An improved door and drawer assembly for use with a seat on a passenger vehicle. The door and drawer assembly are installed in the passenger vehicle independent of the seat and thus not physically connected to the seat frame. Any load that is applied to the seat frame during movement of the vehicle or caused by passenger movement or support is not imposed on the door and drawer assembly. Accordingly, the operation of the door and drawer assembly is not adversely affected by the loads imposed on the seat frame. Alternatively, the drawer assembly can be excluded so that the door assembly can provide access to an area under the seat in which emergency equipment, such as a life raft bag assembly and life vests, can be stored.

Due to the limited amount of space that is available on large passenger vehicles such as business or commercial airplanes, trains, buses and so on, it is often necessary to store items underneath the passenger seats. Typically, passengers will be required during take-off and landings of an aircraft to place loose items under their seat or the seat in front of them. Also, emergency equipment such as life vests and so on can be stored under passenger seats for easy access during an emergency.
Due to the movement of the vehicle, items placed under passenger seats will often shift their positions and move into the seating area or aisle, thus becoming difficult to find or creating a potential safety hazard. Accordingly, storage compartments such as bins or drawers have been developed that can fit underneath a passenger seat and thus provide a more secure storage area for items or emergency equipment. These types of bins or drawers are directly attached to the seat frame, which is also referred to as a divan frame. However, several problems exist with these types of drawers. In particular, these types of drawers have limited storage weight capacity because they can become overloaded and thus detach from the divan frame. Also, movement of the vehicles causes the seats to experience certain loading forces, especially when occupied by a passenger. These loading forces can cause the seat frame to become slightly bent or skewed, which adversely affects the operation of the drawer to close or slide in and out properly.
Accordingly, a need exists for an improved drawer assembly for use with a seat on a passenger vehicle.

Independent divan door and drawer assembly


A computer implemented system facilities the submission of clinical events data to a reviewing agency by prompting for data needed to authorize the appropriateness of the event. The system directs an appropriate submission to authorize the event. The system further stores the patient clinical event data and presents the data for review. The system confirms that the clinical event is appropriate by referring to the input data and predetermined validation rules.

Clinical care rendered by physicians and other health care providers is reviewed for utilization management, quality of care, and other review or analytic functions by reviewing entities charges with these functions. Utilization management is usually performed by a health maintenance organization (HMO) or other managed care organization (MCO).
When a healthcare provider (HCP) examines and treats a patient, the HCP records the examination in a clinical chart. Under industry custom, designated personnel at the health care site extract clinical information from the chart and transmit the clinical data to the reviewing entity by telephone or fax.
At the reviewing organization, personnel manually input this clinical data into an electronic form with one or more text fields. The information is then reviewed by one or more professional personnel to determine appropriateness of care. Determinations of the appropriateness of care are then communicated back to the health care site by phone or fax (negative determinations also require a formal letter of denial).
Moreover, because the clinical information has been electronically input into text fields without any format, the reviewing organization lacks the ability to electronically evaluate this data for appropriateness of care. Determinations are made manually. Determinations are often inconsistent for similar clinical situations by the same reviewer or among multiple reviewers. There is almost no way to systematically evaluate this data among multiple clinical episodes to see patterns of care.
As may be gathered from the description above, the process for submitting and reviewing clinical records is cumbersome and time consuming. Both the HCP and the MCO dedicate personnel and other resources to the sole task of managing and processing clinical data. Accordingly, there is a need for a system that facilitates the generation and processing of clinical records, which provides sufficient data to the MCO, and which facilitate the speedy processing and authorizing of the records.

Clinical care utilization management system


A lap counter for use by a swimmer, has a case for attaching to the swimmer, and a compass sensor housed in the case for providing an output signal which changes between opposite directions along which the swimmer swims back and forth. An operating circuit includes a processor programmed to distinguish the change in the output signal of the compass sensor between the opposite directions to identify a reversal in direction of swimming by the swimmer and to count laps, each lap being based on two successive reversals in direction. The processor may also be programmed to distinguish the change in the compass sensor output signal to detect a rise above an upper threshold and a subsequent fall below a lower threshold, or vice versa, to identify, a wave in the output signal that represents a swimming stroke of the swimmer and to count the strokes.

The most important concern for a swimming enthusiast or athlete swimmer is the distance that he/she swims in a training session. Since in the majority of cases people swim in a swimming pool of a standard length such as 25 or 50 meters, the swimming distance can be measured by reference to the lap count. Mentally counting the laps can be both inaccurate and mentally taxing, and is certainly a red herring preventing the swimmer from fully concentrating on the performance.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,045 discloses a waterproof digital lap counter having the lap counter attached to a hand or foot, which is triggered by abutment of the lap counter against the side of the swimming pool during the swimming stroke or flip turn of the swimmer. There are several similar swimming lap counter products on the market, which invariably include a switch or press button for the user to press once a lap is finished.
A major disadvantage or problem associated with such lap counters lies in the need to manually operate a switch at the end of each lap. This is an extra action required from the swimmer that interrupts the swimmer's strokes and/or prevents him from performing a smooth turn.
The invention seeks to eliminate or to at least alleviate such a problem by providing a new or otherwise improved swimming lap counter that is more convenient to use.


A support member for a voice coil former in an audio transducer is described. The support member comprises a bridge between the inner surface of the voice coil former and a radiating surface, such as a diaphragm or cone, which is disposed in the center of the voice coil former. The support member provides added rigidity to reduce wobble during operation of the transducer.

The background description includes information that may be useful in understanding the present inventive subject matter. It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed inventive subject matter, or that any publication specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
Transducers (i.e., audio loudspeakers) are well known and generally comprise a radiating surface (e.g., dome, diaphragm, membrane, cone, etc) attached to a voice coil former (also referred to as a bobbin). The voice coil former is attached to a voice coil, which is suspended in a static magnetic field. An amplifier is electrically coupled to the voice coil and provides a current (i.e., signal) to the voice coil. The current produces an electromagnetic field around the coil, which interacts with the static magnetic field and causes the coil to vibrate up and down. The coil, in turn, causes the radiating surface to vibrate, which vibrates the surrounding air to produce audio waves.
One of the problems with transducers is the tendency of the voice coil former to flex and bend as it vibrates up and down. Bending of the voice coil former allows the radiating surface to "wobble" in a sideways motion, which can produce unwanted resonance and sub-optimal sound quality.
US20090214075 to Inoue discloses a loudspeaker having a vibration system comprising (i) a dome diaphragm, (ii) a cone diaphragm, and (iii) a voice coil bobbin. Inoue improves the rigidity of the vibration system by providing a high-strength adhesive bond between the dome diaphragm and the voice coil bobbin.
All materials and references cited herein are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each individual reference were specifically and individually indicated to be incorporated by reference. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
US20100303278 to Sahyoun discloses a low profile speaker that reduces wobble of the voice coil former by using a cone diaphragm that attaches to the former at a point slightly below the top of the former.
Inoue, Sahyoun, and all other known prior art references fail to contemplate that a voice coil former can be reinforced and stiffened by corrugating the top circumferential surface of the former. Furthermore, these references fail to appreciate that a voice coil former can be reinforced and stiffened from the interior side of the former.
Thus, there is still a need for voice coil formers with improved stiffness.


A configurable buss element for an electricity meter includes a conductive piece of metal formed into a series of contact connectors and a network of elongate conductors extending between and among the series of contact connectors. Each of the plurality of contact connectors is configured to contact a circuit element of an electricity meter. The network of elongate conductors is operable to provide connectivity between the contact connectors and select portions of the conductive piece of metal in one of a plurality of connectivity configurations, each of the connectivity configurations corresponding to an electricity meter configuration, the select one of the plurality of connectivity configurations defined by a predetermined set of discontinuities introduced in the network of elongate conductors.

