A sub-tidal platform adapted to be placed under water in front of a beach comprises a support structure having at least two upwardly extending, spaced-apart side walls extending along vertical planes. Each side wall has a bottom adapted to rest on a generally horizontal surface, and a sloping, upwardly extending edge which is at an acute angle with respect to the bottom. A plurality of interconnecting members extend between the side walls for maintaining them in an upright position. The interconnecting members are positioned adjacent to the sloping edge of the side walls. A plurality of gates are pivotally connected to the interconnecting members of the support structure for controlling fluid flow through the space between the side walls. The gates open in response to incoming fluid flow through the gates, and close in response to outgoing fluid flow in the opposite direction. The gates, when in their closed position, combine to form a sloping wall which substantially blocks the flow of fluid through the space between the side walls, and deposits fluid-carried material in the space formed by the side walls and sloped wall.

This invention relates generally to apparatuses and constructions used to produce material deposits in response to fluid flow, and more particularly to a beach erosion control system embodying a sub-tidal platform which is adapted to be positioned on- or offshore from a beach to be protected.
Apparatuses for preventing erosion of beaches, the bottoms and/or banks of rivers or streams, and/or for producing material deposits under water, are well-known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 226,772 to Mueller discloses a rectangular-shaped, jetty-shutter assembly comprising a vertical wall with hinged gates or slats mounted at their upper ends on horizontal axes on a beach side of the wall. The gates open toward the beach in response to incoming waves or current, and close in response to outgoing waves or current, to deposit sediment on the beach side of the wall between the wall and the beach. The assembly is supported in the water by vertically driven piles.
U.S. Pat. No. 604,810 to Waddell discloses a jetty assembly for deepening a flowing channel. The assembly comprises two rows of interconnected vertical piles inclined outwardly from the shore of the channel to the center thereof. Gates, which are hinged at their tops on horizontal axes, are mounted on one row of the piles so that incoming tide or current can flow through the gates, while outgoing tide or current is obstructed from the outward flow. Thus, a rapid outgoing tide or current is produced on the opposite side of the channel to deepen the channel.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,574,153 to Kellner discloses a jetty of A-frame-type triangular construction for preventing river bank erosion and silt accumulation. Each side and bottom of the triangular jetty includes a plurality of longitudinally extending cables which extend between and from opposite ends thereof. In use, an inner end of one jetty section is located at a 45 degree angle to the river bank and anchored to the bank by the extending cable portions at that end. Additional jetty sections may be interconnected by the extending cable portions at their adjacent ends. In operation, the cable portions defining the sides and bottom of the jetty permit water flow through the jetty sections with deposition of silt occurring on the downstream side of the sections.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,655,790 to Daley discloses a vertical permeable barrier wall formed in sections and mounted on a horizontal platform. The wall includes a series of flexible vanes fixed at their lower ends on horizontal axes and free to flex in either direction in response to wave or current flow, so that water flows through the wall in both directions upwardly to reduce the water's velocity, causing it to drop sediment at the base of the wall on both sides thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,011,316 to Wilson discloses a breakwater having a pair of spaced-apart fences each with a plurality vanes hingedly connected between posts so that they extend along horizontal axes. The purpose of Wilson's breakwater is to dissipate waves along the shores of bodies of water where the waves have a normal tendency to wash away the beach. The vanes are provided for dissipating waves travelling towards the beach.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,214,916 to Martin, as with the aforementioned Mueller patent, discloses a vertical wall assembly with gates hinged at their upper ends on horizontal axes on a beach side of the wall. The gates open toward the beach in response to incoming waves or current, and close in response to outgoing waves or current, to cause deposition of sediment between the wall and the beach. The wall is mounted on embedded posts and each gate carries a pivoted locking bar which embeds in accumulated deposits as they build up adjacent the bottom of the gate, thereby preventing the gate from thereafter opening in response to incoming waves or current and washing away the accumulated deposits.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,966,172 to Garrett discloses a movable fence which is used in protecting areas against wind-blown snow, sand, or the like. As shown in Garret, the fence is triangularly-shaped, and has a plurality of pliant, deformable or resilient strips mounted upon a plurality of A-frame members.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,367,978 to Schaaf et al. discloses a string of prism-shaped modules of triangular cross section and essentially solid construction. Each module has an upper converging passage extending through it from the ocean side to the beach side, so that waves or current flowing through the passage are dissipated in energy. An intermediate passage converges in the same manner and may have a planar flexible gate (valve member) mounted across its beach side opening so that the gate permits incoming wave or current flow through the passage, but blocks outgoing wave or current flow, so that sediment is deposited at the base of the module. In addition, a third lowermost passage is provided with an open bottom to facilitate self-implementation of the module on the ocean floor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,647,249 to Grooms further discloses an inverted T-shaped member which has a horizontal base and a vertical wall with one-way flexibility. The vertical wall flexes in response to an incoming wave and then returns to a vertical position to impede outward water flow so that sediment settles out on the beach side of the wall.
A disadvantage germane to each of the foregoing systems is that they are expensive to build and are oftentimes subject to failing after a period of time due to the stress of the flow of water therethrough. Also, they tend to starve sand from their downward drive thereby negatively impacting the environmental sanctity of the marine life between the systems and the beaches which they protect.
In general, the present invention is directed to a sub-tidal platform adapted to be placed under water in front of a beach. The platform comprises a support structure having at least two upwardly extending, spaced-apart side walls extending along vertical planes. Each side wall has a bottom adapted to rest on a generally horizontal surface, and a sloping, upwardly extending edge which is at an acute angle with respect to the bottom. A plurality of interconnecting members extend between the side walls for maintaining them in an upright position. The interconnecting members are positioned adjacent to the sloping edge of the side walls. A plurality of gates are pivotally connected to the interconnecting members of the support structure for controlling fluid flow through the space between the side walls. The gates open in response to incoming fluid flow through the gates, and close in response to outgoing fluid flow in the opposite direction. The gates, when in their closed position, combine to form a sloping wall which substantially blocks the flow of fluid through the space between the side walls, and deposits fluid-carried material in the space formed by the side walls and sloped wall.
Accordingly, among the several objects of the present invention are the provision of a sub-tidal platform which is capable of preventing the erosion of a beach in front of which it is placed by causing the natural, slow build-up of material between the sub-tidal platform and the beach; the provision of such a sub-tidal platform which is fabricated from light-weight materials so as to make its implementation easy; the provision of such a sub-tidal platform which is further fabricated from non-corroding materials which extend the life thereof; the provision of such a sub-tidal platform which, over an extended period of time, actually increases the amount of deposit material forming the beach; the provision of such a sub-tidal platform which does not immediately (and negatively) impact the ecology of the beach thereby harming marine life; the provision of such a sub-tidal platform which can easily be removed if necessary; and the provision of such a sub-tidal platform which is relatively simple in construction, cost-efficient to manufacture, and easy to assemble.
Other objects, features and advantages of the invention shall become apparent as the description thereof proceeds when considered in connection with the accompanying illustrative drawings.


A toy sewing machine includes an upper housing and a lower housing coupled by a hinge coupler. A hand crank and drive are coupled to a foot movably supported within the upper housing. A spring coupler within the drive limits the force coupled between the hand crank and the movable foot.

