A method is provided for calculating a driver's desired yaw rate of a vehicle for use in a vehicle movement control system and includes determining the current yaw rate of the vehicle, determining the rate of the vehicle's steering wheel rotation. The method further includes calculating a first desired yaw rate of the vehicle based on the determined current yaw rate of the vehicle and the determined rate of the vehicle's steering wheel rotation, the desired yaw rate being further calculated based on the assumption that the driver applies a rate of steering wheel rotation as function of the driver's perceived error in yaw rate, and finally the step of providing the first desired yaw rate as an input to the vehicle movement control system for controlling the vehicle.

The present invention relates to a vehicle control system and a corresponding method for determining a driver's desired yaw rate of a vehicle.
When operating a vehicle there is a risk that the driver loses control of the vehicle's motion in the yaw plane, typically due to insufficient road friction resulting in that the vehicle may understeer or oversteer. To assist the driver in keeping control of the vehicle's yaw motion, modern vehicles are equipped with different vehicle movement control systems such as Electronic Stability Control (ESC) systems. Generally, ESC systems detect yaw instabilities by comparing an actual yaw motion in the yaw plane of the vehicle with a desired yaw rate. Subsequently, the ESC system reduces any differences between actual and desired yaw motions by applying brake pressures in a controlled manner at the individual wheels of the vehicle.
The desired yaw rate is generally calculated based on the front wheel steering angle, vehicle speed and wheel base, or combinations thereof. More specifically the driver is generally expected to direct the front wheels by means of the steering wheel in the direction which he wants the vehicle to rotate, according to some models of vehicle movement such as for example some versions of the recognized linear bicycle model:
            ω      bicycle                  (              v        ,                  δ          FW                    )        =            v                                              δ        FW              b
where v is the vehicle speed, b is the constant wheel base of the vehicle, and δFW is the front wheel steering angle. For example, if the vehicle oversteers in a left hand curve, i.e. the left hand yaw rate of the vehicle exceeds the curvature of the left hand curve, a driver is expected to rotate the steering wheel to the right into a steering angle compensating the oversteering.
A drawback with existing ESC-systems is that the desired yaw rate is not always estimated satisfyingly well, especially when the vehicle is in more severe situations of yaw instability.
Thus, there is a need of for example a method for estimating a desired yaw rate of a vehicle which works well in severe situations of yaw instability.
It is desirable to provide a method for estimating a desired yaw rate of a vehicle which works well in severe situations of yaw instability.
According to a first aspect of the invention a method is provided for calculating a driver's desired yaw rate of a vehicle for use in a vehicle movement control system, comprising the steps of determining the current yaw rate of the vehicle and determining the rate of the vehicle's steering wheel rotation. The method further comprises the steps of calculating a first desired yaw rate of the vehicle based on said determined current yaw rate of the vehicle and said determined rate of the vehicle's steering wheel rotation, the desired yaw rate being further calculated based on the assumption that the driver applies a rate of steering wheel rotation as function of the driver's perceived error in yaw rate, and finally the step of providing said first desired yaw rate as an input to said vehicle movement control system for controlling the vehicle.
In the context of this application, the "rate of the vehicle's steering wheel rotation" is defined as the rotational speed of the steering wheel. It is not equivalent with an actual angle of the steering wheel, but rather a change of the steering wheel angle per time unit. Further, in the context of this application "yaw rate" should be understood as being equivalent to lateral acceleration, curvature or turning radius etc., as these measurements all indicate corresponding vehicle movements E.g. the yaw rate may be the angular velocity of the vehicle rotation in the horizontal plane. When "desired yaw rate" is used it means the yaw rate (or equivalent) which the driver desires to achieve. For example, if the driver is holding the steering wheel still, the driver is assumed to be satisfied with the yaw rate of the vehicle. Further, in the context of this application, a "vehicle movement control system" means any control system for controlling the vehicle's movements e.g. an Electronic Stability Control (ESC) System, a steer-by-wire control system, an active steering arrangement or a suspension control system etc.
The inventor has realized that during severe skidding, drivers tend to abandon the type of steering wheel angle-focused steering control assumed by conventional control systems (e.g. ESC systems), for example implementing the linear bicycle model as discussed above, and instead adopt a type of steering control where the exact steering wheel angle is not controlled, but rather the rate of steering wheel angle. Therefore, a conventional ESC system would misinterpret the driver's intentions completely. However, by providing a method as defined above calculating the desired yaw rate based on the rate of steering wheel rotation and the vehicles actual yaw rate, a safer control system may be provided for a vehicle which works well when the vehicle is in severe situations of yaw instability, such as during severe skidding. The method further allows for a much faster control of the vehicle by means of the movement control system. During tests conducted by the inventor, obtaining a rate of steering wheel rotation only requires about one third of the time of what is required for obtaining a steering wheel angle value. Specifically, the average result in tests show that a confident value may be obtained in about 0.2 s for rate of rotation-values compared to about 0.6 s for angle-values. The effect of this is that a much safer control system may be provided, e.g. when the control system is a ESC System the wheels of the vehicle may be individually braked at an earlier point in time, to reduce the risk of an accident.
Moreover, the method may interpret the driver's applied rate of steering wheel rotation as the more wrong the vehicle's rotation feels to the driver, the faster the driver will spin the steering wheel to counter the skidding.
In one embodiment the desired yaw rate may be defined by the equation
            ω      *        =          ω      +              k                                      ⅆ                          δ              SW                                            ⅆ            t                                ,where ω* is the desired yaw rate, ω is the actual yaw rate, δSW is the steering wheel angle and k a the scaling parameter.
In one embodiment an equation for representing the driver behavior may be
            ⅆ              δ        SW                    ⅆ      t        =                    (                              ω            *                    -          ω                )            k        =                  ω        error            k      where ωerror=ω*−ω is the deviation between desired and actual yaw rate.
In one embodiment the function describing the relation between how the driver applies a rate of steering wheel rotation as a function of the driver's perceived error in yaw rate is a linear scaling function. In another embodiment, the function is a non-linear scaling function, such as an exponential function.
According to another embodiment of the present inventive concept, the method further comprises the step of calculating a severity of the yaw state of the vehicle.
In the context of this application the severity of the yaw state should be understood as the amount of skidding the vehicle is in and/or the driver's rate of the steering wheel rotation. The severity may for example be estimated in terms of the absolute rate of steering wheel rotation (S=|dδSW/dt|), the absolute deviation between actual yaw rate and desired yaw rate according to a conventional vehicle dynamics-based estimate such as the linear bicycle model, or low-pass filtered versions of either of these quantities in order to reduce the frequency of transitions between desired yaw rate estimates. A low-pass filter in this sense is not necessarily a filter only letting through a certain span of frequencies, but rather a general filter using hysteresis or time span operations, where the primary object of the filter being to reduce the frequency of transitions between the desired yaw rate estimations to obtain a more stable value of the desired yaw rate estimation.
According to yet another embodiment of the present inventive concept, the step of calculating a severity of the yaw state of the vehicle is a calculation based on the absolute rate of the steering wheel rotation.
According to another embodiment of the present inventive concept, the step of calculating a severity of the yaw state of the vehicle is a calculation based on a deviation between actual yaw rate and desired yaw rate being calculated according to a conventional vehicle dynamics-based estimate such as the linear bicycle model.
According to yet another embodiment of the present inventive concept, if said severity is below a first threshold value the method further comprises the steps of detecting the steering wheel angle and calculating a second desired yaw rate based on the detected steering wheel angle, and providing the second desired yaw rate instead of the first desired yaw rate as an input to the vehicle movement control system for controlling the vehicle.
Thereby, the method may identify the amount of skidding (i.e. understeering/oversteering) and/or absolute rate of the steering wheel rotation of the vehicle, and if the vehicle's severity of the skidding/steering wheel rotation rate is in a state below the threshold value, e.g. when no or very little skidding is occurring, a second desired yaw rate calculated according to a conventional vehicle dynamics-based estimate such as the linear bicycle model may be used instead of the first desired yaw rate.
Thereby, the desired yaw rate may be calculated in different ways depending on the severity of the yaw/skidding state of the vehicle.
According to yet another embodiment of the present inventive concept, if said severity is between a first threshold value and a second threshold value the method further comprises the steps of detecting the steering wheel angle and calculating a second desired yaw rate based on said detected steering wheel angle, and further calculating a third desired yaw rate based on the first desired yaw rate and the second desired yaw rate, and thereafter providing said third desired yaw rate instead of the first desired yaw rate as an input to said vehicle movement control system for controlling the vehicle.
Thereby, the method may identify the amount of skidding (i.e. understeering/oversteering) and/or absolute rate of the steering wheel rotation of the vehicle, and if the vehicle's severity of the skidding/yaw rate is in a state above the first threshold value but below a second threshold value, e.g. when some skidding is occurring but not more than what is defined by the second threshold value, a third desired yaw rate calculated as a combination of the first and second desired yaw rates may be used for controlling the vehicle by means of the vehicle movement control system. Thereby, the desired yaw rate may be calculated in different ways depending on the severity of the skidding/yaw state of the vehicle.
According to another embodiment of the present inventive concept, the step of calculating the third desired yaw rate comprises a weighting function where more weight is given to the first desired yaw rate in higher severity levels, and opposite, more weight is given to the second desired yaw rate in lower severity levels.
Thereby, a traditional steering wheel angle-focused steering control such as the linear bicycle model may be used during normal driving when the vehicle is not in a skidding state, and when the vehicle is in a severe skidding/yaw state, the desired yaw rate may be calculated based on the rate of steering wheel rotation and the vehicles actual yaw rate. Thus a safer control system may be provided for a vehicle which works well both when the vehicle is in a normal state and when the vehicle is in severe situations of yaw instability, such as severe skidding.
According to yet another embodiment of the present inventive concept, a parameter is used for scaling the rate of steering wheel rotation when calculating the desired yaw rate. Thereby, the rate of steering wheel rotation may be scaled to be adapted to a specific vehicle steering arrangement.
According to another embodiment of the present inventive concept, the parameter is a constant system parameter. Thereby, the first desired yaw rate by means of the scaling factor may be adapted to the vehicle's system for providing a relevant desired yaw rate.
According to yet another embodiment of the present inventive concept, the parameter may be dynamically adapted to the vehicle's driver by observing the driver's behavior of steering during normal driving. Thereby, the first desired yaw rate may be adapted to the drive style of the driver resulting in a more accurate estimation of the calculated desired yaw rate. E.g. a driver with higher aggressiveness when handling the steering wheel will need to turn the steering wheel faster for achieving the same desired yaw rate as a driver having a less aggressive driving style.
According to yet another embodiment of the present inventive concept, the vehicle movement control system is an Electronic Stability Control (ESC) system. Thereby, the ESC system may work well even during severe skidding. Thus, by calculating the desired yaw rate in a more accurate manner, the braking of each individual wheel of the vehicle by means of the ESC System may be improved, and thereby providing a safer vehicle for the driver.
According to another embodiment of the present inventive concept, the vehicle movement control system is a control system for a steer-by-wire system. Thereby, analogously with the benefit as described above, by calculating the desired yaw rate in a more accurate manner, the steer-by-wire may achieve a safer vehicle for the driver.
According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a vehicle control system for calculating a driver's desired yaw rate of a vehicle for use in a vehicle movement control system, comprising determining means for determining the current yaw rate of the vehicle, determining means for determining the rate of the vehicle's steering wheel rotation, and calculating means for calculating a first desired yaw rate of the vehicle based on said determined current yaw rate of the vehicle and said determined rate of the vehicle's steering wheel rotation, the desired yaw rate being further calculated based on the assumption that the driver applies a rate of steering wheel rotation as function of the driver's perceived error in yaw rate, and providing means for providing said first desired yaw rate as an input to said vehicle movement control system for controlling the vehicle.
The advantages of the vehicle control system as defined above are largely analogous to the advantages of the method as described above. That is, a safer control system may be provided for a vehicle which works well when the vehicle is in severe situations of yaw instability, such as during severe skidding.
According to still another aspect of the invention there is provided a computer-readable storage medium storing a program which causes a computer to execute a control method according to any of the embodiments as described above.
According to a still further aspect of the invention there is provided a computer program product comprising a computer readable medium having stored thereon computer program means for calculating a driver's desired yaw rate of a vehicle for use in a vehicle movement control system, wherein the computer program product comprises code for determining the current yaw rate of the vehicle, code for determining the rate of the vehicle's steering wheel rotation, code for calculating a first desired yaw rate of the vehicle based on said determined current yaw rate of the vehicle and said determined rate of the vehicle's steering wheel rotation, the desired yaw rate being further calculated based on the assumption that the driver applies a rate of steering wheel rotation as function of the driver's perceived error in yaw rate, and code for providing said first desired yaw rate as an input to said vehicle movement control system for controlling the vehicle.
The advantages of the computer program product as defined above are largely analogous to the advantages of the method as described above. That is, a safer control system may be provided for a vehicle which works well when the vehicle is in severe situations of yaw instability, such as during severe skidding.
Further features of, and advantages with, the present invention will become apparent when studying the appended claims and the following description. The skilled addressee realize that different features of the present invention may be combined to create embodiments other than those described in the following, without departing from the scope of the present invention.

