The wavelength-converting casting composition is based on a transparent epoxy casting resin with a luminous substance admixed. The composition is used in an electroluminescent component having a body that emits ultraviolet, blue or green light. An inorganic luminous substance pigment powder with luminous substance pigments is dispersed in the transparent epoxy casting resin. The luminous substance is a powder of Ce-doped phosphors and the luminous substance pigments have particle sizes ≦20 μm and a mean grain diameter d50≦5 μm.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a wavelength-converting casting composition based on a transparent epoxy casting resin which is mixed with a luminous substance, for an electroluminescent component having a body that emits ultraviolet, blue or green light.
2. Description of the Related Art
A component of that type has become known, for instance, from German published, non-prosecuted patent application DE 38 04 293. The reference describes an arrangement with an electroluminescent diode or laser diode, in which the emissions spectrum emitted by the diode is shifted toward longer wavelengths, by means of a plastic element mixed with a fluorescing, light-converting, organic colorant. The light emitted by the arrangement as a result has a different color from what the light emitting diode emitted. Depending on the type of colorant added to the plastic, it is possible to produce LED arrays that light up in different colors with one and the same type of light-emitting diode (LED).
In many potential applications for LEDs, such as in display elements in motor vehicle dashboards, illumination in aircraft and automobiles, and in LED displays capable of showing full color, there is an increasing demand for LED arrays with which mixed color light and in particular white light can be generated.
However, the prior art casting compositions of the type referred to at the outset with organic luminous substances exhibit a shift in the color location, that is, the color of the light emitted by the electroluminescent component, under temperature and temperature/humidity stresses.
Japanese patent disclosure JP-07 176 794-A describes a white-light-emitting planar light source, in which two diodes that emit blue light are disposed on one face end of a transparent plate and emit light into the transparent plate. The transparent plate is coated on one of the two opposed main sides with a fluorescing substance that emits light when it is excited with the blue light of the diodes. The light emitted by the fluorescing substance has a different wavelength from the blue light emitted by the diodes. In this known component, it is especially difficult to apply the fluorescing substance in such a way that the light source emits homogeneous white light. Moreover, replicability and mass production presents major problems, because even slight fluctuations in the layer thickness of the fluorescing layer, for instance from irregularities of the surface of the transparent plate, cause a change in the white of the light emitted.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Wavelength-converting casting composition and light-emitting semiconductor component


The present invention discloses a semiconductor memory device and bit line connection method thereof. A control signal for connecting bit line sense amplifiers drives at a high voltage level of Vpp and thereafter is limited as to when it can transition to a power voltage Vdd level or a ground voltage level, thereby reducing a power consumption in data read, write and refresh operations. Accordingly, power consumption of the semiconductor memory device is reduced, in particular, for a memory device that supports a self refresh mode or an automatic refresh mode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to semiconductor memory. More specifically, the invention relates to a semiconductor memory device and bit line connecting method thereof.
2. General Background and Related Art
Portable electronic devices, like a notebook computer or portable game devices, which are operated by battery power are designed to conserve power as much as possible to extend operating time for a given set of batteries. Many devices have significant amounts of memory so it is important that semiconductor memory devices be operated with low power consumption. Such devices have been developed. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 6,061,276, entitled xe2x80x9cSEMICONDUCTOR MEMORY DEVICE AND A SEMICONDUCTOR INTEGRATED CIRCUITxe2x80x9d.
Generally, a semiconductor memory device has a plurality of memory cells arranged in an array. Adjacent memory cell arrays shares a bit line sense amplifier array which is generally constructed and arranged between the memory cell arrays. A switch array is constructed and arranged between the bit line sense amplifier array and memory cell array. A control signal for switching is applied to the switch array.
The bit line sense amplifier is connected to any memory cell array according to an activation state of an adjacent memory cell array in order to read/write or refresh data to the memory cell array, and is not connected to an adjacent another memory cell simultaneously. The control is dependent on the switching state of the switching array.
Precharge and Activation operations are repeated periodically in order to read/write or refresh data by accessing to a word line of the memory cell array, and a switching array is driven for performing the above operations and a state of the control signal. In other words, an applied voltage is changed for driving the switching array.
Specifically, at the beginning, a voltage of each gate of the switching array is maintained at the power voltage Vdd level and thereafter the voltage, applied to the gate of the switching array, transitions to a high voltage Vpp level in order to make sure a memory cell array in which an access is selected and an adjacent bit line sense amplifier connect, and the voltage, applied to the gate of the switching array, is lowered to a ground voltage level in order to make a connection state of a memory cell array in which an access is not selected and an adjacent bit line sense amplifier disconnect. Thereafter, the control signal is set at the power voltage Vdd level for a precharge operation.
The following example is different from the above-mentioned: in a precharge state, a control signal is set at a high voltage Vpp and in an activation state, the control signal is set to lower a ground voltage level in order to disconnect a connection state of the switching array which is positioned at a non-selected memory cell array.
The operations of the conventional art must be performed every refresh cycle including activation and precharge operations. Accordingly, the higher the number of on/off times of the switching array is, the greater the power consumption is. A self-refresh mode can be provided at a low power consumption. Power consumption for on/off operations of the switching array is very high.
The switching array is operated frequently. It has a high load and uses a voltage Vpp that is higher than an operational voltage Vdd, for switching, and current must be provided to a circuit for providing the high voltage Vpp. Accordingly, a large amount of current is consumed for performing the above operations.
With this background in mind, the present inventions feature a semiconductor memory arranged wherein a control signal for connecting bit line sense amplifiers drives at a high voltage level Vpp and thereafter prevents lowering it to an operational voltage level Vdd or a ground voltage level, thereby reducing a power consumption in data read, write and refresh operations.
The present inventions feature reduced power consumption of a semiconductor memory device by restricting a voltage change state of a control signal applied for controlling connection states of bit line sense amplifiers and memory cells.
Power consumption is reduced by limiting the voltage changes of a control signal. The control signal is provided for switching a switching array which causes a plurality of memory cell arrays and bit line sense amplifiers corresponding to the memory cell arrays to be connected together.
Some of the claimed inventions define a semiconductor memory device including a plurality of memory cell arrays. Bit line sense amplifier arrays includes a bit line sense amplifier arranged between the memory cell arrays and shared. One or more switching arrays are arranged between the bit line sense amplifiers and the memory cell arrays corresponding to the bit line sense amplifiers, respectively, and for switching the connection states therebetween. Bit line selection control means control repeatedly an activation and a precharge of each memory cell array and provide control signals corresponding to the activation and precharge to the switching arrays.
A bit line selection control unit provides mode control signals, wherein a control signal applied to switching arrays is a high voltage level. The modes of operations include: 1) a first mode for maintaining the high voltage level during a precharge period and successively an activation period; 2) a second mode for lowering it to a ground voltage level during successively an activation period after maintaining a high voltage level during a precharge period; 3) a third mode for maintaining a power voltage level during a precharge period and raising it to a high voltage level during successively activation period when the control signal is a power voltage level at the present activation period; 4) a fourth mode for maintaining the power voltage level during a precharge period and thereafter lowering to the ground voltage level during a successive activation period; 5) a fifth mode for maintaining the power voltage level during the precharge period and the successive activation period; 6) a sixth mode for raising to the power voltage level at the precharge period when the control signal is the ground voltage level at the present activation period and thereafter to a high voltage level at a successive activation period; 7) a seventh mode for raising to the power voltage level at the precharge period and thereafter maintaining the power voltage level at a successive activation period; and 8) an eighth mode for raising to the power voltage level at the precharge period and thereafter lowering to the ground voltage level at a successive activation period.

Semiconductor memory device and bit line connecting method thereof

Hyundai Electronics Industries Co., Ltd.


