A system for controlling fueling of an internal combustion engine includes a receiver associated with the vehicle, such as a GPS, GLONASS or LORAN-C receiver, operable to receive radio signals relating to vehicle location, a fueling system responsive to fueling signals to provide fuel to the engine and a control computer with a memory having a number of different engine fueling maps stored therein. The control computer is responsive to the radio signals to determine therefrom a geographical position of the vehicle, retrieve an appropriate one of the number of engine fueling maps from memory which corresponds to the geographical location of the vehicle, and provide the fueling signals according to the appropriate one of the number of engine fueling maps. In an alternative embodiment, the system includes a communications transceiver operable to transmit either the radio signals or the geographical location of the vehicle to a remote computer system, wherein the remote computer system is operable to determine an appropriate engine fueling map, based on the geographical location of the vehicle, and transmit the engine fueling map information back to the control computer for fueling the engine in accordance therewith. In either embodiment, engine fueling maps corresponding to at least a low emissions fueling mode, a fuel economic fueling mode and a high engine output fueling mode are provided for fueling the engine when the vehicle is located in an urban, rural and hilly geographical location respectively.

It is presently known in the internal combustion engine industry, and particularly in the medium and heavy duty truck industry, to select engine fueling strategies based on presumed geographic conditions, wherein the geographic conditions are presumed from certain engine and/or vehicle operational parameters. In one known system, engine acceleration is monitored, presumed geographic conditions are determined therefrom and an appropriate one of a pair of fueling strategies is selected based upon the presumed geographic conditions. For example, during periods of continuous accelerations (i.e. stop and go traffic), the vehicle is presumed to be operating in or near a city, and a low emissions engine fueling map is selected for operation in accordance therewith. Conversely, during periods of steady state engine operation, the vehicle is presumed to be operating on an open highway, and a fuel economic engine fueling map is selected for operation in accordance therewith.
While engine fueling control systems of the foregoing type have been somewhat helpful in reducing emissions in areas designated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as non-attainment areas, they have several drawbacks associated therewith. For example, due to the engine acceleration-based determination of presumed geographic conditions, the foregoing system will typically select the fuel economic engine fueling map when driving on city freeways and beltways, thereby increasing vehicle emissions in or near low emissions urban areas.
As another example drawback, engine fueling control systems of the foregoing type typically switch to the fuel economic engine fueling map only after prolonged periods of steady state engine operation. Thus, during stops in rural areas, such as at weigh stations and toll booths, such systems typically revert back to the low emissions fueling map. The same result occurs when the vehicle is in operation and the vehicle operator is required to interrupt steady state engine operation, such as when downshifting to negotiate a steep grade or when slowing down the vehicle in construction areas. In either case, fuel economy unnecessarily deteriorates.
As yet another drawback, known engine fueling control systems of the foregoing type provide for selection between only a fuel economic or a low emissions engine fueling map. However, either engine fueling map may be undesirable, or even counterproductive, under certain conditions requiring increased engine output (either via engine output power or engine output torque), such as when climbing steep grades. Increased engine output under such conditions would be advantageous in several respects. For example, vehicle operators would be grateful for increased engine output when driving through mountainous regions, and such increased output would reduce the need to down-shift, thereby reducing wear and tear on vehicle components. Moreover, such increased output would likely decrease transit time and allow vehicle operators to pass similarly rated vehicles while still maintaining good fuel economy. Further, vehicle purchasers could purchase lower rated engines and still get higher engine output when needed. The lower rated engines would resultantly last longer than the higher rated predecessor engines, and customer satisfaction would likely correspondingly increase.
What is therefore needed is a system for controlling engine fueling which overcomes the drawbacks of known engine fueling control systems. Ideally, such a system should control engine fueling based on actual (or somewhat accurately estimated) vehicle location/position. Such a system could dramatically reduce emissions in low emissions areas and more accurately enable an appropriate engine fueling map regardless of the states, trends or statuses of engine/vehicle operational parameters. Such a system should further make available not only fuel economic and low emissions engine fueling maps, but should further provide for one or more higher output engine fueling maps to assist vehicle operators in hilly or mountainous regions.

System for controlling engine fueling according to vehicle location


Embodiments described herein relate to systems and methods for local name resolution in network communications. Particular embodiments may enable a device resolution request to include a name that identifies the user device issuing the resolution request. A proxy server may accept the resolution request, and respond with a service internet protocol address that is customized to that user device, such that compatible user devices on the same local area network will each receive a different service IP address. When the proxy server receives traffic on a particular service IP address from a local area network, the proxy server may identify the compatible device even if a network address translation device has adjusted the requesting IP address for the device. Particular implementations may enable acceleration of HTTPS communications by the proxy server, or other such benefits.

Many home networks and other local area networks (LANs) include multiple end user devices are positioned behind a network address translation (NAT) device such as a home router. Such NAT devices obscure the identity of devices operating in the LAN and prevent the operation of certain communication techniques with individual devices. For example, if a system is attempting to use web page acceleration techniques in web communications with devices behind a NAT, it is difficult to know which end user devices can be accelerated and which cannot.
The impact of NAT devices is often seen in web browsing, in which a user selects web page content and receives objects, which is a core part of the Internet experience for Internet users. While the experience of users is typically a single selection followed by the viewing of a web page that is presented on the screen, the process of presenting the web page on the screen can involve a large number of objects and multiple request/response round trip communications from the user system to a system that is providing the web page.
One method of improving the performance of web page transmission and presentation is HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) prefetching. HTTP prefetching typically involves pre-requesting content on behalf of a client or browser before a request for that content is actually generated as a typical HTTP request and response in the course of a typical web page transaction. Certain prefetching embodiments involve pre-requesting content based on predictions about a future user selection without any actual action or selection by the user. Other HTTP prefetching systems involve pre-requesting content in response to a user action or selection as part of a web page transaction. In such systems, when content is prefetched it may become possible to satisfy the request for that content locally (with regard to the client or browser) or at a location with a lower latency to the user, thereby negating the need to transmit the request and wait for the response from a content server. For example, in cases where there exists high latency between the client generating the request and the server which responds with the context requested, each negated request/response may avoid the penalty for such latency, thereby potentially reducing the total time required to satisfy the entire series of requests for the client. This may result in an accelerated end user experience.


A method of allocating switch requests within a packet switch, the method comprising the steps of collecting switch request data at each input port; processing the switch request data for each input port to generate request data for each input port-output port pairing: comparing the number of requests from each input port and to each output port with the maximum request capacity of each input port and each output port; satisfying all requests for those input-output pairs where the total number of requests is less than or equal to the maximum request capacity of each input port and each output port; reducing the number of requests for those input-output pairs where the total number of requests is greater than the maximum request capacity of each input port and each output port such that the number of requests is less than or equal to the maximum request capacity of each input port and each output port; and satisfying the remaining requests. Packets may be switched from an input port to a specified output port in accordance with the allocations obtained with the above method.