Toy sewing machines have enjoyed great popularity for many years due in part to their capability to generally mimic or imitate the appearance and operation of actual conventional adult sewing machines. Some toy sewing machines actually impart a stitch or sewn thread line to fabric material while others simulate the sewing actions and the motions and/or sounds generally produced by sewing machines. As is the case with conventional sewing machines, toy sewing machines are available with either hand cranked mechanisms or electric motor driven mechanisms. The desire for realistic entertaining and amusing toy sewing machines has, in many instances, been truncated or limited due to the ever present requirement of maximized safety and avoidance of potential injury to the child user.
In view of the continuing popularity of toy sewing machines, a number of interesting appearance designs have been created to attract consumers. Examples of such appearance designs are found in Design Pat. No. 269,021 issued to Appel et al, Design Pat. No. 180,613 issued to Neukirch, Design Pat. No. 211,480 issued to Rockwell, Design Pat. No. 224,944 issued to Martelete, Design Pat. No. 190,746 issued to Fritts, Design Pat. No. 224,809 issued to Genaro, Design Pat. No. 206,013 issued to Kuramochi, and Design Pat. No. 192,712 issued to Park.
The toy sewing machine mechanisms have enjoyed a similar variety to that enjoyed by the appearance designs of toy sewing machines. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,532 issued to Fogarty et al sets forth a TOY SEWING MACHINE adapted to loop a strand such as yarn through sheet material such as resinous foam fabric to simulate sewing or other needlework. The overall shape of the device simulates a sewing machine and includes a platform supporting the material and a head supporting a vertically movable needle and foot.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,022,323 issued to Schultheis sets forth a PRINTING TOY SEWING MACHINE having a body portion resembling a conventional sewing machine and a printing mechanism operative for applying a printed image to a piece of sheet material in a simulated sewing action.
U.S, Pat. No. 4,274,349 issued to Doyel sets forth a TOY ELECTRIC SEWING MACHINE in which a lightweight, inexpensive toy electric sewing machine is fabricated primarily of molded plastic components and includes a battery power source supported within the sewing machine base.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,435,789 issued to Kuramochi sets forth a TOY SEWING MACHINE having a box-shaped frame supporting a pair of movable members pivotally secured and biased outwardly by a bias spring. One of the member supports a sewing platform while the other supports a downwardly facing needle. The stitching action is accomplished by squeezing the spring biased members together repeatedly to puncture the interposed fabric and provide a stitch therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,699,705 issued to Clarke et al sets forth a SIMULATED SEWING MACHINE TOY having a sewing machine body supporting an electric motor and a horizontally disposed shaft having a crank at one end and a driving disk at the other end. As the horizontal shaft is rotated, a needle assembly is moved in a reciprocating manner. The sewing machine utilizes a flat plastic needle having a blunt tip.
U.S. Pat. DES. 270,849 issued to Balderston sets forth a COMBINED TOY SEWING MACHINE AND CASE THEREFOR in which a pair of hinged rectangular clam shell case portions are pivotable between an open and closed position. Within the lowered clam shell member a toy sewing machine is pivotally supported by a sewing machine base to be positioned either in a horizontal position permitting closure of the case or a raised, generally perpendicular vertical position in which the sewing machine is operative.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,878,614 issued to Argiro et al sets forth a TOY SIMULATED SEWING MACHINE having a sewing machine body supporting a rotating shaft and a crank handle at one end. A movable needle head is coupled to the rotating shaft and a rotating platform is supported beneath the moving needle head.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,168,849 issued to Zilg et al sets forth a TOY PUNCH MACHINE having a housing generally representing a conventional sewing machine and supporting a rotatable shaft and hand crank. A gear and lever mechanism operates in response to shaft rotation to reciprocate a vertically oriented punch member positioned in the sewing machine-like head of the housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,443,539 issued to Scharner, Jr. sets forth a SEWING MACHINE having a reciprocating needle and oscillating looper driven in a prefixed phase relationship from a single powered eccentric cam arrangement.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,718,861 issued to Samuels sets forth a SEWING MACHINE having an electric drive motor and cooperating gear mechanism for reciprocally operating a sewing needle. A solenoid is operative to raise and lower the needle foot assembly.
French Patent No. 1,170,923 issued to Andreis and French Patent No. 1,185,877 issued to Pallier set forth additional sewing machine designs.
While the foregoing described devices have enjoyed some measures of success in the marketplace, there remains nonetheless a continuing need in the art for evermore improved interesting and safe toy sewing machines.


A power control circuit and related method providing power to an output terminal supplying a logic block within a semiconductor integrated circuit are disclosed. The power control circuit includes a power gating circuit providing a main power voltage to the output terminal during a normal operating mode and providing a retention voltage to the output terminal during a data retention mode characterized by the absence of the main power voltage from the logic block, wherein the retention voltage is minimally sufficient to retain data stored in the logic block during the data retention mode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a type of semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs) generally referred as a system-on-chip (SOC). More particularly, the invention relates to a power control circuit for a SOC.
2. Description of the Related Art
As contemporary semiconductor ICs are scaled down to nanometer sized dimensions, difficulties with power leakage for constituent circuits increase. The incorporation of such ICs into portable electronic devices generally running from batteries power supplies only increases the demand for very low loss power supply systems and circuits. Many different approaches have been taken to the reduction of current leakage in such systems and circuits. The use of various control methods, power gating schemes, and retention flip-flops are ready examples of these approaches.
Power gating schemes are generally useful in the reduction of current leakage. These schemes interrupt the application of power to circuit blocks current unused in a SOC. However, where volatile memory devices are incorporated into circuit blocks, the interruption of power will cause a loss of stored data. Thus, in order to retain vital data, it must be backed up prior to power interruption, and thereafter recovered upon re-application of power. Unfortunately, data backup and recovery operations tend to markedly slow the overall operation of a SOC.
In order to avoid burdensome data backup and recovery operations, retention flip-flops have been used in certain designs. As their name suggests, retention flip-flops retain stored data without the application of power. This capability is enabled by very small amount of leakage current associated with retention flip-flops. While the use of retention flip-flops allows data backup and recovery operations to be dispensed with, retention flip-flops also occupy a larger amount of IC surface area, as compared with conventional flip-flops. Thus, as the number of retention flip-flops incorporated into a system design increases, the overall IC chip size tends to undesirably increase.
Therefore, an alternate power control approach is required that allows retention of stored data without unduly expanding the size of a SOC.

Power control circuit for semiconductor IC


A mild antibacterial liquid personal cleanser compositions. (More specifically, a mild, lathering compositions, especially those that are useful for application to the body, face and hands.) comprising:. (a) from about 0.1 parts to about 20 parts, preferably 1 part to 15 parts, especially 3 to 12 parts by weight of anionic surfactant, PA1 (b) from about 0.1 parts to about 20 parts, preferably 1 part to 15 parts, especially 3 to 12 parts by weight of amphoteric surfactant, PA1 (c) from about 0.5 parts to about 25 parts, preferably 0.5 parts to 15 parts, especially 3 parts to about 10 parts by weight of an oily skin moisturizer, preferably an adduct prepared from vegetable oils containing non-conjugated polyunsaturated fatty acid esters which are conjugated and elaidinized and then modified via Diels-Alder addition with a member of the group consisting of acrylic acid, fumaric acid and maleic anhydride, PA1 (d) from about 0.1 parts to about 2.0 parts antibacterial agent, and PA1 (e) water,. wherein the anionic surfactant and amphoteric surfactant together comprise from about 0.5 parts to about 30 parts, preferably 5 parts to 25 parts, especially 10 parts to 20 parts by weight of the composition, and where the weight ratio of anionic surfactant:amphoteric surfactant is in the range from about 1:5 to about 20:1, preferably 1:2 to about 5:1, especially 1:1 to about 2:1.

The cleaning of skin with surface-active cleaning preparations has become a focus of great interest. Many people wash and scrub their skin with various surface active preparations several times a day. Liquid cleansers are highly preferred, especially for the body, because of convenience and non-messiness. Antibacterial personal cleansers are preferred because they kill germs. Mild personal cleansers are desired to minimize skin irritation, dryness, etc. A personal cleansing product having all three of these preferred characteristics would be very desirable.
Skin cleansers should cleanse the skin gently, causing little or no irritation, without drying the skin after frequent routine use. Certain synthetic surfactants are particularly mild. However, a major drawback of mild liquid synthetic surfactant systems when formulated for skin cleansing is poor lather performance. Compared to the highest bar soap standards (bars which are rich in coconut soap and superfatted), these prior art liquid surfactant formulations have either poor lather or poor skin mildness performance. As may be expected, the lather performance is a function of the choice of surfactant and its concentration. The conceivable number of liquid surfactant compositions formulated with or without skin feel agents are numerous. Rheological and phase properties exhibited by prototypes vary widely (i.e., thin liquids, gels, thick pastes, solutions, emulsions). The phase stability of prototypes is for the most part acceptable over short time periods, but only a small fraction of them will maintain their original properties and acceptability over an extended period of time. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,338,211, Stiros, issued Jul. 6, 1982; U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,433, Stiros, issued Jan. 12, 1982; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,850, Vu, issued Jun. 27, 1989, all of said patents being incorporated herein by reference.
Optimization of lather as a single variable is a fairly straightforward process. The use of known high sudsing anionic surfactants with lather boosters yields acceptable lather volume. Unfortunately, highest sudsing anionic surfactants are, generally, also highest in skin irritation and are worst in clinical mildness. Surfactants that are among the mildest with minimal skin irritation, such as ammonium lauryl ether (12 EO) sulfate (NH.sub.4 AE.sub.12 S) are extremely poor in lather. These two facts alone make the surfactant selection and the lather boosting optimization process a delicate balancing act. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,338,211, supra, incorporated herein by reference.
The introduction of an antibacterial into the equation results in additional problems for mildness, lather, and efficacy. It is reported in trade literature that certain mild ethoxylated nonionic surfactants, e.g., TweenR 80 (ICI Americas, Inc.) and lecithin have deactivating effects on the degerming of a preferred antibacterial, Triclosan (IrgasanR DP 300 is also referred to herein as "TCS"), Ciba-Geigy IrgasanR DP 300 Trade Bulletin, 1988.
In short, there are rather stringent requirements for skin cleansers which limit the choice of surface-active agents and antibacterials, and as a result the degerming final formulations represent some degree of compromise. Mildness is often obtained at the expense of effective degerming or effective cleansing and lathering which may be sacrificed for either mildness, product stability, or both.
The present invention offers a valuable combination of desirable properties to liquid skin-cleaning formulations.
Therefore, one object of this invention is the development of liquid skin cleaning compositions which exhibit improved mildness with good cleaning and lathering, and good degerming properties.
Other objects will become apparent from the detailed description below.

