As for a transistor, overlapped are factors such as a variation of a gate insulation film which occurs due to a difference of a manufacturing process and a substrate used and a variation of a crystalline state in a channel forming region and thereby, there occurs a variation of a threshold voltage and mobility of a transistor.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a technology of an electric circuit. Also, this invention relates to a technology of a semiconductor apparatus. Further, this invention belongs to a technical field of a semiconductor apparatus having an electric circuit as represented by a source follower circuit, a differential amplifier, a sense amplifier, an operational amplifier etc., a signal line drive circuit and a photoelectric transducer device.
2. Description of the Related Art
An integrated circuit (IC) which has been widely used in portable telephones and portable terminals etc. in these years is of a structure that several hundreds of thousands to several million transistors and resistors were formed on a silicon substrate of approximately 5 mm square, and plays an important role in miniaturizing an apparatus and increasing reliability of an apparatus and in mass production of apparatuses.
Then, when an electric circuit to be used in the integrated circuit (IC) etc. is designed, in many cases, an amplifier circuit having a function for amplifying a voltage and an electric current of a signal with small amplitude is designed. The amplifier circuit has been widely used, since it is an indispensable circuit for preventing the generation of distortion, thereby operating the electric circuit stably.
Here, as one example of the amplifier circuit, a structure of a source follower circuit and its operation will be described. Firstly, a structural example of the source follower circuit is shown in FIG. 5A, and an operation in a steady state will be described. Then, by use of FIGS. 5B and 5C, an operating point of the source follower circuit will be described. Finally, an example of the source follower circuit of a structure different from FIG. 5A is shown in FIG. 6, and an operation in a transient state will be described.
Firstly, by use of the source follower circuit of FIG. 5A, the operation in the steady state will be described.
In FIG. 5A, reference numeral 11 designates a n-channel type amplifying transistor and reference numeral 12 designates a n-channel type biasing transistor. In addition, the amplifying transistor 11 and the biasing transistor 12 shown in FIG. 5A are of n-channel type but, they may be configured by use of p-channel type transistors. Also, here, for the purpose of simplicity, it is assumed that the amplifying transistor 11 and the biasing transistor 12 are the same in its characteristic and size and further, an electric current characteristic is also ideal. In sum, it is assumed that, even if a voltage between a source and a drain of the amplifying transistor and the biasing transistor 12 varies, an electric current value in a saturation region does not vary.
Also, a drain region of the amplifying transistor 11 is connected to a power supply line 13, and a source region is connected to a drain region of the biasing transistor 12. A source region of the biasing transistor 12 is connected to a power supply line 14.
A bias electric potential Vb is applied to a gate electrode of the biasing transistor 12. Then, a power supply electric potential Vdd is applied to the power supply line 13, and a ground electric potential Vss is applied to the power supply line 14.
In the source follower circuit shown in FIG. 5A, a gate electrode of the amplifying transistor 11 becomes an input terminal, and an input electric potential Vin is applied to the gate electrode of the amplifying transistor 11. Also, a source region of the amplifying transistor 11 becomes an output terminal, and an electric potential of a source region of the amplifying transistor 11 becomes an output electric potential Vout. The bias electric potential Vb is applied to the gate electrode of the biasing transistor 12, and it is assumed that, when the biasing transistor 12 operates in a saturation region, an electric current shown by Ib flows. At this time, since the amplifying transistor 11 and the biasing transistor 12 are connected serially, electric currents of the same amount flow through the both transistors. That is, when the electric current Ib flows through the biasing transistor 12, the electric current Ib also flows through the amplifying transistor 11.
Here, the output electric potential Vout in the source follower circuit will be calculated. The output electric potential Vout becomes a value which is smaller than the input electric potential Vin by just the voltage Vgs1 between the gate and the source of the amplifying transistor 11. At this time, a relation of the input electric potential Vin, the output electric potential Vout and the voltage Vgs1 between the gate and the source satisfies the following equation (1).Vout=Vin−Vgs1  (1)
Then, since, in case that the amplifying transistor 11 operates in the saturation region, the electric current Ib flows through the amplifying transistor 11, it is necessary that the voltage Vgs1 between the gate and the source of the amplifying transistor 11 is equal to the bias electric potential Vb. Then, the following equation (2) is achieved. However, the equation (2) is achieved only when the amplifying transistor 11 and the biasing transistor 12 operate in the saturation region.Vout=Vin−Vb  (2)
Then, by use of FIGS. 5B and 5C showing a relation of voltages and electric currents of the amplifying transistor 11 and the biasing transistor 12, the operating point of the source follower circuit will be described. For more detail, a case that the voltage Vgs1 between the gate and the source of the amplifying transistor 11 is the same value as the voltage Vgs2 between the gate and the source of the biasing transistor 12 will be described by use of FIG. 5B. Then, a case that the voltage Vgs1 between the gate and the source of the amplifying transistor 11 is a different value which is different from the voltage Vgs2 between the gate and the source of the biasing transistor 12, and for example, the biasing transistor 12 operates in a linear region will be described by use of FIG. 5C.
In FIG. 5B, a dotted line 21 shows a relation of a voltage and an electric current when the voltage Vgs1 between the gate and the source of the amplifying transistor 11 is Vb, and a solid line 22 shows a relation of a voltage and a electric current when the voltage Vgs2 between the gate and the source of the biasing transistor 12 is Vb. Also, in FIG. 5C, a dotted line 21 shows a relation of a voltage and a electric current when the voltage Vgs1 between the gate and the source of the amplifying transistor 11 is Vb′, and a solid line 22 shows a relation of a voltage and a electric current when the voltage Vgs2 between the gate and the source of the biasing transistor 12 is Vb.
In FIG. 5B, since the voltage Vgs1 between the gate and source of the amplifying transistor 11 and the voltage Vgs2 between the gate and the source of the biasing transistor 12 are the same values and further, the bias electric potential Vb and the voltage Vgs2 between the gate and the source of the biasing transistor 12 are the same value, the voltage Vgs1 between the gate and the source of the amplifying transistor 11 is the same value as the bias electric potential Vb. That is, Vgs1=Vgs2=Vb is achieved, and as shown in FIG. 5B, the amplifying transistor 11 and the biasing transistor 12 operate in the saturation region. At this time, a relation of the input electric potential Vin and the output electric potential Vout becomes linear.
On the other hand, in FIG. 5C, the voltage Vgs1 between the gate and the source of the amplifying transistor 11 is a different value which is different from the voltage Vgs2 between the gate and the source of the biasing transistor 12. Then, the voltage Vgs2 between the gate and the source of the biasing transistor 12 is the same value as the bias electric potential Vb. Also, it is assumed that the voltage Vgs1 between the gate and the source of the amplifying transistor 11 is a bias electric potential Vb′. In sum, Vgs2=Vb and Vgs1=Vb′ are satisfied, and as shown in FIG. 5C, the amplifying transistor 11 operates in the saturation region, and the biasing transistor 12 operates in the linear region. At this time, a relation of the input electric potential Vin, the output electric potential Vout and the bias electric potential Vb′ satisfies the following equation (3).Vout=Vin−Vb′  (3)
If it is assumed that an electric current flowing when the biasing transistor 12 operates in the linear region is Ib′, Ib′<Ib is satisfied. In sum, Vb′<Vb is satisfied, and values of both the input electric potential Vin and the electric current Ib′ are lessened. Then, the bias electric potential Vb′ is also lessened. At this time, a relation of the input electric potential Vin and the output electric potential Vout becomes non-linear.
Summarizing the foregoing, in the source follower circuit in the steady state, in order to enlarge an amplitude of the output electric potential Vout, it is desirable that the bias electric potential Vb is lessened. This is because of the following two reasons.
A first reason is that, as shown in Equation (2), when the bias electric potential Vb is small, the output electric potential Vout can be enlarged. A second reason is that, in case that a value of the bias electric potential Vb is large, when the input electric potential Vin is lessened, the biasing transistor 12 operates in the linear region. When the biasing transistor 12 operates in the linear region, the relation of the input electric potential Vin and the output electric potential Vout is apt to become non-linear.
In addition, since it is necessary that the biasing transistor 12 is in a conductive state, it is necessary to set a value of the bias electric potential Vb to be a value which is larger than the threshold voltage of the biasing transistor 12.
The operation of the source follower circuit in the steady state has been described until this point and, subsequently, an operation of the source follower circuit in the transient state will be described by use of FIGS. 6A–B.
The source follower circuit shown in FIGS. 6A–B is of a structure which was designed by adding a capacity device 15 to the circuit of FIG. 5A. One terminal of the capacity device 15 is connected to the source region of the amplifying transistor 11, and the other terminal is connected to a power supply line 16. A ground electric potential Vss is applied to the power supply line 16.
An electric potential difference between both electrodes of the capacity device 15 becomes identical to the output electric potential Vout of the source follower circuit. Here, by use of FIG. 6A, an operation in case of Vout<Vin−Vb will be described, and then, by use of FIG. 6B, an operation in case of Vout>Vin−Vb will be described.
Firstly, by use of FIG. 6A, an operation of the source follower circuit in the steady state in case of Vout<Vin−Vb will be described.
In FIG. 6A, at a time point of t=0, a value of the voltage Vgs1 between the gate and the source of the amplifying transistor 11 is larger than a value of the voltage Vgs2 between the gate and the source of the biasing transistor 12. Therefor, a large electric current flows through the amplifying transistor 11 and electric charge is rapidly held in the capacity device 15. Then, the output electric potential Vout is enlarged, and a value of the voltage Vgs1 between the gate and the source of the amplifying transistor 11 is reduced.
Then, based upon the passage of time (t=t1, t1>0), when the voltage Vgs1 between the gate and the source of the amplifying transistor 11 becomes equal to the bias electric potential Vb, it falls in the steady state. At this time, the relation of the output electric potential Vout, the input electric potential Vin and the bias electric potential Vb satisfy the above-described Equation (2).
Summarizing the foregoing, in case of Vout<Vin−Vb, since the voltage Vgs1 between the gate and the source of the amplifying transistor 11 is larger than the bias electric potential Vb, a large electric current flows through the amplifying transistor 11, and electric charge is rapidly held in the capacity device 15. Therefor, time for holding a predetermined electric charge in the capacity device 15, in other words, time necessary for writing a signal to the capacity device 15 may be shortened.
Then, by use of FIG. 6B, an operation of the source follower circuit in the transient state in case of Vout>Vin−Vb will be described.
In FIG. 6B, at a time point of t=0, the voltage Vgs1 between the gate and the source of the amplifying transistor 11 is of a smaller value than the threshold voltage of the amplifying transistor 11. Therefor, the amplifying transistor 11 is in a non-conductive state. Then, electric charges which were stored in the capacity device 15 flow in a direction of the ground electric potential Vss through the biasing transistor 12, and are finally discharged. At this time, since the voltage Vgs2 between the gate and the source of the biasing transistor 12 is the same value as the bias electric potential Vb, a electric current flowing through the biasing transistor 12 becomes Ib.
Then, based upon the passage of time (t=T1, t1>0), the output electric potential Vout is lessened, and the voltage Vgs1 between the gate and the source of the amplifying transistor 11 is enlarged. Then, when the voltage Vgs1 between the gate and the source of the amplifying transistor 11 becomes equal to the bias electric potential Vb, it falls in the steady state. At this time, the relation of the output electric potential Vout, the input electric potential Vin and the bias electric potential Vb satisfies the above-described Equation (2). In addition, in the steady state, the output electric potential Vout is maintained to be a constant value, and electric charges do not flow through the capacity device 15. Then, the electric current Ib flows through the amplifying transistor 11 and the biasing transistor 12.
Summarizing the foregoing, in case of Vout>Vin−Vb, time for holding a predetermined electric charge in the capacity device 15, in other words, time for writing a signal to the capacity device 15 is dependent upon the electric current Ib flowing through the biasing transistor 12. Then, the electric current Ib is dependent upon the bias electric potential Vb. Accordingly, in order to shorten the time for writing the signal to the capacity device 15 by enlarging the electric current Ib, there occurs a necessity to enlarge the bias electric potential Vb.
In addition, as a method for compensating variation of a threshold voltage of a transistor, there is a method that the compensation is carried out by viewing the variation by an output of a circuit to which a signal was inputted and thereafter, by giving feed back of the variation to an input side (e.g., see, Non-Patent Document 1). [Non-Patent Document 1] H. Sekine et al, "Amplifier Compensation Method for a Poly-Si TFT LCLV with an Integrated Data-Driver", IDRC'97, p. 45–48.
The operation of the above-described source follower circuit is carried out on the assumption that characteristics of the amplifying transistor 11 and the biasing transistor 12 are the same. However, as for the both transistors, overlapped are factors such as variations of gate length (L), gate width (W) and film thickness of a gate insulation film which occur due to difference of manufacturing processes and substrates used and variations of crystalline states of channel forming areas and so on and thereby, there occurs a variation of threshold voltage and mobility of the transistors.
For example, in FIG. 5A, it is assumed that the threshold voltage of the amplifying transistor 11 is 3V, and the threshold voltage of the biasing transistor 12 is 4V, and a variation of 1V occurred. Then, in order to flow the electric current Ib, there occurs a necessity that a voltage which is 1V lower than the voltage Vgs2 between the gate and the source of the biasing transistor 12 to the voltage Vgs1 between the gate and the source of the amplifying transistor 11. In sum, Vgs1=Vb−1 is satisfied. Then, Vout=Vin−Vgs1=Vin−Vb+1 is satisfied. In sum, when there occurs a variation of even 1V in the threshold voltages of the amplifying transistor 11 and the biasing transistor 12, a variation occurs also in the output electric potential Vout.

