A multi-level substrate (24) for mounting and interconnecting a number of integrated circuit chips (10) is formed of a stack of laminated sheets each comprising a conductive circuit layer (30,34,38,42,46) is laminated to a dielectric film (32,36,40,44,48). The sheets are formed by fully additive or semi-additive processes on a reusable mandrel and are interconnected to one another by raised features (78) on the circuit layer of one sheet that project through a hole (86) in the dielectric film of an adjacent sheet to contact a receiving area (88) of the circuit layer of the adjacent sheet. Integrated circuit chips (10) and other electrical components are mounted to the uppermost sheet and electrically connected thereto by means of wiring bonding (16) or a f lip-chip arrangement (150) in which chip pads (148) rest upon and contact raised features (146) of the circuit layer (140) of the uppermost sheet.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to multi chip integrated circuit module assemblies, and more particularly concerns an improved arrangement for mounting and interconnecting a plurality of integrated circuit chips or other components to provide a multi-level interconnection substrate module.
2. Description of Related Art
High density packaging of multiple integrated circuits and other electronic components requires a multi-level substrate so that the very high density of interconnecting circuit traces which are required for interconnecting chips and components with one another may be accomplished at different levels to avoid crossing of conductive leads. Manufacture of such multi-level substrates using conventional thin film techniques has a number of disadvantages. Conventional multi-level substrate processing frequently comprises a sequential process in which one thin film circuit is laid down upon and formed over an earlier formed circuit with suitable dielectric layers to isolate the several thin film circuit layers from one another. Such substrates may employ as many as five or more layers, each of which, excepting only the last, effectively forms a base upon which the next layer is constructed. The multi layer substrate, therefore, can be effectively tested only after completion of all of its layers. This may be expensive because many well made layers of a simple module may have to be discarded if a final layer is found to be faulty, or one may continue to add value to a faulty product.
Conventional thin film processes frequently use processes that have a number of disadvantages. Dimensional precision is difficult to achieve. The use of various etching, stripping and cleaning fluids requires special handling of hazardous chemicals. Techniques for disposal of the resalting effluents are complex and expensive and subject to strict government controls. Etched circuit processing has a relatively low yield, greatly increasing the cost of processing, which inherently involves a large number of costly steps.
Still other problems involve mounting of integrated circuit chips on multi-level circuit substrates, which often is carried out by means of wire bonding, tape automated bonding (TAB) or use of solder balls. These procedures entail difficult, complex and time consuming operations and require relatively large substrate surface areas, which limits density of chip and component packaging. Flip-chip mounting is one method for increasing chip density. In flip-chip mounting of integrated circuit chips a bump or raised feature is formed on the chip pads and the chip is mounted upside down with its bumps electrically contacting its substrate. Although flip-chip mounting is desirable, the acquisition and production of chips with bumps is difficult and expensive. The bumps are generally applied to the chip pads after completion of manufacture of the chips. However, the process of forming bumps on the chip pads may result in unacceptable damage to or destruction of the chips.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide for mounting and interconnection of integrated circuit chips or other electrical components by processes and structures that avoid or minimize above mentioned problems.


Silver carbonate decomposes to form silver metal by a temperature of 280 degrees Celsius. Its use in inkjet ink allows the low-cost production of conductive metallic inks. The silver metal layer could be further processed to enhance silver decorative properties and in particular light reflective properties.

Inkjet printing of electrically conductive patterns has been known for some time. The printing process includes the distribution of ink containing conductive particles, polymers, or precursors, across a surface of a substrate. In some cases, a post-treatment such as sintering or plating is necessary to achieve the desired conductivity. The electronics industry uses such inks to form conductive traces on substrates carrying different components. The conductive particles used in ink formulations are of different sizes and depend on the type of printing used. Ink formulations used in inkjet printing usually have properties and particle sizes suitable for ejection from an inkjet head.
Recently, conductive metal micron and sub-micron particles have become of use in the formulation of conductive inkjet inks. Suitable metal particles are silver, gold, copper, palladium, nickel, platinum, and various silver alloys. The size of the particles varies from few microns to around 5 nm. Silver is a precious noble metal with favorable properties such as the highest electrical and thermal conductivity and the lowest contact resistance of all metals, and for this reason it is the most widely used material for conductive inks used in printable electronics. It has a high conductivity, excellent environmental stability, and a lower cost than other noble metals including gold.
Metal particle-loaded inks also find use for decorative printing purposes. Different color and light reflecting or dispersing patterns could be printed using such inks. For example, gold particle-loaded inks faithfully reproduce gold color. Particles in the range of 5-50 nm can produce vivid colors (e.g. red from gold and yellow from silver) on account of their strong surface plasmon absorption band. When the decorative patterns are printed digitally, for example, using inkjet printing methods, the inks should have properties suitable for ejection from an inkjet head.
Cost is a consideration in both conductive and decorative pattern printing, since the production of metal particles cannot be accomplished by typical milling procedures, so more technically sophisticated and expensive methods are required to produce the particles, such as condensation from vapor, precipitation from solution, or etching from an alloy. This results in inks that are more expensive than regular pigment-loaded inks, and are also more expensive than the silver pastes that can be used e.g. for screen-printing and conductive adhesives.


Two substantially identical spaced rigid brace supports used to slidable receive boards to form a picnic table's top with lower side bench seats. Each brace support frame is identical and has two side frame legs, a top frame and a lower ground engaging bottom frame member. Extending outwardly from about the mid-portions of each frame leg are two closed loop members used to slidably receive board members used to form bench seats. Partitioned spaces formed between the top frame member of the brace support and a parallel lower frame member act to receive additional board members that are used to form the table's top surface. The weight of the two facing rigid brace supports coupled with their inwardly top slanted orientation causes the engaged rigid brace support frame members forming the openings to bear against and frictionally hold the inserted board members to the two spaced brace supports.

Outdoor tables such as picnic tables provide a very delightful place for meals, gatherings and other activities. However, since they are usually relatively large and heavy they are not readily movable into and out of storage. The result is that many are left outside all or most of the year resulting in excessive weather damage to them. One solution has been to provide for a collapsible picnic table that can be folded and stored when not in use outdoors.
Generally such collapsible tables have proven useful for their intended purpose. The present invention relates to brace supports used to receive boards to form a table that can be used indoors or outdoors in which several separate boards are easily fitted into two spaced supports to provide for an upper table top and lower side seat benches all as will be described in detail hereafter.


Methods and systems for updating digital maps by refining map feature positions and improving map position accuracy are disclosed. Geographic map updating may include a base map element and an update element where the base map element may include a representation of the map area displaying features thereof and the update element may include a geographic feature identification element and one or more positioning elements. One embodiment includes identifying a point of interest's position data and updating the map data within a map region surrounding the point of interest.

In typical mapping systems, images or other renderings of an area may be associated with locations on the Earth. For instance, an aerial photograph of a house may be assigned GPS coordinates corresponding to a general location on the Earth's surface. Likewise, other geographic feature may be assigned locations relative to the Earth's surface for various mapping purposes. In most applications, precision in the location of such geographic features is neither necessary nor possible. For instance, driving navigation towards a particular destination address may take a user in the general proximity of the destination leaving the user to figure out precisely where to go once generally near to the destination.
Additionally, the precision of location of geographic features may change over time. Movement of tectonic plates, shifting of ground, and/or other changes within the map environment may contribute to degrading of geographic feature location precision over time. Similarly, map position inaccuracies may result from the technique used in creating the map. For example, a series of contiguous satellite or other aerial photographs or image tiles may be joined together to create a map. In creation of such maps, due to the angles at which the image has been taken, curvature of the Earth or changes in elevation within each image, and/or small movements of the camera, may be adjusted for by rubber-sheeting techniques to distort such images to allow contiguous image tiles to be seamlessly joined. In some such maps, geographic features may be distorted, resulting in inaccurate geographic feature positions and thereby inaccurate maps.
Maps, as used with utility excavation operations (i.e. when digging into the ground), require the precise location of gas lines or other utilities to be known in order to facilitate safe excavations and avoid costly damage to infrastructure and human lives. Such maps may require the underground utility location to be known relative to a precise location on the ground level of the Earth's surface. Movement of map features and/or inaccurately mapped geographic features in utility mapping applications may result in incorrect excavation location and ultimate costly destruction of infrastructure and death or injury to crews excavating such utilities.
The initial generation of some such maps may be particularly expensive. For instance, maps involving indexing of high resolution aerial photograph to geographic features on the Earth's surface that have had their positions determined via real time kinematic (RTK) satellite navigation or other precise positioning techniques requires both highly specialized and expensive tools as well as a great deal of human labor to produce thus resulting in a high cost to generate such maps. Likewise, rubber-sheeting techniques may still introduce inaccuracies in the creation of some such maps. Often, the solution as known in the art is to recreate the map which may both extremely expensive and labor intensive. Other known solutions for updating geographic features or other known map features lack the resolution required for precise mapping applications such as with utility locating, mapping, and/or excavation.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art to address the above-described as well as other problems related to the creation and updating of maps, as well as for map systems with improved location precision relating to both a map itself and geographic or other features in the map.