Input-buffered cell switches and packet routers are potentially the highest possible bandwidth switches for any given fabric and memory technologies, but such devices require scheduling algorithms to resolve input and output contentions. Two approaches to packet or cell scheduling exist (see, for example, A Hung et al, "ATM input-buffered switches with the guaranteed-rate property," and A Hung et al, Proc. IEEE ISCC '98, Athens, July 1998, pp 331-335). The first approach applies at the connection-level, where bandwidth guarantees are required. A suitable algorithm must satisfy two conditions for this; firstly it must ensure no overbooking for all of the input ports and the output ports, and secondly the fabric arbitration problem must be solved by allocating all the requests for time slots in the frame.
Fabric arbitration has to date been proposed by means of the Slepian-Duguid approach and Paull's theorem for rearrangeably non-blocking, circuit-switched Clos networks (see Chapter 3, J Y Hui, Switching and traffic theory for integrated broadband networks, Kluwer Academic Press, 1990). This connection-level algorithm can be summarised as firstly ensuring no overbooking and secondly performing fabric arbitration by means of circuit-switching path-search algorithms. It has been assumed that this algorithmic approach could only be applied at the connection level, because of its large computational complexity. For this reason, proposals for scheduling of connectionless, best-efforts packets or cells employ various matching algorithms, many related to the "marriage" problem (see D Gale and L S Shapley, "College admissions and the stability of marriage," Mathematical Monthly, 69, 9-15 (1962) and D Gusfield and R W Irving, The Stable Marriage Problem: Structure and Algorithms, MIT Press, 1989) in which the input-output connections for each time slot or phase of the switch are handled independently, i.e. a frame of time slots (and hence phases) is not employed. Although such algorithms for choosing a set of conflict-free connections between inputs and outputs for each time slot, which are based on maximum size and maximum weight bipartite graph matching algorithms, can achieve 100% throughput (N McKeown et al, "Achieving 100% throughput in an input-queued switch," Proc. IEEE Infocom '96, March 1996, vol. 3, pp. 296-302) they are also impractically slow, requiring running times of complexity O(N3 log N) for every time slot (R E Tarjan, "Data structures and network algorithms," Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Pennsylvania, November 1983).
Iterative, heuristic, parallel algorithms such as iSLIP are known, which reduce the computing complexity (i.e. time required to compute a solution) for best-efforts packets or cells (N McKeown et al, "The Tiny Tera: a packet switch core," IEEE Micro January/February 1997, pp 26-33). The iSLIP algorithm is guaranteed to converge in at most N iterations, and simulations suggest on average in fewer than log2 N iterations. Since no guarantees are needed, this and similar algorithms currently represent the preferred scheduling technique for connectionless data at the cell level in input-buffered cell switches and packet routers with large numbers of ports (e.g. N≧10). The iSLIP algorithm is applied to the Tiny Tera packet switch core, which employs Virtual Output Queueing (VOQ), in which each input port has a separate FIFO (First In, First Out) queue for each output, i.e. N2 FIFOs for an N×N switch. If we assume that each FIFO queue stores at least a number of cells equal to the average cell latency L, and that each cell is a 53-byte ATM cell, then the total input FIFO queue hardware count is O(424LN2). With each element capable of clocking out 424f bits per frame, this is a complexity product of O((424)2fLN2), which is a very large complexity. Fortunately, by employing a single queue in the form of RAM in each port, acting as N virtual queues, the hardware count can be reduced to O(424LN), and with parallel readout reducing the number of steps per frame to just f, the overall complexity product can be reduced to O(424fLN). Table 1 gives the hardware and "computing" steps for these queues to provide f cells within a frame.
For unicast packets the iSLIP algorithm converges in at most N iterations, where N is the number of input and output ports. On average the algorithm converges in fewer than log2 N iterations. The physical hardware implementation employs N round-robin grant arbiters for the output ports and N identical accept arbiters for the input ports. Each arbiter has N input ports and N output ports, making N2 links altogether. The total amount of hardware depends on the precise construction of the round-robin arbiters. N McKeown et al, op cit, employ a priority encoder to identify the nearest request from the port closest to a pre-determined highest-priority port (see FIG. 1). The priority encoder reduces the number of links down to log2 N parallel links, in order to change the pointer if required. The log2 N parallel links are then expanded back up to N links again through a decoder. Details of the hardware complexity of the arbiters are given in N McKeown, Scheduling Algorithms for Input-Queued Cell Switches, PhD Thesis, University of California, Berkeley, 1995. The growth rate for the complete scheduler is O(N4), each arbiter being O(N3). For a 32×32 cell switch (which is the size of the Tiny Tera switch), 421,408 2-input gates are required. This may be quite acceptable for such a small switch, but the O(N4) growth rate is extremely large.
In order to minimise the overall hardware and computing complexity, the best structure for constructing the encoder is a binary tree, which requires O(2N) elements (for large N) and only log2 N steps per iteration, whilst the decoder needs only O(N) elements. Pipelining cannot be employed to reduce to one step per iteration, because the pointers cannot be up-dated until the single-bit requests have passed through both sets of arbiters to the decision register. The total hardware and computing complexities are given below in Table 1. The hardware complexity now grows as O(N2) rather than O(N4), due to the binary tree encoder and decoder.
TABLE 1Hardware and computing complexities of the iSLIP algorithm forscheduling f packets per port in a frame of f time slots.HardwareComputing Steps perHardware.ComputingCountFrameComplexity ProductInput RAM424LNf424fLNqueuesAverageO(6N2)O(4flog2N(1 +O(24fN2log2N(1 +Convergencelog2N))log2N))GuaranteedO(6N2)O(4fN(1 + log2N))O(24fN3(1 +Convergencelog2N))The overall hardware.computing complexity product O(24fN3(1+log2 N)) of the iSLIP algorithm for scheduling f packets per port would be no less than that of the maximum size and weight matching algorithms of N McKeown, et al "Achieving 100% throughput in an input-queued switch," Proc. IEEE Infocom '96, March 1996, vol. 3, pp. 296-302., if convergence must be guaranteed. There is a reduction to O(24fN2 log2 N(1+log2 N)) for the average number of computing steps. The major benefit of the iSLIP algorithm is its parallel nature, which allows the number of computing steps to be traded against hardware complexity, thus reducing computing times by a factor N2 at the expense of increasing the hardware by the same factor. It is interesting to note that hardware quantities for the input RAM queues far exceed those needed for the scheduling electronics.

British Telecommunications Public Limited Company


The invention relates to a method for machining thin sheets and thin-walled, single or two-fold curved, three-dimensionally shaped sheets, plates, or shells, in particular, by material-removing machining methods, such as milling and drilling. In the method, a vacuum, surface tension is produced, which is large enough to fix the position of the workpiece, by using a vacuum over a layer acting as a distributor or a diffuser on the surface of the workpiece to be machined. The distributor or diffuser is made up of a thin-walled, completely or partially air-permeable, heat-reactive layer. The workpiece is then machined, and a cutting speed and rate of feed is adjusted, such that a defined local heating takes place in a contact area between the tool and workpiece. The peak temperature at the contact area is greater or the same as a melting temperature of the surface of the distributor or diffuser.

The invention relates to a method and an assembly for machining thin sheets and thin-walled, single or two-fold curved, three-dimensionally shaped sheets, plates, or shells, in particular by material-removing machining methods, such as milling and drilling.
With material-removing machining of thin-walled sheets, the machining forces and also the feed rate depend significantly on the possibilities of fixing the part during cutting by the connection to the remaining grid. This is true especially when making small parts, where often the typical vacuum tension is not applied across a suitably large surface in order to hold the part.
As is known, it was attempted to achieve a greater static friction caused by the vacuum by increasing the surface adhesion factor of exchangeable substratum made of paper or similar materials that are partly air-permeable. Adhesive sprays or similar means, however, are difficult to manipulate in a production-technical sense, since at the same time, all unwanted particles, such as shavings and the like, adhere to the contact surfaces, representing substantial risk for an acceptable vacuum tension.
Known substratum with a suction cup character, such as rubber, are cost-intensive and not well suited for small parts.
DE 201 17 390 U1 discloses a device for clamping plates to be machined with vacuum pressure. The device has a flat plate, which has through-holes leading from its upper side to its lower side. Between the upper side of the support plate and the lower side of a workpiece plate to be machined, a defined, air-permeable layer of filter paper is arranged. Via a vacuum pump, a partial vacuum can be produced, which acts on the workpiece via flow-through throttle means and via the defined, air-permeable layer. In this manner, it is possible to produce a sufficiently large vacuum pressure for clamping, independent of the respective contour of the plate to be machined on its lower side.
In a further development, the support plate is not dimensionally stable, rather is thin and flexible, in the manner of a film. When such a support plate is arranged with interposition of air-permeable filter material of defined thickness on the base plate, a defined upper side of the support plate is provided, which is suited completely for clamping of plates to be machined with interposition of the defined, air-permeable material.
It is disadvantageous to use two, thin-walled, film-like layers, which serve for the defined production of a vacuum. Thus, by means of sliding friction on the defining layers of these two films, local displacement, and therewith, position changes of the workpiece to be machined, can occur. In addition, the technological manufacturing preparation requires the mounting of two flexible films on the vacuum table.
A further disadvantage is that especially with heavy structured workpieces, for example skeletal or fishbone workpieces, and with machining with high cutting and feed rates, such as, for example, those with milling with end mills, a safe positional fixing of the workpiece on the vacuum table cannot be realized.
DE 40 30 113 C2 discloses a device for clamping plates to be machined, in which the base plate, on which the workpiece to be machined is accommodated, has a plurality of densely spaced through-bores with a diameter between 0.1 and 1.0 mm. A disadvantage of this assembly is the relatively high manufacturing costs for making the base plate.
In order to preclude contact between the main blade of the rotating cutting tool and the surface of the base place during machining, especially with milling, in a preferred further development an exchangeable abrasive material is placed on the upper side of the base plate. The filter paper that preferably is used effects a change of the volume flow upon application of a vacuum pressure on the base plate. The object of the filter paper is additionally to retain the cuttings falling during the machining of the plate before penetration into the bores of the base plate, in order to prevent damage to the vacuum pump.
DE 87 03 223 U1 discloses a vacuum clamping plate, in which on the surface of the clamping surface, an adhesive coating is located, which preferably comprises a perforated mat made of rubber or plastic, or alternatively, is sprayed onto the clamping surface. The reusable adhesive coating, therefore, should guarantee the absorption of the acting feed forces with roller or front milling. With the proposed use of an elastic adhesive coating, this object cannot be solved technically. Thus, with the use of an adhesive coating made of perforated rubber or perforated plastic, under the effect of the acting cutting and feed forces a torsion-like movement of the clamped workpiece results, which leads inevitably to position or form abnormalities.
The object of the invention is to eliminate the disadvantages of the prior art and to propose a method for the secure accommodation of clamped workpieces to be machined, especially of heavily structured, perforated parts on a vacuum table, as well as an assembly for performing the method.

