configuration in which a power receiving antenna is provided in the inside of the pill and power is transmitted to the inside of a radio capsule (corresponding to the pill) through the power receiving antenna to operate the radio capsule remaining in the body of the patient for a long time (see Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2001-231186)
As this type of pill at present, there are M2A (trademark) produced by Given Imaging Ltd. of Israel and NORIKA (trademark) produced by Kabushiki Kaisha RF of Japan, which have already entered into its practical stage.
As explained above, the conventional power transmission system only supplies power from the outside of the body, and therefore, a situation of supplying the power to the pill cannot be grasped.

Wireless in-vivo information acquiring system and body-insertable device


An illumination device includes a metal base substrate in a flat planar shape, a plurality of LED modules, and a driving unit which drives each of the LEDs arranged on the metal base substrate. The LED modules have an organic substrate, a plurality of LEDs which are arranged on the organic substrate, a metal member, LED control signal terminals which are set on the edge of the organic substrate, and voltage feed terminals which are set on the edge of the organic substrate. The metal member corresponds to each LED and to which the heat from the LEDs is conducted, and which is electrically connected via a switch element from an electrode of the LED, and which penetrates the organic substrate toward its width direction from the LED mounting surface of the organic substrate and is exposed from the opposite surface.

Conventionally, an LCD device where a plurality of LED substrates on which LEDs are implemented are arranged in order on the back side of the LED panel, and which makes the maintenance easier, eliminates wasted space as well as prevents leakage of light from the LED as well as leakage of unnecessary radiation from the LED substrates is disclosed (refer to patent document 1).
As for the LED substrates described in the patent document 1, they are relatively small substrates on which a plurality of LEDs which are light source for backlights are implemented, and they are arranged in order on the back side of the LCD panel, and supported by a backlight chassis.
Further, a sheet-like heat conductive member is held between the backlight chassis and a chassis tray. Thus, the heat generated on the LED substrates is released through the backlight chassis and the chassis tray.

Illumination device and liquid crystal display device


The disclosure provides a display panel and a manufacturing method thereof. The display panel display panel comprises a first substrate and a second substrate which are assembled, the second substrate is provided with an organic electroluminescent device thereon, an anode layer of the organic electroluminescent device is away from the first substrate and a cathode layer thereof is closer to the first substrate than the anode layer; the cathode layer of the organic electroluminescent device is electrically connected to an auxiliary electrode on a light entering surface of the first substrate through multiple conductive spacers, the cathode layer is a transparent electrode layer; the auxiliary electrode has a resistance smaller than that of the cathode layer of the organic electroluminescent device; the auxiliary electrode is a grid-shaped auxiliary electrode and is provided in a non-display region, the auxiliary electrode is opaque and acts as a black matrix.

In recent years, the display technology has been developed rapidly, and especially the organic electroluminescent device (OLED) display technology has been developed rapidly. Currently, there are mainly two kinds of technologies for colorizing large-sized white organic electroluminescent devices (WOLEDs), one of which is to form a display panel by directly manufacturing color filter patterns on a second substrate (COA, color filter on array), and the other of which is to form a display panel by assembling a first substrate and a second substrate, and providing spacers arranged spaced at certain intervals between the first substrate and the second substrate, wherein the spacers are used to support the first substrate and the second substrate.

Display panel having cathode connected to auxiliary electrode through conductive spacers and manufacturing method thereof, and display device


