Disclosed is a space and cost-efficient smart rack system designed for use in a data center or as a similar electronic component housing enclosure.

Traditionally, data centers are built based on a multi-year (e.g., 10 year) forecast which results in about wasted capacity (typ. approx. 48%). To put things into perspective, the way that current data centers are built to cool and power IT equipment can be compared to cooling and powering an entire room just to cool a bottle of water, sitting on a shelf, in the middle of the room. While the data center industry has evolved toward prefabricated modular containerized solutions, thereby reducing the wasted capacity by approx. 20%, over 57% of customers surveyed still found the price tag unattractive, typically reaching up-to 40% more than a traditional built data enters. CINNOS' proprietary Smart Mission Critical Rack (Smart MCR) is an all-in-one prefabricated modular system that reduces oversizing by approx. 30% compared to traditional mission critical facility builds, and with a cost that is approx. 40% less.
Referring to FIG. 1, the difference in region 170, between the Actual Load (110) and the designed capacity (160) represents an often occurring scenario, where the loads are not properly estimated or there is a design limit that is exceeded before the anticipated capacity is achieved (e.g., power). As will be described in detail herein, the ability to make smaller incremental "steps" in installed capacity (120) versus a typical installed capacity (140) reduces the wasted capacity represented by region 130 as the expected capacity (150) may never be achieved. After typically after 2+ years of planning, design, construction & commissioning, equipment is installed in a mission critical facility (MCF). Unfortunately that is a very lengthy timeline. And, research shows that over a 10-year period, about 50% of customers surveyed, indicate that 48% of their facilities are underutilized (e.g., running out of power, but not space). In the disclosed solution the payback period is shortened and wasted capacity is reduced by allowing rapid procurement of an all-In-1 rack system that is just plug-n-play. To solve the problem, it was necessary to shorten the deployment schedule, eliminate the wasted capacity, and make the rack system affordable. Using a novel all-in-1 smart mission critical rack (MCR) design the requirements are met. Through the unique system design disclosed herein, including smart controls and integrated fire protection, the improved rack structure enables system users to:                Maximize real estate usage by deploying back to back and side by side rack installation configurations,        Improve energy efficiency by monitoring and controlling the environment within the smallest possible footprint, and        Grow using a low-cost, pay-as-you-grow model
And from the time the business need is generated, a two month deployment schedule is possible, and it is also possible to deploy a single rack at a time at a lower cost due to the modular nature of the rack design. In the scenario of FIG. 1 it is possible to achieve up to 4.5 times more power and up to 21% more racks space in the same footprint, while anticipating energy savings and reducing GHG Emissions. In other words, the value proposition allows customers to eliminate their wasted capacity, deploy their IT equipment 70% faster than currently possible, and to do so with a 24% cost reduction.
Disclosed in embodiments herein is a smart mission critical rack system for a data center, comprising: a pre-fabricated cabinet, said cabinet including front-mounted ports for the connection of data transmission lines, power lines and a coolant source adjacent the top thereof, said cabinet further including a movable rack substructure therein, said substructure being movable relative to the cabinet and pivotable about one side or the other in both clockwise and counter-clockwise directions, and slidable in parallel with the front of the cabinet, when moved out of the cabinet, to permit concurrent access, via only a front-opening door, to the back of all components mounted thereon, said cabinet also has sealed sides and rear surfaces such that no access to the cabinet is provided on the sides or rear and that other cabinets and structures may be installed against both the sides and rear of the cabinet in order to achieve a high system density within a data center; a power supply subsystem, including at least one battery, suitable for receiving AC power and providing DC power to both electrical components within rack system and to charge the a battery (if present); a fire suppression system suitable for suppressing fire within the cabinet; an optional cooling system, said system receiving a source of coolant and maintaining temperatures within the rack system at or below a predetermined temperature for protection and efficient operation of the electrical components; and a controller, operatively connected to the power subsystem, the cooling system, and a plurality of sensors within said cabinet, wherein said controller operatively monitors and controls the delivery of power to and cooling of the electrical components within the cabinet. Accordingly, the rack has three degrees of freedom including horizontal (coming out), moving sideways and rotating for back access.
Further disclosed in embodiments herein is a mission critical rack system for a data center, comprising: a pre-fabricated cabinet, including at least one front-opening door, sealed side, top and rear surfaces such that, with said at least one front-opening door in a closed position the cabinet is self-contained, and no access to the cabinet is provided on the sides or rear and that other cabinets and structures may be installed against both the sides and rear of the cabinet in order to achieve a high system density within a data center, said cabinet further including a movable rack substructure therein and a sliding plate in a top section of said cabinet, said plate sliding outward on at least one slide when the at least one front-opening door is in an open position; said sliding plate providing support to at least one data cable resting thereon, and said plat further providing an operatively-linked guide for the movable rack substructure, wherein the rack substructure is movable relative to the cabinet.
The various embodiments described herein are not intended to limit the disclosure to those embodiments described. On the contrary, the intent is to cover all alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the various embodiments and equivalents set forth. For a general understanding, reference is made to the drawings. In the drawings, like references have been used throughout to designate identical or similar elements. It is also noted that the drawings may not have been drawn to scale and that certain regions may have been purposely drawn disproportionately so that the features and aspects could be properly depicted.


