Reducing the outer diameter and effectively correcting various aberrations realizes a small-diameter objective optical system suitable for in vivo observation with a high numerical aperture. The invention provides a small-diameter objective optical system comprising, in order from an object plane a first lens group with positive refractive power, including at least one plano-convex lens whose convex surface faces an image plane; a second lens group with positive refractive power, including at least one concave lens; and a third lens group including a cemented lens of which a cemented surface has negative refractive power. The focal length of the third lens group is larger than the focal length of the first lens group.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to objective optical systems used in applications such as investigating and imaging of cellular function, and more particularly relates to a small-diameter objective optical system suitable for in vivo examination of animals such as mammals.
This application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2007-216110, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of Related Art
At present, a method for observing the behavior of molecules in biological cells and tissue labelled with a dye or fluorescent marker with a fluorescence microscope, a confocal laser-scanning microscope or the like is used.
The behavior of molecules in a living mammalian organism, such as a mouse, sometimes differs from that in culture, and therefore, observation of biological tissue and cells is carried out while the specimen is alive (in vivo). (For example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2006-119300.)
With conventional microscopes, such as laser-scanning confocal microscopes, it is not assumed that observation of various internal organs of small laboratory animals, such as rats and mice, will be performed in vivo. In examining the interior of a living organism, because the diameter of the objective lens in a conventional microscope is large, it is necessary to perform examination by first making a large incision in the organism. However, making a large incision is highly invasive to the organism, and therefore, it is not possible to carry out observation for a long period of time.
Furthermore, with the objective optical system in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2006-119300, although the tip diameter is small, the degree of invasiveness is still high when observing a site deep inside the brain etc. of a mouse. In other words, to observe the organs of a small laboratory animal, it is necessary to make an incision in the skin or muscle tissue, or to drill a hole in the skull to expose the internal organ. However, because the size of the objective lens to be disposed close to the observation site is large compared with the small laboratory animal or the observation target, when observing an internal organ etc. it is necessary to make a large incision in the skin or muscle tissue or to make a large hole. In such a case, although it is possible to carry out observation directly after making the incision or after drilling the hole, significant damage will be caused to the small laboratory animal. Therefore, it is difficult to carry out time-lapse observation over a long period of time. One approach that has been considered is to suture the specimen after observation and to make another incision at the next observation; however, if damage is caused to the small laboratory animal, it is difficult to perform observation under normal conditions over time, which poses a problem.


A vehicle pole antenna fixed to an antenna support base includes: a rod 10, a helical antenna element 20, a joint 30, and a mast cover 40. The rod 10 has flexibility and insulation property and has a concave portion 11 at its base end surface. The helical antenna element 20 has a coated wire wound around the rod 10. A winding density of the helical antenna element 10 adjacent to a bending start point of the rod is lower than that at the other portions. The joint 30 has a convex portion 31 to be fitted to the concave portion 11 formed at the base end surface of the rod 10. The joint 30 is electrically connected with the helical antenna element 20 and connected to the antenna support base.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle pole antenna, and more particularly to a vehicle pole antenna having a helical antenna element.
2. Description of the Related Art
A vehicle pole antenna is limited in terms of physical length, so that a helical antenna element capable of reducing an antenna's physical length as compared to an antenna effective length is generally used for the vehicle pole antenna. Further, the vehicle pole antenna is generally designed to have flexibility in consideration of a possibility that the antenna itself collides with an object. However, if the vehicle pole antenna having the helical antenna element bends due to collision, a winding pitch of the helical antenna element may be shifted to change the antenna effective length thereof, which may result in a change of electrical characteristics.
To solve the above problem, Patent Document 1 discloses a helical antenna in which a coated wire obtained by coating a core wire with an insulating coating material is helically and closely wound and in which a winding pitch thereof is determined by the thickness of the coating material. With this configuration, the winding pitch can be kept constant even when the antenna bends.
Patent Document 2 discloses a vehicle pole antenna including an antenna element which has a helical antenna element constructed by inserting a helical coil with elasticity into a helical groove of a rod and in which a coil spring is provided between the rod and a base side element metal fitting. With this configuration, the antenna element can bend at the coil spring part to prevent the winding pitch thereof from being changed to reduce a change of electrical characteristics and to remove bending tendency.


A converter device includes a converter circuit that includes a reactor connected to a primary side power supply, and a step-up feeding device that has a step-up switching element connected to the reactor and that boosts electric power of the primary side power supply by on/off switching the step-up switching element and outputting a stepped-up electric power as a secondary voltage; a converter control device that PWM-controls on/off switching of the step-up switching element so that the secondary voltage becomes equal to a secondary target voltage; and a temperature detecting device that detects a temperature of the reactor, wherein the converter control device limits PWM-controlled on/off switching of the step-up switching element for step-up operation when the temperature of the reactor increases to a first predetermined value or higher.

The present invention relates to a converter device, a rotating electrical machine control device and a drive device.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2003-324942 describes converter control for a bidirectional converter for performing a step-up operation for efficiently power-driving an electric motor and a step-down operation for charging a battery with regenerative electric power of the electric motor. In this converter control, the temperature of the bidirectional converter is detected, and a PWM controlled carrier frequency for switching on and off a step-up switching transistor is lowered in order to reduce heat generation and thus to prevent thermal destruction of the transistor. At this time, the carrier frequency is gradually lowered in order to prevent noise generated by a reactor in the converter from being suddenly changed in tone (noise, strange feeling, and abnormal noise) by the change in carrier frequency.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2004-135465 also describes converter control for a bidirectional converter. In this converter control, the reactor temperature of the bidirectional converter is detected, and a carrier frequency that reduces noise corresponding to the temperature is extracted by map matching. The extracted carrier frequency is determined to be a PWM controlled carrier frequency for switching on and off a step-up switching transistor.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2006-324942 describes torque control of an on-vehicle electric motor. In this torque control, the reactor temperature of a bidirectional converter and the coolant temperature are detected. When a difference between the detected temperatures is small (poor cooling capability), a torque command value (target torque) is limited to suppress a temperature increase. In order to suppress a sudden torque change (shock) caused by limiting the torque command value, an annealing process is performed to correct a step change of temperature detection data to a gently inclined change.
A wide rotation speed range and a wide torque range are required for a wheel driving motor. Therefore, in order to precisely control the output torque and the motor speed by PWM control, it is difficult to control the carrier frequency and the ON-duty width of PWM pulses in the whole operation range if a power supply voltage is constant. Moreover, the amount of harmonic components in an applied voltage of the motor increases as the ON-duty width is reduced. As a result, a motor loss (core loss) is increased, causing increase in power loss. In order to solve this problem, a motor control device for boosting a battery (primary side power supply) voltage using a boost converter to control the applied voltage of the motor to a wide range extending above from the battery voltage. Thus, the operation region of the wheel driving motor can be extended, for example, from the "operation region at battery voltage" to the "operation region during step-up operation". During braking operation of a vehicle, the wheel driving motor is controlled to a regeneration mode, and a bidirectional converter additionally having a step-up function to step down regenerative electric power of the motor to charge a battery is used, whereby vehicle driving is economically improved. Each of Japanese Patent Application Publications JP-A-2003-324942, JP-A-2004-135465, and JP-A-2006-324942 discloses a vehicle drive device using a bidirectional converter.
In both of a boost converter and a bidirectional converter, the conditions that are thermally the harshest for a reactor are during step-up operation and when a motor output is high. Factors that cause heat generation in the reactor under these conditions are a ripple current that flows through the reactor in response to turning on and off a step-up switching element and a direct current that is output from a battery through the reactor to a motor via the step-up switching element or a diode. In order to prevent heating of the reactor, a device that limits a target torque of the motor or limits the direct current has been used in related art. A target torque is limited in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2006-324942.

Converter device, rotating electrical machine control device, and drive device


A SW (70) receives an Ethernet® signal from an outside of areas E and F. The SW (70) selects and outputs the obtained Ethernet® signal to any one of APs (91a to 91e) in accordance with a network structure managed by the SW (70). The AP (91a to 91e) converts the Ethernet® signal to an electrical signal type wireless LAN signal, which is in turn output to a main station (10). The main station (10) frequency-multiplexes the signal output from each of the APs (91a to 91e), and converts the signal to an optical signal, which is in turn output to sub-stations (20a and 20b). The sub-station (20a and 20b) transmits the signal transmitted from the main station (10) to a terminal in the form of a wireless radio wave. Thereby, when a plurality of communication areas are present, the accommodation capacity of an AP can be effectively utilized in each communication area.

