A fluorine-containing polyether compound, a lubricant, and a magnetic recording medium comprising the lubricant.

Improvement of magnetic recording density of magnetic recording media, such as tapes, cards, discs has been requested more and more leading to severe sliding conditions between a magnetic recording head and a magnetic face. Specifically, a decrease of distance between a magnetic recording head and a magnetic recording face, or an increase of sliding rate occurs leading to requirement of improved performance of lubricants applied to the surface of magnetic recording medium from the viewpoint of duration and utility.
Previously, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,715,378 discloses perfluoroethers as lubricants applied to magnetic recording media.
The perfluoropolyethers are excellent lubricants because of superior properties of heat-resistance, chemical inactivity and low vapor pressure. However, the perfluoropolyethers alone are inferior in adsorptivity to a medium which makes it difficult to employ the perfluoropolyethers by itself as a lubricant for magnetic recording medium.
Attempts of converting terminals of perfluoropolyethers into polar groups by the action of which perfluoropolyether lubricants were adhered to a base medium were carried out so as to improve an adsorptivity of the lubricants to the medium (see, U.S. Pat. No. 4,267,238; U.S. Pat. No. 4,268,556; and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 61-4727).
Lubricants comprising perfluoroalkylpolyethers having polar groups at terminals are adhered to a medium by the action of the polar groups and maintain lubricating properties by perfluoropolyoxy-alkylene chain elongated therefrom.
However, requests for significant improvement of magnetic recording density lead to higher requests for improvement of lubricating properties of lubricant for use in magnetic recording medium. Under these circumstances, even perfluoropolyethers with polar groups are not practically enough in lubricating properties and durability.
It is an object of the invention to provide a lubricant for magnetic recording medium imparting good lubricating properties to magnetic recording medium and a fluorine-containing compound useful as said lubricant.

Fluorine-containing compounds and use thereof


A method for preparing fluoroalkylsulfonyl imides by reacting a fluoroalkylsulfonamide with a fluoroalkylsulfonyl halide or a fluorosulfonyl halide in the presence of a non-nucleophilic base. One reaction is: EQU Z--R.sub.f --SO.sub.2 NH.sub.2 +Z--R'.sub.f --SO.sub.2 --X+2B(Z--R.sub.f --SO.sub.2)(Z--R'.sub.f --SO.sub.2)N.sup.-.BH.sup.+ +BHX,. where each Z is a fluorine atom or a polymerizable organic functional group, R.sub.f and R'.sub.f are fluoroalkylene groups optionally containing catenary oxygen or nitrogen, X is a halogen atom, and B is a non-nucleophilic base.. Unsymmetrical imides and polymeric imides can be prepared.

Bis(Fluoroalkylsulfonyl)imides, (fluoroalkylsulfonyl)(fluorosulfonyl)imides and derivatives thereof are known to be useful in many chemical processes and formulations. In solution, the imides behave as strong acids due to the presence of the electron-withdrawing fluoroalkylsulfonyl or fluorosulfonyl groups and exhibit exceptional stability under a variety of conditions. These compounds have been found to be useful, for example, as fuel cell electrolytes, as esterification catalysts and as polymerization catalysts for cationically-sensitive monomers such as epoxy resins.
The salts of bis(fluoroalkylsulfonyl)imides and (fluoroalkylsulfonyl)(fluorosulfonyl)imides have been found useful as electrolytes in advanced high voltage batteries. In particular, lithium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (CF.sub.3 SO.sub.2).sub.2 N.sup.- Li.sup.+, shows excellent conductivity and stability, but can be corrosive toward aluminum. Certain higher homologues of this compound show comparable performance as battery electrolytes, and have decreased the corrosion toward aluminum.
There are several known methods for preparing some classes of bis(fluoroalkylsulfonyl)imides. Bis(perfluoroalkylsulfonyl)imides can be prepared by the reaction of an alkali metal salt of an N-trimethylsilyl perfluoroalkylsulfonamide with a perfluoroalkylsulfonyl fluoride in a polar organic solvent. This route requires several synthetic steps, with the isolation of intermediate compounds, and the overall yields are often low. A second method involves the reaction of an alkali metal salts of a perfluoroalkylsulfonamide with perfluoroalkylsulfonyl fluoride in a polar organic solvent. Here too, the yields are low. A third method involves reacting a perfluorinated sulfonic anhydride with urea and a sulfonic acid. The products of this reaction are then dissolved in water and the addition of tetrabutylammonium bromide precipitates the tetrabutylammonium imide. This method is not satisfactory for the large scale production of imides because the overall yields are low and the sulfonic anhydride precursors are not easily accessible. A fourth method of making metal salts of sulfonimides involves the reaction of a metal nitride with perfluoroalkyl sulfonyl halide. However this method cannot be used to make unsymmetrical imides and requires handling metal nitrides which are sensitive to air.
Thus there remains a need for an efficient method of preparing bis(fluoroalkylsulfonyl)imides, (fluoroalkylsulfonyl)(fluorosulfonyl)imides, and derivatives thereof.

Preparation of bis (fluoroalkylenesulfonyl) imides and (fluoroalkysulfony) (fluorosulfonyl) imides

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company


Program-controlled communications systems KA are connected with a service center SZ, and, in case of error, transmit error messages M to the service center SZ. The messages contain program-specific error information fi. Error information fi and allocated programs APSE provided for error removal are stored in the service center SZ. Through a comparison of the error information fi transmitted from the faulty communications system KA with the stored error information fi, the programs APSE provided for error removal can be determined. These programs APSE are thereupon transmitted to the faulty communications system KA, where they at least partly replace the previously used programs APS. The program change can ensue during on-going operation, if the transmitted programs APSE provided for error removal are stored in an additional memory ZSP and an at least partial switching over takes place to this additional memory ZSP. The error removal is considerably simplified by the method.

Program-controlled communications systems are arrangements for the setting up and tearing down communications connections from and to communications terminal devices that are connected to respective communications system. Program-controlled communications systems also support other performance features during or outside of a communications connection. These communications systems are usually connected with further communications systems via public or private networks. A communications system of this type is described in European letters patent EP 0 347 644 B1.
In such a communications system, one or several programs are used that have components for the initialization of the communications system and for controlling the functions of the communications system, as well as application-specific components. These programs are loaded into memories of the communications system and, together with the at least one processor module allocated to the respective communications system, bring about the predetermined sequence of functions of the communications system.
However, through errors in the programs used, as well as through errors due to incompatibility of different program versions or databases, there are sporadic disturbances in the operation of the communications system. These errors, referred to as software residual errors, can be allocated to one or several programs and can be removed by exchanging the one or several programs. Furthermore, errors caused by switching-oriented factors, or errors not removable through program replacement, may also appear. In the communications system, after each appearance of an error an error message is generated and logged.
Furthermore, it is generally known that upon appearance of an error a communications system sets up a connection to a service center, and an error message is transmitted to the service center. In this service center, which functions as a "clearing house," the error message is displayed, and a removal of the error is manually initiated by an operator. For the errors that can be removed by the replacement of at least one of the programs in use in the faulty communications system, this means that the programs provided for the removal of the error must be chosen and supplied to the communications system. Previously, this took place through an exchange of the memory disk on location, that is at the communications system. The effectiveness of this service center is dependent on the continuous presence of an operator, and has the further consequence of a delay of the error removal due to the reaction time of the operator and the introduction of the transmission of the program.

Method for removing program-related errors in program-controlled communications systems


A slider having a direction locating structure includes a foam board, a surface layer, a bottom layer, and a plurality of direction locating strips. Thus, the direction locating strips protruded outwardly from the bottom face of the bottom layer are inserted into the snowy, sandy or muddy ground during movement of the slider to provide a direction locating effect, so that the slider is moved forward linearly and stably by guidance of the direction locating strips.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a slider, and more particularly to a slider having a direction locating structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional slider in accordance with the prior art shown in FIG. 10 comprises a main board 7, a plastic plate 8 secured on a bottom of the main board 7, and a plurality of handgrips 9 mounted on a periphery of the main board 7 to facilitate a user holding the slider. However, when the slider is moved in the snowy, sandy or muddy ground, the travel direction of the slider is easily changed due to change of the user's center of gravity, so that the slider is moved forward unstably and the user easily falls down due to instability of the center of gravity, thereby causing inconvenience to the user in controlling the slider, and thereby causing danger to the user.

Slider having a direction locating structure


A semiconductor device and method of manufacturing a semiconductor device are provided. The semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate and a semiconductor layer located on the substrate; at least one shallow trench and at least one deep trench. Each of the at least one shallow trench and the at least one deep trench extending from a first major surface of the semiconductor layer. Sidewall regions and base regions of the trenches comprise a doped trench region and the trenches are at least partially filled with a conductive material contacting the doped region. The shallow trenches terminate in the semiconductor layer and the deep trench terminates in the semiconductor substrate.

