An evaporation closure is disclosed. One embodiment of the closure includes a cap, made of pliable material, which in turn includes a top wall having an opening, a skirt downwardly depending from the top wall and having a threadless internal wall adapted to slip on and sealingly engage a container, and biasing means integral with the skirt; and an elongated arm, which in turn includes a means for sealing the opening, pivotally attached to the cap for movement between a first position wherein the sealing means seals the opening and a second position wherein the sealing means does not seal the opening, the arm being biased toward the first position by the biasing means. Such a closure is useful for minimizing evaporation from containers, particularly automated clinical analyzer reagent bottles.. A kit including in packaged combination component parts of the evaporation closure is also disclosed. Such a kit is useful for conveniently assembling the evaporation closures of the present invention.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to evaporation closures, particularly to evaporation closures for clinical analyzer reagent bottles.
Clinical analyzers are widely used for the analysis of chemical and biological samples. Operational simplicity and cost effectiveness are important aspects of clinical analyzer utility. Improvements in either the ease of use or cost per test for a clinical analyzer can significantly impact its value in the market place.
Chemical and biological reagents are commonly employed together with clinical analyzers. Such reagents are used to perform chemical and biological reactions necessary for the successful analysis of a sample. Frequently, a significant portion of the cost and operator time required to perform a given analysis can be related to the selection, manipulation and losses of such reagents.
Typically, reagent containers for clinical analyzers are either un-capped during use or are covered by puncturable sealing means such as elastomeric septa supported by metallic or plastic caps. Reagents in un-capped containers or in containers capped by punctured closures are exposed to the environment of the analyzer. Such exposure can lead to contamination of the analyzer, which in turn can cause damage or impaired functioning or can contaminate the analyzer in such a way as to lead to inaccurate results on future assays. More importantly, such exposure can effect the reagents themselves. If a component of the reagent is sensitive to air or moisture, for example, then it can be destroyed or its functioning can be impaired. If one component is more volatile than another, then its concentration relative to less volatile components can be altered in such a way as to adversely impact the assay to be performed. Generally, exposure of assay reagents can significantly impact the cost and reliability of a given assay.
Methods to reduce such adverse impacts have previously required complex and/or costly sealing means such as stoppers or pipettes used as stoppers or complex, device specific reagent containers. Some of these techniques require that the operator spend time manipulating the container system and others require that the reagent bottle be used with the specific instrument for which it was designed.
Another practical disadvantage of some closure systems is that they require careful positioning of a bar code or other label on the reagent container after the closure has been affixed. This is inconvenient because it requires an operator to inspect a container-closure combination and individually affix the label. Typically, this problem has required the use of device specific reagent bottles wherein the shape of the bottle allowed it to connect to the closure in only one way, thereby increasing cost and complexity.
The present invention provides a solution to these and other problems by providing cost effective, simple, machine operable closures that allow cap position independent label positioning. The closures of the present invention improve the ease of handling and life expectancy of chemical and biological reagents and, therefore, are useful in any application involving such reagents.


A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving a first report related to an application configured to run on one or more computing devices; identifying one or more terms included in the first report; identifying one or more second reports including at least one of the one or more terms; retrieving a term relevance value for a term included in at least one of the one or more second reports; determining that the term relevance value is less than a term relevance threshold value; identifying at least one of the one or more second reports for a clustering process, wherein at least one of the one or more second reports that include the term is excluded from the clustering process; implementing the clustering process using the identified at least one of the one or more second reports; and assigning the first report to a cluster.

Computing devices such as smart phones may be configured to run applications. Generally, an application is software that runs on the resources of the computing device. A user of the computing device may encounter an error in the application, for example, while the computing device is running the application.
The application may include a link to a web page, contents of a web page, application specific information (e.g., logs and stack traces of exceptions), and/or system specific information (e.g., operating system information, browser information, installed plugins and applications, and the like) to allow the user to report an error to a developer of the application. The user may enter information specifying a type of error encountered, by interacting with controls or fields included on the web page (and/or the application itself—as feedback reports may be sent from applications running on computing devices). The web page may in turn send the information to a server system that is configured to collect information indicative of errors encountered by user of the application.


A method for performing high-level synthesis (HLS) of a digital design includes a first phase for performing transformations on a behavioral description of the design, and a second phase for selecting a transformation from a plurality of transformations for transforming the behavioral description. The method further includes a third phase for implementing the transformed behavioral description using lower level primitives, and a fourth phase for generating implementation codes for the design.

Driven by the increasing size and complexity of digital designs, there has been a renewed interest in high level synthesis of digital circuits from behavioral descriptions both in the industry and in academia. A key change that has taken place since high-level synthesis was first explored two decades ago is the widespread acceptance and use of register-transfer level (RTL) language modeling of digital designs. In fact, recent years have seen the use of variants of programming languages such as "C" and "C++" for behavioral level modeling. High-level synthesis and verification tools are essential for enabling widespread industrial adoption of these system-level programming paradigms.
However, there are several challenges that limit the utility and wider acceptance of high-level synthesis. There is a loss of control on the size and quality of the synthesized result. High-level languages allow for additional freedom in the way a behavior is described compared to register-transfer level descriptions. Thus, the style of high-level programming, in particular, the overall control flow and choice of control flow constructs, often has an unpredictable impact on the final circuit. Thus, we need techniques and tools that achieve the best code optimizations and synthesis results irrespective of the programming style used in the high level descriptions.

Method and apparatus for designing circuits using high-level synthesis

The Regents of the University of California


The invention relates to an energy absorption device which can be arranged to absorb energy by deformation between a support structure of a vehicle and a damper, the energy absorption device carrying a deformable main profile which has a hollow body-type cross-section. The aim of the invention is to improve an energy absorption device of the aforementioned type in such a manner that the energy can be well carried off even if the forces produced by an accident impact the energy absorption device at an angle. For this purpose, a deformable supplementary profile is provided on the cross-section of the main profile.

Energy absorption devices are used for the purpose of absorbing as much energy as possible in the event of an accident, before the vehicle body of the vehicle plastically deforms. In less severe accidents, the energy absorption capability of an energy absorption device may be sufficient to entirely avoid plastic deformation of the vehicle body. The repair costs remain low in this way, because only the bumper and the energy absorption device have to be replaced.
For good energy absorption, it is optimal if the energy absorption devices are implemented as an extension of longitudinal girders of an underbody of the vehicle and the bumper, in particular its crossbeam, is located horizontally at the height of the energy absorption devices. The forces are thus introduced linearly into the energy absorption device, by which its entire length may be used well for the deformation, i.e., absorbing energy.
The vehicle manufacturers have made efforts to bring as many vehicle variants as possible onto the market. To keep the costs as low as possible, the various vehicle variants are constructed on one underbody. If sports utility vehicles or SUVs are constructed on a passenger automobile underbody, the underbody is higher than in the passenger automobile. According to the legal requirements, however, the bumper, in particular its crossbeam, must be located at the height which normally corresponds to a passenger automobile bumper. This means that a Vertical offset between the bumper, in particular its crossbeam, and longitudinal girders of the underbody is to be bridged.
One possibility is to implement the energy absorption device, as up to this point, as a longitudinal extension of the longitudinal girder of the underbody, but provide a bumper with a cross member which extends over the entire vertical area and is implemented as solid. In this way, the forces may be introduced into the energy absorption device well and absorbed thereby.
Generic, or type-specific energy absorption devices are also known and used to bridge the offset between the bumper, or a cross-member of the bumper, and the longitudinal beam of the chassis. More compact and lighter bumpers, in particular their cross-members, may thus be used for a weight reduction. However, tests have shown that accident forces are not conducted straight enough through such energy absorption devices, which amounts to poor energy absorption.