A conventional, general wireless LAN system is disclosed in "Nikkei Communications", issued on Sep. 2, 2002, Nikkei Business Publications, Inc. (p. 89, FIGS. 1-2).
FIG. 39 is a block diagram showing an exemplary configuration of the conventional wireless LAN system. The wireless LAN system has two communication areas A and B, an SW 70, electric cables 80a to 80e, access points (hereinafter referred to as APs) 90a to 90e, and terminals A and B. Also, the wireless LAN system is connected to the SW 70 to an external network (not shown).
The SW 70 switches an Ethernet® signal, which is input from an external network to the wireless LAN system, to each of the APs 90a to 90e. The electric cables 80a to 80e, which are, for example, Ethernet® twisted-pair cables, connect the SW 70 to the APs 90a to 90e. The APs 90a to 90e communicate with the terminal A or B using a wireless LAN signal. The terminals A and B are personal computers or PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) which have a wireless LAN interface.
The area A is an area in which the APs 90a and 90b provide services. The area B is an area in which the APs 90c, 90d and 90e provide services. Note that no wireless LAN signal reaches from one of the areas A and B to the other.
Hereinafter, an operation of the wireless LAN system will be described.
Firstly, communication between the terminal A in the area A and the terminal B in the area B will be described. Here, it is assumed that the terminal A is connected to the AP 90b while the terminal B is connected to the AP 90e.
The terminal A transmits a wireless LAN signal, which is in the form of a wireless radio wave, to the AP 90b. In response to this, the AP 90b receives the radio wave type wireless LAN signal. Next, the AP 90b converts the received wireless LAN signal to an Ethernet® signal, and transmits the resultant signal through the electric cable 80b to the SW 70.
The SW 70 memorizes the network structures of the areas A and B. The SW 70 transmits the received Ethernet® signal through the electric cable 80e to the AP 90e with reference to the memorized network structure. The AP 90e converts the Ethernet® signal transmitted from the SW 70 to a radio wave type wireless LAN signal, which is in turn transmitted to the terminal B. In this manner, the radio wave type wireless LAN signal transmitted by the terminal A reaches the terminal B. Note that a wireless LAN signal is transmitted from the terminal B to the terminal A in a manner reverse to that described above.
Next, communication of the terminal A with an external network will be described. The terminal A transmits a radio wave type wireless LAN signal to the AP 90b. In response to this, the AP 90b receives the wireless LAN signal. Next, the AP 90b converts the received radio wave type wireless LAN signal to an Ethernet® signal, which is in turn output to the SW 70. The SW 70 outputs the Ethernet® signal obtained from the AP 90b to the external network. Note that a signal input from an external network is transferred in a reverse direction to the terminal A.
Here, the area A has two APs, while the area B has three APs. If it is assumed that a single AP can accommodate ten terminals, twenty terminals can perform the above-described communication simultaneously in the area A and thirty terminals can perform the above-described communication simultaneously in the area B. Note that when an AP accommodates a plurality of terminals, the AP transmits/receives a signal from each terminal in a time division multiplex manner.
Note that, as used herein, accommodation capacity refers to the number of terminals on a system design. In other words, even if the number of terminals connected to an AP exceeds the accommodation capacity, it does not mean that the terminals can no longer perform communication, and the amount of a signal which can be transmitted to each terminal per unit time is only reduced.

Method and system for extending coverage of WLAN access points via optically multiplexed connection of access points to sub-stations


Disclosed are benzoisothiazole compounds and a use in the preparation of anti-schizophrenia drugs. The benzoisothiazole compounds of the present invention not only have strong affinity for dopamine D3 receptor, 5-HT1A receptor and 5-HT2A receptor, but also can observably improve the symptoms of schizophrenia relevant to apomorphine model and MK-801 model mice, with oral absorption being good, safety being high and side-effect being less, and having developmental value as new anti-neurotic disease drugs. The present invention is the compounds having a structure of general formula (I), or geometric isomers, free alkalies, salts, hydrates or solvates thereof.

Psychotic diseases include anxiety, schizophrenia, dipolar disorder, etc. Schizophrenia is the most serious and harmful one among the psychotic diseases, and it is the seventh disease which contributes to the society burden. Its main clinical manifestation comprises thought disorder (thought broadcasting, thought withdrawal, thought poverty, delusion, etc.), hallucination, mood disorder (abepithymia, parathymia), behavior disorder (social withdrawal, bizarre behavior, catatonic excitement, stupor, etc.) and learning and working memory deficits. With the deterioration of social environment and the increasing life stress, the incidence of schizophrenia shows a clear upward trend.
In modern medicine, schizophrenia is considered as a syndrome, a collection of symptoms and signs with unclear causes. In the recent decade, the researches on neurotransmitters and receptors are active, and it is found that in some of the schizophrenic patients, the neuroendocrine is affected due to central neurotransmitter and receptor dysfunction. The above research result is used in clinic and for developing novel therapeutic drugs. Numerous researches show that psychotic diseases are associated with central monoamine neurotransmitter and receptor dysfunction, and the central dopamine (DA) system and 5-hydroxyl tryptamine (5-HT) system are closely related with the human psychomotility. Studies show that DA and 5-HT system dysfunction may lead to multiple neuropsychiatric diseases such as schizophrenia, depression, mania, anxiety, Parkinson's disease, neuropathic pain, etc.
At present, clinically available antipsychotic drugs mainly act on DA and 5-HT systems, which can be divided into classical antipsychotics and non-classical antipsychotics based on their mechanisms and targets. The former mainly acts on DA system (D2 receptor antagonist), while the latter mainly acts on DA system and 5-HT system (for example, D2/5-HT2a dual antagonist). The current first-line drugs in clinic are mainly non-classical antipsychotics. The classical antipsychotics may lead to side effects such as extrapyramidal system effect (EPS) and byperprolactinemia, etc. due to their superantagonism toward substantia nigra-striatum and tubero-infundibular D2 receptor. In addition, since they act on DA system alone, they are only effective for schizophrenic positive symptoms, and are ineffective for negative symptoms and cognitive impairment. Non-classical antipsychotics such as ziprasidone, risperidone, aripiprazole, quetiapine, etc. which can be used to treat positive symptoms also show some improvement effect on negative symptoms, although they cannot significantly improve cognitive impairment. All of them show corresponding side effects, such as higher EPS probability, obesity, akathisia, insomnia, anxiety, cardiotoxicity, etc. Therefore, there are no currently marketed drugs which can effectively reduce the above side effects while improving the whole spectrum of schizophrenia. Thus, the focus in developing antipsychotic drugs is to look for novel anti-schizophrenia drugs with high efficacy, low toxicity and wide treatment spectrum.
Five subtypes of dopamine receptors D1, D2, D3, D4 and Dg belong to two families, i.e. D1 family, which includes D1 and D5, and D2 family, which includes D2, D3 and D4. Currently, more researches are focused on D2 receptor family. D2 receptor in central system is mainly distributed in substantia nigra, corpus striatum, caudate nucleus, nucleus accumbens and limbic system. Existing antipsychotics exert their anti-schizophrenic positive symptom effect by antagonizing the D2 receptor. D3 receptor shows high homology to D2 receptor. Intracerebral D3 receptor is mainly distributed in mesencephalon cortex and limbic system. Blockage of D3 receptor will eliminate side effects such as extrapyramidal system (EPS) effect and the like, and is useful in treating catalepsy and improving cognition function in patients. Thus, a D3 receptor-selective antagonist has a favorable application prospect as an anti-schizophrenia drug. However, D3 receptor mRNA shows less distribution in the brain than D2 receptor. Thus, it is required that the drugs should possess D3 receptor selectivity when acting on D2 and D3 receptors both, that is to say, the drugs should possess 10 folds or higher affinity to D3 receptor than to D2 receptor so as to exert physiological effects on catalepsy, cognition improvement and the like. Numerous researches show that 5-HT2A receptor antagonists can remove the inhibition of dopaminergic neurons in limbic system to restore the normal function of dopaminergic neurons and thereby to improve the negative symptoms.
In recent years, the improvement effect of 5-HT1A receptor for reducing side effects of anti-schizophrenia drugs and improving cognition function has been gradually recognized in the academic community. It is demonstrated that the activation (or partial activation) of 5-HT1A can effectively reduce EPS and other side effects caused by excessive D2 blockage; in prefrontal cortex, NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartic acid) receptor channel shares the same target as 5-HT1A receptor, and thus the action on 5-HT1A receptor in prefrontal cortex may facilitate the improvement of cognition function; and the activation of postsynaptic 5-HT1A receptor may reduce the release of glutamic acid, which helps to improve negative symptoms and cognition function. The partial activation of 5-HT1A and the synergism with D3 can reduce EPS below the observable level at therapeutic dosages. Therefore, novel anti-schizophrenia drugs which act on D2, D3, 5-HT1A and 5-HT2A receptor simultaneously and possess D3 selectivity have become a new direction in developing anti-schizophrenia drugs at present, and offer a guideline for the development of drugs for treating relevant diseases.
Cariprazine (RGH-188, with its chemical structure shown below) is a partial agonist of D2/D3/5-HT1A receptor jointly developed by Forest Laboratories and Gedeon Richter, which has passed Phase III clinical trial in USA, and now is at the registration stage. Its indications include schizophrenia, mania and depression. It is demonstrated by the results of receptor affinity tests that Cariprazine shows strong affinity to D2, D3 and 5-HT1A receptors (with the Ki values of 0.69 nM, 0.085 nM and 2.46 nM, respectively), moderate affinity to 5-HT2A receptor (with the Ki value of 19 nM), and a certain degree of D3/D2 receptor selectivity. In vivo tests demonstrates that it shows a clear efficacy with low toxicity and is unlikely to cause weight gain in patients of schizophrenia, depression and mania. It is further demonstrated by the clinical trials that Cariprazine shows good efficacy in treating manic depression. If it is successfully approved for the market, single drug treatment for manic depression will be realized for the first time, which will improve the compliance of the patients, and avoid the combination administration of anti-schizophrenia drugs and anti-depression drugs.
However, it is further demonstrated by the clinical trials that 22% of the patients who received Cariprazine at doses of 3 mg/d and 4.5 mg/d suffer from EPS, probably due to the excessively strong affinity to D2 receptor and the excessive blockage, or alternatively, due to that the effect on 5-HT1A receptor fails to completely improve the excessive blockage of D2 receptor. In animal experiments, Cariprazine shows good improvement effect on cognitive impairment, which, however, is not clearly demonstrated in clinical patients. This may be probably due to that the D3/D2 receptor selectivity is still insufficient to exhibit the improvement effect on D3 receptor-mediated cognition function.

