A medical wrap for the promotion of diabetic and like wound healing generally comprises a multi-layered sheet structure for removable application to a patient""s foot, said sheet structure having interposed therein an integral bladder; an inlet for fluid inflation of said bladder; and said sheet structure being adapted and said bladder being shaped to produce a non-shearing compressive force in the area of the patient""s first and fifth metatarsal heads upon fluid inflation of said bladder. The multi-layered sheet structure may comprise a first sheet and a second sheet, said first sheet forming the exterior of said structure and said second sheet forming the interior of said structure, said second sheet being more extensible than said first sheet. A padding layer of ester foam, or the like, may also be incorporated into each sheet.

The present invention relates to wound healing devices. More particularly, the invention relates to a therapeutic foot wrap for application of positive pressure to the first and fifth metatarsal head and heel regions of a patient suffering diabetic ulceration and/or like wounds.
An ulcer is commonly defined as a lesion on the surface of the skin, or on a mucous surface, manifested through a superficial loss of tissue. Ulcers are usually accompanied by inflammation and often become chronic with the formation of fibrous scar tissue in the floor region. Chronic ulcers are difficult to heal; they almost always require medical intervention and, in many cases, lead to amputation of the limb upon which they occur.
In general, ulcers may be attributed to any of a variety of factors reducing superficial blood flow in the affected region. Leg (including the foot) ulcers, in particular, are attributable to congenital disorders, external injury, infections, metabolic disorders, inflammatory diseases, ischaemia, neoplastic disorders and, most commonly, arterial disease, neuropathic disorders and venous insufficiency. Neuropathic and ischaemic ulcers commonly manifest in association with diabetes and, for this reason, are often referred to as diabetic ulcers. Although certainly not exhaustive, the table entitled Common Etiology of Leg Ulcers, highlights the frequency at which patients are placed at risk for the formation of this potentially devastating disease.
Perhaps as striking as the incidence of this disease, is the magnitude of the resources dedicated to the combat of its occurrence. It is estimated that leg ulcers cost the U.S. healthcare industry in excess of $1 billion annually in addition to being responsible for over 2 million annual missed workdays. Unfortunately, the price exacted by ulcers is not merely financial. Leg ulcers are painful and odorous open wounds, noted for their recurrence. Most tragic, diabetic ulcers alone are responsible for over 50,000 amputations per year. As alarming as are these consequences, however, the basic treatment regimen has remained largely unchanged for the last 200 years. In 1797, Thomas Baynton of Bristol, England introduced the use of strips of support bandages, applied from the base of the toes to just below the knee, and wetting of the ulcer from the outside. Standard of care treatment for ulcers affecting the foot has developed little beyond prevention oriented approaches. When management of the underlying disease condition fails to prevent ulcer formation, debridement and occlusive bandaging is about the only remaining option. As discussed in more detail herein, versions of these therapies remain the mainstay treatment to this day and, clearly, any improvement is of critical importance.
As noted above, the most common causes of leg ulcers are venous insufficiency, arterial disease, neuropathy, or a combination of these problems. Venous ulcers, in particular, are associated with abnormal function of the calf pump, the natural mechanism for return to the heart of venous blood from the lower leg. This condition, generally referred to as venous insufficiency or venous hypertension, may occur due to any of a variety of reasons, including damage to the valves, congenital abnormalities, arteriovenous fistulas, neuromuscular dysfunction, or a combination of these factors. Although venous ulcers tend to be in the gaiter area, usually situated over the medial and lateral malleoli, in severe cases the entire lower leg can be affected, resembling an inverted champagne bottle.
Diabetic and arterial ulcers, in particular, are associated with degenerative disease resulting in progressively narrowed vessel lumen which, in turn, causes obstructed blood flow. These types of ulcers are frequently found at sites of localized pressure or trauma. The diabetic patient (neuropathic ulcers), who may also suffer arterial disease, will often have impaired sensation in the foot area and will therefore likely be unaware of repeated trauma. This exacerbates ulceration in the traumatized or pressure-bearing areas, commonly the first and fifth metatarsal heads and over the heel.
Clinical modalities for prevention of venous ulcers generally focus on the return of venous blood from the lower extremities to the heart. Mechanical prophylaxes are widespread in the art of prevention and are often referred to as foot pumps or wraps, leg pumps or wraps and sequential compression devices, all of which function to prevent deep vein thrombosis (xe2x80x9cDVTxe2x80x9d), a common precursor to venous stasis ulcers. An exemplary foot pump is commercially available from Kinetic Concepts, Inc. of San Antonio, Tex. under the trademark xe2x80x9cPLEXIPULSE.xe2x80x9d An exemplary sequential compression device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,604 issued Jul. 16, 1991 to Dye (xe2x80x9cDyexe2x80x9d).
As generally described in Dye, mechanical prophylaxes for DVT prevention are directed toward the improvement of venous return. To this end, devices like that of Dye are adapted to take advantage of the naturally occurring valvular structure of the veins to squeeze the blood from a patient""s limb. For instance, the trademark xe2x80x9cPLEXIPULSExe2x80x9d device is adapted to intermittently compress the patient""s plantar venous plexus, promoting the return of blood from the patient""s foot upward and through the calf region. Likewise, and as generally described at column 2, lines 33 et seq. of Dye, leg compression devices are usually adapted to squeeze the patient""s leg first near the ankle and then sequentially upward toward the knee. This milking-type sequence may or may not be performed on a decreasing pressure gradient, but is always designed to move blood from the extremity toward the heart. It should be noted at this time that these types of devices are generally not appropriate for use in the intended function of the present invention as the described wraps tend to produce a shearing force in the region of the first and fifth metatarsal heads and over the heel.
Treatment of venous ulcers, on the other hand, is predominately centered about gradient compression, through bandaging, and leg elevation. Although it is not precisely known how or why they improve venous ulcer healing, compression therapies, specifically including compression bandaging techniques, are now the well-established mainstay for the treatment of venous stasis and other ulcers. In fact, it is generally undisputed that compression bandaging is the most efficacious method for wound healing, often resulting in overall improvement of the patient""s quality of life.
Among the predominant theories for explaining the effects of compression bandaging, edema reduction and control for the improvement of venous hemodynamic abnormality concomitant prolonged venous hypertension from valvular incompetency or dysfunction stands out. It is thought that the reduction and control of edema improves capillary microcirculation, in turn resulting in the elimination of venous ulcers. Another popular theory holds that reactive hyperemia is responsible for the success of compression bandaging. According to this theory, the arrest and subsequent restoration of blood flow to the affected region, known as Bier""s method, results in an ultimately increased presence of blood in the region. Regardless of the theory adopted, however, it is important to note that it is universally understood that a proper gradient must be established in order to derive the benefits of compression bandaging. This gradient is generally accepted as being from about 35 to 45 mm Hg at the ankle and reducing to about 15 to 20 mm Hg at just below the knee. Often stated in the literature as a prerequisite to good bandaging technique, the maintenance of graduated compression is critical to effective treatment of ulcers. Failure to initially obtain, and thereafter maintain, the desired sub-bandage pressures is fatal to the treatment regimen.
The criticality of establishing and maintaining the desired sub-bandage pressure directly results in significant disadvantages, associated with the application of compression bandaging in general, and serious hazards to the patient, associated with the misapplication of bandaging specifically. In particular, proper bandaging under the presently known methods requires a highly skilled caregiver in order to establish the desired sub-bandage pressures. Once established, however, the pressure gradient is difficult to monitor. In fact, the sub-bandage pressure is usually only monitored to the extent that the caregiver either observes or fails to observe a reduction in edema. This is particularly disturbing when one considers that it is to be expected that as properly applied bandaging performs its intended function edema will be reduced causing, in effect, the bandage to become loosened to a state of improper application where after edema will probably increase. More disturbing is the fact that over tightening of the bandage places the patient at direct risk for skin necrosis and gangrene, especially if the patient has arterially compromised limbs.
Unfortunately, there has been surprisingly little development in treatment protocols directed toward better achieving desired sub-bandage pressures. Even though the foregoing discussion highlights the necessity for frequent reapplication of the bandaging, the presently available treatment modalities are very difficult to apply. One common type of bandaging comprises four layers, including an orthopedic wool layer, a crepe bandage layer and two compression layers. The compression layer bandages are often provided with imprinted rectangles that become square upon achieving the correct tension. Although helpful, only two sets of markings are typically providedxe2x80x94one for normal size ankles and one for larger, and no provision is made for adaptation to changes in the level of edema. Another common treatment modality is the compression dressingxe2x80x94an elastic support stocking providing a compression of about 30 to 40 mm Hg. These stockings, however, are often impractical for elderly patients or patients with arthritis who may find them difficult to put on the leg and for the patient with large or exudative ulcers, which require frequent dressing changes, compression stockings are thought to be prohibitively impractical. While the foregoing discussion makes clear that the theory of compression bandaging, albeit limited in application, is sound for the treatment of wounds, it is unfortunately very difficult to extend to treatment of wounds on or about the feet. Compression bandages simply are not readily adapted for application to a foot.
As this discussion makes apparent, the need for treatment modalities beyond the presently known compression bandaging techniques is great. Unfortunately, the mechanical prophylaxes utilized in prevention therapies are not generally extendable to wound healing. Although, recent reports have indicated that achieving sustained sub-bandage pressures near 40 mm Hg may be more efficacious in providing timely wound healing than lower pressure levels and the present applicant has found that mechanical prophylaxes are generally better able to deliver higher pressures, caution is warranted. Because some 20 percent or more of patients with venous ulcers may also have some degree of co-existing lower extremity arterial disease, it is important to clarify the possible impact of higher levels of compression bandaging on lower extremity skin circulation. Studies show that mechanically produced compression levels may produce ischaemic not noted at similar compression levels obtained through bandaging. The reductions in leg pulsatile blood flow associated with mechanical prophylaxes often occur at compression levels below that necessary for good bandaging effects. This result, sometimes called cuffing, has resulted in most mechanical prevention prophylaxes being contraindicated for patients exhibiting DVT. Consequently, those of ordinary skill in the art have to date steadfastly avoided mechanical prophylaxes for the treatment of venous stasis and other ulcers or edema of the extremities.
The end result is that the patient once suffering from diabetic ulcers is left at the mercy of an extraordinarily high recurrence rate and is thought to be at severe risk for eventual amputation. This leads to emotional complication of the treatment process. Because preventing recurrence is as great a challenge as healing the ulcer, new and improved methods and apparatus for treatment of leg ulcers are desperately needed. In addition, because careful skin care and compression therapy must continue throughout the patient""s lifetime, it is imperative to the patient""s long-term health care to provide a low-cost, easily applied solution with which the patient may be assured of receiving effective therapy.
Additionally, many other problems, obstacles and challenges present in existing modalities for the treatment of leg ulcers will be evident to caregivers and others of experience and ordinary skill in the art. With the severe shortcomings of the prior art in mind, it is an overriding object of the present invention to improve generally over the prior art in providing a wound treatment apparatus that is adaptable to the changing physiology of a patient, is simple to use and is sure to produce the desired treatment.
In accordance with the foregoing objects, the present inventionxe2x80x94a foot wrap for the promotion of healing ulcers and like wounds of the footxe2x80x94generally comprises a multi-layered sheet structure for removable application to a patient""s foot, having interposed therein an integral bladder, and an inlet for fluid inflation of the bladder. The sheet structure is preferably adapted and the bladder is preferably shaped to produce a non-shearing compressive force in the area of the patient""s first and fifth metatarsal heads upon fluid inflation of the bladder.
Finally, many other features, objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the relevant arts, especially in light of the foregoing discussions and the following drawings, exemplary detailed description and appended claims.