A plasma display module that can optimize a position of an image board and connect an external image apparatus to a plasma display apparatus easily, and a plasma display apparatus including the plasma display module are disclosed. In one embodiment, the plasma display module includes: i) a chassis, ii) a plasma display panel supported by the chassis on a front portion of the chassis, the plasma display module comprising X electrodes and Y electrodes disposed parallel to each other, iii) an image board disposed on a rear portion of the chassis, and receiving and processing image signals input from an external device and iv) a Y electrode driving board disposed on the rear portion of the chassis, and electrically connected to the Y electrodes to apply the driving signals to the Y electrodes, wherein the Y electrode driving board and the image board are disposed on opposite sides of the chassis with respect to a center line crossing the chassis in a vertical direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display module and a plasma display apparatus, and more particularly, to a plasma display module in which a position of an image board can be optimized and by which an external image apparatus can be connected to a plasma display apparatus including the plasma display module, and a plasma display apparatus including the plasma display module.
2. Description of the Related Technology
In general, a plasma display apparatus including a plasma display module is a display apparatus realizing a predetermined image by exciting phosphor materials using ultraviolet radiation generated from a gas discharge. Plasma display apparatuses are considered to be next generation flat panel display apparatuses since they can display high resolution images on a large screen. The plasma display module and apparatus display images using circuits driven at a relatively high voltage due to structural properties thereof. Therefore, many circuit boards are disposed on a rear portion of a chassis of the plasma display module.
FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of an arrangement of various boards in a conventional plasma display module 100. Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional plasma display module 100 includes an image board 60, an X electrode driving board 20, a Y electrode driving board 10, an address electrode driving board 40, a logic board 50, and a power board 70.
The image board 60 is disposed on a rear portion of a chassis 5, and receives and processes image signals from external devices such as a DVD or a VCR. The X electrode driving board 20 is disposed on the rear portion of the chassis 5, and is electrically connected to X electrodes formed on a plasma display panel to apply driving signals to the X electrodes. In addition, the Y electrode driving board 10 is disposed on the rear portion of the chassis 5, and is electrically connected to Y electrodes formed on the plasma display panel to apply driving signals to the Y electrodes. The address electrode driving board 40 is disposed on the rear portion of the chassis 5, and is electrically connected to address electrodes formed on the plasma display panel to apply driving signals to the address electrodes. The logic board 50 is disposed on the rear portion of the chassis 5, and receives the image signals processed by the image board 60 to generate driving signals corresponding to the image signals. Then, the logic board 50 transmits the driving signals to the Y electrode driving board 10, the X electrode driving board 20, and the address electrode driving board 40. The power board 70 is disposed on the rear portion of the chassis 5, and supplies power to the circuit boards 10, 20 and 40-60.
The X electrode driving board 20, the Y electrode driving board 10, and the address electrode driving board 40 are disposed on left, right, and lower portions of the chassis 5, which are adjacent to the X electrodes, Y electrodes, and the address electrodes, in order to be connected to the X, Y, and address electrodes through the shorted distances. The power board 70 and the logic board 50 are located at a center portion of the chassis 5, and the image board 60 is located above the logic board 50 due to the arrangements of the Y, X and address electrode driving boards 10, 20, and 40.
The image board 60 includes input/output terminals for receiving/transmitting information from/to external apparatuses, for example, video tape recorders (VTRs), digital versatile disks (DVDs), or speakers. Since the image board 60 is disposed above the logic board 50 due to the arrangements of the various driving boards included in the plasma display module, the input/output terminals are exposed to the environment on a rear portion of the plasma display module 100.
Therefore, when a plasma display apparatus including the plasma display module 100 is used, the plasma display apparatus will need to be moved from a wall where it is hung for example, in order to connect external devices to the terminals of the plasma display apparatus. However, since the plasma display apparatus is large and heavy, it is difficult or inconvenient to move the plasma display apparatus for connecting the external devices to the apparatus. In addition, if the plasma display apparatus is hung on a wall, the plasma display apparatus should be separated from the wall in order to connect the external devices to the plasma display apparatus.

Plasma display module and plasma display apparatus including the same


A urinary collector device for men including a urinary collector body formed into a bag shape and constructed of soft, flexible water-proof material, the urinary collector body having a first or upper portion formed into a penis receiving chamber which includes an opening for enabling a penis to be inserted therethrough into such chamber. The urinary collector body also includes a second opposite or lower portion which forms a urinary flow chamber which is separated from the penis receiving chamber by a water permeable membrane. The urinary flow chamber is packed with hydrophobic material having a plurality of passages therethrough and includes a urinary discharge outlet. The penis receiving opening further includes an annular sleeve therearound for cooperatively engaging and forming a sealed condition around a penis when inserted therein, the packed hydrophobic material in the urinary flow chamber maintaining the shape of the device even as a penis is inserted therein and when the device is worn under clothing. Urine discharge flows into the penis receiving chamber and thereafter passes through the water permeable membrane into the urinary flow chamber. Once in the urinary flow chamber, the flow of urine is buffered by passage through the hydrophobic material and is thereafter discharged from the urinary flow chamber through the urinary discharge outlet.

1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates to a urinary collector for men and, more particularly, to various embodiments of a collector device which can be worn discretely under clothing and undergarments to receive urinary discharges, and comfortably, yet securely, attaches and forms a sealed condition around the penis such that the rest of the genitalia and pelvic region are not exposed to urine. The device buffers the flow of the urine from the penis without the urine backflowing and accumulating around the penis such that the penis can remain relatively dry and sanitary, and the device smoothly and evenly discharges the urine directly to other urine receiving and holding means such as a urinal bag or the like. The collector is particularly adaptable for use on men who, for instance, have a urinary incontinence condition such as due to injury, disease and the like, who are bedridden or are not sufficiently mobile or ambulatory to walk to a restroom or latrine such as due to age, or physical handicaps, and who suffer from dysuria which is difficulty or pain in discharging urine.
2. Description Of The Prior Art
Known urinary collector devices for men include appliances having a urine receiving portion or member which wraps around or otherwise secures to the penis for receiving urine therefrom, a bag attached to the receiver for collecting the discharged urine, and means such as a belt for securing the appliance to a body portion such as the hypogastrium, as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. Sho 57-209051; Sho 58-130037; Sho 61-137558; Hei 1-284267; and Sho 57-500911. Limitations of such prior art urinary collector appliances include, however, large and cumbersome size and relatively complex belts and other attachment means which make for difficult attachment and removal of the appliance. Other limitations of such prior art devices include discomfort due to the use of rubber as a construction material which provides the required water resistant characteristics and which enables adhesion of the appliance to the body of the wearer.
Other prior art urinary collectors for men include diaper and diaper-type apparel of cloth, paper, and other absorbent materials, which are formed and shaped to be worn about the pelvic region, such as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos. Sho 59-25741; Sho 4-10596; Sho 60-18166; Sho 61-501130; and Sho 62-602855. Such prior art diapers are simple in construction, comfortable and pleasing to the touch. However, an important limitation of such diapers is that urine discharged into the diaper spreads over much of the diaper surface so as to greatly decrease and impair the comfort and feel thereof. Another shortcoming of diapers is the relatively labor intensive requirements for placement and removal thereof from the body, which requirements can be particularly extenuating for dysuriac persons, and bed-ridden or feeble persons. Furthermore, another limitation is that persons afflicted with dysuria may be conscientious of the appearance of such diapers under clothing.


Process for controlling the rate of change of intrinsic viscosity and transesterification during solid stating of a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) blend, with an effective amount of an ethylene glycol compound. The process enables the production of a copolymer based on predefined initial and final IV's and final transesterification level, by varying the solid-stating time and/or effective amount of ethylene glycol. In one embodiment, a relatively greater amount of post-consumer PET (e.g., 70%) having an IV of on the order of 0.72-0.73, is incorporated in the blend to provide a final IV on the order of 0.80-0.85, and a moderate, controlled level of transesterification; the blend is used to injection mold a sleeve layer of a preform. In another embodiment, a substantially transparent neck finish for a preform is made from a PEN/PET blend having an amount of ethylene glycol which enables substantial transesterification, without excessive increase in IV.

Polyethylene naphthalate (PEN) has a significantly higher glass transition temperature (T.sub.g) than polyethylene terephthalate (PET), i.e., about 120.degree. C. compared to 80.degree. C., as well as a five time improvement in oxygen barrier property. PEN is thus a desirable polymer for use in thermal-resistant beverage containers (e.g., hot-fillable, refillable and/or pasteurizable containers), and for packaging oxygen-sensitive products (e.g., beer, juice). However, PEN is more expensive (both as a material and in processing costs) than PET and, therefore, the improvement in properties must be balanced against the increased expense.
One method of achieving an article that is lower in cost than PEN, but with higher thermal and barrier properties, is to provide a blend of PEN and PET. However, blending of these two polymers often results in an opaque material with incompatible phases. Efforts to produce a clear container or film from a PEN/PET blend have been ongoing for over ten years, but there is still no commercial process in widespread use for producing such articles.
One suggested method for making substantially transparent PEN/PET blends is a solid-stating process which increases the level of transesterification (copolymerization) between the two polymers. For example, WO 92/02584 (Eastman) states that transesterification occurs when the melt blended, crystallized polymer is held at a temperature below the melting point and subjected to an inert gas flow in order to raise the inherent viscosity and/or remove acetaldehyde. This transesterification is in addition to that occurring during melt blending and molding operations. However, Eastman reports that when the level of transesterification between the two polymers is very high, the crystallinity and resultant physical properties of the blend are reduced to the point where they are undesirable for making oriented containers with good mechanical properties.
Eastman teaches the addition of a phosphorus stabilizer for controlling (reducing) the amount of transesterification which occurs during solid stating. In this way, Eastman claims to limit the amount of transesterification to an amount no greater than about 20%, based on a theoretical maximum amount of transesterification being equal to 100%. For example, in Table 2 Eastman describes the transesterification and inherent viscosity of various solid-stated PEN/PET blends, where the initial inherent viscosity of the blend was on the order of 0.55 to 0.65, and the final inherent viscosity was about 0.80 to 0.85. In a control example (50--50 PEN/PET) the final inherent viscosity was acceptable (0.86) after eight hours, but the percent transesterification (25.0) was too high (above 20%). By adding 0.5 or 1.0% Ultranox 626 (a phosphite stabilizer) in the first two examples, the Eastman process provided a final inherent viscosity of 0.80 to 0.84 after eight hours, and an acceptable percent transesterification of 17.0 or 19.0 (below 20%). The other three stabilizers/metal deactivators tested in Table 2 failed to provide the final desired inherent viscosity and transesterification levels.
Although the Eastman process may be suitable for certain limited starting materials and desired transesterification levels, it cannot be expanded generally to different combinations of intrinsic viscosity, solid-stating time, and levels of transesterification. For example, of potential interest is a blend made from precursor homopolymer PEN and post-consumer PET (PC-PET). The intrinsic viscosity of PC-PET is much higher than that of virgin fibre-grade PET, so that a blend of PEN/PC-PET would require a relatively larger amount of transesterification per unit intrinsic viscosity increase (compared to a blend of PEN/virgin PET). Hence, among other disadvantages, the prior art does not provide a process that allows a desired level of both intrinsic viscosity and transesterification level.
It is possible to make substantially transparent preforms (for blow molding into containers) with a PET/PEN blend, without solid stating, but the disadvantages are such that the process is not commercially viable. First, the preform injection molding temperature (i.e., barrel temperature) and/or the equilibration time (i.e., time in the barrel) must be increased such that the resulting process is not cost-efficient or sufficiently reproducible for a commercial process. For example, in certain cases, the barrel time would be increased by a factor of four (i.e., an increase over the standard cycle of 45 seconds of up to 180 seconds); as a result, one would probably not be able to run the process on a standard injection molding machine. Furthermore, the increase in barrel time/temperature increases the acetaldehyde (AA) levels in the preform to an unacceptably high level, such that AA is likely to be extracted into the food product and produce an off taste, particularly with a product such as bottled water. Thus, this has not proven to be the desired solution.