Benzoisothiazole compounds and methods of treating schizophrenia

Shanghai Institute of Pharmaceutical Industry


Provided is a sample analysis method of irradiating a sample with a primary ion beam to analyze a secondary ion emitted from the sample by mass spectrometry, the sample analysis method including the steps of cooling a sample placed in a chamber; forming an ice layer on a surface of the cooled sample by discharging one of water and an aqueous solution to the chamber; and irradiating the surface of the sample with the primary ion beam with the ice layer being formed thereon, wherein an amount of the water forming the ice layer is 0.1 ng/mm2 or more and 20 ng/mm2 or less.

There is known an analysis method of thoroughly visualizing the expression amount of a protein expressed in a tumor tissue or the like based on a mass signal intensity by using a Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization (MALDI) or a Time of Flight-Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (TOF-SIMS).
In the measurement of a biological sample by the MALDI or TOF-SIMS, a sample constituent is detected in an ionized state. In particular, the sample constituent is detected as a protonated molecule in most cases.
In the measurement of a biological sample by the MALDI or TOF-SIMS, in order to enhance the ionization efficiency of a constituent, a method of supplying an aqueous solution of a matrix, an alkali metal salt, or an acidic substance to a sample by spraying or dropping has been performed. For example, the inventors of the present invention found that the ionization efficiency of a sample is enhanced in the TOF-SIMS measurement by dropping an acidic substance aqueous solution to the sample (PTL 1).
On the other hand, there is also known a method of promoting protonation to a sample constituent by using water contained in the sample or by providing water to the sample from outside, instead of using a matrix or an acidic substance.
NPL 1 discloses a method of measuring a fracture cross-section of sample suspensions which are prepared by sonicating and freezing in H2O.
NPL 2 discloses a method of allowing a sample to adsorb water by freezing the sample in a water atmosphere to generate a protonated molecule.

Method of analyzing sample using secondary ion emitted from sample and analyzer for performing analysis method


A detachable holder includes a base and a body. The body is integrally molded with the base and projected from the base. The body is configured to be inserted in a hole formed in a plate member. When the body is inserted in the hole, the body holds the base on the plate member. In addition, the body locates the base relative to the plate member. In addition, the base is detachable from the plate member from one side of the plate member. In addition, the base is detachable from the plate member from an other side of the plate member opposite of the one side.

A vehicle may generally include a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system. The HVAC system is installed in, for example, a space in front of a passenger cabin. The HVAC system includes an HVAC case accommodating a blower fan, an evaporator, and the like. The HVAC system is generally fixed to a vehicle body by, for example, screwing to the vehicle body.
The fixation of the HVAC system may include a two-part process. Specifically, the HVAC system is primarily lifted by an operator and held by the operator at a predetermined position. The HVAC system is secondarily mounted to a vehicle body, such as a sheetmetal of the vehicle, by screwing a fastener. In the two-part process, an operator is required to hold the HVAC system securely at the predetermined position, while the HVAC is screwed by the fastener. The conventional process may exert a burden on the operator.
For example, it is conceivable that the HVAC is once temporarily installed to a vehicle and subsequently fastened to the vehicle in a sequential manufacturing line. Specifically, one operator installs the HVAC temporarily, without fastening the HVAC to the vehicle, at a first station in the manufacturing line. Subsequently, the vehicle and the temporarily installed HVAC move down to a subsequent second station in the manufacturing line, and another operator fastens the temporarily installed HVAC. It is desirable, without an operator close to the HVAC and the vehicle, to hold the temporarily installed HVAC while the HVAC and the vehicle move to the second station.


RPR traffic management concepts are extended to individual client flows while adhering to the station level traffic management functions by using a two tiered shaper approach. The first tier manages the client level SLAs and feeds the second tier which provides the aggregate station level traffic management functions. This approach allows sharing of a single RPR station without the compromises and side affects associated with the other techniques. Apparatus for Resilient Packet Ring traffic management comprises a stage queue selection block operable to hold client and control traffic for transmission, a queue level traffic shaper operable to control an add rate of client data add traffic and to provide queue specific send indications to the stage queue selection block, and a ringlet level traffic shaper operable to control traffic flow for a Resilient Packet Ring ringlet and to provide aggregate send indications to the stage queue selection block.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for extending RPR traffic management concepts to individual client flows while adhering to the station level traffic management functions described in the 802.17 specification by using a two tiered shaper approach.
2. Description of the Related Art
Resilient Packet Ring (RPR), specified in IEEE standard 802.17, is a standard designed for the optimized transport of data traffic over fiber rings. It is designed to provide the resilience found in SONET/SDH networks (50 ms protection), but instead of setting up circuit oriented connections, it provides a packet-based transmission. This is to increase the efficiency of Ethernet and IP services.
RPR works on a concept of dual counter rotating rings called ringlets. These ringlets are setup by creating RPR stations at nodes where traffic is supposed to drop, per flow (a flow is the ingress and egress of data traffic). Each ring segment used to transport data between stations is referred to as a span. RPR uses MAC (Media Access Control protocol) messages to direct the traffic, which traverses both directions around the ringlet. The nodes also negotiate for bandwidth among themselves using fairness algorithms, avoiding congestion and failed spans. The avoidance of failed spans is accomplished by using one of two techniques known as "steering" and "wrapping". Under steering if a node or span is broken all nodes are notified of a topology change and they reroute their traffic. In wrapping the traffic is looped back at the last node prior to the break and routed to the destination station.
IEEE Standard 802.17 specifies RPR station level traffic shapers to control access to and dynamic sharing of available ring bandwidth. However, for systems that require the merging of multiple independent clients, each with individual traffic contracts, into a single RPR station, the need arises to add traffic management functionality at the client level. While doing so, strict adherence to the station level traffic management functions must still be maintained to be compliant with the ring level operation described in the 802.17 specification. A need arises for a technique by which the RPR traffic management concepts may be extended to individual client flows that adhere to the station level traffic management functions described in the 802.17 specification.

Two tier traffic shaper approach for resilient packet ring stations


The present invention relates to a stack device comprising a stack of gate turnoff thyristors GTO, of freewheel diodes DRL, and of diodes D, for a semiconductor circuit, said stack device including power supply electrical connection terminals +HT and -HT, and an output terminal PM, together with electrical connection terminals Cs and Cc between said diodes Ds and Dc and a protection circuit P, wherein the geometrical organization of the wiring of said electrical connection terminals +HT, PM, and -HT is predetermined so as to enable the disposition of said thyristors GTO and of said freewheel diodes in said stack to be modified in order to obtain different electrical functions for the semiconductor circuit.

