Several embodiments of integrated circuit probe card assemblies are disclosed, which extend the mechanical compliance of both MEMS and thin-film fabricated probes, such that these types of spring probe structures can be used to test one or more integrated circuits on a semiconductor wafer. Several embodiments of probe card assemblies, which provide tight signal pad pitch compliance and/or enable high levels of parallel testing in commercial wafer probing equipment, are disclosed. In some preferred embodiments, the probe card assembly structures include separable standard components, which reduce assembly manufacturing cost and manufacturing time. These structures and assemblies enable high speed testing in wafer form. The probes also have built in mechanical protection for both the integrated circuits and the MEMS or thin film fabricated spring tips and probe layout structures on substrates. Interleaved spring probe tip designs are defined which allow multiple probe contacts on very small integrated circuit pads. The shapes of probe tips are preferably defined to control the depth of probe tip penetration between a probe spring and a pad or trace on an integrated circuit device. Improved protective coating techniques for spring probes are also disclosed, offering increased reliability and extended useful service lives for probe card assemblies.

In conventional integrated circuit (IC) wafer probe cards, electrical contacts between the probe card and an integrated circuit wafer are typically provided by tungsten needle probes. However, advanced semiconductor technologies often require higher pin counts, smaller pad pitches, and higher clock frequencies, which are not possible with tungsten needle probes.
While emerging technologies have provided spring probes for different probing applications, most probes have inherent limitations, such as limited pitch, limited pin count, varying levels of flexibility, limited probe tip geometries, limitations of materials, and high costs of fabrication.
K. Banerji, A. Suppelsa, and W. Mullen III, Selectively Releasing Conductive Runner and Substrate Assembly Having Non-Planar Areas, U.S. Pat. No. 5,166,774 (24 Nov. 1992) disclose a runner and substrate assembly which comprises "a plurality of conductive runners adhered to a substrate, a portion of at least some of the conductive runners have non-planar areas with the substrate for selectively releasing the conductive runner from the substrate when subjected to a predetermined stress".
A. Suppelsa, W. Mullen III and G. Urbish, Selectively Releasing Conductive Runner and Substrate Assembly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,139 (18 Jan. 1994) disclose a runner and substrate assembly which comprises "a plurality of conductive runners adhered to a substrate, a portion of at least some of the conductive runners have a lower adhesion to the substrate for selectively releasing the conductive runner from the substrate when subjected to a predetermined stress".
D. Pedder, Bare Die Testing, U.S. Pat. No. 5,786,701 (28 Jul. 1998) disclose a testing apparatus for testing integrated circuits (ICs) at the bare die stage, which includes "a testing station at which microbumps of conductive material are located on interconnection trace terminations of a multilayer interconnection structure, these terminations being distributed in a pattern corresponding to the pattern of contact pads on the die to be tested. To facilitate testing of the die before separation from a wafer using the microbumps, the other connections provided to and from the interconnection structure have a low profile".
D. Grabbe, I. Korsunsky and R. Ringler, Surface Mount Electrical Connector, U.S. Pat. No. 5,152,695 (06 Oct. 1992) disclose a connector for electrically connecting a circuit between electronic devices, in which "the connector includes a platform with cantilevered spring arms extending obliquely outwardly therefrom. The spring arms include raised contact surfaces and in one embodiment, the geometry of the arms provide compound wipe during deflection".
H. Iwasaki, H. Matsunaga, and T. Ohkubo, Partly Replaceable Device for Testing a Multi-Contact Integrated Circuit Chip Package, U.S. Pat. No. 5,847,572 (08 Dec. 1998) disclose "a test device for testing an integrated circuit (IC) chip having side edge portions each provided with a set of lead pins. The test device comprises a socket base, contact units each including a contact support member and socket contact numbers, and anisotropic conductive sheet assemblies each including an elastic insulation sheet and conductive members. The anisotropic conductive sheet assemblies are arranged to hold each conductive member in contact with one of the socket contact members of the contact units. The test device further comprises a contact retainer detachably mounted on the socket base to bring the socket contact members into contact with the anisotropic sheet assemblies to establish electrical communication between the socket contact members and the conductive members of the anisotropic conductive sheet assemblies. Each of the contact units can be replaced by a new contact unit if the socket contact members partly become fatigued, thereby making it possible to facilitate the maintenance of the test device. Furthermore, the lead pins of the IC chip can be electrically connected to a test circuit board with the shortest paths formed by part of the socket contact members and the conductive members of the anisotropic conductive sheet assemblies".
W. Berg, Method of Mounting a Substrate Structure to a Circuit Board, U.S. Pat. No. 4,758,927 (19 Jul. 1988) discloses "a substrate structure having contact pads is mounted to a circuit board which has pads of conductive material exposed at one main face of the board and has registration features which are in predetermined positions relative to the contact pads of the circuit board. The substrate structure is provided with leads which are electrically connected to the contact pads of the substrate structure and project from the substrate structure in cantilever fashion. A registration element has a plate portion and also has registration features which are distributed about the plate portion and are engageable with the registration features of the circuit board, and when so engaged, maintain the registration element against movement parallel to the general plane of the circuit board. The substrate structure is attached to the plate portion of the registration element so that the leads are in predetermined position relative to the registration features of the circuit board, and in this position of the registration element the leads of the substrate structure overlie the contact pads of the circuit board. A clamp member maintains the leads in electrically conductive pressure contact with the contact pads of the circuit board."
D. SRAM, P. Palanisamy, J. Hearn and D. Schwarz, Controlled Adhesion Conductor, U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,298 (09 Jun. 1992) disclose "Compositions useful for printing controllable adhesion conductive patterns on a printed circuit board include finely divided copper powder, a screening agent and a binder. The binder is designed to provide controllable adhesion of the copper layer formed after sintering to the substrate, so that the layer can lift off the substrate in response to thermal stress. Additionally, the binder serves to promote good cohesion between the copper particles to provide good mechanical strength to the copper layer so that it can tolerate lift off without fracture".
R. Mueller, Thin-Film Electrothermal Device, U.S. Pat. No. 4,423,401 (27 Dec. 1983) discloses "A thin film multilayer technology is used to build micro-miniature electromechanical switches having low resistance metal-to-metal contacts and distinct on-off characteristics. The switches, which are electrothermally activated, are fabricated on conventional hybrid circuit substrates using processes compatible with those employed to produce thin-film circuits. In a preferred form, such a switch includes a cantilever actuator member comprising a resiliently bendable strip of a hard insulating material (e.g. silicon nitride) to which a metal (e.g. nickel) heating element is bonded. The free end of the cantilever member carries a metal contact, which is moved onto (or out of) engagement with an underlying fixed contact by controlled bending of the member via electrical current applied to the heating element".
S. Ibrahim and J. Elsner, Multi-Layer Ceramic Package, U.S. Pat. No. 4,320,438 (16 Mar. 1982) disclose "In a multi-layer package, a plurality of ceramic lamina each has a conductive pattern, and there is an internal cavity of the package within which is bonded a chip or a plurality of chips interconnected to form a chip array. The chip or chip array is connected through short wire bonds at varying lamina levels to metallized conductive patterns thereon, each lamina level having a particular conductive pattern. The conductive patterns on the respective lamina layers are interconnected either by tunneled through openings filled with metallized material, or by edge formed metallizations so that the conductive patterns ultimately connect to a number of pads at the undersurface of the ceramic package mounted onto a metalized board. There is achieved a high component density; but because connecting leads are "staggered" or connected at alternating points with wholly different package levels, it is possible to maintain a 10 mil spacing and 10 mil size of the wire bond lands. As a result, there is even greater component density but without interference of wire bonds one with the other, this factor of interference being the previous limiting factor in achieving high component density networks in a multi-layer ceramic package".
F. McQuade, and J. Lander, Probe Assembly for Testing Integrated Circuits, U.S. Pat. No. 5,416,429 (16 May 1995) disclose a probe assembly for testing an integrated circuit, which "includes a probe card of insulating material with a central opening, a rectangular frame with a smaller opening attached to the probe card, four separate probe wings each comprising a flexible laminated member having a conductive ground plane sheet, an adhesive dielectric film adhered to the ground plane, and probe wing traces of spring alloy copper on the dielectric film. Each probe wing has a cantilevered leaf spring portion extending into the central opening and terminates in a group of aligned individual probe fingers provided by respective terminating ends of said probe wing traces. The probe fingers have tips disposed substantially along a straight line and are spaced to correspond to the spacing of respective contact pads along the edge of an IC being tested. Four spring clamps each have a cantilevered portion which contact the leaf spring portion of a respective probe wing, so as to provide an adjustable restraint for one of the leaf spring portions. There are four separate spring clamp adjusting means for separately adjusting the pressure restraints exercised by each of the spring clamps on its respective probe wing. The separate spring clamp adjusting means comprise spring biased platforms each attached to the frame member by three screws and spring washers so that the spring clamps may be moved and oriented in any desired direction to achieve alignment of the position of the probe finger tips on each probe wing".
D. Pedder, Structure for Testing Bare Integrated Circuit Devices, European Patent Application No. EP 0 731 369 A2 (Filed 14 Feb. 1996), U.S. Pat. No. 5,764,070 (09 Jun. 1998) discloses a test probe structure for making connections to a bare IC or a wafer to be tested, which comprises "a multilayer printed circuit probe arm which carries at its tip an MCM-D type substrate having a row of microbumps on its underside to make the required connections. The probe arm is supported at a shallow angle to the surface of the device or wafer, and the MCM-D type substrate is formed with the necessary passive components to interface with the device under test. Four such probe arms may be provided, one on each side of the device under test."
B. Eldridge, G. Grube, I. Khandros, and G. Mathieu, Method of Mounting Resilient Contact Structure to Semiconductor Devices, U.S. Pat. No. 5,829,128 (03 Nov. 1998), Method of Making Temporary Connections Between Electronic Components, U.S. Pat. No. 5,832,601 (10 Nov. 1998), Method of Making Contact Tip Structures, U.S. Pat. No. 5,864,946 (02 Feb. 1999), Mounting Spring Elements on Semiconductor Devices, U.S. Pat. No. 5,884,398 (23 Mar. 1999), Method of Burning-In Semiconductor Devices, U.S. Pat. No. 5,878,486 (09 Mar. 1999), and Method of Exercising Semiconductor Devices, U.S. Pat. No. 5,897,326 (27 Apr. 1999), disclose "Resilient contact structures are mounted directly to bond pads on semiconductor dies, prior to the dies being singulated (separated) from a semiconductor wafer. This enables the semiconductor dies to be exercised (e.g. tested and/or burned-in) by connecting to the semiconductor dies with a circuit board or the like having a plurality of terminals disposed on a surface thereof. Subsequently, the semiconductor dies may be singulated from the semiconductor wafer, whereupon the same resilient contact structures can be used to effect interconnections between the semiconductor dies and other electronic components (such a wiring substrates, semiconductor packages, etc.). Using the all-metallic composite interconnection elements of the present invention as the resilient contact structures, burn-in can be performed at temperatures of at least 150° C., and can be completed in less than 60 minutes". While the contact tip structures disclosed by B. Eldridge et al. provide resilient contact structures, the structures are each individually mounted onto bond pads on semiconductor dies, requiring complex and costly fabrication. As well, the contact tip structures are fabricated from wire, which often limits the resulting geometry for the tips of the contacts. Furthermore, such contact tip structures have not been able to meet the needs of small pitch applications (e.g. typically on the order of 50 μm spacing for a peripheral probe card, or on the order of 75 μm spacing for an area array).
T. Dozier II, B. Eldridge, G. Grube, I. Khandros, and G. Mathieu, Sockets for Electronic Components and Methods of Connecting to Electronic Components, U.S. Pat. No. 5,772,451 (30 Jun. 1998) disclose "Surface-mount, solder-down sockets permit electronic components such as semiconductor packages to be releasably mounted to a circuit board. Resilient contact structures extend from a top surface of a support substrate, and solder-ball (or other suitable) contact structures are disposed on a bottom surface of the support substrate. Composite interconnection elements are used as the resilient contact structures disposed atop the support substrate. In any suitable manner, selected ones of the resilient contact structures atop the support substrate are connected, via the support substrate, to corresponding ones of the contact structures on the bottom surface of the support substrate. In an embodiment intended to receive an LGA-type semiconductor package, pressure contact is made between the resilient contact structures and external connection points of the semiconductor package with a contact force which is generally normal to the top surface of the support substrate. In an embodiment intended to receive a BGA-type semiconductor package, pressure contact is made between the resilient contact structures and external connection points of the semiconductor package with a contact force which is generally parallel to the top surface of the support substrate".
Other emerging technologies have disclosed probe tips on springs which are fabricated in batch mode processes, such as by thin-film or micro electronic mechanical system (MEMS) processes.
D. Smith and S. Alimonda, Photolithographically Patterned Spring Contact, U.S. Pat. No. 5,613,861 (25 Mar. 1997), U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,685 (15 Dec. 1998), and International Patent Application No. PCT/US 96/08018 (Filed 30 May 1996), disclose a photolithography patterned spring contact, which is "formed on a substrate and electrically connects contact pads on two devices. The spring contact also compensates for thermal and mechanical variations and other environmental factors. An inherent stress gradient in the spring contact causes a free portion of the spring to bend up and away from the substrate. An anchor portion remains fixed to the substrate and is electrically connected to a first contact pad on the substrate. The spring contact is made of an elastic material and the free portion compliantly contacts a second contact pad, thereby contacting the two contact pads". While the photolithography patterned springs, as disclosed by Smith et al., are capable of satisfying many IC probing needs, the springs are small, and provide little vertical compliance to handle the planarity compliance needed in the reliable operation of many current IC prober systems. Vertical compliance for many probing systems is typically on the order of 0.004″–0.010″, which often requires the use of tungsten needle probes.
Furthermore, no one has taught a way to interconnect such a probe containing up to several thousand pins to a tester, while effectively dealing with planarity requirements. As advanced integrated circuit devices become more complex while decreasing in size, it would be advantageous to provide a probe card assembly which can be used to reliably interconnect to such devices.
To accommodate for planarity differences between an array of probe tips and the surface pads on a wafer under test, it may be advantageous to provide a probe substrate which can pivot freely by a small amount about its center. For such a system, however, an accurately controlled force must still be provided to engage the contacts, while holding the substrate positionally stable in the X, Y, and theta directions. Furthermore, for applications in which the substrate includes a large number (e.g. thousands) of wires or signals exiting its backside, wherein supports are located at the periphery of the substrate, these supports must not hinder the fan-out exit pathways. As well, the signal wires must not hinder the pivoting of the substrate, nor should they hinder the controlled force provided to engage the springs against a device under test (DUT).
It would be advantageous to provide a method and apparatus for improved flexible probe springs, which are capable of high pin counts, small pitches, cost-effective fabrication, and customizable spring tips. It would also be advantageous to provide probe card assemblies using such flexible probe springs, which provide planarity compliance to semiconductor devices under testing and/or burn-in, while providing accurate axial and theta positioning.

