An apparatus for a feed-back control of an injection molding machine, comprising a control target which operational conditions are different in accordance with operational purposes; and a control unit for subjecting said control target to a feed-back control, is characterized in that said control unit comprises a judgement function section for judging operational purposes of the control target, a condition setting section for setting operational conditions in accordance with the operational purposes and a switching section for switching the condition setting section through the judgement function section.

The present invention relates to a feed-back controller for controlling injection molding machines, and more particularly to a feed back controller for controlling a control target which operational conditions are different in accordance with operational purposes.
Generally, an injection unit 10, as illustrated in FIG. 1, comprises an injection cylinder 16 driven by a discharge hydraulic pressure supplied through a switching valve 14 from a hydraulic pump 12 and an injection screw 18 moved within a barrel 18a in forward and backward directions by the injection cylinder 16. Under the control of the feed-back controller, the injection unit 10 is moved in the forward and backward directions by a driving apparatus which is not illustrated so that when an injection nozzle 20 as a top portion thereof touches with a mold 22 closed so as to inject a molten resin into the mold 22 for forming a molded article.
The above injection unit 10 including the switching valve 14 is controlled by a control unit 24. In this case, for the control target, for example, the injection screw 18, the operational state or position thereof are changed in accordance with operational purposes or the molding operation and the purge operation. In the purge operation, the injection unit 10 is positioned as retreated.
The operational state is automatically changed in accordance with the operational purposes for remarkable improvements in operational facilitation and safety of the injection molding machine.
The above control unit may, however, has the following problems to be solved.
In the conventional control unit, the injection screw 18 as the control target is controlled only in the operational states or the advanced and retreated positions so as to adjust the molding operation and the purge operation, but never controlled in motions such as the injection speed. Namely, under the conventional control of the injection unit 10, the injection speed remains unchanged between in the molding operation and the purge operation, although in the molding operation, the injection speed should be set higher than that in the purge operation. If, in the molding operation, the injection speed is lower than the required speed, this results in a low responsibility of the injection unit thereby to deteriorate the quality of the molded article. If, in the purge operation, the injection speed is higher than the required speed, this results in generation of a hunching phenomenon thereby raising the problem in safety.
In the above circumstances, it had been required to develop an apparatus for controlling positions, injection speed and injection pressure of the injection screw in the injection molding machine so as to adjust different operational conditions such as the molding operation and the purge operation.

Apparatus for controlling injection molding machines


An integrated safe excavation apparatus utilizing supersonic air jets coupled with high flow, pneumatic vacuum transport and a unique separation system to excavate earth and other like material for the purpose of repairing, replacing or installing buried utility lines, remediating contaminated soils, uncovering buried objects containing discarded hazardous waste, safely exposing unexploded ordnance and other like operations.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a vacuum excavation system for safely dislodging and removing soil from around buried objects without damage using a combination of supersonic jets of air and pneumatic vacuum transport.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There is a significant need for an improved system that is capable of performing excavation in a safe and efficient manner for civilian, industrial, and military applications. Existing buried gas, electric, water, telephone and sewer utility lines are in constant need of repair and replacement. Though buried utility line detection technologies continually improve, lack of accurate location records and other practical problems lead each year to millions of dollars of expense and even explosions and loss of life due to excavation accidents involving underground lines. New service lines, such as cable television, must be added into areas with other existing utilities. New technologies such as ground-based, heat pump storage systems require large lengths of lines to be installed adjacent to existing homes and businesses. In the area of environmental remediation, drums, boxes and other containers of environmental waste buried in the past now need to be either removed or re-encapsulated due to leakage or more stringent standards. Finally, in the military sector there are millions of acres in the United States that contain buried unexploded ordnance that must now be removed to reclaim those acres for civilian purposes.
Several variations of vacuum excavation systems or vacuum assisted mechanical excavation systems are known in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 5,016,717 discloses an excavation system having a truck mounted suction tank connected to a vacuum blower. A hand-held wand with a liquid jet is provided to dislodge the soil and a hand-held flexible hose connected to the tank is provided to suck up the material.
German Patent No. DE 4138619-A describes a vehicle on wheels with a boom mounted cyclone type separator with a soil suction tube for excavating unmapped underground service lines. The soil suction tube hangs vertically from a flexible elbow and a rigid tube, which is in turn hydraulically raised and lowered. The suction tube has a curved inlet. A "Luftlanze" (air lance) alongside of the soil suction tube loosens the soil. The separator is round with a tangential material entrance and a bottom dump door.
Japanese Reference No. JP 58-222223 shows a rubber tired vehicle with a corrugated vacuum hose to suck up material from an excavation. The hose has several bends in it and includes a rigid end with a slight venturi on the open end. The hose disgorges its material into a primary box where the air travels through a permeable membrane and the material falls down to the bottom of the box under gravity and the reduced air velocity. The air travels into a second box where there are bag type filters. Slide gates are used to empty material from the boxes. Clean or filtered air that passes through the bags is drawn in by a rotary lobe type of blower which discharges into the atmosphere via a silencer. The blower is driven by an internal combustion engine.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,120,165 discloses a general pneumatic excavation system using a special multi-stage cyclone separator. This patent also discloses the use of a soil fragmenting device that includes mechanical, explosive and/or hydraulics.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,930,324 discloses a mobile, mechanical digging machine comprising a rotary cutting tool around a central suction tube. This digging machine is intended for small hole, utility type excavations for maintenance and repair. The rotary cutting tool is mounted to be moved in both horizontal and vertical directions and is deliberately powered sufficiently to be able to cut through macadam or asphalt. (Protection against cutting utility pipes is provided by an electromagnetic metal detector; hence, plastic pipe, i.e., modern gas pipe, is undetected.)
U.S. Pat. No. 3,968,845 discloses a truck mounted apparatus and method for complete reverse air geological drilling and coring. A conventional mechanical drill string is used to drill a vertical hole in the earth. Core material collection is accomplished by atmospheric air pulled first down through an annulus defined between the drill string and a bore hole wall and then passed up through the inside of the drill string at high velocity by an onboard vacuum pump. Conventional cyclones, hoppers and bags are used to separate the material from the airstream.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 4,434,861 discloses a method and apparatus for pneumatically conveying and collecting drill cuttings from a mechanical drill hole. This patent discloses an arrangement that surrounds the drill string and an arrangement for removing the material from the air via a combination of inertia, gravity, or filters.
Several patents disclose specific heads that use a combination of air and vacuum for general material dislodging purposes. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,936,031 describes a soft excavator using a rotary digging head with multiple supersonic air jets and a central vacuum. Compressed air is supplied to the rotating head via an annular chamber. The jets trace out an epitrochoidal pattern around the vacuum inlet. The head is mounted on a rigid vertical boom that is driven up and down via a rack and pinion gear arrangement. U.S. Pat. No. 4,995,175 discloses a pneumatic excavation head for underwater debris. Compressed air is introduced down an annulus and out through multiple openings into the sand and gravel bottom to loosen and lift it into a central pipe. U.S. Pat. No. 3,916,634 describes a method to form vertical holes in the earth using air of at least seventy-five psig released uniformly from an annulus to loosen and lift material into a central pipe. U.S. Pat. No. 3,395,467 discloses a head for harvesting peat moss that uses a first airstream to loosen a top strata of dryer, milled material from a bottom strata of damper material and a second airstream to entrain and transport the loosened dryer material. U.S. Pat. No. 3,678,534 describes a vacuum cleaner head with a suction tube and multiple small diameter orifices fed by gas at a pressure on the order of forty psig, such that gas jets exit these orifices at supersonic speed and impinge on a surface to be cleaned.
Commercially available vacuum excavation units today have common features and common problems with soil dislodging and transport. Aside from the mechanical diggers mentioned above, which are certainly not non-damaging to buried objects, the units use a fluid under pressure released from a hand-held lance to dislodge the soil. Some units use water released under moderate pressure. Water has a number of disadvantages including: making mud which is difficult and disagreeable to handle; adding weight and volume to the waste stream which needs to be disposed of; freezing in the excavation in the winter; and needing to be carried onboard the unit taking up significant space and adding weight that must be transported. Most units use air as the working fluid released simply through the open end of a pipe nipple with air flows from seventy-five to one hundred and eighty-five standard cubic feet per minute (scfm) at generally one hundred pounds per square inch gauge (psig). Although an air lance, including a valve and a pipe is rugged and cheap to make, it results in an inefficient compressed air digging tool. Compressed air exiting from the open end of a pipe nipple in an air lance expands suddenly to atmosphere in a broadened manner with a loss of focus of kinetic energy and momentum. For example, considering a standard portable air compressor of one hundred seventy-five scfm at one hundred psig, the wasted fuel costs for an air lance over a properly designed supersonic air jet is about fifty dollars for every one hundred hours of use. Viewed another way, to do a given amount of work, the size of the compressor needed is also larger than necessary due to the inefficiency of an air lance.
All of the current commercial vacuum excavation units use simply a vacuum hose to convey the material from the excavation to the hopper. Two types of hoses are commonly used: an inexpensive corrugated lightweight underground drainage type plastic hose, or a heavy wall rubber vacuum hose. The lightweight, inexpensive hose can be slung over a laborer's shoulder and is very flexible. However, this flexibility typically causes many severe bends in the hose. These bends lead to serious clogging problems and high suction losses. The frequent clogs are cleared either by wrapping the hose with a mallet or replacing the entire hose, both of which take time away from the digging. The other heavy rubber hose is too expensive to be discarded. Descended from sewer sucker types of trucks, typically the heavier hoses are used along with water jets. The water provides lubrication to allow the material to slide along the inside of the hose. Because of their high weight, this type of hose is supported from a fixed boom which is raised or lowered hydraulically, but moved by hand from side-to-side which can be difficult and fatiguing.
Typically, all of the vacuum excavation units also suck the soil into a hopper or tank. Tank sizes vary with about 70% of the units having a volume less than about forty cubic feet. In all cases, the tank size limits the amount of work that can be done before the process has to be interrupted. The larger the tank, the more space is taken up on the unit and the greater the cost of the tank since it must be designed to take the full vacuum capacity of the system. When the vacuum excavator tank is mounted on the truck and the spoil cannot be put back in the hole by local regulation, the truck itself needs to leave the work site when its tank is full.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide for an excavation system that overcomes the problems of the prior art.