A hot bridle mechanism to tension and to guide metal strip at the exit of a metal strip processing line. A bridle comprising one or more roll means is positioned and enclosed in a sealed hood at the end of a line of interconnected heat treating and cooling enclosures, and maintained in a controlled atmosphere at substantially the same temperature as that of the strip. The roll means are adapted to selectively pivot in a horizontal plane in a controlled manner for the purpose of guiding the strip. The hood is stationary and the roll means are secured to a pivot frame which is adapted to pivot in a horizontal plane relative to the stationary hood. Flexible seals connect the stub shafts of the rolls in sealing engagement with the hood.

1. Field of Invention:
This invention relates in general to the field of metal strip heat treating and processing. More particularly, the invention relates to means for guiding metal strip through various heat treating and cooling furnaces. Specifically, the invention relates to means for tensioning and guiding metal strip in a metal strip processing line.
2. Description of Related Art:
It is customary to tension metal strip prior to entering and after exiting an annealing furnace, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,385,946 to D. G. Hatchard. Pairs of two roll bridle sets are also used to stretch metal strip therebetween, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,079,615, to O. F. Noe. The tension of metal strip may also be controlled by positioning tension rolls intermediate the sections of multi-section furnaces as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,371,332 to Matsuo et al. A variation of this idea is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,375,283 to Shimoyam which utilizes a master speed hearth roll positioned between a plurality of helper rolls both forwardly and rearwardly of the master speed hearth roll. The tensioning means in the above-noted prior art devices are concerned with tensioning metal strip in annealing furnaces, but none of these prior art devices relates to guiding metal strip just prior to exiting a strip processing line. Specifically, these prior art devices do not deal with the problems of utilizing a hot bridle to both tension and to guide metal strip during strip processing.
By way of example, in the hot dipping art, U.S. Pat. No. 4,519,337 to Ono et al. discloses a hot bridle downstream of the heat treatment furnaces and upstream of the metal coating means. This device utilizes motor-driven rolls to maintain differential strip tension upstream and downstream of the hot bridle. However, the hot bridle rolls are mounted in stationary bearing housings, thereby rendering the rolls incapable of instant adjustment to prevent the strip from drifting to either side of the rolls. The roll seals used by Ono et al. are also stationary, which further renders any quick strip guiding adjustment of the rolls very difficult, if not impossible. The Ono et al. hot bridle hood is integral with the coating line per se, as is conventional with prior art roll hoods positioned just upstream of the coating bath.


The battery pack according to the present invention includes a plurality of battery cells generating an electric current to which leads are connected in order to supply the generated electric current. At least two of the leads of the battery cells are welded in the plurality of battery cells. A shock absorbing unit is formed bent between the welded connection portion and the battery cell of each of the leads. Therefore, it is possible to minimize damage to the connection portions of the leads caused by external vibration or shock, and to improve the durability of the leads.

One of the biggest problems of vehicles using fossil fuels, such as gasoline and diesel, is creation of air pollution. In order to solve this problem, a technology of using a re-chargeable secondary battery as a power source of vehicles has attracted considerable attention. Accordingly, an electric vehicle (EV), which is driven only by a battery, and a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), which combines a conventional engine with a battery, have been developed and some thereof are now being commercially used. A nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) secondary battery has been mainly used as the power source of EV and HEV. Recently, use of a lithium-ion battery has also been attempted.
High output and large capacity are needed for such a secondary battery to be used as the power source of EV and HEV. To this end, a battery pack having a structure, in which a plurality of small-sized secondary batteries (unit batteries or battery cells) are connected in series and/or in parallel, is used.
The battery pack may include a plurality of battery cells to which leads are connected, and the leads of the battery cells may be welded to each other.


