A method of embossing a sheet material includes: heating at least a portion of the sheet directly or indirectly with radiant energy from a radiant energy source; pressing a tool against the heated portion of the sheet, thereby patterning a surface of the sheet; and separating the sheet and the tool. The radiant energy may travel through a solid material that is relatively transparent to radiation, on its way to being absorbed by a relatively-absorptive material. The relatively-transparent material may be an unheated portion of the sheet, and the relatively-absorptive material may be either the tool or the heated portion of the sheet. Alternatively, the relatively-transparent material may be the tool, and the relatively-absorptive material may be all or part of the sheet. The method may be performed as one or more roll-to-roll operations.

Processes and apparatus for embossing precision optical patterns such as microcubes, in a resinous sheet or laminate, are well known as referenced in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,486,363; 4,478,769; 4,601,861; 5,213,872; and 6,015,214, which patents are all incorporated herein by reference. In the production of such synthetic resin optical sheeting, highly precise embossing is required because the geometric accuracy of the optical elements determines its optical performance. The above referenced patents disclose particular methods and apparatus for continuously embossing a repeating retro-reflective pattern of fine or precise detail on one surface of a transparent thermoplastic material film to form the surface of the film into the desired microstructure pattern.
Besides precision optical sheeting, various other applications have been developed requiring the formation of highly precise shapes and structures in resinous film. Such applications include (in addition to optical applications) micro-fluidic, micro-electrical, micro-acoustic, and micro-mechanical applications. Such applications require the embossing of thermoplastic material to provide precisely formed functional geometric elements, or arrays of such functional geometric elements on the film surface.
These geometric elements, or precision microstructures, are defined by any or all of the following characteristics: precise embossing depths; flat surfaces with precise angular orientation; fine surface smoothness; sharp angular features with a very small radius of curvature; and precise dimensions of the elements and/or precise separation of the elements, within the plane of the film. The precise nature of the formed surface is critical to the functional attributes of the formed products, whether used for microcubes or other optical features; or as channels for microfluidics, or in fuel cells; or for accurate dimensions, flatness and spacing when providing a surface for holding nanoblocks in fluidic self assembly (FSA) techniques; or imparting a microtextured surface that is not optically smooth.
U.S. patents describing some uses of precise microstructures include: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,486,363; 6,015,214 (microcubes); U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,783,856; 6,238,538 (microfluidics); and U.S. Pat. No. 6,274,508 (FSA).
As described in some of the above mentioned patents, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,486,363, 4,601,861, and 4,478,769, embossed microstructure film may be made on a machine that includes two supply reels, one containing an unprocessed film of thermoplastic material, such as acrylic or polycarbonate, or even vinyl, and the other containing a transparent and optically smooth plastic carrier film such as Mylar, which should not melt or degrade during the embossing process. These films are fed to and pressed against a heated embossing tool that may take the form of a thin endless flexible metal belt. The belt creates the desired embossed pattern on one surface of the thermoplastic film, and the carrier film makes the other surface of the thermoplastic film optically smooth.
The belt moves around two rollers that advance the belt at a predetermined linear controlled speed or rate. One of the rollers is heated and the other roller is cooled. An additional cooling station, e.g. one that blows cool air, may be provided between the two rollers. Pressure rollers are arranged about a portion of the circumference of the heated roller. Embossing occurs on the web as it and the tool pass around the heated roller and while pressure is applied by one or more pressure rollers causing the film to be melted and pressed onto the tool. A backing film such as Mylar® may be used in order to create an optically smooth surface on the non-embossed surface of the film. The embossed film, (which may have been laminated to other films during the embossing process), is cooled, monitored for quality and then moved to a storage winder. At some point in the process, the Mylar® film may be stripped away from the embossed film.
The prior apparatus and process work well to produce rolls of film that are effectively 48″ (122 cm) wide (52″/132 cm at salvage), but such equipment and processes have several inherent disadvantages. The process speed (and thus the volume of material) is limited by the time needed to heat, mold and freeze the film. Also, the pressure surface area and thus the time available to provide adequate pressure by the pressure rollers, and then cooling the material, impose certain special constraints.
The prior apparatus and process of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,486,363, 4,601,861, and 4,478,769, and other embossing processes discussed below, depend on heating a preformed synthetic resinous sheeting above its glass transition temperature or melting temperature in order to emboss the sheeting while in a molten state. The embossing apparatus includes a heated roller with internal passages for circulation of hot oil. Typical temperatures of the heated roller are 425° C. to 475° C., possibly as high as 500° C. U.S. Pat. No. 4,486,363 also includes a limited disclosure (without explanatory details) of an alternative embodiment using an infrared heater or other radiant heater.
One earlier prior device for forming microcubes while in a planar condition is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,332,847, and involves indexing of small (9″×9″ or 22.86 cm×22.86 cm) individual molds at a relatively slow speed (See Col. 11, lines 31-68). That process is not commercially practical because of its perceived inability to accurately reproduce microstructures because of indexing mold movement and the relatively small volume (caused by mold size) and speed. Also, the equipment and process is non-continuous. The '847 patent discloses the use of platens that are heated by electric cartridge heaters, as well as platens that are heated using hot oil.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,945,042 discloses an embossing apparatus in which synthetic resin sheeting is fed to a thermoforming zone while in a "flow temperature region" of the resinous material; this can be accomplished by extruding molten resinous sheeting to feed to the thermoforming zone, or by pre-heating preformed resinous sheeting. The '042 Patent discloses, as to means for pre-heating the resinous sheeting, passing the sheeting between two heated rollers. It is said that "indirect heating devices such as a hot blast heater, a near-infrared lamp heater and a far-infrared lamp heaters may be used in combination". The '042 patent also discloses heating the thermoforming roll from within using dielectric heaters or using a heated circulating medium. This heat source during thermoforming can be supplemented by "auxiliary means . . . such as a hot blast heater, a near-infrared lamp heater and a far-infrared lamp heater". No specifics are given as to these heat sources and their operation in heating the sheeting.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,096,247 discloses a process and apparatus for making an embossed optical polymer film. A heat flux is provided by either a flame burner or a flameless radiant burner to soften at least one surface of a polymer film. The film then is passed through an embossing nip to form embossments on the softened surface of the film. This embossed surface is then cooled to fix the structure of the embossments. It is said that the time required to heat, emboss, and cool the embossed optical polymer film ranges from about 0.05 to about 1 second, depending in part on the temperature sensitivity of the optical film being embossed.
International patent application PCT/US01/18655 (publication no. WO 01/98066) discloses a process and apparatus for forming thermoplastic products having precise embossed surfaces, using a continuous double band press. This apparatus includes continuous flat beds with two endless bands or belts, preferably of steel, running above and below the product and around pairs of upper and lower drums or rollers. An advantage of such presses is the mainly uniform pressure that can be provided over a large area. This machine forms a pressure or reaction zone between the two belts and has the advantage that pressure is applied to a product when it is flat rather than when it is curved.
The machine is based upon a fluid or air cushion press, which uses a cushion of air to reduce friction between the belt and the rest of the machine. It was conceived by applicants of the above-identified application that this type of press may be suitable for precision embossing of microstructures. The fluid cushion press is sometimes associated with the term "isobaric." In an isobaric press, heat generally does not come from rollers or drums; rather the fluid, i.e. air, provides it. The fluid transfers heat to the steel belts that in turn transfer the heat to the material passing through the press. This provides one advantage over certain prior art forms of embossing equipment—the ability to heat the film to be embossed from both sides.
It will be appreciated from the above discussion that many approaches have been undertaken with regard to embossing of microstructures, and that there is further room for improved microstructure methods and products.

Process and apparatus for microreplication


An ion implantation apparatus includes a laser beam irradiation unit which irradiates the surface of a target substrate with laser beam. The angle of an optical axis of the laser beam relative to the surface is adjustable. A reference line defining unit is adapted to define a virtual reference line which coincides with the optical axis of the laser beam when the angle takes a certain value. An ion irradiation unit provides an ion beam on a trajectory which coincides with the reference line.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ion implantation apparatus and method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the process of manufacturing semiconductor devices, ion implantation carried out to introduce impurities into the semiconductor substrate is affected by a phenomenon called channeling. Channeling is a phenomenon in which, when the direction in which an ion beam impinges at the semiconductor substrate coincides with the crystal orientation of the semiconductor substrate, many impurities reach deeper than the position of a peak value of the impurity profile obtained when the ion implantation direction does not coincide with the crystal orientation. The magnitude of channeling depends on the angle at which ions are implanted into the semiconductor substrate (perpendicularity); therefore, the characteristics of a semiconductor device formed on the semiconductor substrate vary according to the perpendicularity. Accordingly, control of the perpendicularity is important.
At present, however, the accuracy of the angle between the trajectory of the ion beam and the processed surface of the semiconductor substrate, which is involved in the determination of perpendicularity, depends on the mechanical precision of the ion implantation apparatus. In other words, the ion implantation apparatus is not configured so as to observe the relative relationship between the trajectory of the ion beam and the processed surface of the semiconductor substrate and control the perpendicularity accordingly. That is, in general, a plumb and a level are used to find a perpendicular and a parallel plane relative to the direction of gravity for use as reference lines and an ion implantation apparatus is assembled with reference to these reference lines. For this reason, the reference lines vary according to the accuracy to which parts of the ion implantation apparatus are processed and the accuracy to which these parts are assembled. As the result, the perpendicularity varies from apparatus to apparatus.
Some ion implantation apparatus have function to measure the trajectory of the ion beam and adjust it. The apparatus, however, measures only the trajectory to a measuring instrument and does not measure the angle between the measuring instrument and the substrate. As a result, it cannot detect the change of the angle between the measuring instrument and the substrate. This leads failure to detect possible change of the angle between the trajectory of the ion beam and the substrate.
As described above, at present, the relative relationship between the trajectory of an actual ion beam and the processed surface of a semiconductor substrate is not observed. For this reason, even if, its condition changes due to some factors and consequently the perpendicularity changes after an ion implantation apparatus has been assembled, it is impossible to notice and correct this situation. From the same reason, it is impossible to detect variations in perpendicularity from substrate to substrate, which can produce variations in device performance.