Mobile safe excavation system having a deflector plate and vacuum source


An electronic device and method identify a block of text in a portion of an image of real world captured by a camera of a mobile device, slice sub-blocks from the block and identify characters in the sub-blocks that form a first sequence to a predetermined set of sequences to identify a second sequence therein. The second sequence may be identified as recognized (as a modifier-absent word) when not associated with additional information. When the second sequence is associated with additional information, a check is made on pixels in the image, based on a test specified in the additional information. When the test is satisfied, a copy of the second sequence in combination with the modifier is identified as recognized (as a modifier-present word). Storage and use of modifier information in addition to a set of sequences of characters enables recognition of words with or without modifiers.

Identification of text regions in papers that are optically scanned (e.g. by a flatbed scanner of a photocopier) is significantly easier (e.g. due to upright orientation, large size and slow speed) than detecting regions that may contain text in scenes of the real world that may be captured in images (also called "natural images") or in video frames in real time by a handheld device (such as a smartphone) having a built-in digital camera. Specifically, optical character recognition (OCR) methods of the prior art originate in the field of document processing, wherein the document image contains a series of lines of text (e.g. 30 lines of text) of an optically scanned page in a document.
Document processing techniques, although successfully used on scanned documents created by optical scanners, generate too many false positives and/or negatives so as to be impractical when used on natural images containing text. Hence, detection of text regions in a real world image generated by a handheld camera is performed using different techniques. For additional information on techniques used in the prior art, to identify text regions in natural images, see the following articles that are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety as background:    (a) LI, et al. "Automatic Text Detection and Tracking in a Digital Video", IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, January 2000, pages 147-156, Volume 9, No. 1;    (b) CHEN, et al. "Detecting and reading text in natural scenes," IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR'04), 2004, pages 1-8;    (c) LEE, et al. "A new methodology for gray-scale character segmentation and recognition," IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, October 1996, pp. 1045-1050, vol. 18, no. 10;    (d) EPSHTEIN, et al. "Detecting text in natural scenes with stroke width transform," Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) 2010, pages 2963-2970, (as downloaded from "http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/149305/1509.pdf"); and    (e) JAIN, et al. "Automatic text location in images and video frames", Pattern Recognition, 1998, pp. 2055-2076, Vol. 31, No. 12.
Image processing techniques of the prior art described above appear to be developed primarily to identify regions in images that contain text which is written in the language English. Use of such techniques to identify in natural images, regions of text in other languages that use different scripts for letters of their alphabets can result in false positives and/or negatives so as to render the techniques impractical.
FIG. 1 illustrates a newspaper in the real world scene 100 in India. A user 110 (see FIG. 1) may use a camera-equipped mobile device (such as a cellular phone) 108 to capture an image 107 (also called "natural image" or "real world image") of scene 100. Camera captured image 107 may be displayed on a screen 106 (FIG. 1) of mobile device 108. Such an image 107 (FIG. 1), if processed directly using prior art image processing techniques may result in failure to recognize one or more words in a region 103 (see FIG. 1). Specifically, use of prior art methods can cause problems when used with words that have modifiers, such as a dot located on top of a word, e.g. DOT maatra  expressed in a language, such as Hindi that uses the Devanagari script.
Depending on variations in lighting, color, tilt, focus, font etc, pixels that constitute a dot may or may not be included in a rectangular portion of the image that is being processed by OCR. The dot is just one of over ten (10) accent marks that may be used in the language Hindi. Moreover, presence of different fonts in addition to the large number of letters (including conjunct consonants) of the alphabet in Devanagari requires an OCR decoder to recognize a very large number of characters, resulting in a very complex system with poor recall accuracy.
Accordingly, there is a need to improve identification of words formed by Devanagari (also spelled Devanagiri) characters in a natural image or video frame, as described below.

Method of handling complex variants of words through prefix-tree based decoding for Devanagiri OCR


A device comprising an air intake duct and at least one passive one-way air intake valve disposed in the air intake duct. There is also an actuator coupled to the one-way valve for biasing the one-way valve in a closed position. During operation, the one-way air intake valve is opened via an air induction force created by operation of an internal combustion engine positioned downstream from the actuator. This one-way air intake valve is closed after the internal combustion engine has stopped operating to prevent emissions of evaporated hydrocarbons from the engine through the air induction system. The valve can also be moved into a fail-safe position if the actuator fails but the engine is operating.

The device relates to a passively activated valve for a spark ignition internal combustion engine to control evaporative emissions. This device can be designed to prevent the escape of hydrocarbons from the engine to the atmosphere through the air induction system. This device requires no control from the engine management system. This valve is a failsafe valve wherein the engine will always operate even upon a valve actuation failure.
Other types of systems for preventing evaporative emissions are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,679,228 to Confer et al discloses a low evaporative emissions integrated air fuel module the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. In addition other evaporation systems are known such as, U.S. Pat. No. 6,640,770 to Woody, U.S. Pat. No. 6,422,191 to Braun et al, U.S. Pat. No. 6,367,457 to Mancini et al; U.S. Pat. No. 6,578,564 to Banasco and U.S. Pat. No. 6,152,115 to Busato et al the disclosures of these patents are hereby incorporated herein by reference.

Air induction system and evaporative emissions control device


A method and apparatus for photocopying is disclosed including implementations for scanning a topside of a source page and determining whether the topside of the source page contains a topside image. In the event that the topside of the source page is determined to contain the topside image, implementations are provided for storing the topside image as topside document page data. Afterwards, the invention includes steps and structures for flipping the page and scanning the backside of the source page, and determining whether the backside of the source page contains a backside image. In the event that the backside of the source page is determined to contain the backside image, implementations are provided for storing the backside image as backside document page data. The invention provides for printing a target page with the respective stored topside and backside document page data, so as to produce a respective copy of the source page.

The present invention is directed to the field of photocopying, particularly to methods and apparatuses configured to perform simplex and duplex photocopying operations. A typical photocopying apparatus provides basic copier settings for selecting between simplex and duplex copy options, i.e. making either one-sided or two-sided copies of a set of document pages to be printed. In a typical implementation, the setting of these options requires the user to define the layout of both the source document and the target output. These layout combinations are shown in FIG. 2, which depicts a graphical selection menu such as is found on a typical photocopier implementation, indicating the optional layout combinations. Here the user must identify the type of source document as well as the desired target output, as optionally selected from among the following page layout options:
Simplex to simplex (1=>1): the source document and the desired target output are both simplex;
Duplex to duplex (2=>2): the source document and the desired target output are both duplex;
Simplex to duplex (1=>2): the source document is simplex and the desired target output is duplex; and
Duplex to simplex (2=>1): the source document is duplex and the desired target output is simplex.
FIG. 1 shows default settings of a typical copier. The second button shows the Simplex default layout. Specifically, the default setting is "Simplex to Simplex". This setting indicates that the source document is simplex and the target output will be simplex. To change the setting, the user presses simplex button to get options shown above with respect to FIG. 2.
The problem with this user interface design is its complexity. With this design, the user must assess the options as they relate to both the source document and the target output. This can create a complication in frequent instances when the user has a "mixed" stack of document pages, i.e. where some pages in a stack are simplex and others are duplex. In such instances, the user must separate the simplex and duplex documents, run respective copies, and collate both the originals and copies. This results in extra time and effort for the user, thereby reducing efficiency. On the other hand, the user may simply run the entire stack through the copier in a duplex-only mode. However, copying operations must be performed that are unneeded for the simplex source pages. This results in inefficiency due to extra copying time, and extra copying expense in scenarios where per-page copy charges are incurred by the user. Consequently, the typical photocopier does not offer the user an interface with default settings that represent the user's most frequent goal of making a copy that matches the source document.

Method and apparatus for auto-match simplex/duplex photocopying


Apparatus, systems, and methods may operate to detect anomalous formation resistivity values within measured formation resistivity data, based on mud resistivity associated with a borehole in a geological formation, the measured formation resistivity data comprising the anomalous formation resistivity values and acceptable formation resistivity values. Additional activity may include transforming the anomalous formation resistivity values into corrected formation resistivity values, inverting the corrected formation resistivity values and the acceptable formation resistivity values to provide true resistivity values for a geological formation, and operating a controlled device according to the true resistivity values for the geological formation. Additional apparatus, systems, and methods are disclosed.

