In order to effectively cool an underfloor part, such as a transmission or a rear differential, and improve the aerodynamic conditions of the rear wheels, a front under member serving as a bottom of a front part of the vehicle is formed with left and right air passages for discharging inside air in the front part of the vehicle toward the rear wheels, and a middle air passage for contracting an outside underfloor air stream coming from the front of the vehicle, and directing the underfloor air stream along the center line of the vehicle.

The present invention relates to a vehicle underfloor structure.
One conventional vehicle underfloor structure employs an under cover closing the underside of the engine room. This under cover is made as flat as possible, and formed with louvers (14a in FIG. 28) for discharging the hot air inside the engine room. Japanese Utility Model Provisional Publication No. 60-105526 shows a similar conventional example.
In the conventional structure, the hot air discharged from the louvers tends to slow down the underfloor air stream as shown by velocity profiles u1-u4 in FIG. 28 while the rear wheels receive the relatively fast outside air streams.


A sliding window slidably fitted in an opening of an automobile roof. A frame made of a hard material, which linear expansion coefficient is substantially equal to that of the vehicle body, is fit into the opening. A hard synthetic resin plate is fit into the frame with a flexible molding arranged therebetween. The molding has a thin section which absorbs deformation of the resin plate caused by changes in the temperature.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to sliding windows, and more particularly to sliding windows that are made of a synthetic resin and provided in vehicle roofs.
2. Description of the Related Art
A roof of an automobile may be provided with a sliding window. The window is opened to draw fresh air into the passenger compartment. A typical sliding window 9 is illustrated in FIG. 7. As shown in FIG. 8(a), the window 9 is fit into an opening in the roof 99 of a vehicle. The window 9 may be lowered with respect to the roof 99 and then moved along a pair of guide rails 97 to open the roof 99, as shown in FIG. 8(b).
As shown in FIGS. 7 and 9, the window 9 includes an inorganic glass 91, a molding 92, and a weather strip 93. The molding 92 encompasses the glass 91. The weather strip 93 encompasses the outer side of the molding 92 to seal the space between the window 9 and the roof 99. The molding 92 is made of a relatively hard resin while the weather strip 93 is made of a soft rubber.
As shown in FIG. 9, a washer 951 and a fastener 952 is attached to the bottom surface of the molding 92 near each side of the glass 91. An elbow-like bracket 962 is held by the fastener 952. A shaft 961, which supports a roller 96, is coupled to the bracket 962. The roller 96 rolls along the rail 97. This simple sliding structure enables opening and closing of the window 9.
During recent years, it has become preferable to use a transparent synthetic resin plate for the sliding window instead of the inorganic glass. A resin plate is lighter and has a better appearance than inorganic glass. When employing a resin plate, it is preferable that major changes are not required in the above sliding structure. In other words, it is preferable that a sliding window employing a resin plate have the same highly reliable structure as the prior art sliding window in which the structure enables sealing of the space between the window and the roof and also enables opening and closing of the window.
However, the linear expansion coefficient of a synthetic resin is greater than that of an inorganic glass. When the vehicle travels, the outdoor temperature causes expansion or contraction of the resin plate. The deformation of the glass results in degradation of the sealing ability between the sliding window 9 and the roof 99. This may degrade the comfortable environment in the passenger compartment.

Kabushiki Kaisha Toyoda Jidoshokki Seisakusho


A fuel cell system has at least one fuel cell unit for generating electrical energy, a unit for storing or dispensing electrical energy, an electrical consumer for consuming electrical energy, a diagnostic unit for ascertaining a functional capability of the at least one fuel cell unit during a diagnosis phase, and a control unit for determining an electrical power generated at least during the diagnosis phase by the at least one fuel cell unit.

The invention relates to a fuel cell system.
In the use of fuel cell systems, for instance as so-called APUs (auxiliary power units) and/or in vehicle drive systems as well as in stationary systems, the electrical energy management should be aware of the status of the fuel cell or fuel cell stack with regard to dynamics, performance, degradation, and/or minimum voltage. Especially in reformer systems, information is additionally required about the degradation and the dynamics of the gas generating unit. Only then can the availability and reliability of the system be assured.
Previously known systems meet these requirements only inadequately. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,945,229 describes a fuel cell system in which the behavior of the current/voltage characteristic curve of the stack is ascertained via additional fuel cells at the stack inlet and the stack outlet. From this, the CO concentration in the hydrogen-rich anode gas is determined. In the event of a deviation from a reference behavior—that is, a set-point/actual-value comparison is made—protective measures are automatically tripped to avoid CO poisoning of the stack.

Fuel cell system with fuel cell unit having means for storing or dispensing electrical energy


The present invention relates to the multi-splindle machining apparatus which carries out machining of the discontinuous surfaces of a plurality of workpieces simultaneously, and in order to restrain the amplification of chattering, oscillation or the like so as to prevent the machining precision from deterioration, the diameters of plural drive pulleys 7a, 7b, 7c connected to a driving motor are finely varied to change at random the rotational speeds which are transmitted from the drive pulleys 7a, 7b, 7c through belts 10 to driven pulleys 8 provided on each machining spindle 3a, thus changing irregularly the timings at which cutting edges 9 of the machining spindles 3a pass the discontinuities such as joint portions s.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-spindle machining apparatus for and a multi-spindle machining method of finishing internal cylindrical surfaces of workpieces such as connecting rods, for example, which are employed in engines for motor vehicles.
2. Description of Related Art
Hitherto, there is known such a type of multi-spindle machine tool that, when machining internal cylindrical surfaces of openings of the connecting rods for use in the motor vehicle engines, for example, it carries out machining works of such internal cylindrical surfaces of the plural connecting rods simultaneously by each cutting edge provided on a plurality of machining spindles which are rotated together through a common driving source. With these multi-spindle machines, firstly a rough broaching or a rough boring, then a finish-boring and lastly an internal honing as an super-finishing process, for example, are in turn taken place simultaneously with respect to the plurality of connecting rods.
By the way, a large end of the connecting rod is divided into a cap portion and a body portion and hence formed with discontinuities at joint portions s,s between the cap portion and the body portion, as seen in FIG. 6. The discontinuity is also formed by an oil hole h open to the internal cylindrical surface of the large end. The reason why the super-finish honing as described above is inevitably applied to the connecting rods resides in that due to the discontinuities a predetermined surface roughness and circularity of the internal machining surface of the large end may not be obtained through the finishing process, as seen in FIG. 6(A). Namely, when the cutting edge passes the joint portions s,s and the oil hole h, the chattering or oscillation is susceptible to being developed, and when the plurality of connecting rods are fixed in position in the same posture and machined by the cutting edges of the same phase of rotation, the chattering or the like is amplified, since the plurality of the cutting edges pass almost at the same time the discontinuous portions.
When shifting the phases of rotation of the cutting edges with respect to each of the connecting rods so as to adjust the timings, at which the cutting edges pass the discontinuities, to be differed from each other, the petalous swells are susceptible to being developed periodically or cyclically along the circumferential direction, as illustrated in FIG. 6(B), and the improved effect is not obtained so much. Thus, it is desired to provide such a machining art that the predetermined surface roughness and circularity are capable of being obtained without super-finishing, in the case where the plurality of workpieces with a discontinuity on the surface to be machined are simultaneously machined by the multi-spindle machine tool.