Protozoal infection of human beings or animals is treated with a divalent metal salt of bacitracin. Some infectious agents sensitive to such treatment include human pathogens such as Entamoeba histolytica, Trichomonas vaginilis, Gtardia lamblia, Cryptosporidium parvum, and animal pathogens such as Tritrichomonas foetus and Tritrichomonas gallinae.

Protozoa are unicellular eucaryotic microorganisms that lack cell walls. They are generally colorless and motile. Protozoa are distinguished from bacteria by their usually greater size and eucaryotic nature, from algae by their lack of chlorophyll, from yeast and other fungi by their motility and absence of a cell wall, and from the slime molds by their lack of fruiting body formation.
Protozoa usually obtain food by ingesting other organisms or organic particles. Protozoa are found in a variety of freshwater and marine habitats. A large number are parasitic in other animals, including humans. Some protozoa are found growing in soil or in aerial habitats, such as on the surface of trees.
As is appropriate for organisms that "catch" their own food, most protozoa are motile. Their mechanisms of motility are key characteristics used to divide them into major taxonomic groups. Protozoa that move by amoeboid motion are called Sarcodina (common name: amoebas); those using flagella, the Mastigophora (flagellates); and those using cilia, the Ciliophora (ciliates). The Sporozoa, a fourth group, are generally nonmotile and are all parasitic for higher animals.
Typical representatives of the Mastigophora group are Trypanosoma (causing African sleeping sickness), Gtardia, Leishmania, Trichomonas and Tritrichomonas. Members of this protozoal group are motile by the action of flagella.
Among the sarcodines are organisms such as Amoeba and Entamoeba which are always naked in the vegetative phase. Entamoeba histolytica is a good example of these parasitic forms.
Ciliates are defined as those protozoa that, in some stage of their life cycle, possess cilia. Typical representatives are Balantidium and Parameclum. Balantidium coli is primarily a parasite of domestic animals, but occasionally it infects the intestinal tract of humans, producing intestinal symptoms similar to those caused by Entamoeba histolytica.
The Sporozoa comprise a large group of protozoa, all of which are obligate parasites. Typical sporozoans are Plasmodium (causing malaria), Toxoplasma and Cryptosporidium.
Habitats of endoparasites vary. some are intracellular, such as malarial parasites in vertebrates. Other parasites, such as, Entamoeba histolytica invade tissues but not individual cells. Most trypanosomes live in the blood of vertebrate hosts. Many other parasites live in the lumen of the digestive tract or sometimes in coelomic cavities of invertebrates, as do certain gregarines.
Free-living and parasitic protozoans are the cause of many diseases and infections in humans and animals. For example, the protozoan parasite, Entamoeba histolytica, is recognized as having infected almost 480 million people. There is no known animal host for the parasite. While the major part of E. histolytica infections are of a non-pathogenic nature, over 36 million cases result in clinical disease.
The major proportion of clinical cases of E. histolytica infection are present in the form of amoebic dysentery. The amoeba form ulcers in the large intestine. This causes diarrhoea and bleeding into the lumen.
Clinical manifestations of E. histolytica infection are mostly restricted to the large bowel. However, if untreated, some of these infections can result in perforation of the large intestine and, under extreme conditions, death from peritonitis.
In other cases of E. histolytica infections, extra-intestinal invasion of the parasite may occur. The parasite passes, via the blood or lymphatic system, to abdominal and other organs to produce amoebic abscesses. Under extreme conditions, these infections can also result in severe disease or death.
Metronidazole has been the drug of choice for the treatment of E. histolytica since the first report on efficacy was published in 1966 (Powel et al., Lancet 2, 1329-31 (1966)). The acute diarrhoea and the liver abscesses associated with E. histolytica infection respond well to metronidazole. However, metronidazole has been found to be less effective in asymptomatic cases (Spillman et al., Am. J. Troy. Med. Hvg. 25, 549-51 (1976)).
Failure of treatment of E. histolvtica infections with metronidazole has been reported with international flight personnel in individual patients (Weber et al., Trans. RQV. Soc. Troy. Med. Hvg. 84, 803-5 (1990)). A randomized study of fifty South African patients with amoebiasis revealed a treatment failure with persistent disease in 55% following standard metronidazole therapy of 2.4 g daily for 5 days (Jackson et al., Symposium on Amoebiasis, New Delhi, India (1990)).
Although metronidazole is effective in treating E. histolytica infections, it has several undesirable side effects. For example, it cannot be administered to pregnant women who are in their first trimester. Moreover, the utility of metronidazole is seriously compromised by its interference with alcohol metabolism. The drug is mutagenic in the Ame's test (Vogd et al., Mutat. Res. 26, 483-90 (1974)). Because of its toxic side effects, metronidazole has been covalently linked to silica beads to abolish drug absorption in the treatment of intestinal amoebiasis. Although short term use of metronidazole has been relatively safe, toxic effects of testicular atrophy, ataxia and polyneuropathy has been observed in rats. Metallic taste, headache and peripheral neuropathy are also observed.
Due to the problems associated with the use of metronidazole, there is a need for an alternative method of treating infections by protozoan.
The antibiotic bacitracin has shown a limited capacity to kill both pathogenic and non-pathogenic forms of intestinal amoebic infections (Most et al., Am. J. Troy. Med. 30, 491-497 (1950)). For example, in 51 patients, a parasitological cure was obtained in 66% of cases following treatment for 10-20 days with dose ranges of 40,000 to 160,000 units. Extension of therapy beyond 10 days, or an increase in dose to about 80,000 units, did not significantly enhance the probability of cure beyond 66%. The marginal effectiveness of bacitracin in treating amoebiasis has not led to further use of this drug in the treatment of E. histolytica amoebiasis.
Another common disease caused by protozoans is bovine trichomoniasis. Bovine trichomoniasis is a sexually transmitted disease caused by the flagellate protozoan Tritrichomonas foetus. Infection by T. foetus results in substantial economic losses throughout most of the cattle-rearing areas of the world where natural breeding is relied upon.
T. foetus infection is recognized as a significant cause of bovine infertility. This infection touches upon each component of the producer's net income. Specifically, it reduces both, the total number of calves produced and their suckling-growing period. Moreover, T. foetus infection results in calves being produced later in the season, thus giving a lighter calf crop which is less uniform in age and weight. Under these circumstances, the calf crop would be unlikely to realize its full market value. In addition, increased feed, treatment, culling and stock replacement costs are incurred. All tolled, it is estimated that, in 1992, T. foetus infections will cost the U.S. beef industry approximately 500 million U.S. dollars.
Transmission of T. foetus is almost exclusively by coitus. Infection of this type is confined to the reproductive tract with the preferred sites of infection in the bull being the prbputial cavity and the urethral orifice. The prevalence of T. foetus infection in bulls generally increases with age and is attributed to the deepening of crypts in the preputial epithelium of older bulls.
Various topical treatments have been proposed for the treatment of T. foetus infection in bulls. Examples of such treatments include the implementation of acriflavine salves, chlorohexidine and metronidazole. For the most part, these methods of treatments have proven to be only marginally effective.
The therapeutic value of several 5-nitroimidazole compounds has been established in the treatment of T. foetus infection. While multiple oral doses of dimetridazole have been documented as being moderately effective, they can result in undesired side effects such as rumen stasis and anorexia. A single intravenous administration of dimetridazole has also been documented as being moderately effective. However, this too can cause undesired side effects such as respiratory difficulty, ataxia and lung collapse.
Although treatment of T. foetus infection with 5-nitroimidazole compounds may be moderately effective, it is prohibitively expensive. For example, in 1991, the cost of each oral administration was approximately $100.00 (U.S.) per bull; and, the cost of an intramuscular administration was approximately $50.00 (U.S.) per bull. Moreover, the use of 5-nitroimidazole compounds is not approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration. One such compound, ipronidazole has been declared a suspect carcinogen.
As can be seen, the control of bovine trichomoniagis poses an enormous problem, even in the comparatively well-managed beef herds of the United States. This problem has grown to such proportions that a joint task force comprising the Californian Cattlemen's Association, the U. S. Animal Health Association and the Livestock Disease Research Laboratory has declared bovine trichomoniasis research as having the highest priority.
Other examples of free-living and parasitic protozoans which infect humans or animals include, without limitation, Trichomonas vaginalis, Tritrichomonas gallinae, Gtardia lamblia, Cryptosporidium parvum, Cryptosporidium sp., and Plasmodium Sp. These and other protozoan organisms are known to cause the following diseases: trichomoniasis, giardiasis, cryptosporidiosis, malaria, babesiosis, theileriosis, toxoplasmosis and leishmaniasis, in addition to all other intestinal and systemic protozoan infections.
An effective treatment against free-living and parasitic protozoan infections of humans and animals is needed. Such a treatment must not only lack the harmful side effects of metronidazole, but also, must be more effective than bacitracin.