Method for calculating a desired yaw rate for a vehicle


A region recommendation device 100 includes a visibility analysis unit 101 which identifies a region where a viewing order satisfies a set criterion as a frequent viewing region, a selection possibility analysis unit 102 which identifies a object which the selection possibility satisfies a set criterion as a frequent selection object, and a recommended-region identification unit 103 which recommends a suitable region from among regions besides the region in which the placed frequent selection object in the frequent viewing region.

First, an "object" and a "region" which are terminology used in this specification will be described. In this specification, the "region" means an area on a display screen. The "object" is a part of the "region". In particular, the "region" means the area which can be selected by selection operation (such as click of a mouse, for example) performed by a user using an input device. Specifically, as an example of the "object", the region in which a text provided with a link is placed, the region in which a button is placed or the like in Graphical User Interface are mentioned.
In the field of computers, it has been a mainstream to use Graphical User Interface (hereinafter, referred to as "GUI (Graphical User Interface)") for an operation screen. In recent years, in the field of not only the computers but also the electronic devices such as a cellular phone, a digital camera or the like, it has been a mainstream to use a menu screen or the like using the GUI.
And, in the GUI, for improvement of usability, various evaluation systems which evaluate usability of the GUI and show a result of the analysis are proposed. As one of such evaluation systems, there is a system which acquires visibility information of an operator of the GUI by eye tracking analysis, and evaluates based on the acquired visibility information. In the eye tracking analysis, a movement of operator's pupil is detected with an infrared sensor, and a viewing position and its order are acquired as the visibility information.
By utilizing such an evaluation system using the eye tracking analysis, a designer of the GUI can analyze earliness and order of viewing for an object which should be selected by an operator for achieving a certain task (hereinafter, referred to as "selection target object"). And, based on a result of the analysis, the designer can obtain a guideline which says, in order that the selection target object is selected more certainly, "a position of the selection target object should be moved from the present position to the position to be viewed earlier". The designer moves the position of the selection target object based on this guideline, and achieves improvement of usability of the GUI.
A system for achieving improvement of usability of the GUI is also proposed (refer to patent documents 1-3). The system disclosed by patent documents 1-3 acquires an operation history of the operator, and performs positioning change of the object on the screen based on the acquired operation history. The system disclosed by patent documents 1-3 is not a system to evaluate the GUI. However, by utilizing this system, the operator can easily operate the object which is frequently selected. Therefore, the usability improvement of the GUI is achieved by utilizing this system.

Region recommendation device, region recommendation method and recording medium


The present invention provides an exhaust chamber system, comprising a stationary propeller type blade assembly with a nose cone within or adjacent to an expansion chamber, to create a vortex that swirls exhaust gas towards the outlet. The resultant vacuum within the exhaust chamber aids in scavenging an internal combustion engines exhaust gases, and in reducing system back pressure The exhaust chamber maintains the sound level of the exhaust within acceptable limits, while delivering improved horsepower, torque, and/or fuel efficiency over standard and other performance mufflers.

Due to environmental concerns, governmental entities have steadily imposed stricter regulations on the amount and type of exhaust emitted by vehicles powered by the internal combustion engine. Moreover, the amount of noise produced by such engines must also meet stringent standards. The federal and state regulations may improve air quality and decrease noise pollution, however these mandates also produce severe drawbacks because the exhaust emission and sound control devices increase fuel consumption and decrease power production by the affected engines. The exhaust emission and sound control devices hamper engine performance as a result of back pressure of exhaust gas created by the very equipment that muffles the noise and cleans the exhaust gas. Designs of exhaust emission and sound control devices that increase exhaust flow-through will mitigate back pressure on the engine, thereby improving overall engine performance while still meeting demanding governmental environmental standards.
A number of systems have been proposed to provide a more efficient means of reducing noise and/or air pollution from internal combustion engine exhaust. Examples of such proposed systems are found in U.S. patents issued to Kojima (U.S. Pat. No. 4,533,015), Michikawa (U.S. Pat. No. 4,339,918), Taniguchi (U.S. Pat. No. 4,331,213), Harris et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,317,502), Taniguchi (U.S. Pat. No. 4,303,143), Kasper (U.S. Pat. No. 4,222,456), Everett (U.S. Pat. No. 4,129,196), Lyman (U.S. Pat. No. (4,109,753), Kashiwara et al (U.S. Pat. No. 4,050,539), and Iapella et al (U.S. Pat. No. 3,016,692), amongst others. However, none of these prior art references facilitate an improvement in engine power output or fuel efficiency. The quest to decrease noise and exhaust emissions, while off-setting the concomitant degradation of engine performance manifested by decreases in fuel efficiency, horsepower, and torque production, proves to be an ongoing struggle.
In particular the system proposed by Lyman (U.S. Pat. No. 4,109,753) presents a muffler assembly for substantially dampening acoustical vibrations of engine exhaust gases. The muffler assembly includes a flow control means, such as a diffuser having a centrally disposed baffle with radially extending deflector vanes and axially extending tabs. The diffuser is positioned near the inlet to an apertured louver tube within a loosely compact shell of sound attenuating material. The apertured louver tube has approximately the same cross sectional area as the inlet and outlet tubes. The diffuser has a planer baffle that substantially blocks and restricts the axial flow of exhaust gases along portions of the longitudinal axis of the louver tube, deflects the flow of exhaust gases toward the sound attenuating material and creates a turbulent flow. However, the Lyman muffler assembly fails to improve engine performance (i.e. fuel efficiency, horsepower, torque), and differs from the present invention in terms of blade (sharp versus rounded) and baffle geometry (planer versus cone shaped), expansion chamber cross sectional area (inlet area same as louver tube versus expansion chamber with larger cross section), and exhaust gas flows (turbulent versus contoured) as will be described.

