A fastening device for driving a fastener into a workpiece by effecting multiple blows upon the fastener comprises a housing and a striker assembly movably mounted within the housing. The striker assembly includes a driver assembly adapted to strike the fastener to be driven into the workpiece. A nose assembly is movably mounted on the housing and has a fastener drive track along which the driver assembly and the fastener travel when the fastener is driven into the workpiece. The fastening device has a feed mechanism operatively connected to the nose assembly for mechanically advancing the fastener into the fastener drive track. The fastener drive track has a guide surface adjacent the aperture of the nose assembly to direct the fastener as it is driven into the workpiece. A releasable fastener assembly releasably secures the nose assembly to the housing of the fastening device. A control assembly controls the operation of the fastening device to conserve energy. A coil of collated roofing nails is adapted for use with the fastening device. Each of the nails of the coil of collated roofing nails is coated with a thermoplastic material that serves as a lubricant which facilitates driving of the nails.

The present invention relates to automatic fastening devices and, in particular, a fastening device that drives a fastener into a workpiece by effecting multiple blows upon the fastener. More specifically, the invention relates to a fastening device having a feed assembly operatively connected to a nose assembly for mechanically advancing the fastener into a fastener drive channel. Furthermore, the invention relates to a fastening device wherein a fastener drive channel has a guide surface adjacent the aperture of the nose assembly to direct the fastener as it is driven into the workpiece. The invention also relates to a fastening device having a releasable fastener assembly for releasably securing the nose assembly to the housing of the fastening device. The invention also relates to a fastening device having a control assembly for controlling the operation of the fastening device to conserve energy. Finally, the present invention relates to a coil of collated roofing nails wherein each of the nails is coated with a thermoplastic material that serves as a lubricant which facilitates driving of the nails. The coil of collated roofing nails is adapted for use with the fastening device.
The most typical type of nailing or fastening device used to drive a fastener into a workpiece is that of the xe2x80x9csingle strokexe2x80x9d type. In these types of devices, a driver assembly is driven to fasten a fastener into a workpiece with a single blow or impact. A disadvantage of these devices is that they require very high levels of impact energy, especially when longer fastener lengths are used.
There have been some attempts to provide a xe2x80x9cmulti-strokexe2x80x9d fastening device, which employs a striker assembly, which is driven to provide a plurality of blows or impacts upon the fastener head for progressively fastening the fastener into a workpiece. Such devices have been proposed by U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,767,485; 2,796,608; 3,203,610; 4,183,453; 4,724,992; and 4,807,793. The disadvantage with these proposed devices is that the fastener striker assembly is driven through a plurality of driving strokes, the lengths of the strokes are progressively increased as the fastener is progressively driven into the workpiece. As a result, the timing for driving the striker assembly becomes more difficult to manage. In addition, because the stroke length of the striker assembly increases during the course of each fastening cycle, the xe2x80x9cfeelxe2x80x9d of the tool is somewhat irregular. Therefore, there is a need for a multi-stroke fastening device having a uniform stroke length.
Prior art fastening devices that drive a fastener into a workpiece with a single blow need not be concerned with the fastener driver maintaining a coupled relation with respect to the fastener being driven. Multi-blow fastening devices, on the other hand are presented with a unique problem in that if a plurality of fastening impacts are to be imparted upon a single fastener to drive the fastener into the workpiece, the tool tends to bounce off the fastener head with each drive stroke. This may lead to an inefficient and rather clumsy operation of the tool.
Typical multiple blow fastening devices are pneumatically operated, therefore there has been little concern to conserve power. A battery operated fastening device is a lot more mobile and requires less equipment and assembly to operate than pneumatically operated devices. Therefore, there is a need for a fastening device that is battery operated and is constructed and arranged to conserve power during a fastening operation.
Power fastening devices for driving nails into a workpiece come in a variety of types. The fasteners used in such fastening devices vary according to the application. Most fasteners are made from a steel material. It is known in the art that the diameter of the fastener shank has a bearing on the strength of the connection provided. Basically, the greater the shank diameter, the greater the securing function provided.
For certain applications, such as in, pneumatically operated framing nailers, it has been known that the framing nails can be coated with a thermoplastic material that partially liquifies while the nails are being driven and then acts as an adhesive when the thermoplastic again solidifies after the nails are driven into the workpiece.
The adhesive nature of the thermoplastic is advantageous for certain applications because it increases the strength of the connection without requiring enlargement of the metal shank diameter. An ancillary benefit to providing the thermoplastic coating is that it reduces the energy required to drive the nail into the workpiece.
A disadvantage of providing a thermoplastic coating onto fastening nails is that it significantly increases the cost of manufacture in comparison with the same nails that are not so coated.
Roofing nails, which typically have a shank diameter of about 0.120xe2x80x3xc2x10.0015xe2x80x3 and a head diameter of about 0.350xe2x80x3-0.438xe2x80x3, are typically used to fastener shingles onto a roof. Heretofore, roofing nails have not been coated because the shank and head dimensions are sufficiently large to provide a relatively strong connection, particularly in light of the typically relatively soft shingle material that often tears before the nails would be pulled out. The cost of coating roofing nails has been considered to far outweigh any benefit to be gained.
Through experimentation with the unique fastening device described herein, applicants have recognized that in the particular application of a battery operated roofing fastener assembly, conservation of energy (i.e., battery life) is critical. Therefore, although roofing nails provide a more than adequate securement of shingles without the need for coating the same, and although thermoplastic coating significantly adds to the cost of manufacture, applicants have determined that the amount of increase in battery life results from providing coated roofing nails warrants the added cost for this particular application.
In order to remove jams and repair fastening devices, it is necessary to remove the nose assembly of the fastener assembly. Typically, the nose assembly is fastened to the housing and requires tools to disassemble, thus increasing downtime. Therefore, there is a need for a fastening device which facilitates quick and easy removal of the nose assembly to remove jams, thus reducing downtime.
Because the fasteners of fastening devices are typically collated by a flexible collation material, the leading fastener tends to pivot about the collation material, as the fastener is driven into the workpiece, until the collation fractures. Substantial movement can disorient the fastener in the drive track. This may cause the fastener to be deformed and/or driven into the workpiece incorrectly. Therefore, there is a need to adjust the orientation of the fastener while the fastener is being driven into the workpiece.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a multi-stroke fastening device for driving fasteners into a workpiece. This multi-stroke fastening device provides a housing, a fastener drive track carried by the housing, a striker assembly guide track mounted within the housing, a striker assembly mounted in slidable relation within said guide track, a power drive assembly, and a feed mechanism. The striker assembly includes a driver member constructed and arranged to strike a fastener disposed in the fastener drive track. The striker assembly is constructed and arranged to be moved along the guide track through a plurality of alternating drive strokes and return strokes to effect a plurality of impacts of the driver member upon the fastener in order to drive the fastener into the workpiece. The striker assembly has a substantially constant drive stroke length relative to the guide track. The power drive assembly is constructed and arranged to drive the striker assembly to effect the plurality of impacts of the driver member upon the fastener, and the feed mechanism is constructed and arranged to feed successive fasteners into the drive track to be struck by the striker assembly.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a multi-stroke fastening device which includes a striker assembly having a drive stroke length which does not progressively increase as the fastener is progressively driven into the workpiece.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a multi-stroke fastening device for driving fasteners into a workpiece, comprising a housing, a striker assembly guide track mounted within the housing, and a striker assembly mounted in slidable relation with respect to the guide track. The striker assembly includes a driver member constructed and arranged to strike a fastener to be driven into a workpiece. The striker assembly is moveable along the guide track through a plurality of alternating drive strokes and return strokes to effect a plurality of impacts of the driver member upon the fastener. Each drive stroke has substantially the same length. A power drive assembly is constructed and arranged to drive the striker assembly through the plurality of alternating drive strokes and return strokes to effect the plurality of impacts of the driver member upon the fastener. A nose assembly is carried by the housing and defines a fastener drive track along which the driver travels during the drive strokes and return strokes. Furthermore, a fastener head engaging structure is constructed and arranged to engage a portion of the head of the fastener to be driven at least during the return stroke. A resilient structure is operatively coupled to the fastener head engaging structure. The resilient structure is constructed and arranged to permit limited longitudinal movement of the fastener head engaging structure relative to the striker assembly guide track, and dampens impact of engagement between the fastener head engaging structure and the head of the fastener to be driven.
It is a further object of one embodiment of the present invention to provide a multi-stroke fastening device that employs a fastener impacting driver assembly that is coupled to the driving structure so that impacts of the driver assembly are very effectively damped to reduce vibrations and shock in the system. In accordance with this object, the present invention provides a multi-stroke fastening device for driving fasteners into a workpiece, comprising a housing. The nose assembly is carried by the housing and defines a drive track. A mechanical fastener feed mechanism includes a fastener feed pawl that moves successive fasteners into the drive track. A cylinder guide track is mounted within the housing, the cylinder guide track having a forward end and a rearward end. A driver assembly is disposed in slidably sealed relation with the cylinder guide track, the driver assembly being movable forwardly through the cylinder drive track during a fastener impacting drive stroke thereof and movable rearwardly through the cylinder guide track during a return stroke thereof. The driver assembly includes a driver member movable through the drive track during alternating drive strokes and return strokes to impart a plurality of impacts upon a fastener to be driven into the workpiece so as to drive the fastener into the workpiece. A piston is disposed in slidably sealed relation with the cylinder guide track, the piston being rearwardly spaced from the driver assembly, with an air space disposed between the piston and driver assembly. A motor is operatively connected with the piston and constructed and arranged to drive the piston forwardly and rearwardly through the cylinder guide track to effect the alternating drive strokes and return strokes. Movement of the piston forwardly through the cylinder guide track compresses air within the air space so as to force the driver assembly forwardly through the cylinder guide track to effect the fastener impacting drive stroke so that the driver member impacts the fastener to be driven.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a fastening device that employs a manually operated feed assembly so that energy may be conserved. In accordance with this object, the present invention provides a fastening device for driving a fastener into a workpiece comprising a housing and a striker assembly movably mounted within the housing. The striker assembly includes a driver assembly adapted to strike the fastener to be driven into the workpiece. A nose assembly is operatively connected to the housing. The nose assembly has a fastener drive channel along which the driver assembly and the fastener travel when the fastener is driven into the workpiece. A mechanical feed assembly is operatively connected to the nose assembly for advancing a fastener into the fastener drive channel at a predetermined time. The feed assembly advances the fastener into the fastener drive channel in response to an application of a mechanical force on the nose assembly.
The present invention is directed to a fastening device for driving a fastener into a workpiece having a housing, and a striker assembly movably mounted within the housing. The fastening device also includes a magazine constructed and arranged to carry a coil of collated fasteners. In accordance with the present invention, the nose assembly includes a feed assembly constructed and arranged to advance a lead fastener within the coil of collated fasteners in response to manually generated movement of the nose assembly into the housing during a fastener driving operation. The nose assembly also includes a spring that biases the nose assembly outwardly from the housing. The spring is compressed in response to the manually generated movement of the nose assembly into the housing.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a fastening device having an energy control assembly to control the operation of the device so that energy may be conserved. In accordance with this object, the present invention provides a fastening device for driving a fastener into a workpiece comprising a housing and a striker assembly movably mounted within the housing. The device includes an energy control assembly for controlling the operation of the fastening device. The energy control assembly controls the operation of the fastener device in order to conserve power and extend battery life.
The energy control assembly may include an actuator that terminates operation of the fastening device when actuated. The actuator is actuated in response to the nose assembly being moved a selected distance inwardly with respect to the housing. The energy control assembly further includes an adjuster assembly constructed and arranged to adjust the position of the actuator and hence adjust the selected distance which the nose assembly must move in order to actuate the actuator and thereby terminate operation of the fastening device.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a fastening device having a nose releasing assembly to facilitate the removal of the nose assembly. In accordance with this object, the present invention provides a fastening device for driving at least one fastener into a workpiece comprising a housing and a striker assembly movably mounted within the housing. A nose assembly is releasably secured to the housing and has a fastener drive track along which the driver assembly and the at least one fastener travel when the at least one fastener is driven into the workpiece. The device includes a nose releasing assembly for releasably securing the nose assembly to the housing. The releasable fastener assembly permits easy removal of the nose assembly from the fastening device in the event of a fastener jam.
The present invention is also directed to fastening device for driving a fastener into a workpiece having a housing, a striker assembly movably mounted within the housing, a nose assembly releasably secured to the housing, and a manually operable nose releasing assembly constructed and arranged to releasably secure the nose assembly to the housing. The releasing assembly including a manually engageable release member being manually movable from a latched position to a released position.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a fastening device that includes at least one guide surface for adjusting the orientation of the fastener while the fastener is being driven into the workplace. In accordance with this object, the present invention provides a fastening device for driving a fastener into a workpiece comprising a housing and a striker assembly movably mounted within the housing. A nose assembly is releasably secured to the housing and has a fastener drive channel along which the driver assembly and the fastener travel when the fastener is driven into the workpiece. The fastener drive channel terminates at an aperture in one end of the nose assembly through which the fastener passes as the fastener is driven into the workpiece. The fastener drive channel includes at least one guide surface adjacent the aperture to control the movement of the fastener within the guide channel.
The present invention is also directed to a multi-stroke fastening device for driving a fastener within a coil of collated fasteners into a workpiece. The fastening device comprising a housing, a striker assembly movably mounted within the housing, and nose assembly operatively connected to the housing. The nose assembly has a fastener drive channel along which the driver assembly and the fastener travel when the fastener is driven into the workpiece. The fastening device also includes a magazine assembly constructed and arranged to engage at least one fastener within the coil of fasteners in order to move a lead fastener within the coil of fasteners in a first direction toward the fastener drive channel. The lead fastener has a forward pointed end thereof tending to be moved in a second direction opposite the first direction in response to a rearward head end thereof being impacted by the driver assembly due to the interconnection of the collation material between the lead fastener and a subsequent fastener. In accordance with the present invention, the nose assembly includes an angled guide surface constructed and arranged to engage the tip of the lead fastener as it is being driven. The guide surface is angled so as to direct the tip of the lead fastener toward the first direction as the lead fastener is being driven.
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, the nose assembly further comprises a pivoted guide structure defining a pivoted guide surface disposed in opposing relation to the angled surface. The pivoted guide structure is biased towards a first position such that pivoted structure is disposed adjacent to the angled guide surface so that the pivoted guide surface and the angled guide surface form a fastener outlet which is dimensioned to be smaller than a head of the fastener. In operation, the head of a fastener engages the pivoted guide surface as the fastener is being driven so as to force the pivoted guide structure away from the angled guide surface against the spring bias to enable the outlet to be sufficiently sized to permit the fastener head to pass therethrough. The angled guide surface and the pivoted guide surface guidably engaging the head as the head passes thereby.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide coated nails to facilitate driving of the nails into the workpiece so that energy may be conserved. In accordance with this object, the present invention provides a coil of collated roofing nails comprising a plurality of collated roofing nails interconnected by a collation material. Each of the nails has a shank portion with a shank diameter of about 0.120xe2x80x3xc2x10.0015xe2x80x3 and a head portion with a head diameter of about 0.350xe2x80x3 to 0.438xe2x80x3. Each of the nails is coated with a thermoplastic material that serves as a lubricant which facilitates driving of the nails into a workpiece so as to reduce the energy required to drive the nails into the workpiece.
These and other objects, features, and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which are a part of this disclosure and which illustrate, by way of example, the principles of this invention.