Electric circuit and semiconductor device

Abstract: This invention provides an electric circuit which used a rectification type device in which an electric current is generated only in a single direction, when an electric potential difference was applied to electrodes at both ends of the device. Then, the invention provides an electric circuit which utilized a fact that, when a signal voltage is inputted to one terminal of the rectification type device, an electric potential of the other terminal becomes an electric potential offset only by the threshold voltage of the rectification type device.

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


The present invention relates to improved pile fabrics containing courses in which at least two pile forming yarns are meshed across a complete course together cooperatively in various fabric constructions, and respectively into a ground fabric, and forming pile loops one another alternatively in succeeding wales or areas. The fabric is manufactured according to a process in which needles are moved into a feeding position in which they remain, meanwhile in at least two succeeding sections, alternatively, pile elements are selected and raised and after the feeding of a pile yarn are retracted to an intermediate position. The pile yarns are controlled separately from one another and are unaffected in their movement to the loop-forming and meshing action. The manufacturing is realized on circular knitting machinery having a plurality of knitting sections of a type having at least two cooperative beds adapted for movable disposition therein of respective circles of knitting needles and arranged for respective movement of knitting needles transversely of and between a circle of pile elements arranged in the other bed for respective movement of the pile elements each having a pile yarn engaging hook. The pile loops can be severed according to an arrangement provided for in the knitting machine.

1. Field of the Invention
An improved knit pile fabric, the methods therefor and circular knitting machinery with improved pile elements for manufacturing the improved knit pile fabric.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Knitted pile fabrics are generally composed of ground yarns forming a ground fabric in different constructions to which pile yarns, forming protruding pile loops, are meshed.
In the overwhelming majority of proposals for knitting pile fabrics the knitting of the base or ground fabric and the forming of pile loops is realized simultaneously by knitting the ground yarn and the pile yarn together into stitches cross the complete course.
With exception of the proposal described in the German Patent No. 671 333 thereby exclusively one pile yarn is knitted together with one ground yarn to stitches. If the ground fabric is knitted into plain single jersey courses a pattern is exclusively obtained by selecting the pile elements for pile forming or plating (non-pile forming) or forming pile loops of different length (for example as described in the German Patent No. 656 588, British Patent No. 462.662, U.S. Pat. No. 3,477,255). Colored patterns are produced by feeding different pile yarns to a sequence of succeeding feeders and knitting pile loops in one of the feeders in a predetermined section and meanwhile the other courses in this portion are composed of plated stitches. As a result, the pile density is reduced according to the number of courses knitted in a sequence, so that for a sufficient pile density the sequence of different pile yarns is limited usually to two.
Based on the foregoing described method for pile knitting the number of pile yarns in a complete course is only increaseable by knitting a predetermined number of sectional courses in a sequence of at least two feeders after which the complete course is realized. Such methods are described in the proposals according to the U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,710,527; 4,409,800; German Patents 1 153 482; 1 585 051; in which ground yarn and pile yarn floats will spread over the wales knitted from alternative pile and ground yarn. The manufacturing of patterned pile fabrics according to this proposals is limited by the floats of the ground yarns which will also project from the fabric if they spread over more than three wales whereby they may be cut off in the required shearing operation after knitting to remove the float portions of the pile yarns and making the pattern visible.
To avoid longer floats from the ground yarn when knitting partial sections of a fabric, it is proposed, according to European Patent No. 0 043 135 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,633,683) to arrange the ground yarn between the knitting sections in a lay-in (accordion-type) structure. In a further proposal, referenced European Patent No. 0 072 425, the non-knitting, respectively non-pile forming yarns are tied into the ground fabric in a laying structure, so that this fabric is usable after knitting in the looped construction.
Lay-in portions of yarns excluded at least from knitting ground fabric will widen the fabric width and will reduce also the course density and therefore also the pile density and the elasticity of the fabric.
To overcome such limitations a number of proposals over the last fifteen years have been made to knit at least two pile forming yarns into a ground fabric from one ground yarn. To avoid the handicaps of the method referred in the German Patent No. 671 333, resulting from the required exact adjustment of the yarn carrier for feeding a first pile yarn to a first group of needles and arranging thereafter this first pile yarn in the backs of the needles of a second group of needles, whereby an unverifiable tensioning of the first pile yarn (especially according to the provided pile length, yarn friction, alteration of the needles etc.) must be accepted; it is proposed to provide subsequent sections of ground and pile yarn feeders in which at least the pile yarns are sinked or prelooped to sectional pile loop portions which are knit in a final section of a knitting sequence together with a ground yarn to a complete course. Methods for manufacturing this type of fabric are described in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,612,784; 4,989,421; 5,167,133; European Patent Publications No. 0 335 618; 0 594 187; 0 629 727; German Patent Publications No. 40 33 735; 41 29 845; 195 05 646.
As referred in these publications the ground yarn will knit exclusively with one of the pile yarns sectionally Predetermined pile areas, so that the pile yarns excluded from pile knitting will spread or float over the pile portions from alternative pile yarns. Therefore it is supposed that these floats are removed by a shearing process subsequent to knitting. Resulting from this exclusively, velour-type fabrics can be produced while an increased shearing loss, according to the number of pile yarns per course, must be accepted.
To reduce the percentage of pile yarns in the fabric, respectively using courser pile yarns without increasing the portion of pile yarns in the fabric, it is provided in some proposals to mesh the pile yarns into the fabric by tucking.
Analogous to the above-mentioned proposals it is proposed, according to the proposal of European Patent Publication No. 0 484 692, to sink or pre-loop on at least two succeeding pile yarn feeders, alternatively, sectional pile loops and clearing these pile loops from the needle latches in the final ground yarn feeder, so that the pile loops are meshed into the ground fabric by tucking. The overspreading pile yarn portions must be also removed by shearing as referred before.
It is noted that pile fabrics incorporating the pile yarns by tucking are also described according to the proposals of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,043,151; 4,409,800; European Patent Nos. 0 422 917; and British Patent No. 830,219.
To avoid floats from the pile yarns spreading over pile sections from alternative pile yarns it is proposed, in the German Patent Publication No. 27 04 295, to knit two pile yarns in subsequent feeders in alternate wales to a continuous lay-in construction where, in each feeder, predetermined pile elements draw out pile loops. Both pile yarns are meshed to a plain ground course.
With this proposal it is exclusively possible to knit two pile yarns into a course without floats in the pile yarn so that the fabric can be used with the original loop structure or with severed pile loops with a reduced shearing loss. The disadvantage of this proposal is that only two pile yarns can by meshed to a ground fabric when a sufficient pile density will be obtained and the pile yarns are meshed to the base fabric exclusively by tucking, which will reduce the pile density.