Energy absorption device, especially for non-axial loads


A stacked semiconductor module is made by stacking a second semiconductor device having a second semiconductor chip mounted to the top surface of a second semiconductor substrate above the top surface of a first semiconductor device having a first semiconductor chip mounted to a first semiconductor substrate. The top surface of the first semiconductor substrate is provided with a first connection terminal and the bottom surface of the first semiconductor substrate is provided with an external connection terminal. A region of the bottom surface of the second semiconductor substrate lying opposite to the second semiconductor chip is provided with a second connection terminal. A conductive connecting member connects the first connection terminal to the second connection terminal.

(a) Fields of the Invention
The present invention relates to the structure of a stacked semiconductor module three-dimensionally constructed by stacking a second semiconductor device above a first semiconductor device. In particular, the present invention relates to the mount structure of the module.
(b) Description of Related Art
With a demand for size reduction and functionality enhancement of electronic equipment of various types including a cellular phone and a digital camera, attention is being given to a stacked semiconductor module which is made by stacking semiconductor devices each of which has electronic components, particularly, one or more semiconductor chips mounted to a semiconductor substrate.
In the stacked semiconductor module, stacking of semiconductor devices can significantly reduce the footprint thereof on a circuit substrate. Furthermore, the module employs only semiconductor chips which have been subjected, before mounting to a semiconductor substrate, to inspections up to and including a burn-in test and then recognized as conforming chips, so that the reliability as a module can be insured more certainly.
The method in which semiconductor chips are mounted to a semiconductor substrate formed with interconnects, however, tends to cause bowing of the semiconductor substrate in mounting the semiconductor chips to the semiconductor substrate, which degrades the reliability of connection between the stacked semiconductor devices. In addition, for this method, it is difficult to mount chips of different types.
To solve such a problem, a module structure as a first conventional example (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-281919) is shown which includes: a first semiconductor substrate; a first semiconductor chip mounted to the first semiconductor substrate; a second semiconductor substrate; a second semiconductor chip mounted to the second semiconductor substrate; protruding electrodes for connecting the first and second semiconductor substrates so that the second semiconductor substrate is held just above the first semiconductor chip; and a sealing material for sealing the second semiconductor chip so that the arrangement area of the protruding electrodes is also contained in the sealed region.
With this structure, the sealing material with the second semiconductor chip sealed therein can reinforce the arrangement area of the protruding electrodes in the second semiconductor substrate and suppress an increase in the height of the stacked semiconductor module in mounting the second semiconductor substrate to the first semiconductor substrate. Moreover, bowing of the second semiconductor substrate to which the second semiconductor chip is mounted can be reduced. Therefore, the semiconductor module made by stacking the semiconductor devices in the manner described above can prevent degradation of the reliability of connection between the first and second semiconductor substrates, and concurrently save the mounting space of the semiconductor chips.
As a second conventional example, a stacked module structure (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-281633) is shown which is made by staking a plurality of semiconductor chips. In each of the semiconductor chips in this structure, the top surface thereof perpendicular to the stacking direction is provided with a mounting terminal for use in mounting and an inspection terminal for inspecting the quality thereof, and the bottom surface thereof perpendicular to the stacking direction is provided with a mounting pad connected to a mounting terminal of adjacent semiconductor chip and an inspection pad electrically continuous with its own inspection terminal.
In the stacked module thus constructed, to an inspection pad of a semiconductor chip having been already mounted, an inspection terminal of another semiconductor chip to be stacked is joined to receive an inspection signal from the joined inspection terminal electrically continuous with the inspection pad of the mounted semiconductor chip, thereby carrying out an inspection. If the result of the inspection is acceptable, the inspected semiconductor chip to be stacked is moved onto the plane flush with the mounted semiconductor chip, that is, moved on the plane perpendicular to the stacking direction and in parallel with the substrate. Then, the mounting terminal of the semiconductor chip to be mounted is connected to the mounting pad of the mounted semiconductor chip to stack these chips.
With this procedure, the quality inspection of the individual semiconductor chips to be stacked can be carried out easily before stacking of the respective chips. Moreover, since the semiconductor chips to be stacked do not have to be mounted to the semiconductor substrate, the total dimension of the module can be decreased. Furthermore, since a series of steps for mounting the semiconductor chips to the semiconductor substrate are eliminated, time and labor necessary for fabrication of the module can be reduced and yield of the stacked module can be improved.
In the first conventional example, the protruding electrodes (solder ball bumps) for connecting the second and first semiconductor devices are connected in a region of the back side of the second semiconductor substrate lying outside the semiconductor chip mounting region, that is, in a region corresponding to the arrangement region of the sealing material. From this structure, if the semiconductor chip is large in dimension or a plurality of semiconductor chips are mounted, the shape of the second semiconductor substrate, eventually, the shape of the first semiconductor substrate is also large. This results in arrangement of the solder ball bumps on a wide area. Consequently, faulty connection portions are created easily in applying an impact from outside, thermal stress, or the like. As a result, the semiconductor devices in the first conventional example are likely to offer a degraded reliability.
In the second conventional example, the module has the structure in which the semiconductor chips are stacked directly on the semiconductor substrate and further the respective semiconductor chips are needed to be provided with vias. From this structure, when comparison is made with a conventional semiconductor chip, the chip in this example has a greater chip area. Moreover, this example requires an etching process for forming a via in the semiconductor chip, which makes the fabrication process of the semiconductor chip complicated. These problems lead to an increased cost of the semiconductor chip. In addition, it is relatively difficult to conduct a burn-in test on the semiconductor chip before stacking to sufficiently check the reliability thereof.


In various embodiments, laser systems or resonators incorporate two separate cooling loops that may be operated at different cooling temperatures. One cooling loop, which may be operated at a lower temperature, cools beam emitters. The other cooling loop, which may be operated at a higher temperature, cools other mechanical and/or optical components, for example optical elements such as lenses and/or reflectors.

High-power laser systems are utilized for a host of different applications, such as welding, cutting, drilling, and materials processing. Such laser systems typically include a laser emitter, the laser light from which is coupled into an optical fiber (or simply a "fiber"), and an optical system that focuses the laser light from the fiber onto the workpiece to be processed. Optical systems for laser systems are typically engineered to produce the highest-quality laser beam, or, equivalently, the beam with the lowest beam parameter product (BPP). The BPP is the product of the laser beam's divergence angle (half-angle) and the radius of the beam at its narrowest point (i.e., the beam waist, the minimum spot size). That is, BPP=NA×D/2, where D is the focusing spot (the waist) diameter and NA is the numerical aperture; thus, the BPP may be varied by varying NA and/or D. The BPP quantifies the quality of the laser beam and how well it can be focused to a small spot, and is typically expressed in units of millimeter-milliradians (mm-mrad). A Gaussian beam has the lowest possible BPP, given by the wavelength of the laser light divided by pi. The ratio of the BPP of an actual beam to that of an ideal Gaussian beam at the same wavelength is denoted M2, which is a wavelength-independent measure of beam quality.
Wavelength beam combining (WBC) is a technique for scaling the output power and brightness from laser diodes, laser diode bars, stacks of diode bars, or other lasers arranged in a one- or two-dimensional array. WBC methods have been developed to combine beams along one or both dimensions of an array of emitters. Typical WBC systems include a plurality of emitters, such as one or more diode bars, that are combined using a dispersive element to form a multi-wavelength beam. Each emitter in the WBC system individually resonates, and is stabilized through wavelength-specific feedback from a common partially reflecting output coupler that is filtered by the dispersive element along a beam-combining dimension. Exemplary WBC systems are detailed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,192,062, filed on Feb. 4, 2000, U.S. Pat. No. 6,208,679, filed on Sep. 8, 1998, U.S. Pat. No. 8,670,180, filed on Aug. 25, 2011, and U.S. Pat. No. 8,559,107, filed on Mar. 7, 2011, the entire disclosure of each of which is incorporated by reference herein.
Laser systems, or "resonators," such as WBC resonators, produce copious amounts of heat during operation and testing, and are therefore typically cooled to increase their longevity. While various systems designs utilize active liquid cooling to draw heat away from resonator components such as the beam emitters, such cooling systems can present various challenges and issues. For example, beam emitters such as diode lasers typically perform more efficiently, and may potentially have a higher rollover location as a function of current (allowing for more output power), when they are cooled to low temperatures. However, industrial laser systems operate in environments with dew point levels that cause condensation if the external components of the system pass this dew point temperature. In view of such issues, there is a need for solutions enabling high-efficiency cooling of laser resonators, and their components (e.g., beam emitters) while preventing condensation to ensure optimum optical performance.