Backpressure reducing exhaust system with stationary blade structure


A capsule for controllably metering products held in bottles comprising a ball element for controllably delivering the product on a delivery surface, the ball element housed inside a holding body provided with a cover which can be opened for exposing the top portion of the ball element, as well as with a threaded portion engaging with a corresponding threaded portion provided on the neck of the bottle.

The present invention relates to a capsule for controllably metering products held in bottles or the like.
In the cosmetic field, as well as in other fields in which products must be delivered in metered amounts on a delivery surface, metering capsules including in their inside delivery ball elements are already known.
These metering capsule conventionally comprise a rod element, arranged in the bottle neck, and a ball element in turn engaged in a mating seat having a substantially circular rim, and provided on said rod element.
This rod-ball element assembly is protected by a capsule or cap threaded on the threaded neck of the bottle.
In particular, the ball element partially projects from the bottle neck and is free of rotating in its engagement seat, as said ball element contacts the product application or delivery surface, thereby gradually delivering said product.
While the above mentioned prior metering capsule allows to controllably deliver or meter the product, it, on the other hand, has a rather complex construction, since for making it three different component elements are required.
In this connection it should be pointed out that constructional complexity of prior metering capsules negatively affects the operations required for preparing or packaging the bottle, which operations would comprise the filling-in of the bottle with the product, the insertion of the rod element and ball element assembly inside the bottle neck, and the final threading of the capsule or cap on the bottle.
A further problem of prior metering capsules is that, in order to apply said capsules to small size bottles, it is necessary to form special threads, which are different from the corresponding like-size standardized threads, since the inner diameter of the neck of small bottles is not sufficient to receive therein a ball elementxe2x80x94rod element assembly.
From the above it should be apparent that it would be actually desirable to provide a metering capsule for controllably metering products held in bottles or the like, allowing to overcome the above mentioned problems. The document GB-A-2 195 246 discloses a capsule substantially according to the preamble of claim 1.
Accordingly, the aim of the present invention is to provide such a capsule or cap, including a metering ball element for controllably metering a product, which capsule includes a minimum number of component pieces and can be threaded to bottles or containers having a neck provided with a standard thread thereby allowing to greatly reduce the making and packaging cost of the bottle the capsule is applied to.
Said aim is achieved by the present invention which specifically relates to a capsule for controllably metering products held in bottles or the like, comprising a ball element designed for controllably distributing a product on an application surface therefor, and having the characterizing features of the characterizing portion of claim 1.
According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the bottle neck engagement means comprise a threaded portion engaging with a corresponding threaded portion provided on said neck of said bottle the threaded portions of the engagement means and of the bottle neck having standardized threads.
The capsule or cap for controllably metering products held in bottles according to the present invention provides, with respect to the prior art, the following advantages.
Firstly, the capsule or cap according to the present invention is so made to form an integral body, including in its inside said metering ball element, and which can be applied to the bottle without using any rod elements, thereby allowing to reduce the number of component pieces required for making the metering bottle.
Secondly, by using the capsule according to the present invention, the packaging operation for providing a finished product are greatly simplified since, for providing said finished product, it would be merely sufficient to fill-in the bottle with the product and then thread the capsule on the neck of the bottle.
Finally, the specifically designed configuration of the metering capsule according to the present invention will allow to use bottles having standard threads, thereby greatly reducing the making cost thereof.

Capsule for controllably metering products held in bottles or the like


A steering column assembly comprises a shroud having an upper shroud part and a lower shroud part movable telescopically relative to one another, and a steering shaft. The upper shroud part carries an energy absorbing device which in normal use moves together with the upper shroud part. A blocking device is fixed to the lower shroud part or to a part of the vehicle that is fixed relative to the lower shroud part; and a connecting rod is connected at a first end to the blocking device and at a second end to a spring which is in turn connected to the lower shroud part or to the fixed part of the vehicle. An initiator module engages with a part of the connecting rod or spring when the blocking mechanism is in the unlocked position thereby to isolate the blocking device from the force of the spring.

It is known to provide a steering column assembly that can be adjusted for at least one of reach and rake. The steering column assembly typically comprises a shroud that supports a steering shaft. Where the assembly is adjustable for reach the shroud may comprise an upper part and a lower part, with the two being telescopically adjustable to allow the length of the shroud to be altered. The upper part is located closer to the steering wheel than the lower part. The steering shaft, which may also be telescopic, extends along the shroud and is supported by one or more bearing assemblies. One end of the steering shaft connects to a steering wheel of the vehicle and the other to a steering rack or gearbox. The shroud is held in position by a clamp mechanism that secures the shroud to a support bracket which is in turn secured to a fixed part of the vehicle such as a cross-member located behind the dashboard.
The steering column assemblies may be manually adjustable and to achieve this a clamp mechanism may be provided that includes an operating lever that can be operated by a user to move the clamp mechanism between an unclamped condition in which at least a part of the shroud can be moved relative to the support bracket and a clamped condition in which the part of the shroud is fixed relative to the support bracket. Alternatively it may be electrically adjustable in which case the clamp assembly need not be provided, the electric adjustment mechanism holding the shroud in the required position.
During a crash, a driver may be thrown forward onto the steering wheel, and in this case a load may be applied axially along the steering shaft. To prevent harm to the driver in this instance, the steering shaft should be designed to collapse axially allowing the steering wheel to move away from the driver. It is generally beneficial for this collapse to be controlled, with a resistance to movement of the steering wheel being determined by the steering column assembly. This controlled collapse better enables the energy of the driver to be absorbed in a controlled manner.
According to the invention, there is provided a steering column assembly comprising:
a shroud having an upper shroud part located towards an end of the column assembly nearest a steering wheel, and a lower shroud part located at an end of the column assembly furthest from the steering wheel, the two parts being movable telescopically relative to one another in the event of a crash to shorten the overall length of the shroud, a steering shaft that is supported by the shroud, and
the upper shroud part carrying an energy absorbing device which in normal use moves together with the upper shroud part,
characterised by further comprising a blocking mechanism that comprises:
a blocking device fixed to the lower shroud part or to a part of the vehicle that is fixed relative to the lower shroud part;
a connecting rod connected at a first end to the blocking device and at a second end to a spring which is in turn connected to the lower shroud part or to the fixed part of the vehicle,
an initiator module which engages with a part of the connecting rod or spring when the blocking mechanism is in the unlocked position thereby locating the connecting bar in a fixed position whereby the blocking device is substantially isolated from the force of the spring and is held clear of energy absorbing device, the initiator module holding the spring under compression or in tension,
and in which, in the locked position, the initiator module moves clear of the connecting rod whereby the force stored in the spring is released, causing the spring to move the connecting rod in turn to move the blocking device into positive engagement with the energy absorbing mechanism carried by the upper shroud portion.
The connecting rod may include a recess, a protrusion or a hole which receives or engages with a part of the initiator module when in the unlocked position.
Most preferably the connecting rod comprises an elongate wire. This may be a metal wire. It may have a cylindrical cross section. It may be rigid by which we mean that it is generally incompressible in use so that the rod can push and pull on the blocking device.
The wire may include a looped part which at least partially bounds a space which receives the portion of the initiator module and from which the part of the initiator module is withdrawn when the blocking mechanism is locked. The loop may be located close to the end of the connecting rod which is connected to the spring.
A hook portion on the end of the wire that extends orthogonally to the axis of the shroud may be received in a bore in the blocking device to connect the connecting rod to the blocking device.
The spring may comprise a helical spring.
The helical spring may comprise a coiled elongate wire, and may be integrally formed with the connecting rod. Hence the connecting rod and spring may be formed from a single wire. This provides a low component count.
The spring may, in the locked position, be held in tension by the connecting rod fixed in turn by the trigger pin, and when in the unlocked position may relax to reduce the length of the spring thereby pulling on the connecting rod. The spring reduces in length in this arrangement and pulls on the connecting rod to move the blocking device.
In an alternative the spring may be held in compression by the trigger pin in the locked position and on removing the trigger pin the spring may extend and push the connecting rod to move the blocking device.
The blocking device of the blocking mechanism may comprise a cam element connected to the connecting rod so that the motion of the connecting rod is converted into a rotary motion of the cam element.
The cam element may comprise at least one engagement tooth carried by a base portion, the base portion being connected to the lower shroud portion or to the fixed part of the vehicle through a pivot, movement of the cam element being achieved by rotation around the pivot pin when acted on by the connecting rod, the tooth engaging the upper shroud part when the blocking mechanism is in the unlocked condition and engaging when locked.
The tooth may be formed on an outer edge of the base portion of the cam element.
There may be a plurality of teeth, with more than one tooth engaging the energy absorbing device of the upper shroud part when in the locked position.
In an alternative, the teeth may be omitted and a friction engagement between the blocking element and the energy absorbing mechanism may be provided instead.
The movement of the cam between the unlocked and locked position may be such that the teeth (or friction surface) rotates in a direction with a component that extends away from the steering wheel end of the steering column assembly. This ensures that any movement of the energy absorbing mechanism during a crash with the blocking mechanism locked will tend to bind the teeth of the cam into the energy absorbing mechanism, ensuring the teeth will not be forced apart by the crash forces. The geometry may be chosen so that any loads on the teeth will pass through the blocking device to the lower shroud portion or fixed part of the vehicle.
The cam element may be located closer to the steering wheel end of the steering column assembly than the spring with the spring pulling on the cam element away from the steering wheel. When in the locked position the spring may apply a load to the cam element to hold it in place.
The energy absorbing mechanism carried by the upper shroud portion may comprise a sliding block which may carry a toothed rack, the cam element engaging the sliding block when the lock mechanism is in the locked position and being held clear of the sliding block when the lock mechanism in in the unlocked position. Where teeth are provided, the teeth of the block and teeth of the cam element may be interlocked when locked and otherwise held clear.
The toothed rack may extend along the upper shroud portion such that the cam element can engage the toothed rack for any position of the upper shroud portion within the normal range of adjustment of the steering column assembly for reach.
The sliding block may be connected to the upper shroud part by an energy absorbing strap or by a tear strip or any other arrangement which when deformed absorbs energy in a crash. When the toothed rack is fixed by the blocking device, any movement of the upper shroud portion will cause the strap or strip to deform or tear, absorbing energy during a crash that causes the steering column assembly to collapse.
The energy absorbing strap or tear strip may connect the sliding block to an intermediate sliding block, which is in turn connected to the upper shroud part through a second energy absorbing strap. A secondary blocking mechanism may be provided which includes a secondary blocking device which is operable between an unlocked position in which it is held clear of the intermediate sliding block and a locked position in which the secondary blocking mechanism engages the intermediate sliding block to fix it to the lower shroud part. This allows for a two stage control of energy by locking one, or both, blocking mechanisms to engage respective sliding blocks of the energy absorbing mechanism, thereby bringing one or both energy absorbing straps or tear strips into play.
The secondary blocking device may be connected to an actuator. The device may comprise a cam carrying teeth that may engage a rack of teeth on the intermediate sliding block, although a surface-surface friction engagement may be provided instead.
The assembly may include a manually operated clamp mechanism that is operable between a disengaged condition in which the clamp mechanism does not impede the telescopic movement of the upper shroud part and an engaged position in which the clamp mechanism prevents the telescopic movement of the upper shroud part relative to the lower shroud part. The actuator for the secondary blocking device may form a part of this clamp mechanism. In an alternative an electrically operated clamp mechanism may be provided.
The clamp mechanism, when manually operable, may include a lever that is connected to a clamp pin, the user grasping the lever to clamp and unclamp the clamp mechanism.
The initiator module may comprise a pyrotechnic device or an electro magnet. In each case a part of the module may be displaced when activated to move clear of the connecting rod, although it is also possible for a part of the device to break free or otherwise be ejected to release the connecting rod.
The steering column assembly may include a signal processor which provides a command signal to the initiator module in the event that the lock mechanism is required to move to the locked position.
The signal processor may issue the command signal in the event that a crash is detected, or when an event that is a precursor of a crash is detected. The signal may be issued, for instance, when the deceleration of the vehicle exceeds a threshold value, or when a sensor for activating a safety system such as an airbag or seat belt pretensioner is activated, or an unbelted driver is detected.