The present invention includes a control part for controlling switching elements on diagonal lines in the upper and lower stage of an H bridge circuit respectively by different duty ratios based on a steering torque exerted on a steering system, and an electric power supply source for supplying an electric power. When the voltage of the electric power supply source is lower than a prescribed voltage, the control part causes the switching element EET 1 or FET2 on the upper-stage side to be driven by a pulse width modulation signal PWM1 or PWM2, the switching element FET 4 or FET3 on the lower-stage side to be turned on, and the frequency of the pulse width modulation signal to be lowered to an audible frequency range.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an electric power steering device having an electric motor for giving to a steering system, an auxiliary steering force based on steering torque acting on the steering system.
2. Related Art
As the electric power steering device of this type, a device has been known that includes a driving circuit having a power source connected between input terminals of a bridge circuit. The bridge circuit is formed by connecting, for instance, four semiconductor elements in an H bridge form. A motor driving circuit having a motor for giving an auxiliary steering force to a steering mechanism is connected between output terminals. A driving control unit drives the semiconductor elements of two pairs of semiconductors, each pair including two semiconductors and the two pairs opposing the two arms of the H bridge circuit. The semiconductor elements of the first arm are driven by a PWM signal of a first duty ratio determined on the basis of an auxiliary steering command value calculated in accordance with a steering torque and a current control value calculated from a detected motor current value. The semiconductor elements of the second arm are driven by a PWM signal of a second duty ratio defined by the function of the first duty ratio (for instance, see Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication JP-A-8-337172 (page 2, FIG. 3 and FIG. 5)).
However, in a usual example described in the JP-A-8-337172, a battery is employed as the power source of the motor driving circuit. Thus when the voltage of the battery falls, an adequate voltage between the terminals of the motor cannot be ensured. Therefore the auxiliary steering force generated in the motor is lowered or the motor is stopped to stop the auxiliary steering force. Thus, a steering operation of a steering wheel is heavy. Especially, in the electric power steering device of a high output, when a wheel turning operation is carried out under a stopping state, an unsolved problem arises that the steering wheel is hardly driven.
Further, when a steering operation is carried out by using a battery whose deterioration is advanced, the internal resistance of the battery increases. As a motor current is increased, the voltage of the battery is markedly lowered. As a result, an unsolved problem arises that voltage between the terminals of the motor cannot be sufficiently ensured and the auxiliary steering force is lowered or a steering assistance is stopped, so that the steering operation of the steering wheel is heavy.