Condensation prevention for high-power laser systems

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


A method for analyzing the relative spatial alignment of the erase head pole tips relative to the record head pole tips on a recording of a magnetic tape to be partially overwritten by providing, through first and second erase heads, successive momentary erase pulses of a predetermined time duration in a predetermined phase relation on a non-overlapping basis, wherein each erase head thereby erases recorded information while leaving portions of information therebetween on adjacent track pairs, and then reading or playing back the results of the erasure for analysis of the RF envelope of the erasing pattern by a waveform monitor or ferrofluidic techniques. The duration of the erasures and playback is such that the RF envelope includes at least one erasure from the first erase head and at least one erasure from the second erase head.

Magnetic tape recording and reproducing apparatus includes rotary scan devices, in which first and second pairs of diametrically opposite record transducers or heads are positioned within the scanner housing for rotation therewith. In addition, usually, at some given angular displacement, another set of pairs of playback or read heads are positioned in diametrically opposite relationship. For erase before record systems, such rotary scan devices for transferring signals to and/or from a magnetic tape medium often include erase pole tips within the scanner in fixed relation to the record pole tips. This fixed relation is also with respect to the tracks recorded on the magnetic tape, that is the erase pole tip must be in alignment with its associated record pole tip relative to a recorded magnetic tape track.
For editing purposes, these erase pole tips are used to eliminate, or erase, the previously recorded signal prior to re-recording a new signal, this action being an erase operation, followed by a record operation on the same or a subsequent scan with the erase head preceding the record head in time due to its physical positioning within the scanner along with the timing of actuation thereof by the control electronics. Following the erase and record, the signal is then played back on the same or a subsequent scan to verify the accuracy of the erased and re-recorded data. In conventional video tape recording and editing apparatus utilizing rotary scanners, often the record and playback pole tips are arranged in pairs with each head of a pair in proximate relation to the other, to minimize the number of pole tip support structures.
The erase heads, on the other hand, may take any configuration suitable to the format and the machine. In some instances, there is a single erase head per track, in other instances, one head may be utilized to erase two adjacent tracks. Such heads are normally arranged in diametrically opposed relation, with each head having a width sufficient to substantially erase one or more given tracks. In some machines using a single head for erasing two adjacent tracks, the width of the erase head may be slightly greater than the width of the two adjacent tracks, with a portion of the erase head slightly intruding into the two tracks on both sides of the two adjacent tracks being erased. The geometry, in large part, is dictated by the concentration of the flux erasure signal strength, with the signal strength diminishing adjacent the outer edges of the erase head where the head intrudes into the outlying tracks. However, should the erase head be misaligned relative to the two adjacent tracks, excessive erasing may occur on the adjacent tracks. Furthermore, if the erase head is misaligned relative to the associated record head, while it may be possible to position the erase head properly over the previously recorded information by using the control track longitudinal tracking control, the recording would intrude into an adjacent track. Thus it is imperative that the erase head be properly aligned relative to the tracks, and relative to the record head associate therewith.
In addition, track density, that is, the number of tracks per inch of tape, plays a significant part in the accuracy and completeness of the erase process. If the track density is not too high (e.g., early video recording formats were 139 tracks/inch), the manufacturing tolerances which accumulate between the record pole tip locations and the erase pole tip locations within the scanner are small enough (relative to the track size) to be ignored. However, as track densities have increased as with the recent digital formats which are in the range of 650 tracks/inch, the manufacturing tolerances have become a significant portion of the track size and cannot be ignored. Some provision must be made for adjustment of the erase pole tip elevations to ensure they correctly erase the desired track without excessively damaging the adjacent tracks.
It is the object of this invention to provide a simple technique for verifying and/or adjusting the erase pole tip locations relative to the record pole tip locations in a rotary scan device. Furthermore it is the object of this invention to allow this adjustment to be done in the field without the need for ferrofluid development and precision measurement of a tape sample using a microscope.


An organic electroluminescent (EL) image display panel is disclosed which has a light transmissive electrically insulative support, a plurality of parallel laterally spaced light transmissive anode electrodes disposed over a surface of the light transmissive electrically insulative support, a plurality of laterally spaced electrically insulative pedestal strips formed over the anode electrodes, a set of laterally spaced electrically insulative barriers disposed over corresponding pedestal strips, such that portions of each pedestal strip extend laterally beyond each set of barriers, said barriers projecting upwardly over each of the pedestal strips, an organic EL medium overlying each of said anode electrodes, the support, the upper surfaces of corresponding barriers, and extending beyond each of the barriers, and a plurality of parallel laterally spaced cathode electrodes overlying said organic EL medium.

Organic electroluminescent display panels (hereinafter referred to as organic EL display panels) contain an image display array comprised of a plurality of light emitting pixels arranged in intersecting rows and columns.
In addition to the image display array, organic EL display panels may also contain display regions dedicated to the display of symbols or icons, such icon display regions disposed on a common support in a selected region adjacent to the image display array.
Tang et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,294,870 disclose an organic EL multicolor image display device. For purposes of clarity, the multicolor aspect of the Tang et al. device will not be further discussed. In the construction of the Tang et al. device it has been found advantageous (see particularly FIG. 2) to provide a series of parallel walls 107 over a surface on a support, and extending orthogonally across a series of parallel first electrodes disposed on the support. Each single wall separates one set of pixels from an adjacent set of pixels. Each wall has substantially vertical side surfaces and a top surface extending in a direction parallel to the support. Each wall serves as an integral deposition mask for forming second electrodes (A, B, and C in FIG. 2) by line-of-sight vapor deposition of an electrode material under an angle relative to the substantially vertical side surfaces of the walls.
Nagayama et al., European Patent Application 0 732868 A1 discloses an organic EL display panel having electrical insulation ramparts 7. Each rampart has an overhanging portion 7a, with various rampart cross sectional views shown in FIGS. 7A-7H of the Nagayama et al. disclosure. Each of these single ramparts separates one set of light emitting portions (or light emitting pixels) from an adjacent set of light emitting portions. Each of the single ramparts serves as an integral deposition mask for forming second display electrodes 9 over an organic function layer 8 disposed over a portion of first display electrodes 3.
The walls of the Tang et al. device, and the ramparts of the Nagayama et al. device, are constructed on a device surface from an electrically insulative material which is patterned by a photolithographic process well known in the art. The process is selected to remove the insulative material from areas extending between neighboring walls or ramparts, leaving behind on the device surface a patterned layer which constitutes the walls or the ramparts.
It has been found that particle residue can become lodged at the base of the walls or against the side of the walls constructed in accordance with the teachings of Tang et al. in the aforementioned U.S. patent, during or subsequent to the wall patterning process. It is anticipated that particle residue can become lodged under the overhanging portions of the Nagayama et al. ramparts. The problem of particle residue can be more readily appreciated from a schematic perspective view shown in FIG. 1A, and from a schematic cross sectional view of FIG. 1B, in which only four walls are depicted for clarity.
In FIG. 1A, three anode electrodes A1-A3 are disposed on a support 12. Four walls W1-W4 of insulative material are shown disposed over the anode electrodes and on the support therebetween, and are positioned orthogonally to the anode electrodes.
A particle defect D is schematically indicated as being lodged against the anode electrode A1 and against an upper edge of the wall W2, respectively.
FIG. 1B is a schematic cross sectional view taken along the line 1B--1B in FIG. 1A, depicts an additional layer of an EL medium 14 overlying the anode electrode A1 and the upper surfaces of the walls. The particle defect D is lodged against the anode electrode A1 and extends to an upper surface of the wall W2. Further indicated are cathode electrodes C1-C4 comprised of a metallic cathode electrode material which has been vapor deposited under a deposition angle .THETA. with respect to the side surfaces of the walls whereby the walls serve as an integral mask for selective deposition of laterally separated cathode electrodes, i.e. separated in the absence of the particle defect D.
The particle D causes a deposited organic EL medium layer 14 to extend from the right side of the wall W1 along the anode electrode A1, along and over the defect D, and over the top surface of the wall W2. More importantly, the cathode electrode C1 is connected to the adjacent cathode electrode C2 due to vapor deposition of the electrode material over the EL medium layer in the region overlying the defect D. Effectively, the electrical connection between cathode electrodes C1 and C2 at the defect position causes light emission from pixels P located at the intersection areas between any anode electrode and either cathode electrode C1 or C2 when an electrical potential difference is applied between any anode electrode and either cathode electrode C1 or C2.
By comparison, the defect-free walls W3 and W4 have an associated EL medium layer and associated cathode electrodes C3 and C4 clearly laterally separated from one another.
The problem of light emission from pixels located at the intersection between any anode electrode and either cathode electrode C1 or cathode electrode C2 makes a device pixel useless.
Complete and reliable elimination of particle defects cannot be achieved in the construction of walls or ramparts.