Pile fabric methods and circular knitting machines with improved pile elements for manufacturing aforesaid


A technique for forming graphene which solves problems involved in formation of graphene by a thermal CVD method and a resin carbonization method that a high temperature is used and the treatment time is long and can form graphene at a lower temperature in a shorter time is provided. The above problems are solved by performing hydrogen plasma treatment on a copper foil substrate having an organic substance applied thereon by use of a surface wave microwave plasma treatment device and forming graphene on the copper foil substrate by the hydrogen plasma treatment.

A conductive planar crystal of SP2-bonded carbon atoms is called "graphene". Graphene is described in detail in Kumi YAMADA, Kagaku to Kogyo (Chemistry and Industry), 61 (2008) pp. 1123-1127. Graphene is a basic unit of various forms of crystalline carbon films. Examples of crystalline carbon films formed of graphene include monolayer graphene formed of one layer of graphene, nanographene which is a nanometer-size stack of several layers to about ten layers of graphene, carbon nanowall (see Y. Wu, P. Qiao, T. Chong, Z. Shen, Adv. Mater. 14 (2002) pp. 64-67) which includes a graphene stack including several layers to about ten layers of graphene and is located at an angle close to 90 degrees with respect to a substrate surface, and the like.
A crystalline carbon film formed of graphene is expected to be used for a transparent conductive film or a transparent electrode owing to a high light transmittance and a high electric conductivity thereof. In addition, the carrier mobility of electrons and holes in graphene may be possibly 200,000 cm2/Vs at the maximum, which is 100 times as high as that of silicon at room temperature. Utilizing this property of graphene, a super high-speed transistor operable at a rate of the order of terahertz is being developed.
For producing graphene, various methods have been developed so far, including a method of peeling off graphene from natural graphite, a method of treating silicon carbonate at a high temperature to cause silicon to be desorbed, a method of forming graphene on a surface of various types of metal materials, and the like. Regarding a transparent conductive carbon film using a crystalline carbon film formed of graphene, a wide variety of industrial uses have been examined. For realizing such uses, a method for producing a graphene film in a large area size at a high throughput is now desired.
Recently, methods of producing graphene by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) performed on a copper foil surface have been developed (Non-patent Xuesong Li, Weiwei Cai, Jinho An, Seyoung Kim, Junghyo Nah, Dongxing Yang, Richard Piner, Aruna Velamakanni, InhwaJung, Emanue L Tuluc, Sanjay K. Banerjee, Luigi Columbo, Rodney S. Ruoff, Science, Vol. 324, 2009, pp. 1312-1314, and Xuesong Li, Yanwu Zhu, Weiwei Cai, Mark Borysiak, Boyang Han, David Chen, Richard D. Piner, Luigi Colombo, Rodney S. Ruoff, Nano Letters, Vol. 9, 2009, pp. 4359-4363). Such a method of producing a graphene film by use of a copper foil as a substrate adopts a thermal CVD method. More specifically, methane gas, which is material gas, is thermally decomposed at about 1000° C. to form one to several layers of graphene on the copper foil.
The above-mentioned method of producing graphene by CVD basically uses a gas-form material such as methane gas or the like. For producing graphene, various solid materials such as various reins and the like may be used, but it is difficult to use these materials for CVD. In addition, with CVD using gas as a material, it is difficult to produce graphene on a specific part of the substrate in a specific pattern. Therefore, graphene needs to be processed to be patterned after being produced on the substrate. In order to solve these problems, a method of forming graphene by a resin carbonization method has been recently developed. According to this method, poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) is applied to a copper foil to form a PMMA film, and the PMMA film on the copper foil is heated at 800° C. to 1000° C. in a mixed gas atmosphere of hydrogen and argon (ZhengzongSun, Zheng Yan, Jun Yao, Elvira Beitler, Yu Zhu, James M. Tour, NATURE, doi:10.1038/nature09579).

Method for producing graphene, and graphene

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY


A simple inclined-hole drilling jig comprises a jig body having a crossover plane at the bottom to evenly press against the wood workpiece, and a beveled end member at the front concavely disposed with a guiding shaft hole extending downwardly from the beveled end member through the crossover plane. The upper end of guiding shaft hole is configured with a guide bushing for drill bit to pass through. The rear end and side surfaces of jig body are respectively formed with a reference face and sidewalls perpendicular to the crossover plane; the sidewall is at least concavely disposed with a dust guide groove intercrossing the guiding shaft hole and slidingly disposed with a graduated extension board to allow axial displacement and positioning. The end of the extension board is bent to form a retaining end plane parallel to the reference face to extendingly adjust the axle spread of reference face.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a woodwork drilling jig, more particularly, a simple inclined-hole drilling jig structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Inclined-hole drilling of woodwork is primarily used in the corner joint of woodpieces. Conventional "simple inclined-hole drilling jig" (as shown in FIG. 8) designed for this kind of angle drilling comprises mainly of a jig body 1 having a crossover plane 2 able to evenly press against the wood workpiece at the bottom, and a beveled end member 3 at the front. The beveled end member 3 is concavely disposed with a guiding shaft hole 4, which extends downwardly from the beveled end member 3 through the crossover plane 2. The upper end of guiding shaft hole 4 is pivotally configured with a guide bushing 5 for drill bit to pass through. When the crossover plane 2 aligns the end of workpiece, the beveled angle design of the beveled end member 3 allows the center of drill bit to be directed at the thickness center of workpiece. However the actual operation requires precision marking and drilling, and the use of jig for oblique drilling, which is tedious and inconvenient. In addition, the guiding shaft hole 4 is concealed inside the drill jig which does not provide a good outlet for wood dust generated in the drilling. As a result of drill bit working under friction and pushing, the drilling quality is oftentimes poor.


A method and system for generating an inferred EGO sensor signal for use in monitoring operation of a catalytic convertor in an asymmetrical Y-pipe vehicle exhaust system utilizes current engine airflow and engine speed readings as address inputs for a look-up table of predetermined time delay values. The addressed time delay values are used to retrieve previously stored upstream EGO sensor signals corresponding to the time delay values. An inferred EGO sensor signal is then generated based on the retrieved EGO sensor signals, thus providing an inferred EGO sensor signal which accounts for the exhaust transport delay down the different respective exhaust pipe legs.

Recent legislative developments now require on-board monitoring of a vehicle exhaust catalytic convertor efficiency as part of the vehicle's air/fuel and emission control operation. Such monitoring is typically accomplished by placing an exhaust gas oxygen (EGO) sensor before and after the catalyst. The outputs EGO sensors are processed to quantify exhaust gas perturbations caused by rich-lean air/fuel mixture switches during operation of the engine. Examples of prior monitoring arrangements are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,357,751 to Orzel, which shows monitoring of a single inlet/outlet type catalytic convertor, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,385,016 to Zimlich et al. which shows monitoring of a Y-pipe exhaust system having two upstream EGO sensors and one downstream EGO sensor.
Of particular concern to the present invention is a monitoring arrangement for Y-pipe exhaust systems. Generally, the arrangement taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,385,016 is able to provide monitoring without placing a third upstream EGO sensor at the Y-pipe junction, i.e., the exhaust bank blending location, by using the two upstream EGO sensor outputs to infer what the likely blended EGO sensor output would be.
One potential source of error in such an inferred EGO arrangement relates to the phase coherency of the two independent fuel control banks on the engine. More specifically, as one bank falls out of phase with the other, rich-lean exhaust gas pulsations cancel each other out. In a symmetrical y-pipe exhaust system (i.e., the exhaust paths from separate exhaust manifolds to the Y-pipe junction are the same length), the phasing of the banks can be used to control switching of the selected inferred EGO signal.
However, in an asymmetrical exhaust system configuration, the different exhaust path lengths cause the banks to fall in and out of phase without regard to upstream phase coherency. As a result, a need exists for a way of ensuring accuracy in an inferred EGO sensor signal for asymmetrical Y-pipe exhaust systems.

Method and system for generating an inferred EGO signal in an asymmetrical Y-pipe exhaust system


A tamper has a housing, a transmission in the housing converting rotary movement to reciprocating movement, and a tamper plate underneath the transmission and connected thereto for tamping material over which the tamper is moved. A gasoline-fueled engine mounted on the housing supplies rotary movement to the transmission and a fuel tank mounted on the housing adjacent the engine is connected with the engine for supplying fuel thereto. A dome-shaped and downwardly concave cover fixed to the handle is positioned above the engine. The cover is made of a sound-absorbing material and includes a rigid shell having an underside provided with a layer of sound-absorbing material.