Process for making PEN/PET blends and transparent articles therefrom


A method of determining whether a dialogue is displayable includes recording a previous software use state in a terminal which has been responded to an input operation to the terminal, comparing the recorded previous software use state with a current software use state in the terminal, and displaying an input operation dialogue according to a result of the comparison.

PTL 1 discloses a technique in which a burden on an operator of a terminal is considered concerning asset management related to information processing or a software distribution function. PTL 1 discloses a software update system of reducing a burden on a user (an operator of a terminal), and a software update frequency is adjusted based on a frequency of use from a use state of software for each user.

Method of determining whether input operation dialogue is displayable and computer system


A noncontacting short-range communication device for a slide door for excellently performing bidirectional data communication by electromagnetic induction coupling between the side of a vehicle body and the side of the slide door is provided. Data are transmitted and received between the first communication unit 31 connected to the first antenna member 17 and the second communication unit 41 connected to the second antenna member 18 by the electromagnetic induction coupling of the first and second antenna members 17, 18. Each of the first and second communication units 31, 41 includes a microcomputer 34, 44 and a data communication circuit 33, 43 for performing semi-duplex bidirectional communication. Each of the data communication circuit 33, 43 includes: a transmitting section 33A, 43A, to which a clock pulse of the microcomputer 34, 44 is supplied, for transmitting a modulated wave obtained by on-off modulating the clock pulse as a base signal with the data having a serial communication form through the antenna member 17, 18; and a receiving section 33B, 43B for receiving and demodulating the modulated wave so as to gain the data.

So far, as a structure for supplying electric power to each auxiliary machine such as a power window motor or a door lock unit in a slide door, which is seen in an one-box car or some passenger cars, various measures have been adopted in order to connect each auxiliary machine to a wiring harness on the side of a vehicle body (i.e. on the side of a power source) through a door wiring harness.
For example, a conventional structure for supplying electric power is a structure, in which a signal is transmitted from the side of a vehicle body to each auxiliary machine on the side of the slide door by using electric wires that moves as the slide door is slid. However, this structure has a problem that the electric wires are bent as the slide door is repeatedly opened and closed causing the electric wires being broken. Moreover, the electric wires are seen when the slide door is opened or closed causing damage to the outside appearance.
Another conventional structure for supplying electric power is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. H4-124555. In this structure, the side of a vehicle body, which has a slide door slidable back and forth, is provided with a first power supply terminal that connects to the side of a battery, while the side of the slide door is provided with a second power supply terminal that connects to the side of a door control device, wherein the first power supply terminal is provided with a movable terminal surrounded by an insulating member, the movable terminal being separable from the first power supply terminal, wherein the movable terminal is pressed and held by an end of the second power supply terminal when the slide door is closed, thereby connecting the first and second power supply terminals.
However, the structure described above has a drawback in points that the current-carrying is performed only when the slide door is closed and that when the door is opened even a little the action of an auxiliary machine such as opening or closing of a power window is not performed, and that it is impossible to take a measure such as preventing being caught from occurring. Further, since the structure described above is a double-contacts structure, in which the first and second power supply terminals are connected to each other through the movable terminal for dust-proofing and waterproofing, therefore causing increase in contact resistance and deterioration in reliability of electric connection.
For the purpose of solving the above problem, there has been proposed an idea for employing a technique, in which the electric power and the data are transmitted in a noncontacting manner utilizing electromagnetic coupling. An example of such a technique is a noncontacting data-carrier system as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H8-316895. In such a noncontacting communication system, mainly, a communication is performed between a base IC that carries out reading and writing of the data and a transponder IC that stores the data in advance. Since the transponder IC do not have a power source, the base IC generates a large resonance output by electromagnetic induction so that the supply of the electric power and transmitting of the data are simultaneously performed.
However, in the nonocontacting communication system described above, since the large resonance output causes a noise release to surrounding equipment, therefore it is difficult to perform the communication by electromagnetic coupling in such a manner in an area in which surrounding equipment of a motor vehicle and so on stands close to one another.
Further, in the electromagnetic induction communication, the resonance output of the receiving-side is supplied to the transmitting-side, then the output is impedance-modulated synchronously with serial data, so that a change in current on the receiving-side is outputted serially. Therefore, the action becomes passive, causing a difficulty in application to various communication modes, because important is an action of the receiving-side, the action being synchronous with an event output of the transmitting-side.
In order to attain bidirectional communication between two communication units as a noncontacting communication system, in which electromagnetic coupling appropriate for mounting on a vehicle is utilized, it can be considered that communication of only data is performed by using electromagnetic coupling, while power is separately supplied to each communication unit not by using electromagnetic coupling. In such a case, magnetic field can be reduced minimal necessary for transmitting and receiving only the data, therefore the noise can be prevented from being released to the outside, thereby attaining data communication in a noncontacting manner in a limited area.
An example of the noncontacting communication system described above has been proposed by the present applicant in Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-143384 titled as "noncontacting short-range communication device for slide door". This communication device includes a rail provided in a vehicle body; a slide part provided in a slide door sliding being guided by the rail; a first antenna member attached to the rail in the longitudinal direction of the rail; a second antenna member provided in the slide part so as to face to the first antenna member closely; a first communication unit provided on the side of the vehicle body being connected to the first antenna member; and a second communication unit having the same constitution as that of the first communication unit, the second communication unit being provided on the side of the slide door being connected to the second antenna member, wherein the first and second communication units transmit or receive data by electromagnetic induction coupling between the first and second antenna members.
In the noncontacting short-range communication device for a slide door, required is a circuit construction that excellently performs a bidirectional data communication using electromagnetic coupling.
Further, in the bidirectional data communication using electromagnetic coupling, if a constant communication in a vehicle is taken into consideration, it is necessary to have a security function as to the communication data because of a possible malfunction due to external magnetic field. As such a security function, for example, considered is a manner, in which the same ID code is recognized between the bidirectional communication units (such as ECU of the vehicle) so that the permission of driving is given.
However, for example, when one ECU out of the pair of the ECU is damaged, since the pair of the ECU in the bidirection stores the same ID code initially set in advance, therefore it is necessary to switch the other normal ECU simultaneously, causing deterioration in maintenance and increase in the repair cost.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to solve the above problems and to provide a noncontacting short-range communication device for a slide door, which includes a circuit construction for excellently performing the bidirectional data communication between the side of a vehicle body and the side of the slide door using electromagnetic induction coupling.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a noncontacting short-range communication device for a slide door, which includes a circuit construction for excellently performing the bidirectional data communication between the side of a vehicle body and the side of the slide door using electromagnetic induction coupling and has an excellent maintenance and inexpensive repair cost.

Noncontacting short-range communication device for slide door


A tableware handle is provided. The tableware handle includes a handle body with a central axis, wherein the handle body has a cross section of “W” shape which is axisymmetrically distributed along the central axis. A tableware is provided. The tableware includes the tableware handle discussed above and a food taking portion fixedly connected with each other. The tableware handle and tableware thereof having a lightweight and good strength, are especially not easy to be broken and can be stacked stably. Moreover, there are small stacking clearance between the tableware handles, saving packaging, storage and transportation space. In additional, the tableware handle and tableware thereof are safe to use, light, comfortable and environmental protected.