Electrical surges such as electrical overstress or transient pulses are common causes of damage to electronic devices. To protect against such transient surges, electronic devices are conventionally protected by surge protection devices. Such devices provide protection against electrical overstress and are commonly used in portable/consumer electronic devices such as personal computers, audio and video equipment or mobile telephones.
In surge protection applications, discrete diodes are often used for dissipating unwanted energy and during a surge event they may be required to withstand high electrical currents and/or high electrical energies. Such discrete diodes are typically formed of a bipolar junction arranged in a bulk semiconductor material. Such devices may also include: a frame for mounting the bulk semiconductor material; bond wires or lead clips for contacting to contacts on the bulk semiconductor material.
Typically, diodes are realized with a so-called shallow diffusion area on the top of bulk semiconductor material, the doping of the bulk being opposite to that of the diffusion and the diffusion area contacted a metal. The other contact is usually a contact to the bulk. The bulk contact may either be on the same side of the crystal as shallow diffusion area or opposing the top of the bulk semiconductor material on the back of the crystal.
The maximum power dissipation capability of such a discrete diode is limited by the maximum current density at the junction of the discrete diode and the maximum power dissipation in the device is dependent on the serial resistances of the diode. Serial resistances of devices, are made up for example of lead frame resistances, bond wire or clip bond resistances, contact resistances and bulk semiconductor material resistance. In other words, the maximum current surge a device can drain to ground will be dependent on the area of the junction. That is, the ability to drain current to ground increases with the area of the semiconductor junction.
With diffusion and bulk contact on the same side of the crystal one frequently observes current crowding at the contact sides nearest to each other. Current crowding can lead to localised heating in the vicinity of the contacts which can result in thermal hot spots and thermal runaway, leading to catastrophic device failure.
Problematically, the maximum area of the semiconductor junction is limited by the size of the piece of semiconductor crystal. If a bigger area is needed then the semiconductor crystal size may be increased accordingly. However, the size of the semiconductor crystal may be limited due to package size, particularly for so-called chip scale packages, and/or cost constraints.
The bulk resistance is linearly dependent on the thickness of the semiconductor crystal (when a backside contact is used). Mechanical reasons such as eventual wafer strength limit the thinning of the crystal, so that typically the perpendicular distance between the thickness of the crystal is approximately 200 μm. To reduce the thickness of the semiconductor crystal and therefore the bulk resistance and thereby the serial resistance of the diode, doped substrates may be used. However, with doped substrates a low-doped epitaxial layer has to be deposited on top of the substrate before the diode diffusion is formed. This adds to the cost of the fabrication process.

Multi-trench semiconductor device and method of manufacture thereof


A connection element for producing a fluid-tight screw connection of a line, having a thread includes a thread groove, delimited by a thread base and neighboring thread flanks, a sealant situated in the thread groove at least over one complete revolution of the thread groove, and an adhesive bond being implemented between the sealant and the thread groove, wherein the sealant contains at least one material selected from the following group: silicones, fluoropolymers, in particular perfluoroalkoxypolymers, epoxide resins, and polyurethanes. The connection element can further be utilized in a pipe part and/or a valve.

Fluid-tight screw connections are necessary in manifold applications to prevent the escape of liquids or gases from a closed system. While flat seals or metallic sealing threads are partially used for this purpose, the use of thread seals is also frequently preferred in practice. The thread seals typically comprise hemp or Teflon and are wound around an external thread of the screw connection before the screwing together. The hemp fibers or the Teflon, which is used in the form of thin strips, reach the intermediate space between the external thread and the internal thread of the screw connection if correctly used and seal off this intermediate space in relation to a passage of gases or liquids.
The application of hemp or Teflon strips for sealing purposes is connected to a high time expenditure. In addition, even with extreme care, later leaks may not be precluded. Therefore, a connection element has been suggested in the prior art, whose external thread is coated using a polyamide layer. Thermoplastic sealants of this type, such as polyamide, have an array of disadvantages. One essential disadvantage is that the known sealants do not have permanent elasticity. The known sealants thus become brittle over time, so that they gradually lose their sealant properties. High temperatures or even large variations of the temperature, by which the sealant is alternately heated and cooled again, also favor the embrittlement of the sealant and thus the occurrence of leaks.
A further disadvantage affecting thermoplastic sealants in particular is that they are only usable up to a temperature of approximately 70° C. to 100° C. This temperature range is approximately coincident with the maximum permissible operating temperature of the most common line types in use. While the maximum operating temperatures of natural gas lines are at 70° C., the same temperatures are 95° C. for drinking water lines and 110° C. for heating pipes. Certainties for the functional capability of thermoplastic sealants therefore typically cannot be assumed for these and comparable applications.
A further disadvantage is the low mechanical carrying capacity of the sealants. Particularly lacquers or resins are easily damaged during transport or by incorrect handling. This also frequently results in leaks.
Moreover, the use of polyamide or epoxide resin as a sealant is limited to very specific applications.

Connection element for producing a fluid-tight screw connection, and method for the production thereof


A method of offloading compilation includes transmitting compilation information from a first subsystem to a second subsystem. The method also includes compiling computer program code into machine-executable code on the second subsystem based on the compilation information received from the first subsystem. The method further includes receiving the machine-executable code from the second subsystem into the first subsystem.

Typically, computing systems include a processor and a memory system. In some computing systems, the processor and memory system is relatively small and thus limits the capacity of the computing system to perform large computer processes, such as executing large computer programs or compiling a computer program. These computing systems are primarily intended to execute limited programs associated with their functionality. For example, a cellular phone executes a computer program associated with transmitting and receiving telephone calls and managing associated data, i.e. names and telephone numbers.
Some processes on computing systems are processor and memory intensive, often exceeding the capacity of the computing system or taking a considerable amount of time to complete the process. Therefore, improvements are desirable.

Method and system for accepting precompiled information


An apparatus generates an index including positions of morphemes included in a target text data and semantic attributes between the morphemes corresponding to the positions. The apparatus gives information including positions of morphemes included in an input query and semantic attributes between the morphemes corresponding to the positions to the query, and executes a retrieval on the target text data, based on the information given to the query and the index.

In recent years, an explosively increased amount of data of text has been stored in databases, and the importance of retrievals has been increased. A certain character string may be designated in a query to retrieve text. However, if there are many variations of an expression that the character string to be retrieved means, retrieval omissions may occur or irrelevant text may be retrieved.
In the following description, in a case where queries and text data pieces are Japanese, Japanese characters are used on an "as is" basis and the meaning thereof is added in parenthesis immediately after the Japanese characters as needed for the sake of convenience.
FIG. 30 is a diagram for explaining the existing condition of retrievals. As illustrated in Example 1, although "" (natural language) (one word)", "" (language) (one word), and "" (language processing) (one word) are character strings (such as composite words) having the same meaning as "" (natural language processing) (one word), they do not match in words. Therefore, even though "" (natural language), "" (language), or "" (language processing) is designated in a query and a retrieval in words is performed, "" (natural language processing) in a database does not hit. Also, "" (statistics translation) (two words), "" (statistic translation) (two words), "" (statistics machine translation) (two words) are character strings (such as composite words) having the same meaning as that of "" (statistic machine translation) (one word), but they do not match in words. Accordingly, when "" (statics translation) (two words), "" (statistic translation) (two words), or "" (statistic machine translation) (two words) is designated in a query for retrieval in words, "" (statistic machine translation) does not hit in a database.
On the other hand, as in Example 2, "" (language processing), "" (natural language processing), and "" (processing of natural language) are character strings of different variations having the same meaning. However, the character strings do not match in words. Accordingly, when "" (language processing) or "" (natural language processing) is designated in a query for retrieval in words, "" (processing of natural language) does not hit in a database. Also, "" (machine translation using statistics), "" (translation based on statistics), and "" (machine translation using statistics) are character strings of different variations having the same meaning. However, the character strings do not match in words. As a result, when "" (machine translation using statistics) or "" (translation based on statistics) is designated for a retrieval in words, "" (machine translation using statistics) does not hit in a database.
Against the existing condition of the retrieval illustrated in FIG. 30, a technology in the past divides a character string such as a composite word into words included in the character string and retrieves text data corresponding to a query based on combinations of the words. However, the technology in the past may retrieve a character string having a different meaning. In order to solve the issue, there are a technology in the past that uses a neighborhood retrieval and a technology in the past that uses a semantic analysis result for a retrieval.
FIG. 31 is a diagram for explaining a technology in the past that uses a neighborhood retrieval. According to this technology in the past, processing is performed in order of step S10 and step S11 to determine whether text 10a hits based on a condition designated in a query 15. When the text 10a hits to the condition designated in the query 15, the text 10a is text to be retrieved. As an example, it is assumed that " . . . " (In natural language processing, . . . ) is the text 10a to be compared.
The technology in the past in step S10 retrieves words included in the composite word in the character string "" (natural language processing) in the text 10a and divides the composite word into words to generate division data 10b. In the example illustrated in FIG. 31, "" (natural language processing) is divided into words "" (natural), "" (language), and "" (processing).
It is assumed that the query 15 is set as ("" near:2 "") AND ("" near:2 "") AND ("" near:2 ""). In this case, "first word near:N second word" is a condition indicating that the degree of neighborhood between the first word and the second word is equal to or lower than N. The degree of neighborhood between the first word and the second word indicates a difference value between an offset of the first word and an offset of the second word. For example, when the word "" is the first word in the division data 10b, the offsets of the words "" "", and "" are "1", "2", and "3", respectively.
In other words, for example, ("" near:2 "") in the query 15 is a condition indicating that the degree of neighborhood between the word "" and the word "" is equal to or lower than 2. ("" near:2 "") is a condition indicating that the degree of neighborhood between the word "" and the word "" is equal or lower than 2. ("" near:2 "") is a condition indicating that the degree of neighborhood between the word "" and the word "" is equal to or lower than 2. Because the conditions in the query 15 are defined with "AND", text satisfying all of the conditions is a retrieval target.
In the division data 10b, the degree of neighborhood between "" and "" is calculated as "the degree of neighborhood=2−1=1", which satisfies the condition ("" near:2 ""). In the division data 10b, the degree of neighborhood between "" and "" is calculated as "the degree of neighborhood=3−2=1", which satisfies the condition ("" near:2 ""). In the division data 10b, the degree of neighborhood between "" and "" is calculated as "the degree of neighborhood=3−1=2", which satisfies the condition ("" near:2 ""). In other words, for example, because the division data 10b satisfies the conditions indicated in the query 15, the text 10a is retrieved.
Next, the technology in the past will be described that uses a semantic analysis result for retrieval. The technology in the past includes a step of performing a retrieval by using words included in a composite word and a step of verifying the retrieved result based on a semantic structure and determining whether the retrieved result is text to be retrieved or not.
FIG. 32 is a diagram illustrating an example of a result of a semantic structure analysis according to the technology in the past. As illustrated in FIG. 32, a character string "" (natural language processing) is divided into words "" (natural), "" (language), and "" (processing) by a semantic structure analysis, and the words are associated by an arc from a node 20c corresponding to "" to a node 20b corresponding to "". The words are also associated by an arc from the node 20b to a node 20a corresponding to "". The term "arc" refers to information indicating a dependency between words. A character string "" (natural processing) is divided into words "" (natural) and "" (processing) by a semantic structure analysis, and the words are associated by an arc from a node 21b corresponding to "" to a node 21a corresponding to "".
A character string "" (language processing) is divided into words "" (language) and "" (processing), and the words are associated by an arc from a node 22b corresponding to "" to a node 22a corresponding to "". A character string "" (processing language) is divide into words "" (language) and "" (processing), and the words are associated by an arc from a node 23a corresponding to "" to a node 23b corresponding to "".
This technology in the past includes notational matching and semantic matching for performing retrieval as described with reference to FIG. 32 to suppress a retrieval of a character string having a different meaning from a character string to be retrieved.
Related techniques are disclosed in, for example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Nos. 11-203312, 2004-46438 and 2000-322449.