Three in one ultra mild lathering antibacterial liquid personal cleansing composition


A device for transferring liquids from between containers, and methods for its use. The device includes a body having an axis and first and second cap members at oppositely-disposed axial ends of the body. Cavities are present within the first and second cap members and define axial openings in the body. The cavities are coaxially aligned along the axis of the body and define interior walls within the first and second cap members on which female threads are formed. At least one fluid passage is within the body and fluidically interconnects the cavities. The axial openings in the body are configured to receive necks of first and second containers, and the female threads are configured to couple with male threads on the necks of the first and second containers such that the device physically couples the first and second containers together.

The present invention generally relates to liquid containers and their use. The invention particularly relates to devices for assisting in the transfer of a liquid from one container to another.
There are occasions when it is necessary or desirable to transfer a liquid from one container, such as a bottle or the like, to another, as an example, to consolidate the liquids in multiple partially-filled containers into a single container. As a nonlimiting example, it may be desirable to combine liquid hand soap from two partially filled bottles into a single bottle to save space and avoid difficulties when dispensing the soap when at low levels in a container equipped with a pump dispenser. Traditionally, transfer of liquids between such containers can be achieved with the use of a funnel or similar device. However, contact between the funnel and the liquid often leads to waste since at least some of the liquid will likely remain on the funnel and require cleaning. This is especially an issue for relatively viscous liquids such as hand soaps, which typically leave a thick film on the funnel. During the transfer process, the funnel and containers may be unstable, necessitating that the user stabilize the funnel, the container from which the liquid is being dispensed, and the container to which the liquid is being transferred to prevent tipping of the containers and spilling of the liquid.
In view of the above, it would be desirable if a device were available that was capable of facilitating the process of transferring liquids between containers.

Liquid transfer device and method of use


A leadframe includes a die pad, a plurality of tie bars, a plurality of metal extrusions and a plurality of leads. The leads are arranged around the die pad. The tie bars are connected to the corners of the die pad, and the metal extrusions are connected to the sides of the die pad but separated from the tie bars. Each metal extrusion has a locking hole and a bonding surface, which is higher than the die pad. The metal extrusions are configured for improving ground connections by wire-bonding. When a bottom surface of the die pad is exposed from an encapsulant for a semiconductor package, the metal extrusions help to secure the die pad without stress transmission.

During the semiconductor assembly process, using leadframes as chip carriers is a well-known technology. As disclosed in R.O.C. Taiwan Patent publication No. 424,313, referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a known leadframe 10 for semiconductor chip packages comprises a plurality of leads 11, a die pad 12, and a ground ring 13. The die pad 12 is surrounded by the ground ring 13, and the leads 11 are arranged around the die pad 12 and the ground ring 13. The ground ring 13 is connected to the die pad 12 through a plurality of tie bars 14 to provide the grounding connection. In general, the ground ring 13 is adjacent to but separated from the die pad 12. At least one of the bonding wires 30 is used to connect the chip 20 and the ground ring 13. Due to the wider gaps between the die pad 12 and the ground ring 13, the position of the ground ring 13 may shift up and down during the wire bonding process, which leads to poor bonding strength.
In order to solve the problem mentioned above, another known leadframe is designed as revealed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,437,427, which comprises a plurality of inner leads, a die pad, a plurality of first tie bars, a plurality of second tie bars and a ground ring. The inner leads surround the ground ring. The ground ring is adjacent to and connected to the die pad through the first tie bars and the second tie bars. Besides, the second tie bars connect the die pad with the ground ring to avoid poor bonding strength due to wider gaps between the die pad and the ground ring during wire bonding processes. However, the effectiveness of the second tie bars to reduce the position shift of the ground ring during wire bonding processes is very limited. Moreover, the first and second tie bars are bent in order to shape a die pad with downset, the ground ring is vulnerable to twist and deform.

Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, Inc.


Polishing pads containing a phase-separated polymer blend, and methods of making and using such pads in a polishing process. In one exemplary embodiment, the polishing pads include a multiplicity of polishing elements integrally formed in a sheet. In another exemplary embodiment, the polishing elements are bonded to a support layer, for example by thermal bonding. In certain embodiments, the polishing pad may additionally include a compliant layer affixed to the support layer, and optionally, a polishing composition distribution layer.

During the manufacture of semiconductor devices and integrated circuits, silicon wafers are iteratively processed through a series of deposition and etching steps to form overlying material layers and device structures. A polishing technique known as chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) may be used to remove surface irregularities (such as bumps, areas of unequal elevation, troughs, and trenches) remaining after the deposition and etching steps, with the objective of obtaining a smooth wafer surface without scratches or depressions (known as dishing), with high uniformity across the wafer surface.
In a typical CMP polishing process, a substrate such as a wafer is pressed against and relatively moved with respect to a polishing pad in the presence of a working liquid that is typically a slurry of abrasive particles in water and/or an etching chemistry. Various CMP polishing pads for use with abrasive slurries have been disclosed, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,257,478; 5,921,855; 6,126,532; 6,899,598 B2; and 7,267,610. Fixed abrasive polishing pads are also known, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 6,908,366 B2, in which the abrasive particles are generally fixed to the surface of the pad, often in the form of precisely shaped abrasive composites extending from the pad surface. Recently, a polishing pad having a multiplicity of polishing elements extending from a compressible underlayer and affixed to the underlayer by a guide plate was described in PCT International Pub. No. WO 2006/057714. Although a wide variety of polishing pads are known and used, the art continues to seek new and improved polishing pads for CMP, particularly in CMP processes where larger die diameters are being used, or where higher levels of wafer surface flatness and polishing uniformity are required.

Polishing pads including phase-separated polymer blend and method of making and using the same


A reversible lure and method of making in which a cam lever from a nail clipper is removed and suitable hook and line are attached to opposing ends thereof. The elongate body has opposing first and second ends and a central section with the first end having an angled section extending from the central section, an opening formed in the angled section, and a raised scoop formed on a first side of the central section adjacent the angled section with an interior in fluid communication with the opening in the angled section. A second end has an opening to accommodate a hook or fishing line. Preferably the lure is formed of metal having a polished finish that reflects light.

Technical Field
The present disclosure is directed to fishing lures and, more particularly, to a lure used in spin casting, jigging, trolling, and other types of fishing techniques.
Description of the Related Art
Techniques for catching fish of all types include the use of a variety of devices, such as nets, traps, cages, harpoons, spears, and hooks. While some of these approaches are directed to acquiring a large number of fish in a single catch, the use of a single line in combination with a hook or other means to catch a fish has been known for thousands of years. Early fisherman used hand lines, which eventually evolved into the use of fishing rods for casting the line a long distance.
Also known is the use of live bait as well as artificial bait and lures to attract fish. Bait casting, spin casting, jigging, and trolling are the more common techniques for using a lure because movement of the lure in the water and reflection of light off the lure is used to simulate a prey for fish.
Of particular interest to the present disclosure is the metal or reflective lure used in spin casting, trolling, and jigging. Although lures of this type tend to be categorized as "spoon" lures due to the dished reflective surface, the spoon shape is not necessarily the easiest to manufacture and not always an attraction for fish.

Reversible fish lure and method of making


The present invention is directed to a polymeric prosthesis precoated with a bone cement compatible polymer. The bone cement compatible polymer coating, which can be polymethyl methacrylate, is bonded to the outer surface of the prosthesis. For instance, in one embodiment, the bone cement compatible polymer coating is believed to be copolymerized with the polymeric prosthesis. Once bonded to a polymeric prosthesis in accordance with the present invention, the precoat strengthens the interface between a bone cement and a prosthesis when the prosthesis is later implanted. The precoat also decreases the likelihood that the prosthesis will loosen and break away from the cement over time. The polymeric implant product of the present invention is particularly well suited for use as an acetabular cup or a tibia plateau in replacing hip joints and knee joints respectively.