According to this invention, a semiconductor non-volatile memory device includes a semiconductor substrate, insulating films formed on the semiconductor substrate and having at least two types of gate insulating films having different thicknesses and a first conductive film formed on the insulating films and electrically floating from the semiconductor substrate through the insulating films. These at least two types of gate insulating films include a first insulating film formed on said semiconductor substrate and a first diffusion layer of a conductivity type and a second insulating film formed on said semiconductor substrate and a second diffusion layer, of the opposite conductivity type, which is isolated from the first diffusion layer. The first conductive film is formed on the first and second insulating films. A part of the first insulating film between the first conductive film and the first diffusion layer is constituted by a third insulating film having a thickness smaller than that of the first insulating film.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device and a method of manufacturing the same and, more particularly to a semiconductor memory device used as a non-volatile memory device and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIGS. 24A to 24C show a conventional semiconductor non-volatile memory device, in which FIG. 24A shows a high breakdown voltage transistor, FIG. 24B shows a memory cell transistor, and FIG. 24C shows a 5 V system transistor. The memory cell transistor in FIG. 24B has a two-layered conductive film structure constituted by a floating gate and a control gate. The floating gate is formed by a first conductive film 14 and the control gate is formed by a second conductive film 17. The gate electrode of a 5 V system transistor at the periphery of the memory cell transistor is formed by the second conductive film 17.
An electrically programmable non-volatile memory device will be described below. The thicknesses of the insulating films in FIGS. 24A to 24C have the following relationship: T.sub.OX1 (a charge injection/extraction region or a tunnel region 15)<T.sub.OX2 (a 5 V system gate insulating film 18)<T.sub.OX3 (a high breakdown voltage gate insulating film 13). In manufacturing the memory, the high breakdown voltage insulating film 13 is formed on a semiconductor substrate 11, and an opening is formed to form the tunnel region 15 using normal photoetching. Thereafter, the first conductive film 14 is formed, a cell slit is formed by photoetching, and the first conductive region in a 5 V system region and the high breakdown voltage insulating film 13 are sequentially etched.
Thereafter, the 5 V system gate insulating film 18 is formed. At the same time, an insulating film 16 is formed on the floating gate. Furthermore, the second conductive film 17 is formed. In FIGS. 24A to 24C, reference numerals 12 denote diffusion layers each having a conductivity type opposite to that of the semiconductor substrate 11.
In the above-described prior art, an electrically erasable and programmable non-volatile memory (to be referred to as an EEPROM hereinafter) and a logic circuit (5 V system) are formed on the same substrate. The former has a two-layered conductive film gate structure, but the latter has a single conductive film gate, and three types of films consisting of an insulating film between the floating gate and the control gate, the high breakdown voltage gate insulating film, and the tunnel insulating film, and one type of the 5 V system insulating film, i.e., a total of four types of insulating films must be arranged in the EEPROM region. Therefore, the EEPROM and the logic circuit are not properly matched with each other on a single chip.

Semiconductor non-volatile memory device and method of manufacturing the same


A beverage or foodstuff preparation machine is disclosed that includes a component processing unit and a control system, wherein the component processing unit includes a pump arranged to deliver fluid. Also disclosed are methods of making and using the beverage or foodstuff preparation machine. Also disclosed are methods of controlling the pump of the beverage or foodstuff preparation machine. Further disclosed is a computer program for a processor of the control system of the beverage or foodstuff preparation machine, as well as a non-transitory computer readable medium that includes the computer program.

Increasingly machines for the preparation of a beverage or foodstuff are configured to operate using a container that comprises a single-serving of a beverage or foodstuff material, e.g. coffee, tea, ice cream, yoghurt. The machine may be configured for preparation by processing said material in the container, e.g. with the addition of fluid, such as milk or water, and the application of mixing thereto, such a machine is disclosed in PCT/EP13/072692. Alternatively, the machine may be configured for preparation by at least partially extracting an ingredient of the material from the container, e.g. by dissolution or brewing. Examples of such machines are provided in EP 2393404 A1, EP 2470053 A1, WO 2009/113035.
The increased popularity of these machines may be partly attributed to enhanced user convenience compared to a conventional machine, e.g. compared to a manually operated stove-top espresso maker or cafetiére (French press).
In particular the aforesaid machines comprise a component processing unit, which is operable to process the material via the application of a fluid (typically water) to the desired beverage or foodstuff. Accordingly, the component processing unit comprises a pump, such as an induction pump, to supply the fluid from a reservoir. It is desirable to reduce the noise of the machine when executing a preparation operation, particularly when the machine is used in a home environment. The vibrations from the pump in particular cause the most substantial noise.
Accordingly, there is a need to reduce the noise of the pump in such machines. Various approaches have been developed: an example is provided in EP 2410894, wherein the pump is mounted to an elastic member configured to isolate the pump from the remainder of the machine to reduce transmission of pump vibrations. A further approach is provided in EP 2180812, wherein the voltage of electrical energy supplied to the pump is controlled during start-up of the pump. In particular, during a start-up phase the voltage may be ramped up in a linear fashion to the nominal operating voltage. A drawback of controlling the voltage in this manner is that there remains an undesirable amount of noise.