Effective retrieval of text data based on semantic attributes between morphemes


A method for producing a conductive oxide-deposited substrate including depositing a conductive oxide thin film over a substrate, subjecting the conductive oxide thin film to heat treatment by irradiating with a condensed laser beam so as to be thermally changed in part, and subjecting the conductive oxide thin film to etching treatment so as to remove a part which has not been thermally changed, wherein the conductive oxide thin film absorbs the laser beam, and at least a part of the conductive oxide thin film is an amorphous phase.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for producing a conductive oxide-deposited substrate and a conductive oxide-deposited substrate which is used for producing functional devices such as displays, image sensors, solar batteries and illuminations using solid light sources.
The present invention also relates to a method for producing a MIS laminated structure which is a basic structure of a switching element which controls charge transfer in connection with a light receiving and emitting element and a memory element, and a MIS laminated structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a conductive oxide-deposited substrate represented by In2O3—SnO2 (ITO: Indium-Tin-Oxides) which is processed in a wiring shape is used in displays, image sensors or the like. In devices having functional surfaces such as solar batteries and illumination using solid light sources, a conductive oxide-deposited substrate in which a conductive oxide is processed into a concavo-convex shape is used for the purpose of enhancing efficiency of current collection or taking in and removing light. The conductive oxide is generally processed by a method of processing the conductive oxide by photolithography using a photomask.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2006-066362 discloses a method for producing an ITO film including a step of forming a pattern in the ITO film which includes a step of forming a photoresist layer, in which a pattern is formed, on the ITO film, a step of removing a part of the ITO film using the photoresist layer, and a step of removing the photoresist layer.
JP-A No. 2006-114428 discloses that an ITO film is ablated by a laser beam, which is photolytic reaction, and the ITO film is selectively irradiated with a laser beam so as to remove an irradiated area of the ITO film, thereby forming a removed pattern in the ITO film.
Japanese Patent (JP-B) No. 3229610 discloses a method for producing an ITO electrode, wherein an ITO film having a resistance of 1×10−3Ω·cm or more is deposited and etched in a given pattern, a film needs to be heated is deposited, and then the film and the ITO film are simultaneously heated in a clean oven so as to decrease the resistance of the ITO film to less than 1×10−3Ω·cm, thereby producing an ITO electrode.
In JP-A No. 2006-004594, the inventors of the present invention propose a method of forming a fine structure, including at least a step of irradiating a medium with light, and a step of etching the medium, wherein the medium has a laminated structure consisting of a light absorption layer and a thermal reactive layer.
However, these related arts do not disclose the invention of directly processing and forming a conductive part into a pattern using light.
To a light receiving and emitting element, a switching element consisting of a thin film transistor and the like is connected to control charge transfer. Recently, as a semiconductor material for such switching element, a development of a technology using an organic semiconductor is outstandingly progressed. That is, by the use of an organic semiconductor as a semiconductor material of the switching element, a low temperature wet process such as an inkjet printing process, spin coating process and printing process can be employed upon production of an element. As a result, the cost of the process can be decreased, a substrate can be formed of a plastic, and moreover a flexible device can be expected.
On the other hand, the semiconductor property of an organic semiconductor material such as charge transfer degree has not been satisfied, as it now stands. For example, as disclosed in "Nature, Vol. 432 (2004) 488" and JP-A No. 2007-194628, an inorganic semiconductor material capable of being formed by a low temperature process is vigorously developed.
Examples of methods for producing a switching element, in which an inorganic semiconductor material is formed into a semiconductor layer, include a method for patterning each layer using both wet etching treatment and dry etching treatment as disclosed in JP-A No. 2002-116714, and a method for producing a switching element only by a wet etching treatment as disclosed in JP-A No. 2007-123700.
Any methods described above require a step of forming a resist mask by photolithography.
A method for producing a thin film transistor by a conventional photolithography and etching treatment is shown in FIGS. 1A to 1D. FIGS. 1A to 1E are cross sectional views of an example of a structure of a top-gate thin film transistor.
FIG. 1A shows a photolithography process of a semiconductor thin film performed in an arrow direction. A photoresist 6 is coated on a semiconductor thin film 5 and patterned by photolithography 7, the patterned photoresist 6 is covered with an etching mask 8, and then the semiconductor thin film is processed.
FIG. 1B shows a photolithography process of source and drain electrodes performed in an arrow direction. 9 denotes a source and drain electrode thin film, 10 denotes a photoresist, and 11 denotes photolithography.
FIG. 1C shows a photolithography process of a gate insulating film performed in an arrow direction, 12 denotes a gate insulating film, 13 denotes a photoresist and 14 denotes photolithography.
FIG. 1D shows a photolithography process of a gate electrode performed in an arrow direction. 15 denotes a gate electrode thin film, 16 denotes a photoresist and 17 denotes photolithography. FIG. 1E shows an example of a basic structure of a thin film transistor, in which 18 denotes a substrate, 19 denotes a semiconductor thin film, 20 denotes a gate insulating film, 21 denotes a source electrode, 22 denotes a drain electrode and 23 denotes a gate electrode.
The conventional methods need four photolithography processes, when a basic structure of a thin film transistor as shown in FIG. 1E is produced. The process cost increases according to the number of photomasks and processes. Therefore, the issue of device cost reduction is solved by decrease of the number of photolithography processes. Additionally, there is an issue how to avoid plasma damage on a resin substrate material when an inorganic semiconductor material on a plastic substrate is processed by a dry etching method.