A control device for controlling a flue gas denitrizer including a reductant supply part for supplying a reductant to an exhaust gas passage to which an exhaust gas from a boiler is introduced. The control device comprises: a storage part which stores a plurality of opening degree patterns of a plurality of first valves corresponding to a plurality of operational states of the boiler respectively; an opening degree pattern acquisition part configured to acquire an opening degree pattern corresponding to a present operational state of the boiler among the plurality of opening degree patterns from the storage part; and a first valve control part configured to regulate an opening degree of each of the plurality of first valves, on the basis of the opening degree pattern acquired by the opening degree pattern acquisition part.

A flue gas denitrizer for removing or reducing nitrogen oxides (NOx) contained in exhaust gas from a combustion facility by decomposing them into harmless nitrogen and water through reaction with a reductant is known. In such a flue gas denitrizer, if the supply amount of the reductant is too small, nitrogen oxides in the exhaust gas cannot be sufficiently reduced, while if the supply amount of the reductant is too much, the equipment may be adversely affected by an unreacted reductant. Therefore, a configuration has been proposed to appropriately regulate the supply amount of the reductant in the flue gas denitrizer.
Patent Document 1 discloses a denitration system equipped with an ammonia injection device for injecting ammonia as a reductant into exhaust gas from a boiler, a denitration catalyst disposed downstream of the ammonia injection device in an exhaust gas passage, and a regulating means for regulating the amount of ammonia injected from the ammonia injection device. The regulating means is configured to regulate the reductant supply amount on the basis of NOx concentration distribution in a cross-section of the exhaust gas passage at the outlet side of the denitration catalyst so that more ammonia is supplied to a region where denitration is insufficient (i.e., where the NOx concentration is relatively high).

Control device for flue gas denitrizer, boiler facility, control method for flue gas denitrizer, and control program for flue gas denitrizer


This invention provides rapamycin solid dosage unit which comprises a core and a sugar overcoat, said sugar overcoat comprising rapamycin, one or more surface modifying agents, one or more sugars, and optionally one or more binders.

Rapamycin is a macrolide antibiotic produced by Streptomyces hygroscopicus which was discovered first for its properties as an antifungal agent. It adversely affects the growth of fungi such as Candida albicans and Microsporum gypseum. Rapamycin, its preparation and its antibiotic activity were described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,929,992, issued Dec. 30, 1975 to Surendra Sehgal et al. In 1977 Martel, R. R. et al. reported on immunosuppressive properties of rapamycin against experimental allergic encephalitis and adjuvant arthritis in the Canadian Journal of Physiological Pharmacology, 55, 48-51 (1977). In 1989, Calne, R. Y. et al. in Lancet, 1989, no. 2, p. 227 and Morris, R. E. and Meiser, B. M. in Medicinal Science Research, 1989, No. 17, P. 609-10, separately reported on the effectiveness of rapamycin in inhibiting rejection in vivo in allograft transplantation. Numerous articles have followed describing the immunosuppressive and rejection inhibiting properties of rapamycin, and clinical investigations have begun for the use of rapamycin in inhibiting rejection in transplantation in man.
Rapamycin alone (U.S. Pat. No. 4,885,171) or in combination with picibanil (U.S. Pat. No. 4,401,653) has been shown to have antitumor activity. R. Martel et al. [Can. J. Physiol. Pharmacol. 55, 48 (1977)] disclosed that rapamycin is effective in the experimental allergic encephalomyelitis model, a model for multiple sclerosis; in the adjuvant arthritis model, a model for rheumatoid arthritis; and effectively inhibited the formation of IgE-like antibodies.
The immunosuppressive effects of rapamycin have been disclosed in FASEB 3, 3411 (1989). Cyclosporin A and FK-506, other macrocyclic molecules, also have been shown to be effective as immunosuppressive agents, therefore useful in preventing transplant rejection [FASEB 3, 3411 (1989); FASEB 3, 5256 (1989); R. Y. Calne et al., and Lancet 1183 (1978).
Rapamycin has been shown to inhibit transplantation rejection in mammals [U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,899]. Rapamycin, its derivatives and prodrugs have also been shown to be useful in treating pulmonary inflammation [U.S. Pat. No. 5,080,899], systemic lupus erythematosis [U.S. Pat. No. 5,078,899], immunoinflammatory skin disorders, such as psoriasis [U.S. Pat. No. 5,286,730], immunoinflammatory bowel disorders [U.S. Pat. No. 5,286,731], ocular inflammation [U.S. Pat. No. 5,387,589], hyperproliferative vascular disorders, such as restenosis [U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,512,781 and 5,288,711], carcinomas [U.S. Pat. No. 5,206,018 and 4,885,171], and cardiac inflammatory disease [U.S. Pat. No. 5,496,832]; and in preventing the onset of insulin dependent diabetes mellitus [U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,009]. Additionally, rapamycin has been shown to be useful in treating adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma [European Patent Application 525,960 A1], and in treating ocular inflammation [U.S. Pat. No. 5,387,589].
Because of its poor oil and water solubility, only a few formulations of rapamycin have proven satisfactory. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,516,770 and 5,530,006 disclose intravenous rapamycin formulations, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,536,729 and 5,559,121 disclose liquid oral rapamycin formulations.
Mono- and diacylated derivatives of rapamycin (esterified at the 28 and 43 positions) have been shown to be useful as antifungal agents (U.S. Pat. No. 4,316,885) and used to make water soluble prodrugs of rapamycin (U.S. Pat. No. 4,650,803). Recently, the numbering convention for rapamycin has been changed; therefore according to Chemical Abstracts nomenclature, the esters described above would be at the 31- and 42-positions. U.S. Pat. No. 5,118,678 discloses carbamates of rapamycin that are useful as immunosuppressive, anti-inflammatory, antifungal, and antitumor agents. U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,883 discloses fluorinated esters of rapamycin. U.S. Pat. 5,118,677 discloses amide esters of rapamycin. U.S. Pat. No. 5,130,307 discloses aminoesters of rapamycin. U.S. Pat. No. 5,117,203 discloses sulfonates and sulfamates of rapamycin. U.S. Pat. No. 5,194,447 discloses sulfonylcarbamates of rapamycin.
The primary immunosuppressive agent presently used for inhibiting rejection in the allograft transplantation of organs in man is SANDIMMUNE (cyclosporine). Cyclosporine is a cyclic polypeptide consisting of 11 amino acids. The intravenous injectable formulation of SANDIMMUNE (IV) is a sterile ampoule containing, per ml, 50 mg of cyclosporine, 650 mg of Cremophor.RTM. EL and alcohol Ph Helv. (32.9% by volume) (under nitrogen). For administration this mixture is diluted further with 0.9% Sodium Chloride Injection or 5% Dextrose Injection before use. (Physicians' Desk Reference, 45th ed., 1991, pp. 1962-64, Medical Economics Company, Inc.) The macrolide molecule designated FK506, which has certain structural similarities to rapamycin, is also currently undergoing clinical investigation for inhibiting rejection in allograft organ transplantation in man. FK506 is isolated from Streptomyces tsuskubaensis and is described in U.S. Pat. No. No. 4,894,366 to Okuhara et al., issued Jan. 16, 1990 R. Venkataramanan et al., in Transplantation Proceedings, 22, No. 1, Suppl., 1 pp 52-56 (February 1990), report that the intravenous injectable formulation of FK506 is provided as a 10 mg/ml solution of FK506 in polyoxyethylated castor oil (HCO-60, a surfactant) and alcohol. The intravenous preparation must be diluted with saline or dextrose and administered as an infusion for 1 to 2 hours.
The Physicians' Desk Reference (45th ed., 1991, p. 2119, Medical Economics Company, Inc.) lists SANDIMMUNE (cyclosporine) as available in 25 mg and 100 mg strength capsules and as an oral solution in 50 ml bottles. The 25 mg capsules contain 25 mg cyclosporine, USP, and alcohol, USP dehydrated, at a maximum of 12.7% by volume. The 100 mg capsules contain cyclosporine, USP, 100 mg and alcohol, USP dehydrated, at a maximum 12.7% by volume. Inactive ingredients in the oral capsules are corn oil, gelatin, glycerol, Labrafil M 2125 CS (polyoxyethylated glycolysed glycerides), red iron oxide, sorbitol, titanium dioxide, and other ingredients. The oral solution is available in 50 mg bottles containing cyclosporine, USP, 100 mg and Ph. Helv. alcohol at 12.5% by volume dissolved in olive oil, Ph. Helv./Labrafil M 1944 CS (polyoxyethylated oleic glycerides) vehicle which must be diluted further with milk, chocolate milk or orange juice before oral administration.
IMURAN (azathioprine, available from Burroughs Wellcome Co., Research Triangle Park, N.C.) is another orally administered immunosuppressive agent prescribed alone or in conjunction with other immunosuppressive agents. The Physicians' Desk Reference (45th ed., 1991, pp. 785-787, Medical Economics Company, Inc.) lists azathioprine as 6-[1-methyl-4-nitroimidazol-5-yl)thio]purine, which is provided for oral administration in scored tablets containing 50 mg azathioprine and the inactive ingredients lactose, magnesium stearate, potato starch, povidone, and stearic acid.