Understanding the structure and properties of geological formations often reduces the cost of drilling wells for oil and gas exploration. Measurements are typically performed in a borehole (i.e., downhole measurements) in order to attain this understanding. To obtain such measurements, a variety of sensors and mounting configurations may be used.
For example, resistivity tools are widely used in oil field exploration applications for determining zones in a formation that may contain hydrocarbons. Accurate determination of the formation resistivity is useful in assessing the feasibility of production for a particular well. However, resistivity measured by the tool is often affected by factors other than the formation resistivity. For example, the presence of the borehole itself, as well as invasion zones, may change the measurement values. In addition, caving may contribute to rugosity or eccentricity, distorting shallow resistivity measurements.

Measurement and control apparatus, systems, and methods


In some examples, a co-rotating scroll compressor includes a driver scroll having an axis aligned with the main axis and having a spiral involute, an idler scroll having an axis offset from the main axis and having a spiral involute intermeshed with the spiral involute of the driver scroll, and an Oldham coupling disposed between the driver scroll and idler scroll. The driver scroll may offset key slots so to engage with corresponding Oldham coupling keys. In another example, the Oldham coupling may offset driver scroll keys so to engage with corresponding key slots of the driver scroll.

Scroll compressors are widely used in refrigerant compression applications including variable refrigerant flow (VRF) systems. A co-rotating scroll compressor includes a driver scroll and an idler scroll and both the driver and idler scroll involute sections on one side, but shaft sections on the opposite sides. The center of each involute is on the center of its respective shaft section. The driver scroll may have a long shaft, and the idler scroll may have a shorter shaft or bearing hub for a shaft. In some implementations, the driver scroll is in the center of the compressor, that is, it is aligned with the central axis or centerline of the compressor, and its rotation is powered by motor components including a rotor and a stator. The idler scroll may be positioned parallel, but an orbit radius (Ror) offset from the driver scroll. An Oldham coupling is disposed directly between the driver scroll land the idler scroll. In general, the driver scroll rotates the Oldham coupling, and the coupling then rotates the idler scroll. While both scrolls rotate, the relative motion between each is an orbiting motion.
Therefore, one involute will orbit with respect to the other involute.

Oldham coupling in co-rotating scroll compressors

HITACHI-JOHNSON CONTROLS AIR CONDITIONING, INC.


A disposable waste containment article includes a waste containment structure that has an absorbent core which is positioned between a wearer and a backsheet and held in place by a primary elastic, and a cover joined to the waste containment structure. Methods are provided for making the waste containment article.

This invention pertains to disposable waste containment articles, and more particularly to articles providing containment and absorbency of waste matter while being useful as a swimsuit garment.
Currently, disposable waste containment articles find widespread use in the areas of adult care, infant care, and child care, and have generally replaced reusable cloth articles. Disposable diapers, for example, have met a particular need and have become very popular. Disposable training pants have also met a particular need and have become popular. A problem exists with the design of children's swimsuits. Boys' boxer-style suits contain a liner, and girls' suits are made of stretchy, body-hugging materials. Neither swimsuit is designed to accommodate a dry diaper well, and especially when the diaper/pant is wet and swollen. Further, the design does not keep the current suits with diaper or pants in place during swimming and after swimming.

Integral disposable waste containment article


An electronic device is disclosed. The electronic device includes a camera, a communication module, and a processor. The processor is operably coupled with the camera and the communication module. The processor is configured to obtain a first image corresponding to an external object using the camera. The processor is also configured to generate a second image smaller in data size than the first image using the first image. The processor is further configured to transmit the second image to an external electronic device through the communication module. The processor is also configured to receive correction area information from the external electronic device through the communication module. The correction area information is based on information associated with an image area identified from the second image. The processor is further configured to perform correction using the first image based on at least part of the correction area information.

Image processing electronic devices are able to obtain raw images through image sensors and process the obtained raw images via use of their embedded image signal processors (ISP). The image signal processors may process the received raw images using image quality enhancer algorithms and may thus provide image quality-enhanced images. Image processors may perform various types of processing, such as white balancing, color adjustment (e.g., color matrix, color correction, or color enhancement), color filter array interpolation, nose reduction or sharpening, image enhancement, e.g., high-dynamic-range (HDR), face detection, etc. Images output from image signal processors may have, e.g., the YUV format. Images output from image signal processors may be, e.g., JPEG-compressed, and the compressed images may be stored in electronic devices.
Meanwhile, image processing cloud system services are being provided to back up images and generate new media content. Image matching schemes or other computer vision-based techniques difficult to perform on terminal devices may be applied to images uploaded on cloud servers. For example, cloud servers may carry out image recognition using machine learning-based software.
ISPs are typically placed inside application processors (APs) of electronic devices. This causes a rise in chip cost and overheat issues. As sensor specifications vary and processing algorithms are modified accordingly, new hardware types of ISPs need to be equipped in image processing electronic devices.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.

Electronic device for processing image acquired by using camera and method for operating the same


A sense amplifier enable signal generator for a semiconductor memory device, comprising a counter for generating a pulse signal synchronously with a clock signal when a row address strobe bar signal is made active and suppressing the generation of the pulse signal when the row address strobe bar signal is disabled, and a comparator for generating a sense amplifier enable signal when an output value from the counter reaches a predetermined time delay value and suppressing the generation of the sense amplifier enable signal when the row address strobe bar signal is disabled. According to the present invention, a sense amplifier can be operated at a proper time without being affected by a process parameter, an operating voltage, temperature, etc.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a sense amplifier enable signal generator for a semiconductor memory device, and more particularly to a sense amplifier enable signal generator for a dynamic random access memory (referred to hereinafter as DRAM) in which a counter and a comparator are provided to generate a sense amplifier enable signal as a control signal for a sense amplifier in the DRAM to operate the sense amplifier at a proper time without being affected by a process parameter, an operating voltage, temperature, etc.
2. Description of the Prior Art
First, the operation of a general DRAM will be described briefly with reference to FIGS. 1a to 1e.
FIGS. 1a to 1e are timing diagrams of signals related to the operation of a sense amplifier in the DRAM. First, when a row address strobe bar signal RASB, which is a main signal operating the DRAM, is made active low, a row address buffer receives a row address. A row decoding operation is performed to decode the row address received by the row address buffer to select a corresponding one of word lines of a cell array block. Then, data from cells connected to the selected word line WL are transferred to bit lines BL and /BL. At this time, a signal which indicates an operating time point of the sense amplifier is enabled to operate a sense amplifier drive circuit of the cell array block selected by the row address. As the sense amplifier drive circuit is operated, sense amplifier bias voltages have supply and ground voltage levels Vcc and Vss, respectively, thereby driving the sense amplifier. If the sense amplifier begins to be operated, a voltage difference between the bit lines BL and /BL is changed from a very small value to a large value. Under this condition, a column decoder selected by a column address turns on a column transfer transistor to transfer the data on the bit lines BL and /BL to data bus lines DB and /DB, respectively.
Noticeably, at the time that a small voltage difference of about 0.2-0.3 V is generated between the bit lines BL and /BL due to the data from the cells connected to the selected word line WL, a sense amplifier enable signal SE is made active to operate the sense amplifier (see FIG. 1e). However, in the case where the voltage difference between the bit lines BL and /BL does not have a sufficient value, a faulty operation occurs when the sense amplifier enable signal SE is made active to operate the sense amplifier.
FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram illustrating the construction of a conventional delay circuit which implements a time delay required between the row address strobe bar signal RASB and sense amplifier enable signal SE shown respectively in FIGS. 1b and 1e. As shown in this drawing, a time delay from an enable point of the row address strobe bar signal RASB till an active point of the sense amplifier enable signal SE is established by the coupling of inverters and capacitors. This conventional delay circuit is disadvantageous in that a delay value may be varied due to a process variation, a dynamic temperature variation and a supply voltage noise, resulting in a device failure. In the case where a large amount of design margin is introduced to overcome the above problem, a device access time is damaged.

Sense amplifier enable signal generator for semiconductor memory device

Hyundai Electronics Industries Co., Ltd.


An engine comprises two counter rotating multilobate cams which are acted upon by a pair of diametrically opposed pistons which are rigidly interlinked by connecting rods. Differential gearing is provided to time the counter rotation of the cams.. The following is an examiner's statement of reasons for allowance: The prior art fails to teach or fairly suggest the invention as a whole including a shaft having a first multilobate cam axially fixed to said shaft and an adjacent second multilobate cam differentially geared to said first multilobate cam for axial counter rotation about said shaft, at least one pair of cylinders, the cylinders of each pair being diametrically opposed with respect to said shaft with said multilobate cams interposed therebetween, and a piston in each said cylinder, said pistons of a pair of cylinders being rigidly interconnected.

Internal combustion engines such as used in automobiles are typically of the reciprocating type in which a piston oscillating in a cylinder drives a crankshaft via a connecting rod. There are numerous disadvantages in conventional reciprocating engine design, which disadvantages in large stem from the reciprocating motion of the piston and connecting rod.
Many engine designs have been developed to overcome the limitations and disadvantages of conventional internal combustion engines of the reciprocating type. These developments include rotary engines, such the wellknown Wankel engine, and engines in which a cam or cams are used in place of at least the crankshaft and, in some cases, connecting rods as well.
Internal combustion engines of the type where a cam or cams replace the crankshaft are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,848,282 and Australian Patent Application No. 17897/76. However, while developments in this type of engine have allowed some of the disadvantages of conventional reciprocating-type engines to be overcome, engines using a cam or cams in place of a crankshaft have not been fully exploited.
It is also known to provide internal combustion engines having opposed, interconnected pistons. Such an arrangement is described in Australian Patent Application No. 36206/84. However, there is no suggestion in this disclosure, and like disclosures, that the concept of opposed interconnected pistons can be used in conjunction with anything other than a crankshaft.