At present, disposable plastic tableware used at home and abroad is developing toward the direction of light, solid, safe, energy-saving and environmental protection. Especially, it needs to have the characteristics of stable stack and adaptability to the clean and sanitary use of self-service tableware.
The disposable plastic tableware on the market now, according to the different handle structures, can be divided into two categories: non-stackable type and stackable type. The advantages of the stackable type over the non-stackable type lie in the convenience of stacking, picking up and packaging in production, especially in reducing the raw materials for production and packaging, saving storage space and transportation costs, to be specific, which generally reducing more than 10% of raw materials and more than 20% of space. Accordingly, the tableware that can be stably stacked can greatly reduce the consumption of raw materials, save storage space and freight. In short, it saves energy and reduces production costs.
No matter the disposable plastic tableware can be stacked or not, the main plastic raw materials are PP (polypropylene) or PS (polystyrene, polystyrene). The main weaknesses of such disposable plastic tableware are insufficient strength. The handle of such disposable plastic tableware is easy to be broken to form sharp knife-like hard objects at the torn section, which may hurt the user or others. Moreover, when the handle of such disposable plastic tableware breaks up, debris may be ejected out at a high speed and hurt others.
Above all, except for the nature of the material, the structure of the product is the key point. The disposable plastic tableware handle has designed different widths, heights, wall thicknesses, shapes and structures at different segments, so such different segments would have different strengths. The segments having poorest strength often become the breaking point of the rapid fracture. Once the breaking point cannot withstand the effect of external force, it will be broken in an instant, generate an impact force for ejecting the debris at a high speed.
In order to avoid being broken easily, in the design of disposable plastic tableware products, it is often necessary to thicken the thickness of the product, that is, to increase the weight, especially to increase the glue thickness of or add reinforcing ribs at the so-called weak points. Although the product strength has been strengthened in such a way, however the strength difference between the different handle segments cannot be avoided. In particularly, when an X-shaped reinforcing rib is added to the handle back, a strong stress will be produced in the reinforcing rib position. On the contrary, the surrounding points around the reinforcing rib position will be easier to be broken, and the impact force generated at the breaking is stronger and results in greater danger, while the production cost is increased.


An aluminum alloy rolled sheet product for forming into automotive body panels, and having a yield strength of more than 160 MPa after being subjected to a paint-bake cycle, and having a gauge in a range of 0.5 to 4 mm, and preferably 0.7 to 3.5 mm, and having a composition of, in wt. %: Zn 1.5 to 4.0, Mg 0.3 to 1.5, Cu 0 to 1.0, Ti 0 to 0.15, Fe 0 to 0.35, Si 0 to 0.5, other elements and unavoidable impurities, and balance aluminum. An automotive body part formed from such an aluminum sheet. A method of manufacturing an automotive body part. Also, the use of the aluminum alloy sheet product in such a method of manufacturing.

As will be appreciated herein below, except as otherwise indicated, aluminium alloy designations and temper designations refer to the Aluminum Association designations in Aluminum Standards and Data and the Registration Records, as published by the Aluminum Association in 2010.
For any description of alloy compositions or preferred alloy compositions, all references to percentages are by weight percent unless otherwise indicated.
Heat-treatable AlMgSi alloys of the AA6000-type series are being used widely for automotive body parts in which, besides good formability of the aluminium sheet, the strength after undergoing a paint bake cycle plays an important role. The requirements imposed on the aluminium sheet used for the automotive body parts include good formability, a low and stable yield point, a high surface quality including amongst others that no stretcher strains are present following shaping or deforming the sheet into a bodywork panel. Conventionally, such aluminium sheet is manufactured by casting an ingot, homogenisation and/or pre-heating, hot rolling, cold rolling to final thickness, followed by solution heat treatment and quenching from solution heat treatment temperature so as to cool to below 150° C. using a high cooling rate. Following the cooling the aluminium sheet is then aged, in particular by natural ageing, to obtain the desired level of properties. For use in the automotive industry the aluminium sheet, following shaping by for example pressing or deep drawing, is provided with one or more paint layers. Such a paint layer is fast cured by maintaining it for some time at elevated temperature. Such a treatment is in the art designated by the terms "paint-bake" or "paint-baking", and going through such a treatment is designated in the art by the term "paint-bake cycle". A typical paint-bake cycle comprises of one or more sequential short heat treatment in the range of up to 200° C. for a period of 10 to less than 40 minutes, and typically of less than 30 minutes. In dependence of the OEM such a paint bake cycle may comprise of 2 to 5 sequential steps and includes drying steps.
Artificial ageing of the AA6000-series aluminium sheet and curing of the paint layer usually largely coincide. The trend among automotive manufactures is to reduce the time and temperature of the paint-bake, for example to 15 to 30 minutes at about 160° C. to 190° C., due to the need for energy saving. Several proposals have been made for a preliminary ageing treatment or pre-age treatment to improve the properties of the sheet following the paint-bake. Such a pre-age treatment is carried out after quenching from solution heat treatment and before any substantial age hardening has taken place, and whereby the pre-age treatment is carried out prior to a forming operation (e.g. stamping, deep drawing) in order to increase the so-called paint bake response, the latter being a significant strengthening of the alloy sheet during the automotive paint bake cycle. The application of a pre-age treatment enhances the kinetics of precipitation and decreases the precipitate size. Examples of such pre-age treatments are disclosed in the patent documents WO-95/14113, WO-96/07768, WO-97/022724, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,135,633.
However, there is an ongoing trend among automotive manufactures (OEM's) to further reduce the temperatures used in the paint-bake cycle resulting in that the currently used 6000-series alloys do not achieve the required strength levels after the paint-bake cycle, even not when the known pre-ageing treatments have been applied. Hence, the methods of manufacturing automotive body parts needs to be further altered in order to achieve the desired strength levels in the aluminium alloy product after a paint-bake cycle.

Formed automotive part made from an aluminium alloy product and method of its manufacture


A fan structure used for connecting with a plate body includes a main body, a fan blade, a sliding member and a locating member. The main body has an accommodating space and an adjustment slot. The fan blade is pivotally disposed on the main body and is located inside the accommodating space. The sliding member has a base and a joining portion. The base is accommodated in the adjustment slot. The sliding member is joined to the plate body through the joining portion. The locating member is used for joining the sliding member and the main body together, so as to fix the relative position of the sliding member and the main body.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The disclosure relates to a fan structure and a casing structure, more particularly to a fan structure having adjustable screwing positions and a casing structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nowadays, in order for dissipating heat, an electronic device is usually equipped with a fan disposed inside it. When operating, the fan is capable of guiding cold air from outside into the electronic device. After cold air enters into the electronic device, heat exchange between cold air and heat generated by the electronic device occurs. Then, cold air is exhausted to the exterior environment through an opening of the electronic device.
The assembly of a fan and an electronic is usually conducted via screwing. Generally speaking, a fan has at least one through hole, and is fixed to a screwing hole of the casing of the electronic device through a screw filling a through hole. Thereby, the assembly of a fan and an electronic device is finished.
Nonetheless, the casings thereof are different from each other due to different layouts inside the electronic devices. Hence, when the position of a through hole of the fan is different from the lock hole of the casing to be locked in, a new fan involves a new mould having the corresponding lock holes is needed to finish assembly. Thereby, a variety of fans having different lock holes are required for being assembled inside different electronic devices by assembly factories. However, the manufacturing time and cost are affected by the number of types of fans produced by the manufacturing factories.

INVENTEC (PUDONG) TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION


A control system for a power steering system is provided. The control system includes a scaling module for calculating a scale factor based on a wheel frequency. The control system also includes a command module that evaluates a wheel disturbance based on a wheel speed and that determines a wheel disturbance cancel amount based on the wheel speed. The command module generates an assist command to the power steering system based on the wheel disturbance cancel amount and the scale factor.

The present invention relates to methods and systems of a steering system, and more particularly to methods and system for rejecting road wheel disturbance in a steering system using wheel velocity.
Vehicles are subjected to some degree of disturbance in the front road wheels. Wheel imbalance is an example of road wheel disturbance. The road wheel disturbance may cause vibrations in the handwheel that may be detectable by a driver. These types of vibrations are directly related to the road wheel rotational mean velocity. The severity of the vibration at the handwheel depends on the both the magnitude of the disturbance and the chassis and steering design. In a typical scenario, the vehicle driver will eventually take the vehicle in for service, to get, for example, the wheels balanced. Several approaches currently exist to reduce handwheel vibrations, however these approaches have drawbacks.