Construction structures and manufacturing processes for integrated circuit wafer probe card assemblies


A transformer, a method for manufacturing the same and an electromagnetic device are disclosed. The transformer includes a base plate, a magnetic core, transmission wire layers and conductive parts. The base plate includes a central part defining multiple inner via holes each running through the base plate and a peripheral part defining multiple outer via holes each running through the base plate. An annular accommodating groove is defined between the central pan and the peripheral part. The magnetic core is received in the accommodating groove. The transmission wire layers may be disposed respectively on two opposite sides of the base plate. Each of the transmission wire layers includes multiple wire patterns. Multiple conductive parts are respectively disposed in the inner via holes and the outer via holes.

With the development of network technology, the Internet has become an indispensable part of modern life. The network transformer connected to the network interface is attracting more and more public attention due to its functions such as electrical voltage isolation, difference-mode signal transmission, impedance matching, waveform repair, and signal clutter suppression.
The internal structure of the network transformer of related art contains a plurality of magnetic rings and copper wires winding on the magnetic rings. These copper wires are usually machined and then wound manually such that the acquired coils may have poor performance consistency. Thus, the network transformer may lack uniformity in term of performance parameters, which leads to a low product yield. Moreover, the cost of manual winding is high.

Transformer, electromagnetic device and manufacturing method of the transformer


The present invention provides a method for identifying or generating an attenuated mycoplasma bacterium, which bacterium comprises a mutation in at least one gene as listed and use of the bacterium in a vaccine for eliciting protective immunity against mycoplasma or for detecting infection by said bacterium.

Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae is the etiological agent of swine Mycoplasmal pneumonia (also called enzootic pneumonia (EP)). It is one of the most common and economically significant respiratory diseases affecting swine production worldwide. The disease is associated with secondary infections, high-morbidity and low-mortality rates, low feed conversion and can be attributed to global economic losses estimated at about $1 billion per year.
In EP, Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae bacteria attach to the cilia of epithelial cells in the lungs of swine destroying healthy normal cilia allowing for opportunistic organisms to establish themselves into the respiratory tissue causing disease. Once established, M. hyopneumoniae causes lesions in the lungs of pigs.
The disease is highly contagious and transmission is usually through direct contact with infected respiratory tract secretions, for example droplets ejected from the snout or mouth on sneezing or coughing.
Several vaccines against M. hyopneumoniae currently exist. Most current vaccines are provided by about 10 companies with 22 vaccine brands registered as either single or bi/multivalent. All are killed or inactivated M. hyopneumoniae preparations.
Examples of whole cell inactivated M. hyopneumoniae vaccines include RESPISURE™ and STELLAMUNE™ (Pfizer), SUVAXYN M. HYO™ (Fort Dodge), HYORESP™ (Merial), M+PAC™ (Schering-Plough) and PORCILIS™ (Intervet).
While some vaccines can reduce the severity of EP, none of the available whole cell killed or inactivated vaccines provide full protection from M. hyopneumoniae infection.
Our co-pending application, published as WO2010/132932, describes a live attenuated M. hyopneumoniae strain which is temperature sensitive. This strain is designated ts-19 and was deposited under the Budapest Treaty at the National Measurements Institute as NM 04/41259 on 13 May 2004. This strain, when incorporated into a vaccine, is able to confer protective immunity against M. hyopneumoniae in vaccinated pigs.

Methods relating to an attenuated mycoplasma


A rotating electric machine apparatus includes at least one end plate associated with an inner assembly unit that operates to prevent contact between the inner assembly unit and an outer assembly unit. The end plate is peripherally sized to allow the slidable assembly of the inner assembly unit into the outer assembly unit while preventing undesirable contact of the inner assembly unit with the outer assembly unit.