Multi-spindle machining apparatus and multi-spindle machining method


An illuminance sensor is formed as a current output type sensor that outputs a current which increases or decreases in an analog manner corresponding to an increasing or decreasing change of the illuminance. A light-emitting device is connected with a detection resistor that detects a current flowing through a light-emitting device. A driving control circuit has a light-emitting device driver that outputs to the light-emitting device a voltage for holding a voltage, which is obtained when a current flowing through the light-emitting device and a current detected by the illuminance sensor flows through the detection resistor, in a predetermined value all the time. The light-emitting device emits a large amount of light in a dark place and emits a small amount of light in a bright place.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light control circuit, and in particular, to a light control circuit suitable for a brightness control of a lighting device that illuminates a liquid crystal device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, in a liquid crystal device used as an image display unit of a mobile phone or the like, a lighting device that illuminates a liquid crystal device is provided and the brightness of a screen is controlled corresponding to the surrounding brightness.
Various kinds of light control devices for the brightness control have been proposed (for example, see JP-A-10-191467 and JP-A-2003-68480).
A known light control device disclosed in JP-A-10-191467 is formed as shown in FIG. 5, for example. Referring to FIG. 5, an illuminance level detected by an illuminance sensor 21 formed using a phototransistor or the like is output, as a change of a voltage through a resistor 22 for current/voltage conversion, to an A/D converter 24. Then, a voltage value, which is an analog value, input to the A/D converter 24 is converted into a digital value and output to a control circuit 25. The control circuit 25 calculates the brightness of a lighting device 27 corresponding to an input voltage value and calculates the brightness of a light-emitting diode 28, which is to emit light in the lighting device 27, and converts the calculated brightness into, for example, a PWM signal and outputs the converted signal to a driving circuit 26. A plurality of light-emitting diodes (only one light-emitting diode is illustrated in FIG. 5) that form the lighting device 27 are connected to the driving circuit 26. In addition, the driving circuit 26 outputs a driving signal corresponding to the brightness of the light-emitting diodes to emit light, which is output from the control circuit 25, in order to cause the light-emitting diodes to emit light. Moreover, when the illuminance level detected by the illuminance sensor 21 changes, each constituent part operates corresponding to the change, such that the light-emitting diodes emit light in the brightness corresponding to the illuminance level.
However, this know device has the following problems. Since an output of the illuminance sensor 21 is A/D converted and is read in a digital manner, the brightness of the lighting device changes in a stepwise manner according to the brightness of surrounding light, as shown in FIG. 6. As a result, the eyes feel very uncomfortable.
Further, this device also has a disadvantage in that flickering occurs near the threshold of the A/D converter 24, for example, in an 'a' portion of FIG. 6 due to the change of the brightness of the lighting device. In order to solve the problem, if a gray-scale level in the light control is increased, the flickering is reduced. In this case, however, the size of a circuit increases. As a result, the cost increases.
Furthermore, in the case when a period of a PWM output to the lighting device is long, flickering has occurred. In order to solve the problem, if the period of the PWM is made short, the flickering is reduced. In this case, however, a clock period should be short. As a result, there has been a problem in that the power consumption of a control circuit increases due to the high-speed clock. In addition, in the case when the PWM period is made short, it has been difficult to minutely control the duty.
Moreover, the surrounding brightness ranges from several lux in a dark room to several hundreds and thousands lux in the case of sunlight. That is, the dynamic range is very large. Accordingly, in the case when the surrounding brightness is controlled in the digital manner in the same manner as in the related art, a large dynamic range is required for a read circuit of an illuminance sensor and a driving circuit of a lighting device. As a result, there has been a problem in that the circuit size increases.
In addition, a liquid crystal device includes a reflective LCD or a transflective LCD in which reflection weighs and a transmissive LCD or a transflective LCD in which transmission weighs that is opposite to the reflective LCD or the transflective LCD in which reflection weighs. A lighting device that needs the reflective LCD or the transflective LCD in which reflection weighs is a lighting device that emits a large amount of light in a dark place and emits a small amount of light in a bright place. A lighting device that needs the transmissive LCD or the transflective LCD in which transmission weighs is a lighting device that emits a small amount of light in a dark place and emits a large amount of light in a bright place. In the related art, there has been no light control device capable of properly controlling the amount of emitted light in an analog manner in correspondence with the both cases described above.


A paper-handling unit serves for generating groups of items, wherein each group includes a plurality of items. The paper-handling unit includes at least one input channel for receiving the items, a portion to generate groups from the received items, a drive-out station for driving out a generated group, a detector detecting predetermined features from the items of a driven-out group, and a controller. The controller is operable to determine whether a predetermined event has occurred to drive the drive-out station to drive out a group if the predetermined event has occurred, to determine whether information was obtained from the detector during a predetermined interval, to stop the paper-handling unit if no information was obtained from the detector during the predetermined interval, and to stop the paper-handling unit if information was obtained from the detector during the predetermined interval which indicates that the driven-out group does not meet at least one predetermined criterion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a paper-handling unit and a method for controlling the same, and particularly to a novel development related to paper-handling units for improving and automating a quality assurance process for verifying the groups of items produced by the paper-handling unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Prior art knows paper-handling units that receive individual items, for example personalized letters or sheets, assemble them to groups consisting of a plurality of individual items and process them for delivery. Such groups include, for example, a letter to a recipient and potentially one or more following pages (potentially also personalized) of the letter and objects (potentially also personalized) associated with the letter, for example credit cards or the like. Furthermore, the group may include enclosures (potentially also personalized). The assembled group is then prepared for delivery, for example by folding the group and sealing the edges of the folded group or by providing the accumulated group with an envelope. Furthermore, non-personalized enclosures, such as general information for the recipient of the letter, may be added to the group by the sender.
The control of such a unit is such that generally a so-called job description is provided by a central database, which indicates which individual sheets and/or individual objects provided to the unit are to be accumulated for their group. For example, when a personalized letter is received at the input channel of such a unit, a barcode printed thereon is detected to obtain the information required for the generation of the group from the job description.
The paper-handling unit then operates based on these control data to generate the desired group consisting of a plurality of individual items, which are then output at an output channel of the unit after the group has been completed. The output channel includes, for example, a shingle tray and/or further post-processing stations (e.g. franking units, sorting units, turning units, balances, etc.). The items generated there are then forwarded to the corresponding recipient, for example by postal delivery.
The above controller achieves high reliability when generating the individual groups and particularly with respect to each group containing the correct number of items and also the correct items.
However, errors in the unit may prevent individual following pages or enclosures for an item to be generated from being copied, for example due to copy errors, and thus from being added to the group. Thus, although the corresponding instructions were output to the handling unit by the controller, a situation occurs in which a group is indicated to be complete due to the information available to the controller, but the group is actually incomplete due to a mechanical error, for example when copying an enclosure. Such an incomplete group may nor readily be detected from a log that is generally also generated when processing a job, so that it is possible that the situation occurs that incomplete and thus faulty groups are generated and sent out. Such errors may be detected in units providing sensors for the detection of the copy at the corresponding stations. In the case of a malfunctioning of the sensors or in units without such sensors, it is, however, possible that the above situation will occur.
However, a particular problem are double or multiple copies, i.e. copying a different number of items than the desired number. In this situation, a higher number of following pages is copied when generating a group due to an error. This does not only result in an error in the group just generated, but also in the following groups. This is because the controller instructs the corresponding module of the paper-handling unit, when processing the next group, to copy another predetermined number of following pages of the corresponding enclosure. However, since at least one following page too many was copied when generating the previous group, the following group will contain at least one following page not belonging to this group (namely a following page actually associated with a subsequent group), even if the correct number of following pages is copied.
Thus, in the case of such an error, a situation may occur in which the whole job is faulty because incomplete and/or incorrect groups are generated which are then sent to the recipients.
Such a situation is disadvantageous not only in that the whole job has to be processed again, but also in that information may be sent to a recipient that was not intended for the same.
Yet another problem occurs when errors have occurred in the preparation of the enclosures or accompanying elements. Such elements are generated either immediately before they are supplied to the unit, for example by printers generating and outputting the personalized enclosures, or they are generated and provided in advance. In the course of this generation, errors may occur, so that a generated group no longer meets certain quality characteristics. For example, a generated page may be printed only partially or not at all, so that a group containing this page is regarded as incorrectly processed. It is also undesirable to send such a group to a recipient.

Method for quality assurance in the operation of a paper-handling unit


An information collection apparatus working as an agent of a plurality of client terminals for collecting information from an information providing server. A plurality of requested-item lists are stored in the requested-item list table, one for each client terminal. Each requested-item list is composed of a plurality of requested-items identifying a plurality of information items to be obtained by each client terminal. An information manager, which has the function of a combining processor, combines the contents of a plurality of requested-item lists to create a collection list. The collection list is composed of a plurality of collection items identifying a plurality of information to be collected by the information collection apparatus. The collection list is stored in a collection list table. An information collection processor actively references the information providing server to check if information has been updated, based on the collection list. Updated latest information is collected in this way. The collected latest information is delivered to corresponding one or more client terminals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for collecting information, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for collecting updated latest information from an information providing server over a network (such as the Internet).
2. Description of the Related Art
Many service providers on the Internet provide a service that, when particular information is updated to the latest information, automatically delivers the latest information to a client over the Internet in response to a previously-received request from the client (client terminal). Some specific examples are given below.
A client user who wants to receive the above-described service is required to notify the service provider of identification information, such as his or her own mail address or IP address, in advance. Upon receiving this identification information, the service provider stores the information in a personal information database of the service provider as the delivery address. When the information requested by the client is updated, the information providing server references the deliver address information stored in the personal information database to automatically deliver the updated latest information to the client identified by the delivery address information. The information providing server also provides a service that converts the latest information to a data specification desired by a client.
A problem with the conventional information providing service is that, as more and more clients request to receive the service, the number of information transmission addresses increases. This increases the load on the information providing server.

Apparatus and method for collecting information from information providing server


An electrostatically stabilized ink includes a dispersion which is electrostatically stabilized and comprises a pigment. The ink also includes an ionic amphiphile additive which has a charge center having an opposite charge from a charge center of the dispersion.