Wheel speed velocity variation scaling system

Steering Solutions IP Holding Corporation


A novel DRAM refresh method and system and a novel method of designing a low-power leakage monitoring device. With the DRAM refresh method, the time is adjusted based directly on the cell leakage condition. The method of designing a low-power leakage monitoring devices uses a memory cell identical to the cells in the real array. This monitor cell is designed so that it will represent the average cell or the worst cell leakage condition. If the leakage is severe, the refresh cycle time is significantly reduced, or halved. If the leakage level is very low or undetectable, then the refresh cycle time is significantly increased, or doubled. If the leakage is moderate, or in the normal range, the refresh time is optimized, so that the power consumption used for DRAM refresh is minimized. The advantages of this method over the existing method, that is, adjusting the refresh cycle time based on chip temperature include (1) the contributions from non-temperature dependent leakage factors are taken into consideration, (2) the present invention does not require different process steps, or extra process costs to integrate such device in the chip, and (3) the present invention is a straight forward method, the monitor cell does not need any calibration. In addition, its leakage mechanism and reliability concern are all identical to the cells in a real array.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to methods and systems to adjust the refresh rates for DRAMs. More specifically, the invention relates to such methods and systems that are based on direct measurements of the cell leakage rates of the DRAMs.
2. Prior Art
One major disadvantage of a dynamic random access memory (or DRAM) is that the cells must be refreshed for every certain period of time, or otherwise the data stored in the cells will become invalid. This is because the charges stored in the cells constantly leak away. There are many leakage paths for a storage capacitor. For example, these capacitors could leak through the devices""s diffusion junction areas, through the channel of a transfer gate, or even through the gate itself by tunneling mechanism. The leakage is a function of a number of factors, including chip temperature, process variation, and voltage fluctuations.
As the device dimensions are scaled down, the magnitude of leakage could also be proportionately reduced due to the reduced junction area. For example, if the refresh time for a 16 M DRAM is about 32 ms, the refresh rate can be reduced to half that when similar technology is used to fabricate a 64 M DRAM. However, process variations, for instance, the channel length, the threshold voltage, junction implant, etc. can be slightly different from wafer to wafer, or even across a wafer. For a large chip such as today""s 1Gb or 4 Gb DRAMs, such variations could even occur within a chip.
In addition, when a DRAM is embedded into a processor chip, for example, lower power operation becomes critical. During active mode, when the processor is fully active, the chip temperature can surge to a temperature much higher than that of the stand alone DRAM chip. At such times, in order to preserve the data integrity, higher refresh rates must be implemented. However, when the chip is in a stand-by mode or a sleep mode, the chip temperature could cool significantly. At these times, since the charge leaks less, it is desirable to increase the refresh cycle time so as to reduce the refresh power consumption.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,278,796 teaches a method of using a discrete temperature sensing device to save DRAM power by adjusting the refresh rate based on the temperature of the DRAM array. The temperature sensor is placed in proximity to the DRAM and outputs a voltage that is proportional to the DRAM temperature. A voltage divider is used so that for each increment of 140 mV (or increase in chip temperature by 14 degrees C.), the refresh cycle time is halved.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,446,696 also refers to installation of a temperature sensor in the processor or memory controller to measure the ambient temperature so as to optimize the DRAM refresh time.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,748,328 describe a DRAM array that also has a temperature sensor that generates a signal that indicates chip temperature. A control circuit receives the signal from the temperature sensor and responsively generates a refresh signal to a refresh circuit according to a given ROM look-up table. The table provides multiple entries that indicate the desired refresh rates for particular temperatures.
Therefore, prior art exists that refers to the concept of adjusting DRAM refresh cycle time according to chip temperature. Among this prior art, either discrete or integrated temperature sensor(s) are used to measure the ambient, process or DRAM temperatures. Such temperature information is fed to a refresh circuit to determine the refresh cycle period, so that refresh power is reduced.
However, there are several important disadvantages of this approach. For example, temperature may not be the only factor that causes the charge in the DRAM cells to leak. Other causes, such as process variations, defect density, voltage fluctuation, noise coupling, etc. will all contribute to the cell leakage mechanism. Moreover, monitoring temperature to adjust the refresh rate requires an accurate and reliable temperature sensor. Once fabricated, the sensor must be calibrated, especially the integrated sensor. If the sensors are not accurate, the refresh rate will be out of control. Further, the degradation of sensor quality during the chip life time is also an unknown factor. Important issues need to be investigated, such as whether the sensor survives the bum-in test, and how the sensor material is compatible with the silicon substrate.
Another important disadvantage of the above-discussed prior art approach is the extra cost involved when integrating a temperature sensor on the chip. Normally, extra process steps with different material are required. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,154,514 discloses an on-chip temperature sensor using a Schottky barrier diode made with wide-bandgap (e.g. 3,0 V) metal-oxide semiconductor.
An object of this invention is to provide an improved leakage monitor device and method for DRAMs.
Another object of the present invention is to design a DRAM leakage monitor so that it is pre-charged when the chip is entering the self-refresh cycle.
A further object of this invention is to evaluate a leakage monitor cell and to convert the information on the remaining charge level in the cell into digital output signals that will determine the refresh rate for the following refresh cycle.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an individual monitor cell and refresh circuit set for each bank of a DRAM chip. An object of this invention is to provide a low-power leakage monitoring circuit.
These and other objectives are attained with a novel DRAM refresh method and system and with a novel method of designing a low-power leakage monitoring device. With the DRAM refresh method, the refresh cycle time is adjusted based directly on the cell leakage condition. The method of designing a low-power leakage monitoring devices uses a memory cell identical to the cells in the real array. This monitor cell is designed so that it will represent the average cell or the worst cell leakage condition. If the leakage is severe, the refresh cycle time is significantly reduced, or halved. If the leakage level is very low or undetectable, then the refresh cycle time is significantly increased, or doubled. If the leakage is moderate, or in the normal range, the refresh time is optimized, so that the power consumption used for DRAM refresh is minimized.
The advantages of this method over the existing method, that is, adjusting the refresh cycle time based on chip temperature include (1) the contributions from non-temperature dependent leakage factors are taken into consideration, (2) the present invention does not require different process steps, or extra process costs to integrate such device in the chip, and (3) the present invention is a straight forward method, the monitor cell does not need any calibration. In addition, its leakage mechanism and reliability concern are all identical to the cells in a real array.
With a preferred embodiment, the leakage monitor device is built physically adjacent to the DRAM array, using the identical process steps, material, and similar device structure. Therefore, this monitor cell should have identical or slightly worse leakage characteristics compared to any of the real cells in the array. The reason that this monitor cell can also be built with a slightly leakier situation than the real cells is that it may represent the worst cell in the array. It can also be built with multiple cells with proper bit-line loading so that the leakage level can be averaged out.
In accordance with one aspect of this invention, the monitor cell is designed so that it is pre-charged when the chip is entering the self-refresh. Then, the monitor cell is evaluated periodically, for example, once every refresh cycle. Here, every cycle means after all the word lines in the array are refreshed once. Since the leakage condition could be changed quite drastically, a proper and conservative evaluation period is recommended. After the evaluations, the monitor cell is automatically recharged again and is held for the following cycle evaluation, and so on.
Another aspect of the invention is to convert the information on the remaining charge level in the cell into digital output signals which will determine the refresh rate for the following refresh cycle. If the leakage level is very high, a gross adjustment to speed up the refresh rate is issued. In contrast, if the leakage rate is extremely low, a gross adjustment to slow down the refresh rate is issued. If the leakage rate is moderate and within a reasonable range, multiple-steps of minor adjustments on the refresh rate are issued.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, an individual monitor cell and refresh circuit set are provided for each bank of a DRAM chip. As a result, each bank can adjust its refresh rate independently based on its local leakage information. Further, monitor cells and refresh circuits sets can be provided on each of the arrays of an embedded memory chip. Such monitor cells can also be built on every chip installed on a module acting as a leakage censor of the chips.
In addition, preferably, the leakage monitoring circuits disclosed herein are low-power circuits. The total power used for these circuit is less than 10 uA, and the power saved by using this feature will be in the mA range, also depending on the applications.
Further benefits and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description, given with reference to the accompanying drawings, which specify and show preferred embodiments of the invention.

Dynamic DRAM refresh rate adjustment based on cell leakage monitoring

International Business Machines Corporation


An apparatus includes a frame, a rotatable first shaft, wherein the first shaft includes a first cam, a rotatable second shaft, an item gripper connected to the second shaft by a connection including a link and an offset shaft rotatably connected to the link, and a linkage. The link is adapted to rotate with the second shaft for pivoting the offset shaft about the second shaft. The item gripper includes jaws adapted to open and close when the offset shaft is axially rotated relative to the link. The linkage connects the first cam on the first shaft to a rider on the offset shaft. The linkage includes a second having a stepped surface for a stepped movement of the rider along the stepped surface to open the jaws during a predetermined angular movement of the offset shaft about the center axis of the second shaft.

Document inserters that collate stacks of different documents into a document assembly and then insert the document assembly into an envelope for mailing are well known. Some document inserters can have a volume of 10,000-20,000 mail pieces per hour or more, for example. During a job change-over, where the size of a document to be assembled into a document assembly is changing, there are a number of job setup steps required for adjustment of the inserter. One of these steps can comprise moving an operator-side chassis side guide either in for smaller material or out for larger material. This allows the material to settle onto the deck between the chassis side guides. By doing this, the operator must also adjust the point during the cycle where the material is released from jaws of a gripper arm. The gripper arm must release the document earlier for a small document and later for a larger document. There is no one location that will work for all document sizes.
One conventional inserter utilizes a set of cams on a lower cam shaft to control the opening and closing of the gripper jaws for both document/material acquisition and document release. The lower cam shaft is driven by the inserter's main motor and runs at a constant rotational speed. Many of the inserter motions are driven by cams that are located on this shaft.
The point in the cycle where the document is acquired by the gripper jaws does not change during normal material change-over. The release point, however, is commonly adjusted for inserts having different sizes. To adjust the release position, one of the cams on the lower cam shaft has to change phase relative to the other. The adjustment of the release position is a time-intensive, trial and error process.


Lookback is defined as the ability of a logical process to change its past locally (without involving other logical processes). Logical processes with lookback are able to process out-of-timestamp order events, enabling new synchronization protocols for the parallel discrete event simulation. Two of such protocols, LB-GVT (LookBack-Global Virtual Time) and LB-EIT (LookBack-Earliest Input Time), are presented and their performances on the Closed Queuing Network (CQN) simulation are compared with each other. Lookback can be used to reduce the rollback frequency in optimistic simulations. The relation between lookahead and lookback is also discussed in detail. Finally, it is shown that lookback allows conservative simulations to circumvent the speedup limit imposed by the critical path.