Assembly of rotor assemblies within stator assemblies associated with a motor requires tooling precision to align rotor and stator units.
Motor assembly is accomplished using precision fixturing to center and align a heavily magnetized rotor unit into a ferrous stator unit. The rotor unit is a cylindrical magnetized component and the stator unit is an iron based "tube" that closely matches the rotor unit in diameter and length. Inserting the rotor unit into the stator unit is complicated by the fact that the rotor magnetically pulls itself toward the stator unit and adheres magnetically thereto. Even in the absence of magnetized components, the desirably minimal air gap between the stator and rotor leaves little tolerance for assembly error.
When the rotor unit contacts the stator unit, damage to both units can occur and unwanted debris may be generated by the scraping of the rotor unit against the stator unit, thereby inhibiting operation of the motor.
What is needed is a motor apparatus that is robust and tolerant of the assembly process and a method for assembly of a motor that avoids damage occasioned by interference of the rotor and stator during assembly.

Rotating electric machine apparatus and method of assembly


A containment apparatus for a multi-pass oven consisting of guide rails and tapered guide chutes having side rails. A tapered guide chute directs product pieces from one conveyor to the center of a receiving region of an underlying conveyor. Guide rails are placed along the sides of the receiving region of an underlying conveyor and maintain baking product pieces on the conveyor. Diverters on the distal end of each guide rail further move product pieces toward the center of the conveyor. Such diverters help ensure that pieces reach a subsequent guide chute or subsequent conveyor without falling off of the conveyor. Such guide rails, diverters, and guide chutes help prevent damage to, and loss of, product pieces while pieces pass through the oven. Guide rails, diverters, and guide chutes are particularly effective at maintaining round or cylindrical pieces within a multi-pass oven.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to improvements to multi-pass ovens and associated conveyor systems. More particularly, the invention relates to product centering and handling components which may be added to such systems to facilitate their operation. A product-centering apparatus ensures that products are maintained on conveyors within multi-pass ovens. Flanged slides help guide comestible products moving from one conveyor down to another conveyor as product pieces passes through a multi-pass oven.
2. Description of Related Art
Snack pieces and other edible baked goods are known to be prepared with the use of multi-pass ovens. While in these ovens, pieces are moved about on conveyors and pass from one conveyor to another in various ways. Conveyors are usually stacked one above another and rotate in a counter-current direction. Generally, relatively flat pieces remain stationary while being processed on such conveyors and while being handled and eventually packaged. No special handling is necessary to maintain the bulk of the product within the confines of process equipment. Such pieces remain on the equipment even when conveyors in an oven exhibit pronounced lateral movements due to irregular heating and other process imperfections.
However, certain product pieces are round or tubular and thus can move about during processing on conveyors, chutes and other equipment. These products have a stronger tendency to move around during processing as compared to relatively flat pieces. As conveyors continuously operate in a multi-pass arrangement, pieces reach the end of one conveyor and pass to an underlying subsequent conveyor by means of a chute or ramp. The chute imparts a forward motion to pieces which allows them to escape the process by rolling or bouncing off the sides or end of prior art conveyors.
In other circumstances, a piece may become entangled in stationary parts at the edge of a conveyor as a result of such movement. Propelled pieces may also end up sufficiently close to the edge of a conveyor so as to be lost from the sides of a chute as such pieces reach the end of a conveyor and are impelled against a chute. In these circumstances, there is an elevated risk of losing product, causing a defect in a product, or worse, stopping the system because of a malfunction when pieces are passed vertically from one conveyor to the next. Lost pieces may even serve as a fire hazard within an oven as pieces are exposed to sufficient heat to cause self-combustion.
FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a prior art multi-pass oven. There are multiple conveyors 102, 122 turning counter-currently in an oven 120. In a multi-pass arrangement of conveyors 130, several conveyors 102 are stacked one above another. Each conveyor 102 turns around two or more axles 104. Each conveyor 102 generally turns in a different direction from the one above or below it. With multiple conveyors 102 within an oven 120, product pieces 106 are able to reside longer within the oven 120. Alternatively, a higher rate of production is possible in a multi-pass oven as conveyors can operate faster while maintaining a desired bake time. Operating conveyors at higher speeds impels pieces with a higher velocity thereby increasing the risk of losing processing pieces.
With reference to FIG. 1, once pieces 106 reach the end of a first conveyor 102, they fall 110 or are guided by chutes 124 to a product-receiving region 108 of a subsequent conveyor 122. Pieces passing to a subsequent conveyor 122 may end up traveling closer to the edge of a subsequent conveyor 122 and thus may be at a greater risk of eventually rolling or bouncing off of a subsequent conveyor 122. After passing to a subsequent conveyor 122, some pieces 112 may be immediately at risk for falling off of the conveyors.
A need exists for maintaining processing pieces 106 within the confines of conveyors within a multi-pass arrangement of conveyors. A need exists for guardrails or guide rails along the sides of a conveyor 102. Such side guards would maintain conveyed product pieces 106 on a conveyor. Such guide rails would ensure that product pieces 106 which are prone to movement during processing are maintained in the most central region of each conveyor. Further, a need exists for an improved chute. Such chutes would have guide rails which would help maintain product pieces within the confines of product chutes as product pieces 110 move from one conveyor to the next.
Such guide rails and improved chutes would substantially reduce the risk that conveyed pieces 106 are lost from, or cause a malfunction of, the conveyors during operation. Such guide rails and chutes would also reduce damage that can occur to product pieces 106. Such guide rails and chutes would not impede the movement of the conveyors and would be able to adjust as the conveyors exhibited random and lateral movements during operation. Such guide rails would not substantially impede monitoring of conveyed pieces and would be relatively inexpensive to produce and easy to install. Finally, such guide rails and chutes would substantially improve the safe operation of a multi-pass oven used to process product pieces which are prone to moving relative to a conveyor surface.