Pigments used in printing inks tend to be attracted to one another in the ink. If enough pigment particles become associated, the particles tend to fall out of solution. To prevent this, dispersants are added to the ink containing the pigment particles.
Dispersants generally use one of two methods for preventing the pigment particles from agglomerating. One method uses bulky groups attached to the pigment particle to prevent (or at least hinder) the pigment particles from being able to interact in such a way that they can coagulate. This method may be referred to as the steric hindrance method.
Another method which may be used to prevent the pigment particles from coagulating is electrostatic stabilization. This method generally associates dispersants with the pigment particles, the dispersants having a charged group which has the same charge as the other dispersants. This causes the individual dispersion complexes (pigment+dispersant) to be repelled from each other. Thus, two pigment particles each having a negatively charged dispersant associated with it will be repelled from each other due to the fact that like charges are repelled from each other.
Dispersants tend to be selected such that they sufficiently interact with the pigment particle to form a stabilized dispersion complex. While uncommon, it is also possible for a pigment particle to have sufficient steric hindrance to be sterically stabilized or sufficient charge to be electrostatically stabilized without the use of a dispersant. As used herein, dispersion will refer to any particle or complex of particles that tend to disperse from each other. Reference to a dispersion complex is a reference to the combination of a pigment and a dispersant which are associated and which complex tends to be dispersed from other dispersions.
With electrostatically stabilized pigment dispersions, excursions in pH can lead to their instability. With present pigmented inks, pH decreases with accelerated storage testing time, which can amount to 0.5 pH units. The decrease in pH also heralds an increase in ionic strength, which has an adverse, shrinking effect on the Debye screening length as well as protonization of the carboxylate groups on the dispersant. Thus, a double-barreled threat presents itself to a pigments stability with shifts in pH over time.
Buffers may be employed to stabilize the pH, but, in order to achieve the buffering capacity to withstand pH drift, a high concentration of buffer is used which contributes significantly to the total ionic strength of the solution and thus lowers the Debye screening length as well.
The teachings hereinbelow extend to those embodiments which fall within the scope of the appended claims, regardless of whether they accomplish one or more of the above-mentioned needs, benefits, or preferences.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A high-density plasma processing apparatus includes a processing chamber, having a susceptor for supporting an object to be processed positioned therein and a dielectric window positioned on the processing chamber to form an upper surface of the processing chamber. A reaction gas injection device injects a reaction gas into an interior of the processing chamber. An inductively coupled plasma (ICP) antenna, which is installed on a center of the dielectric window, transfers radio frequency (RF) power from an RF power supply to the interior of the processing chamber. A waveguide guides a microwave generated by a microwave generator. A circular radiative tube, which is installed on the dielectric window around the ICP antenna and is connected to the waveguide, radiates a microwave toward the interior of the processing chamber via a plurality of slots formed through a bottom wall of the radiative tube.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a high-density plasma processing apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a high-density plasma processing apparatus that is designed to improve uniformity of a distribution of plasma near a surface of a substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
Plasma application techniques are widely used in a process of microfabricating a substrate used to manufacture a semiconductor device or a flat display panel. In particular, plasma is widely used to etch the surface of a wafer used to manufacture a semiconductor device or the surface of a substrate used to manufacture a liquid crystal display (LCD). In addition, plasma is widely used to deposit a predetermined material layer on the surface of the substrate or wafer. Accordingly, development of a plasma processing apparatus suitable for a wafer etching process or a process of depositing a layer on a wafer is critical to the development of methods and apparatuses for manufacturing a semiconductor device or a flat display panel.
There are a variety of types of conventional plasma processing apparatuses that are presently in widespread use, including an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) processing apparatus and a plasma processing apparatus using microwaves.
FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic structure of a conventional ICP processing apparatus. Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional ICP processing apparatus includes a processing chamber 10 defining a plasma forming space. A susceptor 12 is installed at an inner bottom surface of the processing chamber 10 to support an object to be processed, e.g., a wafer (W). A dielectric window 16 is installed on top of the processing chamber 10 to form a top surface of the processing chamber 10. A gas inlet 14 for introducing a reaction gas into the processing chamber 10 is formed through one sidewall of the processing chamber 10. A plurality of gas distribution ports 15, which is connected to the gas inlet 14, is formed within the processing chamber 10. A vacuum suction port 18, which is connected to a vacuum pump 19, is formed through a bottom wall of the processing chamber 10. The vacuum pump 19 evacuates air from the processing chamber 10 through the vacuum suction port 18 to create vacuum conditions within the processing chamber 10, thereby sealing the processing chamber 10. An ICP antenna 20 for generating plasma within the processing chamber 10 is installed over the dielectric window 16.
An RF power supply (not shown) is connected to the ICP antenna 20. Accordingly, an RF current flows through the ICP antenna 20 and generates a magnetic field. Due to a change in the magnetic field with time, an electric field is induced within the processing chamber 10. At this time in an operation of the apparatus, the reaction gas is introduced into the processing chamber 10 via the gas distribution ports 15. Electrons accelerated by the induced electric field then ionize the reaction gas by colliding with the reaction gas, thereby generating a plasma within the processing chamber 10. The generated plasma is used to etch a surface of the wafer W while chemically reacting with the surface of the wafer W or to deposit a predetermined material layer on the surface of the wafer W.
FIG. 2 illustrates a conventional plasma processing apparatus using microwaves. The plasma processing apparatus of FIG. 2 includes a plasma source 40 and a processing chamber 30. The plasma source 40 includes a microwave generator (not shown), a waveguide 41, and a radiative tube 42. The waveguide 41 transfers a microwave oscillated by the microwave generator and has a rectangular cross-section. The radiative tube 42 has a plurality of slots 43 for radiating the microwave into the processing chamber 30. The slots 43 may be formed in various shapes.
The processing chamber 30 includes a dielectric window 31, a support 32, and gas inlets 33. The dielectric window 31 is installed on top of the processing chamber 30, and the radiative tube 42 is installed on the dielectric window 31. The support 32 for supporting an object to be processed, e.g., a wafer, is installed within the processing chamber 30 opposite to the dielectric window 31. The support 32 is connected to a power supply 35. An exhaust port 34 is formed through a bottom wall of the processing chamber 30 and used to create vacuum conditions within the processing chamber 30.
In conventional plasma processing apparatuses having structures such as those described above, the distribution of plasma near a wafer is not uniform.
FIGS. 3A and 3B are graphs showing a relationship between a distribution of plasma through a plasma generating area within a processing chamber and a distribution of plasma near a wafer. As shown in FIG. 3A, even when plasma is uniformly distributed through the plasma generating area, a distribution of plasma near the wafer is non-uniform due to diffusion. Hence, to obtain uniform distribution of plasma near the wafer, it is desirable to form a plasma distribution having a plasma density greater near a peripheral area of an interior of the processing chamber than near a central area, i.e., an "M-shaped" plasma distribution, through the plasma generating area, as shown in FIG. 3B.
When the distribution of plasma is non-uniform as described above, an etching depth of the wafer W or a thickness and property of a material layer deposited on the surface of the wafer W varies over the surface of the wafer W.
In particular, this variation becomes severe as a size of a substrate increases. In the case of ICP processing apparatuses, as the substrate becomes larger, a size of an ICP antenna used must be larger in order to maintain a high plasma density within a processing chamber. However, since a voltage applied to the ICP antenna necessarily increases with the enlargement of the ICP antenna, there is a limit in enlarging the ICP antenna. In addition, in the case of plasma processing apparatuses using microwaves, transmitting the high power of the microwave to the interior of a processing chamber without a substantial increase in the size of a microwave source is difficult, and uniformly distributing the power of a microwave into the processing chamber is also difficult.
As described above, the conventional plasma processing apparatuses are not able to satisfactorily cope with a change in process conditions because of the aforementioned problems and accordingly can provide neither a high plasma density nor a uniform distribution of plasma. In particular, with a recent trend toward the enlargement of a wafer, it becomes more difficult for the conventional plasma processing apparatuses to maintain the uniformity of the distribution of plasma near a wafer. This non-uniformity significantly degrades the quality or yield of semiconductor devices. Therefore, both an improvement in the uniformity of a wafer processing process with an enlarged wafer and maintenance of a high plasma density are primary considerations in the development of a plasma processing apparatus.

High-density plasma processing apparatus


A pressure actuation enabling method includes plugging a passage that fluidically connects an inside with an outside of a tubular with a plug, building differential pressure across the plug, actuating an actuator with the differential pressure and removing the plug.

It is common in tubular systems to actuate an actuator using pressure. Doing so often requires plugging a passageway so that pressure can be built thereagainst. In cases wherein it is desirable to flow through the passageway after having built pressure against a plug engaged therewith the plug must be removed. Methods such as drilling or milling to remove a runnable plug work well for some applications. However, the time to run the drilling/milling equipment and perform the machining operation can be costly in lost production in the case where the tubular system is employed to recover hydrocarbons from an earth formation, for example. The art is therefore always interested in methods of allowing actuation without the aforementioned drawback.


The purpose is to provide an ultrasound imaging device capable of automatically detecting a boundary of a biological tissue in an ultrasound image. An ultrasound imaging device includes an image generation module which receives ultrasound waves transmitted from a surface of an analyte toward an inside of the analyte and reflected therein to generate an ultrasound image inside the analyte, a reference point setting module which sets a reference point of a tissue of interest of the ultrasound image, a first seed point imparting module which imparts one or more seed points to the ultrasound image with reference point, and a region demarcating module which demarcates a region to which the seed point belongs and divides an image region of the analyte included in the ultrasound image into a plurality of regions according to a type of tissue.

Conventionally, in order to acquire a tomographic image of a living body, a CT (Computed Tomography) device or an MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) device has been used. Since these devices are large and expensive, and there is a problem of exposure to radiation, a technique for obtaining tomographic images using ultrasound waves has been developed in recent years. For example, Non-Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for evaluating muscle mass and muscle quality in an ultrasound tomographic image on the basis of a boundary between a muscle and another tissue such as subcutaneous fat or a boundary between muscles.