Geographic map updating methods and systems


A system includes plural sensors to detect at least one of a magnetic field and an electrical field, where each of the plural sensors includes outputs that output sensor signals when a field is detected. Plural signal modulators receive sense signals that correspond to sensor signals from corresponding ones of the plural sensors. Each of the plural signal modulators has first and second control states. In the first control state, each signal modulator outputs sense signals, and, in the second control state, each signal modulator outputs inverted sense signals. A device receives and processes the sense signals or the inverted sense signals.

A Hall sensor arrangement, in which several Hall sensors are arranged in a stationary manner and in a fixed configuration with one other, is known from the reference DE 199 43 128 A1. This type of sensor arrangement has the disadvantage that it has low flexibility in measuring magnetic fields, for example, because of a fixed connection of the sensors. In particular, the known sensor arrangement is not suitable for the two-dimensional and three-dimensional measurement of magnetic field distributions.

Sensor system and method for operating the sensor system


Textual and graphical displays are provided on a television screen using a hypertext markup language (HTML). On-screen display devices allow a user to invoke hyperlinks to different pages of HTML-coded data in addition to functions calls for controlling television and non-television appliance functions. A method provides HTML-coded display data which is processed to provide a signal suitable for reproduction on a television. The display data may provide information on a featured movie or other presentation of an associated video programming service signal such as a network television broadcast. Function calls allow the control of various television functions and programming options, such as the purchase of pay-per-view programming, or television display options such as aspect ratio, channel, brightness, picture-in-picture, or split-screen. Non-television appliances which may be controlled with function calls include audio equipment which is associated with the programming service (e.g., surround sound, filtering) in addition to, for instance, a home heating and air conditioning system or other household appliances. The invention allows a designer to adapt the vast HTML resources of the Internet for use in the television environment for entertainment, educational or informational purposes.

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for providing textual and graphical displays using hypertext markup language (HTML) in a television decoder. Additionally, HTML is adapted for use in controlling various television functions.
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is a system for marking documents to indicate how the document should be displayed, and how various documents should be linked together. HTML has been used extensively to provide documents on the computer communications network known as the Internet. The Internet includes a vast collection of interconnected documents which are stored in computers all over the world in a system known as the World Wide Web (i.e., the Web). The documents are organized into web spaces, where a web space includes a home page and links to other documents which may be in the local web space or in an external web space. Such links are known as hyperlinks. Documents may include moving images, text, graphical displays, and sound.
HTML is a form of Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), defined by the International Standards Organization (ISO), reference number ISO 8879:1986. HTML specifies the grammar and syntax of markup tags which are inserted into a data file to define how the data will be presented when read by a computer program known as a browser. The data file, which is typically stored on a Web server, includes one or more Web pages which are visited by users who have computers which may run different browsers. When a page is visited, typically via a telephone connection, HTML data is downloaded to a user's computer. The computer's browser processes the data to format a layout for the page so the page can be viewed by the user on a computer screen.
An SGML document includes three parts. The first part describes the character set, or codes, which are used in the language. The second part defines the document type, and which markup tags are recognized. The third part is known as the document instance and contains the actual text and markup tags. The three parts may be stored in different files. Furthermore, HTML browsers assume that files of different pages contain a common character set and document type, so only the text and markup tags will change for different pages.
The base character set for HTML is Latin-1 (ISO 8859/1), which is an eight-bit alphabet with characters for most American and European languages. The 128-character standard ASCII (ISO 646) is a seven-bit subset of Latin-1. For simplicity and compatibility with different browsers, many Web pages include only an ASCII character set. Furthermore, non-ASCII characters may be defined using sequences of ASCII characters. For example, the character "e" is defined as "&egrave".
HTML characters are enclosed in angled brackets to distinguish them from the page text. The characters may appear alone, or may appear at the start and end of a field of the page text. For example,
 indicates the start of a new paragraph, while  Welcome to my home page indicates the phrase "Welcome to my home page" should be italicized. Generally, HTML tags provide text formatting, hypertext links to other pages, and links to sound and picture elements. HTML tags also define input fields for interactive Web pages.
The following list identifies some of the more common HTML codes and functions:
______________________________________ HTML Code Description ______________________________________  anchor code - defines a section of text as a hyperlink or target of another hyperlink
 quoted text  main portion of page  bold face <?-comment-> author comment - does not appear on page  emphasized text, usually italicized  header or title
 horizontal rule  denotes an HTML document  italicize
 line break
 list item
 unordered list
 ordered list
 start a new paragraph <STRON> strongly emphasize text, usually bold face <TITLE> title of document <TT> typewriter text  underline ______________________________________
Moreover, there are currently three standardized levels of HTML. Level 1 defines a baseline level with which all Web browsers must be compatible. Level 2 includes the elements of level 1 in addition to tags for defining user input fields. Level 3 adds markup tags for various features such as tables, figures and mathematical equations. The levels are fully backwards compatible.
Hypertext is so-named because it allows a user to access different pages in different orders using hyperlinks, rather than in a predetermined, linear manner. Moreover, a particular hypertext application known as hypermedia includes elements other than text, such as images, video, and audio. HTML can specify links to multimedia objects. Links in an HTML hypertext page usually appear as highlighted text which is known as the anchor of the link. Moreover, an image, such as an icon, can be an anchor, which is activated, for example, by the user clicking on the icon using a mouse or other pointing device. Furthermore, images known as image maps can include a number of regions which are themselves individual anchors.
An HTML application is made available to users on the Web by storing the HTML file in a directory that is accessible to a server. Such a server is typically a Web server which conforms to a web browser-supported protocol known as Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Servers that conform to other protocols such as the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) or GOPHER may also be used but do not support interactive HTML files.
HTTP defines a set of rules that servers and browsers follow when communicating with each other. Typically, the process begins when a user clicks on an icon in an HTML page which is the anchor of a hyperlink, or the user types in a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), described below. A connection is then made to the server at the address and port number specified by the URL. Next, the browser sends a request to retrieve an object from the server, or to post data to an object on the server. The server sends a response to the browser including a status code and the response data. The connection between the browser and server is then closed.
FTP is a file transfer protocol supported by Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) protocol stacks. In particular, FTP is session oriented while HTTP is not. Consequently, unlike HTTP, with FTP, the server is required to maintain a list of active clients.
GOPHER is an indexing system that enables a user to access various Internet resources through a menu-driven system.
Other protocols include TELNET, NEWS, or MAILTO. A TELNET program allows a user to connect to another computer and use it as if the user were sitting at the keyboard of the computer. NEWS indicates that a link to a USENET newsgroup should be made, for example, to access a specific news article. MAILTO indicates an Internet Mail Protocol. If a user targets a mail type URL, the browser will open a window to allow the user to create a mail message to be delivered to the indicated e-mail address. The above protocols are standardized by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and are supported by most web browsers.
The URL is a unique address which identifies virtually all files and resources on the Internet. A URL has the form: EQU method://server:port/path/file#anchor.
The "method" of accessing the resource is the web browser-supported protocol, and may include, for example, HTTP, FTP, GOPHER, TELNET, NEWS, or MAILTO. The "server:port" indicates the name of the server which is providing the resource, and is alternatively known as the Internet domain name. For example, many companies will use their company name as part of the server field. The port designation is the port number on the server, but is usually not used since a default port is assumed. The "path" indicates the directory path to the resource. The file indicates the file name of the resource. The "anchor" indicates the named element in the HTML document. Not all fields are required.
For example, consider the following URL: EQU http://www.company.com/news/june.html.
The access method is HTTP, the server is www.company.com, there is no port specified, the path is news, the file is june.html, and there is no anchor. Examples of FTP, GOPHER, TELNET, NEWS, and MAILTO URLs are, respectively: EQU ftp://ftp.uu.net/doc/literary/obi/World.Factobook; EQU gopher://gopher.micro.umn.edu/; EQU telnet://compuserve.com/; EQU news:alt.cows.moo; and EQU mailto:firstname.lastname@example.com.
Moreover, interactive Web applications use a client-server standard known as the Common Gateway Interface (CGI). A CGI program generates HTML in real-time to produce a dynamically generated Web page. CGI programs, or scripts, perform various Web functions. For example, a CGI program known as Imagemap processes imagemaps for servers. Moreover, HTML forms often require CGI scripts to process user-entered information. CGI scripts act as an interface between Web servers and other computer applications, including database managers and order processing systems.
In view of the rapidly increasing use of Web pages and other resources which are created using HTML, it would be advantageous to provide a scheme for adapting such resources for use by consumers and others via television or other broadcast or pre-recorded media. In particular, it would be desirable to provide graphical and textual displays for use with a television for educational and entertainment purposes. Such displays should be compatible to the extent possible with existing transmission and receiving equipment including set-top decoders and the like, and should further be compatible with current communication protocols such as those for transmission of digital television signals via satellite and/or cable plants.
Furthermore, the system should provide the capability to control various television functions such as channel selection, volume, and language preference, in addition to interactive operations such as the purchase of near-video-on-demand programming or other home shopping products or services, as well as non-television appliance functions such as for associated audio equipment, or, lastly, for a home heating and air conditioning system, security system or the like. The present invention provides a system having the above and other advantages.