Control system for pump of beverage preparation machine


A method for forming relatively large and inexpensive crystals of KTiOPO.sub.4, which exhibit relatively low conductivities, is disclosed. In addition, electro-optic devices based on such crystals are also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains generally to substantially single-crystal material having a composition which includes KTiOPO.sub.4 and to electro-optic devices based thereon.
2. Description of Related Art
Substantially single-crystal KTiOPO.sub.4 (which compound is hereinafter referred to as KTP) is a relatively new material which exhibits many attractive optical properties, including relatively large electro-optic coefficients. As a consequence, this material has been proposed for use in a number of electro-optic devices, in which relatively large electric fields are necessarily employed.
At present, there are two methods available for growing substantially single-crystal KTP. In the first of these methods, known as the hydrothermal technique, a nutrient and a seed crystal are sealed in a gold tube, and the tube is inserted into a high pressure-high temperature autoclave. Crystals are then grown at a relatively high constant pressure of, for example, 25,000 psi and at a constant temperature with a fixed temperature gradient, e.g., 600.degree. Centigrade (C.) at the nutrient end and 550.degree. C. at the seed end. (Regarding the hydrothermal technique see, e.g., G. Gashurov et al, "Growth of KTP", in Tunable Solid State Lasers for Remote Sensing, R. L. Byer, E. K. Gustafson and R. Frebino, eds. (Springer-Verlag, New York, 1985), p. 119). While the resulting KTP crystals are of high quality, it has thus far only been possible to grow relatively small crystals. In addition, the need to employ high pressures has resulted in these crystals being relatively expensive.
The second method available for growing substantially single-crystal KTP is a high-temperature solution growth technique. In this second method, a melt is formed, typically at a temperature of 1050.degree. C., in which reactants capable of reacting to form KTP are dissolved in a solvent having the nominal composition K.sub.6 P.sub.4 O.sub.13. The KTP is crystallized out of solution by initially lowering the melt temperature to, for example, 960.degree. C., inserting a seed crystal of KTP and then cooling the melt at a rate of, for example, 5.degree. C. per day while alternately rotating the seed in the clockwise and counterclockwise directions. (Regarding the high-temperature solution growth technique see P. F. Bordui et al, "Growth of Large Single Crystals of KTiOPO.sub.4 (KTP) From High-Temperature Solution Using Heat Pipe Based Furnace System", Journal of Crystal Growth, Vol. 84, 1987, pp. 403-408). Significantly, this procedure yields relatively large crystals. In addition, because this procedure is carried out at atmospheric pressure, the resulting crystals are relatively inexpensive.
The morphologies of the KTP crystals produced by the hydrothermal technique and the high-temperature solution growth technique are similar. In addition, the optical properties, including the electro-optical properties, are also similar. However, the crystals grown by the two techniques differ significantly in one important electrical property. That is, for the sake of convenience, the 100! crystallographic direction is here defined as the x-axis, the 010! crystallographic direction is here defined as the y-axis and the 001! crystallographic direction is here defined as the z-axis. These definitions correspond to the lattice parameters of the (orthorhombic) crystal structure having space group Pn2a.sub.1, the number of molecules per unit cell being 8, the lattice parameters being a=12.818 Angstroms, b=6.404 Angstroms and c=10.59 Angstroms, and the x-, y- and z- axes being associated with, respectively, the a, b and c lattice parameters. With this definition in mind, it is to be noted that KTP crystals grown via both the hydrothermal and high-temperature solution growth techniques exhibit a conductivity in the z-direction, much higher than that in the x- and y- directions, believed due to the transport of K.sup.+ ions in the z-direction. This transport is, in turn, believed due to the presence of vacancies at the K.sup.+ sites in the crystal lattice. Significantly, the ionic conductivity of a KTP crystal grown via the low-temperature hydrothermal technique is usually relatively low, often as low as about 1.times.10.sup.-9 Siemen's units per centimeter (S/cm). On the other hand, the ionic conductivity of a KTP crystal grown via the high-temperature solution growth technique is usually relatively high, typically being about 2.times.10.sup.-6 S/cm. This difference in z-direction conductivities is important because the electro-optic coefficients associated with the z-direction are relatively large, and therefore, for electro-optic applications, it is often desirable to apply the electric field in the z-direction. But the relatively high z-direction ionic conductivity exhibited by KTP crystals grown via the high-temperature solution growth technique implies that such crystals cannot sustain the relatively high electric fields needed for many electro-optic applications.
Although not specifically directed to lowering ionic conductivities, experiments have been conducted by others in which Ba.sup.+2 dopant ions have been substituted for K.sup.+ ions in KTP crystals. However, rather than lowering the ionic conductivities of the crystals, this substitution increased the ionic conductivities.
Thus, those engaged in developing electro-optic devices have sought, thus far without success, KTP crystals which are relatively large and inexpensive and exhibit relatively low conductivities, particularly in the z-direction.