Ultrasound imaging device, ultrasound imaging system, ultrasound imaging method and ultrasound imaging program


The ion exchange resin beads have functional groups of formula I wherein R.sup.1, R.sup.2, R.sup.3, R.sup.4, m, r and q have the meanings stated in claim 1 and which have a matrix of a cross-linked polymer wherein the level of cross-linkages is decreased in the shell area is compared to the core area.. These ion exchange resin beads are prepared by reacting resin beads which have primary or secondary amino groups and the mentioned matrix of a cross-linked polymer with a1) a hypophosphite salt in the presence of an acid, or a2) a hypophosphorous acid and b) formaldehyde or a formaldehyde releasing compound.

The present invention relates to the ion exchange resin beads which are for example useful for reducing the concentration of multi-valent alkaline earth or transition metal cations in an aqueous solution, to processes for preparing these ion exchange resin beads and to the use of the ion exchange resin beads.
It is well known in several areas of technology that cations of the alkaline earth metals and transition metals are desired to be removed from solutions due to their value or to the detrimental effects they can cause. For example, there are situations where these cations are desired to be removed from the solutions, to the greatest extent possible, prior to the
a) use of the liquid in chemical or separation processes, PA1 b) consumption of the liquid or PA1 c) release of the liquid into the environment. PA1 i) (aminomethyl)(hydroxymethyl)phosphinic acid groups and PA1 ii) a matrix of a cross-linked polymer wherein the level of cross-linkages is decreased in the shell area as compared to the core area. PA1 i) primary or secondary amino groups and PA1 ii) a matrix of a cross-linked polymer wherein the level of cross-linkages is decreased in the shell area as compared to the core area with PA1 q is zero; PA1 each R.sup.3 independently is hydrogen or a cation; PA1 each R.sup.4 independently is hydrogen, alkyl, cycloalkyl or aryl; and PA1 m is from 1 to 12, preferably from 1 to 6, more preferably from 1 to 3, PA1 by reacting resin beads having groups of formula ##STR2## wherein X is halogen and R.sup.4 and m have the meanings stated above and having an above mentioned matrix
It has long been known that it is possible to exchange detrimental ions in a stream with more acceptable ions and/or chelate ions to remove them from the streams. In this regard there have been many developments made over the years in this area of specialized polymeric resins and specialized functional groups which can be chemically bound to such resins to provide improved systems for the removal of various anions and cations. Notwithstanding this activity it remains quite unpredictable which combinations of functional groups and polymeric resins will prove to be suitable for the removal of a particular type of ion. The published PCT application WO 83/02947 discloses macroporous alkylaminophosphonic chelating resins for purifying brines. British Patent 853,834 relates to ion-exchange resins containing substituted-aminomethyl phosphonate groups.
British Patent Specification 1,230,363 discloses shaped shell graft copolymeric particles which comprise an inert polymeric nucleus having grafted on it a polymeric shell. The nucleus may be cross-linked. The shell contains separate and discrete regions of ion exchange reactive groups "opposite signs". By "opposite signs" is meant that the shell contains a) anion and cation exchange groups or b) strongly basic and weakly basic groups or c) strongly acidic and weakly acidic groups.
Published German Patent Application 1,695,449 discloses a process for preparing substituted (aminomethyl)phosphinic acids by reacting hypophosphorous acid with an amine and an aldehyde. If the produced (aminomethyl) phosphinic acids are polymeric compounds, they can be used for impregnating materials as for ion exchange applications.
In the published German Patent Application 28 48 289 and British Patent Application 2 040 950 macroporous styrene-divinylbenzene polymers containing (aminomethyl)(hydroxymethyl)phosphinic acid groups have been suggested for selectively separating the cations and anions of heavy metals such as WO.sub.3.sup.2- and Cu.sup.2+. Such functionalized polymers are prepared according to the teaching of German Patent Application 38 48 289 by aminating cross-linked chloromethylated styrene-divinylbenzene polymers with urotropin (hexamethylene tetramine), monoethanolamine, or ethylene diamine and reacting the aminated polymer with formalin (an aqueous solution of formaldehyde), sodium hypophosophite and concentrated hydrochloric acid. However, the optimized macroporous styrene-divinylbenzene polymers containing (aminomethyl)(hydroxymethyl)phosphinic acid groups do not have an excellent copper capacity. In particular when these macroporous polymers containing alpha-aminophosphinic acid groups are used in aqueous solutions are an elevated temperature, their copper or calcium capacity is insufficient for some applications.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide new polymers containing ion exchange groups which have the same or a higher cation exchange capacity such as copper capacity or calcium capacity. Since many processes for removal of certain cations from solutions are advantageously carried out at elevated temperatures, typically from about 35.degree. C. to about 70.degree. C., such as the removal of calcium from brine solutions used for the production of chlorine, it would be particularly desirable to provide new polymers containing ion exchange groups which have a high cation exchange capacity, such as calcium or copper capacity, at elevated temperatures. By "elevated temperatures" is meant 35.degree. C. or higher, preferably at least about 40.degree. C.
In many ion exchange processes, the resins are subjected to stresses which cause substantial breakage in the beads. Said stresses may be mechanical, i.e., due to crushing or collisions between beads or the beads and their containers, or osmotic, such as when the beads are subjected to sudden or repeated changes in electrolyte concentration. The breakage of the ion exchange beads causes substantial losses in the efficiency of the ion exchange column and large costs in replacing the broken resins.
Accordingly, it would also be desirable to provide new polymers containing ion exchange groups which have a high resistance to osmotic shock or to mechanical stress.
Furthermore, it would be desirable to provide a new, efficient process for preparing these polymers.

Ion exchange resin beads having aminoalkylphosphonic groups and processes for preparing them


A flexible electric heater may be formed from multiple congruent planar layers secured to one another to form a laminate in a variety of configurations. A junction box is adhered to the planar layers over an opening in an outer layer. An adhesive catchment area in the laminate is filled with adhesive, and the adhesive extends into the junction box where it fills a second adhesive catchment area. The mass of continuous adhesive thus formed seals and bonds the junction box to the flexible planar layers. Conductors from the electrical heater pass through the adhesive and may be strain relieved.

In life in general there is frequently found the necessity for heating the contents of a barrel or tank or some other such object with a nonplaner surface. These objects may be located in a place subject to the ravages of the outdoors and the associated elements or they may be indoors and subject to cleaning spray or they may be in an area which contains or has a possibility of containing explosive gases. A practical and safe method to apply heat is to utilise a flexible electric heating pad fastened to the object. There are a number of such systems available and they do heat objects as required.
These systems in general include a heating element embedded between two flexible insulators, a ground shield to provide mechanical and grounding protection for the heater, a ground conductor connected to the ground shield and power conductors connected to the heating element, thermostatic control, a junction box in which terminations are made between the conductors and the power cord and a method by which the unit may be attached to the nonplaner surface.
Some of the systems have junction boxes which are bonded to the flexible heater and permanently seal the terminations between the conductors and the power cord and some have junction boxes which are mechanically attached to the flexible heater but do not provide a waterproof seal to the terminations and some have the junction box in a remote location from the connection between the ground conductor and the ground shield and the connection between the power conductors and the heating element. There follows a list of problems associated with these types of heating systems when utilized for heating objects subject to the ravages of the outdoors and the associated elements or indoors and subject to cleaning spray or in an area which contains or has a possibility of containing explosive gases.
For some industrial applications it is a requirement of certification agencies that electric heaters have a power cord which is replaceable in case of damage during use. In order to replace the power cord the termination between the power conductors and the power cord must not be permanently sealed and must be accessible thus necessitating the use of an accessible junction box. In addition the junction box must be sealed sufficiently or have inherent characteristics so as to prevent moisture or explosive gases from entering it. The problems include the difficulty of excluding moisture or explosive gases from the area of the connection between the ground shield and the ground conductor and between the heating element and the power conductors, the difficulty of preventing mechanical stress on the connection between the ground shield and the ground conductor and between the heating element and the power conductors, the difficulty of excluding moisture or explosive gases from the area of the termination between the conductors and the power cord, the difficulty of excluding moisture or explosive gases from the thermostat, the difficulty of maintaining access to the area of the termination between the conductors and the power cord, the difficulty of securing the junction box to the heater.


An output circuit includes a driver circuit and a node control circuit. The driver circuit includes a first transistor and a second transistor. The first transistor includes one end coupled to an external terminal and the other end coupled to a first node. The second transistor includes one end coupled to the first node and the other end coupled to a wiring that is supplied with a power supply voltage. When the first transistor and the second transistor are deactivated, the node control circuit supplies a node control signal based on a voltage of the external terminal to the first node.