A gasoline-powered tamper for compacting earth comprises as described in my above-cited copending US patent application a substantially rectangular frame and a transmission mounted on the frame between ends thereof and extending downward from the frame. The transmission converts rotary movement to reciprocating movement and includes a transmission casing. A tamper leg connected to the transmission and having a tubular leg casing extends downward therefrom and is vertically reciprocatable by the transmission. A tamper plate or foot affixed to the leg at a bottom thereof tamps material over which the tamper is moved. A gasoline-fueled engine connected with the transmission casing supplies the rotary movement to the transmission. A fuel tank spanning opposite long limbs of the frame is connected with the engine for supplying fuel thereto.
Such an apparatus produces a great deal of noise, mainly caused by the engine exhaust and air intake as well as from the transmission that converts the rotary engine output to linear tamper foot movement. The engine is normally mounted right on the transmission so that its noise is reflected back and seemingly amplified. The tamper leg is invariably mounted with some play that is taken up with each linear movement, causing further noise to be generated and the bouncing of the foot on the ground generates further unacceptable noise.
As a result the user of such a machine is normally required to wear a hearing protector, although this type of rule is relatively difficult to enforce in the field. In general, such machines are particularly noisy and subject the operator, who must stand right over them, to the worst of the noise.


A loudspeaker 14 outputs a warning sound for announcing the presence of a vehicle to the outside of the vehicle. A travel start detection unit 122 detects travel start of the vehicle. A sound pressure control unit 124 controls sound pressure of the warning sound to be output from the loudspeaker 14, depending on travel status of the vehicle. The sound pressure control unit 124 makes the loudspeaker 14 output the warning sound during stopping of the vehicle, and increases the sound pressure of the warning sound upon detection of travel start of the vehicle. This makes it possible to announce the travel start of a low-noise vehicle such as an electrically powered vehicle, without making the surroundings feel unnatural.

Electrically powered vehicles such as electric car and hybrid car are rather silent during low-speed travel, and are unfortunately less recognizable by nearby pedestrians.
For solution to this problem, there has been developed a technique by which a warning sound is output during low-speed travel in order to announce the presence of a vehicle to the outside of the vehicle.
For example, Patent Literature 1 below discloses an alert device for low-noise vehicle, which is designed to issue a warning sound when a vehicle starts travelling, the warning sound stays loud over the initial 5 seconds and then attenuates thereafter. According to Patent Literature 1, a low-level warning sound is designed to be sustained until the vehicle speed exceeds 10 km/h.

MITSUBISHI JIDOSHA KOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA


The present invention relates to a composition comprising a lysosomal enzyme conjugated to a negatively charged scavenger receptor ligand. In some embodiments, the lysosomal enzyme is conjugated to the scavenger receptor ligand by way of a linker. The present invention also relates to a composition comprising lysosomal enzyme encapsulated by a liposome, said liposome externally comprising a negatively charged scavenger receptor ligand. The invention further encompasses a method of treating a lysosomal storage disease with the compositions listed above. The ionvention further encompasses a method of treating a lysosomal storage disease with an acylated, acetylated, or aconitylated lysosomal enzyme.

Lysosomal storage diseases result from an inherited trait which affects the levels of enzymes in the lysosome. Approximately 30 lysosomal storage diseases are known to affect humans. Tay-Sach's disease and Gaucher disease are members of this group of diseases. Since specific pathways for the uptake of these other lysosomal enzymes also exist, enzyme replacement therapy is expected to be effective in Fabry disease and could logically be expected to be successful in these other diseases as well. Although these diseases are individually rare, (e.g., several thousand patients with Fabry disease are known to occur world wide, i.e., 1 to 40,000), as a group this class of diseases accounts for a significant fraction of all inherited diseases.
Fabry disease is one such lysosomal storage disease known to affect humans. Fabry disease is an X-linked inborn error of metabolism resulting from a deficiency of the lysosomal enzyme, α-galactosidase A. Deficiency of α-galactosidase A results in the accumulation of its major glycosphingolipid substrate, globotriaosylceramide and related glycolipids with terminal α-galactosidic linkages. Progressive substrate deposition, especially in the plasma and vascular endothelium, leads to ischemia and infarction with early demise due to vascular disease of the heart, kidney, and brain.
Enzyme replacement therapy was first suggested by De Duve et al. (See De Duve et al. 1964, Federation Proceedings 23:1045) as a possible approach to the treatment of lysosomal storage defects such as Fabry disease. Several lines of evidence suggest that enzyme replacement therapy may be beneficial for patients with Fabry disease. For example, it has been demonstrated in cell cultures of fibroblasts obtained from patients with this disease that enzyme present in the culture medium is specifically transported to lysosomes. Clinical trials of enzyme replacement therapy have been reported for patients with Fabry disease using infusions of normal plasma (Mapes et al., 1970, Science 169: 987-989); α-galactosidase A purified from placenta (Brady et al., 1973, New Eng. J. Med. 279: 1163); or α-galactosidase A purified from spleen or plasma (Desnick et al., 1979, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 76: 5326-5330). In one study (Desnick et al.) intravenous injection of purified enzyme resulted in a transient reduction in the plasma levels of the substrate, globtriaosylceramide.
Since the initial studies of enzyme replacement therapy as a potential treatment for Fabry disease, Calhoun et al. have isolated human α-galactosidase A cDNA (Calhoun et al. 1985, Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 82:7364-8) and genomic clones (Quinn et al. 1987, Gene 58:177-88), and expressed the cDNAs in bacteria (Hantzopoulos et al. 1987, Gene 57:159-69), insect cells (Chen et al. 2000, Protein Expr Purif 20:228-36; Coppola et al. 1994, Gene 144:197-203), and Pichia pastoris (Chen et al. 2000, Protein Expr Purif 20:472-84). Furthermore, the purified recombinant α-galactosidase A produced in insect cells and P. pastoris has been shown to be taken up by Fabry fibroblasts in cell culture.
Several clinical trials of enzyme replacement therapy for Fabry disease patients in the last few years revealed clinical efficacy. Furthermore, the FDA has approved treatment of Fabry disease through intravenous administration of recombinant α-galactosidase A. This treatment methodology is known as enzyme replacement therapy (ERT). ERT does not affect the underlying defect, but provides a functional enzyme for the cell. Currently, two galactosidase drugs are available for treatment of Fabry disease via enzyme replacement therapy (ERT): agalsidase alfa (Replagal®, TKT/Shire) and agalsidase beta (Fabrazyme®, Genzyme). These protein based therapeutics are administered by (approved for) intravenous injection and deliver galactosidase activity to the lysomomes of affected organs in order to reduce the level of globotriaosylceramide accumulation.
However, the current approaches for enzyme replacement therapy can be expected to have limitations 88% of patients developed potentially neutralizing IgG antibodies to α-galactosidase A (Fabrazyme®) with a therapeutic enzyme dose of 1 mg per kilogram of body weight (Eng et al. 2001, N. Engl. J. Med. 345: 9-16); while only 21% developed antibodies with a lower dose of 0.2 mg of enzyme (Replagal®) per kilogram of body weight, (Schiffmann et al. 2001, JAMA 285:2743-9).
Fabry disease patients with adverse reactions to the infusions are currently treated with antihistamines and antipyretics, but it can be anticipated that life-long treatment required for these patients will lead to unacceptable levels of neutralizing antibodies. Furthermore, the treatment regimen is burdensome. Infusions typically involve a 4-6 hours session, in a hospital setting, every other week for life. In a recent clinical trial 14 out of 58 patients had to withdraw due to serious noncompliance, voluntary withdrawal, serious adverse events leading to death due to heart or kidney disease due to symptoms from the disease, and IgE antibody or positive skin tests. See Germain D P et al. 2007, J. Am. Soc. Nephrol., 18(5):1547-57. Most patients suffer from ill-defined infusion-associated reactions (vomiting, rigors, etc.) and are routinely pretreated with acetaminophen and hydroxyzine, and some patients require ibuprofen, prednisone, or both, for infusion associated reactions. Any improvement in treatment that leads to lower doses of enzyme, more effective therapeutic effects, or less frequent infusions would markedly improve the lives of Fabry disease patients and other patients reeving enzyme replacement therapy for lysosomal storage diseases.
Hence there exists a long standing need to provide a treatment regimen that requires lower doses of enzyme, thereby providing for more effective therapeutic effects and less frequent infusions. In particular, there is a need to provide an enzyme therapeutic that allow for targeted delivery within the body and are sufficiently biologically active upon intracellular uptake.

Scavenger receptor uptake for Fabry disease enzyme replacement therapy

RESEARCH FOUNDATION OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK


A liquid clarifier in the form of an enclosure in which a conical filter membrane is mounted. An inlet is mounted to the enclosure below the conical filter membrane and an outlet is mounted to the enclosure above the membrane so than an upflow of liquid is created during filtering. The upflow causes the liquid to sweep across the conical filter membrane to prevent accumulation of particulate matter on the membrane. A conical baffle is coupled to the inlet to reduce turbulence of the liquid at a lower end of the enclosure to promote separation by gravity of the particles from the liquid.