A light guide sheet and a movable contact element using the single sheet have a simple structure and can be variously illuminated. The light guide sheet includes irregular-shaped light extracting elements formed on a film-like base material; and light-transmissive, belt-shaped light guide parts each connecting a predetermined number of groups of the light extracting elements. In addition, dome-shaped movable contacts formed of a conductive sheet metal are arranged on the bottom surfaces of the light extracting elements.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light guide sheet and a movable contact element using the sheet, which are used to operate various electronic apparatuses.
2. Background Art
In recent years, an increasing number of electronic apparatuses such as portable telephones and other portable terminals have come to use light emitting diodes or EL (electroluminescent) devices as light sources to illuminate their operating parts. The illumination allows the user to easily distinguish between push buttons or to operate the display in dark environments. In line with this trend, movable contact elements and switches used in these apparatuses are also expected to be more user-friendly and capable of being variously illuminated.
FIGS. 6 and 7 are a sectional view and a plan view, respectively, of a conventional switch. In FIGS. 6 and 7, the dimensions of some parts are exaggerated for clarity.
The switch includes movable contact element 6 having light guide sheet 3, which is formed of light-transmissive, film-like base material 1 and irregular-shaped light extracting elements 2 arranged in predetermined positions on the top surface of base material 1. The switch also includes film-like cover sheet 4 whose outer periphery is pasted at predetermined positions on the bottom surface of light guide sheet 3 via an adhesive (not shown). The switch also includes dome-shaped movable contacts 5, which are formed of a conductive sheet metal and pasted on the bottom surface of cover sheet 4 under light extracting elements 2.
The switch also includes wiring board 7, which is provided on its upper and lower surfaces with wiring patterns (not shown). Wiring board 7 is also provided on its upper surface with fixed contacts 8 each consisting of circular central fixed contact 8A and horseshoe- or ring-shaped outer fixed contact 8B surrounding central fixed contact 8A. Movable contact element 6 is pasted on the top surface of wiring board 7. More specifically, the outer peripheries of movable contacts 5 are placed on outer fixed contacts 8B, and the centers of the bottom surfaces of movable contacts 5 are predeterminedly spaced from central fixed contacts 8A.
The switch also includes light-emitting devices 9 composed of light emitting diodes or the like arranged on sides of light guide sheet 3 on the top surface of wiring board 7. Light-emitting devices 9 are arranged with their light emitting surfaces facing one side of base material 1.
The switch also includes light-transmissive, film-like display sheet 10, which is provided on its bottom surface with light shielding part 10A formed by printing or the like, and display parts 10B hollowed out in the shape of characters, symbols, and the like. Display parts 10B are arranged over light extracting elements 2 of light guide sheet 3.
The switch thus structured is installed on the control surface of an electronic apparatus, with central fixed contacts 8A, outer fixed contacts 8B, and light-emitting devices 9 connected to electronic circuits (not shown) of the apparatus via the wiring patterns.
When the user presses one of display parts 10B of display sheet 10, light guide sheet 3 and cover sheet 4 are bent to press the dome-shaped center of movable contact 5 that corresponds to the pressed display part 10B. When a predetermined compressive force is applied, movable contact 5 is elastically inverted downward with a click feeling. As a result, movable contact 5 comes into contact at the center of its bottom surface with central fixed contact 8A, thereby electrically connecting central fixed contact 8A and outer fixed contact 8B.
When the user releases the compressive force applied to display sheet 10, movable contact 5 is elastically inverted upward by the elastic returning force. As a result, the center of the bottom surface of movable contact 5 is separated from central fixed contact 8A, thereby electrically disconnecting central fixed contact 8A and outer fixed contact 8B.
The electrical connection and disconnection of fixed contacts 8A and 8B switches the functions of the apparatus. When power is supplied from an electronic circuit of the apparatus, light-emitting devices 9 emit light, which is introduced into light guide sheet 3 from one side of base material 1 and propagates inward while being reflected in base material 1.
The light is diffused and reflected by light extracting elements 2 formed on the top surface of base material 1 so as to illuminate display parts 10B of display sheet 10 from below. Illuminating display parts 10B allows the user to easily distinguish between the characters, symbols, and the like on display parts 10B in dark environments.
In the conventional switch, as described above, when the user presses somewhere on display sheet 10 so as to press the top surface of light guide sheet 3, the corresponding movable contact 5 is elastically inverted, thereby electrically connecting or disconnecting fixed contacts 8A and 8B. The light of light-emitting devices 9 is introduced into light guide sheet 3 from one side of base material 1 so as to make light extracting elements 2 emit light, which illuminates display parts 10B of display sheet 10. A conventional technique related to the present invention is disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2007-87749.
In the conventional switch including movable contact element 6 using light guide sheet 3, the light of light-emitting devices 9 is introduced into base material 1 from one side thereof to make light extracting elements 2 emit light concurrently, thereby illuminating display parts 10B by light of one color. Attempting to illuminate display parts 10B by light of different colors using light-emitting devices 9 having different luminous colors would require more than one light guide sheet. This would increase the number of components and assembly time.

Light guide sheet and movable contact element using the same


A four-wheeled cart, for physically challenged individuals has a frame that is propelled and supported by two driven rear wheels. An operator's seat is mounted on the rear portion of the frame. A generally flat platform, a part of which is inclined upwardly and forwardly, supports the operator's feet. A steerable front wheel on a vertical spindle is mounted on each corner of the front portion of the frame. The front wheels are steered by a toothed wheel assembly clamped to each vertical spindle under the flat platform, a torque transmission gear drive interconnecting the two toothed wheel assemblies, and a drive mechanism for turning the torque transmission gear drive. The drive mechanism can be a manual handle bar or an electric motor controlled by a joy stick. With the joy stick control, the flat platform is completely clear and allows the cart to move the operator up to work areas such as tables. The manual handle bar takes minimal space above the flat platform. The clamped friction connection between the toothed wheel assemblies and the vertical spindles allows the spindles to turn in the toothed wheel assemblies to prevent damage when a steered wheel strikes an obstruction.