A method, device, system, and computer program for object recognition of a 3D object of a certain object class using a statistical shape model for recovering 3D shapes from a 2D representation of the 3D object and comparing the recovered 3D shape with known 3D to 2D representations of at least one object of the object class.

There exist extremely reliable methods for personal identification using biometric data such as e.g. fingerprints, retinal patterns or similar unique features of the subject that rely on the cooperation of the subject. Face recognition may be an effective way of identifying a person without the cooperation or knowledge of the person. There are two main general problems for a face recognition system; identifying a person, i.e. determine the identity from images, and verifying the identity of a person, i.e. to certify that the person is who he/she claims to be. Specific applications are e.g. immigration, ID-cards, passports, computer logon, intranet security, video surveillance and access systems. The present invention aims at increasing the performance and efficiency of such systems using geometric information available through the use of statistical shape models.
In the area of statistical shape models, the invention is related to the Active Shape Models (ASM), introduced by Cootes and Taylor, ([1]: Cootes T. F. and Taylor C. J, Active Shape Model Search using Local Grey-level Models: A Quantitative Evaluation, British Machine Vision Conference, p. 639-648, 1993). One distinction is that ASM have been used for inferring 2D shape from 2D observations or 3D shape from 3D observations whereas the invention uses 2D observations, i.e. images, to infer 3D shape. Also the observations are from multiple views (one or more imaging devices), something that is not handled in standard ASM. Cootes and Taylor have a number of patents in the area, the most relevant are (WO02103618A1—Statistical Model) where parameterisation of 2D or 3D shapes are treated, (WO0135326A1—Object Class Identification, Verification or Object Image Synthesis) where an object class is identified in images and (WO02097720A1—Object Identification) in which objects are identified using modified versions of ASM and related techniques. Also related is Cootes et al. ([2]: Cootes T. F., Wheeler G. V, Walker K. N and Taylor C. J., View-based Active Appearance Models, Image and Vision Computing, 20(9-10), p. 657-664, 2002.) where multi-view models are used but no explicit or consistent 3D data is contained in the model. There are also methods for deforming a 3D model of the object to fit the 2D projections of the object in the images such as in Blanz and Vetter ([3]: Blanz V. and Vetter T., Face Recognition Based on Fitting a 3D Morphable Model, IEEE Trans. on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 25(9), p. 1063-1073, 2003.). These methods are very computationally expensive and often require manual intervention. Related patents are U.S. Pat. No. 6,556,196/EP1039417 (Method and apparatus for the processing of images) which describes a method for morphing a 3D model so that it will be a 3D representation of the object in the image by minimizing the projection error in the image.
One common problem for image based recognition is detecting the 2D shape of the object in the image, i.e. finding the relevant image region. Recent methods for detecting objects in images usually involve scanning the whole image at different scales for object specific image patterns and then using a classifier to decide if the region is relevant or not. The latest developments suggest the use of Support Vector Machines (SVM) for this task. A key element is the extraction of image features, i.e. parts of the image such as corners, edges and other interest points. This is usually done using correlation based schemes using templates or edge based methods using image gradients. For an overview of methods for face detection and feature extraction, cf. Zhao and Chellappa ([4]: Zhao W., Chellappa R., Rosenfeld A and Phillips P. J, Face Recognition: A Literature Survey, Technical report CAR-TR-948, 2000.) and the references therein. In [4] a review of current image based methods for face recognition is also presented.
When using image based methods for identification and verification there are two major problems, illumination variation and pose variation. Illumination variation will affect all correlation based methods where parts of images are compared since the pixel values vary with changing illumination. Also specular reflections can give rise to high changes in pixel intensity. Pose variation occurs since the projection in the image can change dramatically as the object rotates. These two problems have been documented in many face recognition systems and are unavoidable when the images are acquired in uncontrolled environments. Most of the known methods fail to handle these problems robustly.
The illumination problem is handled by the invention since no image correlation or comparison of image parts is performed. Instead features such as corners which are robust to intensity changes are computed, which make the shape reconstruction, to a large extent, insensitive to illumination and specular reflections. The invention handles the pose problem by using any number of images with different pose for training the statistical model. Any subset of the images, as few as a single image, can then be used to infer the 3D shape of the object.