Rapamycin formulations for oral administration


A system of modular components each include pin ports that may be connected in different configurations to enact alternative planar designs. Each modular component has asymmetries that are utilized to facilitate alternative wiring. Such asymmetries could include protrusions in the wafer to align edge connections. Alternatively, or in addition, the asymmetries include differences in copper disposition to certain edge connections. Each modular component has a non-conductive coating on each side of the wafer to insulate the underlaying copper layer.

With a stock of various magnet wire and cores, engineers can build and prototype a large array of transformers and inductors quickly; the designs ultimately ending up in productionized equipment. Recently, planar magnetics, including transformers and inductors, have become commercially significant. Built using printed circuit board (PCB) layers in place of magnet wire and utilizing flat magnetic cores, planar components have reduced height, high efficiency, high repeatability, low cost, and allow for embedding into the electronic assembly's host PCB.
Prototyping and designing planar components requires time consuming PCB design. Additionally, the mathematical models for such components are extremely complex and performance is difficult to predict, making optimizing the PCB design very difficult. If the planar design requires alteration, the PCB must be redesigned. Furthermore, if the planar component is integrated into an electronic assembly's host PCB, the redesign effort has a negative impact on later design phases.
It would be advantageous to have a system to test and iterate planar designs quickly.

Geometrically configurable planar wafers


A heating cooker including an infrared ray detection device is disclosed. The heating cooker includes a body, an inner case disposed within the body, and provided therein with a cooking chamber to cook food, a detection hole formed at one side wall of the inner case, to allow an infrared ray generated in the cooking chamber to exit outwardly from the cooking chamber, a path change unit disposed in the vicinity of the detection hole, to change a path of the infrared ray passing through the detection hole, and an infrared sensor disposed to be spaced apart from the path change unit, to receive the infrared ray, the path of which has been changed. The path change unit is rotatable to enable the infrared sensor to receive infrared rays having different paths while being generated in different regions in the cooking chamber.

1. Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a heating cooker including an infrared ray detection device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A heating cooker is a device for cooking food by increasing the temperature of the food. Generally, such a heating cooker includes a microwave oven, in which food is irradiated with microwaves, and a gas oven and an electric oven, in which heat is directly applied to food. The microwave oven is a device in which microwaves generated from a magnetron are irradiated onto food, to generate frictional heat in accordance with parallel motion of water molecules contained in the food, and thus to cook the food using the frictional heat.
The cooked state of food may be checked based on a measured temperature of the food. However, it is difficult to directly measure the temperature of the food during cooking. To this end, the temperature of food is measured using a method in which the intensity of infrared rays generated from the food is measured, and the temperature of food is calculated based on the measured intensity of infrared rays. An infrared sensor is generally used for measurement of the intensity of infrared rays. The infrared sensor is arranged in the vicinity of a detection hole formed at a cooking chamber to receive a light receiving portion of the infrared sensor, which receives an infrared ray, such that the light receiving portion is exposed to the cooking chamber.
However, the light receiving portion may be contaminated by oil vapor or water vapor generated from food because the light receiving portion of the infrared sensor is exposed to the cooking chamber. In the case of a microwave oven, microwaves irradiated into the cooking chamber may reach the light receiving portion, thereby degrading the reliability of measurement results.

Infrared ray detection device, heating cooker, and method of measuring temperature of cooling chamber of heating cooker


A method is disclosed for tracking the phase of a received phase-modulated carrier carrying a sequence of symbols represented by phase jumps in a low signal-to-noise ratio environment. An input sequence of symbols stored in a delay line. The phase of a current symbol in a phase locked loop, and the phase error detected in the phase locked loop is updated to take into account phase error estimates of future symbols.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of digital communications, and in particular to a method and apparatus for tracking the phase of a received linearly-modulated signal.
2. Description of Related Art
In a typical digital communications system, digital modulation techniques, such as phase modulation techniques, are used to transmit data using an analog waveform. This waveform is typically an RF carrier, but such techniques are also used in wireline systems.
The data is usually modulated onto the carrier using a digital phase modulation. A simple form of digital phase modulation is phase-shift keying (PSK). This involves changing the phase of the transmitted waveform. These finite phase changes represent digital data. In its simplest form, a phase-modulated waveform can be generated by using the digital data to switch between two signals of equal frequency but opposing phase. If the resultant waveform is multiplied by a sine wave of equal frequency, two components are generated: one cosine waveform of double the received frequency and one frequency-independent term whose amplitude is proportional to the cosine of the phase shift. Filtering out the higher-frequency term yields the original modulating data prior to transmission.
Quadrature phase-Shift Keying (QPSK) takes the concept of PSK a stage further. The number of phase shifts is not limited to only two states. With QPSK, the carrier undergoes four changes in phase and can thus represent a group of 2 binary bits of data, known as a symbol. The phase shift on a carrier can be demodulated into a varying output voltage by multiplying the carrier with a sine-wave local oscillator and filtering out the high-frequency term. Unfortunately, the phase shift is limited to two quadrants; a phase shift of π/2 cannot be distinguished from a phase shift of −π/2. Therefore, to accurately decode phase shifts present in all four quadrants, the input signal needs to be multiplied by both sinusoidal and cosinusoidal waveforms, the high frequency filtered out, and the data reconstructed. In Offset Quadraphase Phase Shift Keying (OQPSK), the I or P components of the signal are delayed by half a symbol period.
Forward error correcting (FEC) techniques are used to include redundancy in the transmitted data, and this redundancy enables the original data to be recovered at the receiver in the event of noise, typically at low signal-to-noise ratios. There is a trade-off between the amount of redundancy included in the transmitted signal and the transmission rate or signal-to-noise ratio.
Modern parallel-concatenated (turbo codes) used for forward error correction allow for efficient operation at very low signal-to-noise ratios. A turbo encoder consists of a combination of two simple encoders. The input is a block of k information bits. The two encoders generate parity symbols from two simple recursive convolutional codes, each with a small number of states. An interleaver permutes the original k information bits before input to the second encoder. The permutation P allows that input sequences for which one encoder produces low-weight codewords will cause the other encoder to produce high-weight codewords. Thus, even though the constituent codes are individually weak, the combination is very powerful.
Wireless and passband wireline digital communications receivers typically incorporate timing, frequency and phase tracking functions which are followed by forward error correction (FEC) decoding in order to recover the original data. These functions are accomplished using digital signal processing techniques in most current receivers.
At the receiver, timing, frequency and phase estimation tasks must be performed in order to recover the original data. These tasks may be carried out either serially or jointly, with simultaneous estimation of multiple parameters. A number of phase tracking techniques have been developed for linearly modulated passband communications. See, for example, Mengali, U. and D'Andrea, A. N., Synchronization Techniques for Digital Receivers, Plenum Press, New York, 1997; and Meyr, H., Moeneclaey, M., Fechtel, S. A, Digital Communications Receivers: Synchronization, Channel Estimation, and Signal Processing, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, 1998, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference. These techniques can generally be divided into two classes: feedback and feedforward phase estimators.
A feedback phase estimator typically performs per-symbol processing in an iterative manner: for each symbol, the previous symbol phase estimate is used to extract a phase error value, which is then low-pass filtered. The low-pass filter output is used to update the previous symbol phase estimate. For phase recovery of linearly modulated signals, the phase error recovery process is designed to minimize the effect of signal modulation on the phase error estimate. Two common approaches are the use of decision-directed or maximum likelihood phase error detectors.
Feedforward phase estimators perform modulation-dependent mathematical operations on the symbols to remove the effect of modulation without the use of a current phase estimate. The output quantities of this process are smoothed, following which a feedback phase unwrapping operation is performed (if required). Finally, the phase estimates are extracted from the smoothed, unwrapped quantities. For example, with quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulated signals, the complex baseband symbols can be raised to the fourth power to remove the effect of modulation. The fourth-power quantities are smoothed and phase-angle is extracted, following which a phase unwrapping process is applied. The phase estimates can then be formed as ¼ of the unwrapped phase angles.
The error rate performance of a typical digital communications system is usually constrained by the performance of the forward error correction code; other demodulator functions such as phase tracking/estimation introduce relatively small losses from the error rate which can be provided by the FEC code at a given signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) on an additive white Gaussian noise channel.
Advances in forward error correction coding such as parallel-concatenated (turbo) and serial-concatenated convolutional codes and low density parity check codes, along with iterative decoding techniques, have enabled communications with greater power efficiency than previously attainable. With the lowered minimum operating SNR this implies, the phase tracking component of the demodulator must also be capable of improved performance. Otherwise, the phase tracker can become the limiting factor for the link error rate performance, and the benefit of the FEC codes' improved performance cannot be achieved.