Vehicles for physically challenged individuals have taken many forms. A common form includes a frame supported by two electrically driven rear wheels, and a single front steered wheel. A seat is mounted on the frame to the front of and above the two driven wheels. The single front steered wheel is connected to and steered by a T-shaped steering handle bar.
The addition of a second steered wheel to increase vehicle stability has been proposed. At least one design (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,887,685, which is incorporated herein by reference), has two steered wheels mounted on a front axle. The front axle is pivoted about a fore and aft horizontal axis to keep all four wheels in contact with the surface over which the vehicle travels. The horizontal axis the axle pivots about reduces stability. The two steered wheels have been steered by a steering system with a plurality of arms interconnected by tie rods. The system of arms and tie rods controls the steered wheels well. However, the steering system has some serious drawbacks. One of the drawbacks is a limited turning radius. Another one of the drawbacks is a requirement for substantial vertical space. Vertical space requirements conflict with the requirement to keep the top of the foot rest surface or platform low and unobstructed. A platform which is low and unobstructed is relatively easy to mount and dismount. Such a platform can also allow physically challenged individuals better access to tables and various types of work stations.


Historically, resources (e.g., dynamic linked libraries) were organized based on factors including the expertise of development teams. Unfortunately, this creates shared resources of much greater functionality than required by any one client application. By reformulating shared resources according to the nodes reachable from a set of defined entry points, the reformulated resources will contain nodes of relevance. This optimization reduces memory requirements which is useful for embedded systems and for reducing disk accesses.

Modern structured development creates software functionality delivered as a set of executable files instead of single monolithic programs. Many of these files are resources such as dynamic linked libraries (e.g. DLLs). Grouping functionality into such resources allows building software that share the functionality. This allows defined groups of programmers to specialize in providing well-defined functionality quickly and correctly.
The boundaries that separate one DLL from another range from software engineering practices, abstraction and information hiding, domains of programmer's expertise, or developer group dynamics. For the sake of completeness, more functionality is often implemented in a shared resource library, than is used by any one client application.

Reformulating resources with nodes reachable from defined entry points


A processor includes a set of general purpose registers that are used when executing generic tasks and a set of exception registers that is dedicated for servicing specific exceptions. When a task is interrupted with an asserted “fast” exception, the processor automatically diverts the exception to the dedicated exception registers using a dedicated vector. The dedicated vector and exception registers may be reserved for high priority, i.e., critical, exceptions. Because the exception registers are automatically activated for fast exceptions, there is no need to determine the priority of the exception. Further, high priority interrupts and high priority operating system calls (traps) may have different dedicated vectors and the set of exception registers may have a portion allocated for servicing interrupts and another portion allocated for servicing operating system calls. With the use of a dedicated vector or dedicated vectors, there is no need for software to decode the fast exception. Advantageously, during the servicing of the exception, the values of the exception registers may be modified, without disrupting the state of the interrupted task. Thus, because a set of dedicated exception registers are swapped in for the general purpose registers to service an exception, there is no need for explicit state management prior to or after servicing the exception.