Meters are used to measure electricity consumption.
To this end, they include sensor devices that connect to and or interact with the utility power lines (sensor equipment) and electronic circuits for performing various calculations using signals generated by the sensor devices.
Sensor devices typically include blades received by meter socket jaws and provide a mechanically and electrically sound connection for handling large currents and voltages. The blades are often connected within the meter by large current carrying conductors. Sensor devices may also include current measurement devices, which can include a sensing coil of some sort. Voltage and current signals are obtained from these devices and provided to a circuit board that may include a/d converters and processing circuits that perform metering calculations.
One source of cost in the meter is the connection between the sensor devices and the electronic circuitry on the circuit board. Sensor devices are too large to be on circuit board. Typically, sensor devices are mounted to the housing below circuit board and then wire connections are provided to the circuit board. Wires are soldered or connected by terminals.
The manufacturing process of wiring sensor devices to a printed circuit board in a meter has drawbacks, including the labor cost of individually connecting wires, as well as potential quality problems, e.g., difficult to run wires and manipulate them in the small interior.
One alternative is provided by Schlumberger. This meter has preformed mounts for sensors, and leaf spring terminals that extend upward form the sensors to the circuit board. Although this meter alleviates the drawbacks of handwiring, it still has drawbacks.
One problem is that a custom mount must be made for each meter form. In particular, different meters often have different blade and sensor configurations. Specifically, various standardized meter forms have been defined that require different wiring and connections between and among the blade and sensor elements. The different meter forms result from the fact that electrical service is provided in different ways to different customers, and the methods of measuring these different types of services changes.
By way of example, FIGS. 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e, 1f, 1g and 1h show different sensor wiring configurations for different meter forms. Each of FIGS. 1a-1h shows a representation of a meter base 12 showing the layout of the current blades 14 and a schematic diagram of the connections within the meter base 12, including transformers/coils, potential blades 18 and neutral blades 18a. In addition, many meter forms include switchable potential links 19 as is known in the art.
FIG. 1a shows a form 16/15S four wire wire meter configuration, FIG. 1b shows a form 25S three wire meter configuration, FIG. 1c shows a form 45S three wire configuration, and FIG. 1d shows a 12S three wire configuration. The meter forms illustrated in FIGS. 1a-1d are known as "self-contained" meter forms because the meter blades connect directly to the power lines. By contrast FIGS. 1e-1h illustrated transformer-rated meter forms, which couple to the power lines through a transformer. Specifically, FIG. 1e shows a form 29S four wire configuration, FIG. 1f shows a form 36S four wire configuration, FIG. 1g shows a form 56S three wire configuration, and FIG. 1h shows a form 9/8S four wire configuration. Such meter forms and their configurations as represented in FIGS. 1a-1h are well known in the art.
Because different meter forms require different blade and sensor wiring connections, the use of customized base mounts requires that different base mounts be created for each form, which is not always a cost effective solution because of the tooling costs and logistical costs of manufacturing and maintaining several custom designs.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method of reducing the amount of labor involved in wiring sensor devices of electricity meters to the smaller components on the circuit boards of utility meters that does not require custom molds and manufacturing techniques for each different meter form.

Configurable utility meter connection interface


A dummy gate cell includes an nMOS transistor and a pMOS transistor, wherein a drain electrode of the nMOS transistor is not connected to a drain electrode of the pMOS transistor and the dummy gate cell is disposed in an unused area not occupied by a basic cell in a cell-based IC.

A cell-based integrated circuit (IC) is a type of an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC).
That is, the cell-based IC is a semi-custom large-scale integrated circuit (LSI) designed and manufactured by combining various logical cells prepared in advance as a library.
The cell-based IC is, for example, configured as an IC by mixing large-scale circuit blocks (mega cells or macro cells) and basic standard cells (basic circuits).
The cell-based IC realized by the standard cells may include random logics.
Conventionally, a cell-based semi-custom designing method has been widely used in designing an ASIC.
In this designing method, common intellectual properties (IP) registered to a library are combined and an automatic layout wiring tool is used, thus promoting the enhancement of efficiency in IC designing.
As ICs are advancing toward the reduction in size, charges are accumulated in a wiring pattern due to an etching process, or the like of an IC, and the charges flow to a device through a gate electrode to generate a so-called antenna effect of degrading the characteristics of the device.
Various techniques for preventing the antenna effect have been proposed.
In the related art, the solutions to the general antenna effect include restraining a length of a wiring directly connected to a gate electrode to restraining an antenna ratio and increasing an area of an antenna diode to increase a maximum ratio.
Here, the antenna ratio refers to a ratio of an area of a signal wiring (metal wiring) connected to a gate electrode to an area of the gate electrode (a gate area) in a CMOS transistor. Further, the antenna diode is used to release accumulated charges.
However, the countermeasures to restrain the length of a wiring directly connected to the gate electrode in order to restrain the antenna ratio and increase the area of the antenna diode in order to increase the maximum ratio, and the like, in a situation in which a gate area is reduced as ICs are increasingly reduced in size, have problems in that wiring convenience are lowered and usage efficiency of an area is degraded.

Dummy gate cell, cell-based IC, and portable device


A bipolar transistor, comprising a collector, a base and an emitter, in which the collector comprises a relatively heavily doped region, and a relatively lightly doped region adjacent the base, and in which the relatively heavily doped region is substantially omitted from an intrinsic region of the transistor.

For a bipolar transistor, it is desirable that the collector current IC is only a function of the base current IB with the ratio of these two being defined as the current gain β of the transistor. However, as shown in FIG. 1, for a constant base current the collector current is not independent of the collector-emitter voltage in the region, generally designated 10, where the transistor is fully operational but instead the collector current varies with the voltage across the transistor. This region 10 can be extrapolated backwards to an intercept with the voltage across the transistor, and the intercept, generally designated VA, is known as the "early voltage."
It is desirable for the slope of the region 10 to be as near horizontal as possible, which corresponds to a desire for the early voltage to be as large as possible, within the confines of other constraints on the fabrication of the transistor, such as the fabrication process used to form the transistors or at least the majority of the transistors within a semiconductor substrate.


A simple structure socket 10 for connecting a ball grid array integrated circuit device to a test circuit has a base 14, contacts 26 arranged corresponding to the ball grid array, a nest assembly 16 of two comb structures 70 and a lever assembly 18 for spacing opposed tip portions of each contact away from each other to define a gap for receiving a ball. The lever assembly has two rectangular frames 86 each made of a distal cross piece 94, a proximal cross piece and two side pieces connecting the distal and proximal cross pieces. The two rectangular frames are arranged so that the side pieces are intersected at substantially mid portions thereof. This allows that, by depressing the proximal cross pieces toward the base, the distal cross pieces forces the comb structures toward each other.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,498,970 discloses a socket for temporary connection of a ball grid array (BGA) integrated circuit device to a test circuit. The socket has a pattern of contacts corresponding to a ball grid array of the integrated circuit device. Each of the contacts has a set of two cantilever arms and terminating in tips adapted to capture one solder ball of the ball grid array integrated circuit. A nest structure is provided for causing the each pair of tips to move between an open position in which the tips are spaced away from each other sufficiently for receiving the associated solder ball and a closed position in which the tips are resiliently forced to grasp the ball. The nest structure is made of a pair of opposed combs each having a number of parallel cantilever racks with spaced projections and assembled with each other so that the racks of two combs are positioned alternately. The assembled nest structure is mounted on the contacts so that each of the projections of one comb engages with one of the tips of the contact and each of the projections of the other comb engages with the other of the tips. This allows that, by the movement of the combs in opposite directions, the paired tips of each contact move away from each other to move between the open and closed positions. This action is performed by an operation mechanism made of two U-shaped brackets each having a cross piece and two upstanding arms extending substantially perpendicular to the cross piece. The two bracket are nested facing each other and have the arms pinned to each other at approximately their midpoints with a hole. The nested brackets are provided around the combs so that one longitudinal upper edge of each cross piece is brought into contact with an outer surface portion of the associated comb. Also, a rectangular top cover is placed on the brackets so that a bottom of the cover faces and contacts with opposite ends of the upstanding arms, away from the cross piece. This allows that, simply by depressing the top cover with a downward pressure, the brackets rotate to each other and to have the longitudinal upper edges of the cross pieces force the combs toward each other, which results in that the paired tips are moved to the open position. Then, simply by releasing the downward pressure, the paired tips spring back their free positions.
According to the conventional socket, the BGA circuit device is easy to be connected with the test circuit through a simple action. However, an open space on the BGA integrated circuit is restricted within the rectangular top cover. This in turn restricts the size of a heat sink mounted on the BGA for dissipation of heat generated at the testing BGA circuit device.

Socket for connecting ball-grid-array integrated circuit device to test circuit


A beverage container for a brewing machine comprising a filter cup having a frame including an upper peripheral member and a lower peripheral member and filter material extending thereabout, a cover formed of a flexible material, the cover having a circular recess formed on a lower side of the cover to receive an upper wall of the upper peripheral member, the circular recess having an enlarged portion to receive a guide rib such that the cover is placed on the container in a predetermined location.

The use of single cup brewing machines has become extremely popular for the past few years. The brewing machines are designed to brew a single cup of a drinking liquid. Such liquids or beverages include coffee, tea, chug drinks, etc. It suffices to say that there are many different beverages which can be brewed in such a machine.
The brewing machine basically comprises means for receiving the base of the beverage to be brewed. For simplicity, reference herein will be made to coffee as the beverage, although, as mentioned above, many different beverages can be prepared in such machines.
Most of the brewing machines have a place to receive the ground coffee and to maintain the coffee in a desired location. The brewing liquid (typically hot water) is then passed through the ground coffee to produce the final beverage.
With the advent of such machines, there is a demand for pre-packaged doses of the ground coffee. Sometimes these are placed in a permanent mesh filter and other times, they are pre-packaged in a disposable filter.

Beverage container for brewing apparatus


An improved etching method allowing the formation of a silicon nitride film with an adequate film thickness at the sidewall portion of a pattern is disclosed. A silicon nitride film formed to cover a stepped pattern is dry-etched, employing plasma of mixed gases containing CH.sub.2 F.sub.2 and O.sub.2. As a result, a sidewall spacer of the silicon nitride film is formed at the sidewall of the pattern in a self-aligned manner.

Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method of etching, and more particularly to an etching method using a silicon nitride stopper for forming a self aligned direct contact to be used in a memory cell such as RAM (Random Access Memory) and SRAM (Static Random Access Memory).
Conventional methods of selectively etching a silicon nitride film include wet etching using hot phosphoric acid, and dry etching using CH.sub.2 F.sub.2 or CH.sub.3 F as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-12765.
However, in a memory cell portion in which a self aligned direct contact is to be formed using a silicon nitride stopper, if the silicon nitride film provided as the stopper layer is removed by wet etching, which will proceed isotropically, a problem will arise that the silicon nitride film cannot be left on the sidewall portion of a pattern as desired.
Further, if a parallel-plate type reactive ion etching system (RIE) is employed with conventionally known reactive gases such as CF.sub.4 and CHF.sub.3, each rate will become higher at the sidewall portion of a pattern than at the bottom of the hole due to sputtering effect, and thus it is difficult to form a sidewall of the silicon nitride film with a necessary height. Moreover, if the above-mentioned dry etching method as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-12765 is employed, as the etch selectivity of a silicon oxide film to a silicon nitride film is 10 or higher, etching will stop at the silicon oxide film located beneath the silicon nitride film, and thus an electrical contact fails.

Method of manufacturing semiconductor device

Ryoden Semiconductor System Engineering Corporation


There is disclosed a multi-layer laminate molding having a layer structure that a main material layer made mainly of a polyethylenic resin at the outer side and an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer saponified product layer or polyamide resin layer at the inner side are laminated through at least an adhesive material layer, the adhesive material layer comprising a resin composition containing (A) 60 to 95% by weight of at least one resin selected from the-group consisting of (1) a high density polyethylenic resin having specified physical properties, (2) a linear low density polyethylenic resin having specified physical properties, (3) a modified high density polyethylenic resin obtained by grafting unsaturated carboxylic acid and the like onto the above (1), and (4) a modified linear low density polyethylenic resin obtained by grafting unsaturated carboxylic acid and the-like onto the above (2), and containing at least 0.1% by weight of (3) and/or (4) and (B) 40 to 5% by weight of a linear ultra low density polyethylenic resin having specified, physical properties said resin composition having a proportion of the unsaturated carboxylic acid and the like grafted of 0.001 to 50% by weight, the difference in acoustic impedance between the main material layer and adhesive material layer being at least 8.5.times.10.sup.-3 g/cm.sup.2 .multidot..mu.sec. This multi-layer laminate molding is excellent in barrier properties, and non-destructive detection of the adhesive material layer can be carried out easily by the supersonic wave reflection method.

As has heretofore been well known, multi-layer laminate moldings obtained by laminating a-non-polyolefinic resin, such as a polyamide resin (PA), a polyester resin, a saponified-product of an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (ethylene-vinyl alcohol copolymer), a halogen-containing resin, e.g., a polyvinyl chloride resin (PVC) and a polyvinylidene chloride resin (PVDC), a polycarbonate resin (PC), and a polymer alloy of a polyphenylene oxide resin and PA, a foil of metal, such as aluminum, iron, copper, tin, nickel and the like, an alloy containing the metal as a major component (for example, stainless steel), and the like, a synthetic resin film having aluminum, silica and the like vacuum-deposited thereon, and so forth, have functions of barrier properties against gas and steam, an improvement in the appearance, such as surface gloss, coating properties, and so forth, and are widely used as various moldings, such as wrapping containers, wrapping bags, and industrial members.
Many of these multi-layer laminate moldings employ, as a main material layer, from viewpoints of an economical point, moldability and workability, sealability, moisture resistance and water resistance, and to forth, a structure that a high-pressure-process polyethylenic resin (low density polyethylenic resin), a moderate or low-pressure-process polyethylenic-resin (linear low density to high density polyethylenic resin), a polypropylenic resin an olefinic copolymer resin and a composition containing these as the major component and various fillers, such as calcium carbonate, talc, mica, glass fibers, carbon fibers, organic fibers and the like; compounded thereto; if necessary.
Since these polyolefinic resins have a non-polar molecular structure, they are poor in adhesive properties to, affinity to, and compatibility with the aforementioned-non-polyolefinic resins, metallic materials and the like, and imparting the aforementioned characteristics by polar monomer modification (graft polymerization) of the polyolefinic resin, using a copolymer of olefin (particularly ethylene) and a polar monomer, compounding (blending) a polar resin, or treating with chemical, or physical means, is widely employed. Particularly in the case that molding is conducted by a coextrusion method, it is well known that with a so-called modified polyolefinic resin modified with a polar monomer, as an adhesive material, a multi-layer laminate with the aforementioned various materials is produced (for example, Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 12782/1986 and 39448/1980, and "'87-2 (Wrapping Material Report), Trend of Market and Course of Development of Coextrusion Multi-Layer Films and Sheets (Sogo Hoso Shuppan Co, Ltd., published on Feb. 27, 1987, pages 285 to 293).
When such multi-layer laminates are produced, it is considered that with one-way Containers and the like which are relatively short in the period of use, and are not subject to high impact at the step of production of products or commodities, and at the step of transportation, there is no high need for performance such as interlayer adhesive strength. However, with moldings such as containers, bags, members and the like which are required to have long term durability and high resistance against vibration and-various types of impact, not only adhesive performance and durability of the adhesive material layer are of great importance, but also it is more important and necessary to confirm the presence or absence of the adhesive material layer constituting the molding, at a desired position.
If in the multi-layer laminate molding, particularly a container, a bag and the like, there is a site where the adhesive layer is, entirely or partially, removed owing to an unidentified cause, it is a risk that mechanical characteristics could be reduced. In the evaluation of durability over a long period, when the contents are liquid or gaseous, there is a possibility that the contents remain in the disconnected point, exerting influences on the whole of the multi-layer laminate molding, reducing the performance, and moreover reducing the appearance, and finally reducing the product value. Moreover, there is a possibility that water, moisture and the like from the atmosphere remain in the disconnected point, exerting the same influences as above.
Accordingly, when there are such possibilities, it is necessary to confirm that the adhesive material layer in the multi-layer laminate molding is present over the whole of the desired place. There has not been known a method which enables to detect the presence of the adhesive material layer, easily and economically, without destructing the multi-layer laminate molding.
Although as a method of confirming in advance the presence of the adhesive material layers of the multi-layer laminate molding, a method in which part of the laminate molding is cut and the cross section of the cut portion is examined by various techniques (for example, examination using a magnifying loupes, an optical microscope, and the like), is in general use, a sample used for this confirmation cannot be used as a molding. In accordance with this method, it is only assumed that the adhesive material layer in the multi-layer laminate molding could be present; this method is not a sufficiently sure method .
On the other hand, in multi-layer laminate moldings which are of relatively high transparency, the presence of the adhesive material layer can be confirmed by employing an optically analytical technique and so forth. However, this method is limited to relatively thin ones, and influenced by the molecular structure of the non-polyolefinic resin material Therefore, the method lacks reliability.
Moreover, a method may be considered, in which the adhesive material layer is colored by using an adhesive material in which a colorant, such as pigment, is compounded, and the presence of the adhesive material layer is confirmed with the sight or by the use of a color difference meter and so forth. However, the method imposes serious limitations to the product appearance, and when-the outer-layer is opaque and the thickness of the layer is large, the method is not applicable.
Accordingly, in general, the aforementioned methods confirming in advance, and a technique in which the presence of the adhesive material layer is-controlled by checking the amounts of the adhesive material used before and after molding of the product, and by comparing the amount of the adhesive material used with the amount calculated or estimated from the thickness, surface area and density of the adhesive material layer in the laminate molding, are employed. In addition, there is proposed a method in which a detecting medium, such as iron powder or glass fiber, is introduced into a specified layer in multi-layer extrusion molding, and detected by the use of a magnetic sensor or a supersonic wave head, respectively (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 260417/1988). This introduction, however, is not practical in respect of reduction in adhesive properties, durability, flexibility, impact resistance and so forth.
In recent years, it has been proposed to use a laminate molding as a fuel oil container, such as an automobile tank, which is required to have long term durability and high resistance against vibration and various types of impact.
Heretofore, metallic tanks have been used, but the trend is moving to tanks made of synthetic resins from view-points of reduction in the-weight of the tank, freedom of the shape, an increase in the volume, anti-rusting properties, and so forth (for example, Tsuzuki et al. "Plastics" Vol. 23, No. 8, page 52 (1972), ibid,, Vol. 23, No. 5, page 113 (1972), ibid., Vol. 23, No. 11, page 131 (1972), "Nikkei New Materials" published on Feb. 29, 1988, pages 34 to 35, and Hara et al., "Plastics" Vol. 39, No. 6, page 109 (1988)). In addition, for improving gas-liquid barrier property of fuel oil there is proposed a fuel oil container comprising a plurality of layers, in which the number of layers in the tank is increased, and as the material of each layer, a high density polyethylenic resin, a modified polyethylenic resin, a polyamide resin and the like are used (for example, Kurihara et ale, SAE Technical Paper Series, No. 870304 (23 to Feb. 27, 1987), Fukuhara, "Plastics Age" Vol. 35, No. 3, page 129 (1989)). In connection with the structure, there are a 3-type 3-layer structure in which a high density polyethylenic resin is used as the outer layer, a modified polyethylenic layer is used as the intermediate layer, and a polyamide resin is used as the inner layer, and a 3-type 5-layer structure in which a high density polyethylenic resin is used as the inner and outer layers, a polyamide resin is used as the intermediate layer, and an adhesive layer is provided between each of the inner and outer layers, and the intermediate layer; they are considered greatly promising as fuel tanks having permeation resistance against fuel oil.
As similar ones, there are, for example, multi-layer. moldings comprising at least a modified polyolefinic resin layer having adhesive properties to a polyamide resin/a polyamide resin layer, or a modified polyolefinic resin layer/polyamide resin layer/a modified polyolefinic-resin layers A polyamide resin such as polyamide 6 (Nylon 6) and the like has excellent permeation resistance against fuel oil, particularly gasoline.
On the other hand, in view of recent circumstances, so-called alcohol mixed gasoline-as obtained by mixing alcohol, such as methyl alcohol, ethyl alcohol or the like, with gasoline has already been used in areas mainly with South America, and this tendency is gradually spreading over areas with North America as the center. Investigation of material exhibiting good barrier performance when used for such so-called alcohol mixed gasoline confirmed that a saponified product of an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (hereinafter referred to as "EVOH") is excellent.
Moreover, in addition to the fact that polyethylenic adhesive materials heretofore known are seriously insufficient in respect of adhesive properties to EVOH or PA and long term adhesive durability, it is greatly important, as described hereinafter, in containers having such a multi-layer structure that the positive presence of the adhesive material layer between the main material layer and the barrier material such as EVOH or PA is confirmed.
The reason is that a fuel oil tank mounted on a car is estimated to be one of the important safety parts and is required to-have greatly severe and high level performance Accordingly the case is the same with a multi-layer fuel tank provided with permeation resistance against fuel oil. For a modified polyethylenic resin as the adhesive material and the barrier layer to be used in such tanks, more stringent performance as a tank are required. With regard to the adhesive resin as used herein, it is necessary that adhesive properties to the polyethylenic resin and EVOH or
and the long term durability under various circumstances are excellent, excellent mechanical-characteristics, thermal characteristics and chemical characteristics are possessed, and moldability and workability are good. Moreover, since these characteristics are exhibited greatly on condition that the adhesive material layer surely exists in the molding, it is more important to establish a method of confirming the presence or absence of the adhesive material layer.
In summary, if in the multi-layer liquid fuel oil tank, there is a site where the adhesive layer is, entirely or partially, removed owing to an unidentified cause, not only mechanical characteristics such as impact resistance are reduced, but also in connection with the long term durability, the fuel oil and the like remain in the removed site, seriously reducing various performances of the tank and causing serious problems. For this reason, with commodities such as the aforementioned multi-layer laminate fuel oil tanks, confirmation of the presence of the adhesive material layer has become an indispensable, important item of control. However, an established technique to confirm the presence of the adhesive material layer without destructing the product having such a multi-layer structure, has not been known at all as described hereinbefore. Although detecting the . presence of the EVOH layer in the above multi-layer structure without destructing the container can be attained by using a super sonic wave reflection method, it is difficult to detect the presence of the adhesive material layer in the multi-layer laminate molding having the structure of EVOH or PA layer/adhesive material layer/main material layer, without destructing the molding, and no attempts has been made.
Although the invention described in the aforementioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 260417/1988 is fairly effective more concrete examples and data of various materials are not available, and moreover it is considered that the invention has a problem in respect of follow-up properties in detection when the rate of injection of the multi-layer parison is high. Furthermore, since it is important, as described above, that the presence of the layer in the container is finally confirmed, the invention is considered to be inadequate in those points.
In addition, multi-layer laminate moldings such as containers and bags for use in industrial chemicals, or edible oil and water-containing foodstuffs, more particularly juice, fruits, vegetables, meat, fish and so forth, are required to have particularly high barrier properties, water resistance and durability in order to prevent deterioration of quality of the contents, and it is important that the adhesive material layer is detected without breaking the molding.
As described above, as multi-layer laminate moldings, such as containers and bags, for which are required long term durability, barrier properties, and high resistance against vibration and various types of impact, for example, fuel oil containers and edible oil containers, no sufficiently satisfactory ones have been proposed yet.
Thus the present inventors have made various investigations about a method of detection using supersonic wave and a combination of a main-material layer composed mainly of a polyolefinic resin and an adhesive material layer in order to overcome the above problems of, the prior art techniques and, as a result, it has been discovered that non-destructive detection of the adhesive material layer using the supersonic wave reflection method, which has not heretofore been known, can be attained by using a specified adhesive material and controlling a difference in acoustic impedance between the main material layer and the adhesive material layer to a specified value or more.
Based on the findings, the present invention has been accomplished, and the object of the present invention is to provide a multi-layer laminate molding which Is excellent in characteristics such as barrier properties, permits non-destructive detection of an adhesive material layer, and is free of a site where the adhesive material layer is removed even if partially.