Phase tracker for linearly modulated signal


A film, based on polyimide or epoxy, is laminated onto a surface of a substrate under a vacuum, so that the film closely covers the surface and adheres thereto. Contact surfaces to be formed on the surface are uncovered by opening windows in the film. A contact is established in a plane manner between each uncovered contact surface and a layer of metal. This establishes a large-surface contact providing high current density for power semiconductor chips.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for making contact with one or more electrical contact surfaces on a surface of a substrate, and a device having a substrate with a surface on which electrical contact surfaces are arranged.
2. Description of the Related Art
The most widely established technology for interconnecting power semiconductor chips and connecting them to conductor tracks is thick-wire bonding (see Harmann, G., "Wire Bonding in Microelectronics, Materials, Processes, Reliability and Yield", Mc Graw Hill 1998). In this technique ultrasound energy is used to achieve a permanent connection between the Al wire, which has a typical diameter of several 100 μm, and the contact surface, which on the chip is an Al or Cu surface on the power module, via an intermetallic connection.
Other techniques have been published as alternatives to bonding, such as the ThinPak technique (see Temple, V., "SPCO's ThinPak Package, an Ideal Block for Power Modules and Power Hybrids", IMAPS 99 Conference, Chicago 1999). In this technique, contact is made with the chip surface via solder applied over holes in a ceramic plate.
In MPIPPS (Metal Posts Interconnected Parallel Plate Structures, see Haque S., et al., "An innovative Technique for Packaging Power Electronic Building Blocks Using Metal Posts Interconnected Parallel Plate Structures", IEEE Trans Adv. Pckag., Vol. 22, No. 2, May 1999), the contacts are made by soldered copper posts.
Another way of making contact is via solder bumps for flip-chip technology (Liu, X., et al., "Packaging of Integrated Power Electronics Modules Using Flip-Chip Technology", Applied Power Electronics Conference and Exposition, APEC '2000). This method additionally enables improved heat dissipation because the power semiconductors can be soldered onto DCB substrates on the upper and lower face (DCB stands for Direct Copper Bonding) (see Gillot, C., et al., "A New Packaging Technique for Power Multichip Modules", IEEE Industry Applications Conference IAS '99, 1999).
Making contact over a large area via vapor-deposited Cu leads is presented in (Lu, G.-Q., "3-D, Bond-Wireless Interconnection of Power Devices in Modules Will Cut Resistance, Parasitics and Noise", PCIM May 2000, pp. 40-68), wherein the conducting-track insulation (Power Module Overlay Structure) is fabricated by vapor-phase deposition (CVD technique).
Using a patterned foil to make contact via an adhesive or solder process was published in (Krokoszinski, H.-J., Esrom, H., "Foil Clip for Power Module Interconnects", Hybrid Circuits 34, September 1992).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,616,886 from Motorola proposes the bondless module without specifying any process details.

Method for making contact with electrical contact with electrical contact surfaces of substrate and device with substrate having electrical contact surfaces


An automatic circumferential insertion apparatus and method for a complex rotary preform. The apparatus includes a double-hinge yarn carrier and a U-shaped bracket. Two ends of the double-hinge yarn carrier are respectively provided with a cylindrical hinge structure. One cylindrical hinge structure is in revolving pair connection with an outer clamping buckle at one end of the U-shaped bracket, and the other cylindrical hinge structure is in revolving pair connection with an inner clamping buckle at the other end of the U-shaped bracket. Two sides of the U-shaped bracket are provided with an electromagnet, respectively. The outer clamping buckle is provided with a pin, which is controlled by triggering, and is triggered simultaneously with the electromagnet at the side where the outer clamping buckle is arranged.

The 3D braided composite material has been widely used in military and civilian fields owing to its outstanding mechanical properties and lightweight structure.
3D four-directional and five-directional braiding technologies have achieved significant development in the past two or three decades. Currently, the 3D four-directional braided structure is more popularized, in which the internal braiding bundles extend along four directions and intersect with each other, and all braiding bundles each form an angle with the braiding direction and are isotropic.
The arrangement of fibers along a thickness direction enhances the mechanical properties of the composite along this direction. Based on the four-directional braiding structure, additional braiding bundles can be introduced in other directions to form a 3D five-directional, six-directional and more-directional braided structure, further strengthening the mechanical performance of the composites.

Automatic circumferential insertion apparatus and method for complex rotary preform

NANJING UNIVERSITY OF AERONAUTICS AND ASTRONAUTICS


A method of coating a flexible substrate in a roll-to-roll deposition system is described. The method includes unwinding the flexible substrate from an unwinding roll, the flexible substrate having a first coating on a first main side thereof; measuring a lateral positioning of the first coating while guiding the flexible substrate to a coating drum; adjusting a lateral position of the flexible substrate on the coating drum depending on the measured lateral positioning of the first coating; and depositing a second coating on the flexible substrate, particularly on a second main side of the flexible substrate opposite the first main side. Further described is a vacuum deposition apparatus for conducting the methods described herein.

Various techniques for deposition on a flexible substrate, for example, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and physical vapor deposition (PVD) are known. For coating a substrate at high deposition rates, thermal evaporation may be used as a PVD process. For thermal evaporation, a coating material is heated up to produce a vapor that may be deposited, for example, on a substrate that is supported by a coating drum, i.e. a rotatable drum with a curved drum surface for supporting a web substrate. Increasing the temperature of the heated coating material increases the vapor concentration and can facilitate high deposition rates.
For example, the coating material to be deposited on the substrate can be heated in a crucible to produce vapor at an elevated vapor pressure. The vapor can stream from the crucible to a heated vapor distributor with a plurality of nozzles. The vapor can be directed by the plurality of nozzles onto a surface of the moving web substrate that is supported on the coating drum to deposit a coating strip on the flexible substrate.
For the manufacture of batteries, several coatings may be deposited on a flexible substrate, and typically both sides of the flexible substrate may be coated. There are different approaches for depositing coatings on both substrate sides in a roll-to-roll deposition system. In a first approach, both sides of the substrate may be subsequently coated along one single path through a deposition system that is configured for two-side coatings. Alternatively, the flexible substrate may first be wound through a deposition system for coating the first main side of the substrate with a first coating, and the substrate may subsequently be wound again through the same deposition system or through another deposition system in an opposite orientation for coating the second main side of the substrate with a second coating.
In the latter case, it may be challenging to deposit the second coating exactly on a predetermined lateral position on the substrate with respect to the first coating. For example, the lateral positioning of the first coating may slightly vary along the length direction of the substrate, or the first coating may be deposited on the flexible substrate with an unknown positional accuracy.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide methods for accurately depositing a second coating on a flexible substrate in a roll-to-roll deposition system, particularly on a second substrate side opposite a first substrate side that is already coated with a first coating. Further, it would be beneficial to provide a vapor deposition apparatus configured to accurately deposit a second coating on a flexible substrate in a roll-to-roll deposition system, particularly for the manufacture of an anode of a lithium battery.