Organic electroluminescent image display panel with multiple barriers


In a method of generating a database for use in outputting three- dimensional maps, a projection of a two-dimensional road vector onto a three-dimensional surface defined by digital terrain model data is determined. At least one three-dimensional road vector (94, 95, 98, 99) is determined based on the established projection and is stored in the database. The database is generated before it is deployed to a navigation device for use in outputting three-dimensional maps. A method of outputting three-dimensional maps and a navigation device may use the thus generated database.

Optical output devices are widely used in navigation devices. Such output devices may be used for outputting electronic maps. Since electronic maps may be displayed on screens of small and/or portable devices, they have the advantage of being versatile and compact.
Three-dimensional (3D) maps, i.e. perspective representations, may be of particular value to the user owing to their high recognition quality. The recognition of an environmental region, such as a street intersection, may be facilitated when a three-dimensional map is output, as compared to a conventional two-dimensional representation.
Various approaches for configuring a navigation device such that 3D maps can be displayed are conceivable. Graphical images representing a perspective view of road intersection areas may be pre-computed and stored in the navigation device. Such an approach would be efficient in terms of computation time when the 3D map is to be displayed, but suffers from reduced flexibility. If a limited set of graphical images representing a finite set of intersection types is stored, integration of such graphical images with a terrain model may be challenging.
In another approach, digital terrain model (DTM) data may be stored in the navigation device. The navigation device may compute a projection of the two-dimensional road vectors of a conventional digital map onto the surface defined by the DTM data at run time. Such an approach provides higher flexibility, but may be costly in terms of computation time and/or computation resources. EP 1 107 189 A2 describes a map displaying system and method in which a navigation system stores a 2D map and landform data, which need to processed by the navigation system to prepare 3D map data.

Method of generating a database for a navigation device, method of outputting a three-dimensional map, and navigation device


A cathode ray tube comprising a vacuum enclosure including a glass panel 1 whose inner face is coated with a phosphor film 4 to form a screen; a neck portion housing an electron gun; and a funnel portion connecting the glass panel and the neck portion. A multi-layered anti-reflection, anti-electrostatic charge film formed on the outer face of the glass panel is constructed of a high refractive index film having a refractive index of 1.6 to 2.2 and a low refractive index film having a refractive index of 1.3 to 1.58. The high refractive index film is sandwiched between the outer face of the glass panel and the low refractive index film, and an unevenness having an average diameter of 5 to 80 .mu.m is provided at the interface between the high refractive index film and the low refractive index film. The interface has a height of 10 to 40 nm. The unevenness of the surface of the low refractive index film is made smaller than the average roughness Rz of the unevenness of the interface between the high refractive index film and the low refractive index film, or the surface of the low refractive index film is flat.

The present invention relates to a cathode ray tube and, more particularly, to a cathode ray tube which prevents the reflection of external light on a glass panel portion of the tube envelope, so as to raise the display contrast and prevent the formation of an electrostatic charge on the screen.
In a cathode ray tube to be used in a TV receiver or a personal computer monitor, a tube envelope in the form of a glass vacuum enclosure is used, which comprises a glass panel having a screen or an image display screen formed thereon, a neck portion housing electron guns and a funnel portion connecting the glass panel and the neck portion. A phosphor film representing the screen formed on the inner face of the glass panel is excited with modulated electron beams emitted from the electron guns to display a desired image.
FIG. 11 is a section view for explaining the structure of a shadow mask color cathode ray tube, which represents one example of a cathode ray tube with which the present invention is concerned. In FIG. 11, reference numeral 1 designates a glass panel portion; numeral 2 denotes a neck portion; numeral 3 denotes a funnel portion; numeral 4 denotes a phosphor screen; numeral 5 denotes a shadow mask; numeral 6 denotes a mask frame; numeral 7 denotes mask support mechanism; numeral 8 denotes support pins; numeral 9 denotes an inner magnetic shield; numeral 10 denotes anode button; numeral 11 denotes an internal conductive coating; numeral 12 denotes a deflector; numeral 13 denotes electron guns; and numeral 14 denotes electron beams (red, green and blue). In the cathode ray tube shown in FIG. 11, a tube envelope in the form of a vacuum enclosure is constructed of the glass panel portion 1 on which the screen (phosphor film 4) is formed, the neck portion 2 housing the electron guns and the funnel portion 3 connecting the glass panel portion and the neck portion. The inner wall surface of this vacuum enclosure is coated with the internal conductive coating 11 for supplying a high anode voltage, applied to the anode button 10, to the screen and the electron guns.
The shadow mask 5 is welded to the mask frame 6 and is suspended by the support mechanism 7 from the support pins 8, which are buried in the inner wall of the skirt portion of the glass panel portion 1, so that the shadow mask is held at a predetermined small spacing from the phosphor screen 4 formed on the inner face of the glass panel portion 1.
The inner magnetic shield 9 is provided for shielding the image display from the bad influences of external magnetic fields, such as the earth's magnetism, upon the electron beams 14 and is welded to and held by the mask frame 6.
On the neck portion side of the funnel portion 3, there is mounted the deflection coils 12 for establishing a horizontal magnetic field and a vertical magnetic field within the tube envelope, so that the three modulated electron beams emitted from the electron guns 13 are deflected in the horizontal direction and in the vertical direction to scan the phosphor film two-dimensionally and thereby to display a desired image.
Generally, this cathode ray tube is provided with an anti-reflection, anti-electrostatic charge film on the outer surface of the glass panel 1 for preventing the reflection of external light incident upon the glass panel portion or the image display screen from being reflected thereby, to prevent deterioration of the contrast of the image display or for preventing the glass panel portion from being charged with static electricity.
FIG. 12 is a section view showing, on an enlarged scale, a portion A of the glass panel portion of FIG. 11 for explaining one example of an external light anti-reflection structure of the cathode ray tube. In FIG. 12, reference numeral 42 designates a black matrix; numeral 43 denotes a phosphor screen; numeral 44 denotes a metal back; numeral 51 denotes an electron beam passing opening of the shadow mask; symbols R, G and B denote the trajectories of electron beams of individual colors; numeral 20 denotes an anti-reflection, anti-electrostatic charge film; numeral 23 denotes light emitted from the phosphor screen; numeral 24 denotes external light incident on the glass panel of the cathode ray tube; and numerals 25 and 26 denote reflected external light. The same reference numerals as those of FIG. 11 designate identical elements.
In FIG. 12, the three electron beams (R, G and B), emitted from the electron guns, are subjected to color selection for the individual phosphor dots 43 of the R, G and B colors by the electron beam passing opening 51 of the shadow mask 5 to cause them to impinge upon the proper color dots of the phosphor screen 4.
The phosphor dots 43 are excited by the impingement of the electron beams to emit light, which passes through the glass panel portion 1. The anti-reflection, anti-electrostatic charge film 20 is formed on the outer surface of the glass panel portion. The external light 25 which reaches the anti-reflection, anti-electrostatic charge film 20 of the glass panel portion 1 is suppressed in light energy through absorption or interference in the anti-reflection, anti-electrostatic charge film 20, so that normal reflection of this light toward the outer surface of the film 20 is prevented together with diffusion of reflected light 26 by the surface of the anti-reflection, anti-electrostatic charge film 20.
This anti-reflection, anti-electrostatic charge film is formed by one of various methods, but generally it is formed by the so-called "sol-gel-method."
Specifically, there is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 334853/1992 a method of forming a two-layered anti-reflection, anti-electrostatic charge film by forming a film of a mixed composition in which ultra fine particles (having a diameter no more than several tens of nm) of a conductive oxide (e.g., A.T.O.: tin oxide containing antimony oxide, or I.T.O.: indium oxide containing tin oxide) for forming a high refractive index film are dispersed in an alcoholic solution, by so-called "spin-coating" to form a flat lower film having a thickness of about 60 to 100 nm, and by spin- or spray-coating the underlying film with a hydrolysate solution of silicon alkoxide to form a flat upper film having a thickness of 80 to 130 nm.
There is also disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 343008/1993 a method in which a film of an organic or inorganic tin compound containing antimony is formed on the glass panel of a cathode ray tube by chemical vapor deposition (hereinafter abbreviated to CVD) to form an A.T.O. film having a high refractive index, the A.T.O. film is coated flatly with a hydrolysate solution of silicon alkoxide of a thickness of 80 to 100 nm to form a film having a low refractive index, the second-layer film is spray-coated with the hydrolysate solution of silicon alkoxide to a thickness of 10 to 50 nm to form a third-layer scattering film having a low refractive index, so as to reduce the density of the reflected color exhibited by the second-layer of the anti-reflection, anti-electrostatic charge film and the reflectance in the human visible region of 400 to 700 nm, and the third-layer film is made uneven.