Apparatus to rapidly bulk charge a lead acid battery used in a "standby" power supply unit (PSU), or similar equipment containing said function, such as in an alarm panel system, fire panel (system) etc., without increasing the output capacity of the regulated PSU, significantly increasing its dissipation, size or cost, or causing an unacceptable recharge time of (often) several days. The apparatus comprises minimal additional components to provide a bulk charge of approximately 70% capacity to a 65 Ahr battery within 14 hours, while only drawing an average current of approximately 0.4 amp from the regulated PSU.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to charging circuits used for charging lead-acid batteries and more particularly to a circuit arrangement for bulk charging a lead acid battery in a short time period.
2. Description of Related Art
Rechargeable batteries used in "standby" applications are typically "float charged" from a fixed voltage, regulated, power supply unit (PSU). A 12 volt, regulated, lead acid battery is typically "floated" at 13.65.+-.0.25 volts at 20.degree. C., and when fully charged will draw a few tens of milliamps depending upon capacity, age, etc. While this approach maintains the battery at near 100% capacity, two problems arise when a discharged battery is connected to the PSU, such as when the main AC supply is restored after a prolonged power interruption or when a discharged battery is connected to the PSU.
The first problem is that the PSU has to be designed to provide a significantly higher current than normal to recharge a discharged battery. This requirement increases the size, complexity, cost and dissipation of the PSU just for the infrequent occasions when battery recharge is required. The second problem is that the PSU must be equipped with some means of limiting the battery recharge current to prevent PSU overload, because the lead acid battery has a very low impedance.
One approach to rapidly charging a lead acid battery is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,609,861 issued Sep. 2, 1986 to Masahira Inaniwa et al wherein a circuit for rapidly charging a lead-acid battery of the sealed type comprises detecting the voltage of the battery, a constant-current charging circuit, a constant-voltage charging circuit, and a timer circuit responsive to the voltage detecting circuit. At the beginning of the charging operation, the battery is charged at a constant current, and when the voltage of the battery exceeds a predetermined value, charging mode is changed to constant-voltage charging which lasts for a predetermined period of time determined by the timer circuit. The charger may also comprise a trickle charge circuit so that trickle charge takes place after the constant-voltage charge. One or more heat-sensitive elements may be used for providing temperature compensation or fail-safe in response to the heat from the battery and heat from parts of the battery charger. A capacitor 50 may be used as a timer which is forcibly charged to insure a given period of time of the constant-voltage charging. A differential amplifier is used for detecting the voltage of the battery so that a power transistor, used as an element of the constant-current charging circuit, is controlled in response to an output signal from the differential amplifier to perform constant-voltage charging. However, this design requires an increased amount of circuitry for accomplishing its objective.
Another U.S. Pat. No. 4,952,861, issued Aug. 28, 1990 to Karl G. Horn describes a three-stage rapid charging process for charging maintenance-free lead batteries with a fixed electrolyte. The process comprises a first charging stage which proceeds at a constant current of the magnitude of a four-hour to eight-hour current until a temperature-dependent charging voltage is reached, a second charging stage which then continues at this temperature-dependent charging voltage for a limited time, and which is continuously adjusted to the battery's temperature, and a third charging stage which is again time-limited and which constitutes a secondary charging which proceeds according to an I/V characteristic curve with an initial charging current limited to between 0.05 and 0.5 times a ten-hour current and a battery voltage which is limited to between 2% and 8% above the temperature-dependent charging voltage. However, this design requires the measurement of temperatures either inside a representative battery cell, between two cells of the battery, or at the terminal connector between two cells.
Another U.S. Pat. No. 5,500,584 issued Mar. 19, 1996 to Kenkuhi Shimomoto describes a battery charging method for charging a lead acid storage battery quickly and a battery charging apparatus. The method includes an initial charging process between times 0 to t.sub.1, where a charging current is increased gradually, a quick charging process between t.sub.1 and t.sub.2 where a charging current is larger than initially, and a final charging process between times t.sub.2 to t.sub.3 where charging current is reduced, carried out step wise and continuous. The battery charging apparatus comprises a primary circuit and a secondary circuit connected by the transformer. Single phase AC is applied to the primary circuit and the secondary circuit outputs connect to the battery. A control switch is turned on and off by a control signal from a control unit. A rectifier performs all wave rectification of the secondary transformer output. A charging current detector detects the terminal voltage of battery. Values from the charging current detector and the terminal voltage detector are fed to the control unit which controls the current supply to the charging circuit controlled by a semiconductor switch. However, this approach requires considerable control electronics.

Apparatus and method for rapid bulk charging of a lead acid battery


An element forming an electric push-button, characterized in that it comprises a part (6) made from an elastically deformable material and accommodated in the stationary body (1) of the element underneath the operating key (3) so as to adjust according to the material used for the deformable part (6), the force for depressing the key (3) for deforming the contact cup (4), the invention being applicable in particular to steering wheels of automotive vehicles.

There is known an element forming an electric push-button of the type comprising a key which may be depressed or driven into a stationary body for deforming a metal contact cup from a determined stroke of the key and providing an electric contact.
However, this known element forming a push-button is designed in such a manner that the force for depressing the key depends only of the force required to deform the electric contact cup.
It may be advantageous in some applications to provide an element forming an electric push-button permitting to adjust the key-depressing force independently of the electric contact and/or of the mechanism for operating the contact.


An embodiment herein includes a baseball having a cover and a core. The cover encapsulates the core and there at least four images on an exterior surface of the cover. At least four of the images do not substantially extend from one of the panels to another one of the panels. The ball may have a profile substantially similar to a conventional ball. A second embodiment of the ball is where the core is weighted in an asymmetric manner. A method of using an embodiment of the ball includes a player calling out a description of the image as the player fields the ball.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The claims of the application in general relate to the game of baseball, and in particular to a baseball which can be used to practice the game of baseball. Additionally, the disclosed baseball can be used as a training aid to improve a baseball player's ability to field the baseball.
2. Background Art
Typically new, usually young, baseball players practice fielding ground balls with the same baseball used in the game. Frequently their task is to catch a ground ball in their glove and then throw the ball to the appropriate base before a runner reaches that base. A mistake commonly made is to look to the target base before the ball is secured in the fielder's glove, resulting in a failure to catch the ball. This can happen for numerous reasons; such as if the ball bounces other than anticipated by the fielder, the fielder does not have his or her glove on the ground in the open position ready to receive the ball, etc. The afore are just two examples of common reasons why a fielder may not properly field the baseball. Others do exist.


A toy projectile and method of making the toy projectile is provided herein. The toy projectile having: an elongated dart body secured to a tip assembly, the tip assembly comprising: a tip insert secured to a forward end of the elongated dart body and a tip secured to the tip insert, wherein the tip comprises a styrene ethylene butylene styrene copolymer (SEBS rubber) tip.

Various embodiments of the present invention relate to a toy projectile or dart and a method of making the toy projectile or dart.
Darts or toy projectiles have been used in toy guns or other toys to provide an enhanced play factor to the toy guns or toys. As with any toy projectile it is desirable to provide the same with a blunt soft end as well as certain characteristics that allow for durability and continued use.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a toy dart or toy projectile that is easy to manufacture and have robust characteristics as well as providing for the aforementioned safety factures.


The present invention provides a dielectric film having a high permittivity and a high heat resistance. An embodiment of the present invention is a dielectric film (103) including a composite oxynitride containing an element A made of Hf, an element B made of Al or Si, and N and O, wherein mole fractions of the element A, the element B, and N expressed as B/(A+B+N) range from 0.015 to 0.095 and N/(A+B+N) equals or exceeds 0.045, and has a crystalline structure.

Developments in semiconductor devices are accompanied by increasingly higher degrees of element integration, resulting in increased miniaturization of each element and a reduction in operating voltage. For example, in the field of MONOS (metal oxide nitride oxide semiconductor)-type non-volatile semiconductor devices which include a blocking film that separates a charge retaining layer and a gate electrode, the miniaturization of elements has led to demands for higher permittivity in blocking films. Similarly, in the field of FG (floating gate)-type non-volatile semiconductor devices, the miniaturization of elements has led to demands for higher permittivity in insulating films between a floating electrode and a gate electrode. In addition, in the field of advanced DRAM (dynamic random access memory) devices, in order to secure capacitance of capacitors making up miniaturized memory cells, dielectric film are required which have high permittivity and are capable of accommodating a thinner film thickness without causing an increase in leakage current. Furthermore, in the field of advanced CMOS device development, techniques for reducing gate leakage current by increasing the physical thickness of a gate insulating film using high permittivity material are being considered. Moreover, it is required that high dielectric films are heat-resistant with respect to a 1000° C.-annealing treatment performed during the manufacturing process of the semiconductor devices described above. Furthermore, it is required that the surfaces of high dielectric films have superior flatness for the purpose of suppressing variations in the operating voltages of the semiconductor devices.
As means for increasing the relative permittivity of a dielectric film, the use of HfO2, ZrO2, and Al2O3 as dielectric films having a higher relative permittivity than conventional SiO2 film, SiN film, or SiON film combining the two, is being considered. In addition, more recently, research is being performed on dielectric films in which a metallic element is doped on a laminated(stacked) structure made of HfO2, ZrO2, or Al2O3 or on HfO2 or ZrO2 for the purpose of suppressing leakage current associated with thinner dielectric films.
For example, Non-Patent Documents 1 and 2 disclose dielectric films in which silicon (Si), yttrium (Y), lanthanum (La), or the like is doped as a metallic element on HfO2. According to Non-Patent Document 1 and 2, it is described that, by doping the metallic element described above on HfO2 and performing crystallization thereon, HfO2 having a tetragonal crystalline phase is formed and a high relative permittivity value of 28 is obtained.
Non-Patent Document 3 discloses a dielectric film in which TiN is laminated(stacked) on the surface of HfO2. According to Non-Patent Document 3, it is described that, when crystallization is performed in a state where TiN is laminated on HfO2, HfO2 having a cubic crystalline phase is formed and a high relative permittivity value of 50 is obtained.
Patent Document 1 discloses a dielectric film in which a metallic element such as yttrium (Y), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), or lanthanum (La) and nitrogen are doped on HfO2. According to Patent Document 1, it is described that, by adding an element with a large atomic radius such as Y, Mg and Ca described above to monoclinic HfO2, the aggregated energy of the cubical crystals decreases and stabilizes, thereby altering the crystalline system of HfO2 from monoclinic crystal to tetragonal crystal and then to cubical crystal. As a result, a high dielectric film made of HfYO with a relative permittivity of 70 can be obtained. In addition, as oxygen in the monoclinic HfO2 is replaced with nitrogen, the crystalline system changes from monoclinic crystal to tetragonal crystal, to rhombohedral crystal, and then to cubical crystal as the amount of nitrogen increases.
Patent Document 2 discloses a technique for using, as a dielectric film material, a composition including HfO2 having a cubic crystalline phase and a second compound. According to Patent Document 2, it is described that a HfO2 cubical crystal containing 1 mol % to 50 mol % of Al2O3 as the second compound has a relative permittivity of 29.8, which is higher than pure HfO2.
Patent Document 3 discloses, as a dielectric film, a noncrystalline film in which noncrystalline aluminum oxide is contained in a crystalline dielectric film and which is formed of AlxM(1-x)Oy (where M is a metal such as Hf and Zr capable of forming a crystalline dielectric body) having a composition expressed as 0.05<x<0.3. According to Patent Document 3, it is described that a high relative permittivity ranging from 25 to 28 can be obtained with noncrystalline zircon aluminate.
Non-Patent Document 4 discloses a dielectric film material made of HfAlON. According to Non-Patent Document 4, it is described that HfAlON whose Hf/(Hf+Al) composition ranges from 20% to 80% and whose nitrogen composition is 30% or higher acquires a noncrystalline structure at an annealing temperature of 850° C. and has a relative permittivity ranging from 10 to 25.