Method and arrangement for processing thin sheets and thin-walled plates or shells that are curved singly or doubly


A scribe line structure between die regions is disclosed. The scribe line structure includes a dielectric layer disposed on a substrate; and a plurality of metal structures arranged up-and-down in the dielectric layer on the substrate, the plurality of metal structures comprising metal layers and metal vias, wherein the metal vias are disposed on the dicing path and regions outside the dicing path and the metal vias on the dicing path have a lower metal density than the metal vias not on the dicing path.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor wafer, and more specifically, to a scribe line structure for wafer dicing and a method of making the same, to avoid interlayer delamination or peeling caused by a sawing process on a low-k/Cu wafer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the continued development of semiconductor process technology, and the miniaturization of the integrated circuit chip, many unneeded parasite capacitors are often formed in the inter-metal-dielectric (IMD) layer. Therefore, copper with lower resistance is gradually used in place of aluminum with higher resistance to be the material of the IMD layer, and the low dielectric constant (low-k) materials are gradually used in place of the silicon oxide dielectric materials, such as fluorinated silicate glass (FSG), phosphosilicate glass (PSG), or undoped silicate glass (USG), in order to decrease the resistances of conducting wires for the IMD layer or the dielectric constant of the dielectric layers, so as to mitigate the resistor-capacitor time delay effect.
After the integrated circuits of the semiconductor wafers are manufactured, dicing is the first step in the packaging process. The dicing quality can have a significant impact on yields as well as on device reliability. Dicing wafer with a grinding wheel is a typical method for many IC assembly plants. During the process of dicing, the grinding wheel or the cutter exerts a downward force upon the surface of the wafer. Crack (chipping) is unable to be avoided for the mechanical sawing. Especially, interconnect structures in IC areas have a higher metal density in the upper portion than in the lower portion, and accordingly peeling and interlayer delamination after wafer dicing are often found, which are more serious when the wafer is a low-k/Cu wafer. The term "metal density " used herein relates to an amount of metal distributed in a certain area. This is a result of the properties of the copper and the low-k materials. The copper is fairly hard, and is more difficult to be cut in comparison with other materials in wafers. On the other hand, the low-k materials are soft or are porous structures, and the adhesion between the low-k materials and the other materials is rather poor. As the technology progresses and the scribe line for wafer dicing goes smaller, it is easy for this crack to penetrate active circuits and become a latent reliability problem of the final products.
Some conventional technologies have been used to improve the dicing quality. For example, FIG. 1 schematically shows a cross sectional view of a conventional scribe line structure 1 including a plurality of metal layers 11, also referred to as the scribe area interconnect layers, disposed in a dielectric layer 20 on a substrate 10. The metal layers 11 each have slots 12 uniformly distributed therein with a same pitch distance. The top metal layer 13 is a wholly metal pad. Not all the metal layers are shown, and metal vias (if exist) are skipped over for simplification and easy reading. FIG. 2 schematically shows a cross sectional view of a conventional scribe line structure 2 including a plurality of metal layers 21 and the top metal layer 23 disposed in the dielectric layer 20 on the substrate 10, each having slots 22 uniformly distributed therein. However, both scribe line structures 1 and 2 still cannot avoid a worse dicing result and reliability.
In other examples, FIG. 3 schematically shows a cross sectional view of a conventional scribe line structure 3 including a plurality of sets of metal vias 31 in the dielectric layer 20 on the substrate 10. There maybe or maybe not metal layers 32 disposed therein. The metal vias 31 are uniformly distributed with a same pitch distance. Not all the metal vias and the metal layers are shown for simplification and easy reading. FIG. 4 schematically shows a cross sectional view of a conventional scribe line structure 4 including a plurality of sets of metal vias 41 in the dielectric layer 20 on the substrate 10. There maybe or maybe not metal layers 42 disposed therein. Each set of the metal vias 41 has metal uniformly distributed in its own layer. The metal vias 41 are less dense to be disposed in the scribe line structure 4 than the metal vias 31 to be disposed in the scribe line structure 3. However, both scribe line structures 3 and 4 still cannot avoid a worse dicing result and reliability.
In a further example, a method for forming a semiconductor wafer to prevent the peeling and the interlayer delamination of material layers is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/611,888 (assigned to the same assignee of the present application), in which a metal layer is formed in the low-k dielectric layer in the scribe line area and the metal layer comprises at least a slot parallel to the scribe line area, as shown in FIG. 5, a schematic top view of the metal layer 15 with slots 17 parallel to a dicing direction 9. The slots 17 are uniformly distributed in the metal layer 15.
As to improve reliability of ICs, a novel scribe line structure for wafer dicing and a method of making the same to avoid the interlayer delamination or peeling problem is till needed.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Scribe line structure for wafer dicing and method of making the same


An oil distribution system uses an oil storage container to contain an air/oil separation unit, a heat exchanger, and an oil reservoir. The functions of oil storage, air/oil separation, and cooling are integrated in the container. Hot aerated oil enters the container at an air/oil separation unit. The air/oil separator deposits hot de-aerated oil into the oil reservoir. The oil reservoir transfers hot de-aerated oil to conduits in a heat exchanger. The heat exchanger uses fuel to cool the oil and warm the fuel. Cooled de-aerated oil is provided to a mechanical device for lubrication and warmed fuel is provided to power an engine. The container may alternatively receive hot aerated oil into the conduits in the heat exchanger. Cooled aerated oil is delivered to the air/oil separation unit to deposit cooled de-aerated oil into the reservoir. Cooled de-aerated oil is pumped to a mechanical device to provide lubrication.

Oil is a well-known lubricant used in many different mechanical devices. Many such devices, such as for example, combustion engines and gas turbine engines, operate in environments subject to extreme heat and other harsh factors. Some environments, such as gas turbine engines, are subject to weight limitations for the components used in the engine.
Typical oil distribution systems involve an oil tank for storing the oil, an oil pump, a lubrication target (such as, for example, a gas turbine engine), an oil cooling mechanism, and an air and oil separation mechanism. Oil distribution systems for lubrication in gas engines are subject to both extreme heat and weight limitations. There may also be space limitations. In the description below, the lubrication target is assumed to be a gas turbine engine, but may be any other mechanical device with similar needs. The oil stored in the oil tank is delivered to the gas turbine engine by the oil pump. In a gas turbine engine, like in many other types of mechanical devices, the oil lubricates moving parts. The process of lubrication generates heat, but the location of the mechanical parts may add to the heat generated. For example, the combustion section and the turbine section in a gas turbine engine can become extremely hot. Even if the oil tank can be positioned away from these sections, the oil received from the mechanical parts being lubricated can still be extremely hot.
The weight and space limitations imposed on gas turbine engines used on aircraft are rather obvious. The more weight on the aircraft, the less efficient its operation. Space is also at a premium. To address weight limitations, oil distribution systems have been designed to include oil tanks made of composite materials instead of metal. Composite materials are, however, sensitive to extreme heat raising a risk of damage to the oil tanks. The use of composite materials for constructing oil tanks may require additional cooling measures in order to avoid that thermal damage; those measures would add components and thereby weight while occupying additional space. The additional cooling measures may reduce advantages gained regarding weight and space by using composite materials.


A system and process that incorporates hardware and software as elements to be combined with procedures and processes to obtain, format, store, combine, control, display, record, and visualize dynamic scenarios by interacting with accurate, realistic models and actual events within, on, and above a three-dimensional surface to be observed or modeled. One application provides a user-manipulated large-scale dynamic display of systems testing in a real world environment for real time visualization by test personnel. The Global Visualization Process (GVP) system is an integrated software solution for high-performance visualization. GVP software and process is capable of displaying extremely high resolution terrain models and imagery in real time over the entire surface of the planet, as well as a large number of moving entities and their associated graphical models. The system can display imagery at 2 cm/pixel, and infinitely detailed terrain in real time over the whole surface of a planet. All displayed data is referenced to the World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS-84) ellipsoid for true round-earth effects, and can be rendered in correct asymmetric stereo. These features, combined with a network application progamming interface (API), make GVP suitable for flight simulation out-the-window displays, command and control scenarios, and mission review or rehearsal.