A device for processing and storing data, in particular a chip card, includes a first interface with contacts and a second contactless interface for receiving energy or power from and for communication with a terminal device. A first controllable switching device connects either the first or the second interface to a non-volatile semiconductor memory through address, data and control lines. A logic circuit drives the first controllable switching device. A second controllable switching device disposed between the first controllable switching device and the memory can be driven at least by the logic circuit and an address signal present on the address lines.

Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device for processing and storing data, in particular a chip card, having a first interface with contacts and a second contactless interface for receiving energy or power from and for communication with a terminal device, a nonvolatile semiconductor memory, a controllable switching device through which either the first or the second interface can be connected to the semiconductor memory through address, data and control lines, and a logic circuit which drives the controllable switching device.
Such a device is known from German Patent DE 39 35 364 C1. The combined chip card disclosed therein can be supplied with power both by galvanic contacting and contactlessly by inductive coupling through the use of a transmitting unit. Data exchange also takes place by both types of transmission, with power and data being fed from the contact interface directly through a multiplexer to a processing unit and a memory, whereas in the case of the contactless type of transmission a circuit which is disposed between the inductive interface and the multiplexer obtains the data and a d.c. voltage from a radio-frequency signal that is received, or modulates a carrier signal to be transmitted with a data signal in order to feed the signals through the multiplexer to the processing unit and the memory or to receive them from there.
The form of such combined chip cards is admittedly customary nowadays, but other forms of such devices are also conceivable for the processing and storing of data. Keys are also currently in common use and watches have also been proposed. A conceivable possible use of such combined chip cards is to be seen in local transport, where passengers have a card in their pocket or bag with a memory storing a value of money that is reduced by the price of the journey through the contactless type of transmission when they board a type of transport. After the value of the money has been used up, the memory can be "recharged" at a bank terminal, preferably by the type of transmission with contacts, in such a way that the same amount is debited from a current account or has to be inserted in cash.
However, in the case of the known chip card both types of transmission are of entirely equal ranking and, moreover, the multiplexer is automatically switched over to that type of transmission from which the higher supply voltage is coming.
In the case of almost all of the forms in which the known chip card is used, in which a datum stored in the memory corresponds to a value of money that may be used for paying for goods or services and which can be increased again at a bank terminal, for example, in order to make it possible to reuse the card, it is desirable however if this "recharging" is possible only by the type of transmission with contacts. The "recharging" of the card is a highly sensitive operation which necessitates a series of security precautions that cannot be accomplished in contactless data transmissions, since it is not even possible to construct the device for transmission in such a way that it is immune to interception. However, in the case of the type of transmission with contacts, it is already known to allow communication between a card and a terminal in which the card is inserted to be established only when the card is inaccessible in a lockable insert compartment of the terminal.

Device for processing and storing data received from either a contactless interface or an interface having contacts


The invention is related to security method for the verification of an Information Retrieval Request (10) which requests a transmission of data (20) from a Location Register Server (LR) to a Sending Entity (30) in a Mobile Communication Network (100), comprising the following steps: receive an Information Retrieval Request (10) from the Sending Entity (20); extract at least one Specification Code (12) for specifying the Sending Entity (20) and/or a Mobile Subscriber (MS) out of the Information Retrieval Request (10); compare the extracted at least one Specification Code (12) to a Verification List (14); based on the result of the comparison with the Verification List (14), allow or prohibit the transmission of data (20) requested in the Information Retrieval Request (10).

1. Field of Invention
The present invention is related to a security method for the verification of an Information Retrieval Request, a computer program product being stored in a computer-readable medium to carry out such a security method, a Security Device for the verification of an Information Retrieval Request as well as a Mobile Communication Network comprising such a Security Device.
2. Background Art
It is state of the art that different kinds of protocols are used for communication in a complex Mobile Communication Network. For example, in a Mobile Communication Network different kinds of servers are located. The different kinds of servers can be separated by their use and location. For example, a so-called Visited Location Register Server (VLR) can be used to coordinate several network cells and the respective network antennas and to store information from subscribers that are located in the VLR. Moreover, a so-called Home Location Register Server (HLR) can be used to store general or basic information for the network and in particular with respect to the users of the network, the so-called network subscribers and to store the present address of the VLR and the MSC of the subscriber that is logged in to the Mobile Communication Network. In commonly known Mobile Communication Networks, information about the mobile subscribers has to be passed between the different servers, in particular in circuit switched networks between the VLR and the HLR, or in the case of packet switched networks, between the Serving CPRS Support Node (SGSN) and the HLR. Sometimes the VLR is integrated or stored in the Mobile Switching Center (MSC) and therefore subscriber information is stored in the MSC/VLR or in the Mobile Switching Center Server (MSCS) and therefore in the so-called MSCS/VLR. The SGSN is at the same hierarchical level in the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) core network as a MSC in a circuit switched core network, e.g. a GSM network. The SGSN contains a register that is called SGSN Location register (SLR), which stores subscriber information similar to the information stored in the VLR in the MSC, i.e. the MSC/VLR pair is comparable to the SGSN/SLR pair. In the following specification an Information Retrieval Request may be directed to any of such kinds of Location Registers. Such a Location Register may be, for example, the VLR, the MSC/VLR, the MSCS/VLR, the SGSN or the SGSN/SLR or any similar equipment in a Mobile Communication Network. The Information Retrieval Request may be performed to retrieve certain subscriber information from the Location Register respectively Location Register Server. Such information can, for example, be basic information stored in the HLR and passed to the Location Register, e.g. the VLR or the SGSN. This leads to a communication in a first direction. The other way round, data which is stored on the Location Register, e.g. the VLR or the SGSN, can also be transmitted to the HLR, for example, to give the HLR notice where the different mobile subscribers are located in the respective cell or in the respective area coordinated by the respective VLR or SGSN. The data stored in the Location Register, e.g. the VLR or the SGSN can, for example, comprise information about the location, the usage or the movement of the mobile subscriber.
It has occurred that by the increase of technical possibilities in the network industry, a security problem can arise with commonly known structures of Mobile Communication Networks. For example, the risk exists that retrieval of data is requested by an outside server which is not an authorized HLR. This means, retrieval of data can be requested, for example, from a frauded HLR which is not part of the Mobile Communication Network that is operated by the Mobile Network Operator to which a certain user is registered or from a frauded HLR which is not located in the same country as a certain user is registered to a Mobile Network Operator. Therefore, in commonly known Mobile Communication Networks such an outside Sending Entity can label itself as a fraud or fake HLR and therefore tries to request secured information located on the respective Location Register, e.g. VLR or SGSN.

Security method for the verification of an information retrieval request


A programmable logic device of the present invention is constructed to reduce the number of switching elements in wire switches when programmably connecting logical elements by using wire groups. A plurality of programmable wire groups are wired in vertical and horizontal channels between logical elements arranged in array. The wire groups are combined to intersect preferably in crosses. The wire groups are short-circuit-connected at the intersections or connected through programmable switching elements. Programmable connections are effected through wire switching means middled between the wire elements provided between the adjacent intersections. Hence, the programmable logic device of this invention is capable of reducing the areas occupied by the switching elements in the switching means and attaining a high degree of freedom of wiring and a high integration.