In a fully-automated washing machine, a rotating cylindrical tub in which laundry is cleaned has an agitating rod installed through the center of the tub. A water-supply pipe is axially formed within the agitating rod by penetrating the same and connected to an external water supplying source. A sprinkler unit installed on top of the agitating rod injects water supplied through the water-supply pipe into the tub. The water is supplied such that it is widely dispersed on the clothes in the tub.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fully-automated washing machine, and more particularly, to a fully-automated washing machine which improves the washing and rinsing performance by using water propelled from an agitating rod in a washing tub.
2. Background
In general, a fully-automated washing machine cleans by performing respective cycles of washing, rinsing and drying according to the state and condition of the laundry.
Referring to FIG. 1, a motor 2 and a decelerator 3 which decelerates the rotating speed of the motor 2 to increase a rotating force thereof are installed in a housing 1 of a conventional fully-automated washing machine. Also, a washing/drying tub 4 is installed above the motor 2 and the decelerator 3. A rotating body 5 is installed in the washing/drying tub 4 and is rotated by the motor 2 and the decelerator 3. An agitating rod 5a is installed at the center of the rotating body 5.
In the fully-automated washing machine having the above structure, when laundry (not shown) is put into the washing/drying tub 4, a washing cycle, a rinsing cycle, and a drying cycle are performed in sequence according to a preset program. Here, the washing/drying tub 4 or the rotating body 5, and the agitating rod 5a rotate causing friction between the laundry and water, so that washing is performed.
In the meantime, the water supplied through a supply pipe 7 above the washing/drying tub 4 falls on the laundry so that dirt of the laundry can be removed therefrom. Also, the water in the washing/drying tub 4 is discharged through a discharge pipe 8.
However, since the area into which the water from the supply pipe 7 falls onto the laundry is limited, the efficiency of washing by the falling water is not high.


Examples disclosed herein relate to determining malware using firmware of a computing device. Firmware can be used to determine that an indication is present that malware is present on the computing device. The firmware can be executed to perform a security action in response to the indication that malware is present on the computing device.

Service providers and manufacturers are challenged to deliver quality and value to consumers, for example by providing access to computing capabilities. A data center is a facility used to house computer networks, computer systems, and associated components, such as telecommunications and storage systems. Equipment in a data center may be in the form of servers mounted in rack cabinets. Data centers can be the target of malware attacks such as ransomware.
Throughout the drawings, identical reference numbers may designate similar, but not necessarily identical, elements. An index number "N" appended to some of the reference numerals may be understood to merely denote plurality and may not necessarily represent the same quantity for each reference numeral having such an index number "N". Additionally, use herein of a reference numeral without an index number, where such reference numeral is referred to elsewhere with an index number, may be a general reference to the corresponding plural elements, collectively or individually. In another example, an index number of "I," "M," etc. can be used in place of index number N.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP


Systems and techniques for providing call server failure protection involve assigning a set of media gateways to each of three or more call servers. Each call server has primary control of the corresponding assigned set of media gateways. A second call server is designated as having secondary control of a first media gateway assigned to a first of the call servers. A third call server is designated as having secondary control of a second media gateway assigned to the first call server. Secondary control is activated in response to a failure of the first call server.

Conventional cellular telecommunications networks include mobile switching centers (MSCs) each operating to route calls between base stations that include radio equipment for serving one or more cells in the cellular network and other MSCs or public switched telephone networks (PSTNs). Conventional MSCs handle both bearer traffic for transporting user information (e.g., voice or other data in an integrated service, digital network (ISDN)) and signaling traffic for establishing and controlling call connections and managing the cellular network. The MSC exchanges signaling information with other MSCs and with other networks (e.g., PSTNs) for purposes of call set up, handovers, and coordinating call routing. In addition, the MSC directs the operations of base stations that support radio communications with mobile devices in individual cells of the cellular network.
Distributed MSCs (e.g., as can be used with 3GPP, Release 4) perform the same general functions as a conventional MSC but include an MSC server for handling signaling traffic and multiple media gateways for handling bearer traffic. The MSC server includes the intelligence and complexity of the distributed MSC, and the media gateways are controlled by the MSC server. The media gateways can be geographically distributed, can connect to multiple base stations, and serve to route bearer traffic under control of the MSC server.

Clustering call servers to provide protection against call server failure


Delay distribution in an integrated circuit is calculated while taking into account a correlation of performance between interconnects or elements in the integrated circuit, thereby improving estimation accuracy. Circuit information, performance distribution information of the interconnects or elements in the integrated circuit, and correlation information of performance between the interconnects or elements are input. A vertex is selected for calculation, and a correlation between delay distribution at the selected vertex and delay distribution in a partial circuit including the selected vertex is calculated based on the performance distribution information and the correlation information.

The present invention generally relates to technology of evaluating performance of an integrated circuit such as CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) and LSI (Large Scale Integration) in its design. More particularly, the present invention relates to technology of calculation of delay distribution, and removal and extraction of false paths.
In the VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) design in deep sub-micron era, it is necessary to take variation in manufacturing process into account in advance so that circuits with required performance are produced with high yield. Like the technology such as OPC (Optical Proximity Correction), variation control by mask shape correction has become possible, and is increasingly required in practical applications. Therefore, the future VLSI physical design requires technology of designing a highly integrated, high performance circuit by setting proper design margins for each transistor in view of the manufacturing variation.
A method for estimating variation in circuit performance such as critical path delay resulting from manufacturing variation is essential to such design technology. Since the distribution of critical path delay is independent of input, statistical static timing analysis can be used as a method for estimating variation in critical path delay.
One method for statistical static timing analysis is to estimate the maximum delay on the assumption that variations in signal transmission time do not have a correlation (disclosed in M. Hashimoto and H. Onodera, "A performance optimization method by gate resizing based on statistical static timing analysis," Proc. Workshop on Synthesis And System Integration of Mixed Technology (SASIMI 2000), pp. 77–82, 2000).
On the other hand, one method for static timing analysis of a combinational circuit formed from CMOS logic gates is as follows: a given circuit 100 as shown in FIG. 9 is represented by an acyclic graph G=(V, E) 200 as shown in FIG. 10, and in this graph G 200, the maximum delay required to propagate a value "0" or "1" is obtained for each output terminal v.
In FIG. 10, each dashed ellipse 210 corresponds to a primary input terminal and a primary output terminal of the circuit and input/output terminals of a logic gate. A white circle 211 and a black circle 212 in an ellipse 210 corresponding to a terminal v are 0-vertex v0 and 1-vertex v0 of v, respectively, where v0 and v1 indicate that the corresponding terminal v has signal values "0" and "1", respectively.
Moreover, S indicates a set of sources into which no edge comes, and T is a set of sinks from which no edge goes out. The sources correspond to the primary input terminals, and the sinks correspond to the primary output terminals. Each directed path from a source to a sink in the graph G is referred to as a path. Although the direction of each edge is not shown in FIG. 10, every edge is a directed edge going out from a left vertex and coming into a right vertex.
In FIG. 10, each box 221, 222, 223 represents a logic gate in the circuit 100. The left vertices in each box correspond to the input terminals of the corresponding logic gate, and the right vertices in each box correspond to the output terminal of the corresponding logic gate. Each edge in the box goes out from a vertex representing input of the corresponding logic gate into a vertex representing output thereof. In the case where the box represents a NAND gate or a NOR gate, each edge in the box corresponds to pMOS or nMOS in the corresponding gate. The way to generate the edges is determined according to the type of logic gate. Each edge connecting vertices in different boxes corresponds to an interconnect, and edge e0 going out from 0-vertex of a terminal reaches 0-vertex of another terminal, and edge e1 going out from 1-vertex of a terminal reaches 1-vertex of another terminal.
The true maximum delay required to propagate a value "0" to a terminal v is herein denoted by d0(v), and the true maximum delay required to propagate a value "1" is herein denoted by d(1). Herein, d0(v), d1(v) for each terminal v of the circuit are represented by the longest path lengths d(v0), d(v1) from a sink to v0, v1 on the graph G, respectively. Therefore, the delay required to transmit a signal value from a terminal v to a terminal w is assigned to each edge e=(v, w) as a weight t(e).
Simulation using such an acyclic graph made it possible to conduct timing analysis of a logic circuit by a relatively simple process.
In delay calculation of a signal z in the circuit 100 as shown in FIG. 9, however, if the delays of signals x and y heavily depend on the delay of a signal b, there is a significant correlation between the delays of the signals x and y. If there is variation in interconnect delay, there is also a correlation between the signal transmission delays of fanout of the signal b. Accordingly, the statistical analysis that does not take correlation into account is likely to be inaccurate.
When delay distribution estimation has poor accuracy, it must be ensured that an integrated circuit will operate in a normal condition even under a plurality of worst conditions which are not likely to occur simultaneously in actual situations, resulting in design including excessive margins. This unnecessarily increases the area and costs such as power consumption in the designed integrated circuit.
The conventional methods have additional problems.
The conventional methods include paths that cannot be simulated actually (false paths). This results in excessively increased calculation time, degraded accuracy in delay estimation, and the like.
The false paths can be divided into two types: logical false paths and functional false paths. A logical false path is a path that will not be activated actually since there is no input for logically propagating a signal to that path. A functional false path is a path that will not be activated since there is an input for activating that path but such an input will not be produced actually. For example, in FIG. 11, among the paths passing through two AND gates G1, G6 controlled by complementary signals z, /z, such a path that the input x of the AND gate G1 other than the input z becomes "1" and the output y of the AND gate G6 becomes "1" corresponds to a logical false path. For example, when operation by a series of operating units (X, M, Y) and a series of operating units (A, M, B) is required, the use of a common multiplier M would result in a series of operating units (A, M, Y) or (X, M, B). However, if the specification does not allow simultaneous operation of the operating units, these series of operating units correspond to functional false paths.
It is practically impossible for human beings to find logical false paths in view of the large circuit scale. Therefore, an automatic finding method using a computer is essential.