Cathode ray tube with multilayered high- and low-refractive index films thereon


Parameters specific to robot, environment, target objects and their inter-relations need to be considered by a robot to estimate cost of a task. As the existing task allocation methods assume a single utility value for a robot-task pair, combining heterogeneous parameters is a challenge. In applications like search and rescue, manual intervention may not be possible in real time. For such cases, utility calculation may be a hindrance towards automation. Also, manufacturers follow their own nomenclature and units for robotic specifications. Only domain experts can identify semantically similar terms and perform necessary conversions. Systems and methods of the present disclosure provide a structured semantic knowledge model to store and describe data in a uniform machine readable format such that semantics of those data can be interpreted by the robots and utility computation can be autonomous to make task allocation autonomous, semantic enabled and capable of self-decision without human intervention.

Mobile robots are a convenient tool to perform a set of tasks efficiently with minimal human intervention. Deploying a team of robots is often beneficial as opposed to a single robot. Among others, efficiency of such a collaborative exploration depends largely on efficient multi-robot task allocation (MRTA), which has gained significant research attention due to its diverse range of applications. An objective is to allocate tasks to robotic agents either instantaneously or in a time-extended fashion such that an overall goal can be achieved with minimal completion cost and/or time. A precursor to the task assignment with such an objective is to perform utility calculation. It generally refers to accurately estimating the cost of a particular task, if performed by a particular robot. This cost estimation helps to schedule and assign the tasks among the fleet of robots such that the overall cost to perform all the tasks can be minimized.

Systems and methods for semantic knowledge based dynamic utility calculation


The invention provides transdermal delivery systems, medical kits, and methods for using the transdermal delivery systems and kits for medical applications, such as delivery of contraceptive agents to control fertility.

Transdermal delivery of medicinal agents provides advantages over other routes of administration. For example, first-pass metabolism and variable rates of absorption associated with oral administration of medicinal agents can be avoided by transdermal administration. Intravenous injection and other methods of administering a medicinal agent by injection can cause pain upon insertion of a hypodermic needle into the patient. Transdermal administration can avoid pain at the site of administration and provide the further advantage that a medicinal agent can be administered continuously over several days without any continued action by the patient.
Multiple parties have investigated transdermal delivery of contraceptive agents to control fertility. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,296,230; 5,512,292; and 5,788,983. Advantages of transdermal delivery of contraceptive agents include improved patient compliance when using a multi-day, easy-to-use patch and reduced occurrence of over-dosing or under-dosing of the contraceptive agent, as can sometimes occur when patients are tasked with repeated oral administration of a contraceptive agent.
Transdermal delivery systems containing estrogens and/or progestins have been described. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,296,230; 5,512,292; and 5,788,983. One challenge for achieving effective contraception by transdermal delivery of an estrogen and/or progestin is the low skin permeability of many estrogens and/or progestins. Certain penetration enhancers have been described for increasing the rate at which certain medicinal agents permeate the skin. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,045,145 describes a combination of skin penetration enhancing agents that include dimethyl sulfoxide. However, transdermal formulations containing dimethyl sulfoxide suffer from various disadvantages, including malpleasant odors and potential complications during manufacturing of the transdermal delivery system due to the volatility of dimethyl sulfoxide. Further, the use of skin penetration enhancers in the transdermal delivery device can cause undesirable side effects, such as irritation of the patient's skin depending on the concentration and identity of agents used to increase skin penetration of the medicinal agent.
Therefore, the need exists for new transdermal delivery systems and methods for transdermally administering a medicinal agent. The present invention addresses this need and provides other related advantages due in part to the discovery of a novel combination of agents that increase the skin penetration rate of contraceptive agents levonorgestrel and ethinyl estradiol.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Compositions and methods for transdermal delivery of hormones and other medicinal agents