The present invention relates to a programmable logic device including a plurality of logical elements and capable of arbitrarily programmably connecting these logical elements and, more particularly, to a programmable logic device capable of enhancing a switch using efficiency of wire groups by reducing the number of switching elements to be embedded.
A conventional programmable logic device 50 is, as illustrated in FIG. 9, composed of logical elements 51 arranged in array and wire groups 52, 53 each consisting of, e.g., 3 lengths of wires extending lengthwise or crosswise between these logical elements 51. Programmable wire switches 54 including switching elements for programmably connecting the vertical and horizontal wires are provided at intersections of the horizontally and vertically arranged wire groups 52 and 53, respectively. Further, I/O switches 55, 56 are provided for every vertical wire group 53 corresponding to the respective logical elements 51. Input signals from I/O switch 55 to the logical element 51 are transferred and received via, e.g., four wires 57 between the logical element 51 and the vertical wire group 53, while output signals from the logical element 51 to the I/O switch 56 are transferred and received via, e.g., two wires 58 between the logical element 51 and the vertical wire group 53.
The above-mentioned programmable wire switch (hereinafter simply referred to as a wire switch) 54 is required to include, for instance, at least 54 pieces of switching elements in the conventional device of FIG. 9 to programmably mutually connect all the wires extending in the vertical and horizontal directions. More specifically, as in a wiring example shown in FIG. 10, it is required that 9 switching elements 59 be provided for one combined wire thereof. As can be understood from a combination in the wiring example shown in FIG. 11, it follows that 54 pieces of switching elements 59 are needed. Namely, all the wires are connectable by the 54 switches. Note that in FIG. 11, the mark .largecircle. indicates the switching elements 59. This switching element 59 may involve the use of a memory-attached switching element 63, e.g., constructed by connecting a gate electrode of an NMOS transistor 61 to a simply illustrated SRAM cell 60 depicted in FIG. 8(a) and 8(b). All or a part of the wires are connectable or disconnectable from each other through the memory-attached switches, whereby arbitrary wiring can be programmably actualized.
The thus constructed programmable logic device 50 described above, however, presents the following problem. When connecting the signals between the adjacent logical elements 51, the number of the switching elements 59 in the wire switches 54 tends to increase for making the wire switches 54 connectable to the 3-way wires after the passage. That is, when the number of the connected elements increases, a parasitic capacity augments, or the area enlarges. This causes a defect in which the operation speed is decreased.


Biopsy forceps have a handle located at the proximal end and an end jaw assembly located at the distal end. The handle and jaw assembly are connected by a flexible catheter tube. The handle includes a body portion and an actuator portion that controls the jaw assembly. The actuator is axially displaced relative to the handle body to open and close the pair of opposed jaws. The jaw assembly consists of a housing composed of a first and second portion, which holds the pair of opposed jaws and a distal actuator. The distal actuator is controlled by the handle actuator which controls the jaws positioning. A locking mechanism is attached to the handle actuator and can lock the jaws in an open position. To close the jaws, the locking mechanism can be pushed to its unlocked position and the actuator slid to its back position.

Biopsy forceps are used to obtain tissue samples from a particular site in a patient's body for analysis. Such samples can be taken from the heart, stomach, lungs and the like. Typical biopsy forceps include a long flexible catheter tube having a pair of opposed jaws at a distal end and a handle with an actuator at the proximal end. The physician can manipulate the actuator to open and close the jaws.
In order to take a tissue sample from a patient, the physician must insert the catheter tube into a guide sheath which has been inserted into one of the patient's vessels. Next, the distal end of the biopsy forceps is inserted into the guide sheath, which then guides it into the patient's vessel. From the patient's vessel the physician can direct the catheter tube to the site the physician wishes to biopsy. Once the catheter tube is directed to the biopsy site, the physician can control the jaws using the handle, which remains outside the patient's body. By using a trigger located on the handle, the physician can open and close the jaws of the device in order to take a tissue sample. Once the tissue sample has been taken, the physician must keep the jaws in a closed position to remove the sample from the patient's body. Once the sample has been removed from the patient's body, it can be removed from the forceps and examined.
Multiple handle assemblies have been used to maneuver the catheter tube and jaw assembly into the proper position to perform the biopsy. The first biopsy forceps did not contain a locking mechanism to keep the jaws opened while the physician removes the biopsy sample. Therefore, the physician had to hold the jaws open while positioning the jaw assembly for tissue removal, which often required the use of two hands or another person.
Other biopsy forceps contain a locking mechanism to lock the forceps in a closed position. By locking the forceps in a closed position the physician is able to ensure that the jaws do not cut the patient's vessel as the catheter tube travels to the biopsy site and also ensures that the tissue sample remains in the jaws once the sample is taken.
Later biopsy forceps locking mechanisms are used to lock the forceps in an open position. By locking the biopsy forceps in an open position, the physician is able to position the jaws for tissue sample removal without having to hold the biopsy forceps in the open position. In addition, these biopsy forceps remain in a closed position while unlocked to enable the physician to more easily move the catheter tube through the patient's vessel and to remove the tissue sample from the patient's body. These biopsy forceps also allow the physician to remove the tissue sample from the jaws without the aid of another person to hold the jaws in the open position. However, these locking mechanisms are incorporated into the handle body, which can result in the forceps lock slipping and the jaws closing before the physician wants them to.
Accordingly, what is needed is a locking mechanism, which is not incorporated with the handle body. By having the locking mechanism incorporated with the handle body the potential for the physician to accidentally release the lock while positioning the jaws at the biopsy site increases. Also what is needed is a locking mechanism which is easier for the physician to control.

Biopsy forceps with hold open jaw feature


A modular articulated-lever clamping system having a base flange fittable to a pedestal fitted with a supporting element for supporting sheet metal parts; a control lever operated manually and/or by means of an actuator; a lock lever fittable with a gripping element for gripping the sheet metal parts and cooperating with the supporting element; and a connecting rod connecting the control lever to the lock lever. Respective first ends of the levers are hinged respectively to the base flange by a first and a second hinge element, and the connecting rod is hinged to a transverse appendix of the control lever by a third hinge element; the transverse appendix projects laterally from the control lever towards the lock lever, and is offset with respect to the first hinge element, so that the third hinge element is connected to the control lever in a position which, with respect to the first hinge element, is eccentric both in a direction parallel to the radial extension of the control lever, and at the same time in a direction perpendicular to the aforementioned direction; and the first hinge element is in the form of an eccentric pin for adjusting the center of rotation of the control lever.

The present invention relates to a modular, articulated-lever system for precision clamping mechanical elements for assembly, in particular sheet metal parts for welding.
Currently used clamping systems of the above type (known simply as clamps), for holding together sheet metal (e.g. automotive) parts during welding, pose various drawbacks. In particular, currently marketed clamps no longer meet the changed requirements of medium- or large-scale production following the introduction, in both product and tool design, of three-dimensional computer-assisted, as opposed to physical, models. Such clamps, in fact, are basically weak and of negligible cost as compared with the blocks required to form complete clamping assemblies, so that any saving from the use of commercial clamps, as compared with the cost of a specially designed tool, is more than made up for by increased accessory costs.
Moreover, known commercial clamps are unreliable, due to failure to withstand lateral loads, and the fact that no provision whatsoever is made to ensure correct retention of the sheet metal parts, thus resulting in poor quality of the finished product. Both these disadvantages are also a consequence of known clamps not originally featuring flat surfaces on which to fix and support the numerically controlled milled blocks, which surfaces are welded on and machined later, with fairly poor results in terms of accuracy. Finally, known clamps easily work loose, and therefore require frequent adjustment involving stoppage of the production line.

System for precision clamping mechanical elements for assembly, in particular sheet metal parts for welding


A child-resistant dispensing closure includes a base having a deck with a dispensing opening, a peripheral skirt extending from the deck, and an inner wall extending from the deck for securing the closure to a container. An axial passage extends from the deck between the peripheral skirt and the inner wall, and opens radially outwardly through the peripheral skirt. A pair of spaced ledges are disposed in the axial passage. A lid is molded integrally with the base and is coupled by a hinge to the base so as to be pivotable between a closed position overlying the deck and an open position spaced from the deck. The lid has a latch arm that resiliently extends from a periphery of the lid. The latch arm has a pair of oppositely extending tabs for engagement with the ledges to lock the lid in the closed position. The latch arm is directly manually engageable by a user from a radial direction external to the closure to pivot the latch arm radially inwardly within the passage and release the tabs from the ledges so that the lid can be pivoted toward the open position drawing the latch arm out of the axial passage.