Dielectric film and semiconductor device using dielectric film including hafnium, aluminum or silicon, nitrogen, and oxygen


A scheme in which a first decoder provides first decoding of a signal read from a disk. A second decoder, coupled to an output of the first decoder, combines with the first decoder to provide iterative decoding to recover data stored on the disk when in an iterative mode of operation. However, when in a non-iterative mode of operation, the output of the first decoder is coupled to an error correction code module to apply error correction code (ECC) to the output of the first decoder to recover data stored on the disk by non-iterative decoding.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The embodiments of the invention relate generally to disk drives and, more particularly, to a use of ECC in combination with iterative decoding.
2. Description of Related Art
Varieties of memory storage devices, such as magnetic disk drives, are available to store data and are used to provide data storage for a host device, either directly, or through a network. Those networks may be a storage area network (SAN) or a network attached storage (NAS). Typical host devices include stand alone computer systems such as a desktop or laptop computer, enterprise storage devices such as servers, storage arrays such as a redundant array of independent disk (RAID) arrays, storage routers, storage switches and storage directors, and other consumer devices such as video game systems and digital video recorders. These devices generally provide high storage capacity in a cost effective manner. Disk drives, including hard disk drives (HDDs), comprise one category of such storage devices.
With some of the HDDs, there may be performance issues associated when performing timing recovery of a signal that is read from the disk. That is, appropriate digital sampling is performed for accurate and effective recovery of the information from signals read from the disk. If improper or inadequate digital sampling is performed on the signal that is read from the disk, then some of the data recovered may be inaccurate or not recovered at all.
In order to continually improve the data read capabilities of HDDs, various sampling techniques may be implemented or enhanced to read, sample and recover the stored data. However, one limiting factor with HDDs is the standard that is implemented with the disk operating system in setting a particular sector size for HDDs. For example, personal computers operating on Microsoft Corporation's current operating system software partition HDDs into 512 byte sectors. Thus, 512 byte sector size is a standard that is used with computers utilizing this operating system.
In the future, operating system software may partition the HDD to have larger sector sizes. For example, one upgraded operating system may partitioned the disk into 4096 (4K) byte sector size. In this instance, there is an eight-fold increase in the sector size. In response, corresponding changes in circuitry and sampling techniques will most likely be needed to accommodate the larger sector size. It is appreciated that until the larger sector size (for example, the 4K byte sector size) becomes prevalent, computer systems may still operate with HDDs that have currently existing sector size, such as the 512 byte sector size. The term used to describe current and past implementation is generally referred to as "legacy."
Accordingly, for an interim time period, manufacturers of HDDs may be required to provide HDDs that operate at 512 byte sector size HDDs, as well as 4K byte sector size HDDs. However, certain circuitry allowing for an acceptable bit error rate (BER) for 512 byte sectors may not provide acceptable BER at the larger sector size, since parameters that affect the BER at one sector size may have significantly different characteristics at a second sector size. Therefore, HDD devices or controllers that control a hard disk may be required to provide separate circuitry to handle each of the sector sizes being implemented or alternatively, provide HDDs or controllers that is operable with one selected sector size.
For manufacturers of integrated circuits (ICs) that operate as controllers to control a HDD, two choices are available to decode the sampled data at two different sector sizes. One is to manufacture separate ICs for each of the sector sizes to handle the differences in decoding. However, this results in two separate IC designs, one for each type of IC. The disadvantage of this approach is that the legacy design (e.g. 512 byte sectors) is operable only with the legacy HDD (e.g. HDDs capable of 512 byte sectors only). Thus, if a legacy HDD controller is present in a computer system operating with the legacy operating system, when the computer system is upgraded to the new operating system capable of using the larger sector size, the HDD may need to be replaced.
A second choice is to include separate circuitry for each different sector size in the one IC, and allow the HDD to migrate to the large sector size. This allows one IC design to operate with both sector sizes, so that the controller IC chip and/or the HDD, need not be made obsolete when migrating to the new operating system (or other software) that uses the larger sector size.

Use of ECC with iterative decoding for iterative and non-iterative decoding in a read channel for a disk drive


Examples are disclosed for simultaneous transmitting and receiving packets in a wireless local access network (WLAN). In some examples, a source node in the WLAN may transmit a packet to a destination node in the WLAN and may receive an implicit acknowledgement (ACK) packet from the destination node. The source node may stop transmitting a remaining portion of the packet if the implicit ACK packet is not received within a defined time interval or if a dummy/packet payload for the implicit ACK packet is not successfully decoded. Also, the destination node may or may not include a data payload in an implicit ACK packet sent responsive to receiving the packet from the source node. Other examples are described and claimed.

A hidden node issue may be a possible cause of collisions or signal degradation in wireless local access networks (WLANs) that are capable of implementing packet transmitting schemes such as carrier sense multiple access (CSMA). Transmitting schemes such as CSMA may attempt to avoid nodes concurrently transmitting packets over a same wireless communication channel. For example, each respective node may sense whether another node is currently using the same wireless communication channel to transmit a packet and withhold transmitting packets until the other node's transmission can no longer be sensed. As a result of withholding transmission while the other node transmits, collisions and/or signal degradation may be reduced or eliminated.

Techniques to stop transmission of data based on reception of an acknowledgment within a specified time


A hybrid circuit-breaker for interrupting currents having high DC components, said hybrid circuit-breaker comprising a compressed-air circuit-breaker that re-closes automatically, and a sulfur hexafluoride circuit-breaker, the circuit-breakers being disposed in series.

It is well known that in order to remedy that drawback, the arcing voltage must be increased by using suitable means. A high arcing voltage makes it possible to absorb the energy from the DC component of the current and to cause the DC component tend towards zero.
Using an interrupting chamber having permanent fuses in series with a conventional high-voltage circuit-breaker has been proposed. During breaking as a result of a fault, the fact that the fuses melt produces a very high arcing voltage which causes the DC component of the fault current to decrease very quickly.
Using a high-pressure interrupting chamber equipped with means for creating a plurality of arcs in series has also been proposed.
Such solutions require new equipment to be used. An object of the present invention is to make a circuit-breaker that is capable of creating a high arcing voltage, by using existing equipemnt that is available on the market, and making only a cheap minor technical modification.
It is known that high-pressure compressed-air circuit-breakers can create high arcing voltages that are more than ten times the arcing voltages of sulfur hexafluoride (SF.sub.6) circuit-breakers. Such conventional compressed-air circuit-breakers have been used for a long time now in high-voltage and very high-voltage grids. To this end, reference is made to the article "Appareillage haute tension" by E. Thuries et Pham Van Doan, Avenir du Genie Electrique, Colloque National organized by the Ministere de la Recherche, Actes, 28-29 January 1987, Paris.
Compressed-air circuit-breakers are used in particular in very cold regions where ambient temperature can drop to -50.degree. C.
At that temperature, the SF.sub.6 may condense if the pressure inside the interrupting chamber of the circuit-breaker is not low enough.
U.S. Pat. No. 4 204 101 describes a vacuum interrupter and an SF.sub.6 interrupter associated together in series. That association does not enable the arcing voltage to be increased.
U.S. Pat. No. 3 227 924 describes two circuit-breakers associated together in series having different dielectric recovery rates. That association makes it possible to maintain electrical isolation after interruption, but not to increase the arcing voltage before interruption.
The invention provides a hybrid circuit-breaker including, for each phase, compressed-air interrupting chambers and SF.sub.6 interrupting chambers, the resulting assembly making it possible to interrupt fault currents that pass through current zero with a delay because of their high DC component.
The purpose of compressed-air interrupting chambers is similar to that of permanent-fuse interrupting chambers or to that of multiple-arc interrupting chambers: it is to create an arcing voltage that is sufficiently high.
The purpose of the SF.sub.6 chambers is to interrupt the current on current zero and to isolate the circuit.
A resistor of several thousand ohms or a capacitor of the order of several hundreds of thousands of picofarads is disposed across the terminals of each compressed-air interrupting chamber. As a result, when in the open position while live, there is no voltage stress on the compressed-air interrupting chambers. It should be noted that at the time of interruption, the arcing voltage may reach several tens of kilovolts. Using a high-capacitance capacitor of several hundreds of thousands of picofarads across the arcing terminals may make the arc unstable because of current oscillations via a low-inductance inductor or via the inductance of the connection in series with the capacitor. Such instability helps to increase the arcing voltage and to decrease the current towards zero. To this end, reference is made to the following articles:
"L'oscillation arc-capacite et son utilisation pour l'evaluation des parametres caracteristiques d'un arc electrique" by A. Mohssen Zeneldien, Thesis, University of Grenoble, 5 June 1974;
"HVDC circuit breakers using oscillating current techniques", by Yamada et al., Direct Current, 1966, No. 8; and
"DC circuit breaker", U.S. Pat. No. 4 216 513 of 5.ANG.August 1980, Hitachi Ltd.
The absence of voltage stress on the compressed-air interrupting chambers means that the casings for the compressed-air interrupting chambers can be made of a composite material, e.g. glass fibers impregnated with epoxy, with fins made of silicone or of EPDM. High compressed-air pressures can then be used and any explosions that are always possible when ceramics are used can be avoided.
In order to provide near-perfect operating safety, the compressed-air interrupting chamber re-closes automatically, i.e. after it has been opened, its moving contact re-closes automatically and quickly in a few hundredths of a second instead of several tens of hundredths of a second, as is usually the case in conventional circuit-breakers in which electrical open or close commands are given on the basis of the indications supplied by the auxiliary contacts (also referred to as "signal contacts").