Simulation is used to understand the behavior of systems. Typically, simulation is beneficial for use in understanding the behavior of complex systems in an environment without having to test an actual working system. For instance, in computer networks, it may be beneficial to model the network system as a group of attached nodes, each of which forwards data to other nodes and communicates routing information between the nodes. Simulation is useful to simulate a large network (e.g., the Internet) as it is not realistic to assemble and test such a network of such a large scale. A network-specific simulation system such as BONeS (available from Cadence, Inc., San Jose, Calif.) and OPNET (available from OPNET Technologies, Inc., Bethesda, Md.) are used to model such a network system. Other simulation systems are available.
Other simulation systems are used to solve different problems. For example, there are simulation systems that have been developed to solve particular problems (e.g., analog\digital circuit design). For instance, it may be useful to model and simulate components of an integrated circuit, system-on-a-chip, or other processing system. In these cases, it may be useful to understand the workings of the chip in a simulation before it is produced. By simulating the chip and identifying issues before production, design issues that may affect the quality of the chip (e.g., performance) may be avoided prior to production. Further, supporting systems (e.g., other chips, systems, etc.) with which the chip may interact may also be simulated. There are other simulation systems that may be used to solve particular problems (e.g., Flexsim (available from FlexSim Software Products, Inc.)—to simulate business processes, SPADES (available from SourceForge.net) to simulate parallel-executing software agents, etc.). Also, there are a number of general-purpose simulation systems and languages (e.g., CSMP, CSSL, SIMULA, etc.) that can be programmed to simulate different types of systems having a variety of properties.
However, simulation is a very time-consuming process, both in the programming necessary to develop the simulation and the resources (time, processing capability of the simulation system) needed to execute it. Generally, a simulation is executed on one or more computer systems having one or more processors (e.g., a personal computer, workstation, mainframe, etc.). These systems are limited in their capability for processing multiple parallel events, and as the number of entities being modeled increases, the amount of memory required for the simulation and number of processing cycles also increases. When simulating large systems (e.g., a network having thousands of nodes), limitations of the simulation system become more apparent. Thus, there is a need for increasing the performance of simulation systems, and in particular, for increasing performance in a simulation system to handle a higher number of parallel events.
There are different types of simulations that can be performed based on the system being simulated. Continuous time simulation systems are used to simulate time-dependent systems (e.g., a server that responds to one or more clients) that have some type of time relationship. Other simulation systems may model events not dependent on time, and this type of simulation is referred to as discrete event simulation. A simulation system may implement one or both of these simulation techniques.
The system being modeled may be aware of time, and may respond to events and may schedule events in time. Other entities may not be aware of time (e.g., a FIFO, a calculator), and are generally responsive to entities in the simulation environment that may or may not be time-aware. There are also time-independent entities that maintain their own time themselves, and may interact with other entities that maintain their own simulation times. Generally, modeling and simulation of time-independent systems is more complex than time-dependent systems, as more processing is involved in maintaining independent system time for each entity and for simulating the parallel processing of events at each entity. Processing of time-independent systems is referred to in the art as Parallel Discrete Event Simulation or PDES.
There are problems with simulating systems that implement parallel discrete events. Some simulators execute events serially, but generally this is inefficient as the number of parallel-operating entities increases. Multiple computers/processors/logical processes (hereinafter, a processing "entity") may be used to perform parallel simulations to increase performance, but coordination between the parallel processing entities becomes problematic. In particular, it becomes difficult to execute events concurrently on different processing entities without knowing the exact causal relationship between the parallel executions of those entities. More simply stated, a processing of a first event on one processing entity may affect the execution of a second event on another processing entity. An execution of one event (e.g., the first event) in a wrong order with respect to the other event (e.g., the second event) may cause a simulation error to occur.
Several different methods (protocols) for coordinating the simulation of parallel entities on different processors exist. For example, there is a general class of protocols referred in the art as lookahead protocols that try to predict the future within the simulation. That is, lookahead protocols attempt to predict the receipt of future events that will be received by exchanging messages between processing entities that identify the lowest timestamp of an event that can be sent, and therefore communicating the status of other processing entities. Generally, the processing entities each wait to process additional event until they determine with certainty that events do not affect each other. These protocols are generally conservative, as the individual processing entities have a tendency to wait for one another to process events. This characteristic makes the simulation proceed non-optimally.
Another class of parallel event simulation protocols includes what are referred to in the art as "optimistic" protocols that assume that the processing of events by one processing entity does not affect processing at other processing entities. Because causal entities do affect each other and this assumption is not true in general, such protocols must maintain the ability to correct the past when an event is processed that affects another processing entity (a causal event). In this case, the simulation is "rolled back" to correct the processing of the causal event, and to advance the simulation from that rolled-back point in simulation time. This is accomplished at each processing entity by maintaining every event processed locally to the processing entity so that the processing entity may recover from an out-of-order execution. Generally this is done by saving changes in state of data in a change list or other structure used to track changes. As can be appreciated, this rolling-back of simulation time is inefficient, and as the number of entities being simulated increases, each having one or more causal relationships with each other, the number of rollbacks also increases. Rollbacks are computationally expensive, as many processing cycles are wasted due to the number of lost processing cycles. Also, the amount of memory required by the simulation system(s) to store changes corresponding to each processed event becomes prohibitive, especially when there are a large number of modeled entities. What is needed, therefore is a more efficient protocol for simulating the execution of parallel events.
Researchers have long realized that Parallel Discrete Event Simulation (PDES) is an effective approach to simulating large-scale complex systems. Research on PDES has been going on for more than twenty years. The main difficulty in this area is to achieve high efficiency of parallel execution while preserving the causality order between events for the simulation carried out on multiple processors. The logical process paradigm, widely used in the PDES community, assures that no causality errors will occur if each logical process adheres to the local causality constraint, i.e., if each logical process executes its events in non-decreasing timestamp order. Therefore, to preserve the causality order, it is sufficient, but not necessary, that each logical process finds and executes the future event with the smallest timestamp.
The advent of PDES was marked by the invention of conservative protocols, the first of which was the null message protocol, or so-called Chandy/Misra/Brynt protocol, developed in 1979. In most cases, conservative protocols require each logical process to broadcast to its neighbors, in the form of null messages, a low bound on the timestamp of events it will send to other logical processes, or Earliest Output Time (EOT). By listening to the null messages from all neighbors, each processing entity can determine the lowest timestamp it will receive in a message in the future, or Earliest Input Time (EIT). If this timestamp is greater than that of the earliest event in its local event list, the process is sure that this earliest event can be processed without violating the causality constraint. Otherwise, the processing entity has to block until this condition is met (i.e., the message in transit carrying the event with the smallest timestamp is received and this event is placed on the local event list).
In 1985, Jefferson published a paper describing a construct referred to as Virtual Time, which proposed a new synchronization paradigm called Time Warp. In the Time Warp and other optimistic protocols, a logical process is allowed to aggressively process events in its local event list, and during the event execution new messages can be sent to other logical processes. However, when an event arrives from another logical process with a timestamp smaller than the local simulation time, it triggers a causality error. As a result, all processed events having a larger timestamp must be rolled back, and anti-messages must be sent to other logical processes to counteract those messages sent during the erroneous computation. Ironically, although they are called optimistic, these protocols are actually quite pessimistic, in the sense that they must save every change made to the state in order to recover from the erroneous computation, because they assume that every operation is unsafe and subject to a rollback. The Global Virtual Time (GVT) gives a lower bound on the timestamp of the earliest event that a logical process may receive. Therefore, any event processed earlier than the GVT is regarded as a committed because it will never be rolled back. For such events, the logical process can reclaim the memory used to store the associated state (or state changes if incremental state saving is used).
Research on PDES has been largely dominated by the studies of conservative and optimistic protocols, and comparison of their performance. Unfortunately, both types of protocols have their strengths and weaknesses. Efficiency of conservative protocols in parallel execution is limited by the amount of lookahead in the simulation model, which is equal to the difference between the Earliest Output Time (EOT) and the Earliest Input Time (EIT). Both EIT and EOT are known exactly only during run-time and in many real world applications, deriving bounds for the difference between these two values, which will define useable lookahead, is difficult to do. Besides, large number of null messages required to collaboratively advance the simulation clock in conservative protocols often incur significant overhead. As a result, parallelized execution may be slower than even the sequential one. On the other hand, optimistic protocols do not depend on lookahead and null messages, however, state saving usually requires storing and accessing large amounts of memory. This negatively impacts the speed of execution because of the relatively slow improvement in memory access speed within the current VLSI technology. The handling of anti-messages complicates the simulation model development. Furthermore, optimistic models may exhibit unexpected behavior caused by inconsistent messages resulting from rollback inconsistencies and stale states.