Prosthetic devices are artificial devices used to replace or strengthen a particular part of the body. Such devices can be used in humans or animals to repair or replace diseased or damaged bone, allied tissue associated with the bone, and/or joints associated with the bone. Primarily, prosthetic devices are used to correct or prevent skeletal deformities or injuries and to alleviate the pain and discomfort associated with the deformities or injuries.
When implanting a prosthesis, typically a receiving site or cavity is first prepared in an adjoining bone. In particular, the bone can be cut and reamed out in order to accommodate the prosthesis. A bone cement is then mixed and placed in the receiving site or cavity. A prosthesis is positioned in the bone cement, and the bone cement is subsequently cured and hardened affixing the prosthesis to the bone.
In most applications, bone cement is made from an acrylic polymeric material. Typically, the bone cement is comprised of two components: a dry power component and a liquid component, which are subsequently mixed together. The dry component generally includes an acrylic polymer, such as polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). The dry component can also contain a polymerization initiator such as benzoyl peroxide, which initiates the free-radical polymerization process that occurs when the bone cement is formed.
The liquid component, on the other hand, generally contains a liquid monomer such as methyl methacrylate (MMA). The liquid component can also contain an accelerator such as an amine (e.g., N,N-dimethyl-p-toluidine). A stabilizer, such as hydroquinone, can also be added to the liquid component to prevent premature polymerization of the liquid monomer.
When the liquid component is mixed with the dry component, the dry component begins to dissolve or swell in the liquid monomer. The amine accelerator reacts with the initiator to form free radicals which begin to link monomer units to form polymer chains. In the next two to four minutes, the polymerization process proceeds changing the viscosity of the mixture from a syrup-like consistency (low viscosity) into a dough-like consistency (high viscosity). Ultimately, further polymerization and curing occur, causing the cement to harden and affix a prosthesis to a bone.
Once implanted, a prosthetic device ideally closely assimilates the characteristics of the bone and/or the joint that the device is intended to repair or replace. The implanted prosthetic device should be capable of supporting and withstanding stresses and strains normally imparted to the repaired or replaced bone joints.
The above process for implanting a prosthetic device is generally accepted within the art and has proven to be a successful process for repairing or replacing damaged bones, bone joints and the like. Prosthetic devices, however, can be prone to loosen within the bone cavity over time. In particular, the acrylic bone cement, which is neither as strong nor as viable as bone tissue, has been universally considered the weakest link in the implant design. It has been found that the bone cement can break away from the prosthesis, can break away from the bone, or can develop stress or fatigue cracks when repeatedly exposed to the normal stress and strains supported by the bones.
Due to these problems, attempts have been made to improve the mechanical properties of prosthetic devices and of the cement interface that exists between the device and the bone. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,491,987, which was filed by the current inventor and which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference, discloses an improved prosthesis and process for orthopedic implantation of the prosthesis. The current inventor's prior patent is generally directed to a prosthesis precoated with a polymeric material that is compatible with bone cement. Once implanted, the precoat provides a stronger interfacial bond between the bone cement and the prosthesis.
The present inventor's prior work provided great advances in the art with respect to the implantation of orthopedic devices, namely orthopedic devices made from metals such as stainless steel, titanium, and cobalt chrome alloys. However, although metallic devices have achieved relatively high degrees of success in repairing joints, these devices are not always well suited for every application. For instance, in some applications, it is preferred to use a more flexible and less rigid material than metal for opposing joint structures. Specifically, polymeric prosthetic devices are particularly well suited for use in replacing the acetabular cup in a hip replacement and replacing the tibia plateau in knee replacements.
Unfortunately, high strength polymeric materials, such as ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE), do not adhere well to conventional bone cement materials. Thus, in order to attach polymeric prosthetic devices to an adjoining bone using bone cement, deep grooves have been formed into the prosthetic devices for forming a mechanical interlock with the bone cement.
In other prior art constructions, polymeric prosthetic devices include a metal backing and stem for bonding the devices to a bone using a bone cement. Alternatively, the polymeric devices have been installed into a bone without cement using bone screws. Bony tissue ingrowth has also been proposed in the past as a means for joining a prosthesis to bone.
Thus far, however, these prior art methods and constructions for polymeric prosthetic devices have not proven to be completely successful. Thus, a need exists for a process for implanting a polymeric prosthesis into a prepared area of the body. More particularly, a need exists for a process that strengthens the interface between a bone cement and a polymeric prosthesis for decreasing the likelihood that the prosthesis will loosen and break away from the cement over time. Further, a need also exists for a precoated polymeric prosthesis that will readily adhere to a curing bone cement mixture once implanted into an adjoining bone.

Precoated polymeric prosthesis and process for making same


In a display apparatus equipped with a plurality of frame memories for keeping data to be used for display on a display section and an output logic for outputting the display data on the frame memories to the display section, for effective use to various CAD/CAM graphic applications, a switching operation for connection of the frame memories to the output logic is selectively effected through a software among a mode for connecting one of the frame memories to the output logic, a double-buffer mode for switching two of the frame memories at the timing of vertical retrace intervals and a mode for switching the plurality of frame memories at the timing of horizontal retrace intervals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to speeding-up and functional improvement of display apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The speeding-up of display apparatus is generally required in the fields of document-and-image treating systems such as OA systems and graphic treating systems such as CAD/CAM systems. Particularly, in the CAD/CAM fields executing high-speed simulation and the like, various efforts have been made for the speeding-up purposes. Of the conventional speeding-up techniques, the process-distributing method is widely used as one general speeding-up technique, and a study and realizable example of a distributed type graphic display are disclosed in "A transputer based distributed graphic display" (TRANSPUTER TECHNICAL NOTES, INMOS Limited, Prentice Hall, 1989, p170-204). Moreover, in the recent high-speed graphic work station and the like, the speeding-up of the drawing operation is made by dividing a frame memory.
Although in these conventional display apparatus the speeding-up can be realized due to the distributing technique, there is a problem, however, in that its hardware has a fixed arrangement which is not necessarily optimal for application to the CAD/CAM requiring various expressions. As the graphic applications in the CAD/CAM field, there are complicated three-dimensionally shaped shading display and high-speed two-dimensionally imaged animation display, for example. The former bears a heavy calculation load for the pre-processing such as coordinate transformation and calculation of surface brightness and on the other hand the latter bears a heavy load for the output-side processing such as image transfer on a frame memory. In order to try to make the speeding-up of both the displays in the graphic work station or the like, at the previous stage a plurality of calculation processors are coupled through pipe lines to each other and at the output stage a frame memory is divided into regions each of which is coupled to a writing processor. Thus, the system is equipped with a number of processors as illustrated in FIG. 9 so as to become large in scale and high in cost. In FIG. 9, EP represents a processor acting as a calculation means, MEM designates a memory, DP denotes a processor functioning as a display data writing means, and FMEM depicts a frame memory.
In addition, in the case of operating the above-described applications, a problem arises in terms of the processor efficiency due to deviation of the processing load.


A power supply adjusting apparatus includes a primary isolation converting unit, adapted to convert voltage or current of an input power supply signal and output a power supply signal that meets an expected voltage or current requirement. The power supply adjusting apparatus also includes a voltage adjustment controlling unit, adapted to output an adjustment control signal with respect to the output voltage according to an expected output voltage and a tracked signal provided by a powered apparatus. Further, the power supply adjusting apparatus includes a secondary non-isolation adjusting and converting unit, adapted to convert the power supply signal outputted by the primary isolation converting unit to an expected voltage according to the adjustment control signal outputted by the voltage adjustment controlling unit and output the adjusted power supply signal.

Transistor amplifiers which are often adopted in electronic devices reach their peak efficiency under specific input power. This power is related to the structure (circuit parts and layout), load condition and supply voltage. A typical electronic device, such as a radio frequency power amplifier (PA), is generally designed to achieve its optimal performance under the peak input signal. Because the dynamic bandwidth of the input signal of a PA is large, the input signal reaches the peak only occasionally so that the efficiency of a transistor linear PA is normally low.
A common solution for increasing the efficiency of a PA is based on the power supply with such techniques as Traffic Tracking (TT), Envelop Tracking (ET) and Envelope Elimination and Restoration (EER), where the drain supply voltage of the PA is dynamically changed according to the work requirements of the PA so as to increase the average system efficiency. In other similar scenarios, a power supply based solution may also be needed to improve the work efficiency of a system.
To implement the above power supply based solution, a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) based method is adopted in the prior art so as to achieve an efficient voltage variable power supply.
In the prior art, a structure of a PWM based power supply adjusting apparatus applicable to a PA in a radio base station is shown in FIG. 1. The power supply adjusting apparatus includes an optional primary converting unit 101, an isolation adjusting and converting unit 102 and a feedback controller, where the input of the optional primary converting unit 101 or the isolation adjusting and converting unit 102 is connected to the input power supply, and the output of the primary converting unit 101 is connected to the isolation adjusting and converting unit 102, and the isolation adjusting and converting unit 102 is also connected to the feedback controller. The output power supply signal of the optional primary converting unit 101 or the isolation adjusting and converting unit 102 is adjusted according to a control signal of the feedback controller so as to obtain a variable output power supply and meet the power requirement of a powered apparatus. The isolation adjusting and converting unit 102 may be implemented by means of any closed-loop control, such as a half-bridge isolation conversion structure, a forward isolation conversion structure or a full-bridge isolation conversion structure. In the structure shown in FIG. 1, the closed-loop adjustment of the input voltage is implemented by controlling in real time the turn-on and turnoff of a switch tube on the primary side of the transformer of the isolation adjusting and converting unit 102. Due to the isolation of the primary side and the secondary side of the transformer, the control signal of the feedback controller requires the help of isolation units (isolation optical coupler and isolation transformer) for transfer.
Specifically, in FIG. 1, a variation in the output voltage Vo is sent to the voltage reference and loop compensation unit 104 on the secondary side of the transformer via the sampling unit 103 and then transferred to the primary side PWM controller integrated circuit (IC) and driving unit 106 via the isolation optical coupler 105. The PWM controller IC and driving unit 106 adjusts the output PWM pulse width in real time according to the variation in Vo so as to control the switch tube and rectifier diodes Q1 to Q8 in the power structure and achieve the purpose of a stable output voltage.
Because of the adoption of isolation feedback control, when the dynamic adjustment range of the output voltage is wide, the adjustment of the output voltage requires the real-time change of the work points of the isolation transformer and optical coupler so that the prior art has at least the following weaknesses:
1. During a process of wide-range and fast real-time voltage adjustment, the PWM needs to control the shutoff of Q3, Q4, Q5 and Q6 in real time, so that the magnetic induction intensity of the isolation transformer is relatively great and likely to exceed the saturated magnetic induction intensity of the isolation transformer. As a result, the isolation transformer is at risk of magnetic saturation and is likely to create audio noise so that the design of a transformer is more difficult.
2. Because of the delay induced by the inherent low-pass feature of such units as the voltage feedback isolation optical coupler, the need for fast dynamic voltage adjustment is even harder to meet by this power supply structure. When the output power changes quickly, due to the bandwidth limitation of the isolation optical coupler and the limitation of the work space of the transformer magnetic core, it is hard for the traditional voltage adjusted power supply to allow the application of high bandwidth signal tracking.