A semiconductor integrated circuit formed in a semiconductor chip is coupled to an external circuit via an external terminal (pad) of the semiconductor chip. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication Nos. 2004-282660 and 2006-311201 describe a semiconductor integrated circuit including an input and output circuit that inputs and outputs a signal from and to an external circuit.
For example, the semiconductor integrated circuit outputs a digital signal from an output circuit to a certain terminal. Further, the semiconductor integrated circuit sets the output circuit into a high-impedance state and receives a digital signal from that terminal.
In a sequential comparison type A/D converter, every time A/D conversion of each bit is performed, a capacitor is charged and discharged by an output signal from a D/A converter so as to change a comparison voltage. In other words, an output signal from the D/A converter to be used for charging and discharging the capacitor changes according to a comparison result of a previous bit. A time required for charging and discharging the capacitor is influenced by an increase in speed of the A/D conversion. However, when the increase in speed of the A/D conversion shortens a charge/discharge cycle period, the capacitor may not be sufficiently charged and discharged. As a result, a voltage difference is caused between a voltage according to a comparison result of previous bit and a comparison voltage obtained by the charging and discharging of the capacitor. This voltage difference causes erroneous determination in an operation for comparing a next bit. This deteriorates accuracy of a digital output signal.


An integrated circuit package that includes a liquid phase thermal interface material (TIM) is described. The package may include any number of die. The liquid phase TIM can be sealed in a chamber between a die and an integrated heat spreader and bounded on the sides by a perimeter layer. The liquid phase TIM can be fixed in place or circulated, depending on application. A thermal conductivity of the liquid phase TIM can be at least 15 Watts/meter-Kelvin, according to some embodiments. A liquid phase TIM eliminates failure mechanisms present in solid phase TIMs, such as cracking due to warpage and uncontained flow out of the module.

Integrated circuitry continues to scale to smaller feature dimensions and higher packaging densities. With such scaling, the density of power consumption of a given microelectronic device within a given package tends to increase, which, in turn, tends to increase the average junction temperature of transistors of that device. If the temperature of the microelectronic device becomes too high, the integrated circuits in the device may be damaged or otherwise suffer performance issues (e.g., sub-optimal performance such as low gain or slow switching speeds, or catastrophic failure where one or more portions of the integrated circuitry is destroyed). This issue is exacerbated when multiple microelectronic devices are incorporated in close proximity to one another in a given die layout. Thus, thermal transfer solutions, such as integrated heat spreaders, must be utilized to remove heat from such microelectronic devices. There are a number of non-trivial and unresolved issues associated with thermal management.
The figures depict various embodiments of the present disclosure for purposes of illustration only. Numerous variations, configurations, and other embodiments will be apparent from the following detailed discussion. Furthermore, as will be appreciated, the figures are not necessarily drawn to scale or intended to limit the described embodiments to the specific configurations shown. For instance, while some figures generally indicate straight lines, right angles, and smooth surfaces, an actual implementation of the disclosed techniques may have less than perfect straight lines and right angles, and some features may have surface topography or otherwise be non-smooth, given real-world limitations of fabrication processes. In short, the figures are provided merely to show example structures.

Liquid thermal interface material in electronic packaging


An armature shaft having an eccentric cam body extending from one end thereof is gripped by an adjustable collet mechanism and rotated by a drive motor, preferably a stepping motor, having an output shaft movable in discrete increments. This rotation continues until an imaginary reference point on the periphery of the cam body reaches first and second angular positions. The preferred reference point is the point on the periphery of the end face of the cam body that is farthest from the axis of rotation of the armature shaft. The number of steps necessary to rotate the armature shaft so that the reference point is moved from the first angular position to the second angular position is determined as the armature shaft is rotated and used to determine the position of the reference point relative to a centerline between the first and second angular positions. Thereafter, the armature shaft is rotated from the second angular position by a number of steps computed by a programmable controller which controls the motor so that the cam body has the desired angular orientation relative to the axis of rotation of the armature shaft. After the shaft is oriented, the collet mechanism is moved, without disturbing the angular orientation of the shaft, to align the oriented shaft with a central aperture in a stack of lamination. Thereafter, the oriented shaft is inserted into the stack of laminations.

During the manufacture of an electric motor armature, an armature shaft and lamination assembly machine is used to press an armature shaft into an aperture in the middle of a stack of slotted laminations made from iron or other metal and that form the core of the armature. Armature shafts are normally formed as solid round rods so that there is typically no concern with regard to the rotational position of the armature shaft about its axis. Certain armature shafts have integrally-formed eccentric cam bodies extending axially from one of their ends. To assist in balancing such an armature shaft to avoid excessive vibration during use, it can be useful to control the rotational orientation of the armature shaft relative to the rotational orientation of the stack of laminations. A prior method and apparatus used to rotationally orient armature shafts having an eccentric cam body extending from one end thereof is found in commonly-owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,500,993.

Method and apparatus for rotationally orienting an armature shaft


A current mode controlled power converter controllable in a digitally processing current mode even during an on time. In the power converter, each control period based on a reference signal includes a slope calculation period in which a slope compensation signal for the control period is calculated by a slope compensation unit. During each slope calculation period, the slope compensation unit negates the slope compensation signal calculated previous to the control period including the slope calculation period, and a reset signal generation unit compares a current detection signal detected by a current detection unit with a current instruction set to an error signal generated by an error signal generation unit to generate a reset signal.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a current mode controlled power converter.
2. Related Art
A current mode controlled power converter essentially includes slope compensation means for preventing subharmonic oscillation and needs an external slope circuit to implement the slope compensation means.
An example of technique used in a known DC-DC converter as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2011-101479 is intended to implement slope compensation upon dynamic changes in output voltage while allowing for stable operation with low power consumption and high efficiency. This DC-DC converter includes an output voltage setting register for storing a voltage setting value corresponding to a target output voltage value, and a slope compensation circuit which generates a slope compensation signal having a slope compensation amount corresponding to the stored voltage setting value.
The DC-DC converter disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2011-101479 eliminates an analog circuit that feedbacks an output voltage by providing the output voltage setting register, but includes a slope compensation circuit in place of the analog circuit. The slope compensation circuit receives a slope compensation amount reference voltage from a slope compensation DAC and a periodic signal from an oscillation circuit to generate a slope compensation signal having a sawtooth wave shape. Implementation of such an analog slope compensation value calculation circuit will inevitably lead to an increase of number of components, which may increase not only manufacturing costs, but also converter dimensions.
A digital slope calculation circuit would be able to overcome the above disadvantages, where the slope compensation is digitally processed in a microcomputer. Digitally processing the slope compensation in the microcomputer will, however, lead to an updating delay such that the timing of updating a current instruction is delayed by a calculation time required to calculate the current instruction. In the presence of such an updating delay, an on time corresponding to a duty ratio of a pulse signal less than the calculation time will disable voltage control. Therefore, only with digitally processing of the slope compensation in the microcomputer, there is another disadvantage that the on time has to be greater than the calculation time. Although a microcomputer operable at high frequencies is able to reduce the on time, the on time will still have to be greater than the calculation time, which leads to still another disadvantage that the microcomputer becomes more expensive.
Load variations and the like may cause a current reference signal (Iref) to change at time t65 as shown in FIG. 12, where a slope compensation signal calculated previous to a control cycle of time t65 to time t69 may remain, for example, at time t66, which gives rise to a further disadvantage that the voltage control is disabled until completion of the calculation and the DC-DC converter may malfunction at an improper duty ratio.
In consideration of the foregoing, it would therefore be desirable to have a power converter controllable in a digitally processing current mode even during an on time and able to reduce manufacturing costs and converter dimensions.


A receiver for coherent detection of a PSK modulated optical carrier includes an optical detector, digital-to-analog converters, and a digital module. The optical detector is configured to mix the modulated optical carrier with two phase components of a reference optical carrier and to produce analog output signals representative of optical signals produced by said mixing. The digital-to-analog converters are connected to receive the analog output signals and to produce digital signals from the received analog output signals. The digital module is connected to receive the digital signals and to perform one of compensating the received digital signals for a conjugate phase misalignment between the mixed components, extracting phase of the received digital signals, and estimating a frequency offset between the two carriers from the received digital signals.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to coherent detection methods for phase-shifting-keying and apparatus for performing such methods.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Quadrature phase-shift-keying (QPSK) is a more bandwidth-efficient modulation scheme than simple on-off modulation schemes. In wireline and wireless communication systems, QPSK receivers typically have an analog phase lock loop (PLL) for providing the type of coherent detection typically needed to implement a QPSK modulation scheme. The PLL provides feedback that enables phase and frequency tracking of the transmitted optical carrier by a local oscillator. The local oscillator provides a reference signal for down mixing of the modulated carrier wave received from the transmitter.
In optical communication systems, schemes using an optical PLL have been proposed for implementing coherent detection. In such schemes, the optical receiver has a local optical oscillator for down mixing the received modulated optical carrier and also has an optical PLL. The optical PLL feeds back information for phase and frequency synchronizing the local optical oscillator to the optical carrier.
Unfortunately, the construction of optical PLLs is often difficult to achieve. For example, conventional laser sources often have large line widths. The large line widths can make optical phase synchronization difficult at data transmission rates. Indeed, an absence of efficient and inexpensive apparatus for implementing such synchronization has hindered the development of coherent optical communications systems that could otherwise more efficiently use the available optical bandwidth.


A reactive pressure sensitive adhesive composition which comprises at least one material selected from the group consisting of saturated polyester resins, acrylic rubbers, acrylic elastomers, polybutadienes and acrylic pressure sensitive adhesives which are all non-flowable at normal temperature and at least one reactive compound selected from the group consisting of (meth)acrylic urethane monomers, oligomers thereof, other (meth)acrylate monomers and oligomers thereof, and sealer tape, sheet or molding which includes the composition.