Conventional digital computers execute tasks by executing sequences of related instructions that access or modify the contents of a set of registers and memory cells. Occasionally, during execution of a sequence of instructions an exception occurs, such as an interrupt or operating system calls (traps), which requires the operating system to immediately respond. A processor may receive exceptions from a number of sources, including translation lookaside buffer (TLB) misses, arithmetic overflows, and I/O interrupts. Conventionally, when an exception is detected, the normal sequence of instructions is suspended while the processor deals with the exception. The use of exceptions and exception processing is well known in the art of computer architecture.
FIG. 1 is a flow chart 10 of processing an exception in a conventional manner. As shown in FIG. 1, when an exception is asserted (block 12) the exception is decoded and execution diverted (using an exception "vector") to a new location that is designated for handling exceptions (block 14). The processor and/or system software must determine the priority of the exception (block 16) particularly if there are multiple exceptions, in which case the highest priority must be dealt with first. The execution of the original task is suspended and the key processor "state" information must be preserved in main memory (block 18) so that once the exception is serviced, the original task may be resumed. The exception is then serviced (block 20). After the exception is serviced, the processor must restore the original "state" information that was earlier preserved (block 22). The execution of the original task is then resumed (block 24).
Typically, in an embedded real-time system, a number of exceptions, with varying levels of importance, i.e., priority, must be managed. As can be seen in FIG. 1, decoding the exception, determining priority, and preserving the state of the system, present a large amount of overhead in servicing exceptions.
One conventional strategy implemented in processors to speed operation, typically when handling multiple exceptions, is called "nesting". To reduce the amount of time spent in prioritization of multiple interrupts, a processor may use a fixed set of priorities. When a higher priority interrupt is signaled (higher than the current executing program), the processor suspends execution and automatically preserves the entire processor state into an area of memory referred to as the "stack". Unfortunately, as processors have developed, the amount of state information has grown such that saving all processor state, regardless of need, is an undue burden. Consequently, stacking in current processors actually degrades performance due to the amount of state information that must be stacked.
Another technique employed to service exceptions includes register windows, which help minimize the time spent doing "context switching." In a register window approach, windows are made available by periodically allocating a set of registers from a larger physical set when a subroutine is called or an exception is signaled. Unfortunately, depending on the number of physical registers and the program, register "spills" may occur during which there are not enough registers to handle the exception. Consequently, prior windows have to be written into main memory to create a new window resulting in a degradation in the performance.
Thus, what is needed is a technique to minimize the overhead associated with servicing an exception to speed the handling of exceptions and to separate especially critical exceptions from normal priority exceptions.

Alternate set of registers to service critical interrupts and operating system traps


A keyless frictional shaft locking device with integrated frictional drum conveyor pulley end disc is disclosed. The end disc is concentrically centered around a keyless frictional locking device, and the locking device is configured so as to lock around a shaft while, at the same time, effectuating a radially outward expansion of the end disc so that the end disc may securely fit within the ends of a drum of a drum conveyor pulley without the need for welding of either the end disc to the drum, or the locking device to the end disc.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to end discs, hubs and bushings for drum conveyor pulleys. More particularly, the present invention relates to provision of an integrated keyless, frictional hub portion consisting of a frictional shaft locking device and a frictional weld-free end disc for use in drum conveyor pulleys.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conveyor pulleys, also known as drum conveyor pulleys or belt conveyor pulleys, are used for material handling in numerous different applications in many industries, such as mining and quarrying, production/assembly lines, warehouse and distribution lines, mailing facility sorters, luggage handling at airports, etc. An illustrative belt conveyor system (depicted in FIG. 1) has drums with welded end discs and bushings fitted and/or keyed around a shaft. The bushing 5 and the end disc 2 within the drum 1 should form a perpendicular interface from the face of end disc 2 and the centerline axis of shaft 3. In order to secure this arrangement in the prior art, the end discs 2 are welded at 6 to each given drum 1, and the bushing hubs 5 are, in turn, welded to the end discs 2 at 7.
Such systems are expensive and inefficient to manufacture. A particular disadvantage of the prior art approach is that the required welding—given the high degree of perpendicularity and concentricity required for most material handling applications necessitates the use of cumbersome and expensive jigs and results in an unacceptable number of rejected drum conveyor pulleys. Further, replacement of the drum 1 due to damage or wear typically requires discarding the entire drum 1, end discs 2 and bushings 5 assembly.
Accordingly, none of the prior art offers a way to avoid the manufacturing and maintenance problems inherent in welded end discs and bushings in drum conveyor pulleys.

Keyless frictional shaft locking device with integrated frictional drum conveyor pulley end disc


An alkaline electrochemical cell has a central cathode having a corresponding cathode current collector electrically connected with a positive terminal of the electrochemical cell. The cathode current collector has a tubular shape, such as a cylindrical shape or rectangular shape, extending parallel with the length of the central cathode. The cathode current collector is embedded within the central cathode, such as at a medial point of a radius of the central cathode, thereby minimizing the distance between the cathode current collector and any portion of the central cathode, thereby increasing the mechanical strength of the cathode and facilitating charge transfer to the cathode current collector.