Power semiconductor devices are units made up of power semiconductors that may differ from one another.
By way of example, mention may be made of thyristors as power semiconductor elements and of freewheel diodes as diodes.
Such power semiconductor elements are cooled by means of cooling devices that dissipate heat by means of a flow of a cooling liquid.
Each power semiconductor element is sandwiched between two holding elements, one or both of the holding elements possibly being cooling devices.
The set of power semiconductor elements and of holding elements constitutes a single device comprising a stack of thyristors and freewheel diodes.
Such a device comprising a stack of thyristors and freewheel diodes can also be referred to as a pile.
The power semiconductor elements must be protected electrically by means of a protection circuit, i.e. by capacitors.
The various electrical connections between the power semiconductor elements and the protection circuit are made via the cooling devices, or where not available, via holding means that do not include a cooling device.
In such a structure, the holding means provide electrical continuity between two power semiconductor elements or between a power semiconductor element and a protection circuit.
In the state of the art, the sets of holding elements and of power semiconductor elements, i.e. the devices comprising stacks of thyristors and freewheel diodes, require electrical connections to be fitted.
Sets of power semiconductor elements and of holding elements may differ in the particular electrical circuit on which they are based.
The electrical power supply connections +HT and -HT, and the output PM of a device comprising a stack of gate turnoff thyristors GTO and of freewheel diodes DRL, and electrical connections Cs, Cc between the diodes Ds, Dc and the protection circuit thus differ from one electrical circuit to another.

Device comprising a stack of thyristors and freewheel diodes


An apparatus for de-airing the heart comprises a clear, resilient bulb fixedly secured to an aspirating needle. The bulb includes a valve which permits air, upon squeezing the bulb, to be discharged therefrom. The aspirating needle includes an axial passage which is closed at the distal end of the needle. One or more longitudinal slots formed in the wall of the needle provide access to the axial passage of the needle for aspirating air from the heart.

This invention relates to an apparatus and method for de-airing the heart, particularly, to a disposable apparatus for aspirating air from the left ventricle of the heart.
Cardiopulmonary bypass surgery is an extremely delicate procedure which saves the lives of many heart patients. A critical step in that procedure involves de-airing the heart after repair of the heart has been completed. If air is not evacuated from the heart, air bubbles in the blood stream could result in stroke or death. Consequently, after completing the repair of the heart and as the cardiac chambers are closed, the heart must be freed of air as much as possible before it begins to beat. Further de-airing maneuvers, however, are also necessary after cardiac action begins. The exact steps in sequences vary from surgeon to surgeon, but the principles are well known in the prior art. These are (1) the filling of the heart with fluid before closing it, to minimize air entrapment; (2) aspiration of residual air from the heart before allowing it to eject; (3) intermittent ventilation of the lungs to express air from the pulmonary veins; and (4) continuous suction on a needle vent in the ascending aorta (or a freely bleeding stab wound) as the heart commences ejecting blood to retrieve any air that may have remained in the heart or pulmonary veins.
All these known methods of de-airing the heart, however, require needle aspiration of the heart to ensure complete evacuation of air from the heart which requires that the heart be gently squeezed repeatedly to force air out of the heart through the needle. Typically, the heart is gently pulled forward and to the right without dislodging it and a needle (usually a 19 gauge injection needle is preferred) is inserted into the apex of the left ventricle. The heart is gently massaged or squeezed as the aspirating needle is reciprocated so that air collected in the left ventricle may be removed through the aspirating needle. It is difficult to determine, however, when the air has been completely evacuated from the heart. Thus, as a cautionary measure, surgeons frequently perform this manipulation many times.
A disadvantage of this known step for de-airing the heart is that it is difficult to properly position the open tip of the aspirating needle within the left ventricle so that air which collects at the top of the left ventricle is aspirated through the needle. This is particularly difficult as the left ventricle fills with blood and the tip of the aspirating needle extends below the level of blood collected in the left ventricle. As the blood level rises, the surgeon must repeatedly move the aspirating needle up and down so that the tip of the needle is above the level of the blood so that air trapped at the top of the left ventricle may be aspirated. This is a rather imprecise procedure which must be repeated many times to insure that substantially all of the air is evacuated from the heart.
Another disadvantage of this known de-airing step is that during diastole of the heart, the heart may suck air into the left ventricle through the aspirating needle. Thus, drawing more air into the heart.
The method and apparatus of the present disclosure overcomes the deficiencies of the prior art methods of de-airing the heart by providing an apparatus which eliminates the required repeated manipulation of an aspirating needle and reduces the extent and duration of manipulation of the heart.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an apparatus for de-airing the heart which permits a surgeon to visually determine that the heart is free of air.
It is another object of the invention to provide an apparatus for de-airing the heart by inserting a closed tip needle into the heart and permitting air to aspirate through longitudinal slots formed in the body of the needle.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide an apparatus for de-airing the heart which comprises a resilient squeezable bulb attached to an aspirating needle. The resilient bulb is provided with a valve permitting air to be expelled from the bulb thereby creating a vacuum within the resilient bulb so that air and blood may be sucked out of the heart into the bulb to make the de-airing more efficient and quicker and substantially eliminate any possibility for air being sucked into the heart.
It is another object of the invention to provide an apparatus for de-airing the heart which is sterilized, ready to use and disposable.

Method and apparatus for de-airing the heart


A bond pad structure that is supported by a multiplicity of vias arranged in at least two regions each having a different via density than the other and a method for forming the structure are described. The structure includes a layer of an insulating material such as a low-k dielectric, a first multiplicity of vias formed in a center region of the low-k dielectric material that has a first density, a second multiplicity of vias formed in a peripheral region of the low-k dielectric material surrounding the center region that has a second density, wherein the second density is higher than the first density. A conductive metal pad of generally rectangular shape is then formed on top of and electrically connected to the first and second multiplicity of vias.