Conductive oxide-deposited substrate and method for producing the same, and MIS laminated structure and method for producing the same


In a graph generating device, when an input unit inputs data to be graphed, the data is stored in a data storage area through a processing control unit and a data generator. The data generator generates in a graph storage area element data for the graph elements based on the input data in the data storage area. A display control unit displays a graph on a display unit based on the data in the graph storage area. When the input unit directs the destination of a displayed graph element, coordinate data on the position of the destination is stored in a layout storage area through the processing control unit and a layout changing unit. The data generator 22 updates the element data in the graph storage area 43 based on the data in the data storage area 41 and the coordinate data in the layout storage area 42. The display control unit 24 updates and displays a graph on the display screen based on new element data in the graph storage area 43.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to graph generating devices which automatically generate a graph based on given data and more particularly to a graph generating device capable of changing graph elements at moved positions when data corresponding to the graph elements are updated after the graph elements are moved to desired positions.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional graph generating device is capable of generating predetermined kinds of graphs. When a data is given, the graph generating device generates a graph corresponding to the given data. For example, a device having a function of generating a bar graph, generates and displays a bar graph such as shown in FIG. 32 when data A1, B1 and C1 are given corresponding to bars (graph element) which constitute the bar graph.
Some conventional devices may also have the function of editing the graph thus generated. With these devices, the bars a, b and c of the bar graph shown in FIG. 32 can be laid out and displayed on, for example, a map of Japan as shown in FIG. 33.
In these conventional device, however, the bars a, b and c are only moved or copied to desired positions in the editing operation. Thus, when the data A1, B1 and C1 are changed or updated, these data must be changed in the bar graph of FIG. 32 and then the resulting new bars a, b and c are laid out on the map shown in FIG. 33.
A device has been proposed which is capable of moving a graph element freely to any position (published unexamined Japanese patent application Hei 3-74783). However, this device only moves, for example, the label of a graph and therefore cannot update graph data while displaying graph elements corresponding to the data at any position on the display unit.
As described above, these conventional graph generating devices can move the displayed graph elements to desired positions. However, each time data for the graph elements are updated, it is necessary to generated a graph according to the updated data and then again layout the graph elements to desired positions.

Apparatus for storing and displaying graphs


A system and method for bi-directional communication of dynamic instruction sets between a handset and a wireless communication network is provided. A dynamic instruction set represents a discrete function or a discrete action that is to be carried out by the recipient device. A wireless communication device can send a dynamic instruction set to the network in order to instruct the network to perform certain operations such as providing information, software, or other data to the wireless communication device. The wireless communication device is also configured to receive and execute dynamic instruction sets sent from the network.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of wireless communications and more particularly relates to two way communication of dynamic instruction sets between a handset and a wireless communication network.
2. Related Art
Conventional wireless communication devices typically become isolated computing platforms once they are deployed, i.e. sold to a consumer. These conventional wireless communication devices have extremely limited or no ability to communicate data such as operational or maintenance data with a parent network. This lack of data communication ability presents significant challenges for the provider of the wireless communication device with respect to updating the software that executes on the device and obtaining operational or maintenance data from the device. For example, in order to upgrade the operating system of a cell phone, the consumer must physically bring the phone into a service center where a technician must plug the phone into a computer in order to update the phone. The same is true for performing comprehensive or in-depth diagnostics on a cell phone.
The conventional solutions for updating a wireless communication device or obtaining information from such a device generally require that the device be brought into a service station where a technician can interact with the device to update its software programs or obtain data from the device. This is extremely costly for both the consumer and the provider of the device.
Additionally, conventional methods for updating a wireless communication device or obtaining information from such a device generally require a hard-wired connection with the device. This further complicates the updating and maintenance needs for a wireless communication device, requiring special cables and even requiring the device itself to have a hard-wired interface. These necessities drive up both the production and maintenance costs of a wireless communication device while also decreasing the life span of the device.
Finally, conventional methods for data communication with a wireless communication device are unidirectional. Conventional networks may have the ability to provide the wireless communication device with application software and data. Additionally, conventional wireless communication devices may have the ability to respond to such communications with limited configuration data and status information. However, this limited master-slave communication ability found in the conventional systems suffers from the inability of the wireless communication device to initiate communications with the network.
Therefore, what is needed is a system and method that overcomes these significant problems found in the conventional systems as described above.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System and method for bi-directional communication and execution of dynamic instruction sets


A spinal fusion implant assembly for spacing vertebrae and method of using the implant are provided. The implant includes two components each having a vertebral contact surface, a pair of side portions, and an end plate. The two components are complementary such that when placed together they form a whole. Each of the sides has a high point and a low point, such that a sloped edge of each side is defined between the high point and the low point, and the slope of the first sides is complementary to the slope of the second sides. The device also includes a translation mechanism for providing relative motion between the components.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dynamic intervertebral spacer implant to be placed into an intervertebral space left after the removal of damaged spinal disc material.
2. Description of the Related Art
Historically, methods of fusing two adjacent vertebrae of the spine intervertebrally have used implants of either natural bone or a synthetic material and having fixed dimensions. Although the devices are available in a range of sizes, the devices are not adjustable by the surgeon during the surgical procedure. Therefore, the surgeon must choose the size which most closely matches the desired height, length and width dimensions, and then make the device fit. This procedure may entail further resection of the bone, or addition of natural bone, attained from either an inventoried bone bank or a patient donor site. The procedure results in relatively long and more invasive surgeries which present a danger to the patient.
In cases where an all bone implant is used, the bone is shaped to complement the surgeon-prepared cavity into which it is to be implanted. When a synthetic implant is used, the bone is pulverized and packed into the interstices of the device, in order to promote bony ingrowth. Over time, fusion is accomplished by the growth of natural bone in the neighboring, subject vertebrae into the implant.
Improvements in design and materials have resulted in stronger implants. However, due to the usual shapes used for fusion implants, they are still subject to fracture.

Dynamic intervertebral spacer and method of use


A scan-projection type exposure apparatus quickly suppresses disturbance in synchronization between a wafer stage and a reticle stage, and enables high-precision pattern exposure. This apparatus employs a master-slave control with a wafer-stage side as the master with a reticle-stage side as the slave, so as to correct a target value of a position control system of a rough-motion stage or that of a position control system of the reticle stage by using motion-mode errors e.sub.g, e.theta..sub.x and e.theta..sub.y in a one-to-one correspondence with a disturbance occurring to the rough-motion stage of the wafer stage due to movement of a fine-motion stage of the wafer stage.