Containment apparatus for multi-pass ovens


A cleaner for cleaning a surface of a rotating material, including an elastic blade arranged to counter the rotating material while a tip of the elastic blade is contacted with the surface of the rotating material to clean the surface of the rotating material, wherein the elastic blade has a first surface facing the rotating material, and a second surface opposite to the first surface thereof, and wherein the elastic blade has a recessed portion, which has a bottom surface and a wall, in a rear portion of the second surface; and a support plate configured to support the elastic blade, wherein the support plate has a first surface facing the rotating material, a second surface opposite to the first surface and a tip surface, wherein the elastic blade is connected with the support plate in such a manner that the bottom surface and the wall of the recessed portion of the blade are contacted with the first surface and the tip surface of the support plate, respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cleaner for use in cleaning a material to be cleaned, and more particularly to a cleaner including a support and an elastic blade which is bonded with the support. In addition, the present invention also relates to a process cartridge and an image forming apparatus using the cleaner.
2. Discussion of the Background
Electrophotographic image forming apparatus typically include the following devices:    (1) an image bearing member (such as photoreceptors) configured to bear an electrostatic latent image;    (2) a charging device configured to charge the image bearing member;    (3) an irradiating device configured to irradiate the charged image bearing member with imagewise light to form an electrostatic latent image on the image bearing member;    (4) a developing device configured to develop the electrostatic latent image with a developer including a toner to prepare a toner image on the image bearing member;    (5) a transfer device configured to transfer the toner image onto a receiving material; and    (6) a cleaning device configured to remove toner particles remaining on the image bearing member even after the image transfer process.
The cleaning device typically includes a cleaner having a cleaning blade. Specific examples of the blade include metal blades, and blades made of an elastic material such as urethane rubbers. Metal blades have a drawback in that the portion of the metal blades contacted with an image bearing member does not deform and thereby the tip of the metal blades cannot be closely contacted with the image bearing member. Therefore, small spaces are formed between the tip of the blade and the surface of the image bearing member if the tip has a poor dimensional accuracy or the image bearing member to be cleaned has a rough surface. When there are small spaces between the tip of the blade and the surface of the image bearing member, toner particles to be removed pass through the spaces, resulting in occurrence of a bad cleaning problem. In contrast, elastic blades can be deformed along the surface of the image bearing member and therefore the elastic blades can be closely contacted with the surface even when the tip of the blade has a poor dimensional accuracy or the image bearing member to be cleaned has a rough surface. Thus, the elastic blades have better cleanability than the metal blades. Specific examples of the materials for use in the elastic blades include rubbers.
Recently, a need exists for electrophotographic image forming apparatus capable of producing high quality images. In order to produce high quality images, it is important to use a toner having a spherical form and a small particle diameter. Specifically, spherical toners which are prepared by a polymerization method have been typically used now. Such spherical toners have an advantage of having better transfer efficiency than toners which are prepared by a pulverization method and have irregular forms. However, spherical toners have a drawback in that the toner particles remaining on an image bearing member cannot be well removed, resulting in occurrence of the bad cleaning problem (i.e., occurrence of a background fouling problem in that background areas of images are soiled with toner particles).
Then conventional cleaners for use in cleaning the surface of image forming members will be explained.
A cleaning blade is typically set so as to be contacted with a rotating image bearing member while the blade counters the rotating image bearing member to scrape off toner particles remaining on the image bearing member. Since elastic materials such as urethane rubbers used for such a cleaning blade typically have a high friction coefficient against image bearing members, the cleaning blade cannot smoothly slip on the surface of the image bearing member when the elastic materials are used as they are. Therefore, problems in that the tip of the blade is drawn by the rotated image bearing members (i.e., the tip is forcibly everted in the opposite direction, this problem is hereinafter referred to as an everted blade problem) or the tip vibrates occur. However, since toner particles and fine powders added to the toners as a fluidity improving agent are present at a nip between the blades and the surface of the image bearing members, the blades can slide on the image bearing members.
Some of toner particles scraped off an image bearing member still stay at the tip of the blade because the image bearing member is rotating. Such toner particles as staying at the tip of the blade decrease the friction coefficient between the blade and the image bearing member. Therefore, the cleaning operation can be well performed without causing the everted blade problem.
In contrast, spherical toners cannot stay at the tip of a blade. Therefore, it becomes impossible to decrease the friction coefficient between the blade and an image bearing member. In this case, the surface of the image bearing member is grounded, resulting in formation of a powder of the photosensitive layer of the image bearing member. The thus formed powder aggregates and adheres to the portion of the blade contacted with the image bearing member. Therefore, toner particles can easily pass through the contact portion, resulting in occurrence of the bad cleaning problem.
FIG. 1 is a schematic view illustrating a background cleaner. A cleaner 1A includes a support plate 2A and an elastic blade 3A which are bonded to each other. The elastic blade 3A makes a pressure-contact with the surface of a photoreceptor 4A serving as an image bearing member and rotating in a direction indicated by an arrow A. The blade 3A scrapes off toner particles T remaining on the surface of the photoreceptor 4A even after a transfer process. The elastic blade 3A is made of a material, for example, a polyurethane elastomer, and the support plate 2A is made of, for example, a metal. In this regard, a front portion of a surface 5A of the support plate 2A, which surface faces the surface of the photoreceptor 4A and which is hereinafter referred to as a first surface, is bonded with a rear portion 7A of a surface 6A of the blade 3A, which surface is hereinafter referred to as a back surface of the blade 3A (the back surface is sometimes referred to as a second surface). A front portion 8A of the elastic blade 3A extends from a tip surface 9A of the support plate 2A to the side of the photoreceptor 4A without being bonded with the support plate 2A.
In this regard, the blade 3A is pressed toward the surface of the photoreceptor 4A, and therefore the blade 3A receives a reactive force N from the photoreceptor 4A. Therefore, the elastic blade 3A is deformed so as to be curved as illustrated in FIG. 2 with exaggeration. Specifically, the blade 3A is sharply bent at a boundary portion 10A between a rear portion 7A and the front portion 8A as illustrated in FIG. 2. Therefore, the entire of the first portion of a front surface 11A of the blade 3A is contacted with the surface of the photoreceptor 4A at a contact area of AR. Namely, the body of the blade 3A contacts the surface of the photoreceptor 4A. In this case, the pressure of the blade 3A applied to the surface of the photoreceptor 4A is low, and thereby the cleanability of the blade 3A deteriorates. Particularly, in a case of a spherical toner having a high circularity, the spherical toner is rotated when the toner is contacted with the blade 3A, and thereby the toner invades the nip between the blade 3A and the surface of the photoreceptor 4A while rotating. Finally, such toner particles pass through the nip, and thereby the background fouling problem occurs. Namely, the cleaner 1A has poor cleanability.
In attempting to solve the problem, a cleaner 1B illustrated in FIG. 3 is proposed in published unexamined Japanese patent application No. (hereinafter referred to as JP-A) 2000-147970. The cleaner 1B also has an elastic blade 3B and a support plate 2B. The blade 3B has a groove 12B into which the support plate 2B is inserted. The entire surface of the groove 12B is bonded with the support plate 2B. In this cleaner, the elastic blade 3B receives a reactive force N from a photoreceptor 4B, and therefore the blade 3B tends to be bent in a direction indicated by an arrow M. However, the bottom surface of the groove 12B of the blade 3B is bonded with a tip surface 9B of the support plate 2B, and thereby the blade 3B is not bent so largely as in the case of the blade 3A. Namely, the area of the portion of a surface 11B of the blade 3B contacted with the surface of the photoreceptor 4A is not so large as that in the case of the blade 3A.
In this case, since a back surface 13B of the support plate 2B inserted into the groove 12B is also bonded with a surface 14B of the groove 12B, the surface 14B cannot slip in a direction indicated by an arrow B. Therefore, the blade 3B receives a force so as not to be bent. As a result, the amount of deformation of the blade 3B is small. In this case, the area of the portion of the blade 3B contacted with the photoreceptor 4B is excessively small, and therefore the pressure of the blade 3B applied to the photoreceptor 4B greatly varies in a longitudinal direction of the blade 3B (i.e., a direction perpendicular to the surface of the sheet including FIG. 3). Therefore, the cleaner 1B has poor cleanability. In particular, when the toner is a spherical toner, the cleaner has very poor cleanability.
Therefore, in order to impart good cleanability to a cleaner, it is necessary that the blade thereof is properly bent so that the tip of the blade is contacted with a material to be cleaned such as photoreceptors at a proper contact area, which results in increase of the contact pressure of the blade and uniformity the pressure of the blade in the longitudinal direction thereof.
JP-A 2001-312191 discloses an image forming apparatus which uses a spherical toner having a form factor SF-1 of from 100 to 140 and another form factor SF-2 of from 100 to 120 and a cleaner having a cleaning blade which is contacted with the surface of the image bearing member so as to counter the image bearing member relative to the rotation direction of the image bearing member. In this image forming apparatus, various conditions are controlled to prevent toner particles remaining on the image bearing member from passing through the nip between the blade and the surface of the image bearing member. Specifically, the conditions are as follows:    (1) linear pressure of blade: 20 to 60 gf/cm (i.e., 0.196 to 0.588 N/cm);    (2) hardness of blade: 50 to 80°; and    (3) repulsion elasticity: 10 to 50%.
JP-A 06-289760 discloses an image bearing apparatus having a cleaning device in which a cleaning metal blade held by a holding mechanism is contacted with the surface of an image bearing member and which has a pressing mechanism located between the tip of the blade and the holding mechanism. In this image forming apparatus, the holding mechanism presses the tip of the blade to the surface of the image bearing member and the pressing mechanism supplementarily presses the tip of the blade to the surface of the image bearing member.
However, as a result of the present inventors' study, it is found that the technique disclosed in JP-A 2001-312191 cannot sufficiently prevent residual spherical toner particles from passing through the nip because the linear pressure is less than 60 g/cm (0.588 N/cm). Therefore, the present inventors have investigated the mechanism of the bad cleaning problem as mentioned above. As a result thereof, the present inventors discover that the mechanism is the following.
FIG. 4 is a schematic view illustrating the configuration of a cleaning blade and an image bearing member (i.e., a photoreceptor). The tip of a cleaning blade 3 contacts the surface of a photoreceptor drum 4 so as to counter the photoreceptor drum 4 which rotates in a direction A. In this regard, the blade 3 contacts the surface of the photoreceptor drum 4 at an initial contact angle of θ, while the blade is deformed in an amount of (d).
