In a general aspect, a wavelength of light is measured. In some aspects, a wavelength measurement system includes an interferometer, a camera system, a sensor and a control system. The interferometer includes two reflective surfaces and a transmission medium between the two reflective surfaces. The interferometer is configured to receive an optical signal from a laser and produce an interferogram in response. The camera system is configured to receive the interferogram from the interferometer and generate interferogram data in response. The interferogram data represents the interferogram received from the interferometer. The sensor is configured to sense an environmental parameter of the transmission medium and generate sensor data in response. The control system is configured to perform operations including, receiving the interferogram data from the camera system and the sensor data from the sensor; and computing a wavelength of the laser based on the interferogram data and the sensor data.

The following description relates to measuring the wavelength of light.
Lasers are precise tools for manipulating matter and making measurements. In many cases, properties, e.g., frequencies or wavelengths, of lasers are required to be precisely tuned to atomic resonances in order to use them in commercial devices. Examples of such devices include atomic clocks, gravitometers, electric and magnetic field sensors, and accelerometers. One of the major challenges in such devices is to make precise, absolute frequency measurements with a high precision (e.g., ˜1 MHz) from the ultraviolet to the infrared. Currently, wavelength measurements with such precision rely upon power-consuming environmental control and stabilization techniques, which greatly limits the use of such techniques outside of laboratory environments.


An improved coupling piece for the Click-and-Fix coupling of a disposable pressure container with a dispensing gun is provided, including an integrated cap and internal support legs for securing the position of the stem of the valve of the container when pressure increases inside the container, and which coupling piece may be produced as one single product using injection moulding. Further provided is an assembly of a container with the coupling piece, and a process for producing the coupling piece and the assembly. The coupling piece and/or the assembly may be further adapted for handheld use with a suitable handheld applicator.

Containers under pressure, containing compounds such as pastes, foams or glues, find increasing use in the building industry as well as in do-it-yourself (DIY) activities. These containers are usually disposable containers. Generally two types of applicators are used in current practice. Occasional and DIY users typically prefer a simple handheld applicator, usually also disposable, which is typically screwed onto the stem of the valve of the container and usually comprises a hose or tube for guiding the flow of the compound to its intended location, and a tilting adaptor or lever. Such handheld applicators are characterised in that they do not themselves contain a valve for stopping or controlling the flow of compound, but act on the valve provided on the container for those purposes. Consequently, any compound having passed the container valve and entered the handheld applicator is exposed to the atmosphere and, if susceptible, may react further and convert into its ultimate and usually rigid consistency. For these reasons, these adaptors are simple in design and production, cheap, but most often only useable once, and thus disposable. Typically an action on the tilting adaptor or lever provided as part of the handheld applicator results in a tilting or pushing down of the stem of the container valve, such as in its surrounding rubber grommet in case of a conventional valve, relative to the cup of the valve, such that one or more openings in the valve stem are set free into the container contents, thereby opening the container valve. The assembly is such that the user may hold the container while pushing the tilting adaptor, which provides a rough means for controlling and dosing the compound flow. U.S. Pat. No. 4,165,825 discloses suitable valves for such handheld applications. The compound dosing with such handheld systems is however rather inaccurate, and such a system is therefore more suitable for filling large crevices or cavities, such as those wider than 2 cm.
The more intensive users, such as professionals or more experienced DIY users, typically prefer a more sophisticated dispensing device, such as a foam-dispensing gun, for applying the compound. With such dispensing devices, the user holds and manipulates the foam-dispensing device or dispensing gun, with the compound container being attached to the gun. Such dispensing guns are characterised in that they comprise their own valve, preferably a needle-valve for higher accuracy and better closure, for stopping or controlling the flow of compound, and this valve is usually located at the tip of the gun barrel and much more sophisticated than the container valve. It typically allows for a much better control of the compound flow as compared to the container valve. Because this valve is located at the tip of the barrel, there remains after use little to no volume of compound which has been exposed to the atmosphere and may react and become rigid. The compound inside the dispensing gun remains under pressure and sealed from the atmosphere, except for the short time required for exchanging a container on the dispensing gun. This time is usually short, and the dispensing gun is typically used immediately after the exchange, such that the compound inside the dispensing gun is refreshed and after use this new compound remains under pressure and fresh in its fluid state. These dispensing guns are usually more complex and expensive and are typically reused several times after replacing the previous empty container with a fresh and full one. The use of these dispensing guns is more comfortable for the user, and allows a higher accuracy and dosing in the application of the compound than the handheld system. Dispensing guns are therefore also preferred for filling up smaller crevices, such as those smaller than 2 cm wide. The higher dosing accuracy allows working with less excess compound, which usually needs to be removed later and ends up as waste. This reduces the amount of aftercare work required and brings a higher efficiency in material use. Both these advantages are of high interest to the professional or intensive user.
Containers intended for the intensive user are for this purpose conveniently provided with a first coupling piece, usually made from a plastic material, which makes the container suitable for attachment to the dispensing gun or dispensing device, and which matches with a connection element integrated in the dispensing device or dispensing gun, or with a second coupling piece which is attached to the dispensing device or dispensing gun, also called a gun adaptor, usually made of metal, such as aluminium or bronze, for making the coupling with the dispensing device or the dispensing gun. A suitable foam dispensing gun is for instance disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,271,537, whereby the device comprises a screw connection into which a container may be screwed which has a suitable screw connection, usually by means of a suitable coupling piece on the container.
This screw connection or first coupling piece typically surrounds the valve which closes off the container. The screw coupling is usually provided such that when the screw connection is being effected, usually by manually tightening the screw until the stop position is reached, at the same time the valve of the container is brought into the open position and flow of the compound in the container is made possible from the container into the dispensing gun, where it may be stopped and/or controlled by the valve in the dispensing gun. For this purpose, a central internal extension is usually provided on the dispensing gun, or as part of the second coupling piece or gun adaptor, which upon effecting the coupling engages with the stem of the container valve and pushes the valve down in the open position, usually at the same time also providing a seal around the stem of the container valve such that the compound is only allowed to flow via the intended channel through the dispensing gun and avoiding any escape of compound into undesirable locations, where it would foul up the coupling pieces or the dispensing gun. Such a screw coupling typically requires a plurality of full windings in multiple manual handling steps in order to effect the coupling, and this is time consuming for the intensive user and may lead to unintentional spillage of the compound.
WO 98/43894 discloses an also rotatably connecting, alternative bayonet-type coupling system for such assembly of a container and a dispensing gun. This system is commonly called a "Click-and-Fix" system, and provides the advantage compared to the screw coupling that the coupling is effectuated in maximum one turn, preferably in less than a full turn, and preferably as little as only half or even about a quarter turn, and thereby in a much shorter time. Preferably the coupling may be closed in one single swift movement. With this system, the two coupling pieces are preferably made from plastic such as nylon 6 or polypropylene, and optionally a fibre reinforced plastic. This coupling system is much simpler and faster to operate, and requires less user handling compared to the several windings needed to effect the screw coupling discussed before. Because the coupling is closed quickly, there is also much less risk for accidental or unintentional leakage of container content, which may end up on the dispensing gun or on the second coupling piece, and therefore reduces the risk that the dispensing gun or the coupling piece needs to be cleaned before a new container may be coupled onto it. These advantages are of high convenience, in particular to the intensive user.
It should be noted that in all these designs, the first coupling piece needs to be strongly attached to the container, because the connection needs to withstand the force required for opening the valve, as well as the force exerted by the pressurized content of the container on the dispensing gun when the valve is opened. It also needs to withstand the torque force when the connection is being effected.
As it is commercially offered with its content under pressure, the container or canister intended for use with the dispensing gun is thus typically different from the container intended for handheld use, i.e. for use with a handheld applicator. The container for professional use is thus usually provided with a first coupling piece which is so strongly attached to the container that its removal, which would be required to allow attaching the handheld applicator for handheld use, would require a prohibitively strong force for the typical occasional or DIY user. It would also lead to unsafe situations, e.g. creating a risk for unintentionally ripping off the valve. Consequently the supply chain has been carrying two types of containers having different designs, one designed for use with the dispensing gun, and the other for use with the handheld applicator.
The containers itself are typically made of metal and cylindrical in shape. The bottom is usually formed by a plate flanged to the cylinder and typically is concave for better withstanding the internal pressure while maintaining the ability for the container to stand upright on a flat surface. The top is usually provided with a container head, also flanged to the cylinder, and which is typically convex for the same reason of higher pressure resistance. A filling opening is usually provided centrally in the cylinder head. When preparing the container for market, the empty container is typically filled with the compound through this central filling opening in the head, which subsequently may be closed off by flanging the container valve into the filling opening. Many compounds may be filled into the container under atmospheric pressure, and a higher pressure may subsequently be built up or introduced into the container, usually after it is closed off as described. An example wherein pressure builds up after closing the container are the compounds for polyurethane foam, in particular the one-component-foam (OCF), in which, after filling the container, an exothermic chemical reaction between the compounds may be initiated, such as by shaking the container, and the reaction produces heat and builds up pressure by the production and/or vaporisation of propellants. Propellants for building up the pressure may also be introduced at the moment of filling the container, such as a cold liquid which then is allowed to vaporise after closing the container.
We have found that the valve cup, i.e. the metal part of the container valve which is flanged to the container head and which may support the valve stem, or the rubber grommet through which sticks the typically plastic stem of the conventional valve, may be pushed outward when the pressure builds inside the container, especially when the exothermic reaction temporarily also raises the temperature. This may have as an effect that the valve stem moves away from its initial position. We have also found that the distance that the valve stem may be moved may vary from container to container, and that this distance is difficult to predict as it depends a.o. on the internal pressure in the canister. This brings as a result that the valve stem position may be different from the expected position and not anymore optimal for when the coupling has been effectuated. This repositioning of the valve over an unpredictable distance may thus affect the opening of the valve when the coupling between the container and the dispensing gun is made, such that, upon closing the coupling, the valve may not always reach a desirable degree of opening, or may not open at all, or reversely the valve may open too soon and cause accidental spillage of compound. Both the screw coupling and the Click-and-Fix coupling may face this problem, and we have found that a Click-and-Fix coupling may be somewhat more vulnerable, in particular the smaller the rotational movement is that is chosen for fully connecting the two coupling pieces.
This problem of valve repositioning may be avoided by bringing the first coupling piece of the Click-and-Fix coupling system into place on the container before the pressure is built up inside the container, and by providing the first coupling piece with an internal rim (also called a "support-ring") which, upon attachment of the first coupling piece to the container, engages with the valve cup such that the valve stem is retained in place in spite of any increased pressure inside the container. WO 98/43894 discloses a Click-and-Fix coupling system of which the first coupling piece is provided with such internal rim for retaining the valve cup, and thereby also the valve stem, into its initial position.
The containers of the present invention may comprise, under pressure, compounds which are still highly reactive and react out after the compound has been applied into its final location, such as in a crevice or on to a substrate. Contact of the container content with skin, or even more importantly with eyes, is therefore to be avoided. For safety reasons, the containers ready for market are therefore always provided with a protecting cap, which is supposed to shield the container valve and in particular the valve stem from being damaged, ripped off or being touched and moved relative to the valve cup, and thus for reasons of safety and for protecting against accidental spillage. The containers for handheld use are typically supplied without a coupling piece, i.e. with the valve fully accessible. Therefore such containers are conventionally supplied with a separate shielding cap which is usually clicked onto the flange around the container head. The containers for professional use are provided with the first coupling piece snapped onto the flange around the valve cup, and with the Click & Fix system additionally also snapped onto the flange around the container head, as explained in WO 98/43894, which provides extra strength. Access to the valve stem through these first coupling pieces is then typically closed off with a separate shielding cap, which may for instance snap on to the upper rim of the coupling piece, which may be suitably adapted for snapping on the cap, such as by providing a small collar.
Separate caps have been designed, and the heads of the coupling pieces on the containers may be made suitable to accept these caps as seals for the valve compartment. This design requires the separate production of a cap and the need for an extra step in the assembly of the container, i.e. to put the cap onto the head of the coupling piece.
This shielding cap thus represents an extra element which needs to be produced separately and needs to be assembled with the coupling piece before or after snapping the coupling piece on the container. The shielding cap for the container intended for handheld use also represents a separate assembly element. These shielding caps therefore create an extra burden in the supply chain of the containers, in the sense that there is a need to carry two types of containers and for both types an extra assembly element has to be provided and assembled.
There has therefore been a need for a two-in-one design, i.e. a container which would be suitable for use with a dispensing gun as well as with a handheld applicator, and/or a handheld applicator which would be suitable for use with the container assembly intended for use with the dispensing gun.
WO 2007/112758 discloses a handheld applicator which may be fastened onto the valve stem of a container intended for use with the dispenser device. The handheld applicator may then be "clicked" directly on the valve stem. The difficulty with this design is that fastening of the handheld applicator onto or off the valve stem needs to be performed very carefully, as any tilting of the valve would cause premature and unintentional spillage of compound, and any damage to the valve may create a safety hazard.
US 2007/0181610 A1 discloses a handheld applicator which is suitable for being snapped onto the flange around the container valve. The drawback with this proposal is that the first coupling piece, with which a container for use with a dispensing gun is usually sold, needs to be removed from the container before the flange is available for snapping on the handheld applicator. The difficulties and safety issues of such a removal have been discussed above.
Other systems have been developed, where a handheld applicator may be screwed into a threaded internal section of the coupling piece intended for the dispenser device. The difficulty with such systems is that the valve opens while the applicator is being screwed into place, and the degree of screwing defines the opening of the valve and thus the flow of the compound. Especially occasional users prefer to use their two hands for screwing on the applicator, and it is very difficult to achieve, at the same time while screwing on the applicator, also a good and accurate application of the compound.
Improved coupling pieces have also been designed for attachment to the container, whereby an integrated cap is provided for manually being broken off from the coupling piece, and upon removal providing access to the valve of the container. In some versions these integrated caps are made such that the cap, after having been broken off, may be replaced again onto the coupling piece, such that the valve compartment may be reclosed, such that a partially used container may be transported and stored safely and conveniently before being used again. Improved coupling pieces having these features have been designed such that they may be produced as one single product in a single production step, such as by a single injection moulding step. This design of a coupling piece with integrated cap for single step production is however incompatible with the provision of the internal rim, also called the "support ring", which is desired for offering additional and exterior support to the valve cup, such that the valve stem is retained in place when the pressure inside the container builds up, such as part of the Click-and-Fix system disclosed in WO 98/43894.
There therefore remains the need for an improved coupling piece, for attachment to a container, which is provided with an integrated cap and also with internal legs providing exterior support for the container valve cup, and which may be produced as a single product in a single production step. There remains a further need for a two-in-one design, i.e. a coupling piece which at the same time provides the possibility without having to first remove the coupling piece for coupling the container with a suitable handheld applicator, i.e. for handheld use, which only may open the valve after the handheld applicator has been coupled to the coupling piece and the container.
The present invention aims to obviate or at least mitigate the above described problem and/or to provide improvements generally.