This invention relates to a stage-drive control apparatus and method for simultaneously driving two stages and, more particularly to a scan-projection type exposure apparatus and method which sequentially transfer-exposes a mask pattern on wafers in a slit-scan exposure method in a photolithographic process for manufacturing semiconductor devices, liquid-crystal display devices and the like.
Upon manufacturing semiconductor devices or liquid-crystal display devices by the photolithography process, a projection-exposure apparatus is used to transfer a pattern formed on a reticle onto a wafer to which sensitizer material is applied.
Conventionally, as a projection-exposure apparatus, the so-called step-and-repeat type reduced projection-exposure apparatus operates in many production sites. This apparatus sequentially moves respective areas to be exposed (shot areas) of wafers within an exposure field of an optical projection-exposure system, thus sequentially exposing a reticle pattern image on the respective shot areas. However, the size of semiconductor chips has increased in recent years, and the projection-exposure apparatuses are required to have a large exposure area to transfer-expose larger reticle patterns on wafers. At the same time, in response to microminiaturization of semiconductor patterns, the resolution of the reticle must be improved. However, it is technically difficult to design and manufacture a projection-exposure apparatus that has an improved resolution and a large exposure area.
To solve this problem, the so-called scan-projection type exposure apparatus has been developed. This apparatus scans (moves) a reticle with respect to a slit illumination area. The reticle pattern is sequentially exposed on wafers by scanning (moving) the wafers in synchronization with the reticle with respect to an exposure area in conjugation with the illumination area.
FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view showing the conventional scan-projection type exposure apparatus. In FIG. 5, reference numeral 1 denotes an optical illumination system; 2, exposure light emitted from the optical illumination system 1; 3, a reticle held on a reticle stage 4; 5, an optical projection system; 6, a wafer to which a photoresist is applied; and 7, a wafer stage. The reticle stage 4 and the wafer stage 7 move in the y-axial direction opposite to each other, respectively, at a speed V.sub.r and a speed V.sub.w.
A master-slave synchronized control system is known as a control principle for moving the two positioning objects at a fixed speed while maintaining a synchronized relation between the objects. This principle will be briefly described with reference to FIG. 6, which is a block diagram showing the master-slave synchronized control system. In FIG. 6, the relation among values x.sub.M, d.sub.M, x.sub.S, d.sub.S and r.sub.M is represented as follows. Note that d.sub.M '=0 holds for the sake of simplification. ##EQU1## r.sub.M : target value to master control system r.sub.S : target value to slave control system
e.sub.M : positional error of master control system PA1 e.sub.S : positional error of slave control system PA1 G.sub.MC (s): compensator of master control system PA1 G.sub.SC (s): compensator of slave control system PA1 G.sub.M (s): controlled object of master control system PA1 G.sub.S (s): controlled object of slave control system PA1 d.sub.M : force-based disturbance to master control system PA1 d.sub.M ': displacement-based disturbance to master control system PA1 d.sub.S : force-based disturbance to slave control system PA1 X.sub.M : displacement output of master control system PA1 X.sub.S : displacement output of slave control system PA1 .beta.: reduction ratio (e.g., 1/4)
In FIG. 6, the dashed-lined block represents a synchronization error e.sub.syc as an evaluation index defined by: EQU e.sub.syc =X.sub.M -.beta.X.sub.S ( 3)
Accordingly, the following relation is obtained by substituting equations (1) and (2) into equation (3): ##EQU2##
FIG. 7 shows the meaning of equation (2), i.e., an equivalence block diagram of the master-slave synchronized control system. In FIG. 7, the output X.sub.M of the master control system is multiplied by 1/.beta. as the target input to the slave control system. The disturbance d.sub.M inputted into the master control system is also transmitted to the slave control system, and as a result, controls the synchronization error e.sub.syc. On the other hand, the disturbance d.sub.S inputted into the slave control system is used as a disturbance control capability of a closed loop (loop comprising G.sub.SC (s) and G.sub.S (S)) of the slave control system.
In this master-slave synchronized control system, when the position signal X.sub.M of the master control system fluctuates due to the disturbance d.sub.M applied to the controlled object G.sub.M (s) of the master control system, the positional-error signal e.sub.M of the master control system is inputted into the slave control system via a synchronization correction path 13, with a unit having a 1/.beta. gain, the slave control system swivels in correspondence with the swivel of the master control system, thus maintaining the synchronized relation between the master and slave control systems. Note that "maintaining the synchronized relation" means setting the synchronization error e.sub.syc, in the dotted-lined block in FIG. 6, to zero.
As is apparent from the above description, no synchronization correction is performed on the disturbance d.sub.S, which is applied to the controlled object G.sub.S (S) of the slave control system, because there is no synchronization correction loop which passes a signal from the slave control system to the master control system. As described above, the disturbance is suppressed only by the disturbance control capability of the slave control system.
Next, a case wherein the wafer stage 7 comprising a fine-motion stage 8 and a rough-motion stage 9 is integrally driven in a negative y-axial direction at a fixed speed will be described with reference to FIG. 8A.
The position signal is detected by irradiating a light beam 10 of a laser interferometer (not shown) by a reflection mirror 11, and the fixed-speed drive is performed based on the detected signal. However, it should be noted that the fine-motion stage 8 is driven by actuators 12M, 12R and 12L and the like on the rough-motion stage 9, and when the fine-motion stage 8 is driven while the rough-motion stage 9 is driven, the reflection mirror 11 for position detection is also moved, which causes a disturbance in the fixed-speed drive.
For example, when the actuator 12M is extended, on the other hand, the actuators 12R and 12L are contracted to tilt the fine-motion stage 8 as shown in FIG. 8B, the rough-motion stage 9, which is being driven at the fixed speed in the negative y-axial direction, instantly causes a disturbance in the scanning speed. In this case, the scanning speed increases. The disturbance is equivalent to the disturbance d.sub.M ' (see FIGS. 6 and 7) applied to the master control system, and the master-slave synchronized control system sets the synchronization error to zero by its synchronization correction operation.
Next, a case wherein the actuators 12M, 12R and 12L and the like are expanded by .DELTA.Z as shown in FIG. 8C will be described. Similar to FIG. 8B, upon expansion of the actuators, when the surface of the reflection mirror 11 for receiving the light beam 10 is tilted from an axis z, the fixed speed drive of the rough-motion stage 9 being driven in the negative y-axial direction is disturbed. Further, it is apparent that when the fine-motion stage 8 is rotated around the axis z by another actuator (not shown), the fixed-speed drive of the rough-motion stage 9 is influenced by the rotation movement of the fine-motion stage 8.
As described above, the z-axial directional translation and the rotations about the x-, y-, and z-axis of the fine-motion stage 8 disturb the fixed-speed drive of the rough-motion stage 9. However, the master-slave control system as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 controls the synchronization error to zero.
However, the synchronization-error control by the above master-slave control system is relatively slow. Accordingly, to further improve the scan-exposure capability, the synchronization error caused by the disturbance in the fixed-speed drive of the rough-motion stage 9 due to the drive of the fine-motion stage 8, must be quickly suppressed.
Note that Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 7-29801 and 3-282605 disclose well-known techniques related to the present invention. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-29801 discloses a hybrid reticle stage having a rough-motion stage and a fine-motion stage. The rough-motion stage, having a speed control system, follows a target scanning speed independently of a wafer stage, while the fine-motion stage, having a position control system, performs synchronization correction. That is, this construction is basically the master-slave synchronized control system wherein the wafer stage serves as a master of the position control system while the reticle stage serves as a slave of the position control system. Further, to speed the response of the reticle stage as the slave, this system feeds-forward the difference between the speed of the wafer stage and that of the reticle stage to the reticle fine-motion stage.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-282605 discloses a master-slave synchronized control method with speed feedforward function.
However, these techniques lack any means to positively control the displacement-based disturbance.
As described above, in a system which uses a wafer stage and a reticle stage as a master and slave so as to fixed-speed drive the wafer stage and the reticle stage at a fixed speed while maintaining a synchronized relation between them, i.e., a so-called master-slave synchronized control system, the wafer stage receives displacement-based disturbance due to leveling and tilting of a fine-motion stage of the wafer stage. This disturbance can be controlled by a loop structure of the master-slave synchronized control system.
When force-based disturbance such as d.sub.M and d.sub.S are inputted, the response is mitigated by mechanical systems such as G.sub.M (s) and G.sub.S (s), and appear as displacement outputs. On the other hand, the displacement-based disturbance such as d.sub.M ' is not mitigated and directly appears in the displacement output, which seriously influences the synchronization control capability. Accordingly, the scan-projection type exposure apparatus is required to quickly suppress the disturbance in the synchronization between the wafer stage and the reticle stage caused by the displacement-based disturbance.

Stage-drive control apparatus and method, and scan-projection type exposure apparatus


The invention measures the flow of a liquid by measuring the effect of that flow on a laser beam which travels from a laser source, through the flow, and landing upon a detector oriented to receive that laser source. Interfaces within the flow stream will refract the laser beam and cause variations in strength of the energy reaching the detector. These variations in the forward scatter occur at audio and super audio frequencies. The flow rate is proportional to audio frequency which can be measured and correlated by comparison to known flow rates.

Typically, liquid flow meters have been used to measure the flow of liquids in long distance and local distribution pipelines, process transmission lines, and delivery of product to tank trucks and railroad cars for transportation. Because of the value of the product being carried in the pipes, companies have a significant interest in being able to measure accurately the flow of these materials so that actual usage at high flow rate can be monitored and billed.
In addition, proper monitoring of a chemical process requires careful measurement of flows at various stages of the process.
CONVENTIONAL FLOW MEASUREMENT HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED BY BOTH MECHANICAL METERS, DOPPLER TECHNOLOGY METERS, HOT WIRE ANEMOMETERS AND CORIOLIS FORCE METER.
A typical mechanical meter operates by directing a flow of liquid past the blades of a turbine to drive a gear train that accumulates and displays the flow as a volume, usually in cubic feet. Although such meters do not directly measure precise volume, they often measure some other characteristic such as linear flow rate. Although it is the linear flow rate which is being directly measured, it is the total volume relationship to the flow which is adequate in many cases. Mechanical meters are usually expensive and require significant additional fittings and supporting hardware in order to operate properly.
Mechanical meters are problematic in several regards. First, the physical inertia of the turbine and gear train create a dampening effect which makes instantaneous measurement less responsive to fluctuations in flow. Second, mechanically actuated parts must be placed directly in the flow, which inhibits and restricts flow. Further, this results in clogging and deterioration of the mechanism due to the small amounts of oil and other contaminants that may be present in the flow and which accumulate over time. Third, there is wear of the gear train and bearings which results in a continually decreasing accuracy. Fourth, the liquid flow must be either stopped or rerouted around the turbine blades in order to service that portion of the meter residing within the liquid flow.
Some meters have been developed based upon laser Doppler technology, but these have been primarily used for wind flow measurements. Laser Doppler is a technology based on comparing the frequency shift of a pulsed electromagnetic beam reflected from a moving target to the frequency of the original pulsed beam. This frequency shift can be used to calculate both the direction and the speed of the target. This technique as applied to detect wind movement has severe limitations.
These devices require the presence of some particulate matter in the flow stream to cause backscatter of the electromagnetic beam. The presence of sufficient particulate matter in flow streams and other industrial process streams is questionable. As an example, where Doppler weather radar is employed to measure wind flow, when the air turns very cold and all moisture and particulate matter is precipitated, or "frozen out", there is no measurable Doppler velocity.
In addition, the laser beam cannot be perpendicular to the direction of flow and still detect Doppler motion. This means that for optimal detection, the Doppler beam must be as near "head-on" to the axis of flow as possible to detect maximum Doppler effect due to the velocity of the fluid. This requirement introduces problems associated with placing the detector invasively into the flow, because it is difficult to place the sensor in a pipe wall at an oblique angle.
Laser Doppler meters which use the backscatter technique experience a power reduction of 1/r.sup.4 at the receiver where r is the distance between the laser source and target. This basic physical limitation has tremendous implications on the power and size requirements of the Doppler sensor.
Finally, the detection of the Doppler effect requires Doppler analog filter banks or digital filter banks which are expensive and difficult to calibrate. The use of digital filter banks is more accurate because it eliminates the temperature variations found within analog components. However, the digital filter bank requires a sophisticated microprocessor or an Applications Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC).
Another conventional electronic flow meter uses hot wire anemometer techniques. A thin film substrate containing a heating element and two resistors is placed intrusively in a gas flow. When current is passed through the heating element under conditions of fluid flow, the upstream resistor is cooled or maintains the temperature of the incoming flow, while the downstream resistor is heated due to the influence of the heating element. The voltage drops across the resistors are based upon their temperatures and are used by the meter's microprocessor to compute the flow against a pre-calibrated curve or table.
This technique does not work well for liquids because liquids are able to absorb such a large quantity of heat, that it is impossible to create a sufficient temperature differential with any reasonably sized heating element. Thus, hot wire anemometer devices are not suitable for a large portion of the flow meter market. In addition, a significant limitation is the required placing of the sensor intrusively in the gas flow with an energized and heated, electrical device and the attendant physical design and safety problems. Even though the power rating of the heating element is low, a safety hazard is posed if the gas is combustible and oxygen (air) is present. Again, this limits applicable marketability by eliminating its use in the natural gas or other combustible gas fields.
The Coriolis Effect is another technology upon which flow meters are based. This technology includes a manifold which diverts the flow of fluid from an inlet tube, through a loop of two parallel tubes, called flow tubes, and back into the manifold and then to a outlet tube. The two flow tubes are usually smaller than the inlet and outlet tubes, and loop in parallel over and back into the fitting. The flow tubes are vibrated at their natural frequency by an electromagnetic mechanism. This vibration sets up Coriolis forces within the flow tubes. These forces cause the two flow tubes to move away from each other. The magnitude of the separation of the flow tubes is proportional to the size of the forces generated, which is proportional to the flow rate of liquid.
There are several different means for detecting the slight separation between the flow pipes. Inductive magnetic devices may be used. However, these devices are difficult to make and thus expensive and are subject to temperature and EMF interference.
As an alternative, the placement of fiber optic cables looped between the flow pipes can be used to measure the separation of the flow pipes. This requires a light source, a three-way fiber optic beam splitter, a detector and various electronic components. The light source introduces laser or white light into a section of the fiber optic cable. This cable goes to the beam splitter which produces three output beams. One beam is used as a reference and the other two beams are introduced into two fiber cables that form two loops between the flow pipes. As the flow pipes move apart, the fiber optic loops are deformed which causes a change in the intensity of the light being transmitted along the fiber. The electronic components compare with the reference beam and the two flow pipe beams in order to calculate separation movement of the flow pipes which can be used to calculate the flow rate of the liquid in the flow pipes.
The Coriolis force meters are complicated in that they require fragile and customized plumbing components, sensitive electronic movement detectors or fiber optic cables, power supplies and light sources.