The present invention relates to optimum visualization of complex scenarios, in particular, a large-scale display, with user-adjustable resolution and viewpoints (these scenarios are displayed as events occur in real time over a wide geographic area). The Global Visualization Process (GVP) system is an integrated software solution for high-performance visualization. GVP software is capable of displaying extremely high resolution terrain models and imagery in real time over the entire surface of the planet, as well as a large number of moving entities and their associated graphical models.
Flight simulation has proved to be an effective method for crew and mission training. An integral component of flight simulation is the out-of-the-window visual scene. The creation of a GVP visualization or visual database for flight simulation (or for mission planning and rehearsal or for other applications such as command and control display systems) typically begins with real-world source data that has been derived from satellite imagery, overhead photography, U.S. Geological Survey information or mapping source materials (which can be typically described as standard sources). The conventional approach until very recently (now still employed in order to comply with limited computer resources) has been to construct a visual environment from representative artificial models and modeled elements to meet specific training objectives.
While a graphics arts constructed visual database system may be very effective for a particular training application, it should also be appreciated that there are many diverse situations where a fully representative visualization system which renders real-world data, unlimited in resolution, scale, and represented area, would be desirable. GVP offers a general-purpose visualization system that does not need to be redesigned for each new project or set of training exercise.
The Global Visualization Process (GVP) of the present invention accomplishes what conventional methods and systems can not. In the context of an integrated system having complementary components for large-scale real time visualization, GVP can display large-scale terrain modeling and simulation depictions, in user selectable resolution, without the numerous drawbacks of conventional systems. Typically conventional systems suffer from some or all of the following limitations: highly specific processes and model data formats limit the range of data inputs to a small subset of available information; video outputs are limited to specific display devices or types; stereoscopic viewing is not supported or is not controllable; overall size of operating terrain models is restricted to small areas and the greater the detail (resolution), the smaller the area displayed; when put in motion, as in flight simulation or when the depiction eyepoint is moved, model depiction has unacceptably low update rates; small numbers of fixed or mobile objects added to the terrain model grossly and unacceptably inhibit the video update rate; model construction and image computation based on fundamental flat-earth geometry introduces gross positional errors with complex variations in magnitude (these errors confound operations when independent systems interact); without major revisions to adapt to multi-processor and multi-pipe computer systems, existing software architecture does not fully exploit state-of-the-art graphics-oriented computers; and conventional systems cannot employ imagery and terrain geometry of mixed resolution, or can do so only with difficulty.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system and process for producing visual databases that preserve the accuracy of the input data by eliminating flat-earth geometry distortions, and with great improvements in speed, area, resolution, and video display output. As GVP was being developed to meet this need, its specialized properties were determined to provide solutions to many more applications.

Global visualization process (GVP) and system for implementing a GVP

The United States Government as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


A synchronous circuit comprises a functional circuitry and one or more validation circuits for validating synchronization of the functional circuitry. The functional and the validation circuits are clocked by a clock source. Each validation circuit comprises a clock distribution network, a test signal generator, a capture cell, a test signal path from the test signal generator to the capture cell, and a verification unit. The clock distribution network applies a launch clock signal at the test signal generator and a capture clock signal at the capture cell. The test signal generator produces a bi-level test signal. The test signal path transmits the test signal to the capture cell, which generates a proof sequence by sampling the test signal. The verification unit determines whether the proof sequence is identical to the test sequence.

The vast majority of integrated circuits (ICs) are synchronous circuits. In a synchronous circuit, one or more clock signals are used to synchronize data transfers between sequential elements. A data signal must be timed correctly relative to a clock edge for capturing the data signal. This is an essential requirement for sequential elements to behave correctly. At least three timing specifications may identify the requirements for ensuring reliable operation of the sequential elements, namely, a setup time, a hold time, and a minimum period duration. The setup time is the minimum time a data signal must be kept stable before a capturing clock edge. The hold time is the minimum time a data signal must be kept stable after the capturing clock edge. The minimum period duration is the minimum required length of the clock period.
Because of the importance of the clock signals for the correct behavior of the synchronous circuit, a lot of attention is given to the related implementation methods, and also the corresponding verification steps. Implementation and verification can, however, be complicated due to the impact of device routing on the distribution of signals and the statistical nature of fabrication variances. The timing behavior of a synchronous circuit may also be influenced by phenomena or conditions like, e.g., the die temperature, IR drop effects, and the operating voltage. Another complication may arise when several clock sources are allowed for the synchronous circuit in question, especially if each clock source can be arranged, e.g., programmed, to provide multiple clock frequencies to a single clock tree.
A design process for specifying a new synchronous device may be based on timing constraints, which identify requirements for a clock tree. These constraints can be evaluated by, e.g., specific electronic design automation (EDA) tools which ensure that the resulting logic and its physical implementation meet the requirements formulated in terms of constraints. Timing constraints are commonly used in synthesis tools, placement algorithms, routing of clock and data signals, and related optimizations, and in verification methods such as Static Timing Analysis (STA).
Constraints may describe, for example, frequency-related aspects of the clock behavior as well as exceptions for supporting data paths that require multiple clock cycles to complete. Determining the constraints on the basis of a specification can in many aspects be a manual effort and the correctness of the thus-determined constraints can often be ensured only by reviews. Another method for verifying timing behavior comprises gate-level simulations with timing information extracted from a physical implementation of the synchronous circuit. Such timing simulations may, however, be limited in their coverage because they may be capable of detecting an error only when an error scenario is stimulated. It may be impossible to stimulate all possible paths due to the runtime of such simulations, the amount of options, and the complexity of identifying and creating all corresponding stimuli.
Another problem which may arise is that of verifying that a given semiconductor device uses a correct clock setup. A variety of methods have been devised for this purpose. One implementation uses additional hardware elements as check elements to measure the frequency of the clock to be verified with respect to a second clock, which is assumed to have a known frequency. For this purpose, the parameters of the expected clock frequency have to be specified in relation to the known clock. This may be performed using software and may have to be adjusted whenever the clock setup changes. Any incorrect or missing programming of the check elements or any false assumption may result in failures or unreliable device behavior. On the other hand, in some cases the actual device may operate correctly, even when overclocked. The method, however, requires using parameter values that allow a safe setup using assumptions of the specification. In another method, analog delay elements are arranged on a clock path so that they prompt a certain action when a certain clock parameter is incorrect.
Thus, while there are methods for verifying the correct clock setup within a semiconductor device, only few of them are related to the set of constraints that is actually used in implementing the logic and the related clock trees. Therefore, assumptions made during physical implementation of the semiconductor design are not necessarily fulfilled. Larger discrepancies can in some cases be detected quickly by the resulting device malfunctions, while small errors in the setup may pass unnoticed. Also, the need for programming a large number of check devices may result in similar mistakes, while the absence of such programming may cause the check devices to be turned off. This may cause an unreliable behavior that can rarely be noticed. It may even cause physical damage to a device when in effect for longer duration.
There is a need for a simple, easily implementable verification structure that detects when the clock setup causes unreliable behavior.
A synchronous circuit is a circuit that comprises at least two, and typically a great number of, sequential logic elements that are synchronized, or clocked, by one or more clock signals. A logic element, e.g., a stateful element such as a latch, a flip-flop, or register, or a stateless element such as a gate, an inverter, or a multiplexor, may be referred to herein as a cell.
In a typical scenario, a launch cell outputs a data signal, e.g., a bi-level signal, in response to triggering edges of a launch clock signal applied at the launch cell. The data signal propagates to a capture cell via a data signal path. The capture cell samples the data signal in response to triggering edges of a capture clock signal which has the same clock rate, i.e., clock frequency, as the launch clock cell. Depending on the implementation, only rising edges or only falling edges are triggering edges, or both rising edges and falling edges are triggering edges.
The data signal arriving at the capture cell needs to be timed correctly relative to the capture clock signal for the capture cell to sample the data signal correctly. Typically, three timing requirements must be satisfied to ensure that the capture cell samples the data signal correctly: a setup time, a hold time, and a minimum period duration. The setup time is the minimum time before a capturing clock edge during which the data signal must be stable. The hold time is the minimum time after the capturing clock edge during which the data signal must be stable. The minimum period duration is the minimum required length of the clock period. The clock period is the duration of one clock cycle, e.g., the time from one rising edge to the next rising edge of the clock signal.
Verifying that a synchronous circuit satisfies the timing requirements for all of its components can be difficult on account of the large number of clocked components of the synchronous circuit, the statistical nature of fabrication variances, and physical parameters or effects which may have an influence on timing, such as temperature, current-resistance (IR) drop effects, and the operating voltage. Furthermore, a synchronous circuit does not necessarily comprise its own intrinsic clock source but may be arranged to receive a clock signal from an external clock. It may therefore be necessary to verify correct synchronization of the synchronous circuit for a whole range of possible clock frequencies.

Synchronous circuit, method of designing a synchronous circuit, and method of validating a synchronous circuit

Abstract: A method of designing a synchronous circuit and method of validating a synchronous circuit are also described.


An arrangement of sealing members seals developer in a developer device. The sealing members minimize or eliminate developer from leaking around the sides of a developer carrier.

Laser printers print on recording media (for example, sheets of paper) using developers. The laser printer includes a case that stores developer. The case that stores the developer includes a case body. The case body has been formed with an opening. A developing roller is rotatably attached to the case body at a position facing the opening. The developing roller is configured to carry the developer stored within the case body. The laser printer includes a photosensitive member that contacts the developing roller. An electrostatic latent image is formed on a surface of the photosensitive member. The developing roller and the photosensitive member contact each other while rotating, so that the developer carried by the developing roller adheres to the electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive member. Thus, the electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive member is developed with the developer to form a visible image. The developer of the visible image is transferred from the photosensitive member to a recording medium, so that the recording medium is then printed with the developer in the shape of the visible image.
If the developer contained in the case body leaks outside of the case body, devices disposed around the case body may become contaminated. The case body needs to be designed such that the design prevents the leakage of the developer. In a related area, side seal members are used to protect the leakage of the developer from both ends of the developing roller with respect the axial direction of the developing roller. The case body includes an area facing a surface of the developing roller at each end with respect to an axial direction thereof. The side seal members are affixed to the area of the case body and contact the developing roller. Thus, each end of the developing roller is sealed in the developing roller's axial direction.
During operation, the side seal member contacts the developing roller, and a rotation force of the developing roller is transmitted to the side seal member. When the developing roller rotates, the side seal member is pressed inward with respect to the axial direction of the developing roller, and the side seal member is then moved inward. If the side seal member is moved inward, the ability of the side seal member to adequately seal the case may deteriorate. This deterioration increases the likelihood that the developer may leak from the case body.