Receiving a subject image at good sensitivity by improving the light collection efficiency of incident light, wherein an image pick-up element includes a light-receiving portion, poly-silicon wiring formed on the light-receiving portion, and a well structure. The poly-silicon wiring is arranged so as to be overlapped with at least a part of the light-receiving portion, and is electrically connected to the light-receiving portion to perform the control of electric charges generated at the light-receiving portion, the switching of the light-receiving portion, and the like. The well structure is formed in at least a part of the area of the light-receiving portion in which the poly-silicon wiring is arranged, and the opened area of the well structure is sufficiently secured.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pick-up device and an image pick-up system for picking up a subject image, and more particularly to an image pick-up element having poly-silicon wiring arranged on a light-receiving portion thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
As a conventional image pick-up element for introducing incident light into a light-receiving portion efficiently for performing a photoelectric conversion, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H8-321595, a structure including an inter-layer lens in addition to a microlens as shown in FIG. 11 has been proposed. An image pick-up element 101 of FIG. 11 includes a light-receiving portion 102 formed in a silicon wafer 110, a microlens 109 for collecting incident light, a high refractive index portion 108, which is provided at a lower layer of the microlens 109 and has a refractive index higher than that of the microlens 109, and a low refractive index portion 107, which is provided at a lower layer of the high refractive index portion 108 and has a refractive index lower than that of the high refractive index portion 108. An inter-layer lens to be convex toward the center of the light-receiving portion 102 is configured at an interface between the high refractive index portion 108 and the low refractive index portion 107. In the image pick-up element 101 having such a configuration, incident light is first refracted toward the center of the light-receiving portion 102 when the incident light enters the microlens 109, and then the incident light is refracted at the interface between the microlens 109 and the high refractive index portion 108. Furthermore, the incident light is collected by the inter-layer lens, and then enters the light-receiving portion 102. By the use of the inter-layer lens, the incident light which cannot be taken in only by the microlens 109 enters the light-receiving portion 102.
For further improving a light collection efficiency, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-68074 proposes an image pick-up element using a well structure. The well structure is a structure including a dug portion dug in the shape of a well in the bottom portion (shown by a dotted line) of the inter-layer lens configured at the interface between a high refractive index portion 208 and a low refractive index portion 207, as shown in FIG. 12. By means of such a well structure 221, incident light is totally reflected on an inner wall of the dug portion, namely the interface between the high refractive index portion 208 and the low refractive index portion 207, and then the incident light enters a light-receiving portion 202. Consequently, the light collection efficiency is further improved.
Generally, poly-silicon wiring made of poly-silicon (polycrystal silicon) is arranged on the light-receiving portion of an image pick-up element for performing the switching of the light-receiving portion, the control of electric charges, and the like. An image pick-up element 301 of FIG. 13 includes poly-silicon wiring 305 arranged on a light-receiving portion 302.
The image pick-up element 301 includes the light-receiving portion 302 on a silicon wafer 310, a microlens 309 having an optical axis of the center line L1 passing through the center of the light-receiving portion 302 in an X-direction, a well structure 321 composed of a high refractive index portion 308 and a low refractive index portion 307, a tapered portion 322 for guiding incident light into the well tapered portion 322 for guiding incident light into the well structure 321, and the poly-silicon wiring 305 formed on the light-receiving portion 302. The poly-silicon wiring 305 is arranged to overlap on at least a part of the light-receiving portion 302, and is electrically connected with the light-receiving portion 302. The poly-silicon wiring 305 is positioned at the side of the well structure 321 lest the poly-silicon wiring 305 interferes with the potential well structure 321. Pieces of metal wiring 306a and 306b for supplying power source or for controlling electric charges generated by the light-receiving portion 302 by the photoelectric conversion of the incident light are positioned on both the sides of the well structure 321 to put the well structure 321 between the pieces of the metal wiring 306a and 306b above the poly-silicon wiring 305. The pieces of the metal wiring 306a and 306b are severally made of, for example, an aluminum material, and have a light blocking effect. Moreover, both the pieces of the metal wiring 306a and 306b have the same height from the light-receiving portion 2 (in a Z-direction), and are arranged in parallel with each other in a Y-direction.
FIG. 14 is a top view for illustrating a positional relation between the respective pieces of wiring formed in the image pick-up element 301. A letter L2 denotes a center line perpendicular to the center line L1 in FIG. 13 in the Y-direction. As shown in the drawing, the light-receiving portion 302 is formed in an area having a distance of a in the Y-direction and a distance of b in the X-direction (in an area of a×b), and the center in the X-direction is positioned on the center line L2. A distance c being the interval between the pieces of the metal wiring 306a and 306b is formed to be smaller than the distance b. Moreover, the shortest distance between the poly-silicon wiring 305 and the center line L2 is c/2 to coincide with the distance and 306b has the light blocking effect, the substantially functioning part of the light-receiving portion 302 is an area of a×c. The well structure 321 is formed in the area of a×c in order to meet with the substantially functioning part of the light-receiving portion 302.
It is confirmed as to the image pick-up element using the well structure that, when the frontage thereof is too small, it is impossible to take in sufficient incident light, and that the light collection efficiency thereof scarcely differs from that in the case where no well structure is provided, substantially. On the other hand, the image pick-up element has been desired to be miniaturized furthermore in recent years. A problem in which the size of the frontage of the well structure cannot be sufficiently secured when an image pick-up element is tried to be miniaturized has been generated.

Image pick-up device having well structure and image pick-up system using the image pick-up device


Disclosed is a storage device which includes a nonvolatile memory device including a memory block a program order of which is adjusted regardless of an arrangement of memory cells, and a memory controller that performs address mapping to replace a bad page of the memory block with a normal page of the memory block.

The inventive concept relates generally to semiconductor memory devices, and more particularly, to storage devices including non-volatile memory device(s) and repair methods for same.
Semiconductor memory devices may be volatile or nonvolatile in their operative natures. Volatile semiconductor memory devices may perform read and write operations at relatively high speed, but stored data is lost when power is interrupted. Nonvolatile semiconductor memory devices are able to retain stored data in the absence of applied power.
Nonvolatile semiconductor memory devices include, for example, mask read-only memory (MROM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), and the like. Flash memory is a type of EEPROM, and has been widely adopted for use in many applications. For example, flash memory is commonly used to store voice and image data in information appliances such as computers, cellular phones, PDAs, digital cameras, camcorders, voice recorders, MP3 players, handheld PCs, game machines, facsimiles, scanners, printers, and the like.
More recently, a great deal of research has been expended in the development of contemporary nonvolatile memory devices including a stacked or three-dimensional (3D) memory cell array.

Storage device including non-volatile memory device and repair method


A wearable heads-up display includes a power source, laser sources, and a lightguide. A photodetector is positioned to detect an intensity of a test light emitted at a perimeter of the lightguide from an optical path within the lightguide. A laser safety circuit provides a control to reduce or shut off a supply of electrical power from the power source to the laser sources in response to an output signal from the photodetector indicating that the detected intensity is below a threshold.