Laser-based forward scatter liquid flow meter


A planar electron-optical lens is obtained on a semiconductor cathode surface by providing an extra electrode (16) around the gate electrode (14). Dependent on the applied voltage, this configuration operates, for example, as a positive lens which supplies parallel beams without dispersion, suitable for thin, flat display devices. A large positioning tolerance is obtained due to the inherent magnification of the beam diameter in the semiconductor device, while a grid can be dispensed with.

The invention relates to a device for generating an electron beam, which device has a main surface provided with an electrically insulating layer having at least one aperture within which the electron beam is generated and having a gate electrode provided along at least the greater part of the aperture in the electrically insulating layer.
The invention also relates to a support for such devices and to a cathode ray tube and a display device provided with such a device or support.
In addition to cathode ray tubes (display tubes, camera tubes), a device of the type described may also be adapted for electrolithographic applications or electron microscopy.
Netherlands Patent Application 7905470 laid open to public inspection and herein incorporated by reference shows a cathode ray tube provided with a semiconductor device, a so-called "cold cathode". The operation of this cold cathode is based on the emission of electrons from a semiconductor body in which a pn junction is reverse biased in such a way that there is an avalanche multiplication of charge carriers. Some electrons may then acquire so much kinetic energy as is required to exceed the electron work function. These electrons are then emitted at the main surface of the semiconductor body and thus provide an electron current.
The emission of the electrons in the device is simplified by providing the semiconductor device with so-called acceleration electrodes or gate electrodes on an insulating layer located on the main surface, which electrodes leave an aperture (slit-shaped, annular, round, rectangular) in the insulating layer. To facilitate the emission of the electrons the semiconductor surface is provided, if desired, with a material decreasing the work function such as, for example, cesium.
Such "cold cathodes" may be advantageously used in thin, flat display devices as described in Netherlands Patent Application 8700486 corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,853,585, in which a number of electron beams is generated in a row of juxtaposed semiconductor cathodes. In these devices an associated row of electron beams is incident on a fluorescent screen after deflection, acceleration and further electron-optical operations and causes a row of pixels to luminesce in accordance with the information which has been presented. For a conventional pixel pitch of 750 .mu.m and, for example, a magnification of the emissive surface of approximately 30.times. in the electron-optical system, the positioning tolerance of the cathodes is therefore less than 10 .mu.m because otherwise the pixels may overlap one another (assuming that all emissive surfaces are located in one and the same plane). Such a tolerance imposes very strict requirements on the assembly.
In the device described in Netherlands Patent Application 8700486 corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,853,585 the main surface of the cathodes extends substantially parallel to the surface in which the electron beams substantially move. Highly energetic positive ions can only partly reach the surface of the semiconductor cathodes, so that their efficiency is prevented from rapid deterioration due to the ion bombardment. This is achieved by deflecting the electron beam through 90.degree. by means of an electron-optical system comprising, inter alia an electron mirror.
The electron beam must be substantially parallel for a satisfactory operation of this electron mirror. Since the gate electrode usually functions as an acceleration electrode, it has a negative lens action on the beam of generated electrons. To render the beam substantially parallel, it is therefore necessary to arrange a first electrode preferably at the shortest possible distance from the cathode, which electrode has a positive lens action rendering the electron beam substantially parallel. The minimum distance at which such an electrode can be mounted (inter alia, due to the presence of bonding wires contacting the cathode) is approximately 300 .mu.m.
This causes great problems from an assembly-technical point of view. Moreover, due to this distance it is necessary to use such high voltages for the lens action and the mirror action of the first electrode and the mirror electrode, respectively, that positive ions are also generated between the mirror electrode and the cathode so that the efficiency of the cathode may be affected by an ion bombardment.

Device for generating electrons, and display device


A method, apparatus and program for judging road surface conditions on which a vehicle is running. The method, apparatus and program includes the steps of: obtaining wheel speed rotational information of driving wheels of the vehicle during running from wheel speed detectors, receiving GPS radio waves to calculate positional information, and judging road surface conditions during running on the basis of a relationship between the wheel speed rotational information and the positional information. Conditions of road surfaces on which a vehicle is running can be accurately judged.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for judging road surface conditions and to a program for judging road surface conditions. More particularly, it relates to a method and apparatus for judging road surface conditions and to a program for judging road surface conditions with which it is possible to judge road surface conditions during running particularly in four-wheel-drive vehicles.
Antilock braking devices have been conventionally proposed in which locked conditions of wheels are prevented by decreasing braking torque acting on the wheels prior to occurrence of a condition in which the tires are locked with the braking force between tires and the road surface exceeding a maximum value to thereby control the rotational number of the wheels with which maximum braking force can be obtained. In such an antilock braking device, it is possible to employ a method for judging coefficients of road surface friction in which, for instance, a relational expression between an acceleration of the vehicle and a slip ratio is obtained whereupon a slope of this relational expression is compared with a preliminarily set threshold, and the coefficient of friction between the road surface and tires is judged on the basis of the result of this comparison (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2001-334920).
However, in a relationship between the acceleration of the vehicle and the slip ratio in such a method for judging coefficients of road surface friction, a gradient of μ-s curve of the road surface and the tires is obtained on the basis of the acceleration of the vehicle obtained from a rotational velocity of the following wheels and a tendency of slip of the road surface is judged accordingly so that a drawback is presented that this method is not applicable to four-wheel-drive vehicles.

Method and apparatus for judging road surface conditions and program for judging road surface conditions


An injection drug dispensing system which can quickly dispense injection drug includes a control unit and an injection drug dispenser of the type that requires drugs to be stored in order. The dispenser has a plurality of storage units each including a plurality of cassettes in which are stored many drugs. Each storage unit has an intermediate container into which drugs discharged from the cassettes are collected. The control unit creates a table for drug dispensing data, registers the dispensing data by the numbers attached to the data, and creates a queue in a register for determining the order in which drugs are discharged into the intermediate containers. Drugs can thus be concurrently dispensed into the intermediate containers.