Developing device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus


A multilength tubular transporter is provided, comprising a base frame, including at least two main beams, wherein the main beams are connected by a plurality of cross members, a floor substantially covering the areas defined by the main beams and cross members; a plurality of substantially vertical guide members connected to each of the main beams; a lifting arrangement operatively connected to the base frame for enabling the transporter to be lifted to and from a vehicle; a stacking device operatively connected to the base frame for engaging the guide members of a second transporter, wherein the transporters may be securely stacked; and wherein the base frame includes one or more winches for securing tubulars within the transporter.

I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the loading, transportation, and unloading of pipe and tubing, and more particularly to devices used to transport such pipe and tubing.
II. Background and Prior Art
In the oilfield industry and many other industries, a wide variety of pipes and tubes (hereinafter "tubulars") are used. Tubulars are often loaded directly onto flatbed trailers and stacked with divider boards in between the layers, and they are typically retained on the trailer by a series of vertical posts inserted into the outer edge of the trailer. When the tubulars are loaded or unloaded, they are moved only a few items at a time by forklift or crane, each time having to raise the tubulars above the side posts to clear the trailer. If the tubulars are being unloaded for use at their final destination, they are usually moved onto nearby pipe racks and stacked in similar fashion. This method of loading and unloading is widely accepted as the way such tasks must be performed, but it is a slow process, particularly when multimodal forms of transportation are required or when the tubulars must be moved several times before reaching their final destination.
For example, a typical sequence of events for moving tubulars may involve the following steps: (1) removal from a supplier's pipe rack, (2) placement of the tubulars onto a flatbed trailer or transport to a ship, (3) removal of the tubulars from the flatbed trailer, (4) placing the tubulars on a pipe slinging rack for pre-slinging into manageable bundles, (5) loading the pre-slung bundles of tubulars into special divider racks which are set up on the ship for transportation to a site, such as an oil platform, (6) removal of the tubulars from the ship, and (7) placement of the tubulars onto a pipe rack on the oil platform. In the foregoing simple example, and at each step of the loading and unloading process, tubulars are moved only in small batches. The divider racks on the ship must be set up each time tubulars are transported, and the racks remain on the deck of the ship after tubular removal. Therefore, the deck of the ship is unusable for anything other than tubular transport for the return trip. It can readily be seen, therefore, that in more complex shipping arrangements, this manual handling process can take quite some time. This is particularly problematic when participants in the shipping process are not immediately ready to transport the items, and the tubulars must be removed from the previous vehicle and temporarily stored.
The disadvantages of the aforementioned methods are many. First, as explained in the preceding example, the process of carefully moving small numbers of items is exceedingly slow, especially when each load of tubulars on a vehicle is carried in several stacks. Second, because of the extensive amount of time required to manually move tubulars from place to place, it can be an unduly expensive operation. In smaller jobs requiring a relatively small number of items, the expense of moving tubulars is often prohibitively expensive. Finally, as loading and unloading frequency increases, so does the risk that accidents will happen as tubulars are moved. For example, the movement of pipes to and from pipe racks often requires a person on top of the pipe rack to assist the forklift or crane operator in nudging the pipes to and from the rack, many times leading to injuries from tripping or falling.
A solution to the current methods of moving tubulars must be directed toward shortening the time required to move a given batch of tubulars from one place to another, particularly when multiple transfers must occur. As explained above, reducing the loading and unloading time carries immediate benefits in terms of decreased cost and decreased risk of personal injury.
One attempt to solve the foregoing problems has been made by a company in Scotland, Ferguson Seacabs, Ltd., in the form of tubular transportation frames. Such frames are helpful in minimizing time and costs of shipping, because the tubulars are contained within a portable frame which can be moved as a unit to and from each transportation vehicle. Because the frame includes forklift tubes in the base, it reduces the use of cranes. The frames are stackable, and they permit the containment of differing sizes of tubulars within the same frame. However, the Ferguson frames have a number of notable deficiencies. First, there is no integrated winch and strap assembly for use in securing a loaded frame, ostensibly because it relies upon an upper bar to mechanically lock the tubulars in place. Second, it does not provide full-length support for longer tubulars, resulting in possible damage to the exposed ends of the tubulars and their threads. Third, the Ferguson frames are not structurally capable of handling larger payloads in the range of 50,000 pounds. Fourth, the reliance on a four-point contact as the frames are stacked is less preferable to a more stable and redundant arrangement. Fifth, the divider elements between layers of tubulars in the prior frames are elastomerically coated members which must be fabricated and supplied by the manufacturer, eliminating the option of using conventional and less expensive timber dividers. Finally, the Ferguson frames appear to be designed only for the transportation of tubulars, because there is no multi-purpose floor or other supporting surface to permit the transportation of other equipment.
Consequently, the present invention substantially improves upon the prior art by providing a complete, multilength tubular transporter which: (a) permits greater payloads, (b) includes more secure stackable features, (c) allows commonly available winching systems and dividers, (d) offers better protection for long tubulars, and (e) provides a multi-purpose floor for the transportation of a wide range of equipment and supplies.


Disclosed is a crosslinkable mixture comprising a polyolefin, an alkoxysilane, an organopolysiloxane, a free radical initiator and a liquid polymer modifier. The organopolysiloxane contains two or more hydroxyl end groups. When the crosslinkable mixture is melt-shaped, a unique crosslinked composition is formed. The liquid polymer modifier improves flexibility of the melt-shaped article without decreasing dielectric strength.

Compositions used in the manufacture of crosslinkable articles, such as heat resistant wire and cable coatings and molded parts and accessories, typically require cross-linking after final shaping. Various crosslinking methods are practiced in the art, two of which are in wide usage, i.e., peroxide crosslinking and moisture cure (the latter of which usually employs a silane grafted or copolymerized polyolefin).
Moisture cure systems have the advantage in that they can be processed within a wide range of melt temperatures but are generally limited to thin wall constructions because the crosslinking relies on diffusion of external moisture into the article. Peroxide cure compositions are preferred for thick wall constructions, e.g. medium voltage (MV) cable insulation and molded cable accessories. These curable compounds need to be processed at temperatures which are below the peroxide decomposition temperature in order to avoid premature crosslinking (scorch) prior to forming the article. Once the article is formed, it needs to be heated uniformly to the peroxide decomposition temperature, and then held at that temperature for the time necessary to achieve the desired level of crosslinking. This can keep the production rate for such articles low due to poor heat transfer through the article walls. Furthermore, once the article is cooled, peroxide decomposition slows down to negligible levels; thus any significant crosslinking comes to an end. The combined problems of scorch and long heating and cure times (whether in-mold cure time or residence time in a continuous vulcanization tube) lead to long manufacturing cycles, and thus low productivity (units per time).
Flexibility is desired in crosslinked polyolefin articles, particularly in wire and cable applications. Flexibility in wire and cable coating promotes proper cable reeling as well as handling during cable joining. Flexibility in wire & cable accessories promotes ease of installation over a broad range of cable sizes.
Known are oil extender additives for improving flexibility to crosslinked articles. Addition of oil extender to crosslinked articles, however, has its drawbacks. In particular, addition of oil extender results in a decrease in dielectric strength (ACBD) for the crosslinked article.
A need exists for flexible crosslinked polyolefin articles with high dielectric strength. A need further exists for flexible crosslinked polyolefin articles for wire and cable applications.

Crosslinked, melt-shaped articles and compositions for producing same

Union Carbide Chemicals & Plastics Technology LLC


A semiconductor apparatus includes a clock enable signal buffer unit configured to receive an input clock enable signal, and generate an output clock enable signal; a buffer control unit configured to generate a buffer enable signal in response to the output clock enable signal and a test enable signal; an input/output buffer unit configured to receive input patterns and generate output patterns; and a compression test unit configured to test the output patterns and the output clock enable signal according to the test enable signal.

1. Technical Field
Various embodiments generally relate to a semiconductor integrated apparatus, and more particularly, to a semiconductor apparatus and a test device therefor.
2. Related Art
The degree of integration of a semiconductor apparatus is improved as time goes on. Further, a multi-chip structure in which a plurality of chips are packaged into one package, a system-on-chip structure in which a system is configured by one chip, and so forth have been developed.
After a semiconductor apparatus is manufactured, a procedure for testing the performance of the semiconductor apparatus is performed to check whether a fail has occurred in a manufacturing process.
In particular, an input/output buffer, a clock enable buffer, and so forth, which are disposed in a semiconductor apparatus, should be necessarily tested to check the integrity of signals to be transmitted and received between a semiconductor memory apparatus and an external device.
As a semiconductor apparatus is highly integrated, a precise and high speed test method has been demanded.