Low conductivity, doped KTIOPO.sub.4 and devices based thereon


A process for making individually wrapped personal hygiene absorbent articles is provided. It comprises: (i) providing a single image with indicia wherein at least one of the indicia is repeated more than once within said single image; (ii) printing a plurality of said single images over a continuous film to form a continuous repetition of the same single image in a side-by-side arrangement; (iii) cutting the printed film and/or web material along a transverse axis such to form a plurality of individual segments of film forming individual wrapping sheets comprising a portion of said single image and sized such to each accommodate one of said personal hygiene absorbent articles therein; (iv) wrapping individual personal hygiene absorbent articles each with one of said wrapping sheets such that a printed portion of the wrapping sheet is viewable; (v) stacking a plurality of the individually wrapped personal hygiene absorbent articles into a container.

Absorbent articles such as tampons, sanitary napkins, pantiliners and incontinent pads are devices that are typically worn in the crotch region of an undergarment. More specifically, sanitary napkins and pantiliners, for example, are worn by women in a pair of panties that is normally positioned between the wearer's legs, adjacent to the perineum area. Sanitary napkins and pantiliners are designed to absorb and retain body fluids or discharges (e.g., urine and menses) from the body of women and to prevent body and clothing from soiling. A wide variety of shapes and dimensions of sanitary napkins and pantiliners is currently used by women for the collection of body fluids.
Recent developments for disposable absorbent articles tend to focus on not only improvement of their product functions (e.g., superior absorbency, leakage protection and comfort) but their esthetic features. This trend is particularly true for sanitary napkins and baby diapers. Such disposable absorbent articles are disclosed in, for example, WO 2004/006818.
The esthetic designs are typically implemented by printing graphics at one (or more) of component members of those disposable absorbent articles (e.g., a backsheet). This means that such esthetic features have been becoming one of important product features in recent disposable absorbent articles. It is believed that such esthetic features can provide emotional benefit to users, and thus can decrease users' melancholic mood during the menstruation period. So, there is an intention of showing the esthetic features of disposable absorbent articles.
In recent disposable absorbent articles (typically sanitary napkins and pantiliners), however, each pad is folded and wrapped individually by a wrapper sheet. The materials of such wrapper members are typically polyethylene films or sometimes nonwoven materials which are mostly non-transparent. This is because consumers of those disposable absorbent articles do not want other people to notice or show they are carrying such a pad(s). Also, after the soiled pad is wrapped by the wrapper sheet for disposal, such the non-transparent package member can prevent the soiled pad from being seen through the wrapper sheet. These needs are contrary to the intention of showing the esthetic features of disposable absorbent articles.
Developments have been made towards individually packaged absorbent articles that can show an aesthetic feature of the absorbent article through a wrapper sheet while controlling the visibility of the soiled absorbent article seen through the wrapper sheet after use, such as described in EP1978905A1.