A tool for the carpenter or welder in the building industry. The tool quickly and accurately places joist hangars, which are used to fasten and support joists. The tool frees the users hands while holding the hangar in its proper position. Gravity holds the tool and joist hangar combination plumb. The flanges (4) on the tool body (1) engage the flanges on the hangar in proper configuration. The tool has a centered, adjustable sliding support hook which is bent to hook over the top of the beam and slide vertically through the body. The adjustable sliding support hook(2) is secured by a hand operated set screw(3), which is threaded into the body(1). The joist hangar slides into the tool easily. When the joist hangar is nailed or welded, the tool slides off of the installed joist hangar just as easily. The tool can be made in appropriate sizes for different joist hangars. This tool can be fabricated, cast, or injection molded from either metal or plastic.

This invention embodies a labor saving device for the quick and proper installation of joist hangers which, in turn, are used to secure joists in their proper relationship to the supporting structure of a building.
The Hawkes tool, U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,755 install joist hangers properly, even under ideal conditions. Unless the carpenter or steel worker first notches the bottom of the joist, Hawkes, bottom flange causes the joist to be mounted too high because the hanger is pushed up into the space where the joist itself should be. If the flange in question was removed from the Hawkes tool to allow proper installation of the joist hanger, the means for holding the tool to the beam would be lost and the tool would fall off the beam due to improper weight distribution.
Due to lumber shrinkage and the difference in lumber dimensions from mill to mill, and indeed, from batch to batch, the necessity of an adjustable tool is indicated.
A user would need an infinite number of Hawkes' tools. In the field, we often must install joists either high or low on a beam (perhaps 2.times.8 joists to a 4.times.12 beam) which further indicates the necessity for an adjustable tool. Indeed, the likelihood of any beam being the exact dimension of a batch of joists is small.
The Hawkes tool has no means to engage the side flanges of a joist hanger. This portion of a hanger must be held in proper configuration to insure plumb mounting of joists. Joist hangers are shipped nested from the manufacturers and must be bent and held by hand to their proper shape while being nailed or welded. Therefore, the Hawkes tool does not provide a hands free operation as claimed.


In a transmission network utilizing link fault protection between nodes, a working and a standby transmission line are terminated at each node with termination boards. The termination boards are adapted to report faults to a link supervision block. The link supervision block is adapted to switch between transmission lines in case of a fault. One or more persistency timers are coupled between the termination boards and the supervision block. A predetermined persistency period is applied to received fault cause(s) from the termination boards and correlated. The persistence of the correlation result is also timed and traffic is switched from one of the transmission lines to the other according to a predetermined correlation result persistency timer period.