Hypertext markup language protocol for television display and control


This disclosure relates to a technique for eliminating adverse influences when a mismatch between the firmware version of a printer and the driver version has occurred. A printer driver acquires the ID and version information of firmware from a printer. If acquisition is successful, the printer driver searches a firmware management table on the basis of the acquired firmware related information so as to check if the firmware is compatible to a new function. If the firmware is compatible to the new function, the printer driver provides a user interface that allows a setup associated with the new function; otherwise, it masks a setting control of the new function.

Some conventional printers can update their firmware. When firmware is updated, for example, a new function is added to a printer. However, such new function cannot often be used only when firmware is updated. Normally, since the functions on the printer side are controlled by a printer driver which runs on the computer side, the new function cannot be used unless the printer driver is updated. Hence, the latest firmware requires the latest driver, and vice versa.
Even when the firmware of a printer is old, the latest printer driver can be installed in the computer in practice. That is, the printer driver is often incompatible to the firmware. In such case, when a setup dialog of the printer driver is launched, a user interface is provided as if a new function which is not supported by the old firmware could be set.
Therefore, the user must recognize functions which are currently supported, and must take precaution so that he or she may not change setups of unsupported functions.
If a new function which is not supported by the old firmware is set using the latest printer driver, the printer with the old firmware receives an unknown command, and may malfunction.
Furthermore, it is difficult to recognize functions implemented by firmware even when the user observes the outer appearance of a printer. For this reason, the user cannot easily recognize if a specific function is supported.

Print system and method of controlling its user interface


A sound codec including a compression portion and a decompression portion. The compression portion separates the incoming sound packet bandwidth into frequency sub-bands using a bank of infinite impulse response (IIR) filters. In accordance with the invention, the lower frequency signals are divided into more sub-bands than the higher frequency signals. Once the signals are divided into sub-bands, each sub-band signal is quantized. The resulting signals of all of the quantized sub-bands are then sent out over a communications link along with the filter state at the end of each sound packet. The decompression portion recombines the individual sub-band signals together (using a bank of infinite impulse response (IIR) filters) to form the audio data using the filter states to configure the reconstruction.

Digital data compression/decompression techniques are well known. The techniques are typically implemented in hardware or software or a combination of these. The software module/hardware module or device that performs these functions is typically referred to as a codec. A codec may be used to compress/decompress various types of data including, for example, video data, image data, images and audio data. It is desirable to compress this type of data so that it can be transmitted over a communications link with limited bandwidth, such as a modem connection, DSL line or the like. In general, a higher level of compression (reduction in the total size of the video or audio data) results in greater image/sound quality losses.
In the context of sound data, it is desirable to compress/decompress the data as it is being communicated over a wireless link, which has a very limited bandwidth capability. Some communication systems utilize a digital signal processor (DSP), which is a specialized processor chip that performs compression and decompression functions. A DSP is able to quickly and efficiently compress/decompress the sound data. However, for most applications, it is not feasible to have a DSP located in the device that is performing the sound compression/decompression. Therefore, it is necessary to perform the compression/decompression functions in a software-based solution. With a software-based solution, some hardware-based techniques cannot be used because those hardware-based techniques are too cumbersome from a computation standpoint. Thus, it is desirable to provide a novel software-based sound codec system and method and it is to this end that the present invention is directed.


Embodiments of the invention are directed facilitating an electronic resource distribution by embedding a short-range wireless tag in a resource distribution request that stores instructions for processing the resource distribution in a fully electronic processing flow. As such, the resource distribution request holder is capable of processing the request without issuing a resource distribution document to the resource requester. In additional embodiments of the invention, the short-range wireless tag further stores instructions for arranging subsequent resource distributions to the resource requester to occur without the need for the resource requester to present a resource request document.

Many resource distributions are conducted in a conventional fashion in which a resource requester/recipient presents a physical resource distribution request document to the resource provider and, in turn, the resource provider issues a physical resource distribution document configured to authorize distribution of the resources.
However, a need exists to develop systems, apparatus computer program products, methods or the like that eliminate the need for the resource requester/recipient to present a resource distribution request and/or for the resource provider to issues a physical resource distribution document configured to authorize distribution of the resources. A further need exists to provide a fully automated means for the resource requester/recipient and/or resource provider to transition from the use of physical document exchange, such that, subsequent resource distributions are conducted in a fully electronic manner absent the need to exchange physical resource distribution request and resource e distribution documents.


The disclosed device is directed towards an illumination headgear. The illumination headgear comprises a crown having a lower edge. A brim is disposed on the crown proximate to the lower edge. The brim has a rim disposed along the perimeter of the brim distal from the lower edge. An array of light emitting diodes is integral within the brim and proximate to said rim. The array of light emitting diodes is focused to form a contiguous beam.

The disclosure relates to the field of illuminated headgear, in particular, headgear that feature high intensity illumination mounted in the headgear providing general purpose illumination by which the user can see in dark places.
There is a wide variety of illuminated headgear and illumination sources that can be mounted on headgear worn by the user. Many of these types of headgear provide light that is meant to be seen by others rather than providing light for the user to see by. Many lighted headgear in this category are of a novelty or decorative type. Others are used to warn other people of the presence of the user. These types of inventions generally used low intensity or widely arrayed types of illumination. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,485,358 issued to Chen teaches LED lights disposed at the rear and on the sides of a baseball cap, providing a light to be seen by others to alert them to the presence of the wearer; U.S. Pat. No. 5,758,947 issued to T. L. Glatt teaches a safety helmet with LEDs arrayed around the outward lower edge and containing circuitry to flash the LEDs in a sequential manner so as to alert others to the presence of the wearer; U.S. Pat. No. 5,510,961 teaches a novelty hat with lights disposed around the edge of the brim with a sound recording and a battery source in the brim, having circuitry to flash the lights to provide a novelty flickering effect accompanied by sound.
Another body of illuminated headgear helps focus a light source in the direction the user is facing so as to provide illumination for the benefit of the user to see by, e.g., illuminating books being held and read by the user, illuminating objects held by the user, illuminating an area that the user is working or operating in, and so on. In general these inventions are very specialized with emphasis on the availability of a light source, and only approximate the normal appearance and utility of common headgear, or are additions to common headgear. For example U.S. Pat. No. 6,044,495 issued to Ellman et al. teaches a detachable visor cover which slides into place on top of a baseball cap visor, on the top portion of which is mounted a light source for runners or bicyclists to see at night; U.S. Pat. No. 5,667,292 issued to Sabalvaro utilizes a topless hat or visor with a pivot mounted light source that can direct the light forward and above the brim; U.S. Pat. No. 1,187,672 issued to Stiefvater teaches a visor-mounted light bulb and battery source with a light bulb housing which incorporates an eye shield placed at the edge of the brim angled downward, as for reading.
The problem with prior art devices is that they are bulky, stand out visually so as to detract from the general aesthetics of normal headgear, may employ filament light bulbs which wear out and require a means for replacement, or are detachable from the headgear so they could be left behind and not available when needed.
There remains the need for a general purpose illuminating device integral to many kinds of common headgear which have their own intrinsic utility and aesthetic characteristics, to which the illuminating device would add the utility of a hands free light source for the benefit of the user to see by, such illuminating device being light enough in weight and visually inconspicuous enough that it does not significantly alter the headgear's intrinsic utility or aesthetics. In addition, there remains a need for such a headgear mounted illuminating device that is durable and reliable, which would not require replacement of the light source.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


The light sources are controlled by dividing a display period of one frame into such a first subframe period that blue transmitted light is obtained from the blue subpixel and red transmitted light is obtained from the red subpixel by turning ON the light sources of the blue color and the red color and such a second subframe period that green transmitted light is obtained from the green subpixel by turning ON a light source of a green color and at least any one of a procedure in which cyan transmitted light is obtained from the blue subpixel and a procedure in which yellow transmitted light is obtained from the red subpixel is performed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display apparatus and a method for controlling the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, the color reproduction range of a liquid crystal display apparatus is determined by the product of the spectral wavelength characteristic of a backlight light source and the spectral wavelength transmission characteristic of a color filter. When the color reproduction is performed by means of subpixels of the three primary colors of red, green, and blue for constructing pixels, the color gamut area, in which the colors can be reproduced, is limited to an area disposed at the inside of a triangle formed by connecting apexes of chromaticity points of the display colors capable of being displayed by the respective subpixels.
A method, in which two or more types of light sources having different spectral wavelength characteristics are used to perform the time sharing light emission, is known as one of methods for expanding the displayable color gamut area. For example, in the case of a technique described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2004-118133, the input image information is subjected to the color matrix conversion according to display colors capable of being displayed by means of the combination of respective light sources and a plurality of subpixels having different spectral wavelength transmission characteristics, and a liquid crystal panel is driven and controlled in synchronization with the time sharing light emission control. Further, in order to avoid the leakage of light from the subpixel of the adjacent color, the concerning subpixel is shielded from light to display the black. Such a technique is suggested thereby that the multi-primary color display, in which the color purity is enhanced, is realized.