Hybrid circuit-breaker for interrupting currents having high dc components


Methods for integrating MOL TSVs in 3D SoC devices including face-to-face bonded IC chips. Embodiments include providing a device layer in each of IC chips on upper surfaces of top and bottom silicon wafers; forming, subsequent to the device layer, through-silicon vias (TSVs) extending through an upper surface of the device layer in each of the IC chips and into the bottom Si wafer; forming, subsequent to the TSVs, a dielectric layer on the upper surface of the device layer in each of the IC chips of the top and bottom Si wafers; forming a back-end-of-line metal layer in the dielectric layer of each of the IC chips of the top and bottom Si wafers; face-to-face bonding of opposing IC chips of the top and bottom Si wafers; and dicing adjacent bonded IC chips through vertically aligned dicing lanes in the top and bottom Si wafers.

Generally, a plurality of devices/components (e.g., transistors, diodes, etc.) may be designed and embedded into an IC chip/die, which then may be placed into a package (e.g., plastic casing) or used as a bare die for placement onto a printed circuit board (PCB) of an electronic device. In addition to traditional technology node scaling at the transistor level, three-dimensional (3D) IC chip stacking is increasingly being utilized to continue the use of current semiconductor manufacturing technologies (e.g., 28 nm, 22 nm, etc.) to create 3D system-on-chip (SoC) devices and provide solutions for meeting performance, power, and bandwidth requirements of various electronic devices. A 3D SoC device may include several logic, memory, analog, or other chips of different technology nodes that may be connected to each other by using TSV architecture. Typically, TSVs are vertical vias etched into a silicon layer and filled with a conductive material (e.g., copper (Cu)), to provide connectivity for transferring electronic signals or power supplies between the vertically stacked IC chips or between an IC chip and an IC package substrate.
FIG. 1 schematically illustrates an example IC chip stack structure including a face-to-face (F2F) bonding of IC chips. As illustrated, the 3D IC chip stack includes IC chips 101 and 103 with TSVs 105 used to interconnect the 3D stack (e.g., IC chip 101), through an interconnection layer 107 (e.g., including solder balls, copper pillars, micro-bumps) to an IC package substrate 109. The IC package substrate 109 may include an interconnection layer 111 (e.g., including a solder ball grid array) for connecting to another substrate or a printed circuit board of an electronic device. As illustrated, the IC chips may include back-end-of-line (BEOL) metal layers including front metal layers 113 and a back metal layer 115, a device layer 117, and a silicon layer/IC substrate 119. Also, the device layer 117 may include one or more dielectric layers for providing isolation between the devices. The F2F bonding of the IC chips 101 and 103 may be through metal vias connected to a final metal layer included in the front metal layers 113.
In a 3D SoC device, individual SoC functional blocks may be partitioned onto individual IC chips for connection during 3D IC packaging, where shorter wire lengths in the 3D configuration allow for performance gains and a decrease in overall power consumption of the device. Also, reduction in wire lengths reduces total number of BEOL metal layers needed. In a homogeneous application of a 3D SoC device, functional blocks within a single technology node are partitioned resulting in a smaller die/chip size on Si wafers for increased yield and device-per-wafer efficiency. Such an application may allow for extension of existing technology for further manufacturing on currently available/purchased manufacturing toolsets resulting in extension of 14 nm technology node and delaying a need for a reduction (e.g., 10 nm scaling) in the technology node. In a heterogeneous application of a 3D SoC device, the block partitioning may be targeted based on scalability, wherein higher scalable digital cores and IP are scaled to advanced technology nodes. Devices that may not scale well, such as SRAM, I/O's, and other analog devices may be manufactured on older technology. Such an application may result in higher overall yield and reduced cost due to the possibility of using older technology for part of the system.
As noted, a 3D SoC device/IC chip stack may be formed by F2F bonding of vertically aligned semiconductor wafers that include an array of IC chips on each wafer, where bonded 3D IC chips may be separated from each other through dicing lanes between adjacent bonded 3D IC chips. A current industry approach for 3D SoC devices includes wafer bonding in a F2F configuration, where TSVs are etched into one of the wafers (e.g., bottom wafer) after the bonding is completed (TSV-last approach). However, a TSV-last approach requires sophisticated alignment, design and process techniques. Also, the TSV structures and quality in a 3D SoC device using a TSV-last approach may be negatively impacted as etching of a TSV from the backside of an IC substrate may be difficult, e.g., causing a "blowout" when reaching the TSV contact point.
A need therefore exists for a methodology enabling integration of TSVs in a 3D SoC device prior to BEOL processes.

Method and process for integration of TSV-middle in 3D IC stacks


This invention relates to a nutritional formulation comprising an n3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acid (LC-PUFA), a prebiotic fiber and a probiotic bacterial strain which ingredients act together in a synergistic fashion to promote catch-up growth in young mammals whose growth has been retarded because the young mammal has been subjected to physical or mental stress.

It has been recognised for many years that the growth pattern of young mammals who suffer stress whether as a result of physical illness or injury or psychological trauma is often interrupted. If the young mammal makes a swift recovery and adequate nutrition is available, it may then compensate for the growth which should have taken place during the period of stress and this sudden spurt of growth is known as "catch up growth". However, this does not always happen. For example, the young mammal may suffer from anorexia both during the illness or trauma and in its immediate aftermath and food intake may therefore be limited. In severe cases it may be that the animal never attains the physical stature that it would have reached had the stress not been suffered.
This phenomenon may be seen in young mammals including humans from infancy throughout the period in their lives during which they are still growing. Although it is desirable to ensure that reduced growth during periods of physical or mental stress is compensated, it is also important that catch up growth should not be excessive as there are indications that periods of very rapid and/or very extensive catch up growth particularly during infancy may be linked with a risk of future obesity.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a formulation suitable to promote optimal catch up growth in young mammals which have been subject to physical or mental stress.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Nutritional formulation for promoting catch-up growth


A wheel assembly for use on a race car. The wheel includes a center piece having an outer portion adapted for attachment to a rim portion of the wheel, a hub portion adapted for engagement with an axle of a race car for mutual rotation therewith, and a transitional portion integrally interconnecting said outer portion and said hub portion. The hub portion is axially offset from the outer portion in a direction toward the axle. In one embodiment, the transitional portion includes a radiused transition area between the outer portion and the hub portion. In a second embodiment, the transitional portion includes an arcuate member extending from the outer portion to a substantially axially centered area on the hub portion. Radially extending webs may be provided for reinforcement between the hub portion and the outer portion. One of the disc and transitional portions defines a plurality of lightning holes therethrough.

1. Field Of The Invention
This invention relates to race car wheels, and more particularly, to a multi-piece race car wheel having a center portion with an integrally formed hub thereon.
2. Description Of The Prior Art
In the field of automobile racing, a major consideration in the design of any portion of the racing vehicle, including the wheels, is to reduce weight while maintaining adequate strength to avoid failure during competition. Single piece, cast wheels of aluminum and magnesium alloys have been developed to provide a strong, relatively lightweight wheel. However, such cast structures necessarily require large cross-sectional thicknesses to meet strength requirements or casting process requirements, or both. Thus, while such wheels are made of lightweight material, they may not be as light as desirable because of the large thicknesses and the resulting increased material therein.
A lighter weight alternative to single piece cast wheels has been developed for race cars of the type generally referred to as "dirt track racers". Such vehicles are generally driven on relatively short, oval-shaped dirt tracks. During cornering in a race, the driver places the car into a controlled slide or "drift", literally sliding around the entire end of the oval track. Obviously, such cornering techniques place great stress on the wheel structure.
One prior art wheel includes two outer rim portions attached to a dished, centered piece. The centered piece is positioned adjacent to a separate hub which fits on the vehicle axle. On the opposite side of the dished center piece is a ring-like backup plate. The hub has a splined engagement with the axle. A knock-off cap holds the entire assembly in place on the axle.
This prior art wheel has an advantage in that the tire, rim portions and center piece may be detached from the hub while the hub is still on the vehicle in the event that the hub becomes jammed on the axle. This makes later removal of the hub easier because greater access to the hub is provided. However, a great disadvantage to this wheel is that the number of pieces necessarily increases the weight. In the highly competitive world of auto racing, reduced weight becomes a primary consideration over ease of repair or cost.
The race car wheel of the present invention solves this problem and provides a lighter weight wheel by using a single center portion which is attachable to outer rim portions. The center portion has a hub integrally formed therein and offset as necessary with respect to the rim portions.