The present invention generally relates to a bond pad structure on an integrated circuit chip and more particularly, relates to a bond pad structure on an integrated circuit chip that is supported by a multiplicity of vias arranged in at least two regions each having a density different from the other.
In the fabrication of semiconductor devices, an integrated circuit chip is assembled in a package during a final process step to complete the fabrication process. The package is then connected to a printed circuit board as part of a large circuit. To establish electrical communication with the integrated circuit chip, a wire bonding process can be used to connect a multiplicity of bond pads situated on the integrated circuit chip to the printed circuit board.
In a typical IC chip, active circuit elements such as transistors, resistors, etc., are formed in the central portion, i.e. the active region, of the chip while bond pads are normally arranged around the periphery of the active region such that active circuit elements are less likely to be damaged during a subsequent bonding process. When a wire bonding process is performed on a bond pad on an IC chip, the process entails the bonding of a gold or aluminum wire to the bond pad by fusing the two together with ultrasonic energy. The wire is then pulled away from the bond pad after the bond is formed. During the bonding of the gold wire to the pad and the pulling away of the wire from the pad, high mechanical stress is placed on the bond pad. When the bond pads are not properly formed, defects such as delamination from the underlying substrate have been encountered.
The delamination, or otherwise known as bond pad lift-off, occurs due to the fact that during the attachment process of a gold wire to a bond pad, a high level of mechanical stress is placed on the pad. It is also caused by the fact that a relatively large, heavy bond is placed on top of layers which may not have strong adhesion to the underlying layers. For instance, one factor that affects adhesion between the layers is the usage of a diffusion barrier layer formed of a material such as TiN for preventing aluminum diffusion into underlying conductive layers during subsequent high temperature processes. The diffusion barrier layer utilized, i.e., TiN, TiW or other alloys, does not have strong adhesion to the underlying oxide layer in the bond pad. This is one example of how the bond pad lift-off defect can occur.
Other processing parameters may also cause bond pad lift-off or delamination problem in semiconductor devices. For instance, low dielectric constant (low-k) materials have been used in recently developed semiconductor devices which causes adhesion problems between these low-k dielectric materials and the underlying oxide layers. The adhesion of these low-k dielectric materials, or inter-metal-dielectric (IMD) materials to oxide is poorer than that between oxide and oxide. However, the use of low-k dielectric materials, such as HSQ (hydrogen silsesquioxane) and MSQ (methyl silsesquioxane) is desirable in high performance semiconductor structures since thinner layers of the materials may be used as insulating layers due to their low-k characteristics. Another drawback of these low-k dielectric materials is their low thermal conductivity when compared to that of regular oxide. During a chip bonding process, the local temperature around a bond pad is significantly higher due to the poor thermal conductivity of the low-k dielectric material. The thermal stress caused by the poor thermal conductivity of IMD, in addition to the mechanical stresses caused by the bonding operation, may cause delamination of a low-k IMD layer from its underlying oxide layer.
In modern semiconductor devices that are designed specifically for high speed operation or for use in radio frequency circuits, it becomes highly desirable to use a single metal layer as the bond pad. The elimination of lower metal layers results in a smaller parasitic capacitance which is essential for such applications. In single metal layer bond pad applications, the pig bond pad lift-off defect becomes more severe due to poor adhesion of the single metal layer with the underlying dielectric layer. The single metal layer deposited on a dielectric layer no longer has the beneficial anchoring effect achieved in multiple metal layers. This is shown in FIGS. 1A, 1B and 1C.
FIG. 1A is an enlarged, cross-sectional view of a semiconductor device 10 formed with a bond pad 12 that has a multi-level metal structure. The bond pad 12 is constructed by four individual metal layers 14 connected therein between by a plurality of vias 16. The bond pad 12 is formed in a dielectric material layer 18 that is pre-deposited on a silicon substrate 20. The bond pad 12 is further covered along its edges by a passivation material layer 22.
As shown in FIG. 1A, the bond pad 12 is firmly anchored in the dielectric layer 18 by the multiple metal layers 14 which are interconnected by the plurality of vias 16. The adhesion between the bond pad 12 and the dielectric layer 18 is sufficiently strong for conducting a wire pull test or a ball shear test, shown in FIG. 1C.
On the other hand, in the single metal layer bond pad structure 24 shown in FIG. 1B for the semiconductor structure 30, the adhesion between the metal layer 26, the vias 16 and the dielectric layer 28, without the anchoring effect of the other metal layers, is weak. As a result, the bond pad structure 24 can not survive a wire pull bond test without delaminating from the dielectric layer 28. Furthermore, the single metal bond pad 24 may not survive a wire bonding process without the bond pad lift-off defect.
Others have attempted to solve the poor bondability problem of a bond pad on a low-k dielectric material layer by increasing the density, i.e. or the pitch, defined as the ratio between the diameter of the via and the spacing between the vias. The larger number of vias improves thermal conduction, or heat dissipation of the bond pad and furthermore, improves the mechanical strength of the bond pad due to the anchoring capability of the vias. This is shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B.
FIG. 2A illustrates a conventional method for increasing the pitch, or density, of vias 16 under a bond pad 24 from that shown in FIG. 2B wherein the vias 16 have a pitch of 1:3. However, while gaining the thermal conductivity, heat dissipation properties, and the mechanical bond strength due to the larger number of vias 16, the high density via used for bond pad 24 causes other processing problems. For instance, when the number of vias, and thus via openings, greatly increases, i.e. to a pitch of 1:1, the via openings may be etched through and connected to other via openings. As a result, there is no insulating oxide or low-k dielectric material left in-between the via openings. The process for laying out and forming via openings that are densely placed together further adds complexity to the fabrication process.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a bond pad structure supported by a multiplicity of vias that does not have the drawbacks or shortcomings of the conventional bond pad structures.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a bond pad structure that is supported by a multiplicity of vias arranged in at least two regions each having a density that is different from the other.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a bond pad structure that is supported by a multiplicity of vias arranged in at least three regions each having a density that is different from the other regions.
It is another further object of the present invention to provide a bond pad structure that is supported by a multiplicity of vias arranged in at least two regions wherein a via density in one region is at least two times the via density in the other region.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method for forming a bond pad structure that is supported by vias arranged in regions of different densities.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method for forming a bond pad structure on top of a low-k dielectric material layer that is supported by a multiplicity of vias formed of Cu.
In accordance with the present invention, a bond pad structure that is supported by a multiplicity of vias arranged in at least two regions each having a via density different from the other, is provided.
In a preferred embodiment, a bond structure that is supported by a multiplicity of vias arranged in at least two regions each having a via density different than the other is provided which includes a layer of an insulating material; a first multiplicity of vias formed in a center region of the layer of insulating material having a first density; a second multiplicity of vias formed in a peripheral region of the layer of insulating material surrounding the center region that has a second density; and a conductive metal pad of generally rectangular shape that is formed on top of and connect to the first and second multiplicity of vias.
In the bond pad structure, the second density is at least two times of the first density, or the second density is about three times of the first density. The bond pad may further include a third multiplicity of vias formed in an outer peripheral region of the layer of insulating material surrounding the peripheral region that has a third density. The third density is at least two times of the second density. The layer of insulating material is formed of a dielectric material, such as silicon oxide or a low-k material that has a dielectric constant smaller than 4.0. The first and second multiplicity of vias may be formed of Cu. The first multiplicity of vias can be formed with a pitch larger than 1:2, while the second multiplicity of vias may be formed with a pitch smaller than 1:2.
The present invention is further directed to a method for forming a bond pad structure that is supported by vias arranged in regions of different via densities which can be carried out by the steps of first providing a pre-processed electronic substrate; then depositing an insulating material layer on the pre-processed electronic substrate; then forming a first multiplicity of via openings that has a first pitch in the insulating material layer; then forming a second multiplicity of via openings that has a second pitch surrounding the first multiplicity of via openings in the insulating material layer; filling the first and second multiplicity of via openings with a conductive metal forming a first and second multiplicity of vias; and forming a conductive metal pad on top of and connected to the first and second multiplicity of vias.
The method for forming a bond pad structure that is supported by vias arranged in regions of different densities may further include the step of depositing the insulating material layer from a material that has a dielectric constant smaller than 4.0. The method may further include the step of filling the first and second multiplicity of via openings with Cu. The method may further include the step of forming the conductive metal pad with Al. The second pitch is larger than the first pitch, or the second pitch is at least two times of the first pitch.
The present invention is still further directed to a bond pad structure that is supported by a multiplicity of vias arranged in at least three regions each having a via density different than the others which includes a layer of an insulating material; a first multiplicity of vias that are formed in a center region of the layer of insulating material that has a first density; a second multiplicity of vias formed in an inner peripheral region of the layer of insulating material surrounding the center region which has a second density; a third multiplicity of vias formed in an outer peripheral region of the layer of insulating material surrounding the inner peripheral region and has a third density; and a conductive metal pad of generally rectangular shape that is formed on top of and connect to the first and second multiplicity of vias.
In the bond pad structure that is supported by a multiplicity of vias arranged in at least three regions, the second density is larger than the first density, while the third density is larger than the second density. The layer of insulating material may have a dielectric constant smaller than 4.0. The first, second and third multiplicity of vias may be formed of Cu.

Bond pad having variable density via support and method for fabrication

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd


A system for transporting inventory includes an inventory holder and a mobile drive unit. The inventory holder includes a frame capable of storing inventory items and a docking plate capable of receiving a docking head from underneath. The mobile drive unit, includes a docking head capable of coupling to the docking plate and a drive module capable of propelling the mobile drive unit. The mobile drive unit is further capable to move the inventory holder when the docking head is coupled to the inventory holder.

Modern inventory systems, such as those in mail-order and e-commerce warehouses, airport luggage systems, and custom-order manufacturing facilities, face significant challenges in providing fast, accurate responses to requests for inventory items. In recent years, automation has improved the speed and efficiency of storing and retrieving inventory items within such systems. However, automation often results in rigid inventory systems that are neither scalable nor easily adapted to changing system requirements. Additionally, automated systems often result in inefficient use of space, making automated solutions infeasible in many situations.

Inventory system with mobile drive unit and inventory holder


A user configurable horizontal brake feature for a railroad crossing gate. The braking feature will maintain lowered crossing gate arms in the horizontal position when a train is approaching and until it is the proper time to raise the gate arms (e.g., after the passing of the approaching train).

At many roadway railroad crossings, pedestrian paths and sidewalks also cross the railroad track. Crossing gates, which typically are raised by default and lowered when a train approaches and crosses an intersection of a road and railroad track (i.e., a crossing), may be provided for roadway and pedestrian safety. There may be a separate gate for the roadway and the pedestrian path. At some intersections, the roadway gate and the pedestrian gate are raised and lowered by the same gate mechanism. Typically, this means that the same internal gearing of the gate mechanism drives both gates. Therefore, if a pedestrian manually raises the pedestrian gate, the internal gearing of the gate mechanism raises the roadway gate as well. This can create an unsafe situation whereby the railroad crossing appears to be clear to motorists even though a train is approaching.
To avoid this problem, some crossings use separate gate mechanisms for the roadway and pedestrian gates. This option, however, is undesirable because it is more expensive than single mechanism installations. Furthermore, single mechanism installations are already in place at countless railroad crossings, and replacing them with two-mechanism systems could be cost prohibitive for many railroad operators.
Thus, there is a need and desire for a mechanism to prevent the improper raising of the crossing gates when a train is approaching the crossing.