Many known filtering devices are used to separate particulate matter from liquids. A need for filtering devices exists in many different industries and environments. Filtering devices are commonly made to separate a wide range of particle sizes from liquid and are manufactured to meet almost any specific application.
A universal problem with respect to filtering devices relates to clogging of or accumulation of particulate matter on the filter media. Typical methods for removing the accumulated particulate matter from the filter media include physically removing the particulate matter, and backflushing the filter media by introducing a reverse flow through the filter.
In spite of these known methods, there remains a need to prevent the accumulation of particulate matter on the filter media, particularly during the filtration process, and thereby reduce the frequency of clogging and obstruction of flow through the filter media. It is highly time consuming and inefficient to either backflush the filtering device or physically remove particulate matter from the filter media each time an excess accumulation of particulate matter occurs. Traditional filtering mechanisms have yet to provide an adequate solution to this common problem.
Yet another problem with respect to traditional filtering devices is that they are not versatile in that only a maximum, predetermined particle size can be separated by filtering device. Accordingly, there is a need to provide a filtering device wherein the filter means can be quickly and readily changed so that a variety of particle sizes can be separated from the liquid.
Still another problem with respect to certain traditional settling filters is that the flow of liquid within the filtering chamber creates turbulence which works against separation of particulate matter by gravity. There remains a need to provide a means of reducing the turbulence of the liquid at desired areas within the filtering device to promote separation of particulate matter by gravity.
The foregoing problems have been overcome by the present invention, which involves a liquid clarifier in the form of an enclosure in which a conical filter membrane is mounted. An inlet is mounted to the enclosure below the conical filter membrane and an outlet is mounted to the enclosure above the membrane so than an upflow of liquid is created during filtering. The upflow causes the liquid to sweep across the conical filter membrane to prevent accumulation of particulate matter on the membrane. A conical baffle is coupled to the inlet to reduce turbulence of the liquid at a lower end of the enclosure to promote separation by gravity of the particles from the liquid. Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the disclosure below.


An image stabilizer includes a driver having a coil and magnet, where a correcting lens on a moving frame is moved by the driver in a first direction perpendicular to an optical axis of a lens system and in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction and optical axis, and an optical axis of the correcting lens corresponds with the optical axis of the lens system. The coil and magnet are fixed to the moving frame and a supporting frame; the driver includes first and second coils for moving the correcting lens in the first and second directions, and a magnet applying magnetic force to those coils; and thrust generated from the first and second coils are directed in the first and second directions, each forming an angle of approximately 45° with a line connecting the optical axis of the correcting lens and the center of a lens barrel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image stabilizer which stabilizes image blurred by vibration or the like at the time of shooting; a lens device which has the image stabilizer; and an imager apparatus such as a digital still camera or video camera, incorporating the lens device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, performance of an imager apparatus such as a digital still camera and a video camera has been improved remarkably, and it became possible for anyone to easily shoot still pictures and moving pictures with high image quality and with high efficiency. Improved efficiency of such an imager apparatus owes to high performance of an imager apparatus such as a lens, a CCD, and an image processing circuit.
However, even though the lens, the CCD and the like can be made higher in performance, if camera shake or vibration is caused by photographer's hands holding a camera (imager apparatus), blurring occurs in images with high resolution and shot images are blurred. Therefore, some relatively expensive cameras are provided with an image stabilizer capable of stabilizing images blurred by camera shake and the like upon image pickup. However, cameras that require such image stabilizer are not professional-level cameras, and it is to be understood that image stabilizers are indispensable to consumer cameras for a large number of amateur photographers with less shooting experience.
Further, in general, a demand for smaller and lighter cameras (imager apparatuses) is strong and most of photographers like cameras which are light in weight and easy to carry. However, since an image stabilizer in related art is comparatively large in size, when such large image stabilizer is mounted on a camera body, the whole of the camera becomes large in size, which is against a demand for making cameras smaller in size and lighter in weight. In addition, image stabilizers in related art require a large number of components, thereby causing a problem in which a cost of cameras increases as the number of components increases.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H3-186823 discloses an image stabilizer of this kind in related art, for example. In this Patent Literature, there is described one relating to a vibration-prevention device provided in a camera or the like, which detects camera shakes relatively low in frequency and uses the detected results as information for the prevention of image blurring, thereby preventing image blurring. The vibration-prevention device described in this Patent Literature (hereinafter referred to as "a first related-art example") is a vibration-prevention device for a camera, including: a correcting optical mechanism, a vibration detector and a vibration-prevention controller. The correcting optical mechanism is provided inside a lens barrel holding a lens group and deviates the optical axis of the lens group. The vibration detector detects vibration applied to the lens barrel. The vibration-prevention controller prevents vibration by driving the correcting optical mechanism based upon a signal from the above-described vibration detector. The correcting optical mechanism has: a correcting lens, a fixing frame, a first holding frame, a second holding frame, first and second coils, first and second drivers, and first and second position detectors. The fixing frame fixes the correcting lens. The first holding frame holds the fixing frame such that the fixing frame can be moved in the first direction different from the optical axis direction of the lens group. The second holding frame holds the first holding frame such that the first holding frame can be moved in the second direction different from the optical axis direction and the first direction, and is fixed to the lens barrel. The first and second coils move the first and second holding frames in the first and second directions, respectively. The first and second drivers are formed of first and second magnetic field generating members facing the first and second coils. The first and second position detectors detect the amount in which the fixing frame and the first holding frame are moved in the first and second directions. At least either the first and second magnetic field generating members or the first and second position detectors are provided in a fixed member including the second holding frame, fixed to the lens barrel.
According to the vibration-prevention device with the structure described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. H3-186823, there can be expected such effectiveness that the vibration-prevention device responds up to high-frequency vibration without increasing the cost and requiring a large space (refer to "Effect of the Invention").
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-258813 discloses another example of an image stabilizer in related art, for example. In this Patent Reference, there is described one relating to an image stabilizer used for optical equipment and a lens barrel using the image stabilizer. The image stabilizer described in this Patent Reference (hereinafter referred to as "a second related-art example") is an image stabilizer which stabilizes images by moving part of a imaging lens to the inside of a surface perpendicular to an optical axis, including: a lens holding frame, a first guide, a second guide, a first driver, a second driver, and a position detector. The lens holding frame holds a correcting lens. The first guide guides the lens holding frame to move in a first direction within a surface perpendicular to the optical axis. The second guide guides the lens holding frame to move in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction. The first driver and second driver drive the lens holding frame in the first and second directions, respectively. The position detector detects the position of the correcting lens. In this image stabilizer, the first guide and the second driver, or the second guide and the first driver are arranged to partially overlap, when seen from an optical axis direction.
According to the image stabilizer with the structure described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2000-258813, the following effectiveness may be obtained, for example. Specifically, the width and height of the stabilizer can be reduced by arranging a guide shaft for moving a correcting lens, and a coil or magnet for driving the correcting lens such that a pitch moving mechanism and a yaw driver, or a yaw moving mechanism and a pitch driver are arranged to overlap when seen from an optical axis direction (see paragraph [0032]).
However, regarding the aforementioned first and second related-art examples, a holding frame which has a correcting lens is guided and supported in a movable manner in a first direction and second direction perpendicular to each other, and the first and second directions are set to be the same as the directions in which the correcting lens is moved by first and second drivers. Hence, there has been a problem that the whole of an image stabilizer becomes large and it may be difficult to be small-sized.
Such problem will be explained in detail using FIGS. 19A and 19B. FIGS. 19A and 19B schematically show the moving range of a correcting lens in a first direction X and in a second direction Y perpendicular to each other. In FIG. 19A, regarding the two axes perpendicular to each other, the first direction X is plotted on the horizontal axis and the second direction Y is plotted on the vertical axis. With those X and Y axes being reference axes, moving range in the rightward and upward directions thereof is designated as the positive (+) and moving range in the leftward and downward directions thereof is designated as the negative (−). A quadrilateral CL shown with a broken line represents a correcting lens being in focus without an image blur. With the position of this correcting lens being a reference, a correctable region M is set on the left and right sides (the rightward direction being positive and the leftward direction being negative) in the first direction X (the total correctable region is 2M), and a correctable region M is set on the upper and lower sides (the upward direction being positive and the downward direction being negative) in the second direction Y (the total correctable region is 2M).
The total correctable region 2M is obtained by adding a modification value calculated by considering dispersion of dimensions of mechanical components or the like to a reference value that is the correction range of the correcting lens necessary to correct an image blur generated. For example, if a correction amount is shown with an inclination angle in the direction of an optical axis, the correction angle equals to ±0.5°. Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 19B, the correction lens is capable of moving on the +side by a maximum range M and on the −side by a maximum distance M in the X-axis direction being the first direction X. Similarly, also in the Y-axis direction being the second direction Y, the correction lens is capable of moving on the +side by a maximum range M and on the −side by a maximum range M. Note that a moving range in the X-axis direction and a moving range in the Y-axis direction may not be equal.
Upon considering a cylindrical barrel in which a correcting lens with such correctable region is stored, an internal diameter necessary for the barrel may be the size of a length D that is the length of the correcting lens in the diagonal direction. On this occasion, moving range of the correcting lens in the X-axis direction or Y-axis direction has one to one relationship with an output from a first driver or second driver. Specifically, if the first driver outputs a driving force of 1, the correcting lens moves in the X-axis direction by a distance of M corresponding to the output of 1. Similarly, if the second driver outputs a driving force of 1, the correcting lens moves in the Y-axis direction by a distance of M corresponding to the output of 1.
In this regard, if the first driver and second driver are operated simultaneously, the correcting lens moves by a distance √2M in a direction of the resultant force obtained by combining vectors in the X-axis direction and in the Y-axis direction, in other words, moves in an oblique direction at an angle of 45° that is a diagonal direction bisecting an angle (90°) made by the X axis and Y axis. As a result, the moving range of the correcting lens is made large, causing an image stabilizer to be prevented from being small-sized.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Image stabilizer, lens device and imager apparatus


A surgical grip for receiving a handpiece shaft for conjoint rotation therewith and/or for receiving a medical tool in such a way as to transmit torque, includes a carrier sleeve on which at least one coupling component provided for coupling the handpiece shaft is attached such that the at least one coupling component can be brought to a coupled position and to an uncoupled position in the operating state, wherein the at least one coupling component can be brought into contact with an activation unit which is arranged between the carrier sleeve and an outer actuation sleeve, wherein a rotation securing unit present inside the actuation sleeve acts on the activation unit in a spring-biased manner in the operating state such that the activation unit is held secure against rotation relative to the carrier sleeve.