To connect Radio Network Controller nodes to form a Radio Access Network, there is a need to protect the physical lines connecting these nodes against failure. A common architecture to achieve line protection in an SDH based network uses two physical lines to connect two nodes of the network. The node that is sending the data traffic, sends the data on two lines to the receiving node. If one of the lines breaks, the receiving node can extract the traffic from the other line.
The RNC node includes two line termination boards, of which one is active and the other is in standby mode. A link supervision block supervises the function of the lines and termination boards, and performs a switchover from the active to the standby board should a fault occur on one of the connections.
In the AXE system manufactured by Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson such a supervision system is implemented. Faults detected on the active board are sent towards the supervision block spontaneously when they are detected. The supervision block then reads out state information from the standby board. The results are correlated to achieve information about a fault cause (failure in the active board or the connected line, failure in the standby board or the connected line, failure in the internal link between the boards, no failure).
Such a system is prone to some problems:
We can imagine that an identical fault is detected on both boards. Due to varying detection and signal transmission times, it is undetermined which fault (i.e. from which board) that will be reported first. Then the correlation result might not reflect the true physical situation, and the supervision block may misunderstand the situation. Varying detection times is caused by the standby board not reporting faults immediately, but instead checks the situation at fixed time intervals.
Even a single short disturbance can lead to a failure being reported without being justified.
In addition, the active and standby boards have two rather different functions. In case of failure, the functions must be swapped, without loosing information on the faults that has occurred. This might be complicated to implement in a computer program.


A method of determining a liquid volume fraction in a multi-phase gas is disclosed. The method includes: a) measuring a first compressor operating parameter; b) selecting a tentative liquid volume fraction of the gas processed by the compressor; c) based on stored data representing a compressor operative curve for the tentative liquid volume fraction, determining an estimated value of a second compressor operating parameter, as a function of the first compressor operating parameter; d) measuring an actual value of the second compressor operating parameter; e) comparing the actual value of the second compressor operating parameter to the estimated value of the second compressor operating parameter and determining an error therefrom; f) based on the error, selecting a different tentative liquid volume fraction and repeating (c) to (e) until an error value equal to or lower than an error threshold is obtained.

Centrifugal compressors have been designed to process a so-called wet gas, i.e. gas that can contain a certain percentage of a liquid phase. Wet gas processing is often required in the oil and gas industry, where gas extracted from a well, such as a subsea well, can contain a liquid hydrocarbon phase, or water. For several reasons, it might be useful to know the liquid volume fraction (shortly LVF) of the gas processed by the compressor, i.e. the volume percentage of liquid in the fluid flow. Usually, the liquid volume fraction in the gas flow at the suction side of the compressor, however, is not known. Flowmeters capable of determining the liquid volume fraction are cumbersome and expensive and might not be suitable in certain applications in extreme environmental conditions.
A need therefore exists, for reliably and efficiently estimating the liquid volume fraction of a gas flowing through a compressor.

Adaptive anti surge control system and method


A solid-state image pickup apparatus includes a substrate, a wiring layer, and a waveguide. The substrate is provided with a pixel array portion constituted of a plurality of pixels each having a photoelectric converter that converts incident light into an electrical signal. The wiring layer includes a plurality of wirings and an insulating layer that covers the plurality of wirings that are laminated above the substrate. The waveguide guides light to each of the photoelectric converters of the plurality of pixels, the waveguide being formed in the wiring layer. The waveguide is formed to have a waveguide exit end from which light exits the waveguide so that a distance between the waveguide exit end and a surface of the photoelectric converter that receives light from the waveguide become shorter, as wavelengths of light guided by the waveguide are longer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a solid-state image pickup apparatus, a method of manufacturing the same, and an image pickup apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In response to the progress of the increase in number of pixels and the miniaturization of a pixel size, there has been proposed a technique of using a waveguide structure as a means for increasing a light collection efficiency of each pixel in a solid-state image sensor. In particular, in a CMOS image sensor, for forming a metal wiring on a light incident side of a photodiode, a waveguide structure, which guides incident light to a photodiode while confining the light and avoiding the metal wiring, is becoming a necessary technique.
A description will be given on an example of a solid-state image sensor having a waveguide structure in related art.
In a solid-state image sensor in related art, a photodiode that functions as a photoelectric converter is formed in an area separated by an element-separation insulating film or the like formed on a silicon substrate. On an upper surface of the silicon substrate adjacent to the photoelectric converter, a transfer gate electrode is disposed through a gate insulating film formed of a silicon oxide film and the like. Further, on the upper surface of the silicon substrate, a plurality of wiring layers made of a plurality of metal wirings are formed, and the metal wirings between the wiring layers are connected with each other through a through hole (bear hole) as appropriate.
On an uppermost wiring layer, a color filter is provided through a passivation film and a planarization film. On the color filter, a micro lens is disposed.
At a position corresponding to the micro lens and the photodiode, a waveguide that passes through the wiring layers is formed. The waveguide is formed by embedding a film having a little light-absorption property.
The waveguide optically connects an on-chip lens and a photodiode with each other and has a function of efficiently guiding light incident on the on-chip lens to the photodiode. Therefore, in the waveguide, a material having a refractive index higher than a material of an insulating film that forms the wiring layers is filled (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-224249).
Along with the miniaturization, an absolute amount of incident light is reduced, and a light reception area of a photodiode that detects light is also reduced. If the degrees of the reduction are the same for colors (RGB), a spectral balance of the colors is the same as that of a previous generation, and a device design and a circuit design of a previous generation only have to be improved to a small extent.
When incident light beams have the same light amount, in a case of, for example, 1.75 μm□ cell and 1.1 μm□ cell, there are differences in quantum efficiency of the colors in the 1.1 μm□ cell along with the miniaturization. The light amounts of light (natural light) that enters the on-chip lens are the same regardless of the colors. Therefore, if light losses in components, such as the on-chip lens, the color filter, the planarization film, through which the incident light is guided are constant, signals that are output from the colors are proportional to the quantum efficiencies, with the result that the balance of the colors (spectral balance) may deteriorate.
There are some reports on a correction of the spectral balance.
The amounts of incident light are different between a pixel immediately below a position where the on-chip lens is disposed and a pixel distanced from the position. Therefore, a waveguide diameter of the distanced pixel is set to be thick (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-190766).
In addition, in a system in which light is caused to be incident on a side of a photodiode of a solid-state image sensor, trenches are formed on a silicon substrate, depths of the trenches are set to be different for each color, and distances from bottom surfaces of the trenches to the photodiode are changed (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-184603).

Method of manufacturing a solid-state image pickup apparatus improved spectral balance


A method and apparatus for making color filters for liquid crystal display panels. A transfer layer is formed on a collector roll, and a raised pattern corresponding to the desired black matrix pattern is formed on the transfer layer by an embossing means. A plurality of colored ink patterns is formed in the appropriate location within the boundaries formed by the raised pattern, thereby forming the multicolor image that will become the color filter. This multicolored image is then transferred to the substrate. Preferably, the multicolored ink pattern is deposited to a substrate while in a deformable state, flattened during the deposition process, and the deformed, more uniform shape of the printed cells is thereafter retained, preferably by curing during deposition to the substrate.