Method of coating a flexible substrate in a R2R deposition system, and vapor deposition system


A battery comprises: a container including a bottom portion, long-sidewall portions each standing on a corresponding one of longer side portions of the bottom portion, short-sidewall portions each standing on a corresponding one of two shorter side portions of the bottom portion, and a welded portion in which portions of a flat plate are mutually welded; an electrode assembly housed in the container; an electrode terminal; and a lid closing the container, the container having a cuboid shape, the bottom portion being rectangular, the long-sidewall portions each being rectangular, the short-sidewall portions each being rectangular, the flat plate being made of metal and being folded, and the portions of the flat plate being mutually abutting or overlapping.

Recently, moving vehicles using electric power as part or the whole of the driving source, such as hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles, have attracted attention, and non-aqueous secondary batteries with high energy capacity have been commercialized as power sources of the moving vehicles. For example, a lithium-ion battery or the like can be cited as a rechargeable battery with the high energy capacity.
A secondary battery installed in moving vehicles such as an automobile uses a structure for housing an electrode assembly and a current collector in an enclosure which is made of metal and the like and which has a high stiffness and a rectangular shape (for example, refer to Patent Literature 1).
Moreover, recently, weight reduction is one of the other capabilities required for a secondary battery installed in automobiles and the like, and the weight of the secondary battery has been reduced by using aluminum as a material of the enclosure and by reducing a thickness of the enclosure made of stainless steel.

Method of manufacturing battery, and battery


A data writing method for controlling a rewritable non-volatile memory module having physical erasing units is provided. The physical erasing units are grouped into a first buffer area and a second buffer area. A write command instructed to write a data to a first logical address is received. Whether the quantity of the data is smaller than a predetermined value is determined. If so, the data is written into the first buffer area or the second buffer area. If the data is written into the second buffer area, at least one second logical address mapped to at least one physical programing unit in the first buffer area is obtained, and valid data belonging to the second logical address is merged, wherein the number of the second logical address is smaller than a merging threshold. Thereby, the time for a host system to wait for a write success message is shortened.

1. Technology Field
The invention generally relates to a data writing method, and more particularly, to a data writing method for writing data that has a quantity smaller than a predetermined value into a rewritable non-volatile memory module, a memory controller, and a memory storage device.
2. Description of Related Art
Along with the widespread of digital cameras, cell phones, and MP3 players in recently years, the consumers' demand to storage media has increased drastically. Rewritable non-volatile memory (for example, flash memory) is very suitable for aforementioned portable multimedia devices due to its many characteristics such as data non-volatility, low power consumption, small volume, and non-mechanical structure.
Generally, a rewritable non-volatile memory module includes a plurality of physical erasing units, and these physical erasing units have to be erased before being used for writing new data. A plurality of logical addresses is mapped to part of the physical erasing units, and a host system issues commands for accessing these logical addresses to write data into the rewritable non-volatile memory module. If most physical erasing units contain data and the host system desires to write data again, valid data in the physical erasing units has to be merged to release spare physical erasing units. However, if the valid data in a physical erasing unit belongs to different logical addresses, the valid data belonging to these multiple logical addresses has to be merged to release a spare physical erasing unit. If it takes too long to merge the valid data, the time limit for the host system to wait for a write success message may be exceeded. Thereby, how to avoid merging too much valid data at each time and prevent the time for a host system to wait for a write success message from exceeding its upper limit is one of the subjects in the industry.
Nothing herein should be construed as an admission of knowledge in the prior art of any portion of the present invention. Furthermore, citation or identification of any document in this application is not an admission that such document is available as prior art to the present invention, or that any reference forms a part of the common general knowledge in the art.

Data writing method, memory controller, and memory storage device


A system for using a plurality of processors to support a media conference includes a mixing processor and a first media transformation processor coupled to the mixing processor. The mixing processor mixes input media information associated with two or more first participants to generate output media information for communication to a second participant. The first media transformation processor receives the output media information from the mixing processor, encodes the output media information to generate an output data stream, and communicates the output data stream to the second participant's end-user device.

A media conference is a real-time or near real-time communication among three or more participants. Conferencing devices may support media conferences over a packet-based network. A conferencing device receives input data packets from the participants' end-user devices, processes the input data packets to generate output data packets, and communicates the output data packets to the participants' end-user devices.
Unfortunately, current conferencing devices allocate a media conference to a single processor with a limited amount of resources to devote to the media conference. As a result, current conferencing devices typically restrict the size of a media conference application according to a processor's memory, processing, or other resources. Without such a restriction, the media conference application could exhaust the processor's limited resources, resulting in substantial delays and performance degradations. Hardware and software developers need a system that supports a media conference application without restricting the size of the application based on a single processor's limited resources.

System and method for using a plurality of processors to support a media conference


A thermally assisted magnetic recording method is implemented for a storage disk with a magnetic recording layer which includes recording areas and non-recording areas. In this method, a heating laser is moved relative to the disk in facing relation to the magnetic recording layer for locally heating the recording areas. As the laser spot transitions from a recording area to the subsequent non-recording area, the heating is stopped. In cooperation with the heating laser, a magnetic field applier locally magnetizes the recording areas of the magnetic recording layer for recording signals. As the magnetic field applier transitions from a recording area to the subsequent non-recording area, the application of the magnetic field is stopped after the heating by the heating laser is stopped.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thermally assisted magnetic recording method for implementing heat-assisted information recording on a magnetic recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Magnetic recording media (magnetic disks) are known as recording media for constituting recording devices such as hard disks. The increase in the information processing volume in computer systems creates a growing demand for magnetic disks with increased recording density.
When information is recorded on a magnetic disk, a magnetic head for recording is disposed close to a recording magnetic film of the magnetic disk, and a recording magnetic field with an intensity higher than the coercive force of the recording magnetic film is applied to the recording magnetic film with the magnetic head. When the direction of the recording magnetic field from the magnetic head is successively inverted, while the magnetic head is moved with respect to the magnetic disk, a plurality of magnetic domains with successively inverted magnetization direction are formed in a row in the circumferential direction or in the track extension direction of the magnetic disk. The prescribed signals or information are thus recorded as changes in the magnetization direction in the recording magnetic film.
In the technological field of magnetic disks, it is well known that the higher is the coercive force of the recording magnetic film, the higher is the thermal stability of magnetic domains formed in the recording magnetic film and the easier is the formation of stable magnetic domains of a very small size or width. The smaller are the smallest magnetic domains that can be formed with good stability in the recording magnetic film, the higher is the recording density that can be obtained in the magnetic disk.
In information recording on magnetic disks, as mentioned above, signal magnetic domains cannot be adequately formed unless the recording magnetic field applied to the recording magnetic film is higher than the coercive force. For this reason, the intensity of the recording magnetic field applied by the magnetic head apparently has to be increased with the increase in the coercive force that is set for the recording magnetic film. However, the intensity of the recording magnetic field that can be applied by the magnetic head is limited, for example, from the standpoint of magnetic head structure or power consumption.
Accordingly, a thermally assisted magnetic recording method is sometimes used for information recording on the magnetic disks. When information recording on magnetic disks is implemented with the thermally assisted magnetic recording method, first, the temperature of the recording magnetic film of the magnetic disk is locally and successively raised by conducting laser beam illumination from the prescribed optical head. In the area with the raised temperature in the recording magnetic film, the coercive force decreases with respect to that in the surrounding areas where the temperature has not been increased. Then, a recording magnetic field that is stronger than the coercive force in the area of the recording magnetic field with the increased temperature is applied to the area with increased temperature by the magnetic head, and part of the area with increased temperature is magnetized in the prescribed direction. This magnetization is fixed in the process of cooling the magnetized zone. If the thermally assisted magnetic recording method is used, information recording is implemented by applying the recording magnetic field to the zones in which the coercive force is decreased by heating. Therefore, even when the coercive force of a recording magnetic film at a normal temperature during information storage or information reproduction is set at a high level, it is not necessary to increase excessively the intensity of the recording magnetic field that has to be applied with the magnetic head. Such a thermally assisted magnetic recording method is described, for example, in Japanese Patent Applications Laid-open No. H6-243527 and 2003-157502.
On the other hand, when a plurality of concentric circular tracks are magnetically constituted in the recording surface (recording magnetic film) of a magnetic disk, the user data areas and servo pattern areas are arranged alternately in each track in the extension direction thereof (that is, the circumferential direction of the magnetic disk). The user data areas are the zones where the user data can be rewritably recorded with the magnetic head of the magnetic disk device. The servo pattern areas are the areas for magnetically forming or recording the prescribed servo patterns for positioning and controlling he magnetic head on the target rack on the recording surface. During information recording on a magnetic disk, the user data are recorded in the user data areas, but the servo pattern located in the servo pattern areas is not rewritten.
FIGS. 4A and 4B show an example of the conventional thermally assisted magnetic recording method. FIG. 4A shows a partial cross-section of a magnetic disk 40 rotated during information recording and a slider 50 disposed opposite the magnetic disk. The magnetic disk 40 has a laminated structure comprising a disk substrate 41, a recording magnetic film 42, and a protective layer 43 and is composed as a magnetic recording medium capable of implementing information recording (magnetic recording) and information reproduction in a thermally assisted recording system. The slider 50 comprises a slider body 51, a converging lens 52, and a magnetic head 53 for recording. The slider body 51 comprises a prescribed laser emission section 51a on the side thereof facing the medium. A laser beam L that is emitted from a light source (not shown in the figures) and passed through the converging lens 52 can be emitted from the laser emission section 51a. The converging lens 52 is used to converge the laser beam L. The magnetic head 53 serves to apply the prescribed recording magnetic field Hr to the recording magnetic film 42. The movement direction of the slider 50 with respect to the rotating magnetic disk 40 is shown by arrow D.
FIG. 4B-(a) is a partial enlarged plan view of one track T in the recording magnetic film 42 and vicinity thereof (the scale in this figure is different from that in FIG. 4A). In the track T, the user data areas Y and servo pattern areas S are arranged alternately in the extension direction of the stack. FIG. 4B-(b) is a graph illustrating the control mode of laser illumination in the present conventional method. In the graph shown in FIG. 4B-(b), the position on the recording magnetic film 42 or track T (position in the track extension direction) that is opposite the laser beam emission section 51a located directly below the converging lens 22 is plotted against the abscissa, and the laser power is plotted against the ordinate. The laser power corresponding to the position in the track extension direction of the laser beam L illuminated on the recording magnetic film 42 is represented by a solid line 61. FIG. 4B-(c) is a graph showing the control mode of recording magnetic field application and the changes in the coercive force of the recording magnetic film 42 in the present conventional method. In the graph shown in FIG. 4B-(c), the position on the recording magnetic film 42 or track T that is opposite the magnetic head 53 (position in the track extension direction) is plotted against the abscissa, and the absolute value of the intensity of the recording magnetic field Hr and the coercive force Hc of the recording magnetic film 42 are plotted against the ordinate. The absolute value of the intensity corresponding to the position in the track extension direction is shown with a solid line 62 for the recording magnetic field Hr applied to the recording magnetic film 42 (therefore, the application direction of the recording magnetic field Hr is not represented by the solid line 62). Furthermore, the coercive force Hc of the recording magnetic film 42 at the time the magnetic head 53 passes by is represented by a dash-dot line 63.
In the conventional thermally assisted magnetic recording method shown in FIGS. 4A–4B, the prescribed user data are written by laser beam illumination and recording magnetic field application in the user data areas Y successively facing the slider 50 in a state (that is, in a state in which the magnetic disk 40 is rotated in the direction opposite that of arrow D after the slider 50 has been disposed opposite the recording magnetic film 42) in which the slider 50 is moved in the direction shown by arrow D with respect to the recording magnetic film 42, and the laser beam illumination and recording magnetic field application are stopped at the prescribed timing so that the servo pattern magnetically formed in the servo pattern areas S successively facing the slider 50 does not change.
When the user data are written into the user data areas Y (during information recording), the recording magnetic film 42 is illuminated at the prescribed power, as shown in FIG. 4B-(b), with the laser beam L, and the recording magnetic field Hr is applied in the prescribed direction and at the prescribed intensity to the zone where the coercive force Hc is reduced by heating induced by laser beam illumination in the recording magnetic film 42, as shown in FIG. 4B-(c). As a result, the prescribed signal is recorded as the changes in the magnetization direction in the user data area Y.
Then, as shown in FIG. 4B-(b), the laser beam illumination is stopped to avoid heating of the servo pattern area S located forward in the slider movement direction, when the zone in the track T that faces the laser beam emission section 51a comes to a position P2. Even when no external magnetic field is applied, if the coercive force Hc of the servo pattern areas S is decreased by the increase in temperature, then the servo pattern (not shown in the figure), which has been formed magnetically in the servo pattern areas S, can change or degrade under he effect of thermal fluctuations. Furthermore, at the same time as the laser beam illumination has thus been stopped, as shown in FIG. 4B-(c), the recording magnetic field application is also stopped when the zone in the track T that faces the magnetic head 53 comes to a position P1 located in front of position P2. The distance from the position P1 to the position P2 corresponds to the distance from the magnetic head 53 in the slider 50 to the converging lens 52.
Then, as shown in FIG. 4B-(b), the laser beam illumination is started when the zone in the track T that faces the laser beam illumination section 51a comes to a position P3 of a transition from the servo pattern area S to the user data area Y. Further, as shown in FIG. 4B-(c) the recording magnetic field application with the magnetic head 53 is started when the zone in the track T that faces the magnetic head 53 comes to a position P4 in which the coercive force Hc is sufficiently reduced due to heating by the laser beam illumination. Writing of the user data is thus restarted.
In the track T, the servo pattern areas S are the recording prohibition areas where the recording of user data is prohibited, and the user data areas are the recording areas providing a field for recording the user data. However, with the above-described conventional thermally assisted magnetic recording method, as shown in FIG. 4B-(a), non-recording areas N1, N2 where the user data are not recorded though those areas are essentially contained in the recording areas are formed over a rather large total surface area in the user data areas Y on the boundary with the servo pattern areas S. Such a formation of the non-recording areas N1, N2 on a rather large total surface area is undesirable from the standpoint of increasing the recording capacity of the magnetic disk 40.