From the state of the art, e.g. EP 1 598 023 B1, a medical handpiece is known already. It comprises a cutting tool including a flexible shaft and a drill provided at the distal end of the shaft for cutting an area concerned, a tubular sleeve for receiving the cutting tool therein and a handpiece member for releasably holding the proximal end of the cutting tool and transmitting drive force from a drive source to the cutting tool, the sleeve and the cutting tool being rendered flexible for a particular area, wherein the sleeve is adapted to be plastically deformed while the shaft of the cutting tool is elastically deformed. It is emphasized as, a special feature that the medical handpiece includes a plurality of bearings arranged in the sleeve, includes first interposed members which are tubular and flexible and are arranged proximally relative to, distally relative to and between the bearings, and that second interposed members are provided which are tubular and flexible and are arranged inside the first interposed members, with the second interposed members incorporating the shaft of the cutting tool.
Surgical grips thus include actuation elements which may as well be sleeve-shaped. However, such actuation sleeves have to be secured so that no inadvertent disassembly can take place. Securing is also carried out by an axially displaceable actuation sleeve, wherein parts adjacent to the outside of the actuation sleeve then may exhibit a space that allows pinching of an OP glove. This is intended to be avoided, however. In the ideal case, no visible external changes are to be made to the actuation sleeve. Nevertheless, damage-fee disassembly of the actuation sleeve is to remain possible.
The known solutions by means of an externally visible screw of a nut screwed onto the carrier sleeve are not sufficient in terms of esthetics and hygiene. So, OP gloves may be pinched, for example, and sterilization is difficult to obtain. Even alternatively imagined internal circlips do not help to achieve easy disassembly. Frequently, even disassembly bores entailing an additional penetration point for contaminations will have to be introduced, which negatively affects the cleaning capability. It has to be further complained that a puncture restricts the stability of the shaft along which the actuation sleeve is intended to move.
The solution of an externally arranged screw or nut does not only considerably influence the appearance but also negatively affects the safety. If the screw or the nut will become unscrewed, the safety of the actuation sleeve is no longer guaranteed. The screw head further offers a contact surface for contaminations and thus is more difficult and, resp., more complicated to clean.

Surgical grip with an internal and spring-biased rotation securing unit


An artificial ground system can be utilized in a green of a golf course or for ground unsuitable for cultivation. The artificial ground includes a collection layer having an inclined sheet member capable of collecting liquid agricultural chemicals or water, a soil supporting layer having a water-permeable soil supporting member disposed on the collection layer, and an artificial soil layer having artificial soil disposed on the soil supporting layer. For example, the artificial soil contains as a main component the remainder of fermentation material which is subjected to at least a controlled amount of water and combined with at least one or two additives required for soil constitution.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to artificial ground suitable for use in a golf course, ground unsuitable for cultivation and the like.
2. Description of Related Art
Heretofore, in a place such as a golf course where a large quantity of water is used for greens or fairways, water is intensively controlled. For example, Japanese Patent Unexamined Patent Publication Nos. 63-28331 and 1-120226 disclose a method in which a waterproof sheet is spread under the ground on which the green is planted and water penetrating through the green is collected by the sheet for re-utilization. In this manner, security and effective utilization of the water source is an important subject in the golf course.
On the other hand, there is a danger that scattering of agricultural chemicals for extermination of diseases and noxious insects will seriously contaminate the environment. Agricultural chemicals scattered onto a green in a golf course are caused to be mixed into a reservoir for city water together with rainwater, and the drinking water may be contaminated. Thus, contamination of the environment by agricultural chemicals is a large social problem and it is desired that the dispersion of agricultural chemicals be minimized.
However, since there are many plant diseases and noxious insects (cockroaches, ticks, nematodes and the like) which are media for viruses in a golf course using natural soil, extermination of diseases and noxious insects by agricultural chemicals is avoided and there is no guarantee that contamination of the environment can be suppressed completely. Further, the natural soil can not increase the amount of water collected, that is, the collection efficiency, because of the penetration by the water sufficiently and, accordingly, the practicality of water collection is lacking.


A method for a safety-oriented industrial automation component, wherein the controller is connected to the automation component by a data link includes providing, by a user, an input to the controller at a first user interface. The controller transmits a result of the input to the automation component. The result of the input is used in the automation component to calculate a first test value. The input is converted into a status display in the controller and is output at a second user interface. Here, the user or another user acknowledges the status display by inputting a confirmation, after which a second test value is formed from the status display and the confirmation in the controller, and the second test value is transmitted to the automation component. Finally, the first and second test values are compared in the automation component and the result of the input is used if the comparison is positive.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to industrial safety devices and, more particularly, to a method for controlling a safety-oriented industrial automation component, and to a controller for a safety-oriented industrial automation component.
2. Description of the Related Art
In industrial automation components, such as "CPUs" or "controllers", a distinction is made between conventional automation components and so-called failsafe automation components or "F-CPUs". Failsafe automation components are used wherever the health or life of people (or animals) may be adversely affected, or where there is the threat of a large amount of environmental or material damage in the event of failure or in the event of a malfunction. Such failsafe systems and controllers are regularly based on a hardware architecture in which the most important components are of redundant (i.e., duplicative) design. Furthermore, in the case of such components, it must also be ensured that the software meets the imposed safety requirements.
In failsafe industrial automation components, a multiplicity of parameters are regularly held with associated values ("data") which must be changed by other automation components, i.e., controllers, during ongoing operation. These controllers, which are often themselves not failsafe components, communicate with the failsafe automation components for this purpose. Here, faults may occur, both in the "non-failsafe"controller and on the communication link, between the controller and the failsafe automation component, which faults influence the data to be transmitted, i.e., the information that changes the values of the parameters in the industrial automation component, such that erroneous values occur for the parameters of the failsafe automation component.
Particular effort when controlling failsafe automation components, i.e., the inputting and changing of values, parameters and instructions, involves having to provide a control station ("F-controller") constructed according to the same safety standards and also having to provide likewise safe data transmission between such a control station and the failsafe automation component.

Method and controller for controlling a safety-oriented industrial automation component


A test station for testing at least one of fluidic component arranged on a substrate, each fluidic component having a fluidic port, comprises a carrier device for holding the substrate with the at least one fluidic component, a connecting device for fluidically connecting the fluidic port of the at least one fluidic component located in a testing position to a first adapter element of the connecting device, and a displacement device configured to displace the substrate and the connecting device relative to each other, and to bring the substrate into the testing position.

The present invention relates to a test station and a method for testing (micro) fluidic components, e.g. fluidic MEMS components or elements, e.g. micro pumps, micro valves, micro-reactors, etc. In particular, the present invention relates to an automatic test of fluidic components on wafer level.
To date, only a few MEMS (MEMS=micro electormechanical system) components, such as pressure sensors, gyroscopes and acceleration sensors can be found in large quantities on the world market. Fluidic MEMS components in silicon (Si), however, such as micro fluidic chips, micro dispensers, micro pumps and micro valves are only available in small quantities on the market. Limiting obstacles for entering the market with large quantities of such fluidic Si devices are the relatively high manufacturing costs.
As fluidic MEMS components are, up to now, in only relatively small quantities on the market, industrial producers of test devices are, so far, not willing to invest in device developments, as the quantities of devices to be possibly sold will hardly pay off investment costs. Hence, the development of MEMS test devices can still be considered as a niche application. In particular, a developed test station, beside a diaphragm testing unit for pressure sensor chips, an automatic fluidic MEMS device tester on wafer level, is not known on the market.
In the art, common characterization methods for fluidic components are known in the form of manual tests or based on half automatic test devices having specific test adapters for individual chips. Fluidic devices are, for example, first inserted into such specific adapters in an unpackaged manner and are then tested. However, in this case, the fluidic devices will subsequently have to be tested again after packaging, since chip assembly can include sources of error, which represents a disadvantage. Moreover, mounting the chip first into the package, wherein in many cases mounting is performed by means of an adhesive step firmly connecting the adhered chips with the package and hence preventing reuse of the package, and only then testing after chip packaging has some significant disadvantages and causes additional costs since chips that are defective or insufficient with regard to their specification are necessitated to be disposed of after the test, including the packaging. Therefore, the methods described above are disadvantageous in that they are very time-consuming and, hence, costly.
Thus, a general disadvantage of known methods for the characterization of fluidic MEMS components is that these methods are time-consuming and not cost-effective.

Test station and method for testing fluidic components

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.