Delay distribution calculation method, circuit evaluation method and false path extraction method

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


Adjustment mechanism for adjustment area of variable-shape flow surface with two opposite skin surfaces includes plurality of whirl chambers swivelably arranged next to one another so that the whirl chambers are swivelable relative to one another, and the whirl chambers include lateral stiffening elements and longitudinal stiffening elements. Joints are structured and arranged to jointedly couple lateral stiffening elements and longitudinal stiffening elements of the whirl chambers, and a first drive tube section and a second drive tube section are arranged between adjacent longitudinal stiffening elements. A pump is coupled to first and second drive tube sections and control device is functionally connected to pump to swivel adjacent whirl chambers around joint axes via complementary volume changes in first and second drive tube sections. The instant abstract is neither intended to define the invention disclosed in this specification nor intended to limit the scope of the invention in any way.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an adjustment mechanism for a variable-shape wing.
The wing can be in general a part of a flow surface or can form it essentially or completely. The flow surface can be used in particular for an aircraft and can be, e.g., a wing, an empennage or a front face or a canard.
2. Discussion of Background Information
Adjustment mechanisms for adjusting the curvature of a wing are known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,349,169, DE 680 525 and EP 860 355; however, their actuator system is complex and therefore unreliable and unfavorably designed with respect to weight. A further disadvantage of the prior art is that hydraulic cylinders are used that are supported on the primary structure in a jointed manner. The driven flaps must therefore feature a relatively high stiffness so that they are heavier than would be necessary based on the acting flight loads. Another disadvantage resulting from this approach is that the loads are introduced only on locally very limited points in the structure. A relatively great material accumulation is thus necessary, which in turn leads to an increase in weight.
Through the distortion of the air flow due to a flap movement with rigid flaps according to the prior art, local accelerations of the air and pressure waves can occur that cause an additional air resistance. In turn greater loads can consequently result on the flap, and longitudinal stability problems can occur, in particular with stabilized aircraft.

Adjustment mechanism for a variable-shape wing


A complex respirator is provided that includes a first shell, at least a first filter layer and a second filter layer. The first filter layer is replaceable and arranged on an outer side of the first shell while the first shell is disposed on an outer side of the second filter layer. A slot is formed on an outer side of the first shell for accommodating the first filter layer. The filtering area of the first filter layer is smaller than that of the second filter layer while pore size of the first filter layer is larger than that of the second filter layer. The second filter layer filters the gas that the first filter layer is unable to filter. Moreover, the type of first filter media of the first filter layer may be chosen based on the location that the complex respirator is to be used.

The present invention relates to a complex respirator, especially to a complex respirator with replaceable filter so that the storage of the respirator is easier and the filter is selectable with various pore sizes for filtering different kinds of gas.
The problem of air pollution is getting worse nowadays. No matter whether the pollution is from a dust storm, heavy smoke discharged from the factory, vehicle exhaust emission, or even smoke from waste combustion, all include toxic gas or granules harmful to human bodies, both are health risk factors. For the sake of protection and prevention, people wear respirators all the time so as to avoid inhalation of toxic gas and harmful granules while going out. Thus, the use rate of the respirator has risen. Most of the conventional respirators are disposable and have charcoal or "filtering fiber as filter media. Referring to FIG. 1, the fiber shown is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,234,171, B1—MOLDED RESPIRATOR CONTAINING SORBENT PARTICLES. The respirator is disposed with fiber 1 attached with sorbent particles 12. Because a unit area of the fiber 1 only adheres a certain amount of the sorbent particles 12, the sorbent particles 12 are easily saturated and are then unable to absorb any more toxic or harmful material.
Furthermore, the conventional flat respirator can't attach on a user's face tightly, so that a gap is formed between the edge of the respirator and the face skin. While wearing the flat respirator, part of the air with toxic gas or granules may flow through the gap and the gas enters the user's body. Thus a respirator 20 with a cartridge 22 in FIG. 2 was developed. The traditional cartridge is filled with an adsorbent material as a filter media for filtering the air. Generally, the absorbent material is charcoal to absorb organic solvents and granules. However, the breathing area of the respirator 20 with the cartridge 22 is limited inside the cartridge 22 and includes pores with a small diameter. Therefore, such a respirator makes breathing difficult. In order to get more air flow, people need to breathe more heavily. Although the purpose of avoiding toxic gas or harmful materials is achieved, people feel uncomfortable while breathing. Thus people would not like to wear that kind of respirator while going out to areas with polluted air.
With either the conventional flat respirator or the respirator with the cartridge, the whole respirator needs to be thrown away when the filter is saturated and unable to be used anymore. This causes a kind of waste. Not only do those working in special locations, such as hospitals, use respirators, but also ordinary people do as well. Thus, there is a need to improve the way used filter material is replaced.
Due to a worsening environment, air pollution has become a pressing problem of public health. Thus, the present invention provides a complex respirator that not only protects people from inhaling toxic gas and harmful granules, but also allows users to breathe more smoothly. Moreover, only the filter layer of the respirator needs to be changed and the service time of the respirator is thereby extended.