U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,638,916 and 5,489,035 disclose dispensing closures of one-piece integrally molded plastic construction. These closures include a base with a dispensing opening and an internally threaded skirt for securement to a container neck finish. A lid is integrally connected by a hinge to a periphery of the base. Copending application Ser. No. 10/628,521 discloses a child-resistant dispensing closure that includes a base having a deck with a dispensing opening and a peripheral skirt. A lid is integrally molded with the base and coupled by a hinge to a periphery of the base so as to be pivotable between closed and open positions. One of the lid and the base has a latch arm resiliently extending from its periphery diametrically opposite the hinge. The latch arm has a pair of oppositely extending tabs adjacent to a free end of the arm. The other of the base and the lid has an axial passage for receiving the latch arm, and a pair of laterally spaced ledges in the passage for engagement by the tabs to lock the lid in a closed position. The latch arm is directly manually engageable by a user from a radial direction external to the closure to pivot the latch arm radially inwardly within the passage and release the tabs from the ledges so that the lid can be pivoted to the open position.
The present disclosure embodies a number of aspects or inventions that may be implemented separately from or in combination with each other.
A child-resistant dispensing closure in accordance with one aspect of the present disclosure includes a base having a deck with a dispensing opening, a peripheral skirt extending from the deck, and an inner wall extending from the deck for securing the closure to a container. An axial passage extends from the deck between the peripheral skirt and the inner wall, and opens radially outwardly through the peripheral skirt. A pair of spaced ledges are disposed in the axial passage. A lid is molded integrally with the base and is coupled by a hinge to the base so as to be pivotable between a closed position overlying the deck and an open position spaced from the deck. The lid has a latch arm that resiliently extends from a periphery of the lid. The latch arm has a pair of oppositely extending tabs for engagement with the ledges to lock the lid in the closed position. The latch arm is directly manually engageable by a user from a radial direction external to the closure to pivot the latch arm radially inwardly within the passage and release the tabs from the ledges so that the lid can be pivoted toward the open position drawing the latch arm out of the axial passage. The base preferably has a fulcrum on the deck adjacent to the axial passage for engagement by the latch arm to increase the resistance of the latch arm to bending within the axial passage. The tabs preferably have inside surfaces aligned with an outside surface of the lid adjacent to the latch arm to facilitate demolding of the closure.

Child-resistant flip-top dispensing closure, package and method of manufacture


A gun having a gas cartridge retaining device comprises a gun device having a hand grip, and a gas cartridge retaining device disposed at the bottom of the hand grip. The hand grip has a cartridge holding chamber for receiving a gas cartridge. Pull up a camshaft lever of a gas cartridge retaining device to push the upper piston element upwardly, such that the gas cartridge is retained in a gun. Pull open the camshaft lever to release the upper piston element, such that the gas cartridge can be taken off. In this way, the gas cartridge can be installed or detached from the gun quickly.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gas powered hand gun having a gas cartridge retaining device. The retaining device comprises a quick release and reloading camshaft mechanism for the speedy power cartridge replacement.
2. Description of Relative Prior Art
Conventional CO2 cartridge is mounted in an air gun which has a cartridge retaining device to lock the cartridge inside the gun for pellets shooting.
Referring to FIG. 1, an air gun 1a has a hand grip 11a having a cartridge storing groove 12a. A grip cover 3a is used to cover the cartridge storing groove 12a, a CO2 cartridge 4a is loaded inside the groove 12a. A conventional cartridge locking device 2a is disposed at the bottom of the hand grip 11a. The locking device 2a comprises a tightening screw 21a and a locking pad 22a. The screw 21a is turned inward into the groove 12a inside the hand grip 11a. Therefore, turning the screw 21a is to tighten and raise the pad 22a to lock the cartridge 12a in place for shooting.
After empty the gas inside the CO2 cartridge from shooting, the steps of replacing a CO2 gas cartridge 4a is first to remove the hand grip cover 3a, loosen the tightening screw 21a to lower the locking pad 22a, remove the cartridge 4a to empty the groove 12a, reload a new CO2 cartridge 4a in place, tighten the screw 21a, and then closing the grip cover 3a. Therefore, the replacing steps are very complex and very time consumption.
As discussed above, the prior art has a lot of drawbacks that could be improved upon. The present invention aims to resolve these drawbacks and greatly simplify the steps and at meantime reducing the time needed for the cartridge replacement action, consequently speed up the cartridge replacement to maximize the pleasure of shooting.


Methods and nodes (300a, 300b, 302) for handling a usage policy (P1.P2) pertaining to source data (D1,D2) generated by a source node (300a, 300b). The usage policy dictates permission to access and use the source data. The source node calculates a signature (Sig) based on an identification (id_D) of the source data and the usage policy (P) of the source data, and provides the source data, its usage policy and the calculated signature to a data processing node (302). The data processing node then generates new data (D3) based on the source data, and calculates a new signature (Sig3) based on an identification (ldj_)3) of the new data and at least one of: a new usage policy (P3) pertaining to the generated new data, and the usage policy (P1, P2) of the source data. The data processing node finally provides the new data, the usage policies (P1, P2, P3) and the signatures (Sig1, Sig2, Sig3) to a data receiving node (304) which is thereby enabled to verify and comply with the provided usage policies based on the respective associated signatures.

In the field of telecommunication, data distribution networks with various data generating sensors and devices are sometimes employed to distribute often huge amounts of data in order to provide knowledge about different locations and environments to parties needing or wanting such sensor generated information. In this context, the term "sensors" is often used to denote any entities capable of registering or measuring some measurable metric or quantity and of communicating the results, e.g. at regular intervals or upon receiving a request or some trigger information, by sending source data through the network. The source data may for example refer to some physical measure such as temperature or pressure for surveillance of an object or a space, or to some counted metric such as the number of passing cars or the like. This source data can then be processed by data processing nodes having received the source data, to produce new data derived from the source data, e.g. by performing various calculations and compilations. An illustrative example may be to receive multiple temperature measurements at regular intervals from one or more sensors and then calculating an average temperature for a certain period which is then delivered to a surveillance centre.
However, the providers of source data may in some cases want to restrict access and usage of their source data which may contain sensitive or secret information, e.g. personal information which only a limited set of parties are allowed to access. It is in that case possible to apply a policy for the data which dictates what party or node is permitted to access the source data and possibly also how the source data is permitted to be used. Naturally, more than one party or node may be permitted to access the source data. This type of policy will be referred to as "usage policy" in this description. A usage policy may comprise a set of rules which determine various restrictions and/or permissions for accessing and using the protected data.
In the following description, the term "source node" will be used to represent any sensors, counters and other entities capable of generating and communicating source data. FIG. 1 illustrates how data can be propagated through a data distribution network where source nodes denoted "SN" generate and send source data which is received by data processing nodes 102, 104. In this example, a first data processing node 102 receives source data D from three source nodes 100a. The data processing node 102 then processes the received source data in order to produce some new data D′ which is thus derived from the received source data D. The data processing node 102 sends the new data D′ to another data processing node 104 which performs more processing of the received data D′ and possibly also of source data D received from other source nodes 100b, as indicated by dashed lines in the figure.
In this way, the second data processing node 104 generates further new data D″ which is thus derived from both source data D and previously processed data D′. In this example, the second data processing node 104 delivers the resulting data D″ to a "data receiving node" 106 denoted "RN". The nodes 102, 104 and 106 can thus be seen as direct or indirect users of the original source data D. It should be noted that both data processing nodes 102, 104 can also be regarded as data receiving nodes in this context which term is used to simply indicate that the nodes receive data from one or more preceding nodes. It can be understood that the above-illustrated distribution of data originating from various source nodes may be cascaded in any number of steps which could involve any number of nodes.
When the providers of source data want to control and restrict access to their source data by means of a usage policy, it is possible today to control enforcement of that policy in the first distribution step, i.e. for any processing or receiving node in direct communication with the source node. In the shown example of FIG. 1, the three source nodes 100a send their source data to the first data processing node 102 and are therefore able to apply and enforce their usage policies on the latter node 102, e.g. by using shared keys or the like needed to "open" the source data. For example, it is possible to employ an authentication procedure between two interconnected nodes to enforce a usage policy that regulates whether data sent from one of the nodes to the other can be accessed or not. However, a usage policy is normally bound to a specific piece of data with a given identity and once new data is derived from the source data at the receiving/processing node, it becomes a new piece of information with a new identity for which the original policy is no longer valid.
In the next distribution step of FIG. 1, the first data processing node 102 may apply and enforce its own usage policy on the newly generated data D′ when delivered to the second data processing node 104, but any usage policies of the original source data D will be lost in this step unless manually copied into the new policy of the new data D′. Further, the second data processing node 104 may likewise apply its own policy on the further processed data D″ when distributing it to other processing and/or data receiving nodes, potentially unknown to the providers of the source data.
As a result, it is a problem that providers of source data have no way of controlling how their source data is used and by what parties or nodes beyond the first distribution step. The sender of source data or processed data has thus no way of knowing if a policy of that data is enforced and followed at all subsequent receivers of the data and/or of any new data derived therefrom. Further, if a usage policy of the source data is copied at each distribution step, it is not possible for subsequent receivers to verify the origin of that usage policy and make sure that it has not been faked or manipulated along the way. Yet another problem is that it is not possible to enforce and verify different policies for different sets, or versions, of processed data originating at least partly from the same source data, e.g. when processed at different points by different processing nodes.

Methods and nodes for handling usage policy


A premold for a powercord includes a housing which is provided with a network of walls and partitions that form channels and cavities adapted to securely receive a plurality of busbar stampings, each having multiple female contacts. Each busbar stamping has a crossbar, a plurality of female contacts and a wire crimp extension which extends outwardly from a rear wall of the housing for connection by crimping to a corresponding wire of a power supply cable. A front wall of the housing includes a plurality of outlet sites, each of which is adapted to receive a male electrical plug.