The initial contact angle is defined as the angle formed by a line F (i.e., the line of the first surface of the blade 3 when the blade 3 is not contacted with the photoreceptor 4) and a line G which is a tangent line at an intersection C of the line F and the surface of the photoreceptor 4. In addition, the deformation amount (d) is defined as the distance between the line G and a line H which is parallel to the line G and includes an edge 3b of the blade 3 when the blade is not contacted with the photoreceptor.
When the cleaning blade 3 is set so as to have such a configuration as illustrated in FIG. 4, the procedure is as follows.    (1) at first, the edge 3b of the blade 3 is brought into contact with the surface of the photoreceptor 4; and    (2) then the blade 3 is moved so as to approach the surface along the normal line of the photoreceptor at the contact point without changing the posture of the blade so that the cleaner has the configuration as illustrated in FIG. 4.
The rear portion of the cleaning blade 3 is adhered to a metal plate 2 which serves as a support member and which is fixed to a casing (not shown). The blade 3 preferably has a thickness t1 of from 0.5 mm to 2.0 mm. The front portion of the blade 3 preferably has a length t4 of from 3.0 mm to 10.0 mm. Suitable materials for use in the blade 3 include elastic materials such as rubbers. More preferably, polyurethane having a hardness of from 65° to 80° and a repulsion elasticity of from 20 to 60% is used for the blade 3.
FIG. 5 is a schematic cross sectional view illustrating the tip portion of the blade 3 at a time the photoreceptor 4 is not rotated. In this case, the cleaning blade 3 is contacted with the photoreceptor 4 while deformed in an amount of (d). This state is hereinafter referred to as a slip state.
FIG. 6 is a schematic cross sectional view illustrating the tip portion of the blade when the photoreceptor 4 is rotated in a direction A. In this case, the edge 3b of the cleaning blade 3 is allowed to move in the direction A due to friction force between the blade and the surface of the photoreceptor, and finally a portion of the tip surface of the blade contacts the surface of the photoreceptor 4. This state is hereinafter referred to as a stick state. Numeral 3a represents a first surface of the tip portion of the blade 3.
In this case (i.e., when the photoreceptor 4 is rotated), the restoring force of the deformed portion of the blade 3 is balanced with the dynamic friction between the blade 3 and the photoreceptor 4. In contrast, when the photoreceptor is stopped, the tip portion of the blade is maintained to be deformed due to the static friction between the blade 3 and the photoreceptor 4 which is greater than the restoring force of the deformed portion of the blade 3. Therefore, when the dynamic friction does not vary and in addition the static friction is greater than the restoring force of the deformed tip portion of the blade, the stick state is maintained.
In the stick state, the area of the portion of the blade 3 contacted with the surface of the photoreceptor drum 4 is smaller than that in the slip state. In addition, in the stick state, the edge portion of the tip of blade is deformed as illustrated in FIG. 6 due to the friction force received from the photoreceptor 4. This deformation is not caused when the blade is in a slip state. The restoring force acts in such a direction that the pressure of the blade 3 to the photoreceptor 4 increases. Thus, in the stick state, the area of the portion of the blade contacted with the photoreceptor is small and in addition the compressive elasticity of the blade acts such that the pressure of the blade to the photoreceptor increases. Therefore, the pressure in the stick state is greater than that in the slip state, and thereby the toner passing problem hardly occurs. Therefore, it is preferable to stably maintain the stick state during the cleaning operation.
The present inventors made an experiment in which a cleaning blade is contacted with a surface of a transparent cylinder having the same frictional property as that of a photoreceptor drum to carefully observe the contact portion of the blade and the cylinder. Specifically, the contact portion of the blade and the transparent cylinder on which toner particles are present was observed with a camera set inside the transparent cylinder while the cylinder was rotated to determine how toner particles pass through the nip therebetween. As a result of the experiment, it was found that toner particles pass through some portions of the contact portion in the longitudinal direction of the blade, and at the portions the blade makes a stick-slip movement. The stick-slip movement means that when the position of the edge 3b of the blade 3 in the stick state as illustrated in FIG. 6 is 0 (i.e., an original point), the edge 3b moves to a point in a range of from +8 μm to +15 μm in an upstream region relative to the rotation direction of the cylinder.
As a result of the experiment and other experiments, it was found that the blade starts to make a stick-slip movement just after one or several spherical toner particles pass through a portion of the contact portion.
FIG. 7 is a schematic view illustrating the contact portion of the blade 3 and the surface of the photoreceptor 4 through which spherical toner particles are passing through. In FIG. 7, toner particles fed by the rotation of the photoreceptor drum 4 are stopped once at the contact portion of the blade 3 and the photoreceptor 4. Then the toner particles stopped by the blade 3 starts to rotate. In this case, the driving force of the rotation of the toner particles is a friction force caused by the rotation of the photoreceptor 4. Then the rotated toner particles invade into the nip between the blade 3 and the photoreceptor 4. The toner particles move through the nip while rotating in a direction indicated by an arrow and deforming the blade 3. Thus, the toner particles pass through the blade 3.
As mentioned above, the edge of the blade 3 is elastically deformed in a stick state as illustrated in FIG. 6. When spherical toner particles pass through the blade in this state, the reactive force of the photoreceptor 4, which has acted against the restoring force of the blade due to deformation of the blade, does not act on the blade. Therefore, the edge 3b of the blade 3 moves in the upstream direction relative to the rotation direction of the photoreceptor 4 due to the restoring force and has the shape of the blade in the stick state. As a result thereof, the portion of the blade has a slip state. The portion is illustrated as 3b′ surrounded by a dotted line I in FIG. 8. The portions adjacent to the portion 3b′ maintain the stick state as illustrated in FIG. 8. Therefore, the force to be applied to the portion 3b′ is diffused to the adjacent portions. As a result, a sufficient pressure does not act on the portion 3b′ achieving the slip state. Therefore, toner particles continuously pass through the portion 3b′. The edge portion of the portion 3b′ having the slip state is moved in the downstream direction to achieve again the stick state. However, the edge of portion 3b′ starts to move again in the upstream direction in the midway between the slip state position and the stick state position due to the toner particles passing through the nip, i.e., due to the restoring force of the blade. Therefore, the portion 3b′ repeats the stick-slip movement until there is no toner particle passing through the portion 3b′ of the blade. Thus, many toner particles pass through such a portion at a time, resulting in occurrence of the bad cleaning problem, i.e., occurrence of the background fouling problem in that background area of images is soiled with toner particles.
In addition, as a result of the present inventors' experiments, it was found that even when the blade does not make the stick-slip movement, the bad cleaning problem can be caused although depending on the material used for the blade.
Specifically, the toner particles stopped once by the blade 3 starts to rotate and pushes a portion of the blade 3 while deforming the portion of the blade. Finally the toner particles pass through the portion of the blade. Just after the toner particles pass through the portion, occurrence of the stick-slip movement can be prevented if the blade has low repulsion elasticity. However, even in this case, the bad cleaning problem is caused when the blade has a high hardness. Although the mechanism will be explained below in detail, the summary of the mechanism is as follows.
When the blade has a low hardness and a low repulsion elasticity, the portion of the blade deformed by toner particles passing therethrough is greatly deformed and in addition the restoring speed is slow. Therefore, when the deformed portion is restored, other toner particles pass through the portion. Therefore, the restoring action is obstructed by the following toner particles. Thus, many toner particles continuously pass through the portion, resulting in occurrence of the bad cleaning problem.
In this regard, the higher contact pressure a blade has, the better toner particle removing effect the blade has. Therefore, if the contact pressure can be set to be very high, the toner passing problem can be perfectly avoided. However, when the contact pressure is too high, the load on the image bearing member seriously increases, and thereby it becomes difficult to stably rotate the image bearing member. In addition, a problem in that the surface of the image bearing member is seriously abraded, resulting in shortening of the life of the image bearing member. Therefore, there is an upper limit of the contact pressure.
Thus, it is difficult to perfectly prevent the toner passing problem at the present time.
In addition, the stick-slip movement is also caused when the friction coefficient of an image bearing member changes and as a result the friction force formed between the blade and the surface of the image bearing member changes. Specifically, when the friction coefficient decreases, the restoring force of the blade becomes larger than the friction force formed between the blade and the surface of the image bearing member, and thereby the blade achieves the slip state. When the blade achieves the slip state, the restoring force becomes smaller than the friction force and thereby the blade is returned to the stick state due to the rotation of the image bearing member.
In contrast, when the friction coefficient of a portion of the image bearing member is relatively large compared to that of other portions, the friction force becomes larger than the restoring force of the deformed blade, and thereby the edge portion of the blade is further drawn by the image bearing member in the direction A illustrated in FIG. 6. When the portion having a large friction coefficient passes the blade, the restoring force of the blade becomes larger than the friction force, and thereby the blade achieves the slip state. When the blade achieves the slip state, the friction force becomes larger than the restoring force of the blade, and thereby the blade achieves the stick state due to rotation of the image bearing member. In this case, when the blade has the slip state, many toner particles pass through the nip between the cleaning blade and the image bearing member.
When toner particles prepared by a pulverization method are used, the toner particles stay at the contact portion of the blade and the image bearing member, and thereby the friction force formed between the edge 3b of the blade 3 and the surface of the image bearing member 4 is decreased. Therefore, the edge of the blade and the surface of the image bearing member can stably form a nip with hardly causing the stick-slip movement and thereby toner particles can be well scraped. In contrast, since spherical toner particles cannot stay at the blade, the blade repeats the stick-slip movement, and thereby an unstable nip is formed, resulting in occurrence of the bad cleaning problem.
Hereinbefore, the bad cleaning problem caused by the stick-slip movement of a blade is described. However, the cause for the bad cleaning problem is not limited to the stick-slip movement. In a background cleaner illustrated in FIG. 4, a stress is concentrated to a portion 3s of the blade 3 near an edge 2b of the metal support plate 2, resulting in occurrence of buckling of the portion 3s in that the blade 3 is sharply bent at the portion 3s.
In order to prevent the toner passing problem, the tip portion of the blade 3 contacting the photoreceptor drum 4 is pressed to the photoreceptor at a predetermined linear pressure. Therefore, the tip portion is curved outward (i.e., in the direction opposite to the photoreceptor 4) in an amount of (d), and thereby a bending stress is generated. The bending stress is maximized at the portion 3s. In addition, the stress applied to the blade 3 is not limited to the bending stress and includes compression stress which is applied in a direction parallel to the line F in FIG. 4. If the portion 3s cannot endure these stresses, the portion 3s is buckled. If the portion 3s is buckled, the blade 3 cannot apply the predetermined linear pressure to the photoreceptor 4, and thereby the bad cleaning problem is caused.