This invention relates to an injection drug dispensing system used e.g. in a hospital to dispense injection drugs in ampules or vials per prescriptions.
Drug preparation assisting systems are now used in many hospitals and pharmacies to help pharmacists to prepare drugs with higher efficiency and accuracy. The injection drug dispensing system shown in FIG. 15 is one of such assisting systems.
As shown, this dispenser system has a main conveyor 1, a bucket stocker 2 provided at the upstream end of the main conveyor 1, and a bucket discharging lifter 3 provided at the downstream end. Along the main conveyor 1 between the stocker 2 and the lifter 3, the dispensing system further includes dispensers 4 and 5 for dispensing injection drugs (hereinafter simply referred to as drugs) and a printer 6 for printing injection prescriptions.
The bucket stocker 2 supplies buckets 7 one by one onto the main conveyor 1. The main conveyor 1 is a conveyor (such as a roller conveyor) for feeding buckets 7 through the dispensers 4, 5 and the printer 6 to the bucket discharging lifter 3.
The dispenser 4 is of a type that requires drug items to be put in order, while the dispenser 5 asks no such orderly arrangement of drug items. Either dispenser has a plurality of cassettes 8 for storing different kinds of drugs separately from one another, and dispenses designated kinds of drug items by a designated number from a corresponding cassette 8.
As shown in FIG. 16, the dispenser 4 may include four drawer type storage units 9 each having a plurality of cassettes 8 arranged in a row.
At its bottom, each cassette 8 of each storage unit 9 has a discharge port 10. Near the port 10, a discharge roller 11 having a groove-shaped cutout is provided. A longitudinal belt conveyor 12 is provided under the cassettes 8 of each storage unit 9. Every time the discharge roller 11 in each cassette 8 rotates once, one drug item in the cassette 8 is discharged onto the belt conveyor 12.
An intermediate container 13 is provided at the downstream end of each longitudinal conveyor 12 to collect drug items a discharged. Each intermediate container 13 has an openable bottom cover 14. While not shown, a transverse conveyor extends under the intermediate containers 13 of the storage units 9.
The transverse conveyor has its delivery end disposed over the main conveyor 1. Drug items a collected in each container 13 are dropped onto the transverse conveyor by opening the cover 14, fed to the delivery end of the transverse conveyor, and dropped into a bucket 7 being fed on the main conveyor 1.
Either one or both of the dispensers 4, 5 may be used in the system. Also, if there are a large quantity of drug items to prepare, a plurality of such dispensers 4 and/or 5 may be installed along a longer main conveyor 1.
The printer 6 prints prescription data on drug items discharged from the dispensers 4, 5 and puts printouts into the corresponding buckets 7.
The bucket discharging lifter 3 has a bucket storage rack 16. Buckets 7 on the main conveyor 1 are picked up and put in the rack 16 by the lifter 17.
The units 1-6 of this conventional dispensing system are controlled by a computer 19 connected to the system through a control unit 18.
The computer 19 is connected to e.g. a host computer in a hospital. Every time dispensing data are received from the host computer, one bucket 7 is deposited on the conveyor 1 from the bucket stocker 2.
The computer 19 then activates the dispensers 4,5 to put prescribed drug items into the bucket 7 on the conveyor 1 and controls the printer 6 to print prescription information and put the printout into the bucket. At the delivery end of the conveyor 1, the bucket 7 is picked up and loaded into the rack 16 by the lifter 3.
An operator inspects each of the buckets 7 in the rack 16 for any missing or damaged drug items by consulting the prescriptions in the buckets.
On ordinary weekdays, hospital pharmacists prepare drugs to be administered to inpatients for the next day. But on Fridays or any other workday before a holiday, they have to prepare drugs for the next two, three or more days. On such days, they curse the conventional slow-speed dispensers.
Reasons why the conventional dispensing systems are slow in operating speeds are listed below:
(1) Slow dispensing speed
Of the two types of dispensers 4, 5, the dispenser 4, which requires drug items to be put in order, is especially slow in operating speed because dispensing data have to be written every time a drug item is discharged into an intermediate container. If drugs for a particular patient have to be supplied from a plurality of storage units, drugs in one intermediate container have to be discharged after drugs in another intermediate container have been discharged. This further prolongs the processing time.
(2) Finding any missing item is a time-consuming task.
At the inspection station, an operator has to count the number of drugs in each bucket and calculate in his head the number of any missing drug items, if any, by subtracting the actual number of drugs in each bucket from the number of drugs printed on the prescription.
(3) Once the system is stopped, a long time is needed before restart.
If an operator finds out that any item is missing, he has to stop the entire system. Once the system is stopped, the operator has to remove all the drugs and prescriptions remaining in the dispensers, printer and conveyors by opening the system case before restart. This of course prolongs the operating time. Further, the restart procedure itself takes a rather long time.
(4) Drugs tend to get jammed and broken.
Especially in a dispenser of a type in which drugs have to be arranged in order, drugs tend to get jammed and broken (such as on belt conveyors and in intermediate containers). Thus, the system has to be frequently stopped to remove such jammed or broken drug items. Drugs thus cannot be dispensed quickly enough.
An object of this invention is to provide an injection drug dispensing system which can increase the drug dispensing speed of a dispenser of a type in which drugs have to be stored in order therein, and which can prevent drug exhaustion error, reduce jamming and breakage of drugs, and which can quickly correct system failure.


A mammographic system as a radiation image capturing apparatus includes a radiation source for emitting a radiation, AEC sensors for detecting the radiation emitted from the radiation source and acquiring radiation image information for exposure control, a mammary gland position identifier for selecting at least one of the AEC sensors for outputting given radiation dose information based on the radiation dose information acquired by the AEC sensors thereby to identify a mammary gland position as a region of interest of a subject, a weighting coefficient allocator for multiplying output signals from the AEC sensors before the mammary gland position is identified by the mammary gland position identifier, by respective weighting coefficients depending on the installed positions of the AEC sensors, and a radiation source controller for controlling the radiation dose applied from the radiation source to the identified mammary gland position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radiation image capturing apparatus for acquiring radiation image information of a subject, and a method of controlling such a radiation image capturing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the medical field, there have widely been used radiation image capturing apparatus which apply a radiation emitted from a radiation source to a subject (patient), detect the radiation that has passed through the subject with a radiation detector, and record radiation image information based on the detected radiation.
The radiation image capturing apparatus of the type described above are required to achieve a good level of radiation image quality while minimizing the radiation dose applied to the subject. In order to acquire appropriate radiation image information of a region of interest (ROI) of the subject, it is necessary to establish an exposure control condition for applying a desired dose of radiation to the region of interest. There has been proposed a radiation image capturing apparatus including an AEC (Automatic Exposure Control) system for controlling a radiation dose emitted from the radiation source based on a detected radiation dose that has passed through the subject.
One known radiation image capturing apparatus is a mammographic system used for breast cancer screening. The mammographic system comprises an image capturing base housing a panel-like solid-state detector for supporting a subject's breast to be imaged, a compression plate disposed in confronting relation to the image capturing base for compressing the breast against the image capturing base, and a radiation source for applying a radiation through the compression plate to the breast.
The subject's breast comprises a mammary gland region and a fat region. In terms of breast cancer screening, the region of interest is the mammary gland region because it is highly susceptible to breast cancer. While the mammary gland region has a large coefficient of absorption of radiations, the fat region has a small coefficient of absorption of radiations and absorbs almost no radiations. In order to acquire appropriate radiation image information of the mammary gland region, it is necessary to set suitable exposure control conditions based on the mammary gland region for applying a desired dose of radiation to the mammary gland region. The exposure control conditions include a tube voltage, a tube current, a radiation exposure time, etc. to be established for the radiation source. Of these exposure control conditions, the tube current and the radiation exposure time are the most important conditions for determining a dose of radiation to be applied to the subject.
Some mammographic systems include a radiation dose information detector for AEC housed in the image capturing base, the radiation dose information detector being used such that a small output range thereof is identified as representing the region of a high mammary gland density (see Japanese laid-open patent publication No. 2000-197624 and Japanese laid-open patent publication No. 7-153592).
When a medio-lateral oblique (MLO) image, for example, is to be taken by the mammographic system, since the radiation is applied obliquely to the subject, the breast muscle comes into the radiation detection area. Generally, the breast muscle tends to have a greater coefficient of absorption of radiations than that of the mammary gland region.
Therefore, the breast muscle is represented by a lower output range of the radiation dose information detector than the mammary gland region is. As a result, the breast muscle may possibly be identified as the region of interest when the region of a high mammary gland density needs to be identified as the region of interest. If the breast muscle is identified as the region of interest, then it is difficult to obtain appropriate radiation image information of the mammary gland region, possibly making it impossible to generate a desired radiation image of the breast.

Radiation image capturing apparatus and method of controlling radiation image capturing apparatus


A method for distributing non-transactional workload in the form of online analytical processing (OLAP) load across multiple database servers comprises receiving, at a scheduler server, a plurality of asynchronous work requests, adding, by the scheduler server, each of the received asynchronous work requests to a work list queue as a work item, and determining, by a scheduler module of the scheduler server, a first work item from the work list queue to select for performance by the first thread of the application server. In accordance with one or more preferred implementations, the first work item is selected utilizing a methodology which determines a number of work items in the work list queue having a processing status that are assigned to a database server, and based thereon determines whether an additional work request can be assigned to that database server without exceeding a request threshold for that database server.