The present invention relates to electrical outlets, and more particularly to multi-receptacle female outlets.
Various types of electrical outlets have been proposed in the past. Brown et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,603,638 and Shulman et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,647,751, which are owned by the assignee of the present application, each disclose the broad concept of a pre-mold for a powercord that has a single female electrical outlet site. The Brown et al. ""638 patent discloses a two-piece pre-mold that holds a plurality of blade-type receptacle contacts that have distally located wire crimping ends. The Shulman et al. ""751 patent also discloses a two-piece pre-mold, but instead holds a plurality of clothespin-type receptacle contacts.
Brown et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,443,400 and 5,888,105, which are also owned by the assignee of the present application, relate to a molded powercord with multiple female outlet sites. Each of these patents also discloses electrical contact stampings, each of which has multiple female blade-type contacts and a wire crimping end. Furthermore, each female contact is sized, shaped and positioned so as to provide one contact for a corresponding one of the multiple outlet sites. The patents do not, however, disclose a housing or casing which is provided with an internal structure adapted to receive contact stampings. Rather, the stampings of these patents are held in their preferred spatial relationship by a spacer element and overmolding.
Doudon U.S. Pat. No. 5,582,520 and Lax U.S. Pat. No. 4,717,350 both relate to electrical outlet units that include rigid two-piece housings, rather than pre-molds, with multiple female outlet sites on one exterior wall thereof. Each outlet site comprises three openings in the exterior wall that are each sized and shaped so as to receive a male blade of an electrical plug. The Lax ""350 patent utilizes wires, rather than stampings, to provide the electrical contacts for each outlet. The Doudon ""520 patent discloses a housing with exterior and interior walls where the interior walls define cavities and recesses that are sized and shaped so as to receive electrical contacts therein.
Blanche U.S. Pat. 5,816,860 discloses a female outlet adapter with multiple outlet sites and stampings with multiple blade-type female receptacles. The adapter does not, however, include a pre-mold.
Lee U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,907 also relates to an electrical unit with multiple female outlets. The electrical unit disclosed in the Lee ""907 patent does not, however, include a pre-mold.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a multi-receptacle outlet incorporating a premold that securely holds a plurality of contacts that is suitable for overmolding to yield a composite multi-receptacle female outlet.
The problems and disadvantages associated with the conventional techniques and devices utilized as electrical outlets are overcome by the present invention which includes a premold for a powercord that has multiple female electrical outlet sites. In one embodiment, the premold includes a housing which is provided with a network of walls and partitions that form channels and cavities adapted to securely receive a plurality of busbar stampings, each with multiple female contacts. In addition, an external front wall of the housing is provided with three outlet sites, each of which has three openings (i.e., ground, positive and negative openings) that are shaped and sized to receive corresponding male contacts of an electrical plug. More particularly, each busbar stamping has a crossbar, three female contacts and a wire crimp extension. The wire crimp extension of each stamping extends from the back of the crossbar and connects by crimping to a corresponding wire of a power supply cable.
In a preferred embodiment, there are three busbar stampings: a ground stamping; a positive stamping; and a negative stamping. The ground stamping has three female ground contacts that are each sized and shaped so as to receive a corresponding ground pin on a male plug and that extend from the front of the crossbar such that they each align with the ground opening of a corresponding outlet site. The positive stamping has three positive blade-type female contacts that are each sized and shaped so as to receive a corresponding positive male blade on a male plug and that extend from the front of the crossbar such that they each align with the positive opening of each corresponding outlet site. Similarly, the negative stamping has three negative blade-type female contacts that are each sized and shaped so as to receive a corresponding negative male blade on a male plug and that extend from the front of the crossbar such that they each align with the negative opening of each corresponding outlet site. The three stampings are securely received within the cavities and channels of the housing in a stacked array. Thus, the crossbars are arranged in a parallel orientation one above the other.
In the preferred embodiment, a cap is sized and shaped such that it can be snapped securely onto the back of the housing. The cap includes three openings that are sized and shaped to receive the wire crimp extensions of the stampings. Thus, once the cap is secured to the housing, the stampings are snugly retained within the cavities and channels of the housing. In addition, the wire crimp extensions protrude from the back of the assembled premold in a staggered relationship relative to one another.


Reconfigurable showerheads used in process chambers for substrate processing are provided herein. In some embodiments, a reconfigurable showerhead may include a body having one or more plenums disposed therein; and one or more inserts configured to be disposed within the one or more plenums, wherein the one or more inserts divide the reconfigurable showerhead into a plurality of zones. In some embodiments, a substrate processing system may include a process chamber having a reconfigurable showerhead coupled to a gas supply for providing one or more process gases to the process chamber, the reconfigurable showerhead including a body having one or more plenums disposed therein and one or more inserts configured to be disposed within the one or more plenums, wherein the one or more inserts divide the reconfigurable showerhead into a plurality of zones.

Semiconductor manufacturing processes utilize a wide variety of gases provided to a process chamber during processing of semiconductor substrates. Many process chambers utilize a "showerhead" type gas distribution assembly to provide processing gases into a semiconductor process chamber (such as an etch chamber or a deposition chamber). Showerheads may have a variety of configurations, such as providing gases to one zone or multiple zones of the process chamber. Such configurations are typically fixed and a showerhead configured to provide gases in one manner (for example, one zone) may not be used to provide gases in one manner (for example, two zones).
The inventors have provided a configurable showerhead to provide gases to the process chamber in one or more zones, as desired.

Reconfigurable multi-zone gas delivery hardware for substrate processing showerheads


A dual protection device for a circuit includes a first protection unit and a second protection unit functioning independently. The first protection unit includes an elastic contact piece which has a first contact point. A first conductive member has a second contact point to contact with the first contact point. The elastic contact piece is deformed and bent toward an opposite direction to separate the first contact point from the second contact point when overloaded. A second protection unit has a second conductive member which is connected between the second terminal and the first conductive member. A fuse member and a biasing member are disposed at two opposite sides of the second conductive member. When the fuse member melts due to high temperature, the second conductive member is pushed by the biasing member to be separated from the second terminal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a protection device for a circuit and more particularly, to a dual protection device having two units functioning independently to ensure that the circuit is protected when overloaded, overheated or shorted.
2. The Prior Arts
Electricity plays an import part in everyday life. There are innumerable applications of electricity in the world of today, from computers, home appliances, traffic, and education to entertainment. Therefore, using electricity safely is very important.
Generally speaking, a whole circuit includes a main switch which controls the ON and OFF states of the circuit. The main switch has a fuse and/or a circuit breaker to cut off the circuit and prevent the whole circuit from damage, when the circuit is overloaded, overheated or shorted.
Moreover, the whole circuit may include several sub-circuits and each sub-circuit may have its own switch to control the ON and OFF states. In order to enhance the safety of the circuit, a lot of switches for the sub-circuit are also equipped with protection function. Thus, if the main switch does not function properly or cut off the circuit in time, the switches for the sub-circuits can still protect the whole circuit from over-temperature or over-current.
In addition to the fuses and circuit breakers for the whole circuits, some electric appliances with high power consumption, such as digital processing units, electronic products or heaters, are equipped with individual protection devices to prevent them from damage when these electric appliances are overloaded, overheated or shorted. Once the individual electric appliance is overload, overheat or short, the protection device cuts off the circuit to protect the appliance and avoid damage to other appliances using the same circuit.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a conventional protection device for individual electric appliance includes a bi-metallic strip 101 which is slightly curved. The bi-metallic strip 101 bends one way if heated, and in the opposite direction if cooled off. One end of the bi-metallic strip 101 is fixed to a first terminal 102 of the electric appliance and the other end of the bi-metallic strip 101 is a free end having a first contact point 103. A second terminal 104 of the electric appliance has a second contact point 105 which is located corresponding to the first contact point 103. When the appliance is in a normal operation state, the first contact point 103 contacts with the second contact points 105 and a closed circuit is formed as shown in FIG. 1. When the circuit is overloaded, overheated or shorted, the temperature of the bi-metallic strip 101 is raised so that the bi-metallic strip 101 is bent toward the other direction and the first contact point 103 is separated from the second contact point 105. The circuit is cut off to become an open circuit and the electric appliance is then prevented from being burned.
However, the conventional bi-metallic strip has the following disadvantages. (1) When manufacturing the bi-metallic strip 101, it is difficult to maintain the precision of the thickness, curvature and configuration of the bi-metallic strip 101. Therefore, the predetermined temperature of the bi-metallic strip 101 to bend is difficult to control. (2) Some of the bimetallic strip 101 is not sensitive enough to the temperature and does not bend to cut off the circuit as expected when the circuit is overloaded. Therefore, the electric appliance and the circuit are not protected from overload, overheat or short. (3) Some of the bi-metallic strip 101 bends but does not completely separate the contact points 103 and 105. The circuit remains as a closed circuit. Thus, the appliance and the circuit are still damaged by overload. (4) Furthermore, some bi-metallic strip 101 does not separate the two contact points 103 and 105 to a sufficient distance. When the temperature slightly cools down, the bi-metallic strip 101 bends to re-connect the two contact points 103 and 105. When the temperature is raised again, the bi-metallic strip 101 bends to separate the two contact points 103 and 105. The repeated connection and separation of the circuit in a short period of time may generate sparks, which may cause fire. It also makes the electric current unstable. Thus, the electric appliance can not function properly and even be damaged.