This invention relates to a reactive pressure sensitive adhesive composition curable with heat or ionized radiation, and a sealing tape or sheet or molding by use thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to a reactive pressure sensitive adhesive composition, which has initially adhesive force but generates bonding force though curing under melting by heat or curing as such by light, and to a sealing tape or sheet comprising the above reactive pressure sensitive adhesive layer having a thickness of about 10.sup.-5 to 10.sup.-2 m applied on a substrate surface or to a molding comprising the above reactive pressure sensitive adhesive which has any desired shape.
Pressure sensitive adhesive tape or sheet comprising the above pressure sensitive adhesive applied on a substrate surface has tackiness at normal temperature and can be plastered onto an objective material without any preliminary operation. Besides, it can be advantageously plastered again and therefore has been used in a variety of fields. However, what we call "pressure sensitive adhesive" has the drawback that it has generally weaker adhesive force as compared with adhesives. Also, since the tape is formed by coating a tape substrate with pressure sensitive adhesive, it cannot be plastered without a gap onto a site with a complicated shape, for example, a site with stepped difference, or a site which is recessed or protruded on account of thickness, hardness, firmness, etc. possessed by the substrate. Further the pressure sensitive adhesive tape involves therein a problem in water resistance, solvent resistance and heat resistance.
On the other hand, paints, adhesives, sealing materials are adaptable for complicated shapes, curved surfaces, holes, projections, stepped differences, gaps, etc. and also the curing reaction can be advantageously utilized in order to improve water resistance, solvent resistance and heat resistance of the pressure sensitive adhesive tape. However, these paints, adhesives and sealing materials require pretreatment such as mixing with a curing agent and they are ordinarily in the form of sol or paste contained in a solvent, and therefore many problems are involved in their handling, since some of them are difficult to be handled directly with hands or must be handled in a vessel due to their flowability. Also, care must be taken about contamination against the portions except for target portions to be applied due to flowing, sagging and splash during applications, and removal of the material once contaminated is extremely difficult and is frequently impossible.
Most of the sealing materials to be used in the vehicle body steps, the assembling steps or armoring steps of automobiles, ship, railroad vehicles, aircrafts, rockets, etc. are in a form of paste and those in a form of tape can be seen only in a part thereof. Tape-shaped sealing materials are difficult to have sufficient sealing effect at the site with a complicated shape, involving also a problem in water resistance and also weak adhesive force to be readily peeled off. However, since a very smooth surface can be formed, they have been used in applications where only appearance is made much of. On the other hand, paste-like sealing materials generally used frequently have excellent sealing effect and adhesive force, but cumbersome operation is required for making the appearance smooth and therefore they have been utilized at the sites in the inner portions which cannot be seen or which can be scarcely observed. However, in recent years, good appearance has been demanded by the users, particularly in the field of automobiles, even to the details which cannot be scarcely observed. For this reason, it has become necessary to have a sealing material endowed with both a beautiful appearance after application of the tape-shaped sealing material and sealing effect and adhesive force of the paste-like sealing material. In addition, for the paste-like sealing materials, a tool for exclusive use (usually gun) has been used in application. Accordingly, at narrow places where such gun cannot enter or working can be done with difficulty even if it can enter, not only workability is poor, but erroneous attachment of the sealing material onto places other than the intended areas will require enormous labor for wiping off and this cannot necessarily be removed completely.

Reactive pressure sensitive adhesive composition, sealer tape, sheet or molding by use thereof


An internal combustion engine has a separate exhaust passage for each one of banks. An exhaust purifying catalyst is provided in each exhaust passage. The mass flow rates G1, G2 of exhaust gas that flow through the exhaust passages are individually estimated. The flow rate of exhaust gas is individually adjusted per each bank by controlling the operation of each one of exhaust gas recirculation valves such that the difference between the estimated mass flow rates G1, G2 is decreased.

In an internal combustion engine that employs V-type cylinder arrangement, a separate exhaust purifying catalyst is provided per bank having a group of cylinders. In such an internal combustion engine, if the bed temperatures of the exhaust purifying catalysts vary from one another, the purifying performance undesirably varies per the exhaust purifying catalyst. Therefore, it is difficult to appropriately perform an exhaust purifying control. That is, even if the exhaust purifying control is adjusted to a certain exhaust purifying catalyst, the exhaust purifying control is not suitable for another exhaust purifying catalyst having different bed temperature. Thus, the exhaust gas may not be sufficiently purified.
In the prior art, an exhaust purifying apparatus for a V-type internal combustion engine, which includes a separate exhaust purifying catalyst per bank, has been proposed. The exhaust purifying apparatus detects the bed temperature of each exhaust purifying catalyst and adjusts the ignition timing per bank through a feedback control (For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-117786). The exhaust purifying apparatus reduces the variation of the catalyst bed temperatures by decreasing the temperature of exhaust gas by delaying the ignition timing of the bank having a higher catalyst bed temperature and increasing the temperature of exhaust gas by advancing the ignition timing of the bank having a lower catalyst bed temperature.
The variation of the catalyst bed temperatures is the main cause of variation of heat received by the exhaust purifying catalyst from exhaust gas. If the state of heat reception and heat radiation of the exhaust purifying catalyst are maintained constant, the variation in the amount of heat received by each exhaust purifying catalyst from exhaust gas is automatically corrected by equalizing the catalyst bed temperatures of the exhaust purifying catalysts. However, in the internal combustion engine of, for example, a vehicle, the temperature and the flow rate of exhaust gas change by a large amount when the operating condition is changed. Accordingly, the amount of heat received by the exhaust purifying catalyst fluctuates by a large amount. Therefore, even if the bed temperatures of the exhaust purifying catalysts temporarily become equal to one another, the amount of heat received by each exhaust purifying catalyst is not necessarily equal to that of the other catalyst. Thus, it is difficult to maintain the bed temperatures of the exhaust purifying catalysts to be equal to one another. Therefore, when the ignition timing is adjusted only based on the bed temperature of each exhaust purifying catalyst, delay and excess response in feedback adjustment or control hunting may occur.

Exhaust purifying apparatus for internal combustion engine


A negative electrode for a nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery of the embodiment includes a current collector; and an electrode mixture layer that is formed on the current collector and contains a first particle, a second particle and a binder. The first particle is comprised of silicon, a silicon oxide and a carbonaceous material. The second particle has electron conductivity and an oxygen content of 1% or lower. The electrode mixture layer is characterized in that silicon concentrations in the vicinity of the surface having contact with the current collector and the vicinity of the opposite surface to the surface having contact with the current collector are higher than a silicon concentration at the central part in the thickness direction.

In recent years, the miniaturization technology for electronic devices has been rapidly developed, and various kinds of portable electronic devices are becoming popular. Also, a battery, which is a power supply for these portable electronic devices, has been required to be miniaturized, and a nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery having high energy density is attracting attention.
The nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery obtained by using metallic lithium as a negative electrode active material is characterized in that the battery life is short because a dendritic crystal called dendrite precipitates on a negative electrode during charge although energy density is very high. Also, in this nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery, dendrite can be grown so as to reach a positive electrode, thereby causing an internal short circuit, and there are problems in safety. Therefore, a carbon material capable of absorbing and desorbing lithium, specifically graphitic carbon, has been used as a negative electrode active material substituted for metallic lithium.
In order to increase the energy density of a nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery, it has been attempted to use materials having large lithium storage capacity and high density for a negative electrode active material. Examples of such materials include an amorphous chalcogen compound and elements such as silicon and tin which form an alloy with lithium. Among these materials, silicon can absorb lithium until the atomic ratio Li/Si of lithium atoms to silicon atoms reaches 4.4. Thus, the negative electrode capacity per mass of the negative electrode active material (silicon) is about 10 times as large as that of graphitic carbon.
Silicon is characterized in that the volume thereof largely changes associated with the insertion and desorption of lithium in charge and discharge cycle. The volume of a negative electrode also changes associated with the volume change of silicon, and an internal short circuit occurs in a nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery. Consequently, a nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery can be in an overdischarged state which is beyond a usual charge and discharge range. When a nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery is in an overdischarged state, the resistance of an electrode is increased, which causes an excessive electrification and a voltage drop. For these reasons, the temperature of a nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery is increased, which causes the reduction in cycle life.

Negative electrode for nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery and nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery including the same


Decoding time stamps (DTSs) and presentation time stamps (PTSs) are used in fine granularity scalability (FGS) coding during MPEG-4 video coding. An input video is encoded in an FGS encoder into a base layer bitstream and an enhancement bitstream. The bitstreams are provided over a variable bandwidth channel to an FGS decoder. The DTSs and the PTSs are selected during encoding as to conserve memory during FGS decoding. The video object planes (VOP) in the bitstreams include base VOPs and FGS VOPs, and may also include fine granularity temporal scalability (FGST) VOPs. The FGS VOPs and the FGST VOPs may be organized in the same layer or in different layers. The base VOPs are combined with the FGS VOPs and the FGST VOPs to generate enhanced VOPs.