Liquid crystal display panels (LCDS), particularly color LCD panels, are used for flat screen televisions, projection television systems and camcorder view finders, with many more applications anticipated in the future.
The fabrication of an active matrix liquid crystal display involves several steps. In one step, the front glass panel is prepared. This involves deposition of a color filter element onto a suitable substrate, such as glass. Color filter deposition typically involves depositing a black matrix pattern and three primary (typically either red, green and blue or yellow, magenta and cyan) color dot or color cell patterns within the spaces outlined by the black matrix. The printed lines which form the black matrix typically are about 15-25 microns wide and about 0.5 to 2 microns thick. The red, green, and blue color cells are typically on the order of about 70-100 microns in width by 200 to 300 microns in length. The color cells are typically printed in films less than about 10 microns thick, and preferably less than 5 microns thick, and must be evenly applied and accurately registered within the pattern formed by the black matrix. The front glass substrate is typically completed by depositing a planarizing layer, a transparent conducting layer, and a polyimide alignment layer over the color filter element. The transparent conducting layer is typically indium tin oxide (ITO), although other materials can also be utilized.
In a second step, a separate (rear) glass panel is used for the formation of thin film transistors or diodes, as well as metal interconnect lines. Each transistor acts as an on-off switch for an individual color pixel in the display panel. The third and final step is the assembly of the two panels, including injection of a liquid crystal material between the two panels to form the liquid crystal panel.
One of the most critical steps in manufacturing the color filter is the preparation of the black matrix pattern. The definition or sharpness of edge definition of the black matrix is extremely important. Unlike the colored ink cells, any variation in the black matrix edge, due to printing flow and so forth, is readily discernable when inspecting the final product. The color pixel edge, on the other hand, is typically hidden by the black matrix pattern. Consequently, to a certain extent the black matrix hides variability in the color pixel edge, while there is nothing to hide variability in the black matrix.
The black matrix pattern moreover has a much more stringent registration requirement than the color dot patterns, because the black matrix pattern must be capable of being registered with the transistors that make up the thin film transistor, which is located on the other glass panel. On the other hand, the width of the black matrix pattern provides some leeway in registering the color pixels, because the transition area between individual color dots which make up the color pixels is hidden by the grids which make up the black matrix pattern.
One typical black matrix pattern design consists of elongated black line grids which criss-cross one another to form rectangular spaces within which the color cell pixel inks will be located. Such grid matrices also include smaller black rectangles located along the grid cell edges which correspond to the thin film transistor (TFT) location on the opposite glass panel in the liquid crystal display. Because of the stringent registration requirements, the black matrix is preferably formed so that, for a black matrix pattern having the typical rectangular sub-pixel grid pattern, when looking down at the color filter, only sharp, well defined edges are seen on the black matrix. The cross-sectional shape of the grids which make up such black matrix pattern should also be rectangular with square edges. The corners and intersections of grids in such black matrix patterns should be perpendicular, so that, when looking down at the color filter, only square edges can be seen. Unfortunately, while some printing techniques have successfully been employed to produce the color ink dots which make up the color pixels, the drive to achieve thinner (and thus higher resolution) black matrix lines has pushed the resolution capabilities of conventional printing techniques to their limit. It becomes extremely difficult to maintain the sharp definition using printing techniques as this resolution limit is approached. The biggest problems with such ink printing techniques is that the inks tend to exhibit rounded cross-sectional shapes due to surface tension in the inks, and the edges become irregular.
Consequently, black matrix patterns are typically prepared using photolithographic techniques, even where the remainder of the color filter pattern is produced using printing techniques. Photolithographic techniques involve a large number of production steps, and are much more complex than printing methods. In addition, photolithographic techniques are typically much more expensive than ink printing techniques.
Another critical step in color filter formation is the formation of the red, green and blue color dots (also referred to as color cells) of the color filter. Such color cells preferably should be deposited so that they are as smooth and uniform in thickness as possible. Previous methods used to print color filter patterns have resulted in color patterns having insufficient smoothness. This is largely because the ink depositing methods of the prior art resulted in ink cells which were rounded or triangular in cross section. Consequently, a planarizing layer is commonly applied over the color patterns to alleviate imperfections in coating smoothness or thickness uniformity due to the deposition process. The transparent planarizing layer also serves to protect against ion migration to and from the ITO layer and color pattern layer. The planarizing layer should be deposited to be as smooth and flat as possible.
To facilitate deposition of a flat planarizing layer, it is desirable that the color patterns be smooth, flat and substantially parallel to the undersurface of the glass substrate. Uniform thickness color patterns are desirable for obtaining optimum display contrast and color performance, because if the thickness of the pattern varies, the transmitted light intensity will vary.
It would be desirable to provide high quality, uniform thickness black matrix patterns, as well as ink color filter arrays, which have improved resolution and registration, and which can be obtained easily and at a lower cost than prior art color filter arrays. It would also be desirable to achieve these qualities using a process which takes less steps than current processes.


The present invention provides a wireless communication method of an electronic device, wherein the wireless communication method includes the steps of: receiving a first beacon with TIM comprising an AID of the electronic device; in response to the first beacon with TIM, controlling the electronic device to switch to an active mode from a power saving mode to receive a first packet, wherein a time length of the active mode is less than a beacon period; receiving a second beacon with no TIM, wherein the second beacon with no TIM does not comprise the AID of the electronic device; and in response to the second beacon with no TIM, controlling the electronic device to switch to the active mode from the power saving mode.

IEEE 802.11 standards define a power saving mode (sleep mode) for a station to save power, and IEEE 802.11 standards further use a bitmap to indicate to any sleeping station that an access point (AP) has buffered data waiting for it. Specifically, if the AP needs to send data to a station, the AP will buffer the data first, and the AP notifies the station by using a next beacon with traffic indication map (TIM). The station should periodically listen to the beacon during the listen interval, and once the station receives the beacon with TIM, the station leaves the power saving mode and enters an active mode to receive the data from the AP. In one case, after the station leaves the power saving mode to receive the data, if the station enters the power saving mode immediately after the data reception, upcoming data will be buffered in the AP. That is, the data will not be received by the station until the next beacon with TIM is received, causing high data latency.
In order to reduce the data latency, the station may be designed to stay in the active mode for a long time such as 200 milliseconds. If data is coming during this period, the station can immediately receive the data without delay. However, if no data is coming during this period, the station will have unnecessary power consumption.

Power saving with latency control mechanism of electronic device


According to embodiments of the present invention, a transmitter is provided. The transmitter includes a frequency shift keying (FSK) circuit, and a phase shift keying (PSK) circuit coupled in series to the FSK circuit, wherein the FSK circuit is configured, in a first mode of operation, to provide a FSK modulated signal to the PSK circuit, and, in a second mode of operation, to provide a fixed frequency signal to the PSK circuit, and wherein the PSK circuit is configured, in the first mode of operation, to transmit the FSK modulated signal, and, in the second mode of operation, to provide a PSK modulated signal based on the fixed frequency signal received from the FSK circuit.

Narrowband physical layer (PHY) specification for 802.15.6 requires both frequency and phase modulations. In this regard, a frequency shift keying (FSK) and phase shift keying (PSK) compatible transmitter (TX) is required in the Medical Implant Communication Service/Industrial Scientific Medical (MICS/ISM) band.
Current conventional mixer based architectures can support multiple modulations, but at the expense of high circuit complexity, high power consumption and large area, in other words they are often complex, power hungry and large. Phase-locked loop (PLL) based solutions (e.g. closed loop PLL-based solutions) have emerged as suitable candidates but have limited bandwidth (BW), thus limiting achievable data rate. Despite their limited bandwidth and their ability to only provide frequency modulation, bandwidth enhancement techniques like 2-point modulation (e.g. 2 point modulation open loop type) and baseband pulse shaping techniques to generate phase modulation equivalent spectrums have helped to overcome these shortfalls. The downside to these techniques is the added complexity to the system (e.g. hardware) and baseband, and emergence of new issues like modulation gain mismatches that need to be tackled. While 2 point modulation technique has no restriction on data rate, the system is complex and careful design is required to take care of modulation gain mismatch. Furthermore, it is difficult to achieve low power using the 2-point modulation technique.
One of the existing transmitters is the conventional mixer based transmitter. The mixer based architecture adopts a conventional direct I/Q (in-phase/quadrature) modulation with up-conversion mixers. It consists of a local oscillator (LO), which is usually a phase-locked loop (PLL) that generates I/Q outputs for frequency mixing. Digital-to-analog converters (DACs) are required to control the input data to the mixers, to enable phase/frequency modulation. Hence, this architecture can provide band-shaping and support universal modulation. Such architectures consume high power typically in the range of tens of mW. Issues like I/Q mismatch adds complexity to the already complicated architecture and this makes fractional-N PLL synthesizers, as described below, a more preferred choice for transmitters.
A fractional-N PLL transmitter or architecture, having a closed loop fractional-N PLL, can consume low power in the MICS/ISM bands less than 450 MHz. However, when used in these bands, a low frequency reference has to be utilized to minimize quantization noise for good phase noise performance. This PLL loop bandwidth, which is at least 10 times smaller than the frequency reference, would be severely limited. The loop bandwidth dictates how fast the loop can switch from one frequency to another. Hence, data rate would be restricted. A larger frequency reference can be used to boost data rate but it will be at the expense of phase noise due to the increase in quantization noise. Techniques to overcome bandwidth limitation like two-point modulation exist to improve the data rate but it incurs added system complexity due to the addition of a digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) to control the voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), and the proper calibration required to minimize gain mismatch. Moreover, PLLs can only perform frequency modulation and requires baseband processing methods to generate equivalent phase modulated spectrums e.g. Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (G/MSK).
Another conventional transmitter has an injection locked ring oscillator (RO) with hybrid edge combiner/power amplifier (EC/PA) architecture, with an open loop injection locking. The transmitter uses crystal frequency pulling for frequency modulation and employs injection locking twice, serially to 2 ring oscillators (ROs). The signal is then multiplied up 9 times to its desired frequency via an edge combiner (EC) before transmission through a power amplifier (PA) driven antenna. Through the use of a hybrid EC/PA circuit and keeping the operation of its frequency generating circuit 9 times below the desired frequency, the power consumption is in the sub-100 μW range. However, the system is very rigid as the frequency generating circuit only produces 2 fixed frequencies. It does not allow phase equivalent modulation due to its inflexible frequency selection, and neither can the frequency deviation be controlled. As a result, a low data rate of 200 kb/s for the transmitter is reported.
A further conventional transmitter is an open loop PLL based transmitter, with open loop phase rotation. Typical open loop PLL requires temporary breaking of the loop for direct frequency modulation of the VCO. This will result in frequency drifting of the VCO. For the open loop PLL based transmitter, an integer-N PLL generates 4 equally spaced clock edges and through a ΔΣ modulator controlled phase rotator (PR), it is able to generate fractional delays by performing a dithered selection among the 4 clock phases. In this case, the data rate is not limited by the PLL bandwidth because the PLL is used as a fixed multi-phase reference and frequency switching is not required. While the achievable data rate is high, it suffers from large quantization noise due to π/2 separation of each clock phase, resulting in higher in-band noise. As a result, filtering prior to the antenna is required to improve phase noise of the output.
A yet further conventional transmitter is a two-point modulated fractional-N PLL transmitter. While closed loop fractional-N has bandwidth limitation, the two-point modulation technique can be employed to enable open loop modulation. The PLL frequency can be modulated directly with an additional digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) control which has to be balanced with the appropriate fractional division ratio. In this case, frequency switching is no longer limited by the PLL bandwidth. This two-point control system proved to be a potential replacement for the mixer based architecture and is widely adopted. Although it consumes less power than a mixer based architecture, it retains the complexity with issues that need to be tackled. The system is complicated due to the delicate control required to balance the modulation gain to minimize data errors. High data rate of typically >2 Mbps can be achieved.
While open loop systems have little restriction on data rate, they cannot support phase and frequency modulation schemes concurrently.
There is therefore need for a low power single architecture that may allow frequency and phase modulations with reasonably good phase noise.