A piezoelectric buzzer includes a housing unit, a buzzer unit, and first and second terminals. The housing unit includes first and second housings coupled together. The second housing includes a base plate and a pair of spaced apart insert seats, each of which protrudes inwardly from the base plate toward the first housing and is formed with an insert hole. The buzzer unit is disposed in the resonant chamber and includes a vibrating plate and a piezoelectric plate attached to the vibrating plate. The first and second terminals are inserted respectively into the insert holes of the insert seats, and have a respective connection section extending outwardly of the housing unit, and a respective extending section abutting against a respective one of the vibrating plate and the piezoelectric plate.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a buzzer, more particularly to a piezoelectric buzzer.
2. Description of the Related Art
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a conventional piezoelectric buzzer 1 includes a first housing 11, a second housing 12 coupled to the first housing 11 and cooperating with the first housing 11 to define a resonant chamber 10, a buzzer unit 13 disposed in the resonant chamber 10, and conductive first and second terminals 14, 15.
The second housing 12 includes a base plate 121 and a pair of spaced apart insert seats 122, each of which protrudes outwardly from the base plate 121 and is formed with an insert hole 123. The buzzer unit 13 includes a metallic vibrating plate 131, and a piezoelectric plate 132 made from ceramic material and attached to the vibrating plate 131.
Each of the first and second terminals 14, 15 is inserted into the insert hole 123 in a respective one of the insert seats 122 of the second housing 12. The first terminal 14 has a first connection section 141 extending outwardly of the resonant chamber 10, a first extending section 142 extending from the first connection section 141 into the resonant chamber 10 and extending toward the buzzer unit 13, and a first contact point 143 spot-welded to one end of the first extending section 142 and contacting electrically the vibrating plate 131 of the buzzer unit 13. The second terminal 15 has a second connection section 151 extending outwardly of the resonant chamber 10, a second extending section 152 extending from the second connection section 151 into the resonant chamber 10 and extending toward the buzzer unit 13, and a second contact point 153 spot-welded to one end of the second extending section 152 and contacting electrically the piezoelectric plate 132 of the buzzer unit 13. Application of an alternating current voltage to the vibrating plate 131 and the piezoelectric plate 132 via the first and second connection sections 141, 151 will cause mechanical distortion of the vibrating plate 131 due to the piezoelectric effect, thereby generating sounds.
To firmly position the first and second terminals 14, 15, the insert seats 122 of the second housing 12 are disposed to protrude outwardly from the base plate 121 of the second housing 12 for making the insert holes 123 deeper. However, the outwardly protruding insert seats 122 result in a relatively thick piezoelectric buzzer. The thickness of the conventional piezoelectric buzzer is 6.8 millimeters measured from the first housing 11 to the base plate 121 of the second housing 12, which hinders application to some electronic devices, such as on-board units (OBU) for Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system (the maximum standard thickness being 6.2 millimeters). Moreover, the relatively large distances between each of the first and second connection sections 141, 151 and the buzzer unit 3 weaken the resilient contact forces of the first and second extending sections 142, 152 for abutting respectively against the vibrating plate 131 and the piezoelectric plate 132, thereby resulting in poor contact quality therebetween. Furthermore, the spot-welding of the first and second contact points 143, 153 results in a relatively complicated and time-consuming manufacturing process for the piezoelectric buzzer.