Video coding has conventionally focused on improving video quality at a particular bit rate. With the rapid growth of network video applications, such as Internet streaming video, there is an impetus to optimize the video quality over a range of bit rates. Further, because of the wide variety of video servers and varying channel connections, there has been an interest in determining the bit rate at which the video quality should be optimized.
The variation in transmission bandwidth has led to the idea of providing fine granularity scalability (FGS) for streaming video. FGS coding is used, for example, in MPEG-4 streaming video applications.
The use of FGS encoding and decoding for streaming video is described in ISO/IEC JTC1/SC 29/WG 11 N2502, International Organisation for Standardisation, "Information Technology-Generic Coding of Audio-Visual Objects-Part 2: Visual, ISO/IEC FDIS 14496-2, Final Draft International Standard," Atlantic City, October 1998, and ISO/IEC JTC1/SC 29/WG 11 N3518, International Organisation for Standardisation, "Information Technology-Generic Coding of Audio-Visual Objects-Part 2: Visual, Amendment 4: Streaming video profile, ISO/IEC 14496-2:1999/FPDAM 4, Final Proposed Draft Amendment (FPDAM 4)," Beijing, July 2000, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein.
As described in an article by Li et al. entitled "Fine Granularity Scalability in MPEG-4 Streaming Video," Proceedings of the 2000 IEEE International Symposium on Circuit and Systems (ISCAS), Vol.1, Geneva, 2000, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein, the encoder generates a base layer and an enhancement layer that may be truncated to any amount of bits within a video object plane (VOP). The remaining portion preferably improves the quality of the VOP. In other words, receiving more FGS enhancement bits typically results in better quality in the reconstructed video. Thus, by using FGS coding, no single bit rate typically needs to be given to the FGS encoder, but only a bit rate range. The FGS encoder preferably generates a base layer to meet the lower bound of the bit rate range and an enhancement layer to meet the upper bound of the bit rate range.
The FGS enhancement bitstream may be sliced and packetized at the transmission time to satisfy the varying user bit rates. This characteristic makes FGS suitable for applications where transmission bandwidth varies. To this end, bit plane coding of quantized DCT coefficients is used. Different from the traditional run-value coding, the bit plane coding is used to encode the quantized DCT coefficients one bit plane at a time.
In FGS, the enhancement layers are inherently tightly coupled to the base layer. Without appropriate time stamping on decoding and presentation, the decoding process will consume more memory than may otherwise be required. Additional memory leads to increased decoder costs, size and reduced efficiency of decoders, and may hinder the development of a standardized protocol for FGS. The problem is particularly pronounced with FGS temporal scalability (FGST), as the enhancement structures may include separate or combined enhancement layers for FGS and FGST. There is therefore a need to provide an apparatus and method for time stamping in a manner that helps to conserves memory requirements in an FGS system.

Apparatus and method for conserving memory in a fine granularity scalability coding system


In a semiconductor device, a first conductive layer (2) is located on a semiconductor substrate (14) through an insulating film (13a) and beneath a first insulating layer (13f). On the first insulating layer (13f) is formed a second conductive layer (8) followed by a second insulating layer (13g), either or both of which are very thin. A third conductive layer (6) is placed on the second insulating layer (13g). A connecting column (16) extends from the third conducting layer (6) through and forming an end contact with the second conductive layer (8) to the first conducting layer (2) and the substrate (14), with a greater portion of the column resting upon the substrate (14). The third conductive layer (6) forms the gate electrode (6b) of a top gate type TFT.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device in which a structure for providing electrical connections among a plurality of conductive films has been improved.
2. Background Art
A structure for providing electrical connections among a plurality of conductive layers or films employed in a conventional semiconductor device will first be explained by a SRAM as an illustrative example. In general, a memory cell in the SRAM is composed of six elements in total, which include four elements of N type access transistors Q1 and Q2 and driver transistors Q3 and Q4 and two elements of P type load transistors Q5 and Q6 as shown in FIG. 10. However, in this case, the memory cell increases in size, because the six elements are formed on a substrate. To cope with this situation, the size of the memory cell was reduced by using TFTs as the two P type transistors, forming the four N type elements on the substrate and forming the two P type TFT on the N type elements. As this example, a memory cell is known which has been described in, for example, a Technical Digest xe2x80x9cInternational Electron Devices Meeting 1991xe2x80x9d, p. 481-484.
FIGS. 11 through 13 show memory cell patterns of such a SRAM. FIG. 11 shows the layout of active layers 1a and 1b, an element separation region 12, first polysilicon films 2a through 2d and a second polysilicon film 4 all formed on a semiconductor substrate. Further, shown in FIG. 11 are a first polycontact 3a for connecting the active layer 1b and the first polysilicon film 2c to each other, a first polycontact 3b for connecting the active layer 1a and the first polysilicon film 2d to each other and second polycontacts 5a and 5b for respectively connecting the active layers 1a and 1b to the second polysilicon film 4.
FIG. 12 shows the layout of third polysilicon films 6a and 6b and fourth polysilicon films 8a and 8b. Further, shown in FIG. 12 are a third polycontact 7a for connecting a first polysilicon film 2c and a third polysilicon film 6b to each other, a third polycontact 7b for connecting a first polysilicon film 2d and a third polysilicon film 6a to one another, a fourth polycontact 9a for connecting the third polysilicon film 6b and a fourth polysilicon film 8a to each other, and a fourth polycontact 9b for connecting the third polysilicon film 6a and the fourth polysilicon film 8a to each other.
FIG. 13 shows the layout of metal patterns or interconnections 11a and 11b. Further, shown in FIG. 13 are a metal contact 10a for connecting an active layer 1a and the metal interconnection 11a to one another and a metal contact 10b for connecting an active layer 1b and the metal interconnection 11b to one another.
In these drawings, each of the first polysilicon films 2a through 2d is formed as a gate electrode of a substrate transistor. The second polysilicon film 4 is formed as a GND pattern or interconnection for each memory cell. Each of the third polysilicon films 6a and 6b is formed as a gate electrode of a TFT. Each of the fourth polysilicon films 8a and 8b is formed as a source/drain and channel layer of a TFT. Finally, each of the metal interconnections 11a and 11b is formed as a bit line.
FIG. 14 is a sectional structural view taken along line A-Axe2x80x2 of FIGS. 11 to 13. In the drawing, the same reference numerals as those shown in FIGS. 11 through 13 respectively indicate the same elements of structure as those shown in FIGS. 11 to 13.
Referring also to FIG. 14, the memory cell includes a gate oxide film 13a of a bulk transistor, inter-layer insulating films 13b, 13c and 13e, and a gate oxide film 13d of a TFT. Incidentally, the first polysilicon films 2a through 2d and the second polysilicon film 4 may be polysilicide composed of a combination of polysilicon and a silicide layer without being composed of a single polysilicon layer alone.
A tandem contact structure formed by connecting the first polycontact 3b, the third polycontact 7b and the fourth polycontact 9b among the polycontacts illustrated in FIGS. 11 to 13 is understood as viewed from FIG. 14.
The conventional SRAM cell formed in this way has the following problems.
(1) The many polycontacts such as the first through fourth polycontacts 3a, 3b, 5a, 5b, 7a, 7b, 9a and 9b are required to make contact to respective polysilicon layers. Therefore, a number of polycontact masks, frequent photoengraving and etching process for polycontacts are required, resulting in complex processes.
(2) A method of reducing the number of the polycontact masks, called shared contact structures, is known. FIG. 15 shows a sectional structure thereof. A third polysilicon film 6 provides a polycontact simultaneously with respect to an active layer 1 and a first polysilicon film 2 for forming a gate electrode of a transistor. Thus, a first polycontact becomes unnecessary by forming a third polycontact in a shared structure, so that the number of polycontacts can be reduced by one. In each symmetrical cell of the conventional SRAM, however, the two third polycontacts are necessary within the cell because of its symmetry. Since the shared contact is connected to the two layers (active layer 1 and first polysilicon film 2 in the conventional example), it is necessary to increase the size of the shared contact as compared with that of the normal polycontact from the viewpoint of the need for reliable electrical connection of the shared contact to the respective layers. As a result, a problem arises because the cell size increases.
(3) Further, as examples of a TFT, a bottom gate type TFT in which a gate electrode is provided below a polysilicon film for forming source/drain (S/D) and channel regions, and a top gate type TFT in which a gate electrode is provided above a polysilicon film for forming source/drain (S/D) and channel regions, are known. The cells shown in FIGS. 11 through 14 respectively use the bottom gate type TFT. In general, the top gate type TFT is superior in performance to the bottom gate type TFT. When the top gate type TFT and the shared direct contact structure are adopted, the polysilicon film for the P type source/drain (S/D) region of the TFT is brought into contact with an N type active layer. In general, the connection of an N type active layer to a P type polysilicon film is apt to form a PN junction as compared with an N type polysilicon to the P type polysilicon film. If the PN junction is formed, then a adverse effect is exerted on the operation of each cell. It was therefore difficult to combine the shared direct contact and the top gate type TFT into one. The present invention has been provided to solve the conventional problems referred to above.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a semiconductor device comprises a first conductive film formed on a semiconductor substrate, a second conductive film formed on the first conductive film with a first insulating film interposed between them, a third conductive film formed on the second conductive film with a second insulating film interposed between them. And a columnar connecting portion penetrates at least the second insulating film and the first insulating film from the third conductive film so as to reach the first conductive film and the semiconductor substrate. The second conductive film is brought into contact with the columnar connecting portion at its end surface, and the thickness of the second conductive film is less than that of the third conductive film.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a semiconductor device comprises a first conductive film formed on a semiconductor substrate, a second conductive film formed on the first conductive film with a first insulating film interposed between them, a third conductive film formed on the second conductive film with a second insulating film interposed between them. And a columnar connecting portion penetrates at least the second insulating film and the first insulating film from the third conductive film so as to reach the first conductive film and the semiconductor substrate. The second conductive film is brought into contact with the columnar connecting portion at its end surface, and the thickness of the second insulating film is less than that of the first insulating film.
In another aspect of the present invention, in the semiconductor device, an end of the first conductive film extends toward the columnar connecting portion, and the length of the extended end is equal to or less than one-half the diameter of the columnar connecting portion.
In another aspect of the present invention, in the semiconductor device, the first conductive film is brought into contact with the columnar connecting portion at its end surface.
In another aspect of the present invention, in the semiconductor device, a third insulating film is formed between the semiconductor substrate and the first conductive film. The first conductive film is formed as a gate electrode of a substrate transistor. The second conductive film is formed as a channel conductive layer of a TFT transistor, and the third conductive film is formed as a gate electrode of the TFT transistor.
In another aspect of the present invention, in the semiconductor device, the semiconductor substrate has an N type active layer. And the third conductive film and the columnar connecting portion in contact with the N type active layer are formed of N type polysilicon.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description taken together with the accompanying drawings.