Semiconductor apparatus and test device therefor


A light emitting device having improved light extraction efficiency is disclosed. The light emitting device includes a nitride semiconductor layer including a first semiconductor layer, an active layer, and a second semiconductor layer, which are sequentially stacked, a portion of the first semiconductor layer being exposed to the outside by performing mesa etching from the second semiconductor layer to the portion of the first semiconductor layer, and at least one groove formed through a portion of the first semiconductor layer, the active layer, and the second semiconductor layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light emitting device and a method of manufacturing the same, and more particularly, to a light emitting device including one or more grooves formed from a transparent electrode (or an ohmic layer) to a portion of a nitride semiconductor layer, whereby the light efficiency of the light emitting device is improved, and method of manufacturing the same.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, a light emitting diode (LED) is a kind of semiconductor device that converts electricity into light using the characteristics of a compound semiconductor to transmit and receive a signal or is used as a light source. The light emitting diode generates high-efficiency light at low voltage with the result that the energy saving effect of the light emitting diode is high. Recently, the brightness of the light emitting diode, which was a limit of the light emitting diode, has been considerably improved, and therefore, the light emitting diode has been widely used throughout the whole field of industry, such as backlight units, electric bulletin boards, display units, electric home appliances, and various kinds of automated equipment. Especially, a nitride light emitting diode has attracted considerable attention in the environmentally-friendly aspect because the energy band gap of an active layer constituting the nitride light emitting diode is wide with the result that light emitting spectrum is formed widely from ultraviolet rays to infrared rays, and the nitride light emitting diode does not contain environmentally hazardous materials, such as arsenic (As) and mercury (Hg).
Currently, research is being carried out on a light emitting diode having high brightness that is applicable in various applications. For example, a light emitting diode having high brightness may be obtained by improving the quality of an active layer of the light emitting diode to increase inner quantum efficiency or by assisting light generated from the active layer to be discharged to the outside and collecting the light in a necessary direction to increase light extraction efficiency. Although attempts are being currently made to increase both the inner quantum efficiency and the light extraction efficiency, more active research is being carried out on a method of improving the electrode design, the shape, and the package of the light emitting diode to increase the light extraction efficiency than a method of improving the quality of a semiconductor material to increase the inner quantum efficiency.
The light extraction efficiency is decided by the ratio of electrons injected into the light emitting diode to photons discharged from the light emitting diode. As the light extraction efficiency is increased, the brightness of the light emitting diode is increased. The light extraction efficiency of the light emitting diode is greatly affected by the shape or the surface state of a chip, the structure of the chip, and the package form of the chip. Consequently, it is necessary to pay careful attention when designing the light emitting diode. For a light emitting diode with high output and high brightness, the light extraction efficiency acts as an important factor to decide the light emission efficiency of the light emitting diode. In a conventional method of manufacturing a nitride light emitting diode, however, the light extraction efficiency is limited.
In the conventional nitride light emitting diode, a total reflection condition occurs due to the difference in a refractive index between a nitride semiconductor material and the outside when light generated from an active layer is discharged to the outside. As a result, light incident at an angle more than the critical angle of the total reflection is not discharged to the outside but is reflected into the light emitting diode. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 1, when light generated from an active layer 30 reaches the surface of a nitride semiconductor material 40, the light is not discharged to the outside but is reflected into the light emitting diode if the incident angle of the incident light exceeds the critical angle θc, which is decided by the outer refractive index and the refractive index of the nitride semiconductor material. The reflected light is diminished as the light passes through several channels.
The critical angle is decided by Snell's Law. Specifically, the critical angle may be obtained by Equation 1 below.sin θc=N1/N2  [Equation 1]
Where, θc is the critical angle, N1/is the outer refractive index of the light emitting diode, and N2 is the inner refractive index of the light emitting diode.
The light emitting diode is driven as follows: when voltage is applied to a p-electrode and an n-electrode, holes and electrons move from a p-type nitride semiconductor layer and an n-type nitride semiconductor layer to an active layer. The electrons and the holes are recoupled with each other in the active layer, whereby light is generated from the active layer. The light generated from the active layer advances upward and downward from the active layer. The upward-advancing light is discharged to the outside through a transparent electrode thinly formed on the p-type nitride semiconductor layer. The downward-advancing light is discharged to the outside through a substrate, and is then absorbed into solder used when packaging the light emitting diode, or else, the downward-advancing light is reflected by the substrate, moves upward, and is then reabsorbed into the active layer, or is discharged to the outside through the transparent electrode.
The size of the light generated from the active layer of the light emitting diode is decreased due to absorption and dispersion during the advance of the light in the interior of the light emitting diode. Specifically, the light generated from the active layer of the light emitting diode and to be discharged to the outside through the side of the light emitting diode moves a longer distance than the light to be discharged to the outside through the top of the light emitting diode. For this reason, the size of the light to be discharged to the outside through the side of the light emitting diode is decreased due to the absorption and the dispersion. As described above, the light generated from the active layer of the light emitting diode is totally reflected into the light emitting diode or is absorbed or dispersed during the advance of the light in the interior of the light emitting diode, and therefore, the size of the light is decreased. As a result, the light extraction efficiency of the light emitting diode is lowered.

Light emitting device and method of manufacturing the same


Replay of data transactions is initiated in a data storage application. Pages of a log segment directory characterizing metadata for a plurality of log segment are loaded into memory. Thereafter, redundant pages within the log segment directory are removed. It is then determined, based on the log segment directory, which log segments need to be accessed. These log segments are accessed to execute the log replay. Related apparatus, systems, techniques and articles are also described.

Databases use logging to store operations performed on corresponding data in a synchronous fashion to a log while, at the same time, writing data to a corresponding data area asynchronously. In cases of a crash or other data recovery event, the data area is recovered to a potentially older state. Replaying the log will bring the database to the last committed state. Logged data is typically stored in fixed-size or variable-sized log segments which can be represented as operation system files on a corresponding disk. Each log segment can have associated metadata such as log sequence number of the first and last entries in the segment. The metadata can also include a current state of a log segment such as open, closed, backed-up of free.

Shadow paging based log segment directory


An adhesive patch for monitoring acoustic signals from a human or animal body, comprising a skin contact surface, converting means for recording both body acoustic signals and environmental acoustic noise, reducing the body signals by the recorded noise, and providing a first electric output signal. The patch also comprising an adhesive element and a compression structure for attaching the converting means to the skin surface. The patch further comprises transmitting means for transmitting the output signal to a peripheral device.

A widely used tool used by medical professionals for performing relatively simple diagnostic tasks is the stethoscope, which is used to listen to a variety of internal bodily functions through the skin of a human or animal patient. The conventional stethoscope has been used for hundreds of years for assisting the medical professional in providing diagnostics for a wide range of illnesses. A significant problem when using a conventional stethoscope is that the sound captured by the stethoscope is not actively amplified, only conveyed via flexible or stiff tubular material to the ears of the medical professional, which means that very subtle sounds within the body cannot be identified using the stethoscope in real time.
One way of solving this problem is through the invention of the electronic digital stethoscope, which is capable of amplifying the sound levels from the body and processing the sound for optimal listening, such that a medical professional is capable of listening to sounds, which are hardly conceivable using a conventional stethoscope. The traditional digital stethoscope and the conventional stethoscope both have the same drawback, which is that a medical professional is required to listen to the sounds collected by the stethoscope in real time, and make a judgment based on what he hears. However, recent digital stethoscopes have been provided with the capability to store a few seconds of recorded sound, such that the medical professional may choose to listen again to the sounds stored in the digital stethoscope.
US Patent Application No. US 2007/0276270 attempts to solve this problem by describing a health care monitoring system, which describes one or more wireless nodes forming a wireless mesh network, where the mesh network communicates with a base station in the form of a computer server, where the nodes transmit patient data to the base station to detect a heart attack or a stroke attack.
One described embodiment of the aforementioned system describes collection of wireless nodes having different functions where one wireless node is an electronic stethoscope where heart sounds are transmitted from the wireless node to a base station, using sounds recorded from the wrist of the patient. The collection of wireless nodes is required to communicate continuously with the base station when in range. A serious drawback to this health care monitoring system is that the wireless node has to communicate the signals to a base station to be capable of performing any analyzing tasks. This means that the user or a health care professional is required to communicate with the base station to obtain or access any information about the recorded patient data. Furthermore, as the wireless communication is continuously with the base station when in range, the power consumption is significant, as the collection of node would have to check continuously if the base station is in range and receive a confirmation thereof in addition to the continuous data transmission of the recorded patient data.
Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a continuously increasing threat to the public health in western society, where tobacco smoking, increased stress, lack of exercise, fat saturated diets, obesity, etc. are reported to be significant direct or indirect risk factors for the development of blockages in the coronary arteries, resulting in coronary artery disease. Currently, the present methods for assisting in the diagnostics and/or diagnosis of CAD are expensive and require complicated equipment, such as an electrocardiogram, nuclear scanning, angiography or coronary angiography, CAT scans and MRI scans. Furthermore, these methods require that the subject spend a considerable amount of time in hospital laboratories.
The execution of the previously mentioned methods may be very expensive, which means that the methods are rarely used for preventive diagnostics and subjects are usually subjected to CAD diagnostics subsequent to physical problems indicating the presence of CAD, such as chest pains, etc.
Therefore, there is a need for an improvement in monitoring the physical signs of CAD, using acoustic signals from the human or animal body, where the acoustic signals are selectively or continuously recorded and/or transmitted to a peripheral device. The selective transmission means that normal signals would not be transmitted while abnormal signals could trigger a transmission.