To eliminate wasteful use of thermal stencil paper and thereby provide an inexpensive stamp device, a single thermal head is employed for both the thermal recording on a reversible thermal recording sheet for confirmation of a stamp image and the thermal perforation through the thermal stencil paper for creation of a stamp original. The stamp image is first thermally recorded on the reversible thermal recording sheet; the stamp image thus recorded is then confirmed; and the thermal stencil paper is thermally perforated in accordance with the stamp image to create the stamp original. The stamp device of the present invention includes a thermal head 19, a thermal stencil paper 24 adapted to be thermally perforated by the thermal head 19 to form a dot image as a stamp image, a reversible thermal recording sheet 101 adapted to be heated by the thermal head 19 to thermally record an image corresponding to the stamp image, so as to confirm the stamp image, and a heating roller pair 90 for erasing the image thermally recorded on the reversible thermal recording sheet 101.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stamp device for forming an image on a thermal stencil paper and transferring the image to a recording paper and, more particularly, to a stamp device enabling an operator to confirm the image to be formed on the thermal stencil paper.
2. Description of the Related Art
A rubber stamp is conventionally used to print various representations such as an address and name of a person or company. Such a rubber stamp is useful and convenient in the case of repeatedly printing the same characters. Another type of printing device is a depression type stamp device employing a thermal stencil paper as described in parent U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/811,974. This device will now be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a stamp device 1 of the parent application. The stamp device 1 includes a keyboard 10, a body 11, a stamp 12, and a liquid crystal display (which will be hereinafter referred simply to as a "display") 14 having the predetermined number of display columns. The keyboard 10 includes a character key 42 for inputting characters such as Japanese "kana" character and alphabet, and also includes various function keys such as a stamp original creating key.
As shown in FIG. 8 which is a cross section taken along the line F--F in FIG. 9, the body 11 is constituted of a stencil paper holding section 15, an original creating section 16, a stamp holding section 17, and a control section 18. The stamp 12 is constituted of a grip 13, a stamp body 28, a spring 29, and an ink pad 30. The original creating section 16 includes a thermal head 19 as heating means. The thermal head 19 is pressed against a platen roller 20. A thermal stencil paper (which will be hereinafter referred simply to as a "stencil paper") 24 is drawn by a stencil paper drawing roller 21, and is fed by stencil paper feeding roller pairs 22 to between the thermal head 19 and the platen roller 20.
After the stencil paper 24 is thermally perforated by the thermal head 19, it is further fed by the stencil paper feeding roller pairs 22 and stencil paper feeding rollers 23 to under the stamp 12. The stamp body 28 of the stamp 12 is secured to a supporting member (not shown) with a gap 27 defined between the ink pad 30 and the stencil paper feeding rollers 23 in the stamp holding section 17. The thermally perforated stencil paper 24 is fed by the stencil paper feeding roller pairs 22 and the stencil paper feeding rollers 23 by a predetermined amount so as to come to just under the ink pad 30.
The stencil paper 24 is formed by bonding a thermoplastic film to a porous carrier. The stencil paper 24 is used under the condition where the thermoplastic film side is adapted to contact the thermal head 19. As shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, a frame 25 is bonded onto the stencil paper 24.
The thermal head 19 has a head body provided with a heat generating element array. The heat generating element array consists of a plurality of heat generating elements, e.g., 96 heat generating elements are arranged in line in the stamp device 1. These heat generating elements are arranged adjacent to each other in a direction perpendicular to a feeding direction of the stencil paper 24. The heat generating element array is driven at a predetermined timing in accordance with feed of the stencil paper 24 to thereby thermally perforate the stencil paper 24 according to data input from the keyboard 10.
A control system of the stamp device 1 will be described with reference to the block diagram shown in FIG. 12. The keyboard 10 is connected to an input interface 58 in a microcomputer 56. The input interface 58 is connected through a bus line 60 to a CPU 62, a ROM 64, a RAM 66, a character generator (CG-ROM) 68 for thermal perforation of the stencil paper 24, a character generator (CG-ROM) 69 for display, and an output interface 70.
The ROM 64 includes a program memory 71 previously storing a program for controlling the whole operation of the stamp device 1 and a dictionary memory 72 to be used for kana/kanji conversion where Japanese "kana" characters are converted into Chinese "kanji" characters or the like. The RAM 66 includes an input buffer 73 for storing data input from the keyboard 10, a thermal perforation buffer 74 and a shift register 75 for storing data for thermal perforation of the stencil paper 24, and other necessary counters and registers.
The CG-ROM 68 serves to generate dot patterns according to code data of characters input, and the CG-ROM 69 serves to generate dot patterns to be displayed on the display 14.
A head driving circuit 76, a motor driving circuit 77 and a display driving circuit 78 are connected to the output interface 70. The thermal head 19, paper feeding motors 32 and the display 14 are connected to the circuits 76, 77 and 78, respectively.
The operation of creating a stamp original by the stamp device 1 will now be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 13. When power is applied to the stamp device 1, the buffers, registers, etc. in the RAM 66 are initialized, and the others are also initialized in step S1 (which will be hereinafter referred simply to as "S1" and the other steps will also similarly referred). Then, a string of characters is input from the keyboard 10 with the characters displayed on the display 14. That is, data for thermal perforation is input from the character key 42, and it is stored into the input buffer 73 in S2, S3 and S4. At the same time, in S5, the characters corresponding to the thermal perforation data are displayed on the display 14 through the CG-ROM 69.
When the stamp original creating key is depressed, S7 is executed after S2 and S6, in which the dot patterns generated in the CG-ROM 68 according to the code data input are developed in the thermal perforation buffer 74. Then, the program proceeds to S8 in which the dot patterns developed in the thermal perforation buffer 74 are transferred by every row of dots to the shift register 75 to thermally perforate the stencil paper 24 in accordance with the row of dots. In S9, it is determined whether or not all the thermal perforation data have been output to the stencil paper 24, and the steps of S8 and S9 are repeated to finally obtain the result of thermal perforation constituted of 96 dots over the length of the heat generating element array. At this time, the thermally perforated stencil paper 24 is fed by the stencil paper feeding roller pairs 22 and the stencil paper feeding rollers 23 in a direction D shown in FIG. 8.
When the grip 13 of the stamp 12 is depressed toward the stencil paper 24 against the spring 29, the ink pad 30 comes into contact with the stencil paper 24. Owing to the viscosity of ink impregnated in the ink pad 30, the stencil paper 24 adheres to the ink pad 30. Then, the stamp 12 is pulled out of the stamp holding section 17 of the body 11 of the stamp device 1 by holding the grip 13. Thereafter, the grip 13 of the stamp 12 is depressed toward a recording paper 35 in a direction H shown in FIG. 14, and the ink impregnated in the ink pad 30 is supplied to the stencil paper 24. As a result, a part of the ink at a thermally perforated portion only of the stencil paper 24 is allowed to reach the recording paper 35, thus forming an image on the recording paper 35 as shown in FIG. 15.
However, resolution of the liquid crystal display is greatly lower than that of the thermal head. Accordingly, when an operator intends to confirm a stamp image formed after inputting data from the keyboard, the stamp image cannot be clearly confirmed on the liquid crystal display. So, the operator is obliged to actually print the input data as a sample or view the perforation image on the stencil paper attached to the stamp. If the stamp image is not satisfactory in the sample or as viewed in the perforation, the stencil paper is obliged to be wasted.

Stamp device capable of perforating thermal stencil paper


Disclosed embodiments include a manufacturing method for an LED assembly. Providing a first carrier, wherein several LED chips are formed on the first carrier, and providing a second carrier. Attaching the second carrier to the LED chips and detaching the first carrier from the LED chips but leaving the LED chips on the second carrier.

Applications of various LED goods, such as traffic signs, motorcycle tail lights, automobile head lights, street lamps, computer indicators, flashlights, LED backlight sources, etc., can now be seen in daily life. In addition to the chip process, almost all of these products are gone through packaging procedure as well.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional process of LED assemblies. First, a sapphire substrate 10 is provided. Subsequently, semiconductor fabrication processes like epitaxial process, thin film deposition, lithography and etching are performed to form multiple LED chips on the sapphire substrate 10, as the wafer 12 shows. Each LED chip may have one or more LED units, and each LED unit comprises a light-emitting layer. In the light-emitting layer, light is emitted due to recombination of electrons and holes. Each wafer 12 is examined by the wafer acceptance test (WAT) first, and then the qualified wafer 12 is cut to form individual LED chips. The LED chip is also referred as LED die. Each LED chip is inspected and classified according to the photoelectric characteristics thereof, such as forward voltage, dominant wavelength, luminous intensity, etc. LED chips have same photoelectric characteristic are picked and placed on a temporary carrier film, and the temporary carrier film may be a blue tape or a tape-on-reel having a surface for the chips to be mounted thereon. In FIG. 1, three different kinds of LED chips are placed on the temporary carrier films B1, B2 and B3, respectively. LED packaging manufacturers purchase temporary carrier films with LED chips and produce LED assemblies after appropriate packaging process. For example, the LED assembly 14 in FIG. 1 comprises an LED chip 16, a cooling base 18, bonding wires 20, silicone 22 and a lens 24.
Nevertheless, the process of removing LED chips one by one from a temporary carrier film and to fix them to the base of a LED product is usually very time consuming.