An ultrasonic atomizer utilizing surface acoustic waves is disclosed. The atomizer comprises an oscillator (11) generating surface acoustic waves, and a porous thin plate (12a) having a number of through holes arranged on n oscillating surface of the oscillator with a small clearance. A liquid (19) in a liquid container (18) is aspirated into the small clearance part between the oscillator and the porous thin plate by vibration by the surface acoustic waves or by capillarity. Vibration of the surface acoustic waves is transmitted to the porous thin plate (12a) through the liquid in the small clearance part, and a small quantity of liquid penetrating into holes of this thin plate is atomized by the vibration and sprayed to the exterior. According to this atomizer, it is possible to perform atomization by employing a battery of small power, and the balance between the supply quantity of the liquid and the atomization quantity can be kept excellent.

An atomizer employing surface acoustic waves is described in "Surface Acoustic Wave Atomizer with Pumping Effect" of Proceedings of 8.sup.th IEEE International Workshop on Micro Electrictro Mechanical Systems 30 Jan.-2 February 1995 Amsterdam, The Netherlands, in detail. FIG. 1 illustrates the atomizer which has been described in this literature. The atomizer comprises an oscillator 3 having a pair of interdigital electrodes 5 and 5 on its surface for generating surface acoustic waves, a cover 4 arranged on the oscillating surface side of the oscillator 3, and a tube 1. A liquid 2 to be atomized passes through the tube 1 as shown by arrow A, to be supplied into a clearance between the oscillator 3 and the cover 4. The liquid 2 flowing out from the clearance between the oscillator 3 and the cover 4 is atomized and sprayed by surface acoustic wave vibration.
In the atomizer shown in FIG. 1, various problems arise when the liquid supply quantity and the atomization quantity are unbalanced. If the liquid supply quantity is excessive, an overflow takes place and the atomization may stop. If the liquid supply quantity is insufficient, on the other hand, the atomization becomes so intermittent that continuous and smooth atomization cannot be attained. Further, high electric energy is required for atomizing and spraying the liquid with only vibration of surface acoustic waves, and it is difficult to perform a desired operation with driving by a battery of small power.

Atomizer and atomizing method utilizing surface acoustic wave


Provided are a storage device, a storage system, and a method of operating the same. A storage device communicably connected to a host may include a non-volatile memory configured to store at least one piece of boot data necessary for booting the storage device; and a device controller configured to receive an interface initialize command (IFIC) from the host, predict requested boot data requested by the host from among the at least one piece of boot data based on the IFIC, and control the non-volatile memory to read the requested boot data.

The inventive concept relates to a storage device, a storage system, and a method of operating the same, and more particularly, to a storage device capable of reducing time for booting a host.
A storage system includes a host and a storage device. The host and the storage device are connected to each other via one of various interface standards, such as universal flash storage (UFS), serial ATA (SATA), small computer system interface (SCSI), serial attached SCSI (SAS), and embedded MMC (eMMC). Booting is performed in order for the host and the storage device to normally communicate with each other. To this end, boot data needs to be transferred from the storage device to the host.

Storage device, storage system and method of operating the same


The present invention reduces a difference in speed between a main drop section and a tailing section of a ejected ink droplet by heating a front heater and a rear heater provided for one nozzle with a predetermined time lag and thus, the ink dot formed from the main drop section and the tailing section on a printing medium can be more approximate to a circle. Thereby, it is possible to prevent print quality from being degraded by the tailing section separated from the main drop section of the ink droplet ejected from an ink jet printing apparatus of serial type.

This application is based on Patent Application No. 10-306192 filed on Oct. 27, 1998 in Japan, the content of which is incorporated hereinto by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet printing apparatus and an ink jet printing method and particularly, to an ink jet printing apparatus and an ink jet printing method using a print head in which a plurality of electro-thermal transforming elements are provided for each ink ejection opening and are adapted to be independently driven.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There have been provided an ink jet print head in which a plurality of electro-thermal transforming elements are provided in an ink passage communicating with an ink ejection opening and are individually driven, and a printing apparatus which uses such a print head, by the assignee of the present application. Such a print head has, for example, two independently driveable electro-thermal transforming elements in each of ink passages and generates bubbles in ink by utilizing thermal energy caused by driving the electro-thermal transforming elements so as to eject the ink by the pressure of the bubbles. Upon printing a low-density part of an image, one of the two electro-thermal transforming elements is driven to eject an ink droplet for forming the low-density part of an image. For a high-density part of the image, the two electro-thermal transforming elements are driven to eject an ink droplet for forming the high-density part of the image. Thus, printing having more gradation levels is performed so that images of photograph quality can be formed. Further, since the printing apparatus can form the image with the ink droplet ejected by driving these two electro-thermal transforming elements when forming the image such as a character, such an image can be formed with relatively large ink dots. As a result, printing can be performed at a resolution similar to that of printing that is originally performed at a low resolution; thereby, high speed printing can be accomplished.
In connection with a configuration having the plurality of electro-thermal transforming elements in each ink passage as described above, it has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 55-132259 (1980) that gradation printing can be performed by varying generation timings of respective bubbles by the driving of the respective two electro-thermal transforming elements in the ink passage and changing amount of the respective ejected ink droplets.
Driving means which drives two electrothermal elements with a time lag (delay) of a slight amount for stable ejection of ink has been also disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 10-071718 (1998) by the inventors of the present application.
However, in the ink jet printing apparatus of serial scan type in which printing (printing scan) is performed by reciprocating the print head relative to a printing medium and in which the plurality of electro-thermal transforming elements are driven for ejection of ink as described above, the following problems may occur, for example, when the apparatus has a plurality of ink ejection modes which have different ejection amounts of ink from each other.
In order to obtain an appropriate landing accuracy of the ejected ink in the ink ejection mode of small ejection amount, it is desirable that an ejection speed is faster than a predetermined value, for example, approximately 8 m/sec. As a configuration to achieve this ejection speed, it may be considered that a cross section of the ejection opening is made smaller. On the other hand, for the print head having such an ejection opening of smaller cross section, when all of the plurality of electro-thermal transforming elements provided for one ejection opening are simultaneously driven, a relatively large ejection speed, for example, approximately 18 m/sec, can be achieved. Furthermore, in this case, a flying ink droplet can take a shape as shown in FIG. 1 for the case of xe2x80x9csimultaneous heatxe2x80x9d. More specifically, when the plurality of electro-thermal transforming elements are simultaneously driven, both a main droplet section of the ejected ink and a tailing section ejected in a trailed manner by the main droplet fly at noticeably large speeds and a difference between these speeds becomes noticeably large. The serial scan type printing apparatus, which scans the print head ejecting such ink droplet to the printing medium to perform printing, forms ink dots on the printing medium as shown in, for example, FIG. 2A. In FIGS. 2A through 2D, an arrow denotes a scanning direction of the print head, and a large dot is formed with the main drop section of the ejected ink and a small dot is formed with the tailing section of the ejected ink.
A reason why the dot from the main drop section and that from the tailing section are formed in a deviation manner from each other will be described below with reference to FIG. 3. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the respective ejection of the main drop section and the tailing section from the print head and their landing positions on the printing medium. In this figure, the print head moves in the direction shown by an arrow Vcr at a speed Vcr. A distance between the printing medium and the ejection opening of the print head is denoted as d. Also, the ejection speed of the main drop section is denoted as Vm, the ejection angle with respect to the vertical direction of the printing medium is denoted as xcex8, and a distance in a head moving direction from the ejection start position of the main drop section to the landing position on the printing medium is denoted as Dm. In this case, the ejection angle of the tailing section is also denoted as xcex8, but the distance in the head moving direction from the ejection start position to the landing position is denoted as Dt and the ejection speed is denoted as Vt for the tailing section. Further, when time between the ejection of the main drop section from the ejection opening and the ejection of the tailing section from the ejection opening is denoted as xcex94Td, the distance xcex94Dd over which the print head moves during the time xcex94Td is expressed as follows:
xcex94Dd=Vcrxc3x97xcex94Tdxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1)
From the foregoing, time Tm between the ejection start of the main drop section and its landing is expressed as follows:
Tm=d/(Vmxc3x97cos xcex8)xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(2)
Also, the distance Dm is expressed as follows:
Dm=(Vcr+Vmxc3x97sin xcex8)xc3x97Tmxe2x80x83xe2x80x83(3)
From the equations (2) and (3), the following equation is obtained:
Dm=dxc3x97(Vcr/Vm+sin xcex8)/cos xcex8xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(4)
Similarly, the distance Dt in the head moving direction from the ejection start position of the tailing section to the landing position is expressed as follows:
Dt=dxc3x97(Vcr/Vt+sin xcex8)/cos xcex8xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(5)
From the foregoing, the distance xcex94D between the landing points of the main drop section and the tailing section is expressed as follows:
xcex94D=Dt+(xcex94Ddxe2x88x92Dm)xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(6)
From the equations (1), (4), (5), and (6), the following equation is obtained:
xcex94D=Vcrxc3x97{(d/Vtxe2x88x92d/Vm)/cos xcex8+xcex94Td}xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(7)
From this equation, the following can be seen.
At the higher speed the print head moves, the larger the distance xcex94D becomes. The term (d/Vtxe2x88x92d/Vm) in the equation indicates that, when the larger the difference between the respective flying times of the main drop section and the tailing section is, the larger the distance xcex94D becomes. That is, when the larger the difference between the respective ejection speeds of the main drop section and the tailing section is, the larger the distance xcex94D becomes. Further, when the larger the distance d between the printing medium and the ejection opening of the print head is, the larger the distance xcex94D becomes.
When the ejection angle xcex8 meets the condition: |xcex8| less than 15 [deg], any possible effects of the ejection direction may be usually ignored because 1/cos xcex8 is what has a value of (1 less than ) 1/cos xcex8 less than 1.04. An example of measurements taken by the present inventors for the plurality of electro-thermal transforming elements (hereinafter simply referred to as a xe2x80x9cheaterxe2x80x9d) driven simultaneously are as follows:
Vm=18 m/sec
Vt=8 m/sec
xcex94Td=28 xcexcsec
xcex8=15 deg
In this case, when the print head is moved at the speed of Vcr=0.508 m/sec and the distance between the printing medium and the ejection opening of the print head is d=1.9 mm, the following distance xcex94D is obtained:
xcex94D=81 xcexcm.
When performing printing at a dot density of 360 dpi, the print head is designed so that the dot diameter becomes approximately 100 xcexcm. The print head used for the measurement example described above also forms dots of approximately 100 xcexcm across. That is, the dot radius is 50 xcexcm, and therefore, when the distance xcex94D between the landing points of the main drop section and the tailing section is 81 xcexcm, the dot from the tailing section is formed outside another dot from the main drop section.
When a printing image is formed with dots having such a shape, the dots from the tailing sections are formed ahead of a line image of the main dots in the scanning direction of the print head (the arrow in the figure) as shown in FIG. 4 and the resulting image may have a front edge which appears blurred as compared with a rear edge of the printing image in the scanning direction. As a result, the print quality may degrade.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an ink jet printing apparatus and an ink jet printing method which can prevent any degradation in print quality from being caused by dots formed of tailing sections of an ejected ink.
In a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink jet printing apparatus for using a print head which has a plurality of electro-thermal transforming elements provided for one nozzle and generates a bubble by utilizing thermal energy caused by driving the plurality of electro-thermal transforming elements to eject ink and for performing printing onto a printing medium by ejecting the ink from the print head, the apparatus comprising:
scanning means for scanning the print head relative to the printing medium; and
driving means for driving the plurality of electro-thermal transforming elements of the print head to eject ink from the nozzle while the scanning means scans the print head, the plurality of electro-thermal elements being driven at different timings to eject the ink so as to form a dot more approximate circular shape than that formed with the ink ejected by driving the plurality of electro-thermal transforming elements simultaneously.
In a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an ink jet printing method for using a print head which has a plurality of electro-thermal transforming elements provided for one nozzle and generates a bubble by utilizing thermal energy caused by driving the plurality of electro-thermal transforming elements to eject ink and for performing printing onto a printing medium by ejecting the ink from the print head, the method comprising the steps of:
scanning the print head relative to the printing medium; and
driving the plurality of electro-thermal transforming elements of the print head to eject ink from the nozzle while the scanning step scans the print head, the plurality of electro-thermal elements being driven at different timings to eject the ink so as to form a dot more approximate circular shape than that formed with the ink ejected by driving the plurality of electro-thermal transforming elements simultaneously.
According to the configuration described above, a plurality of electro-thermal transforming elements provided for one ejection opening are driven at different timings from each other so that a dot formed with an ink ejected by driving them may be more approximate to a circular shape than a dot formed by driving them simultaneously. More specifically, when an ink droplet is separated into a main drop section and a tailing section through such an ink ejection caused by driving the plurality of electro-thermal transforming elements with a time lag, the dot formed from the tailing section can be made closer to another dot formed from the main drop section on the printing medium and the combined dots are more approximate a circular shape as a whole.
The above and other objects, effects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of embodiments thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Ink jet printing apparatus and ink jet printing method