Described here are systems and methods for providing data starting from start codes aligned with byte boundaries in multiple byte words. A start code is written starting at a byte in a middle portion of a data word in a memory. An address associated with the byte is written in a table. Data is fetched from the memory starting from the byte.

During the decoding of video data, the video data includes sets of data structures, such as group of pictures, pictures, slices, macroblocks, and blocks. A video decoder decodes the video data, one picture at a time, on a slice by slice basis.
Start codes indicate the starting points for groups of pictures, pictures, and slices. When a decoding system receives video data for decoding, the decoding system places the video data into a compressed data buffer to await decoding by a video decoder. The compressed data buffer usually comprises multiple byte data words. For example, the compressed data buffer can comprise 16-byte gigantic words (gwords). The decoder system also creates a start code table the indicates the compressed data buffer data word address for each start code.
When the video decoder selects a data structure for decoding, the video decoder looks up the start code of the data structure in the start code table to determine the gword address storing the start code. The video decoder then fetches the gwords starting from the address.
It is noted, however, that the start codes can occur anywhere in the video data and are not necessarily aligned with any particular interval. Accordingly, when the start codes are stored in the compressed data buffer, the start codes do not align with gword boundaries. Therefore, when the video decoder fetches a gword containing a start code, the gword may contain the tail end of another data structure prior to the start code.
In one scheme, it is possible to assure alignment of start codes with gword boundaries by stuffing zeroes. However, in the case where a data word is 16 bytes, each alignment could add up to 15 bytes, depending on the position of the start code. A transport stream delivers the video data. The transport stream comprises fixed length packets of 188 bytes. As a result, the packets can be fetched with a direct memory access module with 256 byte buffer. However, if a transport packet includes a large number of start codes, the transport packet may require in excess of 256 bytes for storage. If a transport packet requires in excess of 256 bytes for storage, more than one access will be needed to fetch the packet.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art through comparison of such systems with the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.

System and method for providing data starting from start codes aligned with byte boundaries in multiple byte words


When bonding inner leads of a flexible film wiring board to electrode pads of a semiconductor element substrate, by absorbing a stress generated due to a difference in thermal expansion coefficient between the flexible film wiring board and the semiconductor element substrate during cooling after heat-bonding, by a through-hole or recessed groove portion formed in the inner leads, it is possible to prevent peeling off of a bonding portion and improve the reliability.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device in which a flexible film wiring board is connected to a semiconductor element substrate, a process of producing the semiconductor device, and an ink jet recording head using the semiconductor device.
2. Related Background Art
A semiconductor device has been hitherto known which uses a flexible film wiring board such as a TAB (Tape Automated Bonding) or FPC (Flexible Printed Circuit) in order to realize a high integration as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-7765.
FIGS. 7A and 7B are views illustrating a semiconductor device using such a flexible film wiring board. FIG. 7A is a plan view of a main part and FIG. 7B is a sectional view taken along line 7B—7B in FIG. 7A.
In FIGS. 7A and 7B, reference numeral 101 denotes a semiconductor element substrate made of silicon or the like and 102 denotes a flexible film wiring board on which an inner lead 105 serving as an electric wiring pattern in the board is formed. A rectangular device hole 103 for fixing the semiconductor element substrate 101 is formed on the flexible film wiring board 102. Moreover, a flat base film 104 made of an insulating resin such as polyimide is formed on the upper surface of the flexible film wiring board 102. The inner lead 105 is obtained by adhering a metallic foil made of a conductive material such as a copper foil to the lower surface of the base film 104 and patterning the inner lead 105 in a desired shape through the photolithography technique. The lower surface of the patterned inner lead 105 is plated with gold, silver, or solder and moreover, a region of the lower surface from which a metallic face will not be exposed is covered with a resist layer 108 and the like. At this time, a wiring electrode (not illustrated) and an electrode pad (not illustrated) to be bonded to the body are also formed.
Moreover, the inner lead 105 is formed by extending from the flexible film wiring board 102 into the opening of the device hole 103. A plurality of electrode pads 106 are formed on the surface of the semiconductor element substrate 101. The electrode pads 106 are respectively electrically bonded to the front end portion of the inner lead 105 extending into the opening of the device hole 103 through a stud bump 107.
The stud bump 107, which is a metallic protrusion, is previously set on the electrode pad 106, and the inner lead 105 to be bonded is located immediately on the stud bump 107 and the inner lead 105 is bonded to the stud bump 107 by using a bonding tool from above the inner lead 105. Thereby, the inner lead 105 is electrically bonded to the electrode pad 106.
At this time, the semiconductor element substrate 1 is vacuum-attracted to and fixed on a bonding stage so that a preferable bonding state is obtained. This bonding method is normally referred to as ILB (Inner Lead Bonding).
The ILB method is roughly divided into two types. One of them is a gang bonding method for simultaneously bonding all inner leads 105 to stud bumps 107 by a bonding tool for each semiconductor substrate 101. The other of them is a single point bonding method for independently and selectively bonding the inner leads 105 to the stud bumps 107 one by one.
However, in both the gang bonding method and single point bonding method, the inner leads 105 are bonded to the stud bumps 107 while they are heated at a high temperature. To bond the inner lead 105 whose surface is plated with gold to the stud bump 107 of a gold pole by the gang bonding method, it is necessary to heat a bonding tool up to about 500° C. In the case of the single point bonding method, it is necessary to effect heating up to about 200° C.
The thermal expansion coefficients of the base film 104 mainly made of an insulating organic resin and the inner lead 105 mainly made of copper (Cu) are far larger than the thermal expansion coefficient of the semiconductor element substrate 101 made of silicon or the like. Therefore, a displacement occurs in the relative positional relation between the stud bump 107 and inner lead 105 on the semiconductor element substrate 1 in accordance with the thermal expansion of the flexible film wiring board 102.
Therefore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-007765 discloses that the array pitch of the inner leads 105 is decided by previously considering the elongation of the base film 104. Moreover, it discloses that a relative shift value of the inner lead 105 from the stud bump 107 is absorbed by making the width of the bonding portion between the inner lead 105 and the stud bump 107 larger than the relative displacement value of the inner lead 105 from the stud bump 107.
However, the number of cases in which plural types of semiconductor element substrates are mounted on one flexible film wiring board has been increased in recent years. For example, there are printing machines using the ink jet system such as shown in FIG. 8 (printer, facsimile machine, copying machine, and multifunction machine thereof). FIG. 9 shows a semiconductor device constituted by mounting semiconductor element substrates on a flexible film wiring board, as mentioned above. In FIG. 9, two device holes 113a and 113b are formed in one flexible film wiring board 102. A semiconductor element substrate (heater board 101a) for a black ink cartridge is mounted in the device hole 113a and a semiconductor element substrate (heater board 101b) for a color ink cartridge is mounted in the device hole 113b. Nozzle members 116a and 116b each having a plurality of discharge openings for discharging an ink are formed on the upper surfaces of the heater boards 101a and 101b. Moreover, the heater boards 101a and 101b are fixed and disposed on a support member 110 and the flexible film wiring board 102 is set by being precisely aligned with the heater boards 101a and 101b. Incidentally, the same reference numerals are employed in FIG. 9 as are employed in FIG. 7 for equivalent elements and their description is omitted.
In FIG. 9, the landing accuracy of ink droplets discharged from the heater boards 101a and 101b are determined by positions of the heater boards 101a and 101b. Therefore, the heater board 101a for black ink cartridge and the heater board 101b for color ink cartridge must be fixed while they are mutually accurately aligned on the support member 110.
However, as described for Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-7765, when heating the inner lead 105 and electrode pad 106 and bonding them to each other and cooling and fixing them on the support member 110, a displacement occurs in the relative position between the flexible film wiring board 2 and the heater boards 101a and 101b. That is, the positions of the flexible film wiring board 2 and the heater boards 101a and 101b are offset with respect to each other due to the difference in thermal expansion coefficient of the flexible film wiring board 2 and the heater boards 101a and 101b during heating and cooling.
Therefore, it has been proposed that the heater boards 101a and 101b are previously accurately positioned on the support member 110 and heated to bond the inner lead 105 and the electrode pad 106 to each other, followed by cooling. In this case, the flexible film wiring board 2 and the heater boards 101a and 101b are heated while they are strongly fixed and are bonded while they are expanded. Thereafter, they are cooled down to ordinary temperature. However, because the inner lead 105 and electrode pad 106 are completely bonded while they are heated, a stress is generated due to the difference in thermal expansion coefficient between the heater boards 101a and 101b and the flexible film wiring board 102 during the cooling step. The stress generated at this time is entirely applied to a bonding portion through the inner lead 105. When the stress exceeds the bonding strength between the electrode pad 106 and the stud bump 107 or the bonding strength between the stud bump 107 and the inner lead 105, peeling off is caused at the boding portion. That is, the reliability of the bonding portion between the inner lead 105 and the electrode pad 106 is deteriorated and in some cases, the portion may be cut or broken. Particularly, in the case where a positional displacement is to be prevented by increasing the width of the inner lead 105 as previously mentioned, the rigidity of the inner lead 105 itself is increased, so that a defect due to the peeling off of the bonding portion will noticeably develop.
Incidentally, the stress generated due to thermal expansion of the flexible film wiring board 102 and heater boards 101a and 101b exists two-dimensionally in the direction of plane shown in FIG. 9.
However, a semiconductor device according to the ordinary TAB method is wound in most cases in a state in which it is mounted on the flexible film wiring board 102 after bonding of the semiconductor element substrate 101 and the flexible film wiring board 102. Therefore, because it is not necessary to fix the semiconductor element substrate 101 to a support member, the above problem does not occur. However, in the case of a semiconductor device for which a high positional accuracy is requested as is the case with an ink jet printing machine, it is necessary to previously fix the semiconductor element substrate 101 to the support member 110, so that the above-mentioned problem will occur.