A method for laser beam machining, in particular laser beam welding of bodywork components (14), with the aid of a remote laser head (3). The laser head is guided by a robot (5) including a multi-axial robot hand (7). During the welding process, the emitted laser beam (12) is guided along the welding path (19) on the component (14) by orientation modifications and with a variable irradiation angle beta. said orientation modifications only being produced by pivoting displacements (7) of the manipulator hand (7) about at least one of its hand axes IV, V, VI.

It is known from practice that for laser beam welding, a remote laser head is guided along the path to be welded by means of a multiaxial manipulator, without touching the component. The manipulator has a plurality of basic axes and a hand with a plurality of hand axes. The irradiation angle β on the component is maintained extensively constant. This is achieved by a simultaneous and superimposing motion of all manipulator axes, the bulky basic axes being involved to a great extent. The circumstance that the robot must perform short, choppy motions during the welding of short seam sections due to the high velocities that are necessary because of the cycle time is problematic here. This brings the robot to the limit of a mechanical overload. In addition, the welding velocities that are potentially possible with the laser beam process frequently cannot be fully utilized, which may lead to loss of cycle time and to corresponding problems related to time and plant engineering.
Furthermore, it is known from practice that it is possible to work with remote laser heads, which have an integrated scanner optical system with a plurality of movable mirrors for deflecting the laser beam. The scanner optical systems are, however, relatively expensive and require an additional design and control effort.

Process for the laser beam machining, especially laser beam welding, of components


A Near Field Communication (NFC) antenna matching network system is provided for connection with an NFC. The NFC antenna matching network system includes a source coil connected between a first terminal and a second terminal of the NFC transceiver; and a resonant coil physically separated from the source coil.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a wireless communication device, and more particularly, to a Near Field Communication (NFC) device.
2. Description of the Related Art
An NFC scheme is a type of Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID) technology and may use a frequency (e.g., 13.56 MHz) of a high frequency band and transmit data at a distance with low power. An example of an NFC scheme has been standardized in International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) 18092. An NFC scheme performs short distance radio communication using various frequency signals, e.g., 125, 135, and 900 kHz, in addition to the 13.56 MHz.
Accordingly, an NFC device may have such advantages of communicating or being compatible with existing information devices, including portable wireless terminals and notebook computers through exchanges of address books, game and MP3 files. Further, an NFC device using a predetermined frequency band is already in use for public transportation and mobile phone payment.
A mobile phone embedded with NFC chips is still in an early distribution stage, although NFC technology is expected to be widely adopted in mobile terminals, such as portable wireless terminals, in the near future.

Smart NFC antenna matching network system and user device including the same


Blowout preventers (BOP) include a tubular shell which is insertable within, and thus contained by, an upper portion of the well casing. The tubular shell includes a removable inner sealing/pressure-reducing (SPR) assembly which provides for a high-pressure seal against the exterior surface of the drill stem as well as reducing the pressure of rising subterranean gas. The SPR assembly includes a channel passageway for the rising subterranean gas in which a series of longitudinally separated transverse orificed baffles is disposed. In this manner, the pressure of the subterranean gas flowing upwardly through the channel passageways will be reduced as the gas encounters the orificed baffles. A longitudinally separated pair of split sealing blocks is also preferably disposed within the sealing/pressure-reducing assembly. The SPR assembly also most preferably includes sealing blocks are mounted for reciprocal transverse movements towards and away from the central bore of the BOP so as to be capable of movements into and out of sealing relationship with an exterior surface of a well stem. A rotary actuator system operatively coacts with the sealing blocks in such a manner that rotary motion of the actuator system is controllably translated into reciprocal lateral movements of the sealing blocks. As a result of such sealing, subterranean gas will be caused to flow through the channels and thereby pressure-reduced.

During the exploration for fossil fuels, the drill will sometimes encounter a pocket or reservoir of high pressure (e.g., several thousand pounds per square inch (psi)) subterranean gas (such as steam, sulfite gas, natural gas or the like) which is then free to rise through the well casing. Of course, the uncontrolled release of such high pressure gas at the well head could cause severe damage to equipment and potential injury to the drilling crew. It is therefore typical for the well head to be provided with apparatus known in art-parlance as a blowout preventer (BOP) which minimizes the risk of such uncontrolled escape of high pressure gas.
Conventional BOP'S, however, are extremely large and cumbersome valving devices which are positioned above-ground directly on the well head. Furthermore, while conventional BOP's have a central bore to allow for passage of the drill stem during normal drilling operations, the drill stem must usually be physically stopped in the well casing when a pocket of high pressure subterranean gas is encountered. Stoppage of the drill stem within conventional BOP's allows the drilling crew to pump a viscous drilling fluid (known as "drilling mud") into the well, in addition to allowing the conventional BOP to close and function in its intended manner.
Once the gas has been effectively trapped at the top of the well casing between the BOP and the viscous drilling mud, the gas will then controllably be evacuated from the well head by an above-ground valving manifold (e.g., a so-called "choke-and-kill" manifold). The valving manifold includes several actuable valves which can be opened selectively so as to bleed the trapped high pressure gas from the top of the well casing in a controlled manner. Once the pressure within the top of the well casing is reduced to within acceptable limits, the BOP may again be opened, the drill stem reinserted into the well, and the drilling operation resumed.
Of course, it is quite time consuming (and thereby costly) to stop the drilling operation to allow for removal of high pressure gas each time a high pressure gas pocket is encountered. Additional significant costs are incurred in subterranean drilling for fossil fuel due to the relatively massive size of conventional BOP's and the auxiliary handling equipment (e.g., drilling rigs, hoists, heavy-duty motors and the like) needed to position the conventional BOP on the well head, and remove it for servicing/inspection. It would therefore be desirable if a reduced-size BOP was provided which could statically reduce the pressure of rising high pressure subterranean gases without necessarily requiring stoppage of the drilling operation. It is towards providing such a BOP that the present invention is directed.
Broadly, the blowout preventer (BOP) according to this invention is embodied in a tubular shell which is insertable within, and thus contained by, an upper portion of the well casing. The tubular shell includes a removable inner sealing/pressure-reducing assembly which provides for a high-pressure seal against the exterior surface of the drill stem as well as reducing the pressure of rising subterranean gas. In this regard, the sealing/pressure-reducing assembly includes a channel passageway for the rising subterranean gas. Most preferably, the channel passageway is in the form of a segment of a right cylinder which is established collectively by a longitudinal side wall of the sealing/pressure-reducing assembly and an interior cylindrical surface of the tubular shell within which the sealing/pressure-reducing assembly is seated. A series of orificed baffles is disposed transversely within the channel passageway with the individual baffles being longitudinally spaced-apart from one another so as to define pressure-reducing chambers between adjacent baffle pairs. In this manner, the pressure of the subterranean gas will be reduced as the gas flows upwardly through the channel.
A longitudinally separated pair of split sealing blocks is also preferably disposed within the sealing/pressure-reducing assembly. The sealing blocks are mounted for reciprocal lateral movements towards and away from the central bore of the BOP according to this invention so as to be capable of movements into and out of sealing relationship with an exterior surface of the well stem. A rotary actuator system operatively coacts with the sealing blocks in such a manner that rotary motion of the actuator system is controllably translated into reciprocal lateral movements of the sealing blocks.
The BOP according to this invention is thus capable of providing a high-pressure sliding seal with the exterior surface of the drill stem while also allowing substantial pressure reduction of the rising subterranean gas to occur statically by means of the static orificed baffles disposed in the channel passageway. In this manner, the dangers associated with the uncontrolled escape of high-pressure subterranean gas is significantly reduced (if not virtually eliminated) by the BOP of this invention while avoiding necessary stoppage of the drilling operation during such gas pressure reduction.
Further aspects and advantages of this invention will become more clear after careful consideration is given to the following detailed description of the preferred exemplary embodiments thereof.