An unstacker device for unstacking flat objects comprises a motor-driven feed magazine controlled so as to move flat objects in a stack and on edge facing an unstacking head provided with a motor-driven drive having a perforated belt and a suction chamber, which motor driven drive is actuated so as to separate a current first object from the stack and so as to eject it in a direction that is transverse to the direction in which the stack of flat objects is moved, in which device the motor-driven drive is actuated and stopped each time a current object is unstacked, and the stack of flat objects is straightened up in the magazine in response to detection of signals delivered by a plurality of sensors disposed in the unstacking head. The sensors are disposed in the unstacking head in a manner such as to deliver signals indicating that the current object is presented appropriately relative to the unstacking head, and the drive of the unstacking head is actuated if the signals indicate that the current object is presented appropriately.

The invention relates more particularly to a device for unstacking postal items, such as letters and large-format flat objects or "flats", in a postal sorting machine, for example.
Patent Document FR 2 797 856 discloses a device for unstacking postal items that is provided with a main magazine 1 having a belt. As shown in FIG. 1, the main magazine 1 comprises, in particular, a motor-driven conveyor belt 2 on which an operator disposes the postal items 3 in a stack and on edge, and a paddle 4 that is also motor-driven, that extends in a substantially vertical plane, and that is moved so as to push the back of the stack in the direction indicated by the arrow 6 facing the unstacking head 5.
The postal items in the stack are held laterally by a jogger edge 7 that extends in a substantially vertical plane along one edge of the conveyor belt 2. The substantially plane unstacking head 5 extends in a vertical plane that is transverse to the direction that is indicated by the arrow 6 and in which the stack of postal items 3 moves on the conveyor belt 2, and said unstacking head is suitable for separating the current first postal item at the front of the stack in the transverse direction indicated by the arrow 8 that is perpendicular to the arrow 6.
The unstacking head 5 is provided with two substantially rectangular openings in which a perforated belt 9 and one or more suction chambers or suction nozzles (not shown) are driven by motors, which openings co-operate to take hold of the first postal item in the stack by suction and to move it in the direction indicated by the arrow 8.
In operation, the stack of postal items 3 disposed in the main magazine 1 is moved by the stepper-type motor-driven drives of the conveyor belt 2 and of the paddle 4, which drives are actuated at the same speed. The first postal item at the front of the stack of postal items is thus brought into abutment against the unstacking head 5 so that that current postal item of the stack is caused to bear against the unstacking head 5 and is separated from the stack by the combined effect of the suction from the nozzles and of the movement of the perforated belt 9. The postal item is then nipped between two deformable wheels 10 disposed in alignment with the head 5. Said wheels 10 are motor-driven so as to propel the current postal item downstream from the unstacker device. They are made of an elastically deformable elastomer material so that they are suitable for adapting to accommodate various thicknesses of postal item.
For the remainder of the sorting process, it is necessary for the postal items to be put into series on exiting from the unstacker device with a constant pitch between consecutive postal items. The drives of the perforated belt 9 and of the suction nozzles are thus actuated and stopped at a constant rate.
That processes of unstacking is repeated as another postal item at the front of the stack is presented facing the unstacking head 5.
In the device of Document FR 2 797 856, the postal items from the stack are put into series continuously, i.e. at a constant unstacking rate.
In general in a postal sorting machine, the postal items exiting from the unstacker are conveyed in series and on edge so as to be taken past a read head. The read head acquires an image of each postal item in the series for the purpose of automatically decoding the inward sorting or outward sorting address of the postal item by means of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) processing. The postal items are then directed to the sorting outlets corresponding to the automatically decoded addresses.
In that type of unstacker device it has been observed that a significant proportion of postal items are not appropriately presented facing the unstacking head while they are being unstacked and might therefore be damaged or torn, e.g. on being engaged by the wheels 10. Such postal items might even cause a jam in the unstacker device, requiring a maintenance operator to take action and the unstacker device to be stopped. Such action is costly and slows down the overall sorting process. Such a situation can be particularly frequent with open postal items of the advertising brochure type or of the magazine type, etc.
Patent Document EP 0 562 954 presents a solution to that problem. In that document, the feed device of the unstacker is similar to the above-described device but further comprises a motor-driven drop-forming feed. The motor-driven drop-forming feed is disposed between the conveyor belt and the unstacking head. The effect of the presence of said motor-driven drop-forming feed is to fan out some of the first postal items (those postal items that are in the drop-forming feed), thereby resulting in the first postal item at the front of the stack being parted from the other postal items and thus finding it easier to be presented appropriately against the unstacking head 5.
In Document EP 0 562 954, presence sensors are provided that are disposed so as to detect a certain inclination of fanning of the postal items in the drop-forming feed and also so as to detect the level of filling of the drop-forming feed. In response to the signals delivered by the sensors, the motor-driven drop-forming feed and/or the conveyor belt are actuated so as to fill the drop-forming feed and/or so as to incline the postal items appropriately.
However, the above-indicated features do not completely eliminate situations in which the postal items are damaged or situations in which a jam forms in the unstacker device, e.g. when very flexible postal items tend to collapse in the drop-forming feed.
Patent Document WO 2005/042386 describes a postal item unstacker device of the "shingler" type that is provided with a main magazine comprising a main conveyor belt and a paddle, and a secondary conveyor belt disposed between the main conveyor belt and the unstacking head. The unstacking head includes a belt having a motor-driven drive that is actuated so as to separate a current first postal item from the stack and so as to eject said postal item in a direction that is transverse to the direction of movement of the postal items. In an unstacker device of the shingler type, the belt of the unstacking head does not co-operate with a suction chamber since the postal items are displaced one on another so as to form a shingle pattern during the unstacking process.
In Document WO 2005/042386, sensors disposed in the unstacking head make it possible to detect the inclination of the current postal item to be unstacked and, in response to the signals delivered by its sensors, the main conveyor belt, the paddle, or the secondary conveyor belt are controlled so as to correct the inclination. In addition, the motor-driven drive of the unstacking head is actuated and stopped in a manner such as to obtain a constant pitch between postal items at the outlet of the unstacker device.
With the device of Document WO 2005/042386, postal item damage situations or jam situations are still too many.
Document US 2002/153654 also discloses a device for unstacking flat objects with presentation control means for controlling how the objects are presented facing an unstacking head, that device being provided with one or two sensors disposed in the unstacking head. Said control means stop the unstacking head when the one or two sensors determine inappropriate presentation of an object. Unstacking of said object is actuated when the presentation of the object becomes appropriate, after the presentation of the object has been corrected. However, with that device, an unacceptable number of postal items are damaged and jam situations are frequent.