Batteries in the form of electrochemical cells are used as power sources for a wide range of electronic devices. The requirements of those electronic devices are important factors in battery design. For example, many electronic devices have battery compartments that limit the size and/or shape of batteries to be contained therein. Thus, certain electrochemical cells, such as alkaline primary batteries, are commercially available in cell sizes commonly known as LR6 (AA), LR03 (AAA), LR14 (C) and LR20 (D). The cells have a cylindrical shape that must comply with the dimensional standards that are set by organizations such as the International Electrotechnical Commission. Moreover, the discharge characteristics of the batteries should be provided to accommodate the intended device operation under expected conditions of use.
Over time, many electronic devices have incorporated increasing numbers of features that require higher-power draws from onboard batteries to appropriately power the devices. The increased high-power demands of these electronic devices require batteries capable of delivering consistent high-rate discharge performance over an extended period of time. However, high-rate discharge of traditional battery chemistries, such as traditional alkaline batteries incorporating manganese dioxide cathode materials and zinc-based anode materials within an alkaline electrolyte solution, often results in decreases in discharge efficiency, with a battery often failing to deliver desired voltage outputs well before all of the active material within the battery is exhausted.
Accordingly, a need constantly exists for improvements in battery design to improve discharge performance under various discharge rate circumstances.

Electrochemical cell with improved high-rate discharge performance


A primary scotch yoke and a secondary scotch yoke are coupled in opposing arrangement and rigidly attached to a linearly reciprocating element. Each scotch yoke includes a rotary actuator with a cam follower and a yoke attached to the reciprocating element. Each yoke has a cam with an open gap through which the follower may be disengaged from the cam and stopped to an idle position. The follower of the secondary scotch yoke is kept idle in a position similarly disengaged from its cam. A controller detects a failure in the primary scotch yoke, disengages the cam follower of the primary yoke from its cam, and energizes the secondary scotch yoke, thereby causing its cam follower to engage its yoke and continue to provide uninterrupted motion to the reciprocating element, in particular the portable pneumatic pump driving an artificial heart.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a rotary-to-linear motion conversion device suitable for use where redundant rotary actuation is required. In particular, the invention relates to a device for actuating a pneumatic pump driving an artificial heart.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The heart is the muscle that drives the cardiovascular system in living beings. Acting as a pump, the heart moves blood throughout the body to provide oxygen, nutrients, hormones, and to remove waste products. The blood follows two separate pathways in the human body, the so-called pulmonary and systemic circulatory circuits. In the pulmonary circuit, the heart pumps blood first to the lungs to release carbon dioxide and bind oxygen, and then back to the heart. Thus, oxygenated blood is constantly being supplied to the heart. In the systemic circuit, the longer of the two, the heart pumps oxygenated blood through the rest of the body to supply oxygen and remove carbon dioxide, the byproduct of metabolic functions carried out throughout the body. The heart supplies blood to the two circuits with pulses generated by the orderly muscular contraction of its walls.
In order to keep blood moving through these two separate circulatory circuits, the human heart has four distinct chambers that work in pairs. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the heart 10 includes a right atrium 12, a right ventricle 14, a left atrium 16, and a left ventricle 18. One pair of chambers, the right ventricle and left atrium, is connected directly to the pulmonary circuit. In it, de-oxygenated blood from the body is pumped from the right ventricle 14 to the lungs, where it is oxygenated, and then back to the left atrium 16.
In the systemic circuit, the other pair of chambers pumps the oxygenated blood through body organs, tissues and bones. The blood moves from the left atrium 16, where it flows from the lungs, to the left ventricle 18, which in turn pumps the blood throughout the body and all the way back to the right atrium 12. The blood then moves to the right ventricle 14 where the cycle is repeated. In each circuit, the blood enters the heart through an atrium and leaves the heart through a ventricle.
Thus, the ventricles 14,18 are essentially two separate pumps that work together to move the blood through the two circulatory circuits. Four check valves control the flow of blood within the heart and prevent flow in the wrong direction. A tricuspid valve 20 controls the blood flowing from the right atrium 12 into the right ventricle 14. Similarly, a bicuspid valve 22 controls the blood flowing from the left atrium 16 into the left ventricle 18. Two semilunar valves (pulmonary 24 and aortic 26) control the blood flow leaving the heart toward the pulmonary and systemic circuits, respectively. Thus, in each complete cycle, the blood is pumped by the right ventricle 14 through the pulmonary semilunar valve 24 to the lungs and back to the left atrium 16. The blood then flows through the bicuspid valve 22 to the left ventricle 18, which in turn pumps it through the aortic semilunar valve 26 throughout the body and back to the right atrium 12. Finally, the blood flows back to the right ventricle 14 through the tricuspid valve 20 and the cycle is repeated.