Liquid crystal display apparatus and method for controlling the same


A semiconductor device having a variable capacitance capacitor and a method of manufacturing the same are disclosed. An example semiconductor device includes a capacitor having a bottom electrode, a dielectric layer and an upper electrode, formed on a semiconductor substrate. The example semiconductor also includes a first insulating layer formed on the semiconductor substrate to cover the capacitor, a plurality of first contact plugs formed in a plurality of first via holes of the first insulating layer, each of which is electrically connected to either the bottom electrode or the upper electrode, a first metal wiring formed on the first insulating layer and connected to the bottom electrode through the first contact plug, a second contact plug formed on the first insulating layer and connected to the upper electrode through the first contact plug, and a second insulating layer formed on the first insulating layer to cover the first metal wiring and the second contact plug. In addition, the example semiconductor device includes an anti-fuse formed in a certain thickness in a second via hole of the second insulating layer and electrically connected to the second contact plug, a third contact plug filling the second via hole on the anti-fuse, and a second metal wiring formed on the second insulating layer and electrically connected to the third contact plug.

Generally, a capacitor constitutes a unit cell of a semiconductor device together with a metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistor, providing a function of frequency modulation. As shown in FIG. 1, such a capacitor generally has a structure in which a bottom electrode 12, a dielectric layer 14, and an upper electrode 15 are successively formed on a semiconductor substrate 11. Recently, with a refinement of a design rule for semiconductor devices, the area occupied by the capacitor in the semiconductor device is reduced to enable the fabrication of a capacitor with a large capacitance in a reduced area. However, the conventional capacitor shown in FIG. 1 has a structure in which the bottom electrode 12 is formed in a planar shape, which limits the maximum capacitance that may be employed in a micro or semiconductor device.
To satisfy the need for a capacitor with large capacitance, at least one study has concentrated on development of a capacitor having increased capacitance in a unit area. As a result, as shown in FIG. 2, a method of maximizing a capacitance of capacitor in which a bottom electrode 22 has been formed as an uneven shape to increase an effective area contacting with a dielectric layer 23 has been proposed. In addition, a method of maximizing a capacitance by use of various capacitor structures has also been provided. However, because the conventional capacitor has a fixed capacitance, regardless of its capacitance level, it has a problem in adapting to a presently used semiconductor device having a multi-function.

Semiconductor device and method of manufacturing the same


An electronically and physically improved roulette game table designed to provoke and stimulate the interest of novice, occasional, and veteran roulette game player is disclosed. The roulette game table comprises: a playing table; a rotably mounted wheel having a plurality of ball receiving sector compartments; event registration means for registering the sector compartment in which a ball might come to rest; and, a computer programmed to display historical and recent events. A preferred aspect of this invention provides for a roulette game table as above wherein the computer is additionally programmed to summarize the most recent events, and wherein the computer is programmed to display the last ten events. The roulette game table is additionally marked to allow game players to wager on events sequentially occurring in two and more moves and the computer is programmed to display payoffs for those sequentially occurring events. The most preferred embodiment additionally provides for multiple individual bet placement layouts around its periphery. The electronically improved roulette game table provides for the possibility of hereto before unavailable bet combinations; sequential bet possibilities which will attract game players with astronomical, ever changing and electronically posted payoffs which will be exceptionally lucrative to the casinos.

The gaming industry, sanctioned by increasing numbers of states, has experienced dynamic growth. Casinos, spurred by growing competition, are investing heavily in theme buildings and more elaborate equipment to compete for game players.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,396,193 issued to R. L. Reinhardt et al. disclosed means to automatically sense which compartment the ball was received in and automatically illuminate a corresponding table display, as well as processor means for computing a multi-bit data word used to display winning combinations. While this innovation enhanced the color and attractiveness of the roulette game table it displayed information known to all but the most novice game players. What is appreciated by the more experienced game player is more information upon which to base their betting decisions and hunches. Such information, comparable to a race horse's track history, makes the game more interesting to intelligent better informed patrons. From the casino's viewpoint, such historical event information allows for the possibility of heretobefore unavailable bet combinations; bet combinations which will challenge and entice game players with enormous long shot and pool payoffs which will be exceptionally profitable to the casino.


A system for transferring fluid from a filling reservoir to a receiving tank. The system includes a fluid transfer line for conveying fluid from the filling reservoir outlet to the receiving tank inlet, and couplings for selectively connecting the fluid transfer line to a filling reservoir outlet and a receiving tank inlet. The system further includes a vapor return line for conveying vapor from a receiving tank vent to a filling reservoir inlet to simultaneously prevent pressure from building in the tank and a vacuum from developing in the reservoir as fluid is transferred from the reservoir to the tank, and couplings for selectively connecting the vapor return line to the filling reservoir inlet and the receiving tank vent. In addition, the system includes a portable platform adapted for movement to a position near the filling reservoir and the receiving tank, and a pump mounted on the platform for selectively inducing fluid to travel through the fluid transfer line from the filling reservoir to the receiving tank when the reservoir outlet valve and the tank inlet valve are open. The system also includes a compressed gas source in communication with the fluid transfer line for blowing gas through the line to remove residual fluid from the line to prevent the escape of residual fluid and associated odor from the line when the fluid transfer line couplings are uncoupled from the filling reservoir outlet and the receiving tank inlet.

This invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for transferring fluid from a filling reservoir to a receiving tank. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and a portable apparatus for blowing gas, such as air, through one or more of the lines connecting the filling reservoir to the receiving tank to remove residual fluid from the lines before disconnecting them to prevent the release of odorous fluids.
Frequently, fluid materials must be transferred from a filling reservoir to a receiving tank either to fill the tank or to drain the reservoir. For instance, odorous chemicals are frequently transferred from a bulk storage reservoir to a rail car, then from the rail car to a tanker truck, and then from the truck to a local storage tank. Usually the chemicals are transferred by connecting a fluid transfer line from the outlet of the filling reservoir to the inlet of the receiving tank, and pumping the chemical through the transfer line from the filling reservoir to the receiving tank. During each transfer from one container to another, there is the opportunity to release some of the fluid, either as a liquid or as a gas. Even when fluid transfer from one container to another is successful, some residual fluid may escape when the transfer lines are disconnected from the containers. If the fluid is odorous, a release may be a nuisance.
Further, gas is typically vented from the receiving tank as it is filled thereby preventing pressure from building in the tank. If this gas vents to ambient, then vapor containing the transferred chemical may be released, causing a nuisance if the gas has an odor.