A computer storage system is described. A range of volume block numbers (VBNs) is assigned to a volume. A range of storage device block numbers (DBNs) is assigned to each of a plurality of storage devices. A first mapping parameters are created to map a first range of VBN numbers to a first selected range of DBNs using a first portion of a new storage device. A second mapping parameters are created to map a second range of VBN numbers to a second range of DBNs on a second portion of the new storage device.

A storage system typically comprises one or more storage devices into which data may be entered, and from which data may be obtained, as desired. The storage system includes a storage operating system that functionally organizes the system by, inter alia, invoking storage operations in support of a storage service implemented by the system. The storage system may be implemented in accordance with a variety of storage architectures including, but not limited to, a network-attached storage environment, a storage area network and a disk assembly directly attached to a client or host computer. The storage devices are typically disk drives organized as a disk array, wherein the term "disk" commonly describes a self-contained rotating magnetic media storage device. The term disk in the context is synonymous with hard disk drive (HDD) or direct access storage device (DASD).
Storage of information on the disk array is preferably implemented as one or more storage "volumes", defining an overall logical arrangement of disk space. The disks within a volume are typically organized as one or more groups, wherein each group is operated as a Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks (RAID). Most RAID implementations enhance the reliability/integrity of data storage through the redundant writing of data "stripes" across a given number of physical disks in the RAID group, and the appropriate storing of redundant information with respect to the striped data. The redundant information may thereafter be retrieved to enable recovery of data lost when a storage device fails.
In the operation of a disk array, it is anticipated that a disk can fail. A goal of a is high performance system is to make the mean time to data loss as long as possible, preferably much longer than the expected service life of the system. Data can be lost when one or more disks fail, making it impossible to recover data from the device. Typical schemes to avoid loss of data include mirroring, backup and parity protection. Mirroring stores the same data on two or more disks so that if one disk fails, the "mirror" disk(s) can be used to serve (e.g., read) data. Backup periodically copies data on one disk to another disk. Parity schemes are common because they provide a redundant encoding of the data that allows for loss of one or more disks without the loss of data, while requiring a minimal number of disk drives in the storage system.
Parity protection is used in a computer system to protect against loss of data on a storage device, such as a disk. A parity value may be computed by summing (usually modulo 2) data of a particular word size (usually 1 bit) across a number of similar disks holding different data and then storing the results on the disk(s). That is, parity may be computed on 1-bit wide vectors, composed of bits in predetermined positions on each of the disks. Addition and subtraction on 1-bit vectors are an equivalent to exclusive-OR (XOR) logical operations; these addition and subtraction operations can thus be replaced by XOR operations. The data is then protected against the loss of any one of the disks, or of any portion of the data on any one of the disks. If the disk storing the parity is lost, the parity can be regenerated from the data. If one of the data disks is lost, the data can be regenerated by adding the contents of the surviving data disks together and then subtracting the results from the stored parity.
Typically, the disks are divided into parity groups, each of which comprises one or more data disks and a parity disk. The disk space is divided into stripes, with each stripe containing one block from each disk. The blocks of a stripe are usually at equivalent locations on each disk in the parity group. Within a stripe, all but one block contain data ("data blocks") with the one block containing parity ("parity block") computed by the XOR of all the data. If the parity blocks are all stored on one disk, thereby providing a single disk that contains all (and only) parity information, a RAID-4 implementation is provided. If the parity blocks are contained within different disks in each stripe, usually is in a rotating pattern, then the implementation is RAID-5. The term "RAID" and its various implementations are well-known and disclosed in A Case for Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks (RAID), by D. A. Patterson, G. A. Gibson and R. H. Katz, Proceedings of the International Conference on Management of Data (SIGMOD), June 1988.
The storage operating system of the storage system may implement a file system to logically organize the information stored on the disks of a volume as a hierarchical structure of directories, files and blocks. The storage operating system may also include a RAID subsystem that manages the storage and retrieval of the information to and from the disks in accordance with input/output (I/O) operations. There is typically a one-to-one mapping between the information stored on the disks in, e.g., a disk block number (DBN) space, and the information organized by the file system in, e.g., volume block number (VBN) space. The file system consists of a contiguous range of VBNs from zero to N, for a file system of size N-1 blocks. The storage operating system may further include administrative interfaces, such as a user interface, that enable operators (system administrators) to access the system in order to implement, e.g., configuration management decisions.
Configuration management in the RAID subsystem generally involves a defined set of modifications to the topology or attributes associated with a storage array, such as a disk, a RAID group (parity group), a volume or set of volumes. Examples of these modifications includes, but are not limited to, disk addition, disk failure handling, volume splitting, volume online/offline and changes to a RAID group size. The RAID group size is the maximum number of disks that may be contained within a RAID group. For example, if a RAID group size is "3", then the number of disks in the group can be less than or equal to 3, but not more than 3. The RAID group size is typically a property of a volume, such that all RAID groups of the volume typically have the same RAID group size. When the RAID group reaches the maximum number, a new RAID group is created upon the addition of new disks.
Volume capacity is typically linked to the linear growth of the RAID groups that, is in turn, are organized linearly within the VBN space of a volume. Linear growth and organization of volume capacity is generally due to prior RAID subsystem support for only one contiguous VBN-to-DBN mapping range across all disks of a RAID group. Thus if the maximum RAID group size is increased, it is generally not possible to insert disks into the middle of the linear list of RAID groups. Moreover, a prior approach supports only one contiguous DBN-to-VBN mapping range on each disk of the RAID group, typically because the entire DBN space on the disk is mapped into the VBN space of the volume. If a disk in an existing RAID group (other than the "last" RAID group) is exchanged for a larger disk, it is generally not possible to make use of the additional space on the larger disk. For example, if a disk of a RAID group failed and was replaced with a larger disk, the additional space on the larger disk could not be used. The larger replacement disk could only use the VBN range that was previously allocated to the failed disk.
These restrictions also make it difficult to dynamically expand the storage space of an existing file system when upgrading from smaller disks of a volume to larger disks and then utilizing the additional capacity for the volume. An example of a prior approach used to upgrade smaller disks of a storage system to larger disks involves creating a new volume with the larger disks and copying the data from the smaller disks to the larger disks in accordance with, e.g., a volume copy operation. Thereafter, the data stored on the smaller disks are deleted and those disks are removed from the storage system. This approach represents a time consuming procedure that involves a period of time during which the data is not accessible by a client.
Often it is desirable to migrate smaller disks of a volume to larger disks in accordance with a synchronous capacity upgrade for a storage system that supports synchronous RAID mirroring. However, a prior approach used to perform such a synchronous capacity upgrade results in system downtime or client reconfiguration. For example, assume that it is desired to "mirror" an existing volume with disks of capacity size X to a new volume with disks of capacity 2X. A prior approach involves creation of an entirely new volume and copying of the data from the old volume to the new volume in accordance with the volume copy operation.
Since a new volume is created, that volume has a name that is different from the original volume. Moreover, the original volume is brought offline for a discrete period of time in order to ensure consistency of information that is written to the new volume during the copy operation. As a result, the file system is aware of the configuration change, as not only is the file service temporarily disrupted but a renaming operation occurs that renames the newly created volume to that of the original volume. In addition, the file system identifier must be changed and other "house keeping" duties must be performed to ensure that the operators/clients are not aware that their data has moved.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Location-independent raid group virtual block management