Adhesive patch having multiple acoustic sensors for monitoring acoustic signals


A device (20) for assembling a plastic-lens-forming casting mold includes a gasket clamping mechanism (22) which clamps a gasket (2) from its axial direction, a first mold push-in mechanism (23) which pushes in an upper mold (3) fitted in an upper open end of the gasket (2), and a second mold push-in mechanism (24) which pushes in a lower mold (4) fitted in a lower open end of the gasket (2). The gasket clamping mechanism (22) clamps the gasket (2) from the axial direction by a gasket-pressing ring (34) and lower mold ring (35). The first mold push-in mechanism (23) pushes the upper mold (3) into the gasket (2) by a gasket push-in member (58). The second mold push-in mechanism (24) includes a plurality of push pins (68) and pushes up the lower mold (4) to push it into the gasket (2).

The present invention relates to a device and method for assembling a plastic-lens-forming casting mold which is used when forming a plastic lens by casting polymerization.
Casting polymerization is known as a method of forming a plastic lens. A plastic-lens-forming casting mold used for casting polymerization usually includes a pair of molds which form the optical surfaces (convex surface and, concave surface) of a plastic lens and a cylindrical casting gasket (to be abbreviated as a gasket hereinafter) in which the molds are fitted at a predetermined gap from each other and which defines the outer diameter of the lens. When forming the lens, first, the pair of molds are incorporated in the gasket to build the casting mold. Subsequently, a liquid monomer fills the internal space (cavity) of the casting mold. The casting mold is loaded in a heating furnace, and the monomer is heated and polymerized at a predetermined temperature for a predetermined period of time to harden. The casting mold is extracted from the heating furnace and released, so that a monomer molded product (lens) in the casting mold is released from the mold and extracted (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-98631, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 55-134224, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 6-39951, U.S. Pat. No. 4,251,474, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-232706, and "Spectacles" Jul. 1, 1987, p.p. 79-81, Kabushiki Kaisha Medical Aoi Shuppan).
The plastic lens manufacturing method described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-98631 includes a cylindrical gasket having a ring-like projection formed on its inner surface in the circumferential direction, and upper and lower molds to be incorporated in the gasket. The upper mold forms the front surface (convex optical surface) of a lens to be formed. When the upper mold is pushed into the gasket from above, its peripheral portion abuts against the projection, so that the upper mold is positioned. The lower mold forms the rear surface (concave optical surface) of the lens, and is pushed into the gasket from below by a pushing die. The pushing die which pushes the lower mold into the gasket includes a disk-like base and a cylindrical step projecting from the base. When the lower mold is placed on the pushing die, the step is inserted in the gasket, and the base abuts against the lower end face of the gasket, to define the push-in amount of the lower mold into the gasket.
The plastic-lens-forming casting mold described in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 6-39951 includes a gasket made of a synthetic resin into an elastic cylindrical body, and a pair of molds to be incorporated in the gasket. The gasket has a ring-like projection projecting from its inner surface. The projection positions the pair of molds.
The plastic-lens-forming casting mold described in each of Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 55-134224, Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 6-39951, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,251,474 includes a gasket having a ring-like ridge projecting from its inner wall surface in the circumferential direction, and a pair of molds. The pair of molds are fitted in the gasket and positioned by the ridge.
The plastic-lens-forming casting mold described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-232706 includes a gasket and a pair of molds to be incorporated in the gasket. The gasket has a ring-like holding band formed on its inner wall surface, and a plurality of holding portions projecting at appropriate gaps in a circumferential direction. When one mold is incorporated in the gasket, it is positioned by the ring-like holding band. When the other mold is incorporated in the gasket, it is positioned by the plurality of holding portions.
The plastic-lens-forming method described in "Spectacles", Kabushiki Kaisha Medical Aoi Shuppan, includes a small-height cylindrical gasket and a pair of molds to be incorporated in the gasket. The gasket has a ring-like projection which is formed on its inner wall surface in the circumferential direction. When the pair of molds are incorporated in the gasket, they are positioned by the projection.
When incorporating the pair of molds in the gasket, if a mold is inclined with respect to the axis of the gasket or the gap between the pair of molds is excessively large or small, lens thickness becomes nonuniform (prism defect) or insufficient to lead to a defective product. For this reason, various types of devices have been conventionally proposed to incorporate the two molds not to be inclined (for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 55-123430 and 2001-512383).
The method of forming a lens-forming casting mold described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 55-123430 includes the step of positioning and holding two molds by a reference plate such that their lens-forming optical surfaces establish a predetermined positional relationship (reference positions for forming lens optical surfaces) and separating the two molds from the reference plate, the step of removing the reference plate, the step of setting a gasket at a position where the reference plate has been removed, and the step of returning the two molds to the reference positions for forming the lens optical surfaces and fitting them in the gasket.
According to the lens-forming casting mold described in JP Pat. Laid-Open No. 2001-512383, a rear casting mold (mold) which forms the concave surface of a lens is pushed into a gasket by a linear actuator.

Method for assembling mold for forming plastic lens


A novel azasugar derivative, and a drug containing the same as an active ingredient are disclosed. The drug is useful for treatment of keratinocyte-proliferative diseases.

Taking notice of high coordinative ability to metal atoms, various hydroxamic acid compounds have been developed as a metalloenzyme inhibitor. Although peptide-based compounds have mostly been developed (see, for example, WO94/02447 and WO90/05719), various compounds containing sulfonic acid amide in a partial structure have recently been published and, for example, European Patent Publication (EP1081137) discloses a compound having the same N-sulfonylpiperidine-2-hydroxamic acid structure as that of the compound of the present invention as an aggrecan degrading enzyme inhibitor.
For a metalloenzyme as a target of inhibition, for example, MMP (WO90/05716) such as collagenases, stromelysins and gelatinases, TNF-α producing enzyme (WO 94/10990) and Fas ligand solubilization enzyme (WO 97/09066) have become of major interest in view of the development of medicaments.
It is known that EGF family growth factors are syntheszied as membrane-bound proteins as precursors which are broken into a soluble form by action of the metalloenzyme, and thus the resulting soluble ligand binds to EGF receptors. In case of HB-EGF among them, the solubilization process plays an important role in the proliferation of keratinocytes (WO 01/70269). Said publication discloses that a hydroxamic acid derivative having a tetrahydroisoquinoline skeleton inhibits a solubilizing enzyme of HB-EGF and is useful as a remedy for keratinocyte-proliferative diseases.

Azasugar derivative and drug containing the same as the active ingredient


A system for bookmarking viewer selected TV broadcast events and displaying a set of associated internet locations or website hotlinks, comprising the selection of a set of broadcast events using a remote control, and storing a set of event-identifier data associated with the set of selected broadcast events in an activity table, and then generating a set of associated internet locations or website hotlinks by comparing the set of event identifiers with a database of TV schedules, events and company information. The generated set of associated internet locations or website hotlinks can then be used by viewer for access to and display of the selected internet locations associated with the set of selected broadcast events.

As television (TV) viewers become more familiar with on-line services, such as the internet and the World Wide Web, they are demanding access to on-line information and content related to the TV content and TV-advertised companies and products. This information is becoming more readily available to the internet user. An increasing number of TV broadcasters, advertisers, and organizations have created their own internet locations (i.e., websites), and many have begun to display their web site address, (i.e., their Universal Resource Locator (URL) on TV ads and programs (broadcast events) to encourage viewers to access their website for more information. However, viewers typically cannot easily recall or identify an associated URL for a particular broadcast event because the broadcast URLs are typically displayed on TV for only a brief time and, in many cases, the relevant URL is not broadcast at all. A tool is needed to allow the viewer to easily access URLs, to immediately navigate to the desired URL, i.e., switch to the displayed website as if it were a TV channel, or to "bookmark" the broadcast event, i.e., to mark one or more broadcast TV events so the viewer can later recall these events and access all the websites associated with these events.
Familiar to most people, traditional bookmarks are those used to mark a page in a book to which the reader wants to later return. In the personal computer and World Wide Web environment, an analogous feature allows a typical net browser application running on the computer to "bookmark" web pages, i.e., select a button from a pull-down menu on the browser tool, allowing the user to store a URL associated with a website for rapid, one-step return access, without requiring the user to recall or re-enter the URL of that particular website. However, because there is no similar "bookmarking" tool that exists for viewers to use with their TVs, there is a resulting need for a user-friendly, automated system to "bookmark" TV broadcast events and the URLs associated with these events for subsequent viewer use. Additionally, once the events are bookmarked, it is also desirable to provide a system for viewers to easily retrieve and display the websites and website "hotlinks" (i.e., buttons programmed in hypertext markup language displayed on the internet that connect directly to specific websites) associated with these bookmarked events.