WHUDs are wearable electronic devices that use optical combiners to combine real world and virtual images. The combiner may be integrated with one or more lenses to provide a display lens that is fitted into a support frame of a WHUD. The display lens would provide an eyebox that is viewable by a user when the WHUD is worn on the head of the user. One class of combiners uses a lightguide (or waveguide) to transfer light. In general, light from a projector of the WHUD enters the lightguide of the combiner through an in-coupler, propagates along the lightguide by total internal reflection (TIR), and exits the lightguide through an out-coupler. If the pupil of the eye is aligned with one or more exit pupils provided by the out-coupler, at least a portion of the light exiting through the out-coupler will enter the pupil of the eye, thereby enabling the user to see a virtual image in a display space associated with the WHUD. If the combiner is transparent or semitransparent, the user will also be able to see the real world.
Some WHUDS use laser projectors to project the light that is used to form a display. Since WHUDS are worn near the eyes of the user, use of laser light to form a display raises safety concerns. In general, lasers are classified based on their potential to cause injury to human eyes and skin. There are four main classes for visible beam lasers, with Class 1 lasers being the safest and Class 4 lasers being the least safe. Class 1 lasers are safe under all conditions of use—the lasers are safe either because of a low power output or due to an enclosure that prevents user access to the laser beam during normal operation. Class 2 lasers are relatively safe to the extent that the user does not stare at the beam without blinking for an extended period of time. Class 3 lasers are generally considered to be dangerous to the eye, especially when used in combination with optical devices that change the beam diameter and/or power density. Class 4 lasers put out high optical powers that are considered to be dangerous with or without optical devices that change beam diameter and/or power density. The safest WHUD will be one whose maximum accessible exposure is managed such that the device is effectively a Class 1 laser product.
When a lightguide-based combiner is used in a WHUD, there is a risk that the lightguide may fracture, e.g., if the user accidentally drops the WHUD on a hard surface such that the lightguide is subjected to loads that exceed the fracture strength of the lightguide. If a fractured lightguide is used to transfer laser light, uncontrolled laser light leakage is likely to occur at the fracture(s) in the lightguide. If the pupil of the eye happens to be aligned with the fracture(s), the leaking laser light may enter the pupil of the eye and impinge on the retina. In some cases, a much higher laser power than would ultimately be delivered to the eye may be coupled into the lightguide. As an example, the much higher laser power may have been selected to accommodate inefficiencies in the system such that when the laser light is coupled out of the lightguide by the out-coupler, the appropriate level of laser power will be delivered to the eye to achieve a display with the appropriate brightness within laser safety limits. In cases where laser light with a relatively high level of laser power is coupled into a fractured lightguide, there is a risk of exposing the eye to unsafe laser power levels. Safety concerns may be not only to the WHUD user but also to an observer that happens to be standing in front of the WHUD user and in the field of view of the combiner.
Being able to make a WHUD that looks like normal eyeglasses has been one of the most interesting and complex problems in the art. The support frame of such a WHUD would have a frame front and temples that are attached to the frame front by hinges. The hinges would allow the temples to be foldable in the same manner as normal eyeglasses. The laser projector of the WHUD could be hidden within the temple, and the frame front could carry the display lens. This means that there needs to be a way of getting the laser light from the laser projector to the combiner that is carried by the display lens while maintaining the normal eyeglasses appearance. One approach has been to transmit the laser light from the temple through an opening at the front end of the temple and an opening at the back end of the frame front to the combiner. In this case, if the temple is folded, the front opening of the temple through which the laser light exits will be exposed to the environment. If for some reason the laser projector is outputting laser light while the temple is folded, laser light that was meant to be delivered to the combiner would not reach the combiner and would instead spill into the environment, possibly creating a laser hazard.

Wearable heads-up display with optical path fault detection


A box unit is a housing having a space for containing a circuit board therein. Bus bars are insert-molded in a resin body of the box. A metal shield plate is insert-molded around the entire periphery of the box and outside the bus bars. As a result, the box has a shield and is reduced in size compared with a metal box.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a resin housing for containing an electronic circuit and, more particularly, to a resin housing for containing a motor driving circuit for an electric compressor.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional electronic circuit housing is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-159083. This housing is illustrated as a resin housing having bus bars insert-molded therein for connecting the electronic circuit in it.
The conventional electronic circuit housing, however, being a resin housing, poses the problem that electromagnetic waves generated by the electronic circuit are radiated outside of the housing or an external electromagnetic noise is received by the electronic circuit in the housing.
An electronic circuit housing which is formed of a metal to cope with this problem can produce the effect of shielding an electromagnetic wave. As bus bars cannot be formed integrally with a conductive housing, however, the electronic circuit housing becomes undesirably bulky.
This invention has been obtained to solve the problems described above, and the object thereof is to provide an electronic circuit housing with bus bars, which has a compact size and has the effect of shielding electromagnetic waves.


A magnetic display erasing apparatus is provided in which an ideal erasing magnetic field can be realized by using a small-sized magnet. A magnet is formed by bending a rectangular plate-like magnet, having the N-pole on the surface and the S-pole on the back face, into a U-shape so that the N-pole of one end of the magnet confronts the N-pole of the other end thereof symmetrically with respect to a magnetic display sheet. The magnetic display sheet is conveyed by a conveying apparatus, which is not shown, in the U-shaped gap space which is formed by the magnet. Because the magnetic field is symmetrical with respect to the plane of the magnetic display sheet, an ideal planar magnetic field is attained on the disposition plane of the magnetic display sheet. There is no point where the strength of the magnetic field is zero. Therefore, the whole region of the empty space can be used for erasure and the space utilization efficiency of the magnet is enhanced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic display erasing apparatus for a magnetic display sheet which is sensitive to a magnetic field and displays visible information.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, magnetic cards in which a magnetic stripe is formed along the longitudinal direction thereof are widely used in various fields such as bank cards, credit cards, and ID cards. In such cards a magnetic stripe is recorded, for example, to store an identification code of a user of the card, as patterns of orientations or strengths of magnetization.
However, since data recorded in such a magnetic stripe are invisible information, a special apparatus such as a card reader is necessary when the recorded data are to be directly checked.
A magnetic card of another type is known in which a magnetic display sheet, which contains a micro capsule sensitive to a magnetic field, is formed at a position other than the position of a magnetic stripe (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 6-168369 (1994)).
FIG. 12 is a sectional view showing an example of a magnetic display sheet 1. In a capsule 3, flat magnetic flakes 5 are encapsulated together with an oil 4, and a number of capsules 3 are sealed between a substrate member 2 and a protective layer 6. When a magnetic field perpendicular to the magnetic display sheet 1 is applied to the magnetic flakes 5, the magnetic flakes 5 are perpendicularly oriented, so that the optical reflectivity is reduced with the result that the magnetic display sheet 1 becomes dark. On the other hand, when a magnetic field parallel to the card substrate is applied to the magnetic flakes 5, the magnetic flakes 5 are oriented in parallel to each other, so that the optical reflectivity is increased with the result that the magnetic display sheet becomes bright. On this principle, the magnetic display sheet 1 can display visible information such as characters and symbols in accordance with the direction of the applied magnetic field. Consequently, the magnetic card is remarkably improved in ease of use.
FIGS. 13A and 13B are a plan view and a side view, respectively, showing an example of a prior art magnetic display erasing apparatus. Such a configuration is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication JP-U 7-6901 (1995), and Japanese Examined Patent Publication JP-B2 54-29895 (1979). A pair of permanent magnets 7 are disposed at a predetermined interval so that the magnetic poles thereof, which confront each other via the magnetic display sheet 1 provided on a surface of the card, have the same polarity, and an erasing operation is realized by moving the magnetic display sheet 1 between the pair of permanent magnets.
In this configuration, a substantially planar magnetic field can be applied to the magnetic display sheet 1, and hence it is expected that the erasing quality is improved.
As shown in FIGS. 13A-13B, however, since the magnets 7, which have an identical plate-like shape (herein round shape) and the same coercive force, are disposed in parallel to each other, at the center of gravity A of a pattern (the center of a circle), which is obtained by projection of the magnets 7 on the plane of the magnetic display sheet 1 (in the example, the pattern is identical with that obtained by orthogonal projection of the magnets 7), the magnetic fields produced by the magnets 7 perpendicularly act on the magnetic display sheet, and cancel each other because the magnetic fields on the center A are equal to each other, with the result that the magnetic field strength on the center A becomes zero.
Consequently, the region of the magnetic display sheet 1 which passes the center of gravity A is not subjected to the erasing operation, so that the magnetic display in this region is not erased and remains as a black line. This is applicable also to the case where the magnets are of a triangular, square, or semicircular shape. When there are plural pairs of poles confronting each other, a black line remains at the center of gravity of each of plural pole region patterns which are obtained by projecting (orthogonally projecting) the regions of the confronting poles on the plane of the magnetic display sheet 1. An ideal planar magnetic field acts on the region other than the vicinity of the center of gravity A, and hence a perfect erasing operation is executed in such a region.
In order to avoid such a region which is beyond the effect of the erasing operation, the magnets 7 must be disposed so that the magnetic display sheet 1 does not pass the vicinity of the center of gravity A. When circular magnets are used as shown in FIGS. 13A-13B, therefore, only a half or less portion of the magnetic fields produced by the magnets 7 is used in the erasing operation, thereby lowering the space utilization efficiency of the magnets 7. As a result, this makes the miniaturization of the whole apparatus difficult and causes further restrictions on the design.

Magnetic display erasing apparatus including a plurality of magnets


Waveform management systems and methods for ballasts are provided. The system includes a lamp, a ballast, a first interface, a storage unit, and a processing unit. The processing unit obtains at least one first waveform from the storage unit, and writes the first waveform to the ballast via the first interface. The processing unit transmits an illumination signal to the ballast via the first interface, such that the ballast controls the illumination of the lamp according to the first waveform.

1. Field of the Invention
The disclosure relates generally to waveform management systems and methods for ballasts, and, more particularly to systems and methods that update and check waveforms for ballasts.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, at least one ballast is provided in an electronic device, such as a display device or a projector, to control the illumination source in the electronic device. The ballast has at least one waveform. The illumination source may determine the timing and intensity to illumine according to the waveform. A processing unit of the electronic device, such as Scalar, may connect to the ballast via a 5-pin interface. Based on different display requirements, the processing unit may transmit an illumination signal to the ballast, thus to select a specific waveform in the ballast to control the illumination source.
In some cases, the waveforms and/or firmware in the ballast are usually needed to be updated. When the waveforms in the ballast are updated, the electronic device must be first taken apart. A host, such as a computer, is then connected to the ballast via an additional device. Then, new waveforms may be transmitted to the ballast using the host. As described, since the electronic device must be taken apart for each waveform update, it requires manual labor, is inconvenient for users, and is time consuming.