Cleaner, and process cartridge and image forming apparatus using the cleaner


There is described an editing system in which image data representing an initial moving image input in a first format at a corresponding rate is stored in a store and is manipulated to produce image data representing an edited moving image for output in a second format at a corresponding data rate. The system is arranged such that processing is effected at a data rate which is variable and determines the second data rate.

There are several different broadcast standards for television widely in use around the world. Of these, one is the so-called NTSC standard used in the United. States in which television pictures are broadcast at a rate of 30 frames per second, two interleaved fields per frame and 525 lines per frame, and another is the so-called PAL standard used in Europe in which pictures are broadcast at 25 frames per second, two interleaved fields per frame and 625 lines per frame. Movies are captured on film at a rate of 24 frames per second. Top selling television programmes for example "episodics" such as the American television series "ER" are also shot on film at the 24 frames per second rate. Once scenes have been shot the film frames are transferred into an electronic domain by way of a telecine machine.
Plainly, there is an incompatibility between the 24 frames per second of film and the 25 PAL frames and 30 NTSC frames of television. This incompatibility is overcome in one of two ways. If the film is to be shown on NTSC television the film is run through the telecine at 24 frames per second and the film frames are scanned as two television fields. The 24 frames are converted to 30 frames by outputting the first field of the first frame, then the second field and then the first field again. Next, the second field of the second frame is output, then the first. For the third frame the second field is output, then the first and then the second, and for the fourth frame the first field is output first followed by the second. This pattern is repeated for the next group of four frames. The result of this is that 24 film frames (corresponding to one second of moving image) lasts for 60 television fields (also corresponding to one second of moving image). This technique is known as 3:2 pull down and is described for example in our British Patent Application No. 9209204.8 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 5,418,572, the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference.
In both the NTSC and PAL broadcast standards each television frame comprises two interleaved fields. One field comprises all the odd numbered lines in a frame and the other field comprises all the even numbered lines in a frame. If the film is to be viewed on a PAL system at 25 frames per second each film frame is scanned twice (once for each television field) by the telecine. Frames are output from the telecine at a rate of 25 per second. As a result, when the television signals are displayed, one second of film (24 frames) only lasts for 0.96 seconds of television. The speed of action and dynamics in the picture are increased and sound is heard at a slightly higher pitch. Movies and programmes originating on film have always been viewed in this way on PAL televisions.
While these two approaches provide an adequate solution to frame rate incompatibility, they are nevertheless separate operations and it is not possible satisfactorily to convert films or programmes between NTSC and PAL if they have already been converted from the 24 frame movie format to the 25 or 30 frame format of PAL or NTSC. Simply converting from one television standard to the other introduces unacceptable artifacts as the frame rate is changed between 25 and 30 per second and the line rate is changed between 525 and 625 per frame. One way of overcoming this problem is to carry out the editing twice, once to convert from film to NTSC and once to convert from film to PAL. Plainly this is undesirable because it is difficult (dynamics are different at a frame level between the two standards), the effects applied in one standard have to be applied again in the other standard, and costs are increased significantly.
There has recently been a move towards making a single 625 line master tape. The approach that has been adopted is to use a conventional tape-based edit suite with a standard 25/625 VTR adapted so that it is able to record and play the same tape at either the standard 25 frames per second or at a slower 24 frames per second and 625 lines per frame. During the editing process the moving picture is viewed at the correct pace of 24 frames per second and thus the dynamics in the picture are also seen correctly. Once a satisfactory edit has been created and stored on tape, the tape is simply played back at 25 frames per second (4 percent faster than real image time) to give the correct 25/625 rate for PAL.
When an NTSC master tape is required the edited clip is output at 24 frames per second to circuitry which converts the 625 lines to 525 lines and converts the 24 frames per second into 30 frames per second using 3:2 pull down techniques. The resulting video is recorded on to standard 30/525 tape for subsequent playback on standard NTSC equipment. Using this approach also requires the audio to be resampled. The audio signal is normally sampled at a rate of 48 KHz, but when the tape speed is reduced from 25 to 24 frames per second there is a corresponding reduction of the audio sampling rate to 46 KHz. The audio signal is therefore reclocked (without pitch change) from the incorrect 46 KHz sampling rate to the correct 48 KHz sampling rate.
Off-line non-linear editing systems are available which are capable of manipulating 30 frames per second video generated by way of 3:2 pull down. One such system is arranged to remove the additional fields generated by the 3:2 pull down operation and to store only the two fields that make up each frame. The output of such a system is put through an internal 3:2 conversion so that the user of the system views the output at 60 fields per second. The system produces a standard 30 frames per second edit decision list (EDL).
Another approach to overcoming the aforementioned problems is to carry out an edit using such an off-line non-linear editing system in order to make an EDL which is then conformed at either 24 frames per second or 25 frames per second. Either frame rate is acceptable, the important thing is that the edit occurs in the right place. A modified VTR is used to play back video rushes at 24 frames per second to enable 30 frame per second dubs to be produced (via 3:2 pull down). The 30 frame per second dubs are taken into an off-line non-linear editing system, as aforementioned. Editing decisions are made using the system and a standard 30 frames per second EDL is produced. The EDL thus produced is fettled to produce a 25 frames per second EDL which is then used to conform the high-quality 625 rushes in a tape based auto-conform suite to produce the 625 master tape, which is only correctly paced when played at 24 frames per second.
The aforementioned modified VTR may also be used to play back a 25/625 master at 24 frames per second in order to enable the production (via 3:2 pull down) of 30/525 distribution copies from the 25/625 master.
Again, while this approach is able to produce satisfactory results, it is nevertheless laborious, difficult and thus expensive to produce separate 25/625 and 30/525 distribution copies from a single master.


In a light-emitting device where reflective electrodes are regularly arranged, occurrence of interference fringes due to reflection of light reflected by the reflective electrode is inhibited. A surface of the reflective electrode of a light-emitting element is provided with a plurality of depressions. The shapes of the plurality of depressions are different from each other and do not have rotational symmetry. Irregularity of the surface shape of the reflective electrode is increased, which inhibits interference of light reflected by the reflective electrode. To form the plurality of depressions in the surface of the reflective electrode, for example, a surface of an insulating layer that is a base of the reflective electrode is made uneven. Reflecting the surface shape of the insulating layer, the reflective electrode has an uneven surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light-emitting device including a light-emitting element such as an electroluminescence (EL) element.
2. Description of the Related Art
EL display devices are known as active matrix display devices. A screen of an active matrix EL display device includes a plurality of pixel circuits. Each pixel circuit is provided with an EL element. In the EL display device, the pixel circuit controls the luminance of the EL element so that gray scale display is performed.
In the general structure of an EL element provided in a pixel circuit, a light-emitting layer is provided between a pair of electrodes of an electrode having a light-transmitting property and an electrode having a light-reflecting property. Light generated from the light-emitting layer is reflected by the electrode having a light-reflecting property, passes through the electrode having a light-transmitting property, and is extracted. In general, an electrode having a light-transmitting property (hereinafter it may be referred to as a light-transmitting electrode) and an electrode having a light-reflecting property (hereinafter it may be referred to as a reflective electrode) functions as a cathode and an anode, respectively, in an EL element.
In a screen of an EL display device, a number of reflective electrodes are regularly arranged. Thus, there is a problem in that these reflective electrodes function like mirrors and reflect an image in the screen. Further, the regular arrangement of the reflective electrodes might cause diffraction of light reflected by each reflective electrode, so that interference fringes might appear on the screen. One method for solving such a problem is to make the surface of the reflective electrode uneven. In Patent Documents 1 and 2, to form projections and depressions on and in the surface of a reflective electrode, a light-transmitting electrode (cathode), a light-emitting layer, and a metal electrode (anode) are stacked in this order over a resin film having dot-like projections and depressions.

Light-emitting device having an electrode with depressions

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


A waste plastic to fuel oil distillation vessel is disclosed. The distillation vessel can be a revolving cone with many traverse supporting tubes therein. This structure allows high temperature air or gas to go through the support tubes, which pass through the vessel, to increase the heating area and increase the temperature of the distillation vessel. Also disclosed is a method of converting waste plastic or rubber into fuel oil.

With the rapid development of the plastic industry, plastic articles are becoming increasingly important in industrial production and in our daily life. More waste plastics are generated with the abundant applications of plastics. Due to the fact that the waste plastics are almost non-decomposable in natural condition, they become a serious problem to the survival of our environment. As such, it becomes very important to solve the pollution problem in our environment caused by the waste plastics, and to get them recycled and re-used.

Revolving waste plastic-oil converting equipment and method of using the same

NANTONG TIANYI ENVIRONMENTAL ENERGY TECHNOLOGY LIMITED CORPORATION


A system, method and software product to simulate guided cable contacts is disclosed. The guided cable contact includes a slave node and an associated beam. A normal vector is established between the slave node's projection point and the slave node. Each of the slave node and two end nodes of the beam has three translational degrees-of-freedom. A spring is placed between the slave node's projection point and the slave node. The spring constant is assigned such that the spring is substantially stiffer than that of the beam. The guided cable contact stiffness matrix is then calculated using the spring constant, the normal vector, the length of the beam, and the distance between the first end node of the beam and the projection point. According to one aspect, the guided cable contact may be used for modeling human spinal column.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to method, system and software product used in finite element analysis, more particularly to numerically simulating of the structural behaviors of a guided cable contact.
2. Description of the Related Art
Finite element analysis (FEA) is a computerized method widely used in industry to model and solve engineering problems relating to complex systems. FEA derives its name from the manner in which the geometry of the object under consideration is specified. With the advent of the modern digital computer, FEA has been implemented as FEA software. Basically, the FEA software is provided with a model of the geometric description and the associated material properties at each point within the model. In this model, the geometry of the system under analysis is represented by solids, shells and beams of various sizes, which are called elements. The vertices of the elements are referred to as nodes. The model is comprised of a finite number of elements, which are assigned a material name to associate with material properties. The model thus represents the physical space occupied by the object under analysis along with its immediate surroundings. The FEA software then refers to a table in which the properties (e.g., stress-strain constitutive equation, Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, thermo-conductivity) of each material type are tabulated. Additionally, the conditions at the boundary of the object (i.e., loadings, physical constraints, etc.) are specified. In this fashion a model of the object and its environment is created.
FEA is becoming increasingly popular with automobile manufacturers for optimizing both the aerodynamic performance and structural integrity of vehicles. Similarly, aircraft manufacturers rely upon FEA to predict airplane performance long before the first prototype is built. Rational design of semiconductor electronic devices is possible with Finite Element Analysis of the electrodynamics, diffusion, and thermodynamics involved in this situation. FEA is utilized to characterize ocean currents and distribution of contaminants. FEA is being applied increasingly to analysis of the production and performance of such consumer goods as ovens, blenders, lighting facilities and many plastic products. In fact, FEA has been employed in as many diverse fields as can be brought to mind, including plastics mold design, modeling of nuclear reactors, analysis of the spot welding process, microwave antenna design, simulating of car crash and biomedical applications such as the design of prosthetic limbs. In short, FEA is utilized to expedite design, maximize productivity and efficiency, and optimize product performance in virtually every stratum of light and heavy industry. This often occurs long before the first prototype is ever developed.
Generally, FEA begins by generating a finite element model of a system. In this model, a subject structure is reduced into a number of node points which are connected together to form finite elements. Governing equations of motion are written in a discrete form, where the motions of each node point are the unknown part of the solution. A simulated load or other influence is applied to the system and the resulting effect is analyzed using well known mathematical methods.
FEA software can be classified into two general types, implicit FEA software and explicit FEA software. Implicit FEA software uses an implicit equation solver to solve a system of coupled linear equations. Such software is generally used to simulate static or quasi-static problems. Explicit FEA software does not solve coupled equations but explicitly solves for each unknown assuming them uncoupled. Explicit FEA software usually uses central difference time integration which requires very small solution cycles or time steps for the method to be stable and accurate. Explicit FEA software is generally used to simulate short duration events where dynamics are important such as impact type events.
One of the most challenging FEA tasks is to simulate an impact event such as car crash. With the advance of the computer technologies and with the advantage of parallel processing, the FEA model for the car crash simulation has become very sophisticated. The number of elements to model a car has increased from several thousands a decade ago to more than one million today. Instead of using a few rigid links to model the dummy driver, a very complicated bio-mechanical human model is used in today's model. In order to model the bio-mechanical model adequately, the spinal column must be included. This leads to a new challenge to numerically simulate the behaviors of the spinal column. It is therefore desirable to have a new method to numerically simulate a human model in a car crash analysis more efficiently and effectively.