User configurable horizontal brake feature for railroad crossing gates


A digital signal processor and a digital image processing apparatus adopting the same. The digital signal processor comprises a data converter, which converts digital image data in red, green, and blue form to digital image data in luminance and chrominance form, such that when photograph-image data is captured by photographing, the data converter processes the photograph-image data during each period of time from the time when processing of one frame data of live-view is completed to the time when processing of next frame data begins.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a digital signal processor, and a digital image processing apparatus adopting the same, and more particularly, to a digital signal processor, which includes a data converter for converting digital image data in red, green, and blue form into digital image data in luminance and chrominance form, and a digital image processing apparatus adopting the digital signal processor.
2. Description of the Related Art
According to a live-view operation of a conventional digital image processing apparatus, a live-view conversion period, a live-view reduction period, and a live-view display period are repeated in a digital signal processor of the apparatus. The live-view conversion period, the live-view reduction period, and the live-view display period are set up to each have a duration of, for example, approximately 33 ms.
In the live-view conversion period, the data converter converts frame data in red, green, and blue form to frame data in luminance and chrominance form. In the live-view reduction period, resolution of the frame data in luminance and chrominance form is decreased. In the live-view display period, the frame data with decreased resolution is inputted to a display device.
When a photographing signal is generated while processing the frame data of live-view as described above, processing of the frame data of live-view is stopped and photograph-image data in red, green, and blue form is captured. A time for capturing the photograph-image data is long, for example, approximately 500 ms, because the frame data of live-view has a resolution suitable for display, and the resolution of the photograph-image data is relatively high.
The captured photograph-image data is converted to digital image data in luminance and chrominance form by the data converter. A time for converting the photograph-image data is also long, for example, approximately 200 ms.
In the live-view operation, a live-view conversion period of N+2th frame data, a live-view reduction period of N+1th frame data, and a live-view display period of N frame data are overlapped and repeated, with N being a natural number. In other words, in the live-view operation, a single data converter in the digital signal processor repeatedly operates with a cycle of, for example, approximately 33 ms.
Accordingly, in the conventional digital image processing apparatus, the live-view operation cannot be performed approximately for 700 ms, which is the sum total of 500 ms of time for capturing the photograph-image data and 200 ms of time for converting the photograph-image data. Thus, a next image can only be photographed approximately 700 ms after photographing an image. That is, the maximum speed of continuous photographing is approximately 1.43 images per second.

Digital signal processor and digital image processing apparatus adopting the same with concurrent live view frame and picture image processing


In a network monitor system having a plurality of line cards, each of the line cards monitors a communication data amount in consideration of a group or a finer group with conditions other than an IP address added thereto. Each of the line cards controls the communication data amount by the use of a line interface section 11, a header extraction section 12, a flow identification section 13, and a counter section 16.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network monitor system, and a data amount counting method and a program for use in the system, and, in particular, to a method of monitoring data flowing on a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a conventional method of monitoring data flowing on a network, a method has heretofore been adopted which at first sets a path such that the data passes through a network monitor apparatus and accumulates an amount of passed data by a network monitor apparatus. In this case, the network monitor apparatus calculates and generates accounting information in response to the data amount.
However, in this method, the data has to be sure to pass through the network monitor apparatus. Otherwise, the accounting information cannot be generated and, as a result, no accounting information can be generated with respect to the data which does not pass through the network monitor apparatus. In addition, the generation of the accounting information is limited by a processing capability of the network monitor apparatus.
To solve the problem, a technique described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Hei 11-191766, namely, 1999-191766 comprises: counting an amount of communication data based on a source Internet protocol (IP) address during data reception; and counting the amount of communication data based on a destination IP address during data transmission.
Specifically, the above-described conventional method of monitoring the data flowing on the network monitors the communication data amount based on the source and destination IP addresses during the data transmission/reception. Therefore, it is impossible to monitor the communication data amount in consideration of a group or a sub-divided group defined by any other conditions than the IP address.

Network monitor system, data amount counting method and program for use in the system


In the preferred embodiment, a partial length slit is introduced in the inwardly facing wall of a boot in both the exterior and corresponding interior portions of the boot. Included in the midst of the slit, between the exterior and corresponding interior portions, is a piece of elastomeric fabric which preferably is stitched in.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a boot or a bootie. More specifically, the present invention relates to the presence of a generally hidden internal elastic material placed behind an opening or behind a slit in the boot's exterior shell, and preferably placed between the exterior shell and an interior lining, where each of the shell and lining has a corresponding slit or opening at a position in the boot covering the inside ankle bone so as to facilitate foot entry or exit. The elastic material has characteristics of stretchability, so as to facilitate a person's ability to slip on or off the boot or bootie. The elastic material also has characteristics of revertability, so as, to facilitate the boot or bootie's return to a closed state and a snug fit. The location, of this material, internal to the boot and attached to the interior side of the external shell at the inside ankle bone area also results in the exterior shell appearing flush, thereby providing a sleek appearance.
2. Description of the Related Art
Boots are available in various shapes and sizes and for various purposes. In at least some situations, it is desirable for a boot to have attributes including a taut or snug fit as well as extended elevation, such as to near the wearer's knee. Examples of such situations include riding applications, such as but not limited to horseback riding and motorcycle riding, as well as aesthetic applications. Some of these taut-fitting boots are commonly known as "tube boots".
A wearer's comfort is an important consideration in footwear, both in wearing the footwear as well as putting the footwear on or taking it off. In general, the longer and/or narrower the boot, the more difficult it becomes to insert one's foot or to remove the foot from the boot. This is due to the boot's narrowing in the area near the ankle. Such narrowing is for reasons of stylishness as well as for fit. To accommodate foot entry and exit, some boots are widened near the ankle. A drawback to making the opening for the foot wider so as to allow ease of entry is that the foot does not fit snuggly when in the boot.
This problem has been addressed in the past in various ways such as by using zippers, laces, buckles, clasps, elastics, and other similar attaching devices used individually or collectively. In these solutions, the upper portion of the boot may be formed of multiple interconnected sections, and the sections can be closed together by connecting devices. For example, zippers have been introduced at various locations in a boot. Zippers often run vertically in the boot and can be located in the front, the back, a side, or some combination. Sometimes more than one zipper is used so as to provide numerous sections of relief. Elastics have been used on both sides of the footwear in order to provide a uniform stretch. While these solutions facilitates inserting or removing a foot, these connecting devices are difficult to hide while maintaining a flush appearance for the boot, and the use of such devices can leave open the opportunity for the connecting devices to catch on something, thereby resulting in possible injury to the wearer.
In some cases, stretch sectors have been built into footwear, including into boots and shoes. For example, gores have been strategically placed, such as at the vamp of a slip-on shoe. Two such examples are a single gore in the back of a shoe and multiple gores with a gore on each side. In these situations, an elasticized material is used which expands to allow the foot to enter a shoe. These solutions are not generally suitable to a boot or bootie, particular one with a high length which requires a foot to be angled in a particular way for entry as well as being hidden from view on the inside of the boot.


Method for measuring thicknesses of a film, a foil or a material layer with a measuring head which is spaced away from the film and with which a capacitive thickness measurement is performed, in which an optical distance measurement is performed with a distance measuring device and a distance determined by the optical distance measurement is used in determining the film thickness in the capacitive thickness measurement.