A scanning optical lens used for a laser scanning unit for imaging a laser, which is deflected by a beam deflection unit, on a photosensitive body. The scanning optical lens has a curvature of a Meniscus shape at a sub-scanning direction section, wherein the Meniscus shape has the same curvature symbols at an incidence surface and an exit surface at a center of the lens. The incidence surface and the exit surface always have negative (−) curvature symbols. An absolute curvature value of the incidence surface is maximal at the center, and has at least one minimal value at each of both sides in a main-scanning direction and wherein at least one of the minimal values is approximately zero.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a scanning optical lens having an asymmetric curvature and a laser scanning unit employing the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a scanning optical lens having an asymmetric curvature in a sub-scanning direction, and a laser scanning unit for reducing a distance from a deflection unit to a photosensitive drum by employing the scanning optical lens.
2. Description of the Related Art
A Laser Scanning Unit (LSU) is an image forming apparatus for scanning and imaging a laser beam on a photosensitive drum to form an image in a printing apparatus such as a laser printer. FIG. 1 is a view schematically illustrating a conventional laser scanning unit. As shown in FIG. 1, the laser scanning unit is comprised of a laser source 11, a collimating lens 12, an aperture stop 13, a cylindrical lens 14, a beam deflection unit 15, a scanning optical lens 16, a photosensitive drum 18 and synchronous signal detecting units 19, 20, and 21. The laser emitting from the laser source 11 is converted into a parallel beam by the collimating lens 12, and the parallel beam is limited in shape by the aperture stop 13 and passes through the cylindrical lens 14. At this time, the parallel beam is converged in a sub-scanning direction by the cylindrical lens 14. After that, the converged laser is deflected in a main-scanning direction (that is, in a horizontal direction) by the beam deflection unit 15 rotating at a high speed while being imaged on the photosensitive drum 18 through the scanning optical lens 16 and deflector 17.
Here, the scanning optical lens 16, which is called an "F-theta lens", functions to focus the laser on a surface of the photosensitive drum 18. In the apparatus shown in FIG. 1, the scanning optical lens 16 should be able to have a constant refractive index with respect to an optical axis and correct aberration. Further, the scanning optical lens 16 should also function to correct a deviation of the laser deflected at the beam deflection unit 15.
In order to perform this function, the scanning optical lens 16 has a specific configuration as shown in FIG. 2A, unlike a general lens. That is, as shown in FIG. 2B, a main-scanning direction section is convexed at an incidence surface and at an exit surface. The exit surface is a circular arc shape, whereas the incidence surface is a non-circular arc shape. As shown in FIG. 2C, in the sub-scanning direction section, an A-A′ section of a central portion of the lens 16 of FIG. 2A, has both convexed shapes, in which both the incidence surface and the exit surface are convexed. In contrast, as shown in FIG. 2D, a B-B′ section of an edge portion of the lens 16 of FIG. 2A, is concave-shaped at the incidence surface, and is convex-shaped at the exit surface.
As shown in the graphs of FIGS. 3A and 3B, a curvature of the incidence surface and the exit surface in the sub-scanning direction section is designed to continuously vary in the main-scanning direction. As appreciated from the graphs, in the incidence surface, the curvature is gradually decreased with reference to a center of the lens while being varied from positive (+) to negative (−) at the edge portion. That is, the center portion is convexed, but the edge portion is concaved as the curvature is gradually decreased. Meanwhile, in the exit surface, the curvature is gradually increased and again begins to reduce with reference to the center of the lens. However, since the curvature is always negative (−) at the exit surface, the exit surface is always convex-shaped. Accordingly, the scanning optical lens 16 is a kind of Anamophic lens having a different magnification in a vertical direction and in a horizontal direction.
Although the above conventional scanning optical lens 16 can beneficially correct optical aberration by using one lens, the lens 16 has a disadvantage in that an effective scanning angle cannot be increased to a great extent. Accordingly, since it is then impossible to shorten a distance from the beam deflection unit 15 to the photosensitive drum 18, there is a limit to the miniaturization of the conventional laser scanning unit. Further, since the scanning optical lens 16 has a relatively high image magnification in the sub-scanning direction, a stable optical performance is limited to that extent, and an improvement in the quality of a printed image is limited. This results since there is a performance non-stabilization factor and the laser beam is not uniform within an image forming area as the imaging magnification is enlarged.
Further, there is a disadvantage in that a multi-beam laser scanning unit, developed for providing faster printing, has the high imaging magnification in a sub-scanning direction. The multi-beam laser scanning unit scans a plurality of lasers in the sub-scanning direction at one time, and emits a plurality of lasers in the sub-scanning direction at the same time. In the case wherein the multi-beam laser scanning unit prints at an image quality of 600 dpi, a dot pitch in the sub-scanning direction should be about 42 μm on the photosensitive drum 18. However, the multi-beam laser scanning unit has a drawback in that in the case wherein the imaging magnification is more than five times as much as in the sub-scanning direction, an interval between the laser sources should be less than 10 μm in the sub-scanning direction, which is unrealizable.
Still further, the conventional scanning optical lens 16 is designed to have the curvature varying from positive (+) to negative (−), or from negative (−) to positive (+), at any point in the sub-scanning direction. This means that the lens 16 varies from a convex state (or concave state) to a plane state at any point and then, to a concave state (or convex state). However, in the case wherein a symbol of the curvature is changed, it is difficult to form a metal pattern for injecting the scanning optical lens. Accordingly, there is a drawback in that it is difficult to manufacture the scanning optical lens 16, and the resulting scanning optical lens is manufactured at a higher cost.
Accordingly, a need exists for a system and method for providing a laser scanning unit to enlarge the effective scanning angle and shorten the distance from the deflection unit to the photosensitive body, and reduce manufacturing costs while doing so.

Laser scanning unit with meniscus scan lens having asymmetric, negative curvature in the sub-scanning direction and absolute curvature values in the main-scanning direction that are maximal at the center and differing minimal values at each side


An information assistance service is provided, which enables a user to generate a personal dialing queue containing multiple listings, and to call multiple parties listed in the personal dialing queue without the need to make additional requests for information assistance. In an illustrative embodiment, a request is received from a user for multiple listings representing parties that the user wishes to contact. In response, the operator conducts a search and generates a personal dialing queue that includes a list of telephone numbers, each associated with a respective party. A first telephone number is selected from the personal dialing queue, and a connection is established between the user and the first telephone number. Call status signals associated with the connection are monitored. When the called party disconnects, and the user remains on the line for a predetermined period of time, a second connection is made for the user to a second telephone number selected from the personal dialing queue. This process may repeat until the list of telephone numbers in the personal dialing queue is exhausted.

It is a common experience to use, e.g., a wireline telephone, a wireless telephone or other mobile device, to call an operator for information assistance. In a typical information assistance call, a caller identifies to the operator the name and address (sometimes city or area code) of a party whose telephone number is desired. In response, the operator locates the desired destination number using, e.g., a computer database. The caller may then be afforded an option to be connected to the destination number without the need of first terminating the information assistance call.
After exercising such an option, the user may be provided with enhanced information assistance services where the connection to the destination number may be monitored. Examples of such enhanced services are described, for instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,873,032 issued Feb. 16, 1999 to Cox et al. In accordance with one such enhanced service, when a busy or ring-no-answer condition is encountered in the connection to the destination number, a voice server intervenes, informs the user of the unsuccessful connection, and provides the user with a menu of options. A first option may be to receive the destination number in an automated voice by pressing a "2" key; a second option may be to return to an operator for further assistance by pressing a "*" key; etc.

Technique for generating and managing a personal dialing queue


A system for generating revenue includes a fee collection station. The fee collection station may include a controller and a fee receiver in communication with the controller for receiving a predetermined fee from a plurality of users. The fee receiver may also receive a predetermined participation fee from the plurality of users that selectively participate in a game. The fee collection station may also comprise an indicator in communication with the controller and adjacent to the fee receiver for indicating to participating users one of a winning indication or a losing indication. The participating users that receive the winning indication may receive a predetermined reward.

Toll collection stations are normally positioned along roadways to collect a fee for passage over such roadways. Traffic generally accumulates along toll roadways adjacent to toll collection stations, especially during rush hour conditions.
To remedy traffic accumulation, many tollroad agencies reconfigure toll collection stations to accept prepaid tolls. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,140,941 to Dwyer et al. discloses a cashless toll system that uses transponders to detect and track prepaid customers, and cameras to detect and track casual or non-transponder equipped customers. The system also includes a revenue management system that communicates with a bank/credit card clearing house to debit the cost of a toll from a prepaid user's account.
Prepaid toll systems may include dedicated toll lanes to allow prepaid users to pass through the toll collection stations without stopping to pay the toll. In other words, the toll may be automatically deducted from a prepaid user's account. This is accomplished by communications between an antenna at the toll collection station and a prepaid transponder positioned on the vehicle, as disclosed, for example, in the Dwyer et al. '941 patent.
Unfortunately, some vehicles are not equipped with prepaid transponders, and users of those vehicles may attempt to evade payment of the requisite toll by passing through lanes dedicated to prepaid toll users. Accordingly, some tollroad authorities have installed gates at the dedicated prepaid lanes that rise upon sensing the presence of a prepaid transponder. These gates, however, tend to slow the flow of traffic. Further, some users may choose to drive their vehicles through the gates, causing damage to both their vehicle and the gate.
There have been attempts to provide an incentive to users to pay the toll instead of evading the toll, besides the issuance of a traffic citation for not paying the toll. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,521 to Rossides discloses a system for betting between a buyer and a seller. The bets may be used to speed up movement of a line. The system discloses that a user may choose to bet at a tollbooth for a chance to pass through the tollbooth without paying. This system, however, may be disadvantageous because the payment required by a losing user may be quite high, i.e., several multiples of the actual price of the toll.
Other tollroad agencies have allowed for the sale of goods at tollbooths. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,263,316 to Khan et al. discloses a method for automated retailing of refreshments to a vehicle occupant as the vehicle passes through a toll station. U.S. Pat. No. 6,253,956, also to Khan et al., discloses that a tollbooth may be configured to provide for drive through purchasing and dispensing of other consumer goods.

Revenue generating system and associated methods


A generally planar base panel member has mounted to its back face a pair of laterally spaced apart chambers whose open fronts are covered by the panel. A pair of electrical receptacles in each chamber are arranged in alignment with apertures in the base panel. First and second front panels each have a neon tubing configuration mounted on a front side of the panel with the electric end terminals at opposite ends of the tubing configurations projecting through holes in the front panels so that when the front panels are juxtaposed to the front of the base panel the neon tube terminals plug into the receptacles. A power supply for neon tubing is mounted to the back face of the base panel member. The neon tubing configurations on the individual front panels when plugged into the receptacles form a series circuit which connects across the high voltage output terminals of the power supply.