The present invention is related to a thin film semiconductor which can be regarded as substantially a single crystal and a semiconductor device comprising an active layer formed by the thin film semiconductor. At least a concave or convex pattern is formed intentionally on a insulating film provided in contact with the lower surface of an amorphous silicon film, whereby at least a site is formed in which a metal element for accelerating crystallization can be segregated. Therefore, a crystal nuclei is selectively formed in a portion where the concave or convex pattern is located, which carries out controlling a crystal diameter. Thus, a crystalline silicon film is obtained. A crystallinity of the crystalline silicon film is improved by the irradiation of a laser light or an intense light having an energy equivalent to that of the laser light, whereby a monodomain region in which no grain boundary substantially exit is formed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thin film semiconductor having a region which can be regarded as substantially a single crystal (hereinafter referred to as "a monodomain region"), and is formed on a substrate having an insulating surface, and to a semiconductor device using the thin film semiconductor as an active layer. More particularly, the present invention relates to a thin film transistor having an active layer constituted by a crystalline silicon film.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a technique for constituting a thin film transistor (TFT) by using a thin film silicon film (having a thickness of from several hundred to several thousand of angstroms (.h slashed.)) formed on a substrate having an insulating surface has drawn a considerable attention. A thin film transistor is widely applied to electronic devices such as ICs and liquid crystal display devices.
The most important portion of a thin film transistor is, so to speak the heart of thin film transistor, a channel forming region and a junction portion to join the channel forming region with the source/drain region. That is, the active layer has the greatest influence on the performance of a thin film transistor.
As a thin film semiconductor constituting the active layer of the thin film transistor, generally employed is an amorphous silicon film formed by plasma CVD or low pressure thermal CVD.
A thin film transistor using an amorphous silicon film is practically available at present, however, in case higher speed operation is required, a thin film transistor based on thin film silicon having good crystallinity (hereinafter referred to as "crystalline silicon film") must be employed.
For instance, in an active matrix type liquid crystal display device or in a passive type liquid crystal display device, a drive circuit for driving pixel TFTs provided to the pixel region, a circuit for handling image signals, and a memory circuit for recording various types of information, are necessary for the peripheral circuits.
Moreover, in the circuits above, the circuit for processing and controlling the image signals and the memory circuits for recording various types of information are required to have a well performance comparable to that of a known integrated circuit using a single crystal wafer. Accordingly, in case that the above-mentioned circuits are to be integrated by using a thin film semiconductor formed on the substrate, a crystalline silicon film having high crystallinity comparable to that of a single crystal must be formed on the substrate.
As methods for forming a crystalline silicon film on a substrate, known are the techniques disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Applications 6-232059 and 6-244103 filed by the present inventors. The technique disclosed in the references above comprises forming a crystalline silicon film having excellent crystallinity by utilizing a metallic element capable of accelerating the crystallization of silicon in case of applying heat treatment at 550.degree. C. for about 4 hours.
However, even if the technique mentioned above is employed in the active layer of a thin film transistor, the resulting thin film transistor is still unsatisfactory when used as a transistor constituting various types of arithmetic circuit, memory circuit, or the like, because the crystallinity thereof as an active layer is yet insufficient to suffice the required characteristics.
In particular, it is required that the crystalline silicon film having a crystallinity comparable to that of a single crystal is substantially free of crystal grain boundaries. This is because the grain boundaries function as an energy barrier which obstructs the path of electrons which pass to and fro between the crystals.
The present inventors have classified the crystal growth process into four steps, i.e., from a first to fourth step described below when the above technique is employed. The explanation is given with reference to FIGS. 3(A) to 3(F).
Referring to FIG. 3(A), a silicon oxide film 301 is formed as a buffer layer on the surface of a substrate. An amorphous silicon film 303 is formed thereon. The concave or convex portion 302 (only the convex portion is shown in the figure) is formed by the surface roughness or a dust that was present on the surface of the silicon oxide film.
A solution containing a metallic element that accelerates the crystallization is provided dropwise to the surface of the amorphous film 303, and is applied by spin coating. Thus is obtained a state as is shown in FIG. 3(A), in which a nickel layer 304 is retained on the surface of the amorphous silicon film 303.
The amorphous silicon film 303 is crystallized thereafter by applying heat treatment in the temperature range of from 500 to 700.degree. C. However, in case a glass substrate is used, the heat treatment is preferably effected at a temperature of 650.degree. C. or lower by taking the heat resistance of the glass substrate into consideration.
Then, as is indicated by an arrow in FIG. 3(B), the metallic element undergoes an isotropic internal diffusion inside the amorphous silicon film 303 as to reach the interface with the silicon oxide film 301. This is a first step.
The metallic element then segregates in the concave or convex portion 302 after migration inside the interface between the silicon oxide film 301 and the amorphous silicon film 303. This is a second step. This occurs because the metallic element seeks for an energetically stable site, and hence, in this case, the concave or convex portion 302 provides the segregation site (FIG. 3(C)).
Thus, crystal nuclei generates in the concave or convex portion 302 which functions as the segregation site, because the metallic element is present at a high concentration. In case that the metallic element is nickel, according to the study of the present inventors, crystal nuclei generates when the concentration of nickel is 1.times.10.sup.20 atoms/cm.sup.3 or higher.
Crystal growth initiates from the crystal nuclei. At first, crystallization proceeds in the direction approximately vertical to the surface of the silicon film. This is a third step (FIG. 3(D)).
In the region 305 where crystallization proceeded in a direction approximately vertical to the surface of the silicon film (hereinafter referred to as "the vertical growth region"), the crystallization proceeds in such a manner that the metallic element concentrated at a high concentration is pushed up with respect to the surface of the silicon film. Accordingly, metallic elements are also condensed on the surface of the amorphous silicon film 303 located at the upper side of the concave or convex portion 302. As a result, the vertical growth region 305 is obtained as a region containing the metallic element at a high concentration as compared with the other regions.
Then, crystal growth occurs from the interface 306 of the amorphous silicon film 303 that is in contact with the vertical growth region 305 in a direction approximately in parallel with the substrate (the direction shown with an arrow in FIG. 3(E)). This is a fourth step. The crystals 307 are columnar or needle-like crystals approximately equivalent to the film thickness of the amorphous silicon film 303 (FIG. 3(E)).
Because the crystals 307 grow in a direction approximately in parallel with the substrate, the growth stop by colliding with other crystals faced opposed thereto. Thus, the boundary where collision occurs as is shown in FIG. 3(F) becomes the crystal grain boundary 308. The crystal region 309 thus formed becomes a region (hereinafter referred to as "a lateral growth region") having a relatively uniform crystallinity.
Thus, in the conventional crystallization morphology, since numerous segregation sites were formed irregularly in this manner, the crystal nuclei has a high density and each crystal grain obstructs the growth each other. As a result, diameter of the crystal grains becomes small.
That is, in case of forming the active layer of a thin film transistor using a crystalline silicon film formed by the technique described above, for instance, crystal grain boundary is inevitably incorporated inside the silicon film. Accordingly, it is practically impossible to realize a crystallinity equivalent to that of a single crystal.
The diameter of crystal grain can be increased by decreasing the generation density of the crystal nuclei, however, the location of crystal nuclei depends on the segregation site of the metallic element. According to the conventional technique, the sites (for instance, the concave or convex portion 302 shown in FIG. 3(A)) which become the segregation sites are formed irregularly, and it is impossible to control the position thereof.

Thin film semiconductor and method for manufacturing the same, semiconductor device and method for manufacturing the same

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


The electroconductive thick film paste of the present invention is a silver electroconductive paste, which includes silver particles, glass particles, and an organic vehicle, and is used in an electrode for connecting a back face terminal on the silicon substrate of a solar cell, and is characterized by the fact that the average particle diameter of said silver particles is 3.0-15.0 μm. The present invention is further directed to an electrode formed from the composition as detailed above and a solar cell comprising said electrode.

The present invention can be applied to a broad range of semiconductor devices, although it is especially effective in light-receiving elements such as photodiodes and solar cells. The background of the invention is described below with reference to solar cells as a specific example of the prior art.
A conventional solar cell structure with a p-type base has a negative electrode that is typically on the front-side or sun side of the cell and a positive electrode on the backside. It is well-known that radiation of an appropriate wavelength falling on a p-n junction of a semiconductor body serves as a source of external energy to generate hole-electron pairs in that body. Because of the potential difference which exists at a p-n junction, holes and electrons move across the junction in opposite directions and thereby give rise to flow of an electric current that is capable of delivering power to an external circuit. Most solar cells are in the form of a silicon wafer that has been metallized, i.e., provided with metal contacts that are electrically conductive.
Most electric power-generating solar cells currently used on earth are silicon solar cells. Process flow in mass production is generally aimed at achieving maximum simplification and minimizing manufacturing costs. Electrodes in particular are made by using a method such as screen printing to form a metal paste.
An example of this method of production is described below in conjunction with FIG. 1. FIG. 1 shows a p-type silicon substrate, 10.
In FIG. 1(b), an n-type diffusion layer, 20, of the reverse conductivity type is formed by the thermal diffusion of phosphorus (P) or the like. Phosphorus oxychloride (POCl3) is commonly used as the phosphorus diffusion source. In the absence of any particular modification, the diffusion layer, 20, is formed over the entire surface of the silicon substrate, 10. This diffusion layer has a sheet resistivity on the order of several tens of ohms per square (Ω/□), and a thickness of about 0.3 to 0.5 μm.
After protecting one surface of this diffusion layer with a resist or the like, as shown in FIG. 1(c), the diffusion layer, 20, is removed from most surfaces by etching so that it remains only on one main surface. The resist is then removed using an organic solvent or the like.
Next, a silicon nitride film, 30, is formed as an anti-reflection coating on the n-type diffusion layer, 20, to a thickness of about 700 to 900 Å in the manner shown in FIG. 1(d) by a process such as plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD).
As shown in FIG. 1(e), a silver paste, 500, for the front electrode is screen printed then dried over the silicon nitride film, 30. In addition, a backside silver or silver/aluminum paste, 70, and an aluminum paste, 60, are then screen printed and successively dried on the backside of the substrate. Firing is then typically carried out in an infrared furnace at a temperature range of approximately 700 to 975° C. for a period of from several minutes to several tens of minutes.
Consequently, as shown in FIG. 1(f), aluminum diffuses from the aluminum paste into the silicon substrate, 10, as a dopant during firing, forming a p+ layer, 40, containing a high concentration of aluminum dopant. This layer is generally called the back surface field (BSF) layer, and helps to improve the energy conversion efficiency of the solar cell.
The aluminum paste is transformed by firing from a dried state, 60, to an aluminum back electrode, 61. The backside silver or silver/aluminum paste, 70, is fired at the same time, becoming a silver or silver/aluminum back electrode, 71. During firing, the boundary between the back side aluminum and the back side silver or silver/aluminum assumes an alloy state, and is connected electrically as well. The aluminum electrode accounts for most areas of the back electrode, owing in part to the need to form a p+ layer, 40. Because soldering to an aluminum electrode is impossible, a silver back electrode is formed over portions of the back side as an electrode for interconnecting solar cells by means of copper ribbon or the like. In addition, the front electrode-forming silver paste, 500, sinters and penetrates through the silicon nitride film, 30, during firing, and is thereby able to electrically contact the n-type layer, 20. This type of process is generally called "fire through." This fired through state is apparent in layer 501 of FIG. 1(f).
In the formation of the backside electrodes, there are two prior art methods which are typically used to form the Aluminum and silver electrodes (or Ag/Al electrode). The first method is disclosed in Japanese Kokai Patent Application Nos. 2001-127317 and 2004-146521 wherein a Ag paste is printed and dried, an Al paste is printed and dried, and both pastes are baked (to form the silver and Al electrodes).
The second method, as disclosed in Japanese Kokai Patent Application Hei 11[1999]-330512, is a process in which the formation sequence of the Al electrode and the Ag electrode of the first method is reversed wherein the paste for the Al electrode is printed and dried first, the Ag paste is printed and dried second, and both pastes are baked.
In the second method, cracks were apt to be generated in the superposed part of two electrodes due to the difference in the thermal contraction behavior of the Al electrode and the Ag electrode, so that the electrical characteristics (conversion efficiency, etc.) of the solar cell were degraded.
Japanese Kokai Patent Application No. 2003-223813 considers the thermal contraction of aluminum. In this publication, it is presented that the thermal contraction of Al is improved by including a material with a low thermal expansion coefficient, such as SiO2 in the paste composition. However, in this publication, although the decrease of the characteristics of the solar cell is improved by the addition of SiO2, it is not described that cracks of the superposed part of the Al electrode and the Ag electrode do not occur by the addition of SiO2.
Additionally, when SiO2 is used, there is a possibility that the solderability will be lowered, and the suppression of the thermal contraction and the solderability have a trade-off relationship. Usually, since the material of the second electrode used as an electrode for connection requires adhesive strength, as well as solderability, it must be designed so that glass particles used as a binder are necessarily included in the material to improve the adhesion with the Si substrate.
In the conventional electroconductive pastes, it was difficult to obtain an electroconductive paste for connection that suppresses the generation of cracks and that can form the second electrode having both a sufficient adhesive strength and that can maintain sufficient cell characteristics.
The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems by providing an electroconductive paste that essentially does not generate cracks in the superposed part, even by simultaneously baking an aluminum electrode and a silver electrode of the back face. This invention can form an electrode with a sufficient adhesive strength while still maintaining sufficient solar cell characteristics.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Electroconductive thick film composition, electrode, and solar cell formed therefrom