Discrete event simulation system and method


A process for recovering phthalic anhydride and maleic anhydride from a maleic anhydride-rich vapor phase oxidation product comprising the step of: contacting the vapor phase oxidation product with: (i) at least one by-product stream having a freezing point which is lower than the freezing point of pure phthalic anhydride; and/or (ii) a solvent having a boiling point in the range between about 150.degree. to 350.degree. C. and a freezing point of less than 40.degree. C.; wherein a vapor-to-liquid weight ratio in the range between about 2 to 20 is exhibited within the contacting means, thereby forming a liquid phase phthalic anhydride product having a phthalic anhydride concentration in the range between about 50-100 wt. % and a first vapor stream.

Phthalic anhydride (PAN) and maleic anhydride (MAN) are important commercial chemicals useful in the manufacture of plasticizers, polyesters, alkyd resins and dyes.
Maleic anhydride is typically produced by air oxidation of butane, butene or benzene (e.g., 2-5 mole percent in air) in the presence of a vanadium/phosphorus catalyst. Selectivities are typically 60-70 mole percent for conversions ranging from 80 to approximately 100%. This oxidation process produces organic by-products such as light acids (e.g., acetic acid and acrylic acid).
A phthalic anhydride and maleic anhydride mixture is typically produced by oxidation of n-pentane in the presence of a selective oxidation catalyst, e.g., a vanadium phosphate oxide catalyst (VPO) or a molybdenum oxide catalyst. Vanadium phosphate oxide catalysts can be obtained, for example, from precursors prepared by either of two methods: (1) immediate precipitation of a solution containing vanadia in isobutanol and H.sub.3 PO.sub.4 and (2) facilitating, before precipitation, the conditions for the intercalation of the isobutanol in the VOPO.sub.4 hydrated phase. Catalysts were obtained from the precursors by in situ treatment under reaction conditions for the selective oxidation of n-pentane. Control of the stage of formation of the precursor is crucial for obtaining a selective catalyst for formation of phthalic anhydride (PAN). The preparation of VOHPO.sub.4.1/2H.sub.2 O via a full development of the VOPO.sub.4.2H.sub.2 O phase, containing intercalated isobutanol, seems to favor the adequate structure of the precursor which promotes the formation of PAN. By careful control of the preparation of the VPO precursor, e.g., controlling the isobutanol/water ratio, the final catalyst can lead to the desired PAN/MAN ratio.
The resulting vapor phase oxidation product from the catalytic air oxidation of butane, butene or benzene typically comprises: a reaction gas composed of nitrogen, oxygen, water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, acetic acid, acrylic acid, maleic anhydride, maleic acid, and partial oxidation products. While the vapor phase oxidation product from the catalytic air oxidation of pentane typically comprises: a reaction gas composed of nitrogen, oxygen, water, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, maleic anhydride, acetic acid, acrylic acid, phthalic anhydride, and other partial oxidation products.
The aforementioned vapor phase oxidation products are typically first cooled to generate steam and then delivered to expensive switch condensers, where they are cooled to permit the desublimation of a crude phthalic anhydride from the gas. Thereafter, the crude phthalic anhydride is sent to a finishing section in order to produce substantially pure phthalic anhydride; whereas the crude maleic anhydride is taken overhead from the switch condenser as a vapor and then recovery by solvent absorption.
The switch condensers operate alternatively on cooling and heating cycles in order to first collect either the maleic anhydride or, in the case of a PAN/MAN mixture, phthalic anhydride as a solid and then melt it for removal from the condensers. The use of switch condensers to separate crude phthalic anhydride from a vapor phase oxidation product is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,214,157, which is incorporated herein by reference. Typically, the reactor vapor phase oxidation product is cooled close to the solidification point 131.degree. C. (268.degree. F.) of phthalic anhydride and any condensed liquid is separated out before the remaining vapor enters the switch condensers. The switch condensers desublime the vapor phase oxidation product using the cold condenser oil, and then melt off the solid phase crude phthalic anhydride product using a hot condenser oil heated with steam.
A substantial amount of impurities exit switch condensers as part of the vapor stream, whereas the crude maleic anhydride or phthalic anhydride/maleic anhydride product is plated out on the heat exchange tubes as a solid during the cooling step and exits the switch condensers at the bottom as a liquid during the melting step. The vapor gases from the switch condensers are sent to waste gas incinerators where the by-products are destroyed by oxidation to carbon dioxide and water.
Unfortunately, switch condensers contribute to a significant portion of the capital and operating costs of a phthalic anhydride plant. Also, switch condensers operate in a batch mode on 3-6 hour cycles to desublime solid phthalic anhydride on the heat exchange tubes. Another problem associated with switch condensers is that they necessitate frequent maintenance which requires that designated switch condensers be taken out of service on a periodic basis. Maintenance of switch condensers is costly due to the high labor requirement and condenser down time.
The present inventors have developed a unique process scheme which avoids the need to use expensive switch condensers to recover either maleic anhydride or phthalic anhydride/maleic anhydride mixture from vapor phase oxidation products. This unique process continuously condenses and recovers phthalic and maleic anhydride by rectification without the formation of an intermediate solid phase, wherein the maleic anhydride is taken overhead and recovered from the other overhead by-products by means of distillation. The rectification tower can be operated with or without the aid of a solvent which lowers the freezing point of the mixture contained therein so as to avoid freezing of the overhead products in the top of the rectification tower and/or condenser. A liquid phthalic anhydride recovery process using a rectification tower is disclosed in co-pending U.S. patent application, Ser. No. 08/431,647, (Dengler et al.), filed on May 2, 1995 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,731, 443, and which is incorporate herein by reference. The liquid phthalic anhydride recovery process disclosed in U.S. patent application, Ser. No. 08/431,647, (Dengler et al.) is based on concentrating the indigenous maleic anhydride (MAN) and benzoic acid (BA) co-products produced in the phthalic anhydride (PAN) reactor to form a minimum freezing MAN/BA/PAN mixture in the rectification tower condenser system. The present inventors have discovered that this condensing temperature is critical to the liquid phthalic anhydride recovery process and must: (1) be low enough to recover sufficient MAN to insure the liquid distillate will not freeze; and (2) be high enough to avoid free water from condensing thereby forming excessive amounts of acids in the distillate.
However, Dengler et al. does not pertain to the recovery of maleic overhead by means of distillation, rather it discloses a process for recovering maleic as a liquid from a vapor phase oxidation product which comprises mixing the vapor phase oxidation product with reaction by-products in a contacting means such that a substantial portion of the maleic anhydride contained within the vapor phase oxidation product transfers from the vapor phase to a liquid phase and the by-products contained in the reaction by-products which are more volatile than maleic anhydride transfer from the liquid phase to the vapor phase.
Dengler et al. also does not describe or suggest the use of a solvent to lower the freezing point of the mixture contained within the rectification tower. Therefore, the present invention provides a unique method for recovering large quantities of phthalic anhydride without the need for expensive switch condensers.
A similar conventional technique for recovery maleic anhydride is to scrub the reaction off-gas with a solvent to remove maleic anhydride before the off-gas is exhausted to an incinerator. The rich solvent stream is heated and vacuum stripped to release the maleic anhydride. Crude maleic anhydride is condensed and sent to purification. Stripped solvent is cooled and returned to the maleic anhydride absorber. A solvent slipstream is withdrawn for purification. Thereafter, the crude maleic anhydride is fractionated to remove light ends. The small quantity of by-product light ends is delivered to the incinerator for destruction and waste heat recovery. The maleic anhydride is further fractionated to separate any solvent and heavies which accompanied it in the stripper overhead. The bottoms stream is returned to the maleic anhydride stripper. A special step is included to remove any solvent degradation products from the slipstream, in order to prevent the build-up of impurities in the solvent recycle loop.
The process for absorption in an organic solvent as discussed immediately above is very expensive in terms of both hardware and consumable organic solvent. The maleic anhydride recovery using distillation with or without a solvent provides a significant advance in terms of cost and processing time verses the conventional solvent absorption process. The unique process according to the present invention uses distillation as a maleic anhydride recovery technique. The process according to the present invention recovers maleic anhydride from any gas stream resulting from any of the current oxidation processes, without the restrictions of the current technology.
The substantial technical differences between using absorption versus rectification for separating out maleic anhydride from a vapor phase oxidation gas product without the formation of an intermediate solid phase can be understood by comparing the vapor to liquid weight ratios (V/L) in the absorbent tower against the V/L for the rectification tower. For example, the V/L for the absorbent tower U.S. Pat. No. 4,285,871 (Keunecke '871), as calculated from the example provided therein is 0.3 to 0.7. The rectification tower of the present invention exhibits a V/L ratio of between 5 to 20, more preferably 8 to 15. That is, due to the substantial pumparound or recycling of the bottoms stream which is required in any absorbent case, its V/L ratio is only a fraction of that which occurs during rectification. The low V/L ratio in the absorbent case of Keunecke '871 clearly demonstrates that due to these high pumparound rates the absorbent tower is not providing any noticeable degree of separation of liquid maleic anhydride from a vapor phase maleic anhydride, such as that recited in the present invention.
Therefore, the advantages of the recovery processes of the present invention over the conventional solvent absorption processes discussed above are in simplification of process concept and elimination of adsorption and stripping steps required for the commercial solvent absorption process.
The present invention also provides a unique method for recovering maleic anhydride from a vapor phase oxidation product formed from the air oxidation of butane, butene and benzene by taking the maleic anhydride overhead as a vapor stream. This recovery process utilizes a uniquely tailored solvent which enlarges the window of operation for the condenser by reducing the freezing point of the condenser reflux, compared to the freezing point of maleic anhydride, and allows the condenser to operate at a lower temperature; thereby reducing the amount of maleic anhydride in the vapor stream exiting the condenser.
The solvent, taken overhead and condensed with the maleic anhydride in the condenser, forms a condensate which provides the liquid reflux to the rectification tower. In the rectification tower, the liquid reflux stream is stripped of the maleic anhydride by the hot vapor phase oxidation product and the residual solvent in the liquid phase is removed as a bottoms stream from the tower. The vapor phase maleic anhydride, recovered as liquid in the condensate, is then distilled from a portion of this liquid phase and the residual solvent from this distilled portion of the condensate stream is returned to the rectification tower. The liquid condensate from the condenser also contains low boiling, compared to maleic anhydride, by-products from the oxidation reaction such as acetic acid and acrylic acid.
Further, the use of a tailored solvent-enhanced recovery process is beneficial when maleic anhydride and phthalic anhydride are co-produced as a vapor phase oxidation product. The present inventors have discovered that the addition of a small amount of a selected solvent to a MAN/PAN mixture substantially reduces the freezing point of the total mixture. More importantly, the present inventors have discovered that the addition of a solvent to concentrations of 5 to 10 mole percent to the MAN/PAN mixtures obtained as the liquid reflux to the rectification tower is sufficient to reduce the freezing point of the MAN/PAN mixtures and allows recovery of both MAN and PAN by means of simple distillation.
The present inventors have developed a modification to the liquid phthalic anhydride recovery process disclosed in co-pending U.S. patent application, Ser. No. 08/431,647, (Dengler et al.). The present invention provides for the addition of a solvent to the rectification tower reflux system to lower the freezing point of the PAN/MAN mixture. In addition, the solvent according to the present invention will increase the low temperature operating region and broaden the potential application of the maleic anhydride or phthalic anhydride/maleic anhydride recovery process
In summary, using a specifically tailored solvent in the maleic anhydride or PAN/MAN mixture recovery process: (1) allows for the choosing of a tailored component with properties better than maleic anhydride (MAN) reflux to reduce the freezing point of the maleic anhydride/phthalic anhydride mixture; (2) provides a low freezing point operating region sufficiently large for good commercial plant operation and control; and (3) frees the liquid recovery process of the present invention from depending on the maleic anhydride and other reaction by-products to lower the freezing point of the liquid condensate, the rectification tower reflux, sufficiently to recover either maleic anhydride (MAN only) or maleic anhydride and phthalic anhydride with high efficiency by simple distillation means.