In other alternative developments, focus has been on providing individually wrapped absorbent article that is wrapped in a wrapping sheet wherein the wrapping sheet has a colored part on the inner surface on the side of the absorbent article, and the colored part of the wrapping sheet can be seen from the outside of the individually wrapped product but the absorbent article cannot be seen from the outside of the individually wrapped product, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,278,035B2.
US2014/0367290A1 provides individually wrapped absorbent articles, wherein each article is wrapped within a pouch with printed indicia thereon. The printing shows solid demarcation lines present throughout the image at least separating each designated section for wrapping each absorbent article. The process for manufacturing such absorbent article package requires a registered cutting step.
WO2006/068673A1 and WO2005/065605 also disclose individually wrapped absorbent articles, wherein each article is wrapped within a pouch with indicia thereon.
Nevertheless, there is still need for individually wrapped absorbent articles that are directed to extending the user experience not only during use, but also before and after use. Moreover, there is a need to provide an effective means for users to identify themselves with the product and improve the sensory journey on what otherwise remains a mundane and daily use product. And finally, there is a need to provide also a cheap and effective process that allows such product differentiation to be achieved.

Array of individually packaged absorbent articles, container, and method of making


Tannic acid solution either alone or in conjunction with zinc oxide provides a treatment for fungal infections of the skin and nails.

The idea for this invention came from several sources.
1. I noted that tannin(tannic acid) was highly resistive to biodegradation based on some groundwater monitoring work that I had conducted. I inferred from this that this material must be a natural toxin for single cell organisms.
However, since tannin is non-toxic, I thought that there had to be some use for this material which is extracted from plant material.
2. I noted that healthy trees are actually able to halt and reverse the spread of fungal infections. I presumed that was due to a material produced by a healthy tree. Research indicated that trees produce tannins.
Tannin(tannic acid), which is extracted from tree bark, is used to tan leather. This process of tanning leather actually impregnates the leather with tannin which are families of hydrolyzable galloyl tannins. These materials remove free water from the outer layer of skin and toughen the skin with tannins which are highly resistive to attack by the fungi which cause athletes foot and other similar infections.
3. Zinc Oxide is also widely used to fight infections and in proper balance with tannic acid produces a product which with several treatments, eliminates athlete's foot and prevents its reoccurrence. Its effect, similar to tannins is to place a difficult to degrade material, on the skin surface. This makes the skin surface less susceptible to fungal attack.
4. Testing has shown that 3 successive foot soakings in 100-120 degrees Fahrenheit water with a high concentration of tannin acid and lower concentration of zinc oxide will prevent the spread of and eventually eliminate athlete's foot and other fungal infections.
5. Similarly, a solution of 25% tannin, either alone or in combination with lesser dosages of zinc oxide is effective in the treatment of a variety of fungal infections, primarily athlete's foot.

Tannin (tannic acid) treatment of athlete's foot and other fungal infections


The open eyes alarm clock consists of a sleeping mask that wraps around an end user's head, which includes speakers located in the general vicinity of an end user's ears as well as light emitting means affixed along interior surfaces covering the eyes. The open eyes alarm clock is designed to emit an audio and/or visual alarm in order to awake persons that have either a hearing impairment or that are deep sleepers.