The invention disclosed herein pertains to a neon sign that provides for easy exchangeability of the neon tubing that is configured to display verbal and/or artistic information without the need to return the sign to the manufacturer for the purposes of exchange.
Historically, neon signs are custom made and remain in their original form for their entire life. A customer will buy a sign base or frame to which is mounted one or more power sources such as step-up transformers or electronic power supplies for energizing the tubing that is mounted to the base. If the neon tubing configurations that are formed to create a verbal or artistic effect become anachronistic or obsolete or if the gas in the tube begins to fade or flicker, it is often the case that the sign must be sent back to the manufacturer or a service person must be called to repair or change it.
Relatively small neon signs designed for indoor use are often placed at the point-of-sale of goods or services to create an effect or impression that is appropriate for some contemporary purpose but is at risk of becoming obsolete before the physical life of the sign has ended. For example, there are occasions were a business would like to replace the neon tubing in a sign and, in particular, the information or artistry it conveys because the original purpose of the sign has disappeared. One example would be where the sign naming or showing the shape of a new product is expressed by neon tubing. After the product is introduced and promoted adequately, the merchant or vendor may want to substitute the name of another product or a new brand name written by neon tubing. Some signs used at the point-of-sale may use neon tubing configured to create information of current but transitory interest to an event such as "Super Bowl" or "Olympics" in connection with a brand name to create a pleasing impression and natural association of a product with the event. When the event has occurred the sign owner may desire to replace the tubing to define a more contemporaneous scene.
The word neon tubing is used herein as a generic term which includes within its scope tubing containing other substances that can be excited to luminesce such as other inert gases and vaporized metals such as mercury and sodium.


Techniques for heterogeneous compute instance auto-scaling with reinforcement learning (RL) are described. A user specifies a reward function that generates rewards for use with an application simulation for determining what different instance types should be added to or removed from the application as part of training a RL model. The RL model can be automatically deployed and used to monitor an application to automatically scale the application fleet using heterogenous compute instances.

Multi-tenant provider networks are implemented using physical computing devices that are connected to each other via one or more networks. Typically, provider networks execute compute instances such as virtual machines to execute applications. The performance of these applications thus depends on a variety of factors, including the workload being placed on the applications and the number and type of compute instances implementing the applications. Moreover, as the workloads of many applications can significantly change over time, provider networks must be able to adapt to be able to handle these changing workloads.
Thus, elasticity is an important feature of provider networks. Elasticity generally refers to the ability to scale up or down the infrastructure—such as compute instances or other resources—to handle changing workload conditions. Often, provider networks provide scaling based on resource usage thresholds set by its users, which may be static values or formulaic. For example, the thresholds may be based on specific resource usage conditions associated with the compute instances run by the user, such as an average processor utilization or memory utilization. However, scaling based on these types of thresholds is not sufficient to scale complex applications such as multi-tier applications that often have complicated dependencies, further complicating a determination of which tier of the application, and what particular resource or resources (processing, memory, storage, networking, etc.) to scale.

Heterogeneous compute instance auto-scaling with reinforcement learning


An assembly includes a chip including an integrated circuit, a casing including an integrated circuit and having an upper portion formed on a side of the chip and lower portion formed on another side of the chip, plural through-wafer vias (TWVs) for electrically connecting the integrated circuit of the chip and the integrated circuit of the casing, and a card connected to the casing for electrically connecting the casing to a system board. The card includes an upper card connected to the upper portion of the casing, and a lower card connected to the lower portion of the casing. The upper card includes one of a photosensor, light emitting element, radio frequency (RF) antenna, and radio frequency emitter. The lower card includes an area array input/output.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an assembly including plural through wafer vias and more particularly, an assembly including through wafer vias that electrically connect an integrated circuit of a chip and an integrated circuit of a casing having upper and lower portions formed on a side of the chip.
2. Description of the Related Art
Commercially available cold plates for single and multi-chip applications are designed for uniform heat removal. However, the power dissipation of an IC-chip is strongly non-uniform. A cold plate designed for uniform heat flux with the maximal power density as design point is not economical, since its heat removal capability at cache locations is exceeding the needs and results in waste of pumping power and loss of energy. These problems get accentuated in 3D stacked chips since the space for fluid manifolding and for heat removal is constrained.
A related art method for providing heat dissipation in 3D stacked chips intersperses specialized cooling structures at periodic points within the monolithic structure of the chip stack. In this related art method, a special pair of chips is interspersed. One chip has had a trench etched into it, and the other acts as a cap. When the chips are put together and interspersed between active chips, the chips form cooling channels.
C-4 bumps provide electrical connection to the individual chips on one face of the structure, while the cooling channels are exposed on a second face. A fluid manifold is attached to the second face to provide coolant flow. The trenches may be etched in the cooling channels. More than one face may be used for electrical connection to the chip stack.
In another embodiment of this related art method, metal cooling plates of Aluminum, Copper, Molybdenum, etc. are interspersed between active chips. The C-4 bumps provide electrical connection to the individual chips on one side of the face of the structure, while the cooling plates are connected to a heat sink on a second face. More than one face may contain electrical connection to the chip stack.
However, in this related art method, the cap chip and trench chips are not active chips. Thus, this related art method is an inefficient use of space on the system board.

Assembly including plural through wafer vias, method of cooling the assembly and method of fabricating the assembly

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor substrate, and a MOS transistor provided on the semiconductor substrate and having a channel type of a first conductivity, the MOS transistor comprising a semiconductor region of the first conductivity type including first and second channel regions, gate insulating films provided on the first and second channel regions, a gate electrode provided on the gate insulating films, and first and second source/drain regions which are located at a distance from each other so as to sandwich the first and second channel regions, the first and second source/drain regions contacting the semiconductor region of the first conductivity type and forming a Schottky junction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device including a MOS transistor, and a method of manufacturing the semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an improved MOS transistor, a MOS transistor (Schottky source/drain transistor) that has source/drain regions with a Schottky junction (a Schottky source/drain structure) is known (Jakub Kedzierski, et al., IEDM Technical Digest, pp. 57-60, 2000). The source/drain regions of the transistor are conductive layers that contain a metal or a metal silicide, instead of impurity diffusion layers.
The Schottky source/drain transistor can reduce the parasitic resistance in the source/drain regions, and also can advantageously reduce the junction depth (the Schottky junction) of the source/drain regions.
Since impurity diffusion layers are not used for the source/drain regions, there is no need to perform a high temperature heating process to activate the impurity. Accordingly, the manufacturing process is greatly simplified, and as a result, the LSI manufacturing cost is reduced.
Further, as a Schottky barrier exists at the source edge, off current is suppressed, and, as a result, short channel effect is suppressed. Thereby, the device is easily miniaturized.
However, the conventional Schottky source/drain transistor has the following problems.
In the case of a usual transistor, source/drain regions are made of the same material (silicon) as channel region. Accordingly, there is no problem with the contact resistance between the channel region and the source/drain-regions.
On the contrary, in the case of the source/drain regions of the Schottky source/drain transistor, the source/drain regions are made of a different material from the channel region. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the contact resistance between the channel region and the source/drain regions (the interface resistance Rc between the Si and the silicide).
As a solution for the problem, there is a source/drain material work function control technology. For example, a method using a metal or silicide (such as ErSi2) having a small work function for the source/drain regions of an nmOS and using a metal or silicide (such as PtSi) having a large work function for the source/drain regions of a PMOS is proposed.
Using the work function control method, a Schottky barrier of an n-channel MOS (NMOS) transistor can be made to be approximately 0.28 eV, and a Schottky barrier of a p-channel MOS (PMOS) transistor can be made to be approximately 0.22 eV. Accordingly, source/drain regions (metal-silicide source/drain) with relatively low Schottky contact resistance can be formed for both of the nmOS and PMOS.
In this manner, the value of the Schottky barrier can be reduced by the work function control method, though, the above mentioned values are still too large to obtain sufficiently high current. However, with the work function control method only, a further decrease in the Schottky barrier is difficult due to bad influence of Fermi-level pinning effects.
Further, a technique for reducing an interface resistance Rc by providing an extension (an impurity diffusion layer) in the Schottky junction is proposed. However, it is difficult to form a shallow extension with high impurity concentration in a very small device.


The present invention relates to the field of communications technologies, and in particular, to a CSI reporting method, a CSI receiving method, and an apparatus, to resolve a technical problem that PUCCH resource overheads are relatively large during CSI reporting. In embodiments of the present invention, at least two PUCCH resources are configured for each downlink carrier group. CSI that needs to be reported in one uplink subframe may be obtained, and a format of a corresponding PUCCH resource is determined according to the to-be-reported CSI. For example, the determined format is referred to as a first format. Then, all of the to-be-reported CSI is reported after being added to a first first-format PUCCH resource.