A speech recognition apparatus that requires a reduced amount of computation for likelihood calculation is provided. A language lookahead score for a node of interest is generated based on the language scores for each recognition word shared by the node of interest. To this is added the node's acoustic score, which is calculated based on the likelihood of the connected hypotheses expressed by a path from the root node to the parent node of the node of interest. From this added result, the language lookahead score resulting when the parent node is the node of interest is deleted, and the language lookahead score is updated by adding the language lookahead score of the node of interest. The updating of the language lookahead score is terminated at a specific position in the tree structure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for speech recognition.
2. Description of the Related Art
In speech recognition, there is known a method of calculating a likelihood of recognition words by sharing partial hypotheses of recognition words capable of being shared, generating a tree structured hypothesis, and searching. According to this method, likelihood calculation can be carried out rapidly by sharing hypotheses using a plurality of recognition words, thereby reducing the number of times likelihood calculations and searches are carried out.
At times, there is added to likelihood calculation the language score that represents the ease by which words can be connected to each other and the ease by which words appear. By adopting language scores, e.g., word list candidates that cannot be connected can be effectively deleted, and the accuracy and speed of recognition can be increased.
However, the said tree structured hypothesis has as a problem of the inability to apply language scores at the start of a word. This problem will be described with reference to FIGS. 7A and 7B. FIG. 7A is an example of a hypothesis that is generated per word, while FIG. 7B is an example of a tree structured hypothesis that is shared between a plurality of words. With reference to FIG. 7A, the "a" in a reference number 601, e.g., is a hypothesis that corresponds to a phoneme that makes up a word. In FIG. 7B, "a" is a node of the tree structured hypothesis. A hypothesis 601 is often made up of a plurality of condition hypotheses generated by the HMM (Hidden Malkov Model). Here, in FIG. 7A, because the words are uniquely determined depending on the former hypothesis, the corresponding language score emerging from the former hypothesis can be added to the likelihood calculation. By contrast, in FIG. 7B, since the hypothesis is shared by a plurality of words, it cannot be determined which word's language score should be applied. Consequently, a language score cannot be applied until the hypothesis uniquely determining-words can be determined. In such a case, a hypothesis whose language score is extremely low and which would be deleted under normal circumstances would result in the likelihood calculation up to the point of language score application to be wasted because the language score would not be able to be applied until the hypothesis is no longer shared.
In order to solve this problem, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,946,655 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-295587), for each hypothesis, a correction value is applied so that between the words that share the hypothesis, the largest language score is applied to the likelihood. This is shown in FIG. 8. In this diagram, for each hypothesis, a correction score is applied so that, between the words that share the hypothesis, the largest language score is taken as the language lookahead score, which is added to the likelihood. For example, in this diagram, the lead node "h" is assigned a correction score of A, the child node "a" is assigned a correction score of 0, and the child node "e" is assigned a correction score of (D-A). In this way, at the time of likelihood calculation, by adding correction scores at each hypothesis, the likelihood lookahead score shown in the diagram is added to the likelihood. Then, the total correction score sum (i.e., the language lookahead score at the hypothesis of the end of the word) is subtracted at the end of the word, and the correct language score is added. In this way, it is possible to add a language lookahead score to a hypothesis that is shared by multiple words, or to a hypothesis of the lead word, and so efficiency is increased by being able to delete hypothesis at the beginning of a word if the language lookahead score is low.
However, according to the method of U.S. Pat. No. 5,946,655, a correction score is applied at each hypothesis of the tree structure dictionary, and the language score is again added after subtracting the correction score at the end of the word. Thus, there is a problem of increased amount of computation required for updating the language score.
Therefore, in order to enable fast speech recognition, it is desirable to abbreviate, to some extent, the updating of the said language lookahead score, and to be able to add the language lookahead score to the likelihood calculation from the start of the word.


An analog-to-digital converter (ADC) (112) for sampling high speed video signals includes Pre-amplifiers (502, 504, 506) electrically coupled to Post-amplifiers (508, 510, 512) that are electrically coupled to output latches (514, 517, 519, 521, 523, 525, and 527). A sampling clock signal (116) clocks the output latches (514, 517, 519, 521, 523, 525, and 527) to sample an input analog electronic signal to provide a digital representation thereof. The ADC (112) includes an auto-zeroing function to cancel bias voltages at the Post-amplifiers (508, 510, 512) during a video signal horizontal blanking time period. The ADC (112) includes a bit dithering function by alternating sets of reference voltages into the Pre-amplifiers (502, 504, 506) increasing bit resolution. The ADC (112) includes wired interconnect interpolation between the Pre-amplifiers (502, 504, 506) and Post-amplifiers (508, 510, 512) and between the Post-amplifiers (508, 510, 512) and the output latches (514, 517, 519, 521, 523, 525, and 527).

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to analog-to-digital converter systems, and more particularly to a high speed analog-to-digital converter suitable for processing video signals to convert the video signals to a digital representation thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
A variety of electronic devices, such as computers, monitors, flat panel displays, wireless communication devices, to name just a few, utilize high speed electronic signals, e.g., clock signals, video signals, spread spectrum and digital wireless communication signals, etc. A predominant trend in electronic devices is the use of digital signals. As it is well known to those of ordinary skill in the art, there are many advantages to representing electronic signals in digital signal form in many such electronic devices.
An Analog-to-Digital converter (ADC) is typically utilized to sample an analog electronic signal at a point in time and to convert the sampled electronic signal to a digital representation thereof. The ADC, in; one common configuration, typically includes a resistive ladder network electrically coupled to a plurality of comparators that are respectively referenced to a plurality of reference voltages. The ADC compares the voltage amplitude of an input signal to the plurality of reference voltages and provides an output signal that is a digital representation of the input signal at a point in time.
Regrettably, conventional ADC implementations have been typically designed for electronic signaling that is much slower than capable of handling the higher speed video signaling. For high speed signaling applications, such as video signaling, ADCs have unique requirements that in the past have not been met by conventional ADC technology.
First of all, ADCs are coupled to input signals via capacitive networks that tend to build up bias voltages over time. These bias offset voltages defeat the accuracy of the ADC comparators. To counter such offset voltages, prior art systems have utilized auto-zeroing circuits that operate within the cycle of a clock to the ADC. This presented no real problem for slower clock systems because there was plenty of time within the cycle to perform functions in the ADC. Unfortunately, this auto-zeroing function consumes a significant portion of the clock cycle in high speed signaling systems and takes away from the operation of the ADC functions during that significant portion of the clock cycle.
Secondly, there is a constant need for higher precision in the final digital representation that is output from the ADC that is sampling an analog signal. Every additional bit line multiplies the number of comparators by a factor of 2. This in turn increases the expense and complexity of the ADC circuits. Additionally, this increases the power consumption of the ADC circuits thereby decreasing the potential speed of driving these circuits at a given power supply. For very high speed circuits it is imperative to drive the ADC at a maximum speed to track the very high speed signals in video signaling.
Dithering has been used in ADCs for slower signaling to allow sharing of some of the circuitry while providing an additional bit of output from the slower ADC. This dithering of the output bits of the ADC has typically been done to improve the linearity of the outputs of the ADC, and not to increase the resolution of the output of the ADC.
Another technique used to enhance the linearity is by utilizing interpolation between output bits by adding, for example, an interpolated output bit between two normal output bits thereby increasing the total number of output bits available from the ADC. This interpolation has traditionally required significant additional passive and/or active elements to be added to the outputs of the ADC to enhance the number of outputs and thereby the linearity of the output of the ADC.
Although dithering and interpolation have been used in slower ADC circuits to enhance the linearity of an output signal from the ADC, there is still a significant need to provide enhanced resolution at the output of a high speed ADC, such as for processing video signaling.
Thus, there is a need to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art as discussed above, and in particular to improve the quality of conversion of the analog electronic signal to a digital representation thereof.


A fuser member comprising a supporting substrate having an outer layer of a cured fluoroelastomer and having a thin surface layer of a polyorganosiloxane having been grafted to the surface of said cured fluoroelastomer in the presence of a dehydrofluorination agent for the fluoroelastomer and from a polyorganosiloxane having reactive functionality and the formula: ##STR1## where R is an alkyl, alkenyl or aryl group having less than 19 carbon atoms or an aryl group substituted with an alkyl or alkenyl group having less than 19 carbon atoms, the functional group A is hydrogen, hydroxy, alkoxy, amino, epoxy, vinyl, acrylic or mercapto, and n is 2 to 350.