Method and system for guided cable contact in finite element analysis


An automatic analyzer capable of performing analysis in terms of a number of analysis items with high reliability through a simple operation. The automatic analyzer comprises a probe adapted to be moved on a circular arc path and capable of sucking or discharging a sample or reagent, a plurality of sample containers disposed at different positions on the path of the probe and containing different analyte samples, and a rotor capable of carrying a plurality of reagent cartridges. Each of the reagent cartridges comprises a photometric cuvette that is empty when not in use, and a reagent cuvette in which a reagent used for a particular analysis item is hermetically sealed. A two-dimensional code with information regarding the analyte type and analysis conditions, for example, is affixed to the reagent cartridge. The two-dimensional code information is read by a reading unit. Based on the information read from the reagent cartridge, a control unit identifies the sample container in which a analyte sample required by a particular reagent cartridge is contained, and causes the probe to be moved to that sample container. The sample in the sample container is sucked and then discharged into the photometric cuvette of the reagent cartridge. The control unit also causes the probe to suck the reagent in the reagent cuvette of the reagent cartridge and then causes the reagent to be discharged into the photometric cuvette.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to an automatic analyzer capable of automatically analyzing a analyte taken from a subject in terms of a plurality of items.
2. Related Art
An automatic analyzer can be used to analyze a analyte, such as blood or urine, taken from a patient to provide data for the doctor's diagnosis. An example is disclosed in JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 5-232123 A (1993), whereby a plurality of types of samples from a single patient that are set on a rack with a patient ID number are measured. A plurality of items of measurement data are then combined and subjected to a logic check to distinguish equipment abnormality from patient abnormality. Another example is disclosed in JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2000-258430 A, whereby a plurality of analytes with individual sample IDs are carried on a sample rack with a rack ID. Based on the reading of the sample ID or the rack ID, each rack is transported to an analysis module corresponding to a requested analysis item. In the analysis module, the analyte sample and a reagent are dispensed into a reaction vessel for measurement. In yet another example of the automatic analyzer, JP Patent Publication (Kohyo) No. 2002-503346 A discloses an analysis system employing a system reagent carrier containing a plurality of chambers or cuvettes.
Patent Document 1: JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 5-232123 A (1993)
Patent Document 2: JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2000-258430 A
Patent Document 3: JP Patent Publication (Kohyo) No. 2002-503346 A


A floating body disposed within a liquid-filled container has top and bottom portions provided with extensible and retractable objects, some of which have a greater buoyancy then the body and the remainder of which tend to sink in the liquid. The body and objects have various configurations and designs which create three-dimensional changes during floating of the body each time the container is turned upside-down.

In the past, many fluid decoration devices, including fluid hourglasses and floating and buoyant decorations, have been designed to cater to tastes of numerous consumers. However, these decorations lack originality and cannot attract consumers. Known fluid hourglass and buoyant decorations provide only monotonous change. As a result, they appear as a fad for a very short period of time. After the fad has gone, they disappear from the market.


A starting control apparatus that automatically discriminates configuration of a vehicle on which the starting control apparatus is mounted, executes an appropriate starting control, and be widely used is provided. The starting control apparatus prestores therein computer program codes for performing a starting control for normal vehicle and a starting control for hybrid vehicle, discriminates between normal vehicle and hybrid vehicle about the vehicle on which the starting control apparatus is mounted on, and executes one of the starting controls corresponding to a result of discrimination between normal vehicle and hybrid vehicle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a starting control apparatus for controlling starting of a vehicle self-directively or based on a signal received from a remote control terminal. The present invention particularly relates to a starting control apparatus that can be widely used and mounted on vehicles that have difference in configuration factors, such as configuration of driving force generator and in-vehicle local area network (LAN) protocol.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, to warm up a vehicle and/or start the air-conditioner of the vehicle in advance, starting control apparatuses have been put into practical. The starting control apparatus makes it possible to start the engine by remote control or at a predetermined time point by using such as a timer (i.e., self-directively), in a situation where the driver is outside the vehicle. The starting control apparatus starts the engine when receiving an engine-start request from a remote control terminal held by the driver (a remote key) by executing operations similarly to when a starting operation is performed by using a key.
Some of the starting control apparatuses are specialized for retrofitting, for example, as an optional part, to a vehicle in a manufacturing plant after the vehicle is manufactured.
Mainly two types of vehicles are available in the market: normal vehicles and hybrid vehicles. A normal vehicle is a vehicle (gasoline engine vehicle, diesel engine vehicle, or the like) that has only an engine as a driving force generator, while an hybrid vehicle is a vehicle that has both an engine and a motor as driving force generators. Conditions for actuation and termination of starting control to be performed by a starting control apparatus, or a making time (ON period) of pulse signals forming a start-request signal to be output from the starting control apparatus are different between the normal vehicles and the hybrid vehicles.
Thus, because the conditions for actuation and termination of the starting control to be performed by a starting control apparatus, or the making time (ON period) of pulse signals that form a start-request signal to be output from the starting control apparatus are different between normal vehicle and hybrid vehicle, a starting control apparatus that is specialized for retrofitting needs to perform respective starting control appropriate to normal vehicle and hybrid vehicle. For this reason, conventionally, a starting control apparatus specialized for a normal vehicle to control the starting of the normal vehicle, and a starting control apparatus specialized for a hybrid vehicle to control the starting of the hybrid vehicle are produced as separate products.
Various protocols are available for an in-vehicle LAN protocol. Examples of the in-vehicle LAN protocol includes controller area network (CAN), body electronics area network (BEAN), time triggered protocol (TTP/C), domestic digital bus (D2B optical), media oriented system transport (MOST), and local interconnect network (LIN). When mounting a retrofitting starting control apparatus to a vehicle, a gateway to convert protocols is arranged between a vehicle bus, which is a bus on the vehicle, and an appliance bus, which is a bus on the starting control apparatus, and a predetermined in-vehicle LAN protocol is used in the appliance bus.
For example, in a BEAN-CAN transmission system in which BEAN is used in the appliance bus and CAN is used in the vehicle bus, the starting control apparatus has to create control data for the starting control in a data format defined by CAN system (data format in an application program layer), and to put the control data by CAN system onto a transmission frame by BEAN system for transmitting. By contrast, in a BEAN-BEAN transmission system in which BEAN is used in the appliance bus and BEAN is used in the vehicle bus, the starting control apparatus has to create control data for the starting control in a data format defined by BEAN system, and to put the control data by BEAN system onto a transmission frame by BEAN system for transmitting.
Thus, data formats (type of data, assigning position of information, and the like) of a data area which is assigned control data for the starting control, i.e., bit assignments, are different between a vehicle with the BEAN-CAN transmission system and a vehicle with the BEAN-BEAN transmission system. The retrofitting starting control apparatus needs to perform respective starting control appropriate to the vehicle with the BEAN-CAN transmission system and the vehicle with the BEAN-BEAN transmission system. To achieve this, conventionally, a starting control apparatus with the BEAN-CAN transmission system and a starting control apparatus with the BEAN-BEAN transmission system are separately produced.
Conventionally, a starting control apparatus specialized for normal vehicle to perform the starting control for normal vehicle, and a starting control apparatus specialized for hybrid vehicle to perform the starting control for hybrid vehicle are separately produced as different products. This complicates production and management, and increases costs.
Moreover, conventionally, starting control apparatuses that perform the starting control in an individual data format by a different in-vehicle LAN protocol are separately produced. This complicates production and management, and increases costs.
In other words, conventional starting control apparatuses have a problem that a separate apparatus is used according to the configuration of the vehicle on which the starting control apparatus is mounted. Thus, there is a need for development of a starting control apparatus that can automatically identify the configuration of the vehicle on which it is mounted and select an appropriate starting control in accordance with a result of identified configuration.


The present invention relates to cartons and materials for cartons that may be used to prepare party favors to form a small, attractive, package with small gifts within. The physical process of making a party favor is facilitated by an easy-to-assemble carton for preparing party favors. In one embodiment, blank walls of material for preparing the cartons may be employed to prepare the party favor as well as a pushing element facilitating wrapping of a gift. The carton may, in one embodiment, have multiple polygonal wall portions formed from blank wall material such as for example, plastic or cardboard with possible openings through wall surfaces to define a carton cavity for assembling a gift. The carton cavity may have an optional pushing element to insert into wrapping to help fill a wrapper, carton openings, or be formed from a sheet of blank wall material to form the party favor. A tulle may be draped over a wall portion of the carton, for example, and into the cavity of the carton a well is formed with tulle or other wrapping material for inserting party favors within, and can be secured by tying.