Thermally assisted magnetic recording method


A wound treatment device includes a seal of variable size for attaching the device to various locations on a patient for treatment of wounds or lesions. The seal has a plurality of weakened areas which allow portions of the seal to be removed for increasing the size of the seal opening to accommodate wounds or lesions of different size.

Hyperbaric chambers are devices which create sealed environments for the application of therapeutic gases to hasten healing of lesions or wounds on a patient's body. As described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,060,644, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, the introduction of pressurized gas, such as oxygen, into such an encapsulated environment promotes healing of various types of lesions and wounds.
More recently, topical hyperbaric devices have been developed that are secured to the patient's body about a wound. Examples of these devices are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,154,697 entitled, "Collapsible Topical Hyperbaric Apparatus" and U.S. Pat. No. 4,801,291, entitled, "Portable Topical Hyperbaric Apparatus," which are incorporated by reference herein. However, their application is usually limited to a discrete range of wound sizes due to their construction. Accordingly, it is desired to provide a topical hyperbaric chamber device that offers a greater range of application to accommodate various sizes of wounds.


A semiconductor device including a pair of stacked semiconductor ICs capable of communicating with each other by wireless. Each IC has: a transmitter circuit operable to send, by wireless, transmit data together with a clock signal deciding a transmission timing, and arranged so that the wireless transmission timing is adjustable; a receiver circuit operable to receive data in synchronization with a clock signal received by wireless, and arranged so that its wireless reception timing is adjustable; and a control circuit operable to perform timing adjustments of the transmitter and receiver circuits based on a result of authentication of data returned by the other IC in response to data transmitted through the transmitter circuit, and received by the receiver circuit. This arrangement for near field communication between stacked semiconductor ICs enables: reduction of the scale of a circuit for communication timing adjustment; and highly accurate adjustment of the communication timing.

The performance of semiconductor integrated circuits had been enhanced by integrating more transistors in one chip (semiconductor substrate) with the progress of micromachining techniques. However, the way to increase the scale of integration of one chip as embraced in the past has not necessarily been a most appropriate solution because of the limit of scaling-down or the influence of increase in the cost for using cutting-edge processes. Therefore, three-dimensional integration, by which more than one semiconductor integrated circuit is stacked in three-dimensional directions, has been a promising technique. For enhancement in the performance of semiconductor integrated circuits by the three-dimensional integration, which is herein also referred to as "3D integration" or "3D stacking", a mechanism for performing high-speed and large-capacity communication between stacked semiconductor integrated circuits is required. In addition, the power needed for such communication reaches a considerable level with respect to power consumption by processors and the like. Therefore, a technique for a high-speed and large-capacity communication between semiconductor integrated circuits, especially including a method for executing such communication with a smaller power is made a technique with overriding priority for 3D integration of semiconductor integrated circuits.
As communication systems for stacked semiconductor integrated circuits, wired and wireless systems have been studied. As possible wired systems, there are a system including formation of a via-hole in a silicon substrate of a semiconductor integrated circuit, and a system including wire bonding. However, the former one is limited in the scene where it can be used because formation of a via-hole in a silicon substrate poses a burden in manufacturing process; the latter one is smaller in the effect of 3D stacking in terms of performance and power because of longer wiring. On the other hand, systems that communication is performed by wireless are expected as a useful method for a scene where any wired system cannot be used because of the problems as described above.
In the typical wireless communication used for communication between mobile phones and base stations, wireless LAN and the like, a transmitter sends data after having executed some kind of modulation on the data, and a receiver-side LSI performs sampling at a rate sufficiently higher than the rate of transmitted data, and executes computation on the data thus sampled thereby to reproduce the transmitted data. However, this method involves a larger volume of computation and a greater amount of power consumption, and takes a longer time until a receiving party accepts data. On this account, such method suffices for an application scene that a larger amount of cost may be devoted because of a larger communication field. However it is unsuitable for communication in an extremely near field like between stacked semiconductor integrated circuits because of its excessively large overhead.
Wireless communication techniques which are suitable for communication in a near field like between 3D-stacked semiconductor integrated circuits, and offer smaller overheads are described in the following four patent documents: JP-A-2005-228981, JP-A-2006-50354, JP-A-2006-173415, and JP-A-2006-173986.
In cases of communication between 3D-stacked semiconductor integrated circuits, it is thought advisable to arrange a communication device so that the timing of a communicating operation can be adjusted. This is because individual semiconductor integrated circuits have variations in manufacturing and are influenced by changes of operating conditions including a temperature and an operating source voltage. JP-A-2002-223204 discloses a technique for wired communication, by which an arrangement for correcting a transmission property is adopted on the side of a receiver.

Semiconductor device and semiconductor integrated circuit