The invention relates to an apparatus and a method for measuring the thickness of a foil, a film or a material layer by means of a measuring head which is spaced away from the film and with which a capacitive thickness measurement is performed.
Methods of measuring film thickness are used in particular in the production of plastic films, so that the film thickness and, as the case may be, the evenness of the film thickness over the width of the film may be monitored during the manufacturing process and may be regulated, if necessary. For example, in a blow film apparatus, the measuring head is arranged at the film bubble, which is inflated by internal blow air and is drawn-off upwardly, in such a manner that it may revolve around the film bubble and thus can measure the film thickness on the entire periphery of the film bubble during one revolution. As it would be difficult, in particular in case of blow films, to arrange components of the measuring head on both sides of the film or to provide a metallic support or backup roller on the back side of the film, the measuring head should be constructed such that the measurement can be performed from one side of the blow film.
Measurement methods are known, which do not fulfill this feature. Thus, DE 199 59 570 A1 discloses a sensor for contactless measurement of materials, wherein the object to be measured is guided on a support, and a ball guided in a cage rolls over the object with a little application force. A height displacement of the ball within the cage is measured by laser triangulation, while, simultaneously, the distance of the cage from the metallic support is measured by means of an eddy current sensor. Adding the measured results gives the thickness of the object. Disadvantageous is on the one hand the necessity of a metallic support and, on the other hand, the contact of the ball with the object to be measured.
Further, the company Micro Epsilon commercializes measuring devices in which, also, an eddy current measurement is performed for determining the spacing of a sensor from a metallic support roller, on which the film is disposed, while an additional measurement of the spacing between the film surface and the sensor is performed by means of a laser micrometer, or a capacitive measurement of the film thickness is performed, depending on the type of the device. In the capacitive measurement, which is highly sensitive to distance variations, the distance value obtained by the eddy current measurement is used for compensating distance fluctuations. Disadvantageous is in any case the necessity of a metallic support roller. In another known method for measuring thicknesses of profiled materials, respective laser-optical triangulation sensors for detecting the surface of the material are disposed on both sides of a measuring gap. The thickness of the material passed through the measuring gap is determined from the measured results, the width of the measuring gap being additionally monitored by means of an eddy current measurement. Here, it is a disadvantage that a triangulation sensor is necessary on both sides of the material.
DE 36 12 914 A1 discloses a method of measuring the thickness of paper, wherein an air cushion provides a constant spacing between a surface of the paper, which is disposed on a support, and a measuring head, while, simultaneously, the spacing between the measuring head and the support is determined by means of an inductive displacement sensor. Again, it is particularly the necessity of a support which is disadvantageous. Moreover, the accuracy of the measurement is limited, due to fluctuations in the thickness of the air cushion.
A capacitive method, wherein a contactless thickness measurement is performed from one side of a film while the measuring head is held spaced away from the film by means of an air cushion, is known from EP 0 591 239 and GB 1 436 698. Therein, an air cushion is created between the measuring head and the film, for example by supplying gas under pressure, and the measuring head is held in an approximately constant distance from the surface by the air cushion. This prevents a contact between the film and the measuring head.
A single-sided capacitive thickness measurement utilizes the effect, that the electrically non-conductive film acts as a dielectric in a fringe field of a plate capacitor. Thus, a change in film thickness corresponds to a change in capacity of the capacitor. A problem is that a change in the distance between the film and the capacitive measurement device tampers the capacitance measurement and, consequently, the thickness measurement, wherein the measurement error may be of the same order of magnitude as the measured film thickness. This disturbing influence of distance changes becomes larger with increasing distance between the measuring head and the film, since the field strength of the capacitor decreases strongly at larger distances. In the production of blow films, however, the movements of the film inevitably lead to fluctuations in the distance between the measuring head and the film. These fluctuations disturb the capacitive measurement and lead to erroneous measurement results
DE 195 11 939 discloses a sensor head, which is supported without friction in a mount of a sensor. Therein, gas is supplied via a gas supply opening at the measuring head, and the gas will flow away laterally between the measuring head and the film, so that an equilibrium between the repelling action of the gas pressure and the suction action of the flowing gas is established. The measuring head is thereby held at an essentially constant distance from the film. In addition to this fine-adjustment of the distance, an automatic coarse-adjustment of the position of the measuring head is proposed, by means of a distance sensor which may be an optical, ultrasonic or also a capacitive sensor, for example. This measuring head has the drawback that, on the one hand, it is required that the capacitive thickness measurement shall be as insensitive as possible to the distance within the available distance range. On the other hand, the frictionless suspension of the measuring head is very complex. Moreover, the sensor head will not always follow-up to the film with sufficiently quick response, because of its mass of inertia, so that the admissible distance range may be left.
EP 0 801 290 discloses a method, wherein an air cushion is also created between the measuring head and the film. An active feedback control of the distance between the measuring head and the film is performed indirectly by measuring and controlling the pressure within the air cushion between the measuring head and the film. The pressure is controlled, for being adjusted to a reference pressure, by shifting the position of the measuring head by means of a linear motor. In addition to or in place of the pressure control, a correction of the distance-dependent results of the capacitive thickness measurement shall be performed on the basis of the distance data that have been obtained by the pressure measurements. To this end, a simple functional relation between the magnitude of the measurement error and the distance between the measuring head and the film is assumed. According to this, the thickness d(x) measured at the distance x is related to the thickness d0 measured at the distance x=0 by d(x)=d0/(1+x). A drawback is high effort for the pressure measurement, which, moreover, permits to derive the distance between the measuring head and the film only indirectly and with a low reliability and depends on the advance speed, the curvature and the surface properties of the film. The position adjustment of the measuring head influences the pressure in the air cushion only indirectly and with time delay and, moreover, the mass of inertia of the measuring head makes it difficult to adjust the position of the measuring head quickly and exactly. Under certain operating conditions of a blow film apparatus, it may therefore not be possible to stably maintain the target reference pressure.

Apparatus and method for capacitive measurement of materials


The present system relates to radiation pattern control. More particularly, the present system is adapted for controlling a radiation pattern of a directional antenna. The system comprises a sample collection unit, a power angular spectrum estimation unit and a control unit. The sample collection unit is adapted for collecting a plurality of samples of a signal with a current radiation pattern and a plurality of samples of the signal with different radiation patterns. The power angular spectrum estimation unit is adapted for estimating a preliminary spectrum of the signal based on the collected plurality of samples with the current radiation pattern and for estimating an optimized spectrum of the signal based on the collected plurality of samples with different radiation patterns. Then, the control unit sets the radiation pattern of the directional antenna to the estimated optimized spectrum.

Next-generation WiFi standard (802.11 n) promises up to 600 Megabits per second (Mbps) in wireless transmission data rate. Such a wireless transmission data rate is very interesting, as it renders possible "true" wireless applications. At this data rate, triple-play services (data, voice, and video) can be supported in an enterprise or a home environment. The standard calls for MIMO (Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output) implementation, which entails having more than one antenna at the access points. By transmitting data on two or more different antennas, the data rate can be increased without having to increase transmission power and/or bandwidth.
Most current 802.11 n systems utilize antennas that are omni directional, i.e. where the signal is transmitted in all directions. Use of omni directional antennas presents mainly two disadvantages: short transmission distance and interference. Both of these problems contribute to lower the data rate while also rendering the wireless connection unreliable. These problems were not addressed in previous versions of the WiFi standard (802.11 a/b/g). However, with the promise of WiFi replacing Gigabit-Ethernet, these problems have to be addressed to make next-generation WiFi deliver on its promise of 600 Mbps wireless transmission data rate.
In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/947,759 "Dynamic radiation pattern antenna system", Frigon et al. propose to utilize a directional antenna that focuses the signal towards a mobile terminal as a receiver, alleviating the problems of short transmit distance and interference simultaneously. The directional antenna is coupled with a "smart" algorithm called DRPD (Dynamic Radiation Pattern Diversity) which is able to intelligently steer the beam in a particular direction in order to provide the mobile terminal with a reliable connection. As well, the DRPD entails converging towards a more "dynamic" approach to antennas rather than the current "static" approach typically found in most commercial products. Coupled with MIMO, DRPD provides the mobile terminal with the highest possible data rate in any given environment (office or home).
For doing so, Frigon et al. use a novel and breakthrough leaky-wave antenna (LWA) which is a first of its kind. This antenna is shown in FIG. 1. It is based on metamaterial composite right/left-handed (CRLH) technology developed by Dr. Christophe Caloz. The backfire-to-endfire CRLH LWA provides for the first time the capability of scanning the entire free space with high directivity and flexibility, without requiring any cumbersome and power-hungry (lossy) feeding network compared with conventional antenna arrays. This LWA is fundamentally a traveling wave (as opposed to resonant) antenna, where backward/broadside/forward radiation is obtained when the structure is tuned to propagate a backward/"standing"/forward wave. FIG. 1(a) illustrates the CRLH LWA, while FIG. 1(b) depicts a varactor-based CRLH LWA.
By incorporating varactor diodes (i.e. capacitors with a capacitance varying as a function of their reverse-bias voltage) in the structure, the beam can be scanned in real-time. It is then possible, by electronically tuning the varactor diodes' reverse-bias voltages, to achieve full-space scanning at a fixed operation frequency. Typical simulated and measured radiation patterns of a CRLH LW antenna are shown in FIG. 2. By electronically changing the bias-voltages of the CRLH LW antenna, a wide and continuous range of radiation patterns for a single antenna element can be efficiently achieved.
Power angular spectrum (PAS) parameters are used to define an antenna's radiation pattern. PAS parameters comprise angle of arrival, angular spread and power gain. The PAS parameters are dominated by large scale effects and vary in an order of several tens of seconds. It is thus possible to adapt the radiation patterns to long term statistics of these parameters instead of their instantaneous values. Using simulations, it has been shown that such approach results in penalties in the order of 1.5 dB when such a long term approach is used. This long term approach proves interesting only if PAS parameters can be accurately estimated.
However, with current systems and methods, it is not possible to set an antenna's optimal radiation pattern of a DRPD without sufficient information on the required radiation pattern. There is thus a need for a radiation pattern control system for accurately acquiring information about a signal and setting a corresponding radiation pattern.