Semiconductor device, process of producing semiconductor device, and ink jet recording head


A valve core assembly and a valve adopting the valve core assembly. The valve core assembly comprises a valve core (4) and a transmission member (7) having a common axis, and a sliding ejector pin (6) arranged along an axis perpendicular to the common axis. The valve core assembly is disposed inside a valve body (1) and is rotatable about the common axis upon engaging with the valve body (1). The valve core (4) has one concave portion, and the transmission member (7) is at least partially placed inside the concave portion. A radial inwardly-convex profile (9) is formed at the circumferential wall inside the concave portion, the transmission member (7) is formed with a radial outwardly-convex profile (72), and when a valve rod (2) drives the sliding ejector pin (6) and the transmission member (7) to rotate, the radial inwardly-convex profile (9) in the concave portion of the valve core (4) engages with the sliding ejector pin (6) and the radial outwardly-convex profile (72) of the transmission member (7) to switch the valve core among an open state, a pre-closed state and a fully-closed state. The valve core assembly has a simple structure and a high space utilization, so as to minimize the size of the valve, and the opening torque is small and the sealing performance is desirable.

The composite intermediate bulk containers (IBC) are provided with valves, such as the butterfly valve disclosed in WO2007/030052 A1, however, its sealing performance is not desirable and leakage may be occurred easily.
One of such external valves is DN50 ball valve; however, the valve has disadvantages that the torque is large, difficult to operate, too many components, and high cost.
Chinese patent No. 200720082066 disclosed a low torque ball valve, which provides a low torque valve comprising a valve body, a valve ball, a valve seat, a bearing seat, a valve stem, a driving means, and a valve ball bearing connection. The patent has several disadvantages. The structure of the driving device is complex, and extremely occupies the external space of the valve body. The driving device involves many parts, resulting in the complexity of the assembling process. The rotation angle for opening or closing the valve is 180 degrees. The working space formed by the valve rod and the driving device requires a very high quality of sealing process, thus the traditional sealing methods and processes are likely to cause leakage. In addition, since the cost of manufacturing the driving device is very high, it does not conform to the purpose for economy and environment friendly.
There has recently developed a guide slot lifting rod ball valve at domestic and abroad. There provided on the valve rod a S-shaped guide slot, which engages with the guide pin, so that when the valve rod rises, it causes the ball to disengage from the valve seat. Then, the valve rod further rotates 90° counterclockwise and fully opens the valve. When the valve rod is moving down, the ball rotates 90° clockwise, then being pressed towards the valve seat to close the valve. The shortcomings of the technology is that a long S-shaped guide slot being provided on the valve rod, thus, when the valve rotates for opening or closing, the valve rod needs to move up and down spirally along the guide slot, resulting in a huge space for the guide slot and a large rotation angle and other shortcomings.
Chinese Patent Application No. 99124192.4 disclosed a structure for opening and closing a valve, which is a disk-shaped two-track rotary with deploy-close structure. The structure comprises a fixed disk, a rotating disk and a stop pin. When the external force drives the valve rod together with the rotating disk to move the stop pin, the stop pin rotates clockwise along the "arc" track of the fixed disk. When rotated to the "straight" track connected to the "arc" rail track, the rotating disk rotates clockwise further, and the stop pin deploys the surrounding of the fixed disk along the "straight" track of the fixed disk under the forced action by the "deploy-close" track of the rotating disk. At this time, the stop pin structure together with the valve sealing structure close to the valve seat, thus close the valve. When the valve rotates counter-clockwise together with the rotating disk, the stop pin together with the sealing structure move towards the centre of the fixed disk along the "straight" track of the fixed disk under the forced action by the "deploy-close" track of the rotating disk, and then rotate counter-clockwise along the "arc" track of the fixed disk to open the valve. The technical shortcoming of the patent is to use the "arc connected with straight line" track, which requires high precision and complex processing. Further, since the valve core is a combined sphere, it is difficult to get a balanced preload force, resulting in damage to the valve core and shortening the life of the valve.
Chinese Patent No. 200620105067 disclosed an orbit plug valve, comprising a valve body, a valve cover, an operating member, a valve rod, a valve seat, a valve plug which together with the valve seat forming a conical surface sealing, and an orbital mechanism. The orbital mechanism comprises a track with two guide slots mounting on the neck portion of the valve plug and a plate with two guide pins inserting into said guide slots, as well as a lock nut and an adjusting ring for adjusting the mounting position of the track. The shortcomings of the present patent are that the transmission device structure is complex, and extremely occupy the external space of the valve body. Further, the transmission device involves more parts, resulting in complicated assembly process. In addition, since the valve has a plug forming a cone surface sealing as well as a lock nut and an adjusting ring for adjusting the mounting position of the track, it must be adjusted several times, resulting in complex operation.

Valve core assembly and valve adopting the valve core assembly

SHANGHAI HONGY AN RETURNABLE TRANSIT PACKAGINGS CO., LTD.


Techniques for recommending side-by-side plantings of pairs of hybrids or seeds include a server computer receiving agricultural data records that represent crop seed data describing seed and yield properties of hybrid seeds and first data for agricultural fields where the hybrid seeds were planted. The server receives second data for available hybrids and seeds and automatically calculates a dataset of success probability scores that describe the probability of a successful yield on the target fields. Data is organized as pairs to facilitate comparison of actual plantings to optimized plantings that have a probability of success (POS), in terms of yield lift or increased yield season-over-season, for different yield values. Confidence values are generated and stored in association with the POS values and can be used as a basis of visual output to support planting and/or field management decisions as part of an automated intelligent agricultural decision support system.

The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
Computer-implemented algorithms are now available for recommending, to growers, which crop hybrids and/or which seeds are likely to produce the greatest crop yield in a specified field based on complex variables such as location, weather, soil attributes, nutrient applications and management practices. While these recommendations are believed to be reliable, growers may wish to validate the recommendations by comparing two different hybrids or seed types for a particular crop in the same field, season and conditions. The term "side-by-side" refers to a planting arrangement in which two different hybrids or seed types are grown under near-identical conditions in the same season for evaluation purposes.
Typically, side-by-side validation of different hybrids or seeds is performed before large-scale adoption of a recommended hybrid or seed. Such side-by-side validation assists growers in determining whether the cost or properties of a recommended hybrid or seed are justified by actual yield results and therefore has valuable benefits to growers. However, to date, there have been no simple means for identifying which two hybrids or seeds are best suited for comparison in a side-by-side planting. Past approaches have been manual and have lacked usable confidence data on the possibility of a yield advantage from a particular combination. Having the capability to predictively design side-by-side plantings would be useful to help growers select better yielding hybrids or seeds.

Computer-implemented recommendation of side-by-side planting in agricultural fields


The present invention provides a viable, practical and useful alternative to conventional metal barbed wire that is both portable and easily deployed and has a long storage shelf life. This alternative is a cost effective alternative to metal barbed wire that is reusable, recyclable and unaffected by climactic conditions. There present invention also provides a means for rapid deployment of a permanent or temporary barrier for situations as varied as repairing a breach in a fenced enclosure or providing a no-cross zone in event of civil disturbance. This means is a self-deploying storage canister for the plastic barbed wire which uses a explosive charge for deployment.

Civil and military authorities are in constant need for temporary fencing that is quick to erect. They need such fencing to control various levels of disorder in relation to crowd control, mob control, and riot control. Local and state prisons are especially in need of new ways to quickly control crowd disorder. Temporary fencing that is quick to erect is also needed for control and retention of animals in situations that could prove to be dangerous without it.
Currently in use is metal barbed wire that is rolled up in reels. The reels must be handle by personnel in order to unroll and deploy the wire. The unrolling and deploying of the wire requires great care by the personnel due to the sharp barbs. This presents a safety issue during the requirement for rapid deployment by civil and military authorities. Another issue is the storage of the wire on the reels prior to use. Since the reels could be stored for a long time before use, the wire and reels tend to rust and corrode, thereby hindering deployment for fencing.
An object of this invention is to provide a viable, practical and useful alternative to conventional metal barbed wire that is both portable and easily deployed and has a long storage shelf life. Another object of this invention is to provide a cost effective alternative to metal barbed wire that is reusable, recyclable and unaffected by climactic conditions. Another object of this invention is to provide a means for rapid deployment of a permanent or temporary barrier for situations as varied as repairing a breach in a fenced enclosure or providing a no-cross zone in event of civil disturbance.


A process for producing a gas stream containing oxygen and steam to feed a coal gasifier or other downstream process by compressing and heating a feed gas stream, and separating the heated feed gas stream into an oxygen-depleted gas stream on a retentate side of an ion transport membrane and an oxygen-containing gas stream on a permeate side. The permeate side is purged with a purge gas stream containing steam to produce a gas stream containing oxygen and steam, and at least a portion of the gas stream containing oxygen and steam is fed to the coal gasifier after blending with a pure oxygen stream recovered from the remaining portion of the purge stream or by a parallel nonpurged ion transport separator in the system to achieve the appropriate steam-to-oxygen ratio for the downstream process.