Light-emitting diode assembly and fabrication method thereof


A phase-difference sensor measures the spatially resolved difference in phase between orthogonally polarized reference and test wavefronts. The sensor is constructed as a pixelated phase-mask aligned to and imaged on a pixelated detector array. Each adjacent pixel of the phase-mask measures a predetermined relative phase shift between the orthogonally polarized reference and test beams. Thus, multiple phase-shifted interferograms can be synthesized at the same time by combining pixels with identical phase-shifts. The multiple phase-shifted interferograms can be combined to calculate standard parameters such as modulation index or average phase step. Any configuration of interferometer that produces orthogonally polarized reference and object beams may be combined with the phase-difference sensor of the invention to provide, single-shot, simultaneous phase-shifting measurements.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to interferometry. More particularly, the invention relates to methods and apparatus for rapid measurement of the optical phase-difference between two wavefronts. The invention may be implemented in optical systems that measure various parameters of test objects by generating test and reference waves having orthogonal polarizations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Phase-shift interferometry is an established method for measuring a variety of physical parameters ranging from the density of gases to the displacement of solid objects. An interferometric wavefront sensor employing phase-shift interferometry typically consists of a light source that is split into two wavefronts, a reference and test wavefront, that are later recombined after traveling different path lengths. The relative phase difference between the two wavefronts is manifested as a two-dimensional intensity pattern known as an interferogram. Phase-shift interferometers typically have an element in the path of the reference or the test wavefront to introduce three or more known phase steps or phase shifts. By detecting the intensity pattern with a detector at each of the phase shifts, the phase distribution of the object wavefront can be quantitatively and rapidly calculated independent of the relative energy in the reference or object wavefronts.
Phase shifting of a light beam can either be accomplished by sequentially introducing a phase step (temporal phase shifting) or by splitting the beam into parallel channels for simultaneous phase steps (spatial phase shifting). Spatial phase shifting achieves data acquisition in a time several orders of magnitude less than temporal phase shifting, thus offering significant immunity to vibration.
Several methods of spatial phase shifting have been disclosed in the prior art S my the and Moore (1983) described a spatial phase-shifting method where conventional beam splitters and polarization optics are used to produce three or four phase-shifted images onto as many cameras for simultaneous detection. Several U.S. patents [U.S. Pat. No. 4,575,248 (1986), U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,569 (1986), U.S. Pat. No. 5,589,938 (1996), U.S. Pat. No. 5,663,793 (1997), U.S. Pat. No. 5,777,741 (1998), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,883,717 (1999)] later disclosed variations of this approach wherein multiple cameras are used to detect multiple interferograms. These methods all require relatively complex optical and electronic arrangements.
Several publications describe methods that employ diffractive elements to simultaneously image three or more interferograms onto a single sensor. [See, for example, B. Barrientos et. al., "Transient Deformation Measurement with ESPI Using a Diffractive Optical Element for Spatial Phase-stepping," Fringe, Akademie Verlag (1997): 317-8; A. Hettwer, "Three channel phase-shifting interferometer using polarization-optics and a diffraction grating," Optical Engineering, pp. 960, Vol. 39 No. 4, April 2000; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,569 (1986), U.S. Pat. No. 6,304,330 (2001) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,522,808 (2003).] While these methods are more compact and less expensive than multi-camera arrangements, they operate only over a limited wavelength range due to dispersion and chromatic distortion inherent in their design. Thus, they are not capable of working with white light or short coherence-length source interferometers.
Spatial phase shifting has also been accomplished using a tilted reference wave to induce a spatial carrier frequency to the pattern. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,155,363 (1992) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,361,312 (1994). The spatial carrier method inherently requires a path-length difference of many hundreds of waves between the test and reference wavefronts, thereby precluding the use of white light. In addition, interferometers employing this arrangement must utilize high precision optics to avoid introducing aberrations between the two non-common path beams. U.S. Pat. No. 4,872,755 (1989) teaches the use of a short coherence-length source in combination with a Fizeau-type interferometer to effect instantaneous phase measurement with either the four camera arrangement of Symthe et. al. or a tilted carrier wave.
The prior art also describes the fabrication of micropolarizer arrays where each element has a different polarizer orientation in a repeating pattern. In particular, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,327,285 and 6,384,971 describe the fabrication of micropolarizer arrays using multiple film layers for use in stereoscopic viewing. Nordin et al. describe the use of micropolarizer arrays made from fine conducting wire arrays for imaging polarimetry in the near infrared spectrum ("Micorpolarizer array for infrared imaging polarimetry," J. Opt. Soc. Am A, Vol. 16, No. 5, 1999). Recently, the use of wire grid arrays has also been demonstrated in the visible region of the spectrum (see U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,108,131, 6,122,103, 6,208,463 and 6,243,199). The planar nature of the conducting strip structure permits using it as a polarizer over an extremely wide incident angle, including zero degrees, and over a broad range of wavelengths, provided the period remains much less than the wavelength. Other investigators (J. Gou et. al., "Fabrication of thin-film micropolarizer arrays for visible imaging polarimetry," Applied Optics Vol. 39, No. 10, 2000) also describe the use of patterned multi-level organic thin films for imaging polarimetry in the visible spectral range.
This disclosure describes how a pixelated phase-mask can be used as an interferometer to measure optical path-length differences at high-speed, with a single detector array and over a broad wavelength range.


An automatic timing control device case which is used for accommodating a timing control rotation shaft and a plurality of switches. A motor is disposed on the case for driving a gear set connected to the timing control rotation shaft to rotate, thereby controlling on or off of the switches through the timing control rotation shaft. The automatic timing control device case includes a body and a gear box. The body has an accommodation space for accommodating the timing control rotation shaft and the plurality of switches. The gear box is integrally formed in the body for accommodating the gear set. The gear box has at least one through-hole communicating the gear box and the accommodation space, such that the gear set is connected to and drives the timing control rotation shaft.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic timing control device case. More particularly, the present invention relates to a case on which a gear box is disposed by integrally forming.
2. Related Art
In a conventional art, for a timing control device, usually it is necessary to add or additionally dispose a gear box to drive a rotary disk or a rotary wheel in the timing control device, so as to achieve an effect of switching control. However, the added gear box requires additional metal punching parts, thereby generating additional cost of parts. Usually, the gear box is fixed on the timing control device by using locking elements, such as screws, so assembling process is complex. Meanwhile, the shake generated by rotation of the motor easily causes loose of the screw, which causes the gear box shift. The shift of the gear box damages components of the gear set, and even causes the whole gear box to fall off. Therefore, the conventional gear box assembling manner causes increased manufacturing cost and increased loss rate after using, and also results in inconvenience for manufacturers and users.


A method for combining storage array copy requests for a disk storage system is disclosed. The method may include receiving a BGC (background copy) request, determining that the BGC request satisfies a set of background copy (BGC) criteria, and adding, based on the determining, the BGC request to a sorted position in the wait accumulation queue (WAQ). The method may also include combining, based on a set of track combining criteria, the BGC request and an adjacent BGC request into a combined BGC request including data locations corresponding to the BGC request and to the adjacent BGC request. The method may also include replacing, in a sorted position in the WAQ, the BGC request and the adjacent BGC request with the combined BGC request, and moving, based on the set of BGC criteria, the combined BGC request to a BGC queue.

The present disclosure generally relates to virtual machine (VM) storage arrays. In particular, this disclosure relates to performing write operations to VM storage arrays by combining accelerated copy requests.
A virtual machine (VM) may be a software implementation of a computing machine (i.e., a computer) that executes program instructions in a manner similar to a physical computing machine. A certain type of virtual machine may emulate an entire system platform which may support the execution of a complete operating system (OS) (e.g., WINDOWS or LINUX). Another type of virtual machine may emulate a single operating system process, which may be useful for running a single program. Software running on a VM may be limited to the resources and abstractions provided by the virtual machine, and may not operate outside of its virtual (limited) environment. Limiting a software application's accessibility to resources to may be useful in protecting certain computing resources (e.g., memory, disk storage) which may be shared with other applications, programs or VMs, from software errors and security-related issues. Current use of virtual machines may include implementations which may have no direct correspondence to any physical machine hardware implementations.
A Redundant Array of Independent Disks, known as "RAID", may be a data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple disk drive components into a logical unit for the purposes of data redundancy and performance improvement. Data stored in RAID systems may be distributed across multiple drives in one of several ways, referred to as "RAID levels", depending on a specific level of redundancy and performance required. The different schemes or architectures may be named by the word RAID followed by a number (e.g. "RAID 0", "RAID 1"). Each scheme may provide a different level of balance between the goals of reliability and availability, performance and capacity. RAID levels greater than RAID 0 may provide protection against unrecoverable (sector) read errors, as well as whole disk failure.

International Business Machines Corporation


An optical disk and a method of producing it, particularly a stamper for molding a semiconductor disk base capable of forming an optical disk sufficiently compatible with commercially available CD (Compact Disk) players, a method of producing a stamper, a method of producing an optical disk base, a method of producing an optical disk, and an optical disk base and optical disk are disclosed. The present invention improves both of transferability and tact of an optical disk base molding cycle, allows a fine pattern to be formed in a transfer surface, and makes it needless to change existing molding equipment. In addition, when guide grooves formed in the optical disk are filled with a pigment by spin coating, the guide grooves have a substantially uniform configuration in the radial direction of the disk. The optical disk is sufficiently compatible with various CD players available on the market.