In addition to supporting implicit feedbacks of channel status information such as an RI (rank indication), a CQI (channel quality indicator), and a PMI (precoding matrix indication) of an LTE system, an LTE-A (Long Term Evolution-Advanced) system may further support a direct feedback of channel status information such as a channel matrix feedback or a channel covariance matrix feedback, which are collectively referred to as a CSI (channel state information) feedback.
In the existing LTE R12 (LTE release 12), only a PUCCH resource in a PUCCH (physical uplink control channel) format 2 is used for CSI transmission. A maximum quantity of bits that are supported by the format is 11. In addition, a 32-CA (carrier aggregation) technology is introduced to an LTE R13 (LTE release 13) system. As stipulated in the LTE R10 (LTE release 10) standard, a parameter corresponding to CSI of each downlink carrier is independently configured, and parameters such as a PUCCH resource used to transmit CSI of each downlink carrier and a report period are also independently configured. In a 32-carrier aggregation scenario, CSI corresponding to each carrier needs to be reported by using a separate PUCCH resource. Therefore, overheads of PUCCH resources occupied for CSI reporting are relatively large. In other words, a throughput of an uplink system is reduced.

CSI reporting method, CSI receiving method, and apparatus


An apparatus and a concomitant method for speech recognition. In one embodiment, the present method is referred to as a “Dynamic Noise Compensation” (DNC) method where the method estimates the models for noisy speech using models for clean speech and a noise model. Specifically, the model for the noisy speech is estimated by interpolation between the clean speech model and the noise model. This approach reduces computational cycles and does not require large memory capacity.

Speech recognition systems are designed to undertake the difficult task of extracting recognized speech from an audio signal, e.g., a natural language signal. The speech recognizer within such speech recognition systems must account for diverse acoustic characteristics of speech such as vocal tract size, age, gender, dialect, and the like. Artificial recognition systems are typically implemented using powerful processors with large memory capacity to handle the various complex algorithms that must be executed to extract the recognized speech.
To further complicate the complex speech recognition process, the audio signal is often obtained or extracted from a noisy environment, e.g., an audio signal captured in a moving vehicle or in a crowded restaurant, thereby compromising the quality of the input audio signal. To address the noisy background or environmental contamination, the speech recognizer can be implemented with various noise compensation algorithms.
Noise compensation schemes include the Parallel Model Combination (PMC) and other model adaptation techniques. However, these schemes often require large amounts of memory and are computationally intensive. To illustrate, the PMC method is a method of adding and synthesizing a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) (speech HMM) learned by speech collected and recorded in a noiseless environment and an HMM (noise HMM) learned by noise. In the noise process of the PMC, it is presumed that additiveness of noise and speech is established in a linear spectrum region. In contrast, in the HMM, parameters of a logarithm spectrum system, such as a cepstrum and the like, are often used as a characteristic amount of the speech. According to the PMC method, those parameters are converted into the linear spectrum region and then are added and synthesized in the linear spectrum region of the characteristic amount, which is derived from the speech HMM and noise HMM. After the speech and the noise are synthesized, an inverse operation is performed to return the synthesized value from the linear spectrum region to the cepstrum region, thereby obtaining a noise superimposed speech HMM. However, although the PMC is effective in addressing additive noise, the PMC method is very computationally expensive because the nonlinear conversion is executed to all of the models. Namely, the amount of calculations is very large, the processing time is very long, and it may not be suitable for a real time application or a portable application where processing resources and memory capacity are limited.
Therefore, a need exists for a fast and computationally inexpensive method that addresses the problem of speech recognition in noisy environments without the need of any prior recognition pass or large memory capacity.

Method and apparatus for recognizing speech in a noisy environment


A component manager receives requests for component updates from a variety of sources, parses the requests and extracts URL information that identifies the location of a file containing the component resources. The component manager presents the URL to a download manager that asynchronously retrieves the component resources from the specified location and places the file in a staging area. Once the component resources have been downloaded, an install manager, also operating asynchronously from the component manager and the download manager, installs the component update.

New collaboration models have been developed which operate in a "peer-to-peer" fashion without the intervention of a central authority. One of these latter models is built upon direct connections between users in a shared private "space". In accordance with this model, users can be invited into, enter and leave a shared space during an ongoing collaboration session between other users. Each user has an application program called an "activity", which is operable in his or her personal computer system, communication appliance or other network-capable device which generates a shared "space" in that user's computer. The activity responds to user interactions within the shared space by generating data change requests, called "deltas." The activity also has a data-change engine component that maintains a local data copy and performs the changes to the data requested by the deltas. The deltas are distributed from one user to another over a network, such as the Internet, by a dynamics manager component. When the deltas are received by another user activity in the shared space, the local data copy maintained by that activity is also updated.
Subprograms within the activity program called "tools" perform various specific tasks. For example, an activity program might present various computer games. Within the overall game activity, tools might be available for a chess game and a tic-tac-toe game. Tools are defined by a template that is a document written in Extended Markup Language or XML. The XML template has various sections or tagged blocks that define various attributes of the tool that it defines.
An application constructed in accordance with this model consists of a collection of software components and resources, all of which are targeted for execution on a particular device. As used herein the term "components" will be used to refer to both the software code and the resources that are required for an application. This type of collaboration system is described in detail in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/357,007 entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ACTIVITY-BASED COLLABORATION BY A COMPUTER SYSTEM EQUIPPED WITH A COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER, filed Jul. 19, 1999 by Raymond E. Ozzie, Kenneth G. Moore, Robert H. Myhill and Brian M. Lambert; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/356,930 entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR ACTIVITY-BASED COLLABORATION BY A COMPUTER SYSTEM EQUIPPED WITH A DYNAMICS MANAGER, filed Jul. 19, 1999 by Raymond E. Ozzie and Jack E. Ozzie; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/356,148 entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRIORITIZING DATA CHANGE REQUESTS AND MAINTAINING DATA CONSISTENCY IN A DISTRIBUTED COMPUTER SYSTEM EQUIPPED FOR ACTIVITY-BASED COLLABORATION, filed Jul. 19, 1999 by Raymond E. Ozzie and Jack E. Ozzie and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/588,195 entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR EFFICIENT MANAGEMENT OF XML DOCUMENTS, filed Jun. 6, 2000 by Raymond E. Ozzie, Kenneth G. Moore, Ransom L. Richardson and Edward J. Fischer.
Computer software developers are often releasing new or upgraded versions of their software program components in order to correct problems or to add new features that were incomplete or unavailable when the software was originally released. However, in a collaborative system, such as that described above, the distribution of software is complicated by the dynamic nature of the collaborative activity. For example, a user who is invited to join a shared space may have a software component version that is incompatible with the version being used by other members of the shared space. Consequently, the user may not be able to interact with anyone in the shared space until his or her local software component (or components) is upgraded to the current version and, since the user cannot interact with the shared space, the user may not be able to determine which component or components must be upgraded.
In fact, the user may not know that a component upgrade is necessary until he or she is at the point of joining the shared space and, thus, the software upgrade may have to made unobtrusively while the user is waiting or using the collaboration system with other shared spaces.
In addition, collaboration systems, such as that described above, are complicated and may comprise many software components. Many users will not be sufficiently knowledgeable to determine which software components need to be added, upgraded or replaced and to determine the locations at which the new components can be obtained. Some software components may incorporate other software that is located at yet other locations. The result is a complex and confusing download procedure. Other users will not be sufficiently knowledgeable to install and initialize those software components once they are obtained.
In addition, since there is no central location with which all users must interact, there is also no central location from which software component upgrades can be released. Therefore, users may need to contact several locations, including download "farms", to obtain the necessary software components. Further, there is no central authority to enforce licensing restrictions or payment terms that may be imposed by some software developers on the transfer, or use, of software components that they developed. In addition, software components that incorporate other software components may require that licenses be obtained from several vendors, thereby making the licensing process complicated.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and apparatus for downloading, authenticating and installing software program components over a network without user intervention.
There is a further need for a method and apparatus for downloading, authenticating and installing software program components that can operate while the user is actively using a program that incorporates such components.
There is also a need for a method and apparatus for downloading, authenticating and installing software program components from diverse locations.
Finally, there is a need for a method and apparatus that can automatically enforce licensing restrictions without requiring that a user collaborate with the central location.

Method and apparatus for managing software component downloads and updates


A first capacitor is formed on a substrate and connected to a first differential node of a differential circuit, and a second capacitor is formed on the substrate and connected to a second differential node of the differential circuit. A third capacitor is connected between the first differential node and the second differential node, and is formed at least partially above the first capacitor. In this way, a size of the first capacitor and/or the second capacitor may be reduced on the substrate.