An O-substituted hydroxylamine having the following general formula:R1—CHX—O—NH2 wherein X is hydrogen or an alkyl; and R1 is an unsubstituted or substituted phenyl, thienyl, furanyl, pyrrolyl or —CR2═CR3R4; wherein R2, R3 and R4 are hydrogen, halogen or alkyl. The O-substituted hydroxylamine exhibits at least one property selected from the group consisting of: essentially free of hydroxylamine; essentially free of any solvent; a water content of between about 0% to 90% by weight; and a high strength (as measured by mole of the O-substituted hydroxylamine per gram of sample) of between about 0.5 to 3.3-fold as much as a 40% O-substituted hydroxylamine salt solution, by weight. The O-substituted hydroxylamine further comprising at least one additional property selected from the group consisting of: a purity of between about 98% to 100%, based on gas chromatographic area; and a purity drop of less than about 1.2% after 78 days at 40° C. when the O-substituted hydroxylamine has a concentration of about 85% in water, based on gas chromatographic area. The O-substituted hydroxylamine is at least one isomer selected from the group consisting of cis, trans and a mixture thereof. The O-substituted hydroxylamine may also be reacidified to an O-substituted hydroxylamine salt free of hydroxylamine.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a unique O-substituted hydroxylamine free base. More particularly, the O-substituted hydroxylamine preferably exhibits at least one property selected from the group consisting of: essentially free of hydroxylamine; essentially free of any solvents; a purity above 98% by gas chromatographic area; a water content of between about 0% to 90% by weight; and a high strength (as measured by mole of the O-substituted hydroxylamine per gram of sample) of between about 0.5 to 3.3-fold as much as a 40% O-substituted hydroxylamine salt solution, by weight. The O-substituted hydroxylamine free base is particularly useful in forming an herbicidal composition which can be used for controlling the growth of vegetation.
2. Discussion of the Background Art
O-(3-Chloro-2-propenyl)hydroxylamine (CPHA), especially trans-isomer, or its salts is an important intermediate for a number of herbicides. This compound has always been prepared in its salt form, especially its hydrochloride (CPHA-HCl). One concern is that the CPHA salts contain significant amount of hydroxylamine, which is more reactive with ketones or aldehydes to form undesirable impurities. Some of these impurities are restricted by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Another concern is that CPHA-HCl salt solution is unstable. Refrigeration is always required to maintain temperature below at least 15° C., otherwise substantial decomposition occurs. For example, the commercially available 40% CPHA-HCl solution decomposes by more than half (e.g., 52%) after 23 days at 35° C. Further more, CPHA salts have a limited solubility in water. The practical concentration is about 40%, which is close to its saturation. This limited concentration results in not only a lot of transportation of water, but a lot of brine waste generated in the neutralization step in their application as well. Besides hydroxylamine, there are a number of other significant impurities in the solutions of CPHA salts. Some of them may compete with CPHA in the reactions to form new impurities. The users may suffer a yield penalty.
Commercially available 40% CPHA-HCL solutions have the following deficiencies: (a) contain about 1000 ppm hydroxylamine which reduces oximation yield, but are constrained by regulatory permits as well; (b) contain 0.5 equivalents of hydrochloric acid, which generates a large waste stream during commercial applications; (c) limited to applications where water presence is tolerated; (d) maximum solubility is about 45%, leaving a lot of transportation of water; (e) maximum feasibility concentration is 40%; and (f) contain 2–3% by weight of organic impurities, which may be carried over to end-products or generate new impurities in their applications.
O-substituted hydroxylamine salts can be prepared by oximation of a carbonyl compound, such as acetone, benzaldehyde, 2-butanone with hydroxylamine sulfate or hydrochloride in the presence of sodium hydroxide, followed by alkylation with an alkylating agent that bears the desired functional group. The alkylated oxime is then subject to hydrolysis catalyzed by an acid to form O-substituted hydroxylamine salt. In particular, the O-substituted hydroxylamine relevant to this invention is O-(3-chloro-2-propenyl)hydroxylamine. The preferred acid is hydrochloric acid. The obtained O-(3-chloro-2-propenyl)hydroxylamine hydrochloride (CPHA-HCl) in the art usually contains a number of significant impurities, including hydroxylamine in the range from 300 to 1500 ppm (parts per million) or about 0.33 to 1.64 mole %. Most of these impurities, especially hydroxylamine, have a significantly negative affect in the applications.
O-alkylhydroxylamines in their salt form have been prepared by reacting oximes with alkyl halides under basic conditions to give O-alkyl oximes, followed by acid catalyzed hydrolysis of the O-alkyl oxime. For example, PCT Application WO 8911473 discloses a process for producing O-substituted oxime compounds in which a large excess of propanone oxime in toluene is reacted with an aqueous alkali metal hydroxide to give, after azeotropic distillation, the oxime salt which on reaction with an alkyl halide followed by further distillation, acidification and extraction with toluene affords the O-alkyl oxime in moderate purity (83.5%). European Pat. No. 85-103052 discloses a similar process for the synthesis of O-alkyl oximes which were subsequently hydrolyzed using aqueous hydrochloric acid to give the O-alkylhydroxylamines.
Jap. Pat. No. 03258757 discloses a process in which acetone oxime is reacted with sodium hydride in N,N-dimethylformamide at 60° to 70° C. and the resulting oxime salt subsequently reacted with an alkyl bromide to give a low yield (37%) of an O-alkyl acetone oxime. Jap. Pat. No. 83-68791 discloses a similar process in which the acetone oxime salt is generated below 10° C. and subsequently reacted with a solution of an alkyl halide in dimethoxyethane to give a low yield (52.4%) of an O-alkyl oxime.
German Pat. No. 86-3631071 discloses a procedure for the preparation of O-substituted hydroxylamine hydrochlorides in which an O-alkyl acetone oxime, present in a mixture of 1,4-dioxane, water and hydrochloric acid, is hydrolyzed and the acetone continuously removed by distillation through a bubble tray column.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,488,162 discloses a process for preparing aqueous solutions of O-alkylhydroxylamine salts. The process involves converting hydroxylamine salts to their O-alkyl derivatives without the isolation of intermediates. More specifically, the process involves three steps. The first step, Step (A), involves forming a ketoxime. The second step, Step (B), involves adding an alkylating agent to the ketoxime formed in Step (A). The third step, Step (C), involves hydrolyzing the alkylated ketoxime formed in Step (B) to yield an O-alkylhydroxylamine salt. O-alkylhydroxylamine salts are important intermediates in the preparation of herbicides.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,013 demonstrates the preparation of O-substituted hydroxylammonium salts of the following formula:H2NORxHXwhere R is a C1–C6-alkyl or C2–C6-alkenyl radical, each of which may be halogen-substituted, and X is chlorine or bromine, by reacting in an integrated process, without isolation of intermediates. The reaction steps include (a) reacting acetone with hydroxylammonium sulfate and sodium hydroxide solution to give acetone oxime; (b) treating the solution of acetone oxime thus obtained with sodium hydroxide solution and completely removing water; (c) reacting the suspension of the acetone oxime Na salt thus obtained with alkylating agents at from 0.5 to 15 bar and at up to 140° C. to give acetone oxime ethers; and (d) cleaving the acetone oxime ethers with acids HX to give the products I, a homogeneous, nonpolar aprotic solvent being used in all process steps (a) to (d).
Yet another conventional process is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,585,520 for the preparation of O-substituted hydroxylammonium salts having the following formula:R1—CHX—O—NH2.HL(L=halogen, hydrogensulfate; X═H, alkyl; R1=unsubstituted or substituted phenyl, thienyl, furanyl, pyrrolyl or —CR2═CR3R4; R2, R3, R4═H, halogen or alkyl) by reaction of an acetone oxime O-allyl or —O— benzyl ether of the following formula:
with water and a mineral acid H-L with continuous removal of the acetone formed in this process, by carrying out the hydrolysis batchwise at 0°–50° C. and under a pressure of 10–500 mbar.
Neither preparation nor applications of solvent-free CPHA free base or aqueous CPHA solution has been reported in the prior art. It has been unexpectedly found by the present inventors that CPHA free base according to the present invention is much more stable than its salt solutions. For example, a commercial 40% CPHA-HCl solution decomposes by 52% after 23 days at 35° C., whereas, a 85% CPHA aqueous solution has only 1.1% purity drop after 78 days at 40° C. Unlike CPHA-HCl product, which requires a refrigerated warehouse and refrigerated transportation, free base CPHA according to the present invention does not need refrigeration unless the storage time is over six months or the ambient temperature continuously exceeds 45° C.
The free base CPHA produced by the methods described in the present invention provides a superior quality. It is essentially free of hydroxylamine. It can also be essentially free of those impurities existing in the CPHA salts produced via the conventional processes discussed above. The term "essentially free of" as used herein means that those impurities become non-detectable by gas chromatography (GC), e.g., weigh 1.81 g of 51% by weight of CPHA free base aqueous solution in a vial containing 2.18 g of cyclohexanone; stir the mixture in the capped vial at 50° C. for 2 hours; after cooling, add 8.0 g of dichloromethane and shake for one minute; settle for 5 minutes; gas chromatographic (GC) analysis of the organic phase indicates 0.00% area for cyclohexanone oxime, which indicates that there is no hydroxylamine in the sample.
Free base CPHA is miscible with water at room temperature, hence one can produce any concentration of CPHA from very dilute to near 100% based on the present invention. The preferred free base CPHA concentration of the present invention is between about 50–55%, by weight, which has about 70–80% more strength than the conventional 40% CPHA-HCl solution. A 99% purity of solvent-free CPHA of the present invention is about 3.3 times as effective as 40% CPHA-HCl solution.
A high purity CPHA produced via the present invention is superior in pharmaceutical applications, where even a 0.1% level impurity can affect the process significantly. One can also produce a free base CPHA solution in any suitable solvents for customized applications based on the present invention. This is extremely important for pharmaceutical and agricultural applications because hydroxylamine is more reactive than CPHA, thereby reducing yield and generating undesirable impurities. Moreover, the aqueous free base CPHA according to the present invention has no inorganic substances and is therefore particularly useful for pharmaceutical and agricultural applications. Finally, the solvent-free CPHA free base according to the present invention can have a concentration of 100% or less, thus one pound of 100% CPHA free base is equivalent to 3.35 pounds of conventional 40% CPHA-HCl salt solution.