The present invention relates to a fuser member, a method of fusing toner images in electrostatographic reproducing apparatus and a method for fabricating the fuser member. In particular, it relates to a fuser member which may preferably take the form of a fuser roll, pressure roll or release agent donor roll.
In a typical electrostatographic reproducing apparatus, a light image of an original to be copied is recorded in the form of an electrostatic latent image upon a photosensitive member and the latent image is subsequently rendered visible by the application of electroscopic thermoplastic resin particles which are commonly referred to as toner. The visible toner image is then in a loose powdered form and can be easily disturbed or destroyed. The toner image is usually fixed or fused upon a support which may be the photosensitive member itself or other support sheet such as plain paper.
The use of thermal energy for fixing toner images onto a support member is well known. In order to fuse electroscopic toner material onto a support surface permanently by heat, it is necessary to elevate the temperature of the toner material to a point at which the constituents of the toner material coalesce and become tacky. This heating causes the toner to flow to some extent into the fibers or pores of the support member. Thereafter, as the toner material cools, solidification of the toner material causes the toner material to be firmly bonded to the support.
Typically, the thermoplastic resin particles are fused to the substrate by heating to a temperature of between about 90.degree. C. to about 160.degree. C. or higher depending upon the softening range of the particular resin used in the toner. It is undesirable, however, to raise the temperature of the substrate substantially higher than about 200.degree. C. because of the tendency of the substrate to discolor at such at elevated temperatures particularly when the substrate is paper.
Several approaches to thermal fusing of electroscopic toner images have been described in the prior art. These methods include providing the application of heat and pressure substantially concurrently by various means: a roll pair maintained in pressure contact; a belt member in pressure contact with a roll; and the like. Heat may be applied by heating one or both of the rolls, plate members or belt members. The fusing of the toner particles takes place when the proper combination of heat, pressure and contact time are provided. The balancing of these parameters to bring about the fusing of the toner particles is well known in the art, and they can be adjusted to suit particular machines or process conditions.
During operation of a fusing system in which heat is applied to cause thermal fusing of the toner particles onto a support, both the toner image and the support are passed through a nip formed between the roll pair, or plate or belt members. The concurrent transfer of heat and the application of pressure in the nip effects the fusing of the toner image onto the support. It is important in the fusing process that no offset of the toner particles from the support to the fuser member takes place during normal operations. Toner particles offset onto the fuser member may subsequently transfer to other parts of the machine or onto the support in subsequent copying cycles, thus increasing the background or interfering with the material being copied there. The so called "hot offset" occurs when the temperature of the toner is raised to a point where the toner particles liquefy and a splitting of the molten toner takes place during the fusing operation with a portion remaining on the fuser member. The hot offset temperature or degradation of the hot offset temperature is a measure of the release property of the fuser roll, and accordingly it is desired to provide a fusing surface which has a low surface energy to provide the necessary release. To insure and maintain good release properties of the fuser roll, it has become customary to apply release agents to the fuser members to insure that the toner is completely released from the fuser roll during the fusing operation. Typically, these materials are applied as thin films of, for example, silicone oils to prevent toner offset.
Particularly preferred fusing systems take the form of a heated cylindrical fuser roll having a fusing surface which is backed by a cylindrical pressure roll forming a fusing nip there between. A release agent donor roll is also provided to deliver release agent to the fuser roll. While the physical and performance characteristics of each of these rolls, and particularly of their functional surfaces are not precisely the same depending on the various characteristics of the fusing system desired, the same classes of materials are typically used for one or more of the rolls in a fusing system in a electrostatographic printing system.
One of the earliest and most successful fusing systems involved the use of silicone elastomer fusing surfaces, such as a roll with a silicone oil release agent which could be delivered to the fuser roll by a silicone elastomer donor roll. The silicone elastomers and silicone oil release agents used in such systems are described in numerous patents and fairly collectively illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,087 to Heeks et al. While highly successful in providing a fusing surface with a very low surface energy to provide excellent release properties to ensure that the toner is completely released from the fuser roll during the fusing operation, these systems suffer from a significant deterioration in physical properties over time in a fusing environment. In particular, the silicone oil release agent tends to penetrate the surface of the silicone elastomer fuser members resulting in swelling of the body of the elastomer causing major mechanical failure including debonding of the elastomer from the substrate, softening and reduced toughness of the elastomer causing it to chunk out and crumble, contaminating the machine and providing non-uniform delivery of release agent. Furthermore, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,087, additional deterioration of physical properties of silicone elastomers results from the oxidative crosslinking, particularly of a fuser roll at elevated temperatures.
A more recent development in fusing systems involves the use of fluoroelastomers as fuser members which have a surface with a metal containing filler, which interact with polymeric release agents having functional groups, which interact with the metal containing filler in the fluoroelastomer surface. Such fusing systems, fusing members and release agents, are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,264,181 to Lentz et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,257,699 to Lentz and U.S. Pat. No. 4,272,179 to Seanor, all commonly assigned to the assignee of the present invention as well as the two above referenced previously filed copending applications. Typically, the fluoroelastomers are (1) copolymers of vinylidenefluoride and hexafluoropropylene, and (2) terpolymers of vinylidene fluoride, hexafluoropropylene and tetrifluoroethylene. Commercially available materials include: Viton E430, Viton GF and other Viton designations as Trademarks of E. I. Dupont deNemours, Inc. as well as the Fluorel materials of 3M Company. The preferred curing system for these materials is a nucleophilic system with a bisphenol crosslinking agent to generate a covalently crosslinked network polymer formed by the application of heat following basic dehydrofluorination of the copolymer. Exemplary of such fuser member is an aluminum base member with a poly(vinylidenefluoridehexafluoropropylene) copolymer cured with a bisphenol curing agent having lead oxide filler dispersed therein and utilizing a mercapto functional polyorganosifoxane oil as a release agent. In those fusing processes, the polymeric release agents have functional groups (also designated as chemically reactive functional groups) which interact with the metal containing filler dispersed in the elastomer or resinous material of the fuser member surface to form a thermally stable film which releases thermoplastic resin toner and which prevents the thermoplastic resin toner from contacting the elastomer material itself. The metal oxide, metal salt, metal alloy or other suitable metal compound filler dispersed in the elastomer or resin upon the fuser member surface interacts with the functional groups of the polymeric release agent. Preferably, the metal containing filler materials do not cause degradation of or have any adverse effect upon the polymeric release agent having functional groups. Because of this reaction between the elastomer having a metal containing filler and the polymeric release agent having functional groups, excellent release and the production of high quality copies are obtained even at high rates of speed of electrostatographic reproducing machines.
The preferred elastomers are the fluoroelastomers and the most preferred fluoroelastomers are the vinylidenefluoride based fluoroelastomers which contain hexafluoropropylene and tetrafluoroethylene as comonomers. Two of the most preferred fluoroelastomers are (1) a class of copolymers of vinylidenefluoride and hexafluoropropylene known commercially as Viton A and (2) a class of terpolymers of vinylidenefluoride, hexafluoropropylene and tetrafluoroethylene known commercially as Viton B. Viton A and Viton B and other Viton designations are trademarks of E. I. DuPont deNemours and Company. Other commercially available materials include Fluorel of 3M Company, Viton GH, Viton E60C, Viton B 910, and Viton E 430. The preferred curing system is a nucleophilic system with a bisphenol crosslinking agent to generate a covalently cross-linked network polymer formed by the application of heat following basic dehydrofluorination of the copolymer. The nucleophilic curing system also includes an organophosphonium salt accelerator. Some of the commercially available fluoroelastomer polymers which can be cured with the nucleophilic system are Viton E 60C, Viton B 910, Viton E 430, Viton A, Viton B, Viton GF.
The use of polymeric release agents having functional groups which interact with a fuser member to form a thermally stable, renewable self-cleaning layer having superior release proper tips for electroscopic thermoplastic resin toners is described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,029,827 to Imperial et al., 4,101,686 to Strella et al. and 4,185,140 also to Strella et al., all commonly assigned to the assignee of the present invention. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 4,029,827 is directed to the use of polyorganosiloxanes having mercapto functionality as release agents. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,101,686 and 4,185,140 are directed to polymeric release agents having functional groups such as carboxy, hydroxy, epoxy, amino, isocyanate, thioether, and mercapto groups as release fluids.
While the mechanism involved in these fusing systems is not completely understood, it has been observed that when certain polymeric fluids having functional groups are applied to the surface of a fusing member having an elastomer surface with a metal oxide, metal salt, metal, metal alloy or other suitable metal compounds dispersed therein, there is an interaction (a chemical reaction, coordination complex, hydrogen bonding or other mechanism) between the metal ion of the filler in the elastomer and the polymeric fluid having functional groups so that the polymeric release agent having functional groups in the form of a liquid or fluid provides an excellent surface for release which having an excellent propensity to remain upon the surface of the fuser member. Regardless of the mechanism there appears to be the formation of a film upon the elastomer surface which differs from the composition of the elastomer and the composition of the polymeric release agent having functional groups. This film, however, has a greater affinity for the elastomer containing a metal compound than the toner and thereby provides an excellent release coating upon the elastomer surface. The release coating has a cohesive force which is less than the adhesive forces between heated toner and the substrate to which it is applied and the cohesive forces of the toner. The interaction between the functional group of the polymeric release agent and the metal ion in the elastomer containing metal leads to an overall diminution of the critical or high surface energy of the metal in the metal containing filler.
While these fluoroelastomers have excellent mechanical and physical properties in that they typically have a long wearing life maintaining toughness and strength over time in a fusing environment, they can only be used with very expensive functional release agents and have to contain expensive interactive metal containing fillers. Typically, for example, the functional release agents are of the order of four times as expensive as their nonfunctional conventional silicone oil release agents.