The invention relates to a method for improving the selectivity of a polymer film gas sensor. According to the method, the gas sensor is heated and a sensor parameter sensitive to the variable under measurement is recorded. According to the invention, the parameter of the sensor sensitive to the variable under measurement is measured at a plurality of instants during both the heating period and the cooling period of the sensor, a hysteresis function of the sensor response is formed over the heating and cooling periods, and on the basis of the hysteresis function, the concentration of each measured gas component is determined.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method according to the preamble of claim 1 for improving the selectivity of a polymer-film gas sensor.
The invention also concerns a sensor structure.
The present invention is particularly suited for extracting the specific signal of a single gas component from a composite signal representing at least one other gas component interfering strongly with the applied gas measurement technique.
2. Description of Background Art
A polymer-film gas sensor is characterized by being sensitive to a plurality of different gas species. A typical approach to improve sensor selectivity has been sought from a combination of several gas sensors of different types and then interpreting the output signals of such a sensor combination by means of, e.g., a neural network. However, this kind of a measurement system becomes complicated and costly.
Also known in the art are arrangements in which the polymer-film sensors are heated in order to restore their original properties in a manner described in, e.g., FI Pat. Appl. 942,727. While this technique is capable of restoring the sensor performance, the basic selectivity of the gas sensor under a normal measurement situation cannot be improved.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the drawbacks of the above-described prior-art technique and to provide an entirely novel method for improving the selectivity of a polymer-film gas sensor.

Method of improving the selectivity of a polymer-film gas sensor and a sensor structure for implementing the method


A scan based design architecture reduces pin count, test time and power consumption, and also allows the use of existing verified scan vectors by driving multiple scan chains from one scan input and utilizing multiple scan clocks. The scan vectors for multiple scan chains are sequentially applied to the scan input so as to broadcast the vectors to multiple scan chains, but only the bits for one scan chain are selectively clocked into that chain by a corresponding one of the multiple scan clocks. An output multiplexer can also be used to reduce the total number of test pins. The pin count can be further reduced by using a scan clock generator to generate the multiple scan clocks from a single scan clock input, and by using a select signal generator to generate select signals that control an output multiplexer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to techniques for testing circuits, and more particularly to methods and apparatus for testing with multiple scan chains using pin sharing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Scan based design is a circuit testing technique that involves converting memory/state elements into scan elements (also referred to as scan cells), and then connecting many of these scan elements into one or more serial shift registers (also referred to as scan chains) that wind through the circuit under test (CUT). Each scan chain typically begins at a scan input, traces forward through numerous scan elements, and terminates at a scan output. The scan architecture allows the circuit under test to be placed in a known data state by serially shifting test data patterns (also referred to as test vectors or scan vectors) into the scan chains through the scan inputs under the control of a scan clock. The operation of the circuit under test can then be observed by using the same scan chains to shift data out through the scan outputs.
Scan based design has become one of the most widely used design for test (DFT) techniques for testing complicated circuits such as those found on integrated circuits (ICs or "chips"). Scan based design enables the use of automatic test pattern generation (ATPG) techniques to create test vectors that provide efficient fault detection, and reduce the cost of testing ICs.
As integrated circuits become increasingly complex, however, reducing the time, and thus cost, of testing becomes more critical. With some very large scale integration (VLSI) products, e.g., system on chip (SOC), the recurring test cost can be 2, 3 and even 4 times the cost of fabricating the chip itself.
To reduce test application times, techniques involving the use of multiple scan chains have been developed. These techniques divide a single scan chain into multiple chains and allow shorter test vectors to be shifted into the circuit under test in parallel, thereby reducing the test time. Existing multiple scan chain techniques, however, require that additional valuable input/output terminals be dedicated to use as scan inputs/outputs.
Efforts to drive multiple scan chains from a single input have produced techniques that require complicated analysis of scan chain circuits and test vectors, including the recomposition of virtual circuits before ATPG can be utilized. This dramatically increases the testing overhead while only providing slight reduction in scan test time.


An integrated circuit with input voltage clamping circuitry for receiving an input signal from external devices is provided. The input voltage clamping circuitry may include a voltage splitting and clamping circuit, a selectively enabled transmission gate circuit, and a digitization and clamping circuit. The voltage splitting and clamping circuit may be configured to split the input signal into at least two separate components each of which is limited to a predetermined voltage swing. The transmission gate circuit may be selectively enabled to provide full rail signaling when the input signal has a power supply level that is below a predefined threshold. The digitization and clamping circuit may include a Schmitt trigger translation for converting the split signal components to a digitized signal that is clamped down to the predefined threshold.

This invention relates to integrated circuits, and more particularly, to integrated circuits with input voltage clamping circuits.
As integrated circuits scale towards smaller technology nodes (i.e., 20 nanometers and beyond), the maximum nominal voltage that can be handled by thick gate input/output (IO) transistors becomes smaller. For example, the nominal power supply voltage that is used to power a thick gate IO transistor might be limited to 1.8 V. However, input signals that are received at the IO pads can exhibit voltage swings of up to 3 V or more to allow for backward compatibility with legacy interface protocols. These input signals are typically received at an input voltage clamp that is configured to shift down the high voltage level at the IO pad down to the lower nominal voltage.
A conventional input voltage clamp consists of a single n-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor (NMOS) pass gate transistor. The NMOS transistor has a drain terminal that receives the input signal from the IO pad, a source terminal that is connected to a corresponding receiver in the integrated circuit, and a gate terminal that is biased to the nominal voltage level. Connected in this way, the input signal will have its voltage swing clipped down from the higher IO voltage level to less than the lower nominal voltage level.
Such types of conventional voltage clamp often suffer from loss of a substantial portion of the input signal when passing through the NMOS pass gate. The input signal is an analog signal having a slew rate that is critical to determining the duty cycle of the receiver output. In scenarios where a 3.3 V IO signal is shifted down to a 1.8 V, 1.5 V, or 1.1 V receiver input voltage level, up to two-thirds or more of the input signal can be lost, which can severely impact performance of the receiver subsystem.

Input voltage clamp with signal splitting and cross-over capabilities


Methods and apparatus for classifying and/or discriminating particles in an aerosol. An example method involves delivering a flow of the aerosol through a nozzle into a sampling volume and directing a plurality of light beams onto an interaction plane in the sampling volume. The plurality of light beams may each be made up of light having one of a corresponding plurality of different wavelengths. For example, the wavelengths may include wavelengths of visible and infrared light or visible, near infrared and short wave infrared light. The method may detect intensities of light from the plurality of light beams that has been scattered at the interaction plane by particles of the aerosol at a plurality of different scattering angles. The resulting data is processed to characterize and/or discriminate the particles.

An aerosol is a suspension of particles in the atmosphere or another gas. Governments and industry are increasingly interested in monitoring aerosol concentrations and identifying the compositions of aerosols. Aerosols may result from natural events, e.g. Asian dust, or human activity, e.g. byproducts of manufacturing. Monitoring aerosols is important for various reasons including assessing health risks. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has specified ambient air quality standards for particle size and mass as they relate to health issues such as asthma, emphysema, and other respiratory diseases; both the particle size and identification of the particles have become important. Particle measurement and differentiation has also become important in manufacturing. Many manufacturing processes produce aerosols, beyond any effects on health and safety, monitoring aerosols in industrial settings can help to optimize industrial processes (e.g. to ensure proper operation of equipment and procedures).
One technique for monitoring aerosols is to collect aerosol particles on filters, which are then analyzed in the laboratory. While accurate for the most part, this method lacks time resolution. Also, laboratory testing is time consuming, expensive, and usually relies on human operators.
Increasingly optical particle detectors based on the optical measurement of Mie scattering have been used because of their ease of operation, lower cost, and the ability to perform real-time aerosol monitoring.
Optical particle detectors which operate on the basis of Mie light scattering typically include a laser diode that emits a light beam that crosses a flow of air. When a particle in the flow crosses the light beam Mie scattering or reflecting occurs. The scattered or reflected light is detected by a photo-diode. The size of the particle is typically determined based on the maximum pulse height. Particle concentrations are determined by the number of light bursts over given periods of time.
Some optical particle detectors provide two light beams that cross a flow of air at spaced apart locations. Such detectors allow the mass density of a particle to be inferred by time-of-flight measurements which compare the time between pulses caused by the particle when the particle crosses the first and second light beams.
Particle counters which rely on pulse height measurements cannot distinguish between particles of different types, for two examples, Arizona road dust and Lactose particles. Another problem encountered by current optical Mie based particle counters is the lack of range for small, sub 10 μm particles and the inability to distinguish the particle types.
There remains a need for practical and cost-effective particle detectors. There is a particular need for such particle detectors that are capable of identifying particles of different types (e.g. different materials) as well as monitoring particle numbers, sizes, and/or mass density.

Particle discrimination and classification by multiple-wavelength light scattering