Device for unstacking postal items with optimized management of unstacking conditions


A method, apparatus, and system are provided for implementing a zero-enabled fuse system. An apparatus includes a first set of fuses for activating a first memory portion, and a second set of fuses for activating a second memory portion. The apparatus also includes a controller to control an operation of the first and second set of fuses. The controller is adapted to determine whether a zero address memory location relating to the first memory portion is to be activated based upon an enable fuse. The controller is adapted to also perform a check to determine whether the second set of fuses has been previously activated.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a semiconductor memory device, and, more specifically, to provide a zero-enabled fuse-set to effectuate a reduced number of fuses in a semiconductor memory device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Modern integrated circuit devices are comprised of millions of semiconductor devices, e.g., transistors, formed above a semiconductor substrate, such as silicon. These devices are very densely packed, i.e., there is little space between them. Similarly densely packed electrically conducting lines may also be formed in the semiconductor substrate. By forming selected electrical connections between selected semiconductor devices and selected conducting lines, circuits capable of performing complex functions may be created. For example, bits of data may be stored by providing electrical current to a plurality of bit lines and an orthogonal plurality of word lines that may be electrically coupled to one or more capacitors in a semiconductor memory.
The semiconductor memory may be a dynamic random access memory, a flash memory, and the like. The semiconductor memory typically comprises an array of memory cells, address decoding circuitry for selecting one, or a group, of the memory cells for reading or writing data, sensing circuitry for detecting the digital state of the selected memory cell or memory cells, and input/output lines to receive the sensed data and convey that information for eventual output from the semiconductor memory. In many cases, the array of memory cells will be sub-divided into several sub-arrays, or subsets, of the complete collection of memory cells. For example, a semiconductor memory having 16 megabits (224 bits) of storage capacity may be divided into 64 sub-arrays, each having 256K (218) memory cells.
Flash memory (sometimes called "flash RAM") is a type of non-volatile memory that can be erased and reprogrammed in units of memory called blocks. Other types of memory may be erased and rewritten in smaller units, such as units at the byte level, which is more flexible, but slower than the block operations of flash memory. Flash memory is commonly used to hold control code such as the basic input/output system (BIOS) in a personal computer. When BIOS needs to be changed (rewritten), the flash memory can be written in block (rather than byte) sizes, making it faster to update. Applications employing flash memory include digital cellular phones, digital cameras, LAN switches, computers, digital set-up boxes, embedded controllers, and other devices.
In various semiconductor devices such as memory devices, redundant elements are generally implemented for activation of these elements under certain conditions. For example, during testing or quality analysis performed on a device, various portions of the device may be found to have defects. Often, certain devices may have a limited number of defects wherein if a substantially small number of the defects are corrected, the memory device may not have to be scrapped, thereby enhancing yield during production of semiconductor devices. Memory devices are generally manufactured to have redundant memory elements that correspond to primary memory elements. In the event that a primary memory element is found to be defective, a corresponding redundant element is invoked for correcting the defect.
Generally, a dedicated match circuit is assigned for each of the redundant elements in a device. For example, a dedicated match circuit may exist for both the redundant row and the redundant column corresponding to memory locations in the memory device. These match circuits, which are designed to perform decoding of memory locations, may have spare elements, each of which may require associated fuse banks to enable the element during a repair procedure. State-of-the-art implementation of redundant elements generally involves matching addresses, where enable bits relating to the redundant elements are stored as discreet fuses within a fuse bank. Each fuse in the fuse bank may be dedicated to a corresponding redundant element. Each fuse bank defines the element match address in a binary form with a fixed number of fuses. Each fuse bank also contains one additional fuse to enable the bank to match a predetermined repair and memory address in a primary array of memory.
One problem with state-of-the-art redundancy systems includes the fact that a plurality of storage fuses are used to uniquely associate a given fuse bank with its repair address. These additional fuse elements call for the use of larger than desired use of semiconductor real estate. Additionally, each fuse may consume a finite amount of current. Therefore, state-of-the-art redundancy systems call for an inefficient amount of current usage and device layout real estate. For example, in a memory device of one gigabyte, implementation of state-of-the-art fuse bank systems call for an extra fuse (i.e., enable fuse) for each fuse bank. For example, for a group of 2000 fuse banks, the state-of-the-art fuse bank systems call for an additional 2000 extra fuses. This causes a use of undesirable amount of space that is required to accommodate the extra fuses, as well as adverse power consumption effects.
The present invention is directed to overcoming, or at least reducing, the effects of, one or more of the problems set forth above.


An apparatus for changing a characteristic of fabric comprising a first member and a second member pivotally connected to said first member wherein at least one of the first and the second member are able to be heated and to provide heat to a plurality of types of fabrics. When a respective fabric is positioned between the first and second member and the heatable means contacts a surface of the fabric and changes a condition of the fabric.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to irons and, more specifically, to a portable iron that does not require the use of an ironing board. A dual iron device includes two hingedly attached members where at least one member provides heat to iron fabric. The members are hard flat surfaces to replace the need for an ironing board. Additionally the members pivot about the hinge so that they are in the same plane wherein the device can be used to steam fabric.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are other heating device designed for ironing. Typical of these is U.S. Pat. No. 2,748,511 issued to Pezza on Jun. 5, 1956.
Another patent was issued to Vance, et al. on Sep. 18, 1956 as U.S. Pat. No. 2,763,075. Yet another U.S. Pat. No. 2,849,736 was issued to Kohle on Sep. 2, 1958 and still yet another was issued on Jan. 28, 1969 to Mitchell as U.S. Pat. No. 3,423,966.
Another patent was issued to Osrow on Sep. 12, 1972 as U.S. Pat. No. 3,690,024. Yet another U.S. Pat. No. 3,703,042 was issued to Smith on Nov. 21, 1972 Another was issued to Anderson on Dec. 19, 1972 as U.S. Pat. No. 3,706,146 and still yet another was issued on Jul. 3, 1973 to Plasko as U.S. Pat. No. 3,742,629.
Another patent was issued to Hagen on Feb. 5, 1974 as U.S. Pat. No. 3,790,043. Yet another U.S. Pat. No. 3,793,753 was issued to Engelbart on Feb. 26, 1974. Another was issued to Vieceli, et al. on May 21, 1974 as U.S. Pat. No. 3,811,208 and still yet another was issued on Dec. 14, 1976 to Osrow, et al. as U.S. Pat. No. 3,997,759.
Another patent was issued to Osrow, et al. on Jun. 3, 1980 as U.S. Pat. No. 4,206,340. Yet another U.S. Pat. No. 4,571,483 was issued to Fathi on Feb. 18, 1986. Another was issued to Schawbel, et al. on Mar. 28, 1989 as U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,441 and still yet another was issued on Apr. 4, 1989 to Frank as U.S. Pat. No. 4,817,309.
Another patent was issued to Tabraham on Jun. 23, 1992 as U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,266. Yet another U.S. Pat. No. 5,341,541 was issued to Sham on Aug. 30, 1994. Another was issued to Walker on May 30, 1995 as U.S. Pat. No. 5,420,961 and still yet another was issued on Mar. 11, 1997 to Hellman, Jr., et al. as U.S. Pat. No. 5,609,047.
Another patent was issued to Farley on Jul. 29, 1997 as U.S. Pat. No. 5,651,201. Yet another U.S. Pat. No. 6,032,391 was issued to Yao on Mar. 7, 2000. Another was issued to Burr, et al. on Sep. 5, 2000 as U.S. Pat. No. 6,112,367 and still yet another was issued on Feb. 20, 2001 to Smal as U.S. Pat. No. 6,191,387.
Another patent was issued to Muller on Aug. 13, 1991 as U.S. Patent No. Des. 319,121. Yet another U.S. Patent No. Des. 376,232 was issued to Villar on Dec. 3, 1996. Another was issued to Gudefin, et al. on Dec. 30, 1997 as U.S. Patent No. Des. 388,576 and still yet another was issued on Jul. 24, 2001 to Hirata as U.S. Patent No. D445,540.
Another patent was issued to Marbury on Dec. 10, 2002 as U.S. Patent No. D467,051. Yet another U.S. Patent Application No. 2003/0070331 was issued to Chen on Apr. 17, 2003. Another was issued to Tobias on Feb. 10, 2005 as U.S. Patent Application No. 2005/0028408 and still yet another was issued on Aug. 8, 1996 to Galliou as International Patent Application No. WO 96/24233.