A polarizing plate comprising (a) a layer composed of a plurality of polyvinyl alcohol fibers adsorbing a dichroic pigment and having an aspect ratio of 10 or more, which are arranged in a planar form in one direction, or the above layer (a) and (b) a layer composed of a plurality of fibers having an aspect ratio of 10 or more and a difference between the refractive index of fiber in long axis and the refractive index of fiber in short axis of 0.05 or more and not adsorbing a dichroic pigment, which are arranged in a planar form in one direction, and/or (b′) a plurality of fibers having an aspect ratio of 10 or more and a difference between the refractive index of fiber in long axis and the refractive index of fiber in short axis of less than 0.05 and not adsorbing a dichroic pigment, which are arranged in a planar form in one direction, and (c) an optically transparent resin.

As a polarizing plate for use in liquid crystal display devices, a polarizing plate manufactured by forming a triacetyl cellulose (to be abbreviated as TAC hereinafter) film as a protective film on one side or both sides of a monoaxially oriented polyvinyl alcohol (to be abbreviated as PVA hereinafter) film colored with iodine as a polarizer, a polarizing plate manufactured by forming an acrylic resin coating layer on one side of a polarizer, or a polarizing plate manufactured by forming a norbornene or polycarbonate retardation film on one side of a polarizer in place of TAC is used. However, as the above polarizing plates are classified into a group of absorption type polarizing plates which transmit only light in the transmission-axis direction of the polarizing plate and absorb light of other components, a liquid crystal display device having a light transmittance of 50% (maximum light transmittance of 46% because the internal surface reflectance is 4%) under ideal conditions and increased brightness and making efficient use of a backlight is targeted.
Liquid crystal display devices are used in a wide variety of products from small-sized products such as calculators, wrist watches, mobile phones and digital cameras to middle-sized products such as PDA, car navigation systems and POS systems and large-sized products such as liquid crystal monitors for personal computers and liquid crystal TVs. Demand for members having higher quality and more functions for use in the liquid crystal display devices is growing.
A reflection type polarizing plate making use of optical interference is available as a polarizing plate having a brightness increasing function. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,610,729 and 5,486,949 disclose a polarizer making use of the interference of a multi-layer film having birefringence and a method of separating polarization with an oriented multi-layer film consisting of two different polymer films which differ in refractive index. Journal of Applied Physics, vol. 37, pp. 4389, 1998 proposes a method of separating polarization by making use of a simple polymer blend though its principle is the same as above. Recently, WO 2005/8302 has reported a method making use of a fiber in place of the polymer blend. A reflection type polarizing plate in the polarization separation system reflects a non-transmitting polarization component. The reflected light is multiply reflected by a diffusion reflective film installed on the back light side of a liquid crystal display device repeatedly, thereby making it possible to take out light corresponding to light in the transmission-axis direction of the polarizing plate again and to realize a transmittance of 60% or more. However, when the reflection type polarizing plates are installed before and after the liquid crystal cell, color cannot be displayed accurately due to the multiple reflection of light reflected in the liquid crystal cell. Therefore, it is used only on the backlight side. As described in the above WO2005/8302 and at page 13 of the monthly magazine "Display" issued in April 2005, to realize a reflection type polarizing plate, the refractive index of a polymer to be blended and the refractive index of a substrate as a bulk must be made exactly the same, the shapes and arrangements of the blend polymer and the fiber must be controlled precisely, it is extremely difficult to achieve the same degree of polarization (99.9% or more) as that of the current polarizing plate, and the contrast of a liquid crystal display device cannot be maintained at a satisfactory level. Therefore, the reflection type polarizing plate is used in combination with an absorption type polarizing plate to attain only the function of increasing brightness in the current situation. In this case, the reflection type polarizing plate is not called "polarizing plate" but treated as a brightness increasing film and actually marketed under the trade name of D-BEF from 3M Co., Ltd. However, as it is necessary to secure polarization characteristics over a wide visible range even in D-BEF, 400 to 800 layers in total are assembled together. It is technically difficult to carry out the control of the thickness of each layer and the assembly of several hundreds of polymer films and further to control the refractive index of each layer.
Since durability required for the polarizing plate is extremely high, an absorption type polarizing plate using iodine is unsatisfactory in terms of durability, especially moist heat resistance, and the service life of a liquid crystal display device comprising this polarizing plate is limited by the characteristic properties of the polarizing plate.
To improve the durability, the monthly magazine "Display" issued in April, 2005 reports at page 39 a dye-based polarizing plate comprising a dichroic dye as a polarizer in place of iodine. Although the durability of the polarizer itself is improved as compared with that of a polarizing plate comprising iodine adsorbed thereto and aligned, a TAC film which is the protective film of the polarizing plate shrinks and applies shrinkage stress to a liquid crystal panel with the result of the deterioration of image quality or the corrosion of the TAC film itself.
As described above, to improve the transmittance of the polarizing plate, a reflection type polarizing plate is used, or an absorption type polarizing plate and a reflection type polarizing plate, that is, two brightness increasing films are used so as to increase the brightness of a liquid crystal display device. When a reflection type polarizing plate is used alone, the contract of the liquid crystal display device may not be maintained at a satisfactory level due to a low degree of polarization, and when a brightness increasing film is used alone, it cannot have a polarizing function and has a large number of technically difficult points, thereby boosting its costs. Therefore, a polarizing plate alone having a high degree of polarization and a high transmittance (having a brightness increasing function) is not obtained yet.
When a TAC film is used as a polarizing plate protective film, the improvement of the durability of the polarizing plate has not been observed until now.
In a reflection type or semi-transmission reflection type small- to medium-sized liquid crystal display device, a λ/4 retardation film is joined to a polarizing film at about 45°. This is essential in order to obtain display by reflection. The polarizing film and the retardation film are each cut into a chip having a specific angle and these chips are joined together. As for the oblique stretching of the polarizing film, JP-A 2003-207622 and JP-A 2004-144838 disclose a technology for a polarizing film having a transmission axis in an oblique direction by using a polarizer composed of a PVA film which is obliquely stretched. However, to stretch the polarizer composed of a PVA film, the draw ratio must be 4 to 8 times and a bulky apparatus is required. In the oblique stretching of the film, as the stretched film is biaxially oriented, the degree of orientation is low, thereby making it impossible to obtain the same polarization performance as that of a polarizing film composed of a polyvinyl alcohol film which is monoaxially stretched in a longitudinal direction. Since a TAC film is used as the protective film of the polarizer of a polarizing film, problems such as the deterioration of image quality by shrinkage which depends on the TAC film and the corrosion of the TAC film itself still remain.
In the reflection type or half-transmission reflection type liquid crystal display device, a liquid crystal display device is constructed by cutting a polarizing film into a chip having a specific angle and joining it. Therefore, a roll of the polarizing film cannot be joined to a roll of a retardation film, and the process becomes very complicated. Although a technology for stretching a polarizer composed of a PVA film obliquely is now under study, a bulky apparatus is required and the same polarization performance as that of a polarizing film composed of a monoaxially oriented polyvinyl alcohol film cannot be obtained. Therefore, a liquid crystal display device comprising a PVA polarizer is not implemented yet. When a TAC film is used as the protective film of a polarizing film, the improvement of the durability of the polarizing film has not been observed until now.
As a latent problem in the liquid crystal display device, an image displayed by the device changes according to the view direction. One of the causes of this is a polarizing plate. That is, the polarizing plate is made of a monoaxially oriented film and this is caused by the change of the angle formed by the absorption axes of two polarizing plates arranged in a cross nicol state. As another cause, when the image is seen from above the polarizing plate, or when it is seen from a plane orthogonal to the polarizing plate and a plane including the transmission axis or absorption axis of the polarizing plate, the angle formed by the absorption axes of the two polarizing plates is fixed at 90°, and black can be formed by the polarizing plates. However, when seen from the plane orthogonal to the polarizing plate and a plane not including the transmission axis and the absorption axis of the polarizing plate (especially 45° direction), the angle formed by the absorption axes of the two polarizing plates is larger than 90° by changing the angle of observation, thereby causing light passage.
To compensate for a defect in view angle characteristics caused by the polarizing plate, a technology for inserting a biaxial retardation film is disclosed by JP-A 10-142423 and Japanese Patent No. 3526830. With this technology, a wide view angle polarizing plate which has the function of making the polarization state of light passing through a polarizer when light is input obliquely equal to the polarization state when light is input vertical to the retardation film, compensates for a change in the optical properties of the polarizer and can provide a liquid crystal display device having a wide view angle can be obtained. However, the biaxial retardation film for realizing these characteristic properties must control Nz which is birefringence and therefore, a special and difficult processing technology for stretching a monoaxially oriented film in the thickness direction of the film by shrinking a thermally shrinkage film which is joined to both sides of the monoaxially oriented retardation film is required. Therefore, the retardation film has problems such as low productivity due to low yield, a very expensive material, and increases in the number of the materials which must be used to join it to a polarizing plate and the number of processes.
To improve the view angle characteristics of the polarizing plate, the technology for inserting a biaxial retardation film is used. However, the difficulty of the process, and increases in the number of materials and the number of processes boost the costs of members, and a method for improving the view angle characteristics with the polarizing plate alone is not realized yet.


According to one embodiment, a head mounted display includes a holder, a projector, an optical part, a weight, a detector, a first calculator, and a movement part. The holder includes a frame, a first temple, and a second temple. The first temple and the second temple are respectively connected to each end part of the frame. The projector is provided on the first temple. The projector emits light. The optical part is provided on the frame. The optical part reflects at least part of the light emitted from the projector. The weight is provided on opposite side of the projector. The detector detects tilt of the holder. The first calculator calculates an optimal position of the weight based on the tilt of the holder. The movement part changes the position of the weight according to the optimal position.