Non-cryogenic bulk oxygen separation systems, for example, organic polymer membrane systems, have been used to separate selected gases from air and other gas mixtures. Air is a mixture of gases which may contain varying amounts of water vapor and, at sea level, has the following approximate composition by volume: oxygen (20.9%), nitrogen (78%), argon (0.94%), with the balance consisting of other trace gases. An entirely different type of membrane, however, can be made from certain inorganic oxides. These solid electrolyte membranes are made from inorganic oxides, typified by calcium- or yttrium-stabilized zirconium and analogous oxides having a fluorite or perovskite structure.
Although the potential for these oxide ceramic materials as gas separation membranes is great, there are certain problems in their use. The most obvious difficulty is that all of the known oxide ceramic materials exhibit appreciable oxygen ion conductivity only at elevated temperatures. They usually must be operated well above 500.degree. C., generally in the 600.degree. C. to 900.degree. C. range. This limitation remains despite much research to find materials that work well at lower temperatures. Solid electrolyte ionic conductor technology is described in more detail in Prasad et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,547,494, entitled Staged Electrolyte Membrane, which is hereby incorporated by reference to more fully describe the state of the art. Since the selectivity of these materials for oxygen is infinite and oxygen fluxes several orders of magnitude higher than for polymeric membranes can be obtained, attractive opportunities are created for the production of oxygen as well as for oxygen-requiring oxidation processes, especially with applications that involve elevated temperatures, for example, coal gasification.
Coal gasification has the potential of utilizing coal reserves for the production of synthetic fuels. Several commercial processes have been developed to produce low-BTU, medium-BTU, and high-BTU gases from coal. Many different types of coal gasification processes are known in the art, for example, fixed bed, fluidized bed, entrained bed, and molten bath bed. These processes can be catalytic or noncatalytic, and each is carried out under widely different conditions. Some of the major gasification processes are described in Chapter 6 of Coal Liquefaction and Gasification Technologies, E. C. Mangold et al. (1982). The aspect common to most of these coal gasification processes is the use of steam and oxygen and/or air to carry out a partial and/or complete oxidation of the coal. The steam reforming of coal at high temperatures produces a fuel gas stream containing mainly carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas. Additional steps, however, such as water gas shift reaction and methanation, may be carried out to adjust the composition of the product gas stream. Due to the complex chemistry of coal, other reactions may take place and higher hydrocarbons and tar may also be formed during the coal gasification process.
When air is used as the oxidant, coal gasification generally produces low-BTU gas since the nitrogen in the air stream acts as a diluent. Therefore, use of oxygen or an oxygen-enriched gas stream is generally necessary to form medium-BTU to high-BTU gas stream. In this case, the cost of the required oxygen gas is a significant fraction of the overall coal gasification cost. Thus, the possible integration of coal gasification with a high temperature oxygen production process could be advantageous.
A class of processes that integrate thermal power generation with coal gasification may be referred to as integrated gasification power cycles (IGPC). An integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) is a specific embodiment of such a scheme and IGCC is well-known in the art.
In an IGCC (also known as Combined Cycle Coal Gasification, or CCCG) plant, coal is gasified to a fuel gas stream which is supplied to gas turbines employed in a combined cycle power generation system. Thermal integration between coal gasification and power production processes results in improved overall efficiency of the plant.
In gas turbine power cycles, the working fluid is generally air or the products of combustion of fuel and air. Heat is generated within the system by combusting fuel in a compressed air stream and the products of combustion are expanded through a gas turbine to produce power. The metallurgical temperature limit on the turbine blades necessitates a gas turbine operation with a very high oxygen/fuel ratio: nitrogen in the feed air and the excess oxygen act as diluents and lower the temperature of the combustion products. As a result, the exhaust gas stream from the gas turbine power cycle contains excess oxygen which could combust additional fuel. The hot exhaust gas stream could be used to preheat the compressed feed air stream or may also be employed to generate steam that can be used in a vapor power cycle, for example, (a Rankine cycle or its modifications such as reheat and regenerative cycles, dual pressure cycle, and cogeneration cycles).
In a gas power cycle, it is also possible to recover some or all of the excess oxygen in the oxidant gas stream (generally air) either before or after the gas turbine. This oxygen recovery is done at the expense of compressing additional feed air to replace the oxygen removed and the capital costs associated with the oxygen removal system. The oxygen recovery process produces oxygen at a very low incremental power cost, which is attractive compared to other methods of oxygen production. The gases from which oxygen needs to be separated are made available at relatively high temperature (greater than 400.degree. C.), whereas current commercial oxygen production processes typically operate at temperatures below 100.degree. C. Because of this temperature limitation, current commercial oxygen production processes do not gain significantly by integration with a coal gasification process. It appears that novel gas separation processes employing oxygen-ion conductor membranes have the promise of highly synergistic integration which can dramatically lower the cost of oxygen used in coal gasification processes.
Most oxygen generating systems utilize cryogenic separation methods (generally for large scale, high purity applications) or use polymeric membrane or adsorptive separation techniques (generally for small to medium scale, 90-95% purity applications). Membrane systems are typically very power intensive, and are suitable only for the production of small quantities of oxygen-enriched air (for example, 50% oxygen). Some of these processes recover a part of the power utilized in producing the product, however they do not produce any net power.
As mentioned above, traditional oxygen separation processes operate at low temperatures (less than 100.degree. C.), and do not benefit significantly from integration with high temperature processes that utilize oxygen. The elevated temperatures of operation make the ion transport process intrinsically well suited for integration with high temperature processes such as coal gasification and combined cycle power generation, as described in the following references.
A JPL publication D-7790 (1990) has disclosed integration of a high temperature oxygen production process using a zirconia-based oxygen-ion conductor within a CCCG configuration. In this process, oxygen extracted from air by the oxygen-ion conductor is used for coal gasification. Oxygen-depleted air is combusted with the fuel gas produced in the coal gasifier, and expanded in a gas turbine to generate power. The gas turbine exhaust is used to produce steam, which is expanded in a steam turbine to generate additional power.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,306,411 (Mazanec et al.) discusses mixing an inert diluent such as steam with a light hydrocarbon feed gas to produce synthesis gas or unsaturated hydrocarbons as a permeate effluent from the anode side of an ion transport membrane. An oxygen-containing gas is passed through a retentate or cathode side of the membrane; the resulting oxygen-depleted gas withdrawn from the retentate zone apparently is discarded. Mazanec at al. further disclose in U.S. Pat. No. 5,160,713 that steam can be generated in the permeate zone by reaction between hydrogen, introduced as an oxygen-consuming substrate, and oxygen transported through the membrane.
Kang et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,565,017, entitled High Temperature Oxygen Production with Steam and Power Generation, relates to a system integrating an ion transport membrane with a gas turbine to recover energy from the retentate gas stream after it is heated and steam is added. Water is added to the retentate gas stream from the ion transport module prior to the gas turbine to increase the mass flow in the turbine. This permits the ion transport module and the gas turbine to each operate at its optimum temperature.
In Kang et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,516,359, entitled Integrated High Temperature Method for Oxygen Production, feed air is compressed and heated in a first heating step (using heat exchanger and combustor) before passing through an oxygen separator employing a mixed conducting oxide. The retentate gas stream from the ion transport module is heated in a second heating step before expanding it through a gas turbine to recover power. The hot exhaust gases from the gas turbine are used to produce steam that is expanded through a steam turbine to generate additional power. In these processes, the operating temperatures of the ion transport module and the gas turbine are independently maintained by controlling the rate of heat addition in the first and second heating steps.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,562,754 (Kang et al.) entitled "Production of Oxygen by Ion Transport Membranes with Steam Utilization" discloses ion transport-based oxygen production integrated with gas turbine power production, in which the permeate side of the ion transport module is swept with an inert sweep gas such as steam to enhance the oxygen flux across the ion transport membrane. As a result a stream containing a mixture of steam and oxygen is produced on the permeate side and can be withdrawn as a product. Kang suggests that this stream can be at a pressure from 2 to 300 psi and could be used to feed a gasifier requiring both steam and oxygen. A closer inspection of Kang's concept reveals that it does not provide a practical solution for generating a steam-oxygen mixture of the required composition and at the required pressure for many of the more practical coal gasification processes. The reasons for this are several: i) Gasification reactors typically operate at pressures well exceeding 300 psia and require steam and oxygen at pressures exceeding 350 psi; ii) It is energy intensive, expensive, potentially unsafe and therefore impractical to compress a steam-oxygen mixture in a compressor; iii) The steam-to-oxygen molar ratio required by the gasification process is typically close to 1, although there are exceptions where it is higher. Using an improbable maximum example having a separator retentate pressure of 300 psia and inlet composition of 20% oxygen, the retentate inlet oxygen partial pressure would be 60 psia which would also be the absolute limit for the oxygen partial pressure at the permeate side pinching end. Under those conditions and at a permeate steam pressure of 350 psia the limiting molar ratio of steam to oxygen would be 4.8, exceeding significantly the typical required value of approximately 1.

Solid electrolyte ionic conductor with adjustable steam-to-oxygen production