A region of a pile fabric is impacted with a laser at spaced illuminated areas in a dithered image, wherein the laser energy and duration of impact in the illuminated areas are selected to shorten the fibers within the illuminated area. The spacing of the illuminated areas within the region and the amount of shortening within the illuminated areas are selected to essentially maintain a hand or feel of the pile fabric. Fleece and corduroy can be sculpted to provide a three-dimensional image, while maintaining the hand of the fleece. In dyed pile fabrics, the illuminated areas can be selected to change the dye distribution within the pile material to provide an altered coloration.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to laser treating pile fabrics and, more particularly, to changing a fiber height in the pile fabric by laser energy, while maintaining a desired feel or hand of the fabric, wherein selected fabrics can exhibit color alteration.
2. Description of Related Art
Materials have commonly been used to make clothing, linens, footwear, belts, purses and wallets, luggage, vehicle interiors, furniture coverings, wall coverings, and many other manufactured goods. Consumer demand for graphics on these materials has increased over the recent years. Consumers often desire graphics on these materials to give the materials a unique and attractive appearance.
The typical methods of forming graphics on materials include dyeing, printing, weaving, embossing, and stamping. Unfortunately, such methods are very costly in terms of capital investment and operating cost. In addition, these prior methods are often unfriendly to the environment.
Lasers have been used in the fabric industry to cut fabrics into separate pieces. Lasers have also been used to fix dyes. However, in the past, certain technical barriers have often prevented the use of lasers to form graphics on certain fabrics.
Therefore, the need exists for a laser treatment of a pile fabric that can preserve the hand (feel) of the fabric, while still imparting a change in fiber length. That is, the need exists for pile fabric that can have a sculpted, three-dimensional appearance, without destroying the traditional soft feel of the pile. Thus, the aesthetic feel or tactile quality of something, such as a fabric, textile, or carpeting, that indicates its fineness, texture, and durability (hand) is substantially preserved, while imparting a variation in the pile height.

Selectivity altering a fiber height in a pile fabric and apparatus


A method of improving the stability of organic light emitting diode (OLED) display devices driven by amorphous silicon thin-film transistors, in which the driving circuitry within each sub-pixel includes a driving transistor for driving organic light emitting diode (OLED), a scanning transistor and a storage capacitance. An end of the capacitance is connected to the signal resetting line, which a resetting time pulse of high potential and low potential are supplied. Since the resetting signals within the sub-pixels are synchronized, a single voltage of the resetting signal can control the positive and negative stresses for each transistor in the sub-pixels on the panel.

There are two ways to drive an organic light emitting display (OLED): one is passive matrix driving and the other is active matrix driving. In an active matrix device, a good service life and high resolution can be achieved without being driven to an extremely high brightness. Therefore, OLED combined with thin-film transistor (TFT) to realize the active matrix technology conforms to the present market requirements for fluidity of images as well as higher and higher resolution in display panels that fully demonstrate the superior properties of OLED. As a result of the continuous improvements in light emitting efficiency on OLED materials, using amorphous silicon thin-film transistor (a-Si TFT) as the driving platform for OLED devices is no longer infeasible. As a result of the maturity of manufacturing processes and equipments in a-Si TFT, a lower manufacturing cost can be achieved which greatly lower the over-all cost of the active matrix OLED.
Although a-Si TFT has absolute advantage of lower cost, there are still technical issues needed to improve if a-Si TFT is to be used to drive OLED. Two major goals must be achieved. The first goal is to improve the stability of the a-Si TFT device, and the second is to increase the driving capability of current in the a-Si TFT device.
FIG. 1 is a schematic representation of the driving circuitry for each sub-pixels in a traditional display device. Each sub-pixel has a 2T1C (two TFTs and one capacitance) circuitry structure. All the TFTs used are N-Channel a-Si TFT. The drain (D) of transistor 12 is connected to the power source Vdd, and its source (S) is connected to the anode of OLED 14. The cathode of OLED 14 is connected to a comparatively fixed low potential Vss (for example to the ground as zero potential). Also, the gate (G) of transistor 11 is connected to scan line 17, the source (S) of transistor 11 is connected to data line 16, and the drain (D) of transistor 11 is connected to the gate (G) of transistor 12 and one end of capacitance 13. The other end of the capacitance 13 is connected to a fixed reference potential Vref.
The fundamental working principle is as follows: Through controlling the signal of scan line 17 to trigger transistor 11 ON, which then input the voltage signal representing gray scale data of image into storage capacitance 13 to control the gate of transistor 12. The current is flowing through the transistor 12, which can be varied by changing the gate voltage Vgs, of transistor 12. Naturally, in order to make transistor 12 produce a driving current, the Vgs value in transistor 12 must be greater than its threshold voltage Vth.
Conventional scanning structure employs a continuous scanning mode, beginning with the first line on the (n)th-frame, and consecutively scan to the last line of the frame, immediately followed by the first line on the (n+1)th-frame, and consecutively scan to the last line of the (n+1)th frame, as shown in FIG. 2.
The conventional scan mode stated above, when applied to OLED structures driven by a-Si TFT, will produce a continuous positive Vgs voltage on transistor 12. A continuous positive Vgs bias, called Positive Stress, it will rapidly degrade the a-Si TFT devices on transistor 12. Also, the threshold voltage, Vth, on transistor 12 will increase with time instead of maintaining at the original level which will incur a "Positive Shift" as shown in FIG. 3. Therefore long term stability of a-Si TFT driving devices on transistor 12 can not be achieved if conventional a-Si TFT driving circuitry is employed.
Therefore, the positive shift as a result of instability in threshold voltage, Vth, brings about two problems: The first is that the original brightness of OLED can not be maintained as a result of the decrease in output current on transistor 12, with time. The second problem is that the degree of degradation on transistor 12 in the sub-pixel varies with time. Because the difference in positive stress on transistor 12 of each sub-pixel will bring about a difference in brightness on the sub-pixel of the display panel, resulting in so called "Temporal Non-Uniformity".
To solve the weaknesses mentioned above, the U.S. Pat. No. 6,677,713 "Driving Circuit and Method for Light Emitting Device" proposed 3T1C driving circuitry as shown in FIG. 4. The driving circuitry of the pixel includes a driving transistor 22 with the gate (G) connected to node B, a light emitting device 24 connected in serial to the driving transistor forming a light emitting path. The light emitting path is then attached between the system high voltage, Vdd, and system low voltage, Vss. When driving transistor 22 is turned on, the system high voltage, Vdd, triggers the light emitting device 24 and emits light. A capacitance 23 connected to node B, is used to maintain the On or Off position of driving transistor 22. Also, a driving circuit consists of a primary transistor 21 and a secondary transistor 25 is connected in parallel to node B. The gate (G) of primary transistor 21 receives a time pulse, S1, of primary scan line 27, and gate (G) of secondary transistor 25 receives a time pulse, S2, of secondary scan line 28. The primary scan pulse S1 and the secondary scanning pulse S2 have the same frequency, but there is a time delay in the secondary scan pulse S2 compared with the primary scan pulse S1.
Therefore the working principle is that when even number of continuous primary scanning pulse S1 trigger transistor 21 On, allows the data voltage in data line 26 corresponding to a frame of image to input to node B, toggles the driving transistor 22 On, And proceeds a time-interval, TON, of image display; when even number of continuous secondary scanning pulse S2 triggers transistor 25 On, allows a closure voltage Vref2 into node. B, and toggles transistor 22 Off, and proceeds a time-interval TOFF of image off. The relationship between scan line and time in driving structure of the image frame is shown in FIG. 5.
The U.S. Pat. No. 6,677,713, as compared to the conventional technology, uses an amorphous silicon secondary transistor 25 to recover the threshold voltage Vth of driving transistor 22 to its initial value, and prevents Vth from increasing beyond its original value, and from the degradation of driving transistor 22 with time, so the problem of difference in brightness of each sub-pixel on the display panel can be resolved.
However in the patent, an amorphous silicon transistor and a secondary scan line 28 have to be added to each sub-pixel to process settings of the negative driving bias. In other words, a set of scan driver need to be added to the system which will increase the complexity in manufacturing and, with the additional driving circuitry, substantially increase its cost.

Method of improving the stability of active matrix OLED displays driven by amorphous silicon thin-film transistors


The field of the present invention is that of fosfomycin formulations for parenteral administration, in particular for intravenous administration. Formulations of the prior art provide fosfomycin as a powder to be diluted directly prior to the administration. The aim of the invention is to provide a fosfomycin formulation for parenteral administration which is easier to produce and administer or which lowers the risk of puncture injuries for healthcare professionals and the health risks for the patients (for example due to contamination or incorrect dosages) by preventing additional processing steps. During the course of the invention, it was surprisingly shown that fosfomycin is much more stable in an aqueous solution than what is commonly assumed. The invention therefore provides a closed container which contains an aqueous solution for parenteral administration, wherein at least one pharmaceutically acceptable salt of fosfomycin, in particular fosfomycin disodium salt, and a pharmaceutically acceptable acid, in particular succinic acid, are dissolved in the solution. Preferred containers are breakable ampoules made of plastic or glass, puncturable vials, infusion bags, or syringes ready for injection.