O-(3-chloropropenyl) hydroxylamine free base


A hoist apparatus includes branch guide rails with a branch point, the branch point defining a branching point between first and second traveling rails, and the branch guide rails including first guide rails having a cross-section in a first direction, and second guide rails having a cross-section in a second direction and connected to the first guide rails, and a traveling unit configured to travel along the branch guide rails, the traveling unit including first auxiliary wheels configured to roll and contact a first side of the second guide rails.

1. Field
The inventive concept relates to a semiconductor hoist apparatus, and more particularly, to a hoist apparatus that may branch out and travel more stably.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, hoist apparatuses are referred to as apparatuses that hoist and transfer an object. Hoist apparatuses are used in freight transport, and machine assembly/disassembly in factories, warehouses, train stations, and the like. Hoist apparatuses are also used in transferring logistics in factories for semiconductors or display panels, such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs), plasma display panels (PDPs), and the like, and in clean rooms.


Elongated magnetic elements can be inserted into items to provide readable magnetic patterns which provide reproducible or unique signal patterns to identify or authenticate the items. Magnetic fibers may be distributed within items or magnetic strips to provide reproducible patterns when read. The patterns are stable because of the relatively large size of the magnetic elements as compared to conventional patterns of particles in recordable media. Oriented patterns of filaments may also be inserted into transactional items such as credit cards, checks and the like to provide identification (antiforgery) security to the item.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to 1) apparatus readable (mechanically readable) security means to prevent forgery of transactional items, merchandise and items of commerce, and including garments, apparel, mechanical devices (such as bolts, screws, rivets, and the like) and clothing, 2) the apparatus which is useful in reading security indicia on such items, 3) the process of applying, using and removing the indicia and 4) the process of reading or authenticating code implanted in such items. The invention also relates to a secondary device for enhancing security against shoplifting and means for removing indicia for the secondary apparatus and even the security means quickly and without damage to the primary article being protected.
2. Background of the Art
The present invention relates to 1) apparatus readable (mechanically readable) security means to prevent forgery of transactional items, and especially economic transactional items such as identification cards, drivers licenses, currency, credit cards (including the new smart cards with readable chips therein), money orders, checks, tickets and the like, 2) the apparatus which is useful in reading such transactional items, and 3) the process of reading or authenticating code implanted in transactional items. The invention also relates to a secondary device and means for qualifying or approving materials before they will be accepted into a primary device such as a compact disk player, imaging apparatus, CD-ROM drive, floppy, optical or floptical disk drive, and the like.
It is critical to the security of economic systems that the means of implementing economic transactions not be reproducible without providing independent value into that economic system. This is why actions such as forgery, in which false replications are made of economic transactional items such as checks, currency, credit cards and the like, are serious threats to the security interests of people, businesses and nations. There are severe criminal penalties attached to the commission of these crimes of forgery or counterfeiting because of the potential for widespread societal harm from counterfeiting. Unfortunately, technological advances aid the enactment of the crime of forgery as much as it improves the detection of false replications.
The conflict between forgery and detection is hardly new, tracing back further than Greek history, where the proposition of Archimedes' principle was based on an effort to enable detection of forgery. Archimedes was an advisor to the state, which had commissioned the molding of a solid gold crown for a religious ceremony. The authorities wished to assure that the crown was in fact pure gold, but they could not cut into the crown once it had been made as that would have been sacrilegious. While sitting in a bath tub, Archimedes noted the rise and fall of the water level as he lifted various parts of his body in and out of the tub. He predicted that the volume of water displaced was equal to either the volume submerged in the water or the weight of material which floated on the water. The story has it that he ran through the streets yelling "Eureka!" at the discovery, and upon submerging a block of gold equal to the weight of the crown, found that a different volume of water was displaced by the crown than the block of gold. The two items were of different densities and therefore the crown was not pure gold. The forgery was thus detected.
It is equally critical to the security of marketing systems and outlets that the authenticity of goods are assured and that the goods are not be reproducible without value to the originator of the item. This is why actions such as pirating and counterfeiting of mercantile items such as sweaters, shirts, pants, jackets, furniture, compact disks, cassettes and the like, are serious threats to the security interests of businesses. There are severe criminal penalties attached to the commission of crimes of forgery, pirating or counterfeiting, and there are additional costs attached to shoplifting which adversely affects the legitimate dealers, both of which crimes are presently estimated as costing the economies of the world billions of dollars. Unfortunately, it is difficult for store owners or legal authorities to readily identify knock-off or pirated items at the purchase source (wholesale) or sales source (retail).
It is difficult to detect forgeries today, even with the availability of modern technology. This is especially true where such detection has to be performed in the marketplace (in stores, airports, overseas, etc.) and there is no readily available means for accessing proving technology equivalent to the technology clandestinely used to create the forgery. This makes the forgery of market goods and especially apparel and the like relatively easy in today's worldwide economic system.
Magnetic media have already been used in various forms to attempt to prevent forgery of merchandise and transactional items. Large plastic clips which are adhesively secured or mechanically fastened to boxes or stapled onto fabric goods are commonplace in stores. U.S. Pat. No. 5,434,917 describes a method for encoding individual signals in plastic cards with randomly distributed ferrite particles.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,430,664 describes a method of verifying and counting items such as currency with both magnetic and optical reading of individual pieces of currency. U.S. Pat. No. 5,444,518 adds optical information to recorded images to prevent forgery.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,911 describes a method for depositing rows of magnetic materials onto a surface by etching grooves and depositing magnetic materials within the grooves.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,418,855 describes a visual method of testing items (including magnetic strips) by marking the item with inks or dyes that fluoresce when illuminated. Microprocessors analyze and compare signals with standards.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,444,370 describes the use of scanning devices on two ordered target tracks having magnetic sensitivity. Each output track provides different output signals.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,032 describes a means for reducing forgery in which materials, including fibers coated with magnetic particles, are embedded in a transactional item such as currency or credit cards. The magnetic fibers may be aligned vertically or perpendicularly to the plane of the material within the transactional item, at least when it is manufactured from paper, by having a magnetic field below the paper train. The magnetically filled item is authenticated merely by the presence of magnetic material which will respond to a magnetic plate or the like. A broad range of means for placing magnetic material onto the surface of the fibers is described. The presence of magnetic fibers and magnetic content can be determined by moving the item with respect to scanning means.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,878,367 describes a magnetic security document containing uniformly dispersed magnetic material onto which a magnetic pattern is imposed which can later be identified by scanning means. It is particularly desirable according to the invention to align the magnetizable particles at selected locations during the manufacturing process.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,995,313 describes a data accumulation system which comprises a homogeneous magnetic material which is capable of being magnetized throughout its surface in discrete patterns. The data may be subsequently sensed from recording media.
Modern marketplaces have various systems in place to reduce the ease of forgery, but these systems are far from effective when any significant technological effort is behind an attempt at forgery. These are minimal deterrents, as is evidenced by the volume of forgery still occurring, mainly because of the difficulty in identifying knock-off items quickly at the point of sale in stores. It would be desirable to enhance the security of merchandise in the marketplace against knock-off or pirated items.
It would also be desirable to include an antitheft potential to the authentication system of the present invention. It would therefore be desirable to develop a secondary device that could be used with any primary authentication apparatus with which an item is authenticated by the primary apparatus, the secondary device identifying unsold (unpaid for) goods and signaling to prevent them from leaving the store premises until paid for.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,183,989 describes a method for authenticating security papers by including both a magnetic signal and a second mechanically or visually readable signal into paper used for security papers such as checks, currency, tickets, credit cards and the like. The machine reading of the two implanted signals helps to authenticate the paper.
It has been proposed in certain literature that magnetic strips can provide both user identification and authentication of the origination of the item (e.g., credit card, etc.). The procedure attempts to have the magnetic reader obtain not only the usual identification information magnetically written onto the magnetic strip, but also reads the random distribution of magnetic particles between the magnetically written information. Because no additional materials, besides the magnetic strip have to be added, the unique random distribution of particles between the magnetically written information are believed to provide a unique fingerprint for each card. Each fingerprint, once read, is stored in a central information bank so that when the card is primarily identified, it is also authenticated by the fingerprint. This system suffers from the drawbacks that the background signal is extremely weak compared to the magnetically written signal, the back ground signal being weak will change easily (even by the influences of being read repeatedly) so that the fingerprint smears and becomes less reliable, and the amount of data produced in reading such a fingerprint is quite large and would take substantial drive space when multiplied by the potential millions of cards read and fingerprinted. This system is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,365,586 and 5,428,683.
U.K. Patent No. 1,127,043 describes security papers having threads, planchettes or fibers with magnetic properties distributed therein which are detectable within the security papers. A magentic thread may be unwound from a bobbin into a paper making mould or incorporated into a central layer of the paper in the course of manufacture. Alternatively fiber-like pieces may be mixed with the stock suspension so that the magnetic fibers are randomly distributed amongst the noraml paper making fibers. The magnetic properties, including the coercivity, retentivity, permeability and hysteresis loss may be measured along with the ferquency or directional dependence of the properties.