The present invention relates to an optical disk and a method of producing the same and more particularly to a stamper for molding an optical disk base highly compatible with commercially available CD (Compact Disk) players, a method of producing the stamper, a method of producing an optical disk base, a method of producing an optical disk, and an optical disk base, and an optical disk.
In parallel with the spread of optical disks, there is an increasing demand for the timely delivery of high quality optical disks to the market. Particularly, to enhance quantity production of optical disks, it is necessary to reduce a disk base molding cycle.
To produce an optical disk, a stamper formed with a transfer surface is positioned in one of a pair of mold parts forming a cavity therebetween. Molten resin is injected into the cavity and then cooled off Subsequently, the mold parts are separated in order to remove the cooled resin. As a result, the transfer surface of the stamper is transferred to the resin, forming a recording surface.
It is a common practice with an optical disk to hold the mold parts at a temperature of about 200° C. lower than the temperature of resin to be injected into the cavity. This promotes the cooling and solidification of the resin injected into the cavity. Such a mold temperature is determined by the trade off between transferability and an increase in the tact of a disk base molding cycle. Specifically, the mold temperature should be as low as possible for increasing the tact, but would degrade transferability if excessively low. On the other hand, a high mold temperature would enhance transferability, but would increase a period of time necessary for the resin to be cooled to a parting temperature and would thereby lower the yield of optical disks.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 7-178774, 10-149587 and 6-259815 each propose to provide a mold or a stamper with a heat insulating ability so as to enhance both the transferability and the tact of the disk base forming cycle. Specifically, Laid-Open Publication No. 7-178774 teaches a heat insulating body removably positioned in a mold in such a manner as to face the rear of a stamper. Laid-Open Publication No. 10-149587 teaches a heat insulating ceramic layer formed on a mold in such a manner as to face the rear of a stamper. Further, Laid-Open Publication No. 6-259815 teaches a stamper whose front (transfer surface) is plated with Ni (nickel) containing 20% to 30% of polytetrafluoroethylene by electroless plating. Polytetrafluoroethylene has a grain size of 1.0 μm or less. The resulting Ni film is 50 nm to 70 nm thick.
However, none of the above conventional technologies can enhance both the transferability and the tact of a disk base molding cycle at a high level. Laid-Open Publication No. 6-259815 has a problem that the Ni film formed on the transfer surface of a stamper obstructs the fine patterning of the-transfer surface. Laid-Open Publication No. 10-149587 has a problem that the mold itself must be redesigned or replaced, wasting existing molding equipment.
Spin coating has customarily been used to coat a molded disk base with an organic pigment which forms a recording layer because spin coating is desirable from the easy process and low cost standpoint. While the thickness distribution of the recording layer can be controlled on the basis of coating conditions, it is difficult to control the distribution of the pigment in guide grooves. Specifically, to form the recording layer, a disk base is caused to spin such that a pigment solution sequentially spreads outward over the entire disk base due to a centrifugal force. However, the centrifugal force differs from one position to another position in the radial direction of the disk base. This, coupled with the fact that the solvent evaporates while spreading outward, causes the pigment to fill outer guide grooves more easily than inner guide grooves.
It follows that if the guide grooves of the disk base have a uniform configuration from the inner circumference to the outer circumference, the configuration of the guide grooves filed with the pigment differs from one position to another position in the radial direction. This scatters reflectance and tracking error and other signal characteristics and makes it difficult to produce constant quality, reliable optical disks. In addition, the resulting optical disks are not satisfactorily compatible with commercially available CD players.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 5-198011 and 5-198012, for example, disclose implementations for correcting the above difference in configuration between the inner guide grooves and the outer guide grooves filled with the pigment. The implementations are such that the configuration (depth) of the guide grooves to be formed in a disk base or a stamper is intentionally varied beforehand. None of such implementations, however, gives consideration to the decrease in the fluidity of molten resin ascribable to temperature fall. Therefore, the implementations cannot realize desirable transferability alone when a high cycle is desired, aggravating the scattering of optical disks in signal characteristics.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Stamper for molding article and method of producing said stamper


A wafer carrier includes a base having a cavity provided at the center of the base and an outer sidewall extending along and away from an edge of the base to define the cavity. The cavity is configured to be filled with an adhesive layer. The wafer carrier is configured to be bonded to a wafer with an adhesive layer in the cavity of base such that the outer sidewall faces and is in contact with an edge of the wafer and the cavity faces a center of the wafer.

According to the conventional process of fabricating a semiconductor device, to perform a process of thinning a wafer (e.g., a back lap process), a carrier is attached to the wafer using an adhesive material. If a thickness of the adhesive or a distance between the wafer and the carrier is not uniform, the wafer may be polished to have a non-uniform thickness, during the back lap process. In this case, when through silicon vias are formed through the wafer, protruding lengths of the through silicon vias may vary from position to position, and thus, the through silicon vias may be broken.


The present invention relates to cleaning composition, preferably a laundry detergent composition, comprising a foam control composition comprising a hydrophobically modified cationic polymer, as well as processes for making and method of using such compositions. The composition of the present invention provides for enhanced suds removal during the rinse cycle with minimal or nil impact on suds volume during the wash cycle.

Sudsing profile is important for a cleaning composition, particularly laundry detergent, where the appropriate volume and speed of suds formation, retention and dissolution in the wash and rinse cycles are considered key benchmarks of performance by the consumers. For laundry detergents, while a suds profile is important for machine washing process, it is even more important in a typical hand-washing process as the consumer would see changes in the suds level in the wash and rinse cycles. Typically, consumers, particularly hand-washing consumers, desire laundry detergent that dissolves in the wash liquor to give voluminous suds during the wash cycle to signify sufficient performance. The suds are then carried over to the rinse solution and require additional time, water and labour to thoroughly rinse from the laundered fabric.
However, reducing the suds level overall is not a viable option because when the consumer sees lower suds or nil suds during the washing cycle, it causes the consumer to believe that the laundry detergent is not as active. In addition, the current market demands are for laundry detergents with improved environmental sustainability (e.g., less water consumption) without negatively impacting cleaning performance or the perception of cleaning performance (i.e., appearance of suds on fabric or in the rinse solution). This, of course, reinforces the preference for laundry detergents having improved foam control composition for faster suds dissolution during the rinse cycle so as to reduce extra rinse cycles needed to remove the suds from the cleaned fabrics/rinse solution. Thus, there is a need for a cleaning composition having a sudsing profile where there is strong level of suds volume during the washing cycle, and yet quickly collapses in the rinsing solution for substantially reduced or nil suds for cost savings and environmental conservation purposes. This is known as the "single rinse" concept.
One solution has been to add a de-foamer product during the rinse cycles, but this option is cost prohibitive for most hand-washing consumers. Additionally, the prior art discloses laundry detergent compositions with various foam control agents in an attempt to address this problem. For example, PCT Publication No. WO2011/107397 (Unilever) discloses a laundry detergent composition comprising a delayed-release amino-silicone based antifoam agent to act in the rinsing cycle to highly reduce or eliminate suds, preferably after two rinse cycles. Here, the antifoam agent is absorbed onto a carrier filler. EP Publication No. EP0685250A1 (Dow Corning) discloses a foam control composition for use in laundry detergents that inhibits the formation of new suds during the post-wash rinsing cycles, but which does not appear to quicken the elimination of already existing suds carried over from the wash cycle.
Accordingly, there is a need for a cleaning composition, preferably a laundry detergent, which permits strong suds formation during the washing while eliminating the suds quickly during the rinse cycle(s), preferably across a range of consumer wash habits and fabric/material surfaces being washed, so that a single rinse cycle might be sufficient to remove the suds. There is also a need for a cleaning composition, preferably a laundry detergent, having substantially improved benefits, such as for example, improved rinse clarity of a laundry liquor, positive effect on skin by the consumer using the laundry detergent, or improved fabric feel after the items have been laundered using the laundry detergent.
It is desirable that the cleaning compositions are preferably relevant to an anionic detersive surfactant system, such as for example, alkyl benzene sulphonic acid or salt thereof, alkyl ethoxylated sulphate, or a mixture thereof.


A tuning arrangement for a resonant circuit, the tuning arrangement having an output reactance dependent upon a plurality of input applied signals one of which is an input tuning signal, and including: an array of tuning circuits connected in a network whose output reactance is used to control the resonance frequency of the resonant circuit, each tuning circuit having a control input and having a reactance which varies in dependence upon the value of a control signal applied to the control input; elements for generating a plurality of different control signals for application to the control inputs of the tuning circuits; and each such control signal varying substantially linearly with the input tuning signal throughout a predetermined range specific to that control signal, so that the frequency response of the resonant circuit to the input tuning signal is substantially linear throughout a desired range of the input tuning signal.

Many frequency controlled tunable circuits, such as oscillator or filter circuits, have non-linear frequency output characteristics, that is, the frequency output vs. control (current or potential) characteristic is not always linear. When good linearity is desired, oscillator designers typically select component types and apply resonant effects to achieve a characteristic that meets the requirement as nearly as possible. Sometimes it is not possible or practical to achieve the desired linearity and system designs need to be modified. Even when linearity is achievable, component and dimension tolerances can require either that components are individually selected following device tests, or that physical adjustments are made during the manufacturing process. This obviously increases production costs.
In some applications, absolute control rate can be important. Temperature dependencies can limit the final system performance, or require that an otherwise low-power system be placed in a temperature controlled environment, such as an oven.
A constant frequency tuning rate can be important for systems such as temperature compensated crystal oscillators, to avoid degradation of frequency accuracy when the oscillator is tuned away from the conditions under which it was compensated. Such tuning may be necessary to correct for, for example, ageing of the quartz crystal, or to match the operating environment. One situation where this is particularly relevant is in retiming circuits where a local crystal oscillator tracks an intermittent input clock with a frequency that is allowed to deviate from a nominal value. To ensure a rapid recovery from loss of input clock signal, the local crystal oscillator is required to continue oscillating at the last observed frequency for extended periods.
Communication, navigation, and timing systems often need to synchronise their local frequency sources to a remote reference. It is helpful for the control of this synchronisation for the tuning rate of the local source to be constant—i.e. linear and independent of temperature. These same characteristics are beneficial for maintaining constant frequency output from temperature compensated oscillators after the oscillator has been re-tuned. Suitable resonators for such oscillators can include acoustic devices such as bulk-mode crystals and SAWs, dielectric resonators such as ceramic pucks and cooled sapphire and hybrid arrangements.
There is thus a need to provide for a more linear tuning rate for such systems, and/or for the tuning rate to be matched for individual oscillators or resonators and/or to provide compensation for typical temperature variations in oscillator output.
In GB 2369259 some tuning linearity and temperature corrections can be achieved using a circuit which provides a predistorted control signal. While the method of predistortion in GB 2369259 was capable of providing tuning characteristics with excellent linearity and temperature independence, it can prove difficult to maintain fast response and low noise while minimizing the circuit's dissipation. The present invention can provide an alternative and improved way of achieving linearity and temperature correction.