Various embodiments are directed to a camera module, image sensor die, and methods for manufacturing the same. The image sensor die comprises a thinned wafer portion, a photosensor portion adjacent the thinned wafer portion and a carrier wafer. Vias may be formed through the carrier wafer to connect the photosensor portion to die contacts. A first side of the image sensor die opposite the die contacts may be bonded to a first side of the rigid substrate. Wire bonds may be formed between the die contacts and substrate-sensor contacts positioned on the first side of the rigid substrate.

Digital camera functionality is being incorporated into a wide variety of electronic devices. In particular, there is an increased demand by consumers for high quality photographic capability in consumer electronics and mobile computing devices, such as mobile phones, smartphones, and tablet computers. In addition, there is an ongoing desire to improve quality and functionality while decreasing the cost of components and manufacturing.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved camera module designs and manufacturing processes for incorporation into electronic devices.

Camera module including flip chip image sensor


A pressure reduction apparatus is disclosed. Air at high pressure and temperature may be drawn from a source such as a bleed valve of a gas turbine engine that supplies the air to an airplane interior. The air is passed to a pressure reduction vessel. The vessel has sufficient volume such that the high pressure air, upon entering the vessel, will reduce in temperature and pressure. The pressure reduction apparatus allows the air to depressurize and drop in temperature to near ambient conditions. Upon exiting the pressure reduction apparatus, the air is at a temperature and pressure sufficient to allow the air to be sampled and analyzed by conventional equipment used for testing for airborne impurities such as semivolatile compounds ad particulates.

Air samplers are finding increased application in a variety of uses. One such application deals with the transportation industry. For example, passengers may be subject to noxious smells or gases or other airborne impurities when traveling in enclosed vehicles such as trains, motor coaches, or airplanes.
When an event occurs during which passengers are subject to odors, smoke, gases, or other undesirable airborne impurities, it is desirable to perform some kind of test or sampling. The testing or sampling of the air supply may be done for several reasons. It may be desired to repeat the incident of impure air flow in order to sample the air and thus trace the source of impurity. Additionally, the testing or sampling may be performed in part to certify that, once corrected, the vehicle in question is again supplying clean air to passengers.
In the example of a modern passenger jetliner, air supply to the interior cabin often begins with the gas turbine engines. In the typical structure of a gas turbine engine, including those used in industrial, marine, vehicle, as well as aerojet applications, air enters the engine inlet and first passes through a series of compressor stages such as a low pressure stage and a high pressure stage. The air then passes through a combustion chamber and, in exiting the engine, crosses turbines such as high pressure and low pressure turbines. However, a significant portion of air that enters the engine inlet passes around the compressors, combustion chamber and turbines, this is called fan air. Additionally air in the compressors may be bled off for deicing and other pneumatic applications through bleed valves. Bleed valves are typically used to select air at a desired pressure within the gas turbine engine during varying power conditions. Alternatively air may be supplied to the air craft cabin through a separate compressor not directly associated with the engine. Environmental control systems used in commercial airliners often draw air from either the bleed valves or ram air. This air may then pass through ductwork, pumps, temperature controls, and other air handling equipment before being vented into the passenger cabin.
Present in these turbine propulsion engines as well as the APU's (auxiliary power units) are fluid sealing systems. Sealing systems typically work to contain materials such as lubricants and hydrocarbons within the engine body. For example sealing systems are employed within a gas turbine engine to prevent trace elements of materials such as fuel or lubricant from leaking from the engine and into the bleed air. However, such sealing systems are not always totally effective, and as a result there may be leakage of fuel or lubricant into the bleed air. Hence hydrocarbons and lubricants within the engine may be the source of semivolatile compounds that result in odors and noxious impurities that may be harmful or unpleasant to the passengers. Hydrocarbons for example can oxidize and produce smoke and particulates in the air flowing into the cabin.
Previous methods used to measure contaminants in engine bleed air have either been inconclusive or have given false readings. One such method incorporates a polyvinylchloride filter to collect a sample of the bleed air followed by looking for the presence of oil by using a black light to make the oil droplets fluoresce. Another method includes the use of a large, stainless steel coil chilled to about −100 degrees F. to condense matter in the bleed air. The condensed matter is then flushed from the coil, evaporated with a solvent (freon) and weighed. In a third method, the bleed air is flowed through absorption tubes in which residue is collected on silica gel, charcoal, or molecular sieves and then evaluated by gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy. The residue can also be analyzed by combusting its organic matter, and measuring the carbon dioxide formed with a flame ionization detector or nitrogen phosphorous detector.
Presently, there is no known equipment available that is designed to sample high volumes of air from a closed system. In particular there is no known equipment designed to take high volume air samples from the interior chamber of a closed aircraft fuselage. Accordingly there is a need for a high volume air sampler that can screen for particulate, volatile, and semivolatile materials present in the air sample.
In a closed environment, such as the fuselage interior of a commercial jet airplane, traditional methods of taking air samples face difficulties. In the typical known method for taking air samples a collector is exposed to the environment where it is desired to take an air sample. One end of the collector is open to the atmosphere and an opposite end of the collector is attached to a pump (typically with an intervening hose). Running the pump pulls a vacuum which serves to pull air through the collector.
The difficulty of such an arrangement in a closed environment is that pulling a vacuum to take the air sample is resisted by the closed nature of where the air sample is in the plane interior. Thus it is difficult to take large volume air samples with this arrangement. However, large volume air samples are sometimes preferred where for example the concentration of the suspected contaminant is relatively low. In such a case it is often necessary to sample a large volume of air in order to capture a sufficient quantity of the contaminant in order to subject the impurity to analysis.
Hence there is a need for a high volume air sampler that addresses one or more of the above-noted objectives. That is there is a need for a high volume air sampler capable of drawing a sufficiently large air sample to detect the presence of certain airborne impurities; and/or that is capable of drawing an air sample in a closed environment of minimal weight and/or that is capable of drawing air samples that pass through the enclosed interior of an airplane fuselage and/or that is compact and portable so as to be used in different airplane shapes and sizes. The high volume air sampler disclosed herein addresses one or more of these needs.


A distributed computing system contains one or more application nodes. One or more control nodes provide for the efficient and automated allocation and management of computing functions and resources within the distributed computing system. The control node includes an automation subsystem that provides autonomic power control for the application nodes, regardless of which vendor manufactured the application nodes. For power controllers not specifically supported by the distributed computing system, a universal power controller responds to power down instructions by causing a targeted application node to execute an idle software image and reports that the application node has been successfully powered down.

Distributed computing systems are increasingly being utilized to support business as well as technical applications. Typically, distributed computing systems are constructed from a collection of computing nodes that combine to provide a set of processing services to implement distributed computing applications. Each of the computing nodes in the distributed computing system is typically a separate, independent computing device interconnected with each of the other computing nodes via a communications medium, e.g., a network.
One challenge with distributed computing systems is the programmatic control of power to the computing nodes. With programmatic power control, a control node of the distributed computing system can, for example, power-up, power-down, and power cycle computing nodes without an administrator having to physically interact with the controlled computing nodes. An administrator of the distributed computing environment may need programmatic power control functions for a variety of purposes. For instance, the administrator may want the distributed computing system to power-down a computing node in which an application has become non-responsive.
Differing specifications and communications protocols complicate the task of programmatic power control. A distributed computing system may be composed of computing nodes manufactured by various vendors. Vendors equip some of the computing nodes with special power control hardware units. The power control hardware units facilitate remote power control over the managed nodes. However, power control hardware units supplied by one vendor are frequently incompatible with power control hardware units supplied by a second vendor. This is because each vendor may use a different protocol to facilitate communication with power control hardware unit or a different instruction set within the power control hardware unit. For instance, the power control hardware units manufactured by a first vendor may use secure shell ("SSH") commands to communicate with a control node while a second vendor may use telnet.
Traditionally, administrators of distributed computing systems have overcome these differences in vendor specifications by creating custom software modules for each type of power control hardware unit. This approach has numerous disadvantages. For instance, writing and debugging multiple software modules is time consuming and expensive. The fact that vendors frequently upgrade the firmware installed on power control hardware units further magnifies expenses. With each upgrade of the power control firmware, the administrators of the distributed computing system must test the power control hardware units to guarantee that the custom software modules written to support the power control hardware units work with the latest revision of the power control firmware.

System and method for causing an idle image to execute on an application node of a distributed computing system when instructed to power down


A new and distinct Echeveria hybrid plant named ‘AMIECH2106’ which is characterized by succulent foliage loosely arranged in a basal rosette, strongly glaucous foliage at and near the center of the rosette with a very light blue-grey to greyed-green general appearance that becomes progressively darker blue-grey to greyed-green as the foliage matures towards the outer whorls of the rosette, near-white foliar margins at and near the center of the rosette that become suffused with greyed-purple as the foliage matures towards the outer whorls of the rosette, and the stability of these characteristics from generation to generation.