Method of making a fuser member having a polyorganosiloxane grafted onto a fluoroelastomer and method of fusing


The original synthesis of combretastatin A-2 (1a) was modified to provide an efficient scale-up procedure for obtaining this antineoplastic stilbene. Subsequent conversion to a useful prodrug was accomplished by phosphorylation employing in situ formation of dibenzylchlorophosphite followed by cleavage of the benzyl ester protective groups with bromotrimethylsilane to afford phosphoric acid intermediate 11. The latter was immediately treated with sodium methoxide to complete a practical route to the disodium phosphate prodrug (2a). The phosphoric acid precursor (11) of phosphate 2a was employed in a parallel series of reactions to produce a selection of metal and ammonium cation prodrug candidates. Each of the phosphate salts (2a–q) was evaluated with respect to relative solubility behavior, cancer cell growth inhibition, and antimicrobial activity.

Without neovascularization and angiogenesis, a tumor will remain dormant and be unable to grow in size beyond a few millimeters. An exceptionally promising approach to improving human cancer treatment involves the discovery and application of new cancer antiangiogenesis drugs. Such approaches to cancer treatment may cause avascular tumors to remain dormant or eventually to undergo necrosis and shrinkage. Further, appropriate combination of antiangiogenesis with cytotoxic drugs should lead to complete elimination of the neoplastic disease.
Applicant has obtained numerous United States patents relating to the compounds of the combretastatin family. These patents are incorporated herein by reference, and are believed to be as listed, most recent first, as follows: 1. U.S. Pat. No. 6,162,930 Anti-mitotic agents which inhibit tubulin polymerization. 2. U.S. Pat. No. 5,569,786 Isolation, structural elucidation and synthesis of novel antineoplastic substances denominated "combretastatin". 3. U.S. Pat. No. 5,561,122 Combretastatin A-4 prodrug. 4. U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,989 Pancratistatin prodrug. 5. U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,953 Isolation, structural elucidation and synthesis of novel antineoplastic substances denominated "combretastatin". 6. U.S. Pat. No. 4,996,237 Combretastatin A-4. 7. U.S. Pat. No. 4,940,726 Cell growth inhibitory macrocyclic lactones denominated Combretastatin D-1 and Combretastatin D-2.
Eighteen years ago applicant reported (Pettit et al., 1982) isolation from the South African tree Combretum caffrum (Eckl. Zeyk.) Kuntze the first member of a series of cancer cell growth inhibitory constituents designated the combretastatins. Subsequently, applicant lead the discovery (Pettit and Singh, 1987) of combretastatin A-2 (1a) and more recently applicant has focused on improving the original synthesis of this potent inhibitor of microtubule assembly and mitosis (Lin et al., 1988 and 1989) as well as converting it to a useful phosphate prodrug (2). Those objectives form the basis of this contribution and are considered very important owing to the powerful vascular targeting (Grosior et al., 1999; Tozer et al., 1999) and anticancer properties of the closely related combretastatin A-4 (1b, Pettit et al, 1989) and its sodium phosphate prodrug (Pettit and Rhodes, 1998). The latter has led to promising results in current Phase I human cancer clinical trials (Remick et al., 1999; Rustin et al., 1999).

Synthesis of combretastatin A-2 prodrugs

Arizona Board of Regents, acting for and on behalf of Arizona State University


A logic circuit includes a logic gate unit, an inverter, and a switching circuit. The logic gate unit receives a power supply voltage and an input signal to output a first signal. The inverter receives the first signal to output a second signal. The switching circuit provides one of first and second power supply voltages as the power supply voltage of the logic gate unit in response to the first and second signals. The first power supply voltage and the second power supply voltage have different voltage levels, thus enabling stable level shifting.

The present inventive concept described herein relates to semiconductor design technology, and more particularly, to logic circuits capable of level shifting.
The voltage levels of power supply voltages applied from external devices are decreasing with the trend toward a decrease in the power consumption of semiconductor memory devices. A circuit for shifting an external low-level power supply voltage to a high-level power supply voltage is required to secure the operational stability and driving force of an internal device. Such a circuit is called a level shifter.
Recently, a continuing effort is being made to provide high integration and miniaturization in the semiconductor technology. However, using a level shifter to connect two logic units operating at different voltage levels may increase the occupied circuit area. It is desirable to provide a level shifting capability while minimizing an increase in the circuit occupation area.


A method to reduce chassis vibration in an engine with valves that may be deactivated. Valves are controlled to avoid exciting modal frequencies of mechanical components and systems.

One method to control intake and exhaust valve operation during engine operation is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,138,636. This method provides hydraulically operated valve switching means on an intake side and on an exhaust side, respectively, for switching intake valves and exhaust valves of the partial cylinders between a driving state and a drive-free state, wherein the intake valves and the exhaust valves of the partial cylinders are switched, during the partial-cylinder operation.
The inventors herein have determined that the above-mentioned approach can have several disadvantages. For example, the prior art approach selects an active number of cylinders based on current engine operating conditions. As a consequence, disturbances that may result from operational discontinuities, e.g., transmission shifting or modal frequency excitation of the vehicle body or chassis, may be experienced and thereby degrade vehicle drive feel.

Valve control to reduce modal frequencies that may cause vibration


The invention refers to an apparatus and a method for reducing random noise in a sequence of digital video frames comprising the following steps:    1. for each of the pixels (center pixel) in a frame a set of adjacent pixels is defined;    2. for each of the adjacent pixels the difference of their values in the current frame and the previous frame is calculated, whereby the value of the center pixel is omitted;    3. each difference value is shifted right for a predefined number of bits;    4. the square of the difference value is added to an activity value of that center pixel;    5. if the activity value remains below a predefined threshold value, then a weighting factor depending from activity value is calculated and    6. the value of the center pixel is set to a weighted value.

The invention relates to reducing noise in a sequence of video frames and more particularly relates to such techniques by using impulse reducing techniques.
One application of the invention is to remove noise from a sequence of video frames which have been digitized from the analog domain. The benefit of removing noise is that the efficiency of a digital compression system is increased, thus resulting in better perceptual quality. Digital compression systems generally make use of redundant information in a sequence of video frames in order to reduce the amount of data necessary to restore the frames of the video sequence. The removal of this redundant information and subsequent encoding of the sequence of frames produces a compressed bit stream representing the original video sequence. The quality of the restoration of the decompressed bit stream into the original sequence of video frames depends on the efficiency with which the compression system encodes the information, and on the ratio between the amount of original video data and the compressed bit stream data. So, if a sequence of video frames is given, the higher the compression ratio is the smaller is the produced bit stream. As the compression ratio increases a point is reached in which non-redundant information is lost or degraded in the compression process, so that perceivable and therefore objectionable artifacts are produced.
In digital images fine details are represented as high frequency two-dimensional information, whereas coarse details are represented by low frequency two-dimensional information that may even include DC frequency, i.e. zero frequency.
Image or video compression systems require more bits to encode fine image details than coarse details, so fine details produce larger bit streams.
Some fine image details are caused by non-redundant information, but there are also fine details caused by random noise in the original input sequence of frames, which can be introduced in the analog domain as well as in the digital domain. For example in the analog domain noise can be caused by recording and playback of the sequence from a video tape, by errors introduced in transmission or by interference created by external signal sources. In the digital domain, random noise can be created in the analog-to-digital conversion process or by thermal noise in electronic components, electronic interference and the like.
The invention described in this specification relates to two types of noise, namely temporal noise and salt-and-pepper noise. Both types can be described as random. Temporal noise occurs, if a pixel value in a current frame differs substantially from its value in the previous frame, while the values of the adjacent pixels didn't change that much between the two frames. The second type of noise is also known as impulsive noise or speckle noise. It occurs if the value of one pixel in a current frame differs substantially from the values of the adjacent pixels in the same frame. In contrast to temporal noise this second type of noise is defined with respect to a single frame only, that is the definition has no time component.
The compression system cannot decide if high-frequency information is noise and therefore irrelevant for the image content or if it is important for the frame. Thus the compression system processes all high-frequency content. In case that this is caused by noise then it causes degradation of the frame quality because bits are wasted for encoding the noise, which could have been used to contain actual information. So in order to increase the efficiency of the compression system it is desirable to reduce the amount of random noise in the original sequence of frames before compression, so that all bits of the compressed bit stream represent actual information. Furthermore, the noise itself is a visible artifact so it is preferred to remove it.
A simple way used in the prior art to reduce high-frequency content of video sequences is the use of a low-pass filter on an input video sequence. The low-pass filter reduces and even eliminates high frequencies depending on the cut-off property of the filter, which simply cuts off all frequencies that exceed a threshold frequency. However, this filter also cuts off actual high-frequency information and hence produces a 'soft' image.
Another well known way to reduce the high-frequency noise is to use a two-dimensional spatial filter, e.g. a median filter, which preserves some high-frequency image details like borders or edges of objects. However the detection of borders or edges can be affected by noise.
Furthermore there are filters known that take the motion of objects into account. These filters either use motion estimation information or motion detection, both information can be derived from the luminance or chrominance information in the frames of a video sequence.