Systems and devices configured to shield portions of turbine conduits from contact with a working fluid flow and reduce the associated thermal gradients therein are disclosed. In one embodiment, a sleeve includes: a base portion defining a shield aperture, the base portion including an external surface configured to contact an internal surface of a turbine conduit; and a neck portion connected to the base portion and defining a neck aperture proximate a terminus of the turbine conduit, the neck aperture fluidly connected to the shield aperture.

The subject matter disclosed herein relates to turbines and, more particularly, to systems and devices for shielding conduit surfaces in a turbine and reducing thermal gradients within turbine components.
Some power plant systems, for example certain nuclear, simple cycle and combined cycle power plant systems, employ turbines in their design and operation. Some of these turbines (e.g., gas turbines) include conduits (e.g., routing holes, cooling holes, etc.) which route fluids about and within components of the turbine. During operation, as these conduits redirect portions of the working fluid, the materials and components which comprise these conduits may become thermally stressed and/or exposed to turbulent fluid conditions (e.g., during start-up, cool-down, or shut down). As the working fluid flow contacts these components, thermal gradients may develop across component regions, causing differential expansion, cracking, and wear. For example, the heat transfer coefficient at an exposed edge of a conduit may vary significantly relative to the heat transfer coefficient at an internal portion of the conduit. This variance in the heat transfer coefficient may develop thermal gradients which impart thermal stresses, damage components, decrease efficiency, shorten component lifespan, and limit turbine design options.
Referring to FIG. 1, a schematic partial cross sectional view of a portion of a turbine 100 is shown including a turbine component 102. Turbine 100 illustrated in FIG. 1 may include a component conduit 110 formed in turbine component 102. During operation a working fluid flow 'F' may contact turbine component 102 and/or component conduit 110. Component conduit 110 may direct a cooling portion 'C' of working fluid flow F into turbine component 102 and about turbine 100. A first surface 132 of component conduit 110 proximate working fluid flow F may be exposed to a high degree of turbulence and thermal variation relative a second surface 134 of component conduit 110 disposed within turbine component 102. This variance in turbulence and thermal exposure may cause thermal stresses, component damage and inefficient operation.


A scheme for PLL-based at-speed scan testing in which a clock generation circuit is used to generate different clock signals to scannable flip-flops of an integrated circuit. When the integrated circuit is under at-speed scan test mode of operation, the clock generation circuit receives a scan-clock signal to scan in a test vector to the scannable flip-flops during an input shift phase when shifting is enabled and to scan out a resultant vector from the scannable flip-flops during an output shift phase when shifting is also enabled. However, when shifting is not enabled during a capture phase between the two shift phases, the scan-clock signal triggers a 2-pulse circuit to release two pulses during the capture phase of at-speed scan testing. The two pulses from the 2-pulse circuit are based on an internal PLL-based clock signal. The clock generation circuit may be utilized in single or multiple clock domain systems. In a multiple clock domain environment, separate scan-clock signals may be sent to individual clock domains within an integrated circuit and only the domain to be acted on by a test vector has its respective scan-clock pulsed during the capture phase.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The embodiments of the invention relate to scan testing of integrated circuits and, more particularly, to a PLL-based at-speed scan testing scheme.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, integrated circuits are tested after manufacture to ensure that the integrated circuits are not operationally defective. One testing technique employs the use of scanning vectors, in which a particular test vector is shifted into an integrated circuit (IC) prior to running the IC's combinational logic in its normal mode. A resultant output vector is then read to determine the response of the IC to the scanned in test vector. For high complexity ICs, one popular technique is the use of scannable flip-flops in the IC for scan testing. Some ICs employ full scan techniques, in which all of the flip-flops in the IC design are made scannable. Scannable flip-flops allow a test vector to be shifted in to load the flip-flops with a known pattern. Then, the IC is operated to allow the IC's normal circuitry to respond to the test vector, which response is captured by the flip-flops. Subsequently, the state of the scannable flip-flops are read out to determine the response of the IC to the initial test vector.
In a typical scan operation, a test vector is shifted into the IC by use of a scan clock to set the state of the flip-flops. The same scan clock is also used to scan out the state of the flip-flops after capturing the circuit response to the test vector. Since the scan shifting is performed while the IC is not operating normally, the scan clock may have a much slower clock frequency than the operational clock frequency of the IC. In some modes of testing, the slower scan clock may be adequate to capture the response of the internal circuitry. This technique is sometimes referred to as regular scan or DC scan. However, with much of the highly integrated and faster devices of today, it is typically the practice to employ faster clocks to perform the capture. The use of a faster clock for capture allows testing of the internal circuitry to be performed at normal operating speeds of the IC to more accurately portray the normal operational response of the circuitry. The technique of using a faster clock to capture the response of the IC to scan testing is generally referred to as at-speed scan or AC scan.
Although at-speed scan techniques exist, these known techniques utilize an external signal to indicate when the at-speed testing is to commence. That is, a separate external signal is utilized to initiate the capture of the internal states.
Furthermore, many ICs now employ more than one clock domain on a chip. If two or more clock domains in the IC communicate with one another, then the simultaneous testing of the different domains using scan test vectors may be difficult to achieve, since each vector tests one domain at a time. Specialized register programming may be necessary to specify which clock domains are to capture the at-speed data to an input test vector. However, these techniques present challenges to ICs employing multiple clock domains, where there is communication between the clock domains.

Circuit for PLL-based at-speed scan testing


A differential Shack-Hartmann curvature sensor for measuring a curvature including principal curvatures and directions of a wavefront. The curvature sensor includes a Shack-Hartmann sensor with an input beam and an optical element to split said input beam into three output beams traveling in different directions. Three lenslet arrays in each of the three beam paths produce corresponding Hartmann grids. A shearing device shears two of the three Hartmann grids in two perpendicular directions a differential difference. A measuring device measures the Hartmann grid coordinates generated by said three beams to determine various curvatures of the wavefront at each of the Hartmann grid points.

The Shack-Hartmann sensor is one of the most popular wavefront sensors presently available. The sensor measures the slope data of the wavefront by comparing the coordinates of Hartmann grid points from the measurement beam with coordinates from the reference beam. FIG. 1 is a schematic layout of a prior art Shack-Hartmann sensor. Hartmann invented the Hartmann test in 1900, and Roland Shack improved this technique by introducing a lenslet array in 1971. The reference beam was generated by a pin-hole light source and injected into this system as ideal wavefront to calibrate the systematic error. In FIG. 1, reference beam 105 is represented by a dashed line, and the continuous line represents the measurement beam 120. The wavefront is first collimated by the collimation lens then passes through a lenslet array 110. The Hartmann screen divides the wavefront into many sub-apertures, then the micro-lens array 110 focus the wavefront of each sub-aperture into a group of Hartmann grid points. Comparing the coordinate differences between the measured wavefront and the reference wavefront, the wavefront slopes can be calculated according to the following formula:
                                                                        ∂                W                                            ∂                x                                                                |              i                                =                                                    x                i                mea                            -                              x                i                ref                                      f                                                                                ∂                  W                                                  ∂                  y                                                                          |                i                                      =                                                            y                  i                  mea                                -                                  y                  i                  ref                                            f                                ,                                    (        1        )            where (xiref,yiref) (i=1, 2, . . . , m, m=t×t is the total number of grid points) is the Hartmann grid coordinates of the reference beam, (ximea,yimea) is the Hartmann grid coordinates of the measurement beam, and f is the focal length of the lenslet array.
Compared to the Hartmann test, the Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor provides improved photon efficiency because the position of the focal spot is proportional to the average wavefront slope over each sub-aperture and the position is independent of higher-order aberrations and intensity profile variations. The Shack-Hartmann sensor is a parallel wavefront sensor operating in real time. It has application in active/adaptive optics, optical testing, opthalmology, telescope image analysis and atmosphere and random media characterizations.
However, the usage of the Shack-Hartmann sensor is restrictive because it requires an external reference, or a reference beam, and is sensitive to vibration, tilt and whole body movement. Therefore, a need exists for a sensor that provides the benefits of the Shack-Hartmann sensor without the limitations.

Differential Shack-Hartmann curvature sensor

University of Central Florida Research Foundation, Inc.