Agency for Science, Technology and Research


A semiconductor component includes a semiconductor chip provided with a passivation layer that covers the topmost interconnect structure of the semiconductor chip whilst leaving contact areas free. The passivation layer is in direct adhesive contact with the plastic housing composition of the semiconductor component. The passivation layer includes a polymer with embedded mineral-ceramic nanoparticles.

The construction of passivation layers of this type is known from the document DE 102 34 648. Passivation layers of this type comprise a silicon nitride layer, which covers the topmost interconnect structure of the semiconductor chip, and a polyimide layer arranged on the silicon nitride layer. While the silicon nitride layer ensures that no metallic ions diffuse into the insulation layers composed of silicon dioxide on the top side of a semiconductor chip to the sensitive PN junction zones, the polyimide layer ensures that the transition from the ceramic silicon nitride layer to a plastic housing composition is improved in order to minimize delaminations between the top side of the semiconductor chip and the plastic housing composition.
The passivation layer composed of silicon nitride has hitherto been applied to the aluminum metallization layer of the interconnect structure in front-end fashion with the disadvantage of a relatively high hardness and brittleness of the silicon nitride layer, which, in the case of increased mechanical stress, can lead to fractures in said passivation layer composed of silicon nitride and thus causes corrosion of the aluminum metallization lying at a deeper level. Onto this ceramic insulation layer, as described above, a polyimide layer is applied to the chip surface in order to improve the adhesiveness of a plastic housing composition with the chip top side. However, said passivation layer has the disadvantage that a thermal insulation of the semiconductor chip surface is also associated therewith, especially as the thermal conductivity of the polyimide is approximately a factor of 100 poorer than the thermal conductivity of the silicon nitride. Moreover, the application of a ceramic layer composed of silicon nitride and the subsequent application of a polyimide layer are not unproblematic. The methods used for this purpose are cost-intensive especially as the polyimide layer and the silicon nitride layer are applied in two different processes in the front end, which does not reduce the costs in terms of production technology.

Integrated circuit component with passivation layer


A tire for heavy loads and having beads intended to be mounted on flat rim seats or rim seats which are inclined at 5xc2x0, including at least one radial carcass ply formed of inextensible reinforcement elements and anchored in each bead to a bead wire to form an upturn, the end of which is located at a radial distance HRNC from the base of the bead. Each bead is reinforced by at least two additional reinforcement armatures, at least one first armature formed of at least one ply of radial textile reinforcement elements which is located axially to the outside of a second armature formed of at least one ply of inextensible elements forming an angle xcex1 with the circumferential direction such that 0xc2x0xe2x89xa6xcex1xe2x89xa645xc2x0.

The present invention relates to a tire with radial carcass reinforcement, and more particularly to a xe2x80x9cheavy-vehiclexe2x80x9d tire, intended to be fitted on vehicles such as lorries, road tractors, buses, trailers and others, and in which a novel reinforcement structure for the beads is adapted to improve the life of said beads.
Generally, a tire of the type in question comprises a carcass reinforcement formed of at least one ply of metal cables, which is anchored in each bead to at least one bead wire, forming an upturn. The carcass reinforcement is radially surmounted by a crown reinforcement, composed of at least two plies of metal cables, crossed from one ply to the next and forming angles of between 10xc2x0 and 45xc2x0 with the circumferential direction. The carcass reinforcement upturns are generally reinforced by at least one ply of metal cables oriented at a small angle relative to the circumferential direction.
In the case of the presence of a single bead reinforcement ply, the latter may be located along the carcass reinforcement upturn with a radially upper end located above or below the radially upper end of the carcass reinforcement upturn. As for the radially lower end of such a ply, it is generally located either on a straight line parallel to the axis of rotation and passing approximately through the center of gravity of the meridian section of the anchoring bead wire of the carcass reinforcement, in the case of a tire having beads intended to be mounted on rim seats inclined at 15xc2x0xc2x12xc2x0, or on a straight line parallel to the axis of rotation and passing through a point located between the center of gravity of the meridian section of the anchoring bead wire and the point of maximum axial width of the carcass reinforcement, in the case of a tire having beads intended to be mounted on rim seats inclined at 0xc2x0 or at 5xc2x0xc2x11xc2x0. In this second case, the bead reinforcement ply is then wound around the bead wire, so as to have an axially outer strand and an axially inner strand, the radially upper end of the axially inner strand being generally located beneath the radially upper end of the axially outer strand.
Furthermore, the life of xe2x80x9cheavy-vehiclexe2x80x9d tires, owing to the progress achieved, and to the fact that certain types of travel are made less of a handicap as far as wear of the tread is concerned, has become such that it is also necessary to improve the life of the beads, and more particularly of tires subject to prolonged travel, this travel frequently inducing a high temperature of the beads owing to the temperatures reached by the mounting rims.
Numerous solutions have been described for improving the life of the beads of tires, whether they are intended to be mounted on 15xc2x0-seat rims or flat rims or 5xc2x0-seat rims: for example, it has been proposed to replace the metallic reinforcement ply by a plurality of plies of reinforcement elements, textile ones, for example, crossed from one ply to the next and said plies being located axially either on the same side of the upturn or on either side of said upturn, or alternatively partly along the upturn and partly along the carcass reinforcement.
The life of the beads can also be improved by arranging two reinforcement plies along the carcass reinforcement, without reinforcement of the upturn.
From reading French application FR 2 730 190, said improvement can be obtained by the presence in the beads of at least one reinforcement ply formed of circumferential metallic elements, which ply is wound around the bead wire on the outside of the wound part of the carcass reinforcement, such that the radially upper ends respectively of the axially outer strand and of the axially inner strand are radially located above a straight line parallel to the axis of rotation and passing through the point of the bead wire which is farthest from said axis of rotation. The carcass reinforcement, formed of radial cords or cables, is thus formed, at the level of its contact surface with the bead wire, as is known, of substantially circumferential elements which are generally metallic in the form of wound cords, cables, bands or strips, inserted between said elements with substantially circumferential orientation and the additional ply of metallic elements, which are also circumferential. This structure thus makes it possible to take up the tensile stresses to which the carcass reinforcement is subjected, and thus minimizes all the deformations at the ends of the carcass reinforcement upturn, whatever the traveling conditions.
The solution of a bead reinforcement ply with circumferential reinforcement elements does not appear to be the technically and industrially optimal solution for tires having beads intended to be mounted on so-called flat rims or rims having seats inclined at 5xc2x0, since the important factor does not seem to be the presence of circumferential elements.
Furthermore, and with the aim of lightening tires for heavy vehicles which are mounted on rims having seats inclined at 0xc2x0 or 5xc2x0xc2x11xc2x0, numerous attempts have been made to dispense with the axially inner strand of the reinforcement ply of the bead, and to have substantially the same architecture of carcass reinforcement and reinforcement ply for the two types of rims used.
Although said known solutions, the object of which is to avoid deradialization of the cables of the upturn of the carcass reinforcement and to minimize the radial and circumferential deformations to which the end of said upturn and the radially upper end of the reinforcement ply are subjected, respectively, have improved the life of the bead reinforcements, the performance of the tires mounted on rims having 0xc2x0 seats or 5xc2x0xc2x11xc2x0 seats is on the other hand reduced by the appearance and propagation of breaks in the outer layer of rubber covering the bead and providing the connection to the rim.
The invention proposes to overcome the above disadvantages.
In order to improve the life of a tire required to bear heavy loads and having beads intended to be mounted on flat rim seats or rim seats which are inclined at 5xc2x0, said tire according to the invention, comprising at least one radial carcass reinforcement, formed of at least one ply of inextensible reinforcement elements and anchored in each bead to a bead wire to form an upturn, the end of which is located at a radial distance HRNC from the base of the bead, each bead being reinforced by at least two additional reinforcement armatures, at least one first armature formed of at least one ply of radial reinforcement elements and at least one second armature formed of at least one ply of inextensible elements forming an angle xcex1 with the circumferential direction such that 0xc2x0 less than xcex1 less than 45xc2x0, characterized in that, viewed in meridian section, the first reinforcement armature is formed of radial textile reinforcement elements not wound around the anchoring bead wire of the carcass reinforcement and located axially to the outside of the second reinforcement, the radially inner end of said first reinforcement being located between the two straight lines parallel to the axis of rotation and passing respectively through the points of the anchoring bead wire which are respectively farthest and least far from the axis of rotation, the radially outer end being located at a distance HLE from the base of the bead of between 80% and 120% of the distance HRNC, whereas the second armature, which is not wound around said anchoring bead wire, has a radially inner end located between the straight line parallel to the axis of rotation and the base of the bead and a radially outer end at a distance HR from said base of between 60% and 75% of HRNC.
Reinforcement elements will be considered to be radial if the angle which they form with the circumferential direction of the tire lies within a range of 80xc2x0-100xc2x0.
Likewise, in the spirit of the invention, xe2x80x9cradially upper endxe2x80x9d of a bead reinforcement armature which may be formed of one or more plies is to be understood to mean the end of the reinforcement ply which is farthest from the axis of rotation, the reinforcement plies possibly having upper ends included in a range of radial distance of at most 20 mm. Likewise, the radially lower end of a bead reinforcement armature will be the lower end of the ply least far from the axis of rotation.
The first armature of radial reinforcement elements is advantageously formed of a single ply of aliphatic polyamide textile cables composed of two plied cords, at least 250/250 twists per meter. It is preferably separated from the second armature by a profiled element of rubber mix of a thickness of at least 2 mm.
The second additional bead reinforcement armature may be formed of at least one ply of circumferential metallic reinforcement elements; in this case, it is advantageous, in order to facilitate manufacture and to reduce the cost thereof, to select as reinforcement elements for said ply lengths or assemblies of lengths of metal cables, of a circumferential length less than the circumferential length of the center axis of the bead wire. It may also be formed, as known per se, of a single ply of metal cables parallel to each other in the ply and forming a small angle of between 5xc2x0 and 30xc2x0 with the circumferential direction. In all cases, it is preferably separated from the carcass reinforcement upturn by a profiled element of rubber mix of a thickness of at most 3 mm.