Method for recovering phthalic anhydride/maleic anhydride mixtures by distillation


A magnetron sputtering cathode mechanism includes a backing plate, a target, at least one magnetic component and at least one magnet. The backing plate has a first surface and a second surface opposite to the first surface. The first surface has at least one positioning recess, and the target has a bombarded surface and a non-bombarded surface opposite to the bombarded surface. The non-bombarded surface contacts with the first surface and has at least one combining recess. The magnetic component is disposed between the backing plate and the target and has a combining portion and a positioning portion. The combining portion is positioned in the combining recess, and the positioning portion is received in the positioning recess. The magnet is disposed at the second surface. The magnetic component is attracted to the corresponding magnet so as to fix the target at the backing plate.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a magnetron sputtering cathode mechanism, and more particularly to a magnetron sputtering cathode mechanism using a magnetic component to combine a target and a backing plate together and heighten the magnetic field to be close to a bombarded surface of the target.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the mechanical, electronic or semiconductor industry, in order to provide a specific feature to materials for being further used, a thin film is formed on surfaces of the materials by various methods. The sputtering method, which can be applied to the surface treatment of decorations, dining utensils, knives, tools, molds and semiconductor elements, is one of the most popular methods at present. The sputtering method is generally referred to a process of forming a thin film with the same or different materials on surfaces of various metal materials, hard alloys, ceramic materials and wafers so as to obtain elegant, wearproof, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant features.
A magnetron sputtering apparatus, which can be adopted in various research fields, such as the electric machinery field, the mechanism field, the electronics field, the optics field or the material field, is a device for implementing the thin film sputtering process. The magnetron sputtering apparatus is based on the ion beam sputtering theory. When positive ions accelerated by the electrical filed impact a target bombarded surface, atoms and molecules of the target bombarded surface eject from the target bombarded surface after exchanging the kinetic energy with the high energy positive ions. This phenomenon is called "sputtering."
The electrical filed is used in the magnetron sputtering apparatus to generate electrons between two electrodes. The accelerated electrons collide with inert gas (such as argon (Ar)) filled in the coating chamber in advance, so that the inert gas carries positive charges. The ions carrying the positive charges are attracted by the cathode in the magnetron sputtering apparatus to collide with the atoms of the target bombarded surface. The atoms obtain the kinetic energy from the incident ions because of being collided with the positive ions, so that the atoms under the target bombarded surface are forced to move. The displacement of several layers of the atoms under the target bombarded surface generates a reaction force perpendicular to the target bombarded surface to collide the atoms located at the target bombarded surface, so that the atoms scatter out. The scattered atoms (also collide with the neutral Ar atoms in the way to render the Ar atoms carry positive charges) eventually deposit on the substrate (the anode) to form a thin film. A set of magnets is added into the magnetron sputtering apparatus. The electron movement would be affected by the electromagnetic force generated by the electromagnetic effect between the magnetic field and the electrical field. If the magnetic direction is perpendicular to the electrical direction, the movement distance of the electrons lengthens as the electrons move in a spiral movement. As a result, the additional collision times of the electrons and the inert increase the probability for the inert gas to become the ions with positive charges. Thus, the depositing rate of the thin film increases.
In a magnetron sputtering cathode mechanism of the traditional magnetron sputtering apparatus, the target is usually fixed on the backing plate by using a backing plate bonding mechanism or a clamp holding mechanism. The target is directly adhered on the backing plate through adhesives by using the backing plate bonding mechanism. The way for fixing the target on the backing plate by the clamp holding mechanism will be illustrated with the appended figures in the following.
Referring to FIGS. 1A˜1B, a top view and a lateral cross-sectional view of a traditional magnetron sputtering cathode mechanism are illustrated, respectively. As shown in FIGS. 1A˜1B, the magnetron sputtering cathode mechanism includes a backing plate 11, a target 12, at least one magnet 14 and at least one clamp 15. The target 12 is held on the front surface of the backing plate 11 by the clamp 15, so that a bombarded surface of the target 12 faces backward the backing plate 11. The clamp 15 is fixed on the backing plate 11 or the cathode by the cooperation between its own hole and a screw. The magnet 14 disposed at a back surface of the backing plate 11 is used for providing a magnetic field.
However, the backing plate bonding mechanism and the clamp holding mechanism adopted in the described traditional magnetron sputtering cathode mechanism have shortcomings as follows:
1. When the target is changed by using the backing plate bonding mechanism, the backing plate with the remaining target has to be removed from the cathode. Then, another backing plate to which a new target is adhered is installed on the cathode. As a result, the installation is time-consuming and complicated.
2. As the backing plate on the cathode has to be usually changed by the backing plate bonding mechanism, the leak probability of the vacuum chamber is increased due to the installation defects. In addition, the leak detect has to be performed every time after the backing plate is changed.
3. While the backing plate bonding mechanism is used, the equipment and the process for bonding the target are used firstly to debond the remaining target from the backing plate and are used afterwards to bond a new target on the available backing plate.
4. While the backing plate bonding mechanism is used, more backing plates have to be prepared for bonding with the target except the backing plate installed on the cathode. Therefore, the equipment cost increases.
5. For the clamp holding mechanism, the manufacturing cost and the difficulty of maintaining and cleaning the clamp increase if the materials of the target and the clamp are the same (such as the process adopted ceramic materials to be the material of the target).
6. For the clamp holding mechanism, the deposited thin film is polluted by the bombarded clamp if the material of the clamp is aluminum or stainless steel metal which has lower manufacturing cost and is easy to clean and maintain.
7. For the clamp holding mechanism, as the deposited thin film polluted by the bombarded clamp is taken into the consideration, the bombarded area of the target is disposed away from the clamp when the cathode and the magnetic field are designed. Thus, a bombarded area of the target becomes narrow, so that the depositing rate is reduced and the dimension of the substrate is shrunk concurrently.
8. For the clamp holding mechanism, as the bombarded area of the target becomes narrow, the utilization rate of the target reduces.
9. For the clamp holding mechanism, screws are generally used to fix the clamp at the backing plate or the cathode, and it is not easy to well control the screws to be fastened tightly or loosely. If the screws are fastened too tightly, the target may be broken due to the heat expansion. If the screws are fastened too loosely, the target and the backing plate are ill-contacted, so that the heat within the target fails to transfer to the backing plate for cooling the target.
10. While the backing plate bonding mechanism or the clamp holding mechanism is used, the magnet is located under the backing plate. Thus, the distribution of the magnetic field above the target is not well and the magnetic field is weak, hence it is not easy to effectively control the electrons to collide with the inert gas.