A lamp driving circuit with a floating power supply driver includes a microcomputing unit, a floating power supply driver, and a driving unit. The microcomputing unit and the floating power supply driver are independent integrated circuits and manufactured under a normal voltage. The floating power supply driver is coupled to the microcomputing unit via two independent high-pressure coupling capacitors, instead of sharing the same ground with the microcomputing unit. The microcomputing unit and the floating power supply driver provide at least one low-voltage driving pulse output pin and one high-voltage driving pulse output pin to control the power transistor inside the driving unit. The power transistor turns on/off at appropriate time so that a lamp connected to the driving unit can be lit up by a driving high voltage.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a lamp driving circuit with a floating power supply driver and, in particular, to a lamp driving circuit using individual integrated circuits (ICs) prepared in a normal voltage process to control high- and low-voltage driving transistors.
2. Description of Related Art
As shown in FIG. 6, a driving circuit using a current transformer is used to drive a gas discharging lamp 60. The circuit includes a bidirectional switch connected to the DC input side, a current transformer 62, and two power transistors 63, 64 composed of metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET). The primary winding of the current transformer 62 is connected in series with the lamp 60. Its secondary winding is connected to the two power transistors 63, 64. The lamp 60 is connected in series to an LC circuit composed of an inductor 65 and capacitors 66, 67. The other end of the capacitor 66 is coupled to the primary winding of the current transformer 62.
The above-mentioned circuit provides a pulse current for the circuit to oscillate after the bidirectional switch 61 is closed. Its oscillation frequency is the resonance frequency for the system of the inductor 65 and the capacitor 66. More explicitly, when the power transistor 64 is conductive, the circuit keeps oscillating and uses a high frequency to excite the LC circuit. As a result of the Q resonance of the circuit, the voltage imposed on both ends of the capacitor 67 is amplified sufficiently to trigger the discharge of the lamp 60.
The above-mentioned driving circuit is originally composed of bipolar transistors. After modification, they are replaced by the MOSFET. However, the circuit structure is not suitable for using the MOSFET because it does not have a good wave form.
With reference to FIG. 7, in view of the drawbacks in the previous circuit, U.S. Pat. No. 5,545,955 proposes a driving integrated circuit (IC) 70 suitable for using the MOSFET. The driving IC 70 has a high-voltage output Ho and a low-voltage output Lo coupled to the two power transistors 63, 64, respectively. The driving IC further has an output Vs connecting to the serial connection point of the two transistors 63, 64, the LC circuit, and the gas discharging lamp 60.
According to the working principle of the gas discharging lamp 60, an extremely high driving voltage is required to start the lamp. In fact, inside the driving IC 70, a high-voltage coupling capacitor exists between the high-voltage output Ho and the low-voltage output Lo. It has to be able to withstand hundreds of volts. Due to the existence of the high-voltage coupling capacitor, the material selection, internal device design, and circuit layout of the driving IC 70 have to take into account the high-voltage process. This complicates the manufacturing process and increases the production cost.
The ICs currently used for driving lamps have to be manufactured in a high-voltage process. This is the main reason why the cost and complexity cannot be reduced.

Lamp driving circuit with floating power supply driver

Everlite Opto-Electronics International LLC


A metal cutting tool has a supporting tool, which has a recess for accommodating a cutting plate. The cutting plate is provided with a damping trough, which is held in the supporting tool by a clamping claw. The clamping claw is fixed against the supporting tool by a clamping screw. A pressure piece is placed on the clamping claw and its underside facing the cutting plate is provided with a cam, which is in contact with the clamping trough and the clamping claw pulls the pressure piece toward the clamping screw.

The invention relates to a metal-cutting tool and an associated cutting plate.
The prior art for a cutting insert, here an indexable cutting plate made of ceramic material, is constituted by cutting plates that have a smooth surface or that have a great variety of clamping troughs and are inserted so as to be clamped in a supporting tool for the purpose of machining metallic materials. The disadvantage of this technology in the case of smooth cutting plate surfaces is the lack of a form-locking connection with the supporting tool with respect to the clamping force. In the case of cutting plates that have a clamping trough admittedly there is in addition a form-locking connection, but as a result of the clamping in the clamping trough the cutting plate is loaded by the clamping elements in terms of force to a very great extent over a comparatively small area, something which can lead to stresses in the cutting plate or even breakages. Furthermore, in the case of the clamping systems that exist today not all the possible positive factors are combined in one system.
A metal-cutting tool, substantially consisting of a supporting tool which has a recess to accommodate a cutting plate that is provided with a clamping trough held in the supporting tool by a clamping claw, the clamping claw being fixed on the supporting tool by way of a clamping screw, is known from EP 0 753 366 B1. Arranged on the clamping claw there is a pressure piece which, on the underside facing the cutting plate, is provided with a cam which is in tight contact with the clamping trough. Furthermore, the clamping claw pulls the pressure piece in the direction of the clamping screw.

Metal cutting tool and cutting plate provided in the shape of a donut