Compagnie Generale des Establissements Michelin-Michelin and Cie


A computerized system and method of teaching spelling interfaces with an application that captures a user's misspelled words and adds them to a word database. A teacher or instructor may also add words to the word database based on a user's curriculum, cross-curriculum or words of interest. The words in the word database are utilized to automatically create an individualized spelling teaching assignment and spelling Journal for a user. The user corrects any spelling mistakes that he or she has made and performs assignments with new words including hearing the words pronounced, spelling the words and writing sentences using the words. Spelling tests are also assigned. The teacher or instructor monitors the completion of the various assignments by the students and also monitors how well the assignments are performed.

Spell checking programs are well known. These programs work in conjunction with various computer-based programs such as word processors, e-mail programs, web page generation programs and the like, to provide built-in spell checking functions to assist the user in creating correctly spelled documents. Unfortunately, however, users and especially children or those for whom English (or other language) is a second language, have come to rely more and more on these programs with a corresponding decline in people's ability to correctly spell words. This is particularly true for students. Students would rather rely on spell checking to correct their errors than to learn how to properly spell words.
Accordingly, a need exists for a system and method which will capture a user's misspelled words and allow those words to be used in a teaching application and/or in a spelling journal type of application whether alone, or with other words as directed by an instructor.


To provide an anti-soiling detergent composition that has excellent detergency, endows cleaned surfaces with a pronounced anti-soiling effect, effectively sustains the anti-staining effect, possesses superb storage stability, and can be used on restrooms, sinks, baths, and other damp, hard surfaces.

Depending on the location of use, various types of soil deposit on the hard surfaces of baths, washstands, restrooms, and other damp locations. For example, the soil in baths comprises proteins and other nitrogenous compounds, fatty acid metal salts, or the like; the soil in washstands comprises fatty acid metal salts and the like; and the soil in restrooms comprises urolith deposits, soil that is based on fecal matter, urine, and other types of excrement, and the like. In addition, these hard surfaces undergo repeated drying after coming into constant contact with tap water, so silicate scale or carbonate scale derived from tap water are concentrated and deposited locally, producing soil commonly referred to as "water spots" or "water stains." In particular, the restroom bowls, washbowls, and other ceramic fixtures, as well as mirrors and other glass surfaces in restroom areas are hydrophilic, and therefore tend to be covered with water stains.
If such water stains continue to build up over a long time, the water stains bond firmly with the hard surfaces, and not only does removal become more difficult, but the components of the water stains tend to become a breeding ground for mold and germs together with other types of soil, and sanitary problems are encountered. Initial water stains can be removed relatively easily by careful cleaning, but currently the situation is such that the frequency of cleaning tends to decrease due to the streamlining of cleaning operations.
In view of this, a need exists for detergents that have the ability (anti-soiling effect) to reduce deposits of water stains and other types of soil, and detergents that clean and at the same time endow cleaned surfaces with the anti-soiling effect have come to be developed in order to prevent water stains from firmly adhering to hard surfaces. Detergents endowed with the ability to form films on the cleaned surfaces and to provide an anti-soiling effect by the incorporation of specific organopolysiloxanes into the detergent composition have been proposed as products that combine such an anti-soiling effect.
Examples of disclosed detergents that combine an anti-soiling effect and contain such organopolysiloxanes include compositions for bathtub cleaning that contain amino-modified organopolysiloxanes and nonionic surfactants, inhibit redeposition of water-formed deposits, and have protective action on bathtub materials (refer, for example, to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. S51-83608), as well as detergent compositions that contain specific organopolysiloxane and provide delustering and surface protection to bath fixtures (refer, for example, to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H3-197596). Also disclosed is a detergent composition for the desoiling and antibacterial cleaning of hard surfaces that contains specific cationic surfactants, cation-based bactericidal agents, and hydrophilic organopolysiloxanes and has an anti-soiling effect and antibacterial action (refer, for example, to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-198999).
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Nos. S51-83608 and H3-197596 disclose detergent compositions that have excellent anti-soiling effects and detergency with respect to water-formed deposits and soil, but there is no mention of an anti-soiling effect on water stains, nor is there any disclosure made concerning sustained anti-soiling effects or storage stability, which are believed to be important in practical terms. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-198999 discloses a detergent composition that has an excellent anti-soiling effect on water stains.

Anti-soiling detergent composition comprising a polyetheramide-modified organopolysiloxane

Abstract: The anti-soiling detergent composition contains (A) 0.05 to 10 mass % of a polyetheramide-modified organopolysiloxane and/or amino-modified organopolysiloxane, (B) 0.1 to 30 mass % of a specific surfactant, (C) 0.1 to 20 mass % of a metal chelating agent, and (D) water.


Systems and methods for multiple band visible light disinfection are disclosed. In some examples, a disinfecting light is generated by combining two different disinfecting wavelength ranges of light. A lighting device may comprise a first light source that generates light in a Soret band. The lighting device may further comprise a second light source that generates light in a Q band. The light in the Soret band and the light in the Q band may be combined to generate disinfecting light.

Bacterial and microorganism inactivation is a crucial practice required in many areas of both personal and environmental hygiene for the benefit of human health. Many methods may be employed for a variety of situations where human health factors may be improved by inactivating bacterial and microorganisms. Sickness and infection are the primary concerns of bacterial or microorganism contamination. The contamination may be caused by the transmission of microorganisms between human beings (e.g., from direct contact) or from a surrounding environment.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Multiple band visible light disinfection