The present invention relates to cartons for preparing party favors, and carton blanks for preparing party favors.
The present invention relates to cartons and materials for cartons that may be used to prepare party favors.
On holidays, at parties or other social gatherings, it is often desirable to give away token gifts, or favors, to departing guests. These favors may often take the form of a small, attractive, package with small gifts therein.
Unfortunately, the physical process of making these favors may be a long, arduous task, especially for social events with a large number of guests. Clumsy people may have great difficulty in preparing them. Accordingly, actually making the favors may detract from the overall mirth and enjoyment of the social event for the individual making the favors.
Moreover, it is also often desirable to ensure that the party favors are of uniform size and appearance. This too, however, can be a difficult task. Quite often, party favors may be unpleasing in appearance and this too may also detract from the otherwise overall mirthful, happy atmosphere of planning and preparing for a social event.
According, there exists a need for a better, accurate, cheaper, and fun way of preparing party favors, that one of little skill is capable of using.
The present invention provides a carton for preparing party favors. The present invention also provides blanks for preparing cartons which may be employed to prepare party favors.
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, a carton for preparing a party favor is provided. This carton has a first face wall portion and a second face wall portion having an opening and having at least one side wall portion. This side wall portion extends between and is attached to at least a portion of the first wall portion and is attached to at least a portion of the second wall portion so that the side wall portion defines an exterior wall surface and an interior wall surface. This interior wall surface defines a carton cavity. The carton also has a gap positioned at a position between the side wall portion and the second face wall portion.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, a method for making a party favor is provided. This method includes inserting a tying means into a gap of a carton. This carton has a first face wall portion and a second face wall portion having an opening, and having at least one side wall portion which extends between and is attached to at least a portion of the first wall portion and at least a portion of the second bottom wall portion so that the side wall portion defines an exterior wall surface and an interior wall surface which defines a carton cavity, wherein the gap is positioned at a position between the side wall portion and the second face wall portion.
The method further includes draping a tulle over the second wall portion; inserting a portion of the tulle into the opening of the second wall portion and into the cavity thereby creating a well; inserting party favors into to the well; and tying the tying means around the tulle.


A pickling device may include a housing having a first open end and a second closed end opposite the first open end. The housing may define a pickling cavity extending between the first open end and the second closed end, and the pickling cavity may be to receive food to be pickled. The pickling device may have a disc-shaped insert to be positioned in the pickling cavity and over the food to be pickled, a lid to be coupled to the first open end of the housing, and a positive pressure source to be removably coupled to the lid and configured to pressurize the pickling cavity during a pickling process without application of heat.

Pickling is the process of preserving or extending the lifespan of food by either anaerobic fermentation in brine or immersion in vinegar (i.e. pickling fluid). The pickling procedure typically affects the food's texture, taste and flavor. The resulting food is called a pickle, or, to prevent ambiguity, prefaced with pickled. Foods that are pickled include vegetables, fruits, meats, fish, dairy, and eggs.
Typically, the food to be pickled is sealed in an air tight container with the pickling fluid for a lengthy period of time, for example, several weeks. Because of this, there has been a desire for a "quick pickling" process using accelerants, such as heat and pressure.

Pickling device with pressured cavity and related methods


A processing system and method are provided for deriving an improved hemodynamic indicator from cardiac wall acceleration signals. The cardiac wall acceleration signals are provided by a cardiac wall motion sensor that responds to cardiac mechanical activity. The cardiac wall acceleration signals are integrated over time to derive cardiac wall velocity signals, which are further integrated over time to derive cardiac wall displacement signals. The cardiac wall displacement signals correlate to known hemodynamic indicators, and are shown to be strongly suggestive of hemodynamic performance. An implantable cardiac stimulating device which uses cardiac wall displacement signals to detect and discriminate cardiac arrhythmias is also provided.

Implantable cardiac stimulating devices which provide therapeutic electrical stimulation in response to a variety of pathological cardiac arrhythmias are well known in the art. These devices may provide a single type of therapy (e.g., bradycardia pacing therapy) or they may be capable of providing "tiered therapy," in which the type of electrical stimulation administered is determined in accordance with the severity of the arrhythmia, with more aggressive therapies being applied in response to more severe arrhythmias.
Effective delivery of therapy from an implantable cardiac stimulating device depends upon accurate measurement of intrinsic cardiac activity. Devices that provide tiered therapy must not only be capable of detecting the onset of an arrhythmia, but must also be capable of discerning particular types of arrhythmias in order to deliver an appropriate form of electrical stimulation therapy. For example, if a hemodynamically unstable ventricular tachycardia is incorrectly diagnosed as a relatively less severe arrhythmia, valuable time may be lost if an inappropriate, less aggressive therapy, such as antitachycardia pacing, is applied. On the other hand, if a high rate, hemodynamically stable tachycardia is incorrectly diagnosed as ventricular fibrillation, the patient may consciously experience a painful high energy defibrillation shock.
Measurement of intrinsic cardiac activity is also important for devices that provide bradycardia pacing therapy. For instance, a demand pacemaker can inhibit delivery of a pacing pulse when a naturally occurring heartbeat is sensed within a predetermined period of time following a preceding heart beat (the time period commonly referred to as the "escape interval"). Pacing pulse inhibition is desirable because it extends battery life. To achieve this desirable result, the device must be capable of monitoring intrinsic cardiac activity.
Many implantable cardiac stimulating devices detect cardiac arrhythmias by monitoring cardiac electrical activity--i.e., the intracardiac electrogram (IEGM). The IEGM is typically sensed by electrodes that are also used to deliver electrical stimulation to the cardiac tissue. However, under many circumstances, it is difficult to sense the IEGM. For example, the device may not be able to discern the IEGM over external interference. As a result, an implantable cardiac stimulating device may have difficulty detecting the onset of an arrhythmia. As another illustration, implantable cardiac stimulating devices that provide bradycardia pacing therapy may be inhibited from sensing cardiac electrical activity during a period of time immediately following the delivery of a pacing pulse, due to the presence of a pulse-induced after-potential in the vicinity of the pacing electrodes.
Unfortunately, IEGMs are only the electrical trigger signal that proceeds the mechanical activity of the cardiac muscle. While, IEGMs are useful in most cases in determining the rate of contraction of the cardiac muscle, they do not carry information regarding the mechanical vigor of the resulting contraction. To properly assess the performance of the heart as a functioning pump, two pieces of information are needed: the rate of pumping and the amount of fluid displaced. Only rate information is available when a cardiac device monitors the IEGMs. What is needed then, is a sensor which can monitor both rate and the amount of fluid displaced.
Some implantable cardiac stimulating devices monitor physiologic parameters, other than the IEGM, which reflect hemodynamic performance. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,774,950 to Cohen refers to a system that detects cardiac arrhythmias by measuring mean pressure at a variety of locations (e.g., mean arterial pressure, mean right ventricular pressure, mean left atrial pressure, mean left ventricular pressure or mean central venous pressure). For a selected mean pressure, a short term current mean pressure is compared to a long term mean baseline pressure, and if they differ by a predetermined value, the patient may be deemed to be experiencing a cardiac arrhythmia. The mean pressure data may also be used in combination with heart rate measurements to detect arrhythmias.
The use of another hemodynamic indicator, blood oxygen level, is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,748 to Cohen. Blood oxygen level is measured at a particular site in the circulatory system of a patient. A comparison is made between a short term sensed blood oxygen level and a baseline blood oxygen level, and if they differ, the patient may be deemed to be experiencing a cardiac arrhythmia. Unfortunately, the use of hemodynamic indicators such as mean pressure and blood oxygen level may have certain associated drawbacks. One drawback is that certain hemodynamic indicators may not respond rapidly to the onset of an arrhythmia. Thus, an implantable cardiac stimulating device that relies on certain hemodynamic signals to detect cardiac arrhythmias may not deliver therapy as rapidly as desired. Another drawback is that the measurement of certain hemodynamic indicators requires the use of sensors that must be delivered to sites that do not normally receive electrical stimulation. Thus, additional leads may be required, which undesirably add cost to the implantable system and complexity to the surgical procedure during which the leads are implanted.
One proposed solution which overcomes some of the drawbacks associated with the use of the IEGM and certain hemodynamic indicators is described in commonly assigned, copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/091,636, filed Jul. 14, 1993, of Causey and Moberg, entitled "Implantable Leads Incorporating Cardiac Wall Motion Sensors and Method of Fabrication and a System and Method for Detecting Cardiac Arrhythmias Using a Cardiac Wall Motion Sensor Signal," which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. That patent application describes implantable leads which incorporate cardiac wall motion sensors that provide signals indicative of cardiac mechanical activity. More particularly, the signals are representative of cardiac wall accelerations as experienced by the motion sensors.
The cardiac wall motion sensors of the above-incorporated patent application rapidly respond to the onset of arrhythmias. The signals are not subject to electrical interference from pacemaker-induced after-potentials and external sources. The raw acceleration signals advantageously provide an accurate and reliable indication of cardiac mechanical activity. However, it would be even more desirable to be able to process the raw signals provided by the cardiac wall motion sensors in order to derive signals that strongly correlate to the hemodynamic performance of a patient's heart. It would also be desirable to provide an implantable cardiac stimulating device that uses the derived hemodynamic signals to determine when (and what form of) therapeutic electrical stimulation should be administered.

System and method for deriving hemodynamic signals from a cardiac wall motion sensor