Video preprocessing temporal and spatial filter


The present disclosure enables dynamic switching to a frame format different from the UL-DL configuration set by an SIB, and in particular switching to a downlink communication subframe from an uplink communication subframe, while also enabling effective utilization of downlink communication subframes. A base station uses “UL/DL communication subframe switching information” included in a DCI sent by a downlink communication subframe to instruct a terminal whether or not to perform uplink communication to a DCI using one or more uplink-specific communication subframes, and also gives instructions whether to perform uplink communication or downlink communication on an uplink communication subframe switchable to a downlink communication subframe.

In 3rd Generation Partnership Project Radio Access Network Long Term Evolution (3GPP-LTE (hereinafter referred to as LTE)), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) is adopted as a downlink communication scheme, and Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) is adopted as an uplink communication scheme (e.g., see NPL-1, NPL-2, and NPL-3).
In LTE, a radio communication base station apparatus (hereinafter abbreviated as "base station") performs communication by allocating a resource block (RB) in a system band to a radio communication terminal apparatus (hereinafter abbreviated as "terminal") for every time unit called "subframe." The base station also transmits assignment control information (i.e., L1/L2 control information) for indicating the result of resource allocation for downlink data and uplink data to the terminal. The assignment control information is transmitted to the terminal through a downlink control channel such as a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH).
Here, a resource region to which a PDCCH is to be mapped is specified, and as shown in FIG. 1, a PDCCH covers the entire system bandwidth in the frequency-axis direction and the region occupied by the PDCCH in the time-axis direction varies between the top OFDM symbol and third OFDM symbol in a single subframe. The signal indicating the range of OFDM symbols occupied by a PDCCH in the time direction is indicated by the base station to the terminal through a Physical Control Format Indicator Channel (PCFICH).
Each PDCCH also occupies a resource consisting of one or more consecutive control channel elements (CCEs). In a PDCCH, one CCE consists of 36 resource elements (RE). In LTE, the number of CCEs occupied by a PDCCH (CCE aggregation level, or simply aggregation level) is selected from 1, 2, 4, and 8 depending on the number of information bits of assignment control information or the channel condition of a terminal. In LTE, a frequency band having a system bandwidth of up to 20 MHz is supported.
Assignment control information transmitted from a base station is referred to as downlink control information (DCI). When assigning a plurality of terminals to one subframe, the base station transmits a plurality of DCIs, simultaneously. In this case, in order to identify the terminal of the transmission destination of each DCI, the base station transmits the DCI with CRC bits masked (or scrambled) with the terminal ID of the transmission destination and included in the DCI. Then, the terminal performs de-masking (or descrambling) of the CRC bits of a plurality of DCIs possibly directed to the terminal, with its own ID, thereby blind-decoding a PDCCH to detect the DCI directed to the terminal.
The DCI also includes information (resource allocation information (for example, the number of allocated resource blocks)) regarding a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) resource and a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) resource allocated to a terminal by the base station. In addition, DCI includes a Modulation and channel Coding Scheme (MCS) (for example, information indicating an M-ary modulation number and/or a transport block size with respect to the number of allocated resource blocks) allocated to the terminal by the base station, for example. Furthermore, the DCI has a plurality of formats for uplink, downlink Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) transmission, and downlink non-consecutive band allocation. The terminal needs to receive both downlink assignment control information (i.e., assignment control information about downlink: DL assignment) and uplink assignment control information (i.e., assignment control information about uplink: UL grant) which have a plurality of formats.
For downlink assignment control information, formats of a plurality of sizes are defined in accordance with a transmission antenna control method or a resource assignment method for a base station, for example. Among the plurality of formats, a downlink assignment control information format for consecutive band allocation (hereinafter simply referred to as "downlink assignment control information") and an uplink assignment control information format for consecutive band allocation (hereinafter simply referred to as "uplink assignment control information") have the same size. These formats (i.e., DCI formats) include type information (for example, a one-bit flag) indicating the type of assignment control information (downlink assignment control information or uplink assignment control information). Thus, even if the DCI indicating downlink assignment control information and DCI indicating uplink assignment control information have the same size, the terminal can determine whether the specific DCI indicates downlink assignment control information or uplink assignment control information by checking the type information included in assignment control information.
The DCI format in which uplink assignment control information for consecutive band allocation is transmitted is referred to as "DCI format 0" (hereinafter referred to as "DCI 0"), and the DCI format in which downlink assignment control information for consecutive band allocation is transmitted is referred to as "DCI format 1A" (hereinafter referred to as "DCI 1A"). DCI 0 and DCI 1A are of the same size and distinguishable from each other by referring to the type information as described above. For this reason, DCI 0 and DCI 1A will be collectively referred to as DCI 0/1A, hereinafter.
In addition to these DCI formats, there are other formats for downlink, such as DCI format 1 used for non-consecutive band allocation (hereinafter referred to as DCI 1) and DCI formats 2 and 2A used for assigning spatial multiplexing MIMO transmission (hereinafter referred to as DCIs 2 and 2A, respectively).
DCI 1, DCI 2, and DCI 2A are formats that are used dependently on the downlink transmission mode of a terminal (non-consecutive band allocation or spatial multiplexing MIMO transmission) and are configured for each terminal. In contrast, DCI 0/1A is a format that is used independently of the transmission mode and is usable for a terminal in any transmission mode, i.e., a format commonly used for every terminal. When DCI 0/1A is used, single-antenna transmission or a transmit diversity scheme is used as the default transmission mode.
Also, the standardization of 3GPP LTE-Advanced (hereinafter referred to as LTE-A), which provides a data transfer rate higher than that of LTE, has been started while keeping backward compatibility with LTE. In LTE-A, in order to achieve a downlink transfer rate of up to 1 Gbps or above and an uplink transfer rate of up to 500 Mbps or above, it is expected that base stations capable of performing communication using a wideband frequency of 40 MHz or higher and terminals designed for an optional LTE-A system (hereinafter referred to as LTE-A terminals) will be introduced. In addition, the LTE-A system is required to provide coverage supporting not only LTE-A terminals but also terminals designed for an LTE system (hereinafter referred to as LTE terminals).
In order to simultaneously achieve communication at an ultra-high speed transmission rate several times faster than a transmission rate in the LTE system and backward compatibility with the LTE system, the band for the LTE-A system is divided into "component bands" of 20 MHz or less, which is a bandwidth supported by the LTE system. That is, the "component band" is a band having a bandwidth of a maximum of 20 MHz and is defined as a base unit for the communication band.
In a Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) system, a "component band" in downlink (hereinafter, referred to as "downlink component band") may further be defined as a band resulting from division by downlink frequency band information in a BCH broadcast from a base station or a band defined by a distributed bandwidth when a downlink control channel (PDCCH) is distributed over the frequency domain. A "component band" in uplink (hereinafter, referred to as "uplink component band") may be defined as a base unit of a communication band of 20 MHz or less including a band resulting from division by uplink frequency band information in a BCH broadcast from a base station or a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) region near the center and including an LTE compatible PUCCH at both ends. Note that in 3GPP LTE-Advanced, a "component band" may be expressed as component carrier(s) or cell in English. In addition, the component carrier(s) may be abbreviated as CC(s).
The LTE-A system supports communication using a band which bundles several component carriers, so-called carrier aggregation. The throughput requirement for uplink communication is generally different from the throughput requirement for downlink communication, and therefore, studies are carried out on carrier aggregation in which the number of uplink component carriers and the number of downlink component carriers configured for LTE-A terminals are different, so-called asymmetric carrier aggregation in the LTE-A system. Furthermore, the LTE-A system supports a case where the number of uplink component carriers is asymmetric to the number of downlink component carriers and the respective component carriers have different frequency bandwidths.
In a Time Division Duplex (TDD) system, the downlink component carrier and uplink component carrier have the same frequency band, and downlink and uplink are switched on a time-division basis to achieve downlink communication and uplink communication. Therefore, in the case of TDD system, the downlink component carrier can be expressed as "downlink communication timing in the component carrier." Meanwhile, the uplink component carrier can be expressed as "uplink communication timing in the component carrier."
The downlink component carrier and uplink component carrier are switched based on a frame format called "UL-DL configuration" as shown in FIG. 2. The UL-DL configuration is indicated to a terminal via a broadcast signal called System Information Block (SIB) when the terminal starts communication with the base station. In the UL-DL configuration shown in FIG. 2, timings in subframe units (that is, 1 msec unit) of downlink communication (DL: Downlink) and uplink communication (UL: Uplink) per frame (10 msec) are configured. The UL-DL configuration makes it possible to construct a communication system capable of flexibly meeting throughput requirements for downlink communication and throughput requirements for uplink communication by changing a ratio between downlink communication subframes and uplink communication subframes. For example, FIG. 2 illustrates UL-DL configurations (Config 0 to 6) having different ratios between downlink communication subframes and uplink communication subframes. In FIG. 2, a downlink communication subframe (or DL subframe) is represented by "D," an uplink communication subframe (or UL subframe) is represented by "U" and a special subframe is represented by "S." The special subframe is a subframe at the time of switching from a downlink communication subframe to an uplink communication subframe. In the special subframe, downlink data communication may be performed as in the case of downlink communication subframes. In each UL-DL configuration shown in FIG. 2, subframes corresponding to 2 frames (20 subframes) are expressed in two stages: subframes "D" and "S" in the upper row shown in a hatch pattern used for downlink communication and subframes "U" in the lower row shown in a hatch pattern used for uplink communication.
In FIG. 2, a solid line connecting a downlink communication subframe or special subframe with an uplink communication subframe connects a downlink communication subframe or special subframe for indicating downlink data to a terminal with an uplink communication subframe for reporting an error detection result (e.g., ACK/NACK) for the above-described downlink data to the base station. For example, in Config 0 of FIG. 2, when downlink data is indicated to the terminal in a downlink communication subframe of #0, the error detection result corresponding to the downlink data is reported to the base station in an uplink communication subframe of #4. The error detection result corresponding to the downlink data is reported in an uplink communication subframe located at or after the fourth subframe position from the downlink communication subframe to which the downlink data is assigned.
Furthermore, in FIG. 2, a broken line connecting a downlink communication subframe or special subframe with an uplink communication subframe indicates which downlink communication subframe or special subframe to use to indicate uplink assignment control information (UL grant) corresponding to uplink data indicated by the terminal in the uplink communication subframe. For one uplink communication subframe, there is always one downlink communication subframe, and uplink assignment control information indicating the assignment of uplink data is indicated in a downlink communication subframe that is located at or before the fourth subframe position from an uplink communication subframe to which the uplink data is assigned and that results in a closest subframe difference.
Note that in Config 0, uplink assignment control information indicating the assignment of the uplink data corresponding to uplink data is associated so as to be indicated in downlink communication subframes, 6, 4, 6 and 4 subframes before uplink data transmission in subframes #2, #4, #7 and #9, respectively. Alternatively, it is also possible to switch the association so that indication is performed in downlink communication subframes at seventh subframes before uplink data transmission in subframes #2, #3, #7 and #8 respectively based on a 2-bit uplink communication index (UL index) included in uplink assignment control information indicating the assignment of uplink data. Moreover, not only switching between the two but also association may be performed so that indication is performed in downlink communication subframes 6, 4, 6 and 4 subframes before uplink data transmission in subframes #2, #4, #7 and #9 respectively, and at the same time indication may be performed in downlink communication subframes seventh subframes before uplink data transmission in subframes #2, #3, #7 and #8, respectively.
As shown in FIG. 2, in the UL-DL configuration, it is possible to select a ratio between uplink communication subframes and downlink communication subframes (including special subframes) from a range of 3:2 to 1:9. However, since the UL-DL configuration is a configuration common to all the terminals within a cell, switching is generally not performed in actual operations in consideration of interference to other systems or fluctuations from other systems. As the ratio between uplink communication subframes and downlink communication subframes in actual operations, 3:2 (Config 0), 2:3 (Config 1), 1:1 (Config 6) or the like are used so that both uplink communication and downlink communication can be equally performed. It is not a common practice to configure a UL-DL configuration specified for downlink communication such as Config 2 and Config 5 with ratios of 1:4, 1:9 or the like.
In an LTE-A system, as shown in FIG. 3A, a heterogeneous network is configured which includes a large cell (macro cell) covered by a macro base station and a small cell (picocell or femtocell) covered by a pico base station or femto base station. While many terminals are connected to a macro base station, a small number of terminals are connected to a pico base station or femto base station. In a macro base station, since the ratio between uplink communication traffic and downlink communication traffic is smoothed out among many terminals, there is less fluctuation in the ratio between uplink communication traffic and downlink communication traffic in a short time. That is, since many terminals are connected to the macro base station, some terminals may perform uplink communication while other terminals may perform downlink communication for a certain period, and the ratio between uplink communication traffic and downlink communication traffic is less likely to be significantly concentrated on either uplink communication or downlink communication. On the other hand, since a pico base station or femto base station connects only a small number of terminals, the ratio between uplink communication traffic and downlink communication traffic is more likely to be significantly concentrated on either uplink communication or downlink communication.
Thus, in the LTE-A system, studies are being carried out on temporally switching UL-DL configurations in accordance with a fluctuation in the ratio between uplink communication traffic and downlink communication traffic as shown in FIG. 3B.
There are various switching methods such as (1) a method that changes UL-DL configuration settings using SIB, (2) a method that indicates a UL-DL configuration which is different from the SIB-based setting, through RRC signaling and (3) a method that dynamically switches between uplink communication subframes and downlink communication subframes in subframe units. Generally, (1) requires the longest time for switching. In contrast, (3) is switching in subframe units and allows switching with the least amount of delay. It is effective to dynamically perform switching in subframe units as in (3) in order to more quickly respond to a fluctuation in the ratio between uplink communication traffic and downlink communication traffic.
FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B show an example of dynamically switching between UL-DL configurations in accordance with a fluctuation in the ratio between uplink communication traffic and downlink communication traffic with reference to NPL 4. In the drawings, an example is shown in which an uplink communication subframe of subframe #8 is switched to a downlink communication subframe in a cell for which Config 1 is configured. When there is a DCI intended for the terminal in a downlink communication subframe (subframe #4) corresponding to uplink communication in the uplink communication subframe of subframe #8 (FIG. 4A), the terminal performs uplink communication in the uplink communication subframe of subframe #8.
On the other hand, when there is no DCI intended for the terminal in a downlink communication subframe (subframe #4) corresponding to uplink communication in the uplink communication subframe of subframe #8 (FIG. 4B), the terminal does not perform uplink communication in the uplink communication subframe of corresponding subframe #8. When none of the terminals performs uplink communication, even if the base station performs downlink communication with a certain terminal, the terminal can perform downlink communication without receiving interference caused by uplink communication from other terminals. Therefore, in an uplink communication subframe for which no uplink communication is scheduled, the terminal performs blind decoding on a PDCCH with an assumption that the subframe is a downlink communication subframe. Accordingly, the base station can use the uplink communication subframe as a downlink communication subframe without giving explicit information to the terminal.