An apparatus is provided for controlling a graphic equalizer which is implemented by digital filters, each being assignable to a frequency band for regulating a level of the frequency band. In the apparatus, a set of control devices are provided in correspondence to respective frequency bands, each control device being operable to specify the level of the corresponding frequency band to either of a reference level or other level than the reference level. An assignment section operates when a number of the digital filters is less than a total number of the frequency bands, for assigning the digital filters to the frequency bands which are specified with the levels other than the reference level. A control section controls remaining digital filters which are not assigned to any of the frequency bands in a through state. A disabling section operates when the assignment section assigns all of the digital filters to the frequency bands which are specified with levels other than the reference level, for disabling operation of a control device which currently specifies the reference level.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a controller of a graphic equalizer using multiple control devices for specifying levels of multiple frequency bands.
2. Related Art
A graphic equalizer is a kind of tone controller that uses multiple control devices for specifying levels of multiple frequency bands (hereafter referred to simply as bands). Just looking at each control device's position can identify the corresponding frequency characteristic.
The following describes an example of using fader control devices as control devices assuming j to be 31, where 31 is the total number of bands and control devices, respectively.
FIGS. 9(a) through 9(d) are an explanatory diagram showing a conventional graphic equalizer. The following describes a case where a display device displays multiple fader control devices as symbolic images of GUI and a mouse tool is used to manipulate each fader control device through GUI.
FIGS. 9(a) and 9(b) are explanatory diagram showing operation panel display screens.
Reference numeral 11 denotes an operation panel display screen; 12 denotes a display portion for graphic equalizer numbers; 13 denotes a reference line to indicate a reference level (neutral level 0 normally equivalent to 0 db); and 141 through 1431 denote fader control devices corresponding to bands 1 through 31.
In FIG. 9(b), the mouse may be used to move the pointer 15 to fader control device 145. Pressing a mouse button selects fader control device 145. Its outline is displayed in a thick, red line to indicate that the fader control device is focused. Dragging the mouse vertically moves fader control device 145. The level corresponds to the operated position after moving the fader control device. This level is assigned to a band No. 5 corresponding to fader control device 145.
FIG. 9(c) is a block diagram showing graphic equalizer GEQ1 using as many digital filters as the total number of bands j.
Generally, graphic equalizer GEQ1 is implemented by serially connecting digital filters 211 through 2131. The total transfer function of GEQ1 results from multiplying respective transfer functions of digital filters 211 through 2131.
The digital filters 211 through 2131 are permanently assigned to bands 1 through 31 in order. Each digital filter functions as a peaking filter that increases or decreases level G for the corresponding band from the reference level (i.e., neutral 0 db).
FIG. 9(d) is a block diagram exemplifying the inside configuration of each digital filter. For example, the digital filter is composed of an IIR (Infinite Impulse Response) filter. In FIG. 9(d), reference numerals 101, 102, 107, and 108 denote delay means with the transfer function set to z−1; 103, 104, 105, 109, and 110 denote coefficient multiplier; and 106 denotes an adder.
Fader control devices 141 through 1431 are used to specify levels for the respective bands. A coefficient value table is provided for each band. In accordance with the level specified for each band, referencing the coefficient value table obtains parameter values (coefficient values) to be set to the coefficient multipliers 103, 104, 105, and 109 to the control digital filters 211 through 2131 assigned to the bands.
Selectivity Q is configured to increase as level G is set to be smaller or greater than the reference level. By contrast, selectivity Q is configured to decrease as level G is set to approximate to the reference level. In this manner, control is provided to maintain the bandwidth even though level G changes.
The digital mixer described in non patent document 1 uses a DSP (Digital Signal Processor) and is capable of individually inserting up to 24 numbers of 31-band graphic equalizers GEQs into any input or output channels.
When the DSP is used to implement the graphic equalizer GEQ having multiple digital filters, there is a limitation on the DSP throughput.
The graphic equalizer GEQ is not always used to manipulate all bands. When the graphic equalizer GEQ is inserted to suppress howling of a sound picked up through a microphone, for example, the graphic equalizer GEQ is operated for only a part of the multiple bands. In such case, however, the DSP must process signals of all the digital filters, causing a problem of loading the DSP with unnecessary processes.    [Non patent document 1] CS1D Reference Manual (Software) ver. 1.41, YAMAHA CORPORATION. See also pages 13 to 16 on the Internet online manual http://www2.yamaha.co.jp/manual/pdf/pa/english/mixers/CS1DE.pdf.


A target game apparatus includes an inclined main target base having a top panel and plurality of holes with a receptacle area behind the panel to receive objects when successfully falling through the holes. A vertical rear panel stands up from the rear edge of the main target base and includes one or more holes through which the objects can pass when successfully thrown. The construction can fold into a collapsed condition by pushing the receptacle base into the area behind the top panel of the main target base and by folding the rear panel rearwardly and downwardly so as to lie underneath the base panel of the receptacle. The legs fold into the area between the top panel and the sides of the receptacle.

This invention relates to a portable target game apparatus of a type which when erected provides a plurality of holes through which objects can be thrown and which can be folded into a collapsed condition to allow simple storage and portability of the apparatus.
Target game apparatus are well known and one particular example includes a main target body which is inclined upwardly and rearwardly and defines a top panel having a plurality of holes through which an object such as a sandbag can be thrown. At the rear edge of the main target body is provided a vertical panel which includes a yet further target hole through which the object can be thrown. Behind the back panel and underneath the top panel are provided receptacle arrangements for collecting the sandbags as they fall through the holes so that when a player has completed a number of throws the objects or sandbags can be recovered from the relevant holes and a score tallied.
Game structures of this type are widely used and can be very beneficial particularly for older persons to maintain a level of activity and exercise. One problem with apparatus of this type is generally that it is fixed and cannot be folded so that it is relatively heavy and it takes up a significant amount of space, even when not in use. This limits the market therefore for devices of this type since they can now be installed in areas where there is sufficient space for regular use.
It is one object of the present invention, therefore, to provide an improved device of this general type which is collapsible to allow portability.
According to the invention, therefore, there is provided a portable target apparatus comprising a main target body having a top panel with a plurality of target holes in the top panel through which objects can pass when thrown at the target body, a receptacle for receiving and capturing the objects which pass through the target holes including a bottom panel mounted behind the top panel, the bottom panel being moveable from a collapsed condition adjacent the top panel to a deployed position spaced rearwardly from the top panel to define said receptacle there between, leg means supporting the target body with a rear edge thereof raised relative to the front edge thereof so that the top panel is inclined upwardly and rearwardly, and a back target panel having a target hole therein and mounted on the main target body at the rear edge thereof for pivotal movement from a raised vertical target position to a folded position lying rearwardly of said bottom panel, said leg means being collapsable to allow said main target body, back target panel and legs to be moved into a collapsed transportable position.
One embodiment of the invention will now be described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:


A method for manufacturing a welding material includes: a compound preparing step in which a compound is prepared by mixing alloy powder containing first alloy powder having a first average particle size and second alloy powder having a second average particle size, a water soluble binder and water; a drying step; an extruding step; a degreasing step in which the extruded formed body is heated to a predetermined temperature of 400° C. or above; a C—O reaction step in which the extruded formed body is heated to a predetermined temperature which falls within a range of 950° C. to 1150° C. under a vacuum atmosphere; and a sintering step in which the extruded formed body is heated to a predetermined temperature which falls within a range of 1200° C. to 1350° C. under a nitrogen gas atmosphere thus forming a welding material.

With respect to a welding material, as a rod-shaped welding material (hereinafter referred to as a welding rod), conventionally, there has been known a welding rod which is made of a hard-to-work material such as a Co-based alloy, a Ni-based alloy or an Fe-based alloy. Among these hard-to-work materials, as the Co-based alloy, for example, Stellite (Stellite: registered trade mark owned by Deloro Stellite Holdings Corporation) is known. As the Ni-based alloy, for example, COLMONOY (COLMONOY: registered trade mark owned by Wall Colmonoy corporation), INCONEL (INCONEL: registered trade mark owned by Huntington Alloys Canada Ltd.) and the like are known. As the Fe-based alloy, for example, stainless steel such as JIS D410 is known. Conventionally, as a method for manufacturing a welding rod made of such a hard-to-work material, a method for manufacturing a welding rod by an extrusion method is known (for example, see patent literatures 1 and 2).
Out of these manufacturing methods, the method for manufacturing a welding rod described in patent literature 1 is performed by carrying out the following steps in order. That is, the method for manufacturing a welding rod includes: a compound preparing step in which a compound is prepared by mixing alloy powder made of a hard-to-work material (spheroidal alloy powder of Stellite No. 6) and a binder made of a polybutene binder (thermo plastic resin); an extruding step in which an extruded formed body is prepared by extruding the compound from a forming nozzle at a temperature of 130° C.; a degreasing step in which a binder component is removed from the extruded formed body by heating the extruded formed body prepared in the extruding step (degreasing temperature: 450° C. to 550° C.); and a sintering step in which the extruded formed body from which the binder component is removed in the degreasing step is heated under a vacuum atmosphere (5×10−4 Torr) thus forming a welding rod (sintering temperature: 1280° C.) (see embodiment of patent literature 1).
On the other hand, the method for manufacturing a welding rod described in patent literature 2 is performed by carrying out the following steps in order. That is, the method for manufacturing a welding rod includes: a compound preparing step in which a compound is prepared by mixing alloy powder made of a hard-to-work material (atomized powder of Stellite No. 6 alloy), a binder made of a methylcellulose-based binder and water; an extruding step in which an extruded formed body is prepared by extruding the compound from a forming nozzle; a degreasing step in which a binder component is removed from the extruded formed body by heating the extruded formed body prepared in the extruding step (degreasing temperature: 200° C.); and a sintering step in which the extruded formed body from which the binder is removed in the degreasing step is heated thus forming a welding rod (sintering temperature: 1250° C.) (see embodiment of patent literature 2).
According to the method for manufacturing a welding rod described in patent literature 1 or the method for manufacturing a welding rod described in patent literature 2, a welding rod is manufactured by the extruding method as described above and hence, an elongated welding rod made of a hard-to-work material can be manufactured.