System for controlling a radiation pattern of a directional antenna


Methods, apparatuses, and systems related to optical connector assemblies are described. In some embodiments, the connector assemblies may include an optical assembly, having an optical interconnect and an optical module, to be coupled with a host electrical connector. The connector assembly may further include springs, disposed on the optical interconnect or the host electrical connector, to facilitate a coupling of the optical interconnect with the optical module. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Current optical assemblies typically include a fiber connector, a connector latch, and an optical module. The fiber connector and the optical module are fastened by the connector latch. The optical assembly is then connected to an electrical connector to provide a connector assembly. If the alignment of the fiber connector and lens of the optical module is disturbed, the power levels of the optical signal may change and adversely effect communications passing through the connector assembly.


A catalyst and process are disclosed for upgrading heavy feedstocks such as resid. The catalyst comprises a porous inorganic oxide support having an incremental pore volume maximum at a pore radius greater than 50 Angstroms bearing between 0.1 to 5.0 weight percent nickel and having at least 0.4 cc/g of pores having a radius less than 125 Angstroms. An ebullated bed hydroconversion process employing the catalyst also is disclosed.

Efficient operation of modern refineries requires that refiners introduce larger and larger portions of heavier, poorer quality crude oils into refinery feedstocks. The widespread use of poorer quality crude oils in turn requires efficient processes and catalysts for converting heavy feedstock bottoms such as atmospheric and vacuum residua (hereafter "resid") to more valuable, lighter molecular weight products.
Resid conversion is difficult because resid feedstocks typically contain high concentrations of metals such as nickel, iron and vanadium as well as high concentrations of hetero atoms such as nitrogen and sulfur. Many of these metals and hetero atoms deactivate or poison hydrotreating catalysts used in resid conversion units. Poisoning of the catalyst often leads to the need for frequent catalyst additions or changeouts which impact unit availability and throughput.
Resid conversion also is difficult because resid feedstocks contain a large asphaltenic fraction that produces insoluble carbonaceous material when the feedstock is heated. These insoluble materials are known as Shell Hot Filtration Solids (hereafter "SHFS" or "Shell Solids") and are formed in greater degree at higher operating temperatures. Shell Solids impact operability by fouling and plugging system components. SHFS-induced operability problems generally occur as SHFS levels exceed about one weight percent within a resid conversion reactor. Formation of these solids, therefore, often results in feedstock or temperature operating limitations.
The operational impact of catalyst poisoning and SHFS formation has caused refiners to implement a variety of processes and catalysts in an effort to more efficiently convert resid feedstocks to more valuable, lighter molecular weight products.
In some cases, refiners have converted resid by employing multistage processes using different catalysts in each stage. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,297,242 to Hensley discloses a two-stage process in which the first stage employs a large pore, high surface area demetallation catalyst having a Group VIB and/or Group VIII metal deposed thereon and in which the second stage employs a relatively smaller pore second stage catalyst having a Group VI metal deposited on a catalytically-active alumina support. In Hensley's system, demetallation primarily occurs in a first stage reactor where metals are deposited on the large pore catalyst. Demetallized resid then flows to a second reactor where hydrogenation and molecular weight reduction occurs in the presence of the relatively smaller pore hydrogenation catalyst. Other somewhat similar two-stage upgrading processes are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,016,067; 4,212,729; 4,447,314 and 4,626,340. While multi-stage, multiple catalyst systems such as these provide one solution to many of the problems encountered in single stage, single catalyst systems, refiners desire other, simpler methods for upgrading resid to more valuable, lighter molecular weight products.
Another solution to upgrading resid is to employ a multi-component catalyst system in which catalyst particles of two different types are used in the same reactor. Examples of this type of process are disclosed in our U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,009,771 and 5,100,855. In these systems, a first catalyst component typically employs a porous refractory inorganic oxide support having less than 0.1 cubic centimeters per gram of pores with a diameter less than 200 Angstroms (the "micropores"), a pore volume of less than 0.02 cubic centimeters per gram of pores having a diameter greater than about 800 Angstroms (the "macropores"), and a maximum average mesopore diameter (i.e. pore diameter between 200 and 800 Angstroms) of about 130 Angstroms. The second catalyst component typically exhibits a pore volume of greater than 0.07 cubic centimeters per gram of pores having a diameter greater than about 800 Angstroms. Either catalyst can employ a Group V, VIB or VIII metal in an amount ranging from about 0.4 to 8.0 weight percent of the metal calculated as an oxide. This system is believed to work by causing metals to be deposited within the relatively large pore catalyst component, thereby substantially decreasing metal deposition on the relatively small pore component. This is believed to permit the small pore component to effectively upgrade feedstock much longer than would be possible if the large pore metal scavenging catalyst was not employed to prevent the blocking of small pore catalyst pore entrances.
A preferred method for improving the performance of resid upgrading systems is to employ a single hydrogenation catalyst having a wide variety of pore diameters within a single catalyst support. One example of a resid upgrading catalyst of this type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,434,048 to Schindler. Schindler teaches the use of a support having between about 0.25 and 0.40 cubic centimeters per gram of pores having a radius of less than 125 Angstroms, between 0.10 and 0.25 cubic centimeters per gram of pores having a radius between 125 and 250 Angstroms, between 0.20 and 0.30 cubic centimeters per gram of pores having a radius between 250 and 750 Angstroms, between 0.05 and 0.15 cubic centimeters per gram of pores having a radius between 750 and 2000 Angstroms, and between 0.03 and 0.10 cubic centimeters per gram of pores having a radius greater than 2000 Angstroms. On this support is deposited between 1 and 6 weight percent nickel and between 5 and 16 weight percent molybdenum. In some cases, the catalyst may also include between 1 and 6 weight percent cobalt. While Schindler's catalyst may be somewhat easier to use than the multiple catalyst systems already described, the volume of micropores having a radius less than 125 Angstroms is believed to be substantially less than required for successful upgrading of resid in modern ebullated bed resid hydrotreating reactors of the types described herein.
Another example of a catalyst suitable for upgrading resid is that disclosed in our U.S. Pat. No. 4,707,466 to Beaton et al. This catalyst employs a porous inorganic support typically having at least 0.15 cubic centimeters per gram of pores with a diameter greater than 1200 Angstroms and about 0.5 cubic centimeters per gram of pores having a diameter of less than 150 Angstroms. Deposited on the support is about 3.5 to 5 weight percent of a Group VIB metal oxide and 0.4 to 0.8 weight percent cobalt oxide. We have found this catalyst to be particularly effective in ebullated bed reactor systems such as those disclosed in our U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,940,529 and 5,013,427 which are hereby incorporated by reference. As referred to herein, ebullated bed systems are those in which solid catalyst particles are kept in motion by the upward movement of liquids and gases. In these systems, a resid feedstock typically is converted to lighter products by ebullating a mixture of resid, hydrogen, recirculated liquid product and supported catalyst at temperatures around 800.degree. F. and at total system pressures around 3000 psia in one or more reactors.
Another way to improve resid hydrotreating performance is to employ a catalyst having an incremental pore distribution specifically suited to resid hydroprocessing. One such catalyst is disclosed in our allowed U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/857,336, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,221,651. This particular catalyst is characterized by a support having a maximum value of incremental pore volume at a pore radius of about 30 Angstroms. On this support is deposited between about 0.4 and 8 weight percent of a Group VIII metal and 3 to 22 weight percent of a Group VIB metal, both metals being measured as an oxide. The incremental pore volume noted above is calculated by dividing the change in pore volume for a given measurement increment by the change in pore radius for that increment to yield dV/dr, the rate of change of pore volume per gram with pore radius, and then multiplying dV/dr by the average pore radius of the measurement increment in Angstroms to yield an incremental pore volume in cc/g. While this catalyst is believed to be well-suited to resid hydrotreating applications, interest remains high in other improved resid hydrotreating catalysts having different incremental pore volume distributions.
While the aforedescribed catalysts are believed to be particularly useful in ebullated bed resid hydrotreating reactors, we continue to search for improved catalysts that can provide for better operability and/or higher conversion under resid hydrotreating operating conditions.

Resid hydrotreating catalyst and process