Capacitors may be used with or in many different types of integrated circuits or microchips ("chips"). For example, metal-oxide-semiconductor ("MOS") capacitors may be formed on a substrate, and may be used in circuits including, for example, filters, phase-locked loops, memory circuits, voltage control oscillators, switching circuits, or amplifiers. Additionally, such capacitors may be formed off of a chip containing the rest of the circuit(s), and then connected to the chip for operation of the circuit(s) as a whole.
A given example of such circuits may be implemented as either a single-ended circuit or as a differential circuit. For example, a differential circuit may be implemented as two single-ended circuits, where the two single-ended circuits are provided with different power supply and/or ground references with respect to one another. Then, for example, by designing and/or operating the references and/or the differential circuit such that signals input to each of the included single-ended circuits are equal and opposite of one another, various benefits may be obtained. For example, common-mode noise that is input to both of the two single-ended circuits may be rejected, and even-order distortions in the circuit(s) may be canceled at the differential output.
An example of a circuit that may be single-ended or differential includes the phase-locked loop. Such a circuit generally refers to a circuit that is constantly adjusted in frequency and phase to match an input signal. In this way, a phase-locked loop may be used, for example, to stabilize a communications channel, modulate/demodulate a signal, multiply a frequency, or for a number of other purposes. By implementing a differential phase-locked loop, then, advantages of differential circuits may be obtained in the context of frequency/phase matching operations. Of course, other types of differential circuits exist, and may include MOS capacitors, or other types of capacitors, and may be formed on one or more chips.


The invention provides a tooth polishing paste holder having a cup member, a connector member and a base member. The cup has an inner wall. The inner wall has a circumference less than 10 cm. The connector connects the cup to the base. The base is adapted to support the cup in an upright position on a horizontal surface.

The prior art uses metal rings and plastic fingerclips to hold polishing paste in a single use container. For example NUPRO (trademark) dental polishing paste is sold by Dentsply International Inc in a single use container. One prior art clip holds the container to a finger of a dentist (or hygienist) while the single use container is fixed on top of the clip.
Prior art fingerclip holders are able to clasp single use containers, but are not adapted to hold paste without a container. A prior art fingerclip, while in use is held firmly to the finger which presses on the finger becoming uncomfortable after a while. Sharp edges of the metal clips damage the user's examination glove(s). Prior art holder mounting and removal require the use of a second hand to move the holder from or to the user's finger. Thus, a prior art holder fingerclip cannot be removed from the user's finger by the hand on which the holder is mounted, so a second hand is needed. Prior art holders bend and loosen the hold on the container when removing polishing paste from the container. Retention for paste containers in prior art holders is therefore poor and decreases over time.

Holder for tooth treatment material and method


A system, method, and computer program product are provided for postponing the execution of primitive intersection. In operation, at, least one node traversal operation and at least one primitive intersection operation is executed, utilizing a parallel processing architecture. Additionally, the execution of the at least one primitive intersection operation is postponed.

Processor cores of current graphics processing units (GPUs) are highly parallel multiprocessors that execute numerous threads concurrently. Furthermore, threads of such processors are often packed together into groups, called warps, which are executed in a single instruction multiple data (SIMD) fashion. At any one instant, all threads within a warp may be nominally applying precisely the same instruction, each to its own private data values. If the processing unit is executing an instruction that some threads do not want to execute (e.g. due to conditional statement, etc.), those threads are idle. This condition, known as divergence, should be carefully avoided as idling threads are unutilized, thus reducing total computational throughput.
Many applications, at some point, traverse a data structure (e.g. a search tree, etc.) in response to a query. In some cases, data records are stored only at the leaf nodes (e.g. nodes with no corresponding child nodes, etc.). The rest of the nodes in the search tree are called inner nodes. This restriction is common in B+trees used in database and file systems, as well as in ray tracing hierarchies in the context of ray tracing.
For example, given a ray in space, it is desirable to discover which (if any) object (e.g. a geometric primitive or a group of primitives) in a scene is first intersected by the ray. In some cases, these geometric primitives (e.g. points, lines, triangles, etc.) may be organized in a tree, such as a bounding volume hierarchy (BVH), k-dimensional (kd) tree, or a binary space partitioning (BSP) tree. After the geometric primitives are organized in such tree, ray tracing involves traversing the tree, searching, for the leaf node or nodes that are intersected by a given ray. When such leaf node or nodes are found, the ray may be intersected against the primitives contained by the node or nodes.
A tree structure may be organized so that also inner nodes may contain primitives. In this case, inner nodes differ from leaf nodes only in that they contain other nodes. The nodes in this kind of tree structure may be processed in the same order as in a tree structure that may only contain primitives in leaf nodes. However, the ray may be intersected against primitives in both inner and leaf nodes.
Furthermore, the geometric primitives may be organized in a grid structure that may be traversed for determining ray-node intersections. In this case, each grid cell has a list of primitives that at least partially overlap the cell. The list may be empty if no primitive overlaps the cell. The traversal of grid acceleration structure includes finding the cell that contains the ray origin and stepping from cell to adjacent cells along the ray. When a cell that contains primitives is encountered, the ray may be intersected against the primitives contained by the cell.
Regardless of the particular type of structure used for organizing the primitives, there are two basic operations that need to be executed during the tracing of a ray. The first operation is node traversal, which typically includes intersecting the ray against one, two, or another predetermined number of nodes and choosing the node to be considered next. By repeated application of a node traversal operation, node or nodes that may contain primitives that the ray intersects may be found. The second operation is primitive intersection, i.e. intersecting the ray against the primitives in a node found during traversal. The execution of a ray tracing algorithm includes repeated application of these two operations in some order.
When formulating ray tracing algorithms on a highly parallel architecture such as a GPU, it is important to determine how rays and traversal tests are assigned to the various parallel threads of execution included in the parallel architecture. In particular, it is important to design a system to minimize divergence due to different threads in a warp making different decisions.
Various prior art techniques provide ways which allow rays to traverse a data tree independently. As a result, each ray visits only the nodes it actually intersects, such that redundant work is avoided. At any given time in a SIMD architecture, however, the entire warp has to be executing node traversal or primitive intersection due to the SIMD execution. This causes execution type penalties. For example, if node traversal is chosen to be executed, the threads that currently require primitive intersection to be executed will have to remain idle.
In one prior art technique, each thread is used to execute node traversal until a node that contains primitives is found. The node traversal continues until every thread in a warp has either found such node or terminated. Then each thread processes all primitives in the node it has found. Primitive processing continues until every thread in a warp has either processed all primitives in its node or terminated. This process is repeated until a ray terminates. This technique, known as the "while-while" technique, wastes a lot of computation resources, because an entire warp of threads must wait until the "slowest" ray has found a node that contains primitives. Similarly, the entire warp has to wait until the node that contains most primitives has been processed. Such technique is very inefficient in the context of SIMD architectures.
An alternative technique is the "if-if" technique. Using this technique, all rays that are to execute node traversal operation are first processed and all rays that are to execute primitive intersection operation are subsequently processed, for each step. A lot of processing power is wasted, because this technique executes a node traversal and/or primitive intersection operation even when only a single thread calls for such processing. As a result, the expected SIMD utilization of this method is also inefficient.
There is thus a need for addressing these and/or other issues associated with the prior art.

Parallel processing system, method, and computer program product for postponing the execution of primitive intersection


A screw feed and driver assembly which may constitute a part of a screw driving tool of the type having a prime mover, a speed and torque determining gear assembly and a clutch; which can constitute an accessory for a clutch containing manual feed power screw driver; and which, combined with a clutch, can comprise an accessory for a standard manual power drill. The screw feed and driver assembly comprises a feed housing with a slide body mounted therein and shiftable between forward and rearward positions. The slide body is biased to its forward position. The slide body receives a strip bearing screws. A contact foot is mounted on the slide body and shifts the slide body rearwardly when pressed against a workpiece. A screw driver, affixed to the clutch, extends into the slide body. The slide body contains a pawl and feed sprocket assembly. The sprocket engages notches in one edge of the screw bearing strip. When the slide body is shifted rearwardly by the contact foot, the pawl rotates the sprocket a predetermined amount to advance the forwardmost screw of the strip to a driving position. Further rearward movement of the slide body engages a driver with the forwardmost screw and thereafter actuates the clutch to drive the forwardmost screw. The mounting of the contact foot on the slide body can be adjusted to accommodate different length screws. An adjustable stop block determines the rearwardmost position of the slide body and the depth to which the screws are driven. An improved clutch mechanism substantially eliminates clutch chatter.

Prior art workers have devised many types of powered screwdrivers. These powered screwdrivers generally fall into three basic categories. The first is an accessory for a standard drill. The drill or the accessory may or may not include a clutch. A screw is manually held during the initial part of the screw driving operation. A second category of powered screwdrivers constitutes a dedicated power screwdriver tool containing a prime mover, a gear assembly to determine speed and torque, a clutch and a chuck to support a driver. Again, the screw is manually placed for driving. A third category comprises a self-feeding powered screwdriver. Commonly, such a screwdriver uses an elongated strip carrying a plurality of screws.
The present invention relates to a screw feed and driver assembly which, as will be apparent hereinafter, can be associated with a powered screwdriver of any of the three categories listed above. Heretofore, self-feeding screw driving tools have been prone to jamming, mis-feeds, and malfunctions. Generally, they are bulky and awkward to use. Frequently, they are difficult to adjust for different screw lengths.
The present invention is directed to a structure which eliminates these problems, provides easy adjustment for different screw lengths; and additionally provides for easy depth of drive adjustment.

Screw feed and driver for a screw driving tool