Method for manufacturing welding material and welding material


A micromechanical sensor element for recording the bonding of molecules to the micromechanical sensor element. The sensor element having a substrate and at least one electrical terminal. There is also an oscillatable element that is coupled to the electrical terminal in such a manner that an electrical variable that characterizes the oscillation behavior of the oscillatable element may be provided at the electrical terminal. Further, there is a molecule coupling layer, arranged in such a manner that molecules may bond to the molecule coupling layer. The molecule coupling layer is coupled to the oscillatable element in such a manner that bonding of molecules to the molecule coupling layer causes a change in the oscillation behavior of the oscillation element.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a micromechanical sensor element.
A chemical reaction can easily be characterized or detected at the interface with a solid body. Therefore, a chemical reaction of this type is often used in chemical and pharmaceutical analysis. Analysis methods of this type are suitable both for large series of tests in pharmaceutical research and for what are known as home-care applications.
2. Description of the Related Prior Art
"J. Wang, Towards Genoelectronics: Electrochemical Biosensing of DNA-Hybridization, Chem. Eur. J., Vol. 5, No. 6, 1999, gives an overview of various methods used to detect chemical bonds at an interface with a solid body."
The various methods used to detect chemical bonds at an interface of a solid body can be substantially divided into four classes of method, namely into optical, electrical, chemical and mass spectroscopy methods.
However, hitherto the analysis of chemical surface reactions has according to every known method been carried out using relatively expensive macroscopic or optical methods, and the evaluation of the data determined by means of discrete electronics.
"Furthermore, Gunther, Use of oscillating crystals for weighing thin films and for micro-weighing, Zeitschrift fur Physik 155, pp. 206-222, 1999, has disclosed what is known as the EACM method (Electrochemical Quartz-Crystal Microbalance method), which also makes use of the fact that the electrically stimulatable resonant frequency of an oscillating crystal which is coated with a metal on two sides has a defined dependency on the interface condition of the metal electrodes (mass change of the oscillating mass) and on their environment (for example the viscosity of a liquid). If a chemical reaction is carried out at the surface of a quartz crystal which has been coated in this manner, the resonant frequency of the system under consideration changes."
"Furthermore, T. Abe et al, One-chip multichannel quarts crystal microbalance (QCM) fabricated by Deep RIE, Sensors and Actuators, No. 82, pp. 139-143, 2000 and WO 89/09938 to Charych, et al., have described QCM arrangements (Quartz-Crystal Microbalance arrangements) and coupling layers for these arrangements."
"W. K. Schubert et al., Chemical Sensing with a magnetically-excited flexural plate wave resonator, Electrochemical Society Proceedings, Vol. 99-23, pp. 332-335, 1999 describes an FPW resonator (Flexural Plate Wave resonator) which is used as a sensor element. In the case of the FPW resonator, the deflection of a membrane and the detection of the frequency change are carried out using electromagnetic means."
"E. A. Wachter et al., Micromechanical sensors for chemical and physical measurements, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 66(6), pp. 3662-3667, June 1995 describes a cantilever as an oscillatable element, with the frequency being detected by optical means."


Methods, apparatus, and systems for facilitating effective power management through dynamic reconfiguration of interrupts. Interrupt vectors are mapped to various processor cores in a multi-core processor, and interrupt workloads on the processor cores are monitored. When an interrupt workload for a given processor core is detected to fall below a threshold, the interrupt vectors are dynamically reconfigured by remapping interrupt vectors that are currently mapped to the processor core to at least one other processor core, such that there are no interrupt vectors mapped to the processor core after reconfiguration. The core is then enabled to be put in a deeper idle state. Similar operations can be applied to additional processor cores, effecting a collapsing of interrupt vectors onto fewer processor cores. In response to detecting cores emerging from idle states, reconfiguration of interrupt vectors can be performed to rebalance the assignment of the vectors across active cores by remapping a portion of the vectors to those cores.

An interrupt is a hardware signal from a device to a CPU (Central Processing Unit, i.e., processor), informing the CPU that the device needs attention and signaling that the CPU should stop current processing and respond to the device. If the CPU is performing a task that has lower priority than the priority of the interrupt, the CPU suspends its current thread. The CPU then invokes the interrupt handler for the device that sent the interrupt signal. The interrupt handler services the device, and when the interrupt handler returns, the CPU resumes the processing it was doing before the interrupt occurred.
Interrupts in old bus technologies are referred to as "legacy" or "line-based" interrupts. With these technologies, interrupts are signaled by using one or more external pins that are wired separately from the main lines of the bus, a process known as "out of band." Newer bus technologies, such as PCIe (Peripheral Component interconnect Express), maintain software compatibility by emulating legacy interrupts through in-band mechanisms. These emulated interrupts are treated as legacy interrupts by the host operating system. Line-based interrupts as defined by the PCI standard were limited to only four lines and due to multiple devices were often shared causing increased latencies.
The PCI 2.2 specification introduced MSI (Message-Signaled Interrupt) as an alternative to traditional line-based interrupts. Instead of using a dedicated pin to trigger interrupts, MSI enables devices to trigger an interrupt by writing a specific value to a particular address. The message destination address and message data are referred to as the MSI "vector." PCI 3.0 defines an extended form of MSI, called MSI-X, which addresses limiting features of MSI. For example, while MSI has a limit of 32 MSI messages per adapter function, MSI-X increases the number of messages to 2,048. Another example is that MSI provides only a single MSI address value such that all messages are targeted at the same group of processors. MSI-X overcomes this issue by providing a unique address and data pair for each message.
The Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller (APIC) was introduced by Intel® in 1997, and was originally targeted to management of interrupts in systems employing symmetric multi processor (SMP) architectures. Microsoft observed the benefits of APIC on SMP systems, and designed support for APIC on uni-processor systems into its operating systems. Today, APICs are employed in substantially all x86-based computers, either as a component internal to a CPU and/or in an external IO chip.
Power management is a feature of electrical devices, including computers, which attempts to "turn off" or place certain or all portions of the device in some lower-power state when inactivity is present, Managing the energy consumed by a microprocessor prolongs battery life, reduces cooling requirements, reduces electrical noise, and reduces operating costs. Since mobile computing is becoming more ubiquitous, power management is becoming more important in mobile electrical devices such as laptops, cell phones, and personal digital assistants. Power management is also advantageous for server deployments (e.g., server farms and data centers), as well as for desktop computers.
A standard for power management for microprocessor and computer systems is the Advanced. Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI), which is an open industry specification co-developed by Hewlett-Packard®, Intel®, Microsoft®, Phoenix®, and Toshiba®. ACPI establishes industry-standard interfaces enabling OS-directed configuration, power management, and thermal management of mobile, desktop, and server platforms. When first published in 1996, ACPI evolved an existing collection of power management BIOS code, Advanced Power Management (APM) application programming interfaces (APIs), PNPBIOS APIs, and Multiprocessor Specification (MPS) tables into a well-defined power management and configuration interface specification. The ACPI specification enables new power management technologies to evolve independently in operating systems and hardware while ensuring that they continue to work together.

Dynamic interrupt reconfiguration for effective power management


Semiconductor packages and a method of forming a semiconductor package are described. The semiconductor package has a foundation layer, a conductive layer formed in the foundation layer, and a magnetic layer formed between the conductive and the foundation layer. The conductive layer and the magnetic layer are coupled to form a low-profile inductor shield. The semiconductor package also has a dielectric layer formed between the magnetic and foundation layer. The foundation layer is mounted between a motherboard and a semiconductor die, where the foundation layer is attached to the motherboard with solder balls. Accordingly, the low-profile inductor shield may include a z-height that is less than a z-height of the solder balls. The low-profile inductor shield may have solder pads that are coupled to the conductive layer. The foundation layer may include at least one of voltage regulator and inductor, where the inductor is located above the low-profile inductor shield.

Integrated circuits (ICs), such as integrated switching voltage regulators (VRs), present several problems. One such problem is that the VRs generate large switching harmonic noise and cause EMI and RFI issues. Large switching harmonic noise is typically propagated from non-shielded VR inductors in system-on-chip (SOC) package to motherboard. Another problem is that harmonic noise may increase EMI regulatory violations, LTE antenna desense, and WiFi throughput degradation.
As an effective approach, packaging solutions typically shield the VR inductors with an on-board Faraday cage (or an EMI shield enclosure) in SOC packages to suppress the EMI and RFI of the integrated VRs. The on-board Faraday cage is used to suppress (or block) EMI and RFI noise from the VR inductors. The Faraday cage, however, significantly increases the z-height of the overall system. This presents additional problems for packaging solutions, especially for small form factor designs. FIG. 1 illustrates these problems.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a typical semiconductor package assembly 100 that includes a shielding solution. As shown in FIG. 1, a typical semiconductor package assembly 100 includes a motherboard 101, a foundation layer 102 (or a package/substrate), a semiconductor die 104, an integrated switching voltage regulator 105 (hereinafter referred to as "VR"), a VR inductor 106 (hereinafter referred to as "inductor"), and an enclosure 107. The VR 105 and inductor 106 on foundation layer 102 generate EMI/RFI noises and can cause antenna desense, data throughput degradation, and EMI regulatory violations. Conventionally, the enclosure 107 (e.g., an on-board Faraday cage, an EMI shield, etc.) is used to suppress EMI and RFI noise to the surrounding components of the typical semiconductor IC package 100.
This typical approach, however, has resulted in some problems. One problem of this approach is that the enclosure 107 has a large keep-out-zone (KOZ) distance. The KOZ distance is the z-height protruding from the land side of the foundation layer 102 to the enclosure 107. This large KOZ distance embedded in the motherboard 101, the foundation layer 102, and the enclosure 107 is unused and thus considered wasted in terms of PCB area utilization. Another problem of this approach is that the z-height of the enclosure 107 (or the KOZ distance) is typically a limiting factor in small form factor package designs, including single-side PCBs and low-profile computing systems.

Ultra-low profile package shielding technique using magnetic and conductive layers for integrated switching voltage regulator