A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of alarm clocks, more specifically, a wake up alarm system that is worn about the head of an end user and of which presents both an audible and visual alarm to wake up said end user.
B. Discussion of the Prior Art
As a preliminary note, it should be stated that there is an ample amount of prior art that deals with alarm clocks. As will be discussed immediately below, no prior art discloses an alarm clock that resembles a night mask that is designed to help the hearing impaired as well as the morning impaired awake.
The Hoyle Patent (U.S. Pat. No. 7,202,774) discloses an eye shield sleeping device that includes a timer for a set of speakers, wherein the timer creates an awakening sound, and wherein a second embodiment includes a transducer for the generation of a visible output. However, the device does not include a timer for setting a preset time for awakening an end user via an audible and/or visual signal.
The Clayton Patent (U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,474) discloses an alarm system for the hearing impaired. However, the alarm system does not include a night sleeping mask that is worn about the end user's head, and of which can emit an audio, visual, or audiovisual alarm.
The Rock Patent Application Publication (U.S. Pub. No. 2007/0217290) discloses an alarm clock that turns on a light at a preset time. However, the alarm clock is not a night sleeping mask worn about an end user's head of which can emit an audio, visual, or audiovisual alarms to awaken said end user.
The Giani Patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,686,882) discloses a silent alarm wristband. However, the wristband is not worn about an end user's head in order to emit an audio, visual, or audiovisual alarm adjacent said end user's eyes or ears.
The Freudenberg, Jr., et al. Patent (U.S. Pat. No. 7,173,881) discloses an alarm system for providing silent notification to a user. However, the silent morning alarm system involves the use of wristbands that are worn about a wrist of an end user and silently awakes said end user while not disturbing person(s) sleeping in the near vicinity of said end user, as opposed to a night sleeping mask.
The Sikes Patent (U.S. Pat. No. 5,894,455) discloses an alarm clock with an ear insert. However, the alarm clock does not include a night sleeping mask that can also emit an audio signal in order to awake persons that having hearing impairments.
While the above-described devices fulfill their respective and particular objects and requirements, they do not describe a mud flap composed of an alarm clock that resembles a night mask that is designed to help the hearing impaired as well as the morning impaired awake from sleep via an audible alarm and/or visual alarm. In this regard, the current invention departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art.


An electronic system according to various aspects of the present invention includes a memory and a supply regulation circuit having a regulated output to provide a selected voltage level. In one embodiment, the supply regulation circuit includes a reference voltage circuit connected to the supply and configured to receive a first voltage and a second voltage and provide a reference voltage and a control circuit connected to the reference voltage and configured to control the regulated voltage according to the reference voltage. The supply regulation circuit also includes an adjustment circuit controlled by the control circuit and configured to adjust the regulated voltage according to the reference voltage. The supply regulation circuit may also include a compensator circuit to provide additional adjustment to the regulated voltage.

Many electronic systems use multiple voltage levels in the same system, and often in the same component. Electronic systems use various voltage levels to drive signals and promote particular operating characteristics for a circuit. For example, a memory chip may require several different voltage levels to operate, such as a main supply voltage, a main supply ground, a bulk voltage, and a negative word line voltage.
Many power supply schemes have been developed for accommodating the different voltage levels. One possible configuration is to minimize the number of voltage levels by using identical voltage levels for different functions. For example, a memory may be configured to use the same voltage level for the bulk voltage VBB and the negative word voltage VNEG. Using identical voltage levels for different signals, however, reduces flexibility and tends to inhibit optimal operation.
An alternative solution is to provide a dedicated circuit including a charge pump for each voltage level to provide the requisite power to the system. These systems are relatively expensive, however, for each dedicated circuit in the system requires additional materials, fabrication, testing, chip space, and design. Further, using dedicated circuits for each voltage level adds complexity. For example, the various voltage level supply circuits may require activation in a selected sequence to avoid latchup problems.

Apparatus and methods for regulated voltage