Parentage: 'AMIECH2106' is an interspecific hybrid seedling selection resulting from the controlled pollination of Echeveria secunda var. pumila (not patented), the seed parent, with an unnamed Echeveria lilacina plant (not patented), the pollen parent. The crossing was made by the inventor in the spring of 2017 at a commercial greenhouse in Heerhugowaard, the Netherlands. In the spring of 2018, one seedling was observed which exhibited unique growth and foliage characteristics. The seedling was isolated for further evaluation in order to confirm the distinctness and stability of the characteristics first observed. Upon confirmation of distinctness and stability, 'AMIECH2106' was selected for commercialization.
Asexual Reproduction: Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar 'AMIECH2106', by way of rooting leaf cuttings, was first initiated in the spring of 2019 at the inventor's commercial greenhouse in Heerhugowaard, the Netherlands. Through five subsequent generations, the unique features of this cultivar have proven to be stable and true to type.


An automatic synthesis machine is used for synthesis of compounds using a plurality of vessels, allowing reagents to chemically react with each other. The automatic synthesis machine comprises a selection means for selecting a specific vessel among a plurality of vessels, a display device for displaying the vessel selected by the selection means in a manner such that it can be identified, together with the operation contents (suction and injection) related to the selected vessel, and an analysis means for analyzing a protocol prescribing a series of operational procedures for synthesis of compounds and picked-out commands related to the selected vessel from the protocol.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an automatic synthesis machine for automatic synthesis of compounds and, more particularly, to an automatic synthesis machine suitable for creation and analysis of a protocol prescribing the procedure of synthesis.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the fields of studies on pharmacy, life science, chemistry and materials or the like, synthesis of a plurality of compounds is performed experimentally for determination of the characteristics and synthesis conditions or the like of compounds. An automatic synthesis machine is well known as a device for the synthesis of compounds. The automatic synthesis machine has a plurality of reactors, and a product resulting from synthesis in each reactor is recovered for every reactor.
Setting the chemical synthesis procedure called a protocol, the synthesis of compounds is performed by the automatic synthesis machine using a reagent and a solvent according to the protocol. In creation of the protocol, there is a need to specify vessels, together with operations (suction and injection) related to the specific vessels. The vessels are specified by assigning designations to specify the vessels on a vessel basis for making an entry of the designations in the protocol. As a result, there is a problem in that a long time is required for creation of the protocol. In particular, synthesis requiring the complicated procedure where a wide variety of reagents and solvents are used results in an increase in number of characters (the number of characters in an individual line) of one protocol or number of protocol lines.
Further, since a protocol is a kind of a program prescribing a procedure of synthesis and is written in only characters, it is difficult to specify vessels and also to ascertain the operation contents related to the specific vessels. In particular, in case where the procedure is complicated as a wide variety of reagents and solvents are used, the operation contents related to the specific vessels are hard to be ascertained only from the protocol.
Furthermore, in an automatic synthesis machine, synthesis of a wide variety of compounds is required at a time in some cases. In the prior art, synthesis of a wide variety of compounds would need a reaction rack formed by arraying a plurality of vessels for storage of reagents, solvents and products resulting from synthesis in the shape of a matrix with rows and columns, and there is also a need for creation of a synthesis protocol prescribing the vessels and the operations (suction and injection) related to the vessels according to the procedure of synthesis.
In a protocol for use in a synthesis carried out by an automatic synthesis machine in the prior art, the procedure of the synthesis is prescribed by specifying a vessel and also specifying to the specified vessel an operations such as suction or injection of a reagent, solvent, product or the like. Thus, according to the above protocol, although it is possible to ascertain a series of synthesis procedures, the problem with the above protocol is that it is not possible to easily ascertain and verify the process of chemical reaction on inspection in vessel units. Accordingly, for ascertaining an operation for every vessel, a person who creates a protocol has to interpret the protocol for verification after construction of chemical reactions for every vessel.


A method of forming a buried contact junction without forming a buried contact trench and without a disconnection gap in the current path by using a tapered polysilicon profile and a large angle tilt buried contact implant is described. A layer of gate silicon oxide is provided over the surface of a semiconductor substrate. A first polysilicon layer is deposited overlying the gate silicon oxide layer. The first polysilicon layer is etched away where it is not covered by a buried contact mask to provide an opening to the semiconductor substrate wherein the first polysilicon layer is tapered such that the bottom of the opening has a width the size of the planned buried contact and wherein the top of the opening has a width larger than the size of the planned buried contact. Ions are implanted at a tilt angle into the substrate within the opening whereby the ions penetrate the substrate laterally underlying with said first polysilicon layer to form the buried contact. A second layer of polysilicon is deposited over the first polysilicon layer and over the semiconductor substrate within the opening and patterned to form a polysilicon contact overlying the buried contact junction to complete formation of a buried contact in the fabrication of an integrated circuit.

(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the fabrication of integrated circuit devices, and more particularly, to a method of eliminating a buried contact trench in the fabrication of integrated circuits.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
A buried contact is widely used in modern static random access memory (SRAM) processes to connect a polysilicon line to an active area. Referring to FIGS. 1-4, a typical buried contact process of the prior art will be described. FIG. 1 illustrates a partially completed integrated circuit device having a semiconductor substrate 10. An isolation region, such as Field OXide region 12 is formed as is conventional in the art. A layer of gate oxide 14 is grown or deposited over the surface of the substrate. A relatively thin layer of polysilicon 16 is deposited over the gate oxide layer 14. A photoresist mask 20 is used to pattern the polysilicon to form an opening over the planned buried contact. With the gate oxide as a protective layer, a vertical implant angle plug ion implantation 22 is performed to form the buried contact region 24. Usually, a quadrant angle tilt isolation implantation is performed to form a deeper isolation region 26 to isolation the plug implant from the surrounding region. Referring now to FIG. 2, the gate oxide layer 14 in the buried contact area is removed, then a second layer of polysilicon 28 is deposited which contacts the substrate through the buried contact opening. Next, the polysilicon is patterned. During the thermal cycle of the fabrication process, the plug implantation will diffuse laterally, about 0.05 microns, A. After lateral diffusion, the buried contact region will have a diffusion profile as illustrated by 25.
FIGS. 3 and 4 illustrate two potential problems affecting the function of the buried contact. Referring now to FIG. 3, there is illustrated a buried contact trench 32. The overlap of polysilicon 28 to the buried contact region 24 normally is less than about 0.05 microns. The misalignment, or overlay, of the stepper used in photolithography usually is less than 0.10 microns, depending upon the machine specification. If the misalignment causes the polysilicon pattern not to fully cover the buried contact opening, as shown in FIG. 3 (that is, the photomask 30 is shifted to the left), the substrate will be etched into during the polysilicon etch resulting in the buried contact trench 32. This is because the etch selectivity of polysilicon to the substrate silicon is very low. The trench causes a poor connection and increased junction leakage. If the trench is deep enough, it will break through the junction.
FIG. 4 illustrates a second potential misalignment problem. If the misalignment of the photoresist mask 30 causes the polysilicon to overlap the buried contact by too much (that is, the photomask 30 is shifted to the right), a disconnection gap 34 may occur. After etching of the polysilicon 28, a source/drain implantation is performed to form source/drain region 27. The source/drain region 27 should contact the buried contact region 25. However, because of misalignment, even with lateral diffusion of the source/drain region 27, there is a gap 34 between the source/drain region 27 and the buried contact region 35. Disconnection results in device failure. Therefore, this error is to be avoided at all costs. Workers in the art would rather have a small trench than to have a disconnection gap. Thus, the overlap of polysilicon to buried contact on the mask is usually set to be 0 to 0.05 microns. Since the layer to layer misalignment of a stepper is around 0.10 microns, this means that a buried contact trench will always be formed. The existence of the trench dramatically reduces the process margin of the polysilicon etch, thus reducing chip yield.
Various inventions have been made to prevent the formation of a buried contact trench, to fill a buried contact trench so that a current path is maintained, or to bridge a disconnection gap. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,494,848 to H. W. Chin teaches a method using an oversized mask to protect the buried junction area during overetch so that a misalignment of the mask will not cause the formation of a buried contact trench. U.S. Pat. No. 5,596,215 to Huang teaches forming spacers on the sidewalls of the gate structures to fill the buried contact trench and form a current path. U.S. Pat. No. 5,607,881 to Huang teaches linking the buried contact junction and the source junction by an extra high dose N+ implant to overcome the disadvantages of a buried contact trench. U.S. Pat. No. 5,378,641 to Cheffings teaches a two-step angled implant to form the buried contact and a substrate interconnect between the buried contact and the source/drain region. U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,093 to Sakamoto teaches another method of forming a buried contact.
Large tilt angle ion implantation and tapered polysilicon gates have been used in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,593,922 to Liaw et al teaches a channel stop implant using large angle tilt in order to isolate closely spaced buried contact junctions. In the paper, "Managing Implant Shadowing," by D. Abercrombie et al, Semiconductor International, September 1996, pp. 107-109, the authors show that a 7 degree tilt angle source/drain implant around a tapered polysilicon gate produces symmetrical source/drain implants while a vertical polysilicon gate results in shadowing; non-symmetrical source/drain implants.

Trenchless buried contact process technology

Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing, Ltd.