There is known a head mounted display (HMD) with a display part provided in front of an eye of a user. In the HMD, the display part is provided on one side or both sides of a pair of glasses. Compared with conventional glasses, the HMD is heavier in the portion on the side of the user's eyes. This may disturb the weight balance of the glasses, and the glasses may be tilted in the left-right or front-back direction.
In this context, there is proposed a technique for adjusting the position of the barycenter of the head mounted display by providing a weight.
The position of the weight may be appropriate when wearing the HMD. However, when the user moves the head, the position may become inappropriate.
This may bring discomfort to the user when using the HMD.


A radiation delivery system generally includes either a synchrotron source or a support frame and a plurality of microbeam delivery devices supported on the support frame, both to deliver a beam in a hemispherical arrangement. Each of the microbeam delivery devices or synchrotron irradiation ports is adapted to deliver at least one microbeam of radiation along a microbeam delivery axis, wherein the microbeam delivery axes of the plurality of microbeam delivery devices cross within a common target volume.

The present invention relates generally to devices and methods for performing microbeam radiation therapy on a subject for treatment of tumors and of other diseases, and more particularly to a stereotactic device and method of delivering microbeam arrays from multiple angular directions to produce a broad beam effect only within a target volume thus increasing the therapeutic effect of microbeam radiation therapy.
Cancer continues to be one of the foremost health problems. Conventional treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy have exhibited favorable results in many cases, while failing to be completely satisfactory and effective in all instances. For example, the effectiveness of orthodox radiation therapy on deep pulmonary, bronchial, and esophageal tumors is limited by the risk of radiation pneumonitis. Also, non-tumor applications of radiation therapy, such as the ablation of epileptogenic foci, are still considered a challenge with conventional radiation therapy and radiosurgery.
The goal of radiation therapy is generally to maximize the therapeutic index, which is defined as the ratio of the maximum tolerable dose beyond which unacceptable levels of normal tissue toxicity would occur, to the minimal dose required for effective tumor control. This goal is particularly difficult to achieve in treating central nervous system (CNS) tumors. Malignant gliomas which include astrocytomas, oligodendrogliomas and glioblastoma represent about 60% of all primary brain tumors, with an incidence of over 8,000 cases per year. The survival statistics of patients with high grade gliomas in the brain, or lower grade gliomas and metastatic tumors in the spinal cord have not improved appreciably in recent years using conventional surgical techniques and conventional radiotherapy. The doses that can be delivered to malignant CNS tumors are limited by the tolerance of normal brain and spinal cord to radiation. For higher grade CNS tumors, radiation is generally offered only as a palliative rather than curative therapy. For lower grade CNS tumors, the ratio of radiotherapy doses that produce normal CNS toxicity and those that control the tumor is so close that it often renders radiotherapy ineffective, or results in neurological complications from radiotoxicity to the normal CNS surrounding the tumor. In addition, tolerance of the normal CNS to re-treatment, if necessary, will be lower.
Conventional radiation therapy has serious limitations due to radiation damage to normal tissues. Although stereotactic radiosurgery has improved the outcomes, highly radiosensitive structures located in the vicinity of the target remain a limiting factor. It is well known to those skilled in the art that the threshold dose, or maximum tolerable dose before neurological and other complications of radiotherapy arise, increases as irradiated volumes of tissue are made smaller. Such observations eventually led to the development of grid radiotherapy using grids or sieves for spatial fractionation of X-rays.
Recently, a much less familiar alternative form of radiation therapy, known as microbeam radiation therapy (MRT), has been investigated in laboratory animals to treat tumors such as those for which the conventional methods are ineffective or associated with a high risk factor. The concept of MRT was introduced in U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,347 to Slatkin et al. MRT differs from conventional radiation therapy by employing arrays of parallel planes of radiation, which are at least one order of magnitude smaller in thickness (or diameter if, in the rare case, parallel cylindrical beams are used rather than planar beams) than the smallest radiation beams in current conventional clinical use. These very thin microbeams, which are also called microplanar beams, can be generated using the high intensity X-ray beams that are currently generated at electron synchrotron storage rings.
There are three disadvantages of the broad beams currently used in clinical radiation therapy over microbeams. First, they do not allow treatment of very small targets (because of their size limit), and they give additional dose to the neighboring non-targeted tissue (because of their un-sharp edges). Second, they will not have the tissue-sparing effect of x-ray microbeams (or microplanar beams) that are possessed only by sub-millimeter or millimeter beams. Third, they are usually administered in many dose fractions, which is often difficult on the patent.
The Slatkin et al. patent discloses the segmentation of a broad beam of high energy X-ray into arrays of parallel microbeams (beams of thickness less than about 1 millimeter (mm)), and a method of using the microbeams to perform radiation therapy. The target tissue, e.g., a tumor, receives a summed absorbed dose of radiation exceeding a maximum absorbed dose tolerable by the target tissue by crossing or intersecting the microbeam arrays at the target tissue. The irradiated in-path non-target tissue is exposed only to non-crossing beams. Non-target tissue between the microbeams receives a summed absorbed dose of radiation less than the maximum tolerable dose, i.e., a non-lethal dose to non-target tissue. In this way, the irradiated non-target tissue in the path of the microbeam is allowed to recover from any radiation injury by regeneration from the supportive cells surviving between microbeams. The probability of radiation-induced coagulative necrosis in the irradiated normal, non-targeted tissue is also lowered due to the non-crossing beam geometry in the non-target tissue, allowing for lower levels of radiation to the non-target tissue. Using microbeam radiation therapy in this way helps improve the effectiveness of clinical radiation therapy, especially for deep-seated tumors. Finally, it was shown that microbeams have a "preferential tumoricidal effect", i.e., they damage the tumor preferentially while sparing the surrounding normal tissues. This effect, observed in tumor-bearing rats and mice irradiated with microbeam, arrays from a single direction, has an important implication on the present patent.
The microbeams geometries disclosed in the Slatkin et al. patent are of two basic types. Exposure of the target may be accomplished by a unidirectional array of microbeams which may be parallel or may converge at the target. Alternatively, two arrays of microbeams originating from different directions may be "cross-fired," and intersect at an isocenter in the target tissue. The microbeams within each array may be substantially parallel to each other or may converge at an isocenter within the target.
Commonly owned U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,158,607 and 7,194,063 to Dilmanian, the specifications of which are incorporated herein by reference, disclose improvements on the MRT method disclosed in the Slatkin et al. patent. In U.S. Pat. No. 7,158,607, two arrays of microbeams are interlaced or interleaved at a target tissue to produce a continuous broad beam effect only within the target volume. In U.S. Pat. No. 7,194,063, a method of administration of microplanar beam arrays was shown that was particularly useful for assisting recovery of a damaged spinal cord and a brain.
An important concept in microbeam radiation therapy is the "valley dose". It is the radiation leakage between the beams caused mostly by x-ray scattering. For the normal tissues surrounding the target to be spared from the radiation, the valley dose in the normal tissue should be adequately low to allow the supportive cells to survive.
There is a need in the prior art for further improvements of radiation therapy, as well as efficient devices for implementing MRT, which greatly enhance the therapeutic dose at a target, while simultaneously maintaining a safe dose to normal tissue. There is also a need, which is lacking in the prior art, for an effective system to perform multiple-angle delivery of microbeams simply on tissues affected by diseases and conditions without inducing radiation injury to surrounding healthy tissue.

Method and devices for performing stereotactic microbeam radiation therapy


A method for executing computer function option with intelligent memory is provided, including loading the multimedia application program corresponding to the pressed function option button into the image file memory region of the system memory for execution when detecting a function option button is pressed. When the user shuts down a function option, the multimedia application program stops execution and is stored in an image file format into the pre-determined memory address in the data storage. When the computer detects the same function option button being pressed by the user for activation, the computer loads the program image file corresponding to the function option button into the image file memory region of the system memory, and executes the program image file.

The multimedia playing system made with the integration of a computer system and an audiovisual player is gaining popularity and is widely used on many occasions, including offices and households, because of the rapid development of computer technology. Similarly, computers integrated with intelligent appliances (IA) are also widely available in the consumer market.
Conventional multimedia playing systems are basically interfacing a computer system with an audiovisual player. The user usually needs to boot up the computer system first before he or she activates and operates the audiovisual player. In other words, the user must wait until the computer system completes the BIOS program initialization, POST program, peripheral detection and driving, OS activation, system state setting, and so on, before the user can execute the audiovisual program to play the audiovisual data.
To speed up the booting process, conventionally, a second operating system is installed in a second region of a hard disk of the computer to provide the multimedia playing or intelligent appliance functions.
However, although the aforementioned method provides the user with the choice of normal computer booting process or executing multimedia playing function, the computer still needs to read the operating system, drivers, application programs and the data when the computer is booted. The speed and efficiency of the computer system is still limited by the access speed of the hard disk.
Since hardware design of a computer-based multimedia system is different from a household appliance, the time required for booting the computer-based multimedia system is usually much longer than that of a household appliance. With this type of design, the user usually needs to boot the computer system up in order to activate and operate the audiovisual player. In other words, the user must wait until the computer system completes the BIOS program initialization, POST program, peripheral detection and driving, OS activation, system state setting, and so on, before the user can execute the audiovisual program to play the audiovisual data. It is inconvenient for the user as there is no shortcut to bypass the tedious booting process of the computer system.
Furthermore, when the user operates the function option button to activate multimedia playing, the computer must access the hard disk for multimedia application program and execute the program. When the user shuts down and re-activates the multimedia playing function, the computer still requires to access the hard disk for multimedia application program and executes the program. The execution remains the same for both executions, and the use of computer resources remains the same as well.

Method for executing computer function options with intelligent memory for computer-based multimedia system