The present invention generally relates to systems and methods for distributing non-transactional workload such as online analytical processing (OLAP) load across multiple database servers.
In a conventional client/server architecture, clients issue many small transactions to a cluster of servers. With such a conventional client/server architecture for a transactional system, a load balancer is frequently used to distribute transaction load equally across such a cluster of servers.
In anon-transactional system, such as a system for online analytical processing (OLAP), it is much more challenging to distribute load.
This can be seen via consideration of a conventional approach for a large data warehouse that is known as a data-dependent routing data warehouse. In this form of data warehouse, a plurality of database servers are utilized, and a consumer of data (e.g. a customer) needs to know which database instance (e.g. which database server) it needs to access or store data in.
Frequently, this involves use of a simple lookup table, e.g. indicating that customer one has data stored in database server one and customer seven has data stored in database server two.
Optionally, there can be a middleware layer to abstract the internal infrastructure of the warehouse. Notably, though, the middleware then becomes a potential bottleneck itself, and further requires additional expense to build and maintain.
FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary conventional system implementing a data-dependent routing data warehouse approach where a middleware server providing web application programming interfaces (APIs) is configured to handle incoming requests and route them to the appropriate database server based on a customer number associated with an incoming request (as illustrated in FIGS. 1-2).
Under some approaches, such a middleware layer may also be responsible for balancing load across the database servers as well. For example, the middleware could be configured to reject a query if a server is already too busy.
However, building and maintaining such middleware is extremely expensive (e.g. costs time and money) in data rich domains (such as healthcare). For example, it would be necessary to understand each customer's needs and build, expose, and maintain a large number of application programming interfaces (APIs) to handle incoming requests. Generally, it would require a large team to maintain such middleware.
Accordingly, data-dependent routing data warehouse approaches are often deployed without a middleware layer. Instead, each external application is responsible for querying database servers directly, as illustrated in FIG. 3. Notably, queries can come from an application server or even an application server cluster, as illustrated in FIG. 4.
Although it is relatively easy for an application to look up the appropriate database server to query, there exists the problem that many applications may query the same database server at the same time, overloading that database server, as illustrated in FIG. 5.
Notably, in a data warehouse environment, often queries are not real-time critical, and do not need to be processed immediately. For example, a first application may have a certain set of work that needs to be performed for several hundred customers nightly, such as generating an executive summary report. A second application may be responsible for extract, transform, and load operations to a data mart. A third application may be responsible for updating customer data with new information that was received in a nightly batch. Although none of these applications have real-time critical work, if there is no coordination between these applications, then a database server can become overloaded if they all query the same database server at the same time. Coordination is needed between different applications to ensure a database server doesn't become overloaded.
Moreover, because many applications are multi-threaded, it is possible for a single application to overload a server with multiple requests from different threads. FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary scenario in which this might be case. In this scenario, an executive summary report application is scheduled to run late at night and determines that seven customer reports need to be generated. The application supports multi-threading and can issue up to four simultaneous requests to complete the work quicker. However, it just so happens that the list of customers is unsorted, and the first four requests are issued simultaneously to the same database server because the first four customers are all located on that server. Although the database servers are built to handle many simultaneous requests, the database does not have infinite resources; there are memory, processing, and disk limitations. Thus, coordination is needed between different threads of the same application to ensure a database server doesn't become overloaded.
Additionally, it may be that many instances of a particular application server are needed to meet demand, and an application server cluster may even be needed. Coordination is needed between different instances of a particular application server to ensure a database server doesn't become overloaded.
One conventional approach for trying to obviate the possibility of a database server being overloaded is to utilize a resource governor built into the database. For example, Microsoft SQL Server has a resource governor which allows an administrative user to set limits on how much of a database server's processing and memory may be consumed by a single user group. For example, all calls from a particular customer may be limited to consume at most 50% of a database server's processing and memory, and may be throttled if they are at risk of exceeding that threshold. Notably, though, while this approach may help obviate the possibility that a database server becomes overloaded, it doesn't necessarily help get a volume of work done any faster.
Overall, needs exist for improvement in distributing non-transactional workload such as online analytical processing (OLAP) load across multiple database servers. These needs and other needs are addressed by one or more aspects of the present invention.

Distributing non-transactional workload across multiple database servers


An ink jet recording apparatus includes a fixing unit which heats a recording medium at a location in a conveyance route following recording to fix the recorded image. The fixing unit has a first heating member which heats a recording surface of a recording medium, a second heating member which heats a reverse surface of the recording medium, and a fan which blows air from the first heating member location in the conveyance route. A timer delays turning on the fan after energization of the first heating member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus having the functions of a facsimile, copying machine, printer and the like, or usable as an output apparatus for composite equipment, a work station and the like having such functions.
Also the present invention relates particularly to an ink jet recording apparatus having, as recording means, a so-called ink jet recording head of a full-line type having a recording width corresponding to the maximum recording width of a recording medium, or having a plurality of such recording heads for black ink or for inks of respectively different colors.
2. Related Background Art
Non-impact recording methods are recently attracting attention due to their advantage that the noise level during recording is negligible. Among these methods, ink jet recording is particularly promising because it can perform high speed recording on ordinary paper without particular fixing treatments.
The recording head employed in an ink jet recording apparatus is generally provided with a small liquid discharge port (orifice), a liquid path, an energy applying part formed in said liquid path, and energy generating means for generating energy, for liquid droplet formation, to be applied to the liquid present in said energy applying part.
For such energy generating means there are known an electromechanical converting member, such as a piezoelectric element; irradiation with an electromagnetic wave, such as a laser beam, which is absorbed in the liquid and generates heat therein for generating and discharging a liquid droplet; and an electrothermal converting element such as a heat-generating resistor for heating the liquid thereby discharging a liquid droplet. Among these, a recording head for causing liquid droplet discharge by thermal energy has various advantages as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,740,796 and 4,723,129.
In contrast to the so-called serial scanning recording method in which the printing is conducted by reciprocating motion of the recording head on a stationary recording sheet, U.S. Pat. No. 4,692,778 discloses a fixed recording head consisting of an array of plural recording heads and enabling full-line printing. That patent discloses various apparatus, many of which are already reduced to practice.
However a full-line recording head obtained by combining plural recording heads is expensive, and a complex structure is required for the positioning of each head. Also the entire recording head becomes inevitably bulky if plural full-line recording heads are employed.
Numerous designs have been made of a full-line recording head consisting of a long single head for satisfying the requirements of compactization of the apparatus, stable image formation and high speed recording, but it has not been possible, in any design so far, to avoid drawbacks related to recovering the discharge function of the recording head.
When, the recording head is defined as a multi-nozzle type and made with the same width as the recording sheet, such a recording system is quite different from prior serial scan systems. Thus, various and different problems occur not encountered in prior serial scan systems.
In a multi-nozzle system, recording speed can be greatly increased as compared with a serial scan system. However, when printing on an OHP (over-head projector) paper into which ink is absorbed slowly, ink is not fixed or dried in a desired manner, and when ink is superimposed by color printing or the like, ink tends to overflow or cause blurring.
Additionally, when recording or exhausting at high speed a non-coated sheet without a coating agent, such as the OHP paper and PPC (plain-paper copier) paper used in an electrophotographic copying machine, both of which have low water absorption properties, ink may not be fully dried when the sheet is exhausted, thus causing offset of the sheet in the exhausting section and staining of on the back of the sheets.

Ink jet recording apparatus having a heat fixing mechanism


A material transport system is described made up of a pallet and a container. Both the pallet and the container are reusable, with the container being collapsible for shipping. A plurality of the containers are furnished in their collapsed form to a material handler, along with pallets for use with such containers when they are erected. Lids for the erected containers are also provided to the material handler. When the containers are provided to the material handler in their collapsed condition along with lids, they are provided on a specialized pallet. All aspects of the material transport system are made from a plastic and can be recycled at the end of their useful life.

The present invention relates to the packaging of commodities and, more particularly, to a containerization approach providing a reusable, full handling arrangement for commodities.
Many commodities (produce, other types of fresh fruit and vegetable products, some packaged goods such as cereal boxes, loose pieces of goods such as bolts, etc.) are packaged together for handling. These handling packages may be somewhat specialized. For example, many items of produce are packed in wooden crates in a field for handling and transportation. Such crates are then palletized to form a full handling unit, and the unit is shipped to the destination for the packed commodity. Because of waste disposal/landfill problems associated with such packaging, etc., some rely on reusable plastic containers to provide the packaging. Many of such containers are collapsible. Such containers when erected can hold the commodities and yet be collapsed when empty to facilitate container handling. A reusable, collapsible plastic container particularly useful in the instant invention is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,450,962.
It is common to palletize commodity containers, e.g., the fruit and vegetable wooden boxes are often shipped when full on pallets. This is also true of reusable collapsible plastic containers. That is, the containers are placed on pallets when erected for the shipping or other handling of the commodities. In most arrangements such pallets are of wood and are not reusable. Even though the plastic container itself may be collapsed and/or reused, the waste disposal/landfill problems still exist in view of the pallets. While there are plastic pallets, insofar as applicant is aware there is no full arrangement for handling commodities where all major parts are recyclable or reusable.