The antibiotic fosfomycin is a structurally unique substance within the antibiotics and was originally isolated from Streptomyces fradiae. Parenterally, fosfomycin is administered intravenously or intramuscularly, for example, and is commonly used for targeted therapy of infections in particular in the medical critical care, especially if resistance or intolerance can be expected with regard to other antibiotics. Clinical applications for the use of fosfomycin are among others: in the area of the central nervous system, meningitis, meningoencephalitis, cerebral abscess, and subdural emphysema; in surgery, postoperative infections, concomitant infections in tumors and prostatitis; in orthopedics and traumatology, postoperative bone infections (infected osteosynthesis, endoprosthesis), osteomyelitis, purulent arthritis, abscesses, and phlegmons; in the area of the respiratory tract, bronchopneumonia, pulmonary abscess, and sinusitis; and sepsis.
Fosfomycin disodium salt is a common pharmaceutically acceptable salt of fosfomycin. It is a white or almost white, very hygroscopic powder that is highly soluble in water. Fosfomycin which is dissolved in water cannot be administered parenterally due to the high pH value of the solution. In order to achieve a tissue-compatible or vein acceptable pH, succinic acid is therefore added to currently available preparations for parenteral administration.
Currently, succinic acid is added in the form of a powder by sterile mixing it with fosfomycin as a powder. This mixture is filled as a powder into puncturable vials and put on the market in this form. In this form of a dry substance for infusion preparation approved in individual countries of the European Union are for example Fosfomycin Astro (Astro-Pharma GmbH, Vienna, AT), Fosfomycin medicamentum (medicamentum pharma GmbH, Allerheiligen, AT) und Fosfomycin Sandoz® (Sandoz GmbH, Kundl, AT) in Austria, Fosfomycin Infectopharm® (Infectopharm Arzneimittel und Consilium GmbH, Heppenheim, DE) in Germany, and Fomicyt® (Infectopharm Arzneimittel und Consilium GmbH, Heppenheim, DE) in the United Kingdom.
Directly prior to the parenteral administration such dry substances have to be dissolved in a suitable solvent by the medical personnel.
The current procedure causes various problems. The physical sterile mixing of dry substances is very complex as it is necessary, for example, to ensure the uniformity of the mixture, i.e. no demixing or caking of the powder must occur. This requires a complicated technology which is mastered only by a few manufacturers under the required Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) conditions. This results in ongoing supply shortages in the supply of fosfomycin for parenteral administration. For example, according to an information from the Federal Office for Safety in Health Care, all formulations of fosfomycin approved for parenteral administration have been unavailable in Austria since June 2015 and are expected to remain unavailable until at least March 2016 (status as of February 2016).
In addition, the processing step required by the health care professionals to obtain a solution for infusion poses a health risk for both the personnel and the patient, especially if the susceptibility to human error is increased by a high workload. Firstly, the processing step itself poses an additional risk of puncture wounds to the personnel. Secondly, the risk of a dangerous contamination or wrong dosage to the patient is increased by the additional processing step. And thirdly, when the dry substance contains, as usual, fosfomycin disodium salt (regular doses of about 4 to 8 grams include about 60 to 120 mmol sodium ions), and the dry substance is dissolved, due to an error and contrary to the package information leaflet, in physiological saline and is administered in this way, the patient may suffer a sometimes fatal hypernatremia due to the excess of sodium ions resulting from this.
Some of these problems are also recognized by DE 20 2008 012 514 U1. This document proposes as an approach a packaging unit for providing a parenterally administrable, pharmacologically acceptable pharmaceutical formulation, comprised of the antibiotic fosfomycin and succinic acid or another biocompatible acid, characterized in that the unit consists of one container which is sterile filled with fosfomycin in powder form, and another container which is sterile filled with the acid, dissolved in an pharmacologically acceptable solvent.

Fosfomycin formulation for parenteral administration


A sensor magnet assembly has a cylindrical shape extending in an axial direction and includes a fixing member fixed to a one side end of a shaft in the axial direction and a sensor magnet fixed to an outer circumferential surface of the fixing member. The fixing member includes a first groove recessed inward from the outer circumferential surface in a radial direction and has an annular shape extending in a circumferential direction and first recesses recessed inward from the outer circumferential surface in the radial direction and spaced apart along the circumferential direction. The first recesses are disposed at positions different from the first groove in the axial direction. The first groove and the first recesses are disposed in a portion of the outer circumferential surface of the fixing member, to which the sensor magnet is fixed.

A motor including a sensor magnet fixed to a rotating shaft is known. For example, conventionally, a related art discloses a configuration in which the sensor magnet is fixed to an output portion of the rotating shaft, which is made of a non-magnetic material.
The above-described sensor magnet may be fixed to a rotating shaft through a fixing member. However, in this case, the sensor magnet may be detached from the fixing member or the sensor magnet may relatively rotate with respect to the fixing member.


Disclosed is a stretched resin film comprising a layer (A) stretched in at least one axial direction and comprising 0 to 98 wt % of a polyolefinic resin, 2 wt % or more and less than 100 wt % of an amorphous resin and more than 0 wt % and 70 wt % or less of an inorganic finepowder and/or an organic filler. The stretched resin film of the present invention is resistant to becoming waved when offset-printed with widely-used, quick-drying offset printing inks, and thus has excellent printing properties.

Synthetic paper has been proposed and put into practical use in recent years to replace conventional natural pulp-made paper. The synthetic paper comprises a base layer made of a biaxially stretched polypropylene film containing 5 to 40 wt % of an inorganic finepowder, and paper-like layers disposed on the top and bottom surfaces thereof, made of a uniaxially stretched polypropylene film containing 8 to 65 wt % of an inorganic finepowder (e.g., as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,318,950, Japanese Examined Patent Publication (KOUKOKU) Nos. 46-40794, 60-36173 and 62-35412).
Offset printing, (i.e., lithography), is generally used for printing on paper, polyethylene terephthalate film, polyamide film, coated paper and the like, since this technique can readily provide multi-color printing. The typical composition of a widely-used, drying-type offset printing ink is shown below.

TABLE 1Composition of Offset Printing Ink (weight part)Ink forInk forInk forsheetnon-paperrotary offsetprintingprintingpressPigment252525Resin253025Drying oil203410High-boiling-point,petroleum-base solvent25536Drier12—Others44 4Total100100100
The vehicle shown above refers to a liquid component, among the various components of which the printing ink is composed, which has the function of dispersing the pigment, thereby imparting the fluidity of the ink; ensuring the smooth flow of the ink from the ink pot to a printing surface while the ink is transferred among individual rollers, the printing plate and printing blanket; and for fixing the pigment onto the printing surface by solidification of the vehicle after printing. In response to the recent strong requirement that the offset printing ink have a shortened drying time to allow more rapid printing, there is an increasing trend toward the use of quick-drying inks which are compounded with a vehicle which is mainly comprised of a drying oil mixed with resin and mineral oil (high-boiling-point, petroleum-base solvent).
However, synthetic paper comprising a stretched polyolefinic film or such film compounded with an inorganic finepowder is printed with such quick-drying offset printing inks, vehicle of the quick-drying offset printing ink swells the polyolefin of the synthetic paper, thereby producing local surface waving or curling of the printed film. This is a significant practical obstacle in using such synthetic papers. Conventional offset printing inks for polyolefinic film are therefore specially formulated to be free from mineral oil. However, this approach sacrifices the quick-drying property.
In addition, such special offset printing inks for polyolefinic films require long drying times, and are used mainly in small specialty printing shops and manufacturers. There has therefore been a strong need for a new polyolefinic film on which the widely-used offset printing ink of the oxidation polymerization type (drying oil type) may be used.
In other words, in the typical printing shop, offset printing is practiced on pulp-based paper such as wood free paper and coated paper using generally-commercialized, quick-drying ink. Printing on polyolefinic film or synthetic paper in such printing shops requires the temporary replacement of such ink with the special offset printing ink which is suitable for such non-absorbent material. However, replacement of the conventional ink for pulp-based paper is time- and labor-consuming. As a consequence, conventional print shops have resisted printing on polyolefinic film or synthetic paper, which has been one factor preventing the general use of polyolefinic film or synthetic paper in offset printing.
One approach to solving this problem has been suggested in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 8-333466, in which a polyolefinic resin mixed with an amorphous resin is used as a part of the multilayered film. However, this approach is still not completely successful in solving the problem of the swelling of the film (referred to as "solvent attack" hereinafter) due to the vehicle (in particular high-boiling-point, petroleum-based solvents such as mineral oil) in the offset printing ink. Another approach to solving the solvent attack has been suggested in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication (KOKAI) No. 8-276540, in which a polyolefinic resin mixed with a petroleum resin is used to produce a multilayered film. However, this approach is not successful in solving the solvent attack in a practical level.
In view of the problems in the prior art, it is an object of the present invention to provide a stretched resin film having excellent printing properties, which is less prone to surface waving, even if the film is printed with widely-used, quick-drying offset printing ink.