Terminal device, base station device, transmission method and reception method

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CORPORATION OF AMERICA


A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device is provided. The method includes embedding and forming a coupling terminal as an external electrode of an electronic circuit on an active surface side of a substrate having an active surface formed with a plurality of electronic circuits, exposing a part of the coupling terminal by polishing a back surface side of the substrate, mounting a semiconductor chip on the back surface side of the substrate via the coupling terminal, sealing the semiconductor chip mounted on the substrate by a sealing material, and cutting the substrate for every forming area of each electronic circuit and dividing it into a plurality of semiconductor devices.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a manufacturing method of a semiconductor device, a semiconductor device, a circuit substrate and electronic equipment.
2. Related Art
Currently, since electronic equipment having portability such as a portable phone, a notebook size personal computer, and a PDA (Personal data assistance), and equipment such as a sensor, a micro-machine, and a printer head are small sized and light weight, miniaturization of various electronic parts of a semiconductor chip or the like installed inside have been made. Moreover, these electronic parts are extremely limited in the mounting space.
Therefore, research and development for manufacturing a micro semiconductor chip using a technology called a chip scale package (CSP) or a wafer level chip scale package (W-CSP) has been actively carried out (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-50738). In the wafer aspect of the W-CSP technology, since the wafer is divided into individual semiconductor chips after a rearrangement wiring (re-wiring) and a sealing with a resin, a semiconductor device having an area approximately equal to the chip area can be manufactured.
For further high integration, by depositing the semiconductor chips having the same function or semiconductor chips having a different function and electrically coupling each semiconductor chip, a three-dimensional mounting technology for making high density mounting of the semiconductor chip is devised.
Attempts to realize a greater density have recently been carried out through three-dimensional mounting on an active surface of a W-CSP substrate. More specifically, after a coupling terminal as an external electrode is embedded and formed on the active surface side of a wafer formed with an electronic circuit, a semiconductor chip is deposited via this coupling terminal, and at last, the back surface of the wafer is polished to expose a part of the coupling terminal. Then, the wafer is cut in a state in which the chip mounted on the wafer is cut into an individual semiconductor device.
According to this method, in order to mount the semiconductor device on a circuit substrate having a different terminal arrangement, it is necessary to form the rearrangement wiring or the like on the back surface side of the wafer. However, it is technically difficult to form a wiring or the like on a polished surface, or the step becomes complicated by forming a new wiring layer.
The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and is intended to provide a manufacturing method of a semiconductor device that more easily realizes a high density mounting, a semiconductor device thereof, and a circuit substrate and electronic equipment having the semiconductor device.

Manufacturing method of semiconductor device, semiconductor device, circuit substrate and electronic equipment