When the heart muscle squeezes each ventricle, it acts as a pump that exerts pressure on the blood, thereby pushing it out of the heart and through the body. The blood pressure, an indicator of heart function, is measured when the heart muscle contracts as well as when it relaxes. The so-called systolic pressure is the maximum pressure exerted by the blood on the arterial walls when the left ventricle of the heart contracts forcing blood through the arteries in the systemic circulatory circuit. The so-called diastolic pressure is the lowest pressure on the blood vessel walls when the left ventricle relaxes and refills with blood. Healthy blood pressure is considered to be about 120 millimeters of mercury systolic and 80 millimeters of mercury diastolic (usually presented as 120/80).
Inasmuch as the function of the circulatory system is to service the biological needs of all body tissues (i.e., to transport nutrients to the tissues, transport waste products away, distribute hormones from one part of the body to another, and, in general, to maintain an appropriate environment for optimal function and survival of tissue cells), the rate at which blood is circulated by the heart is a critical aspect of its function. The heart has a built-in mechanism (the so-called Frank-Starling mechanism) that allows it to pump automatically whatever amount of blood flows into it. Such cardiac output in a healthy human body may vary from about 4 to about 15 liters per minute (LPM), according to the activity being undertaken by the person, at a heart rate that can vary from about 50 to about 180 beats per minute.
Several artificial devices have been developed over the years to supplement or replace the function of a failing heart in patients. These include devices developed by companies as well as research institutions such as the Berlin Heart Institute, the Pennsylvania State University, the University of Utah, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, the University of Perkinje (in Bruno, Czechoslovakia), the University of Tokyo, the Thoratec Corporation, Abiomed Inc., Novacor, and Symbion Inc. Typically, these artificial devices consist of pumps that aim at duplicating the required pumping functions of the left and right human ventricles. One method of actuation for these pumps has been through the pneumatic action of an external mechanism. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,611,578 and 5,766,207. Periodic pulses of compressed air drive the pumps at the desired pressure and rate of cardiac output. A moderate vacuum may be applied between pulses to allow more rapid refilling of the ventricles with blood flowing from the respective atrium.
One notable artificial heart currently in use as an implant for patients waiting for a heart transplant is the Total Artificial Heart manufactured by SynCardia Systems, Inc., of Tucson, Ariz. Designed to operate much the same way as a human heart, this artificial heart replaces the two active chambers (i.e., the ventricles) of the human heart with corresponding artificial components. As illustrated in FIG. 2, such artificial heart 30 includes two separate chambers or ventricles 32 and 34 that replace the right and left ventricles of the human heart, respectively. Each chamber is equipped with a respective diaphragm (36 and 38 in the right and left chamber, respectively) that has an air contact side and a blood contact side. Each diaphragm is designed as a spherical hemisphere. As shown in FIG. 3, the artificial heart 30 is implanted by connecting the top of the right chamber 32 to the right atrium 12 and the top of the left chamber 34 to the left atrium 16. The bottom of each chamber is provided with an air line (40 and 42 in the right and left chamber, respectively) that is embedded in the patient's body but extends outside for connection to a pneumatic driver.
When driven by a supply of pressurized air from the pneumatic driver, each diaphragm 36,38 discharges blood from the respective chamber 32,34 simulating the function of a ventricle. This phase is referred to in the art as systole or equivalently as the ejection phase. When the pressurized air is removed from the diaphragm, known as diastole or the filling phase, blood can enter the ventricle from the connected atrium. The rate at which blood enters the ventricle depends on the difference between the atrial pressure and the pressure on the air-side of the diaphragm. To increase this filling rate, a slight vacuum of about 10 mm Hg is normally applied to the air-side of the diaphragm during diastole. Artificial valves 44a (tricuspid), 46a (bicuspid) and 44b (pulmonary), 46b (aortic) control the flow from the respective atrium into each artificial ventricle and out to the circulatory systems, respectively.
The pneumatic drivers used to date for driving all artificial hearts have been cumbersome and inadequate for affording patients any degree of independent mobility. They employ compressors, vacuum pumps, and air tanks coupled to electrically actuated valves, all of which amounts to a large and heavy apparatus that can only be transported on wheels and with considerable effort. Therefore, many attempts have been made during the last two decades to produce a portable driver for these devices. However, because of the complexity of the required functionality and the hardware necessary to produce it, pneumatic heart drivers continue to be bulky, require frequent maintenance, and often provide air pulses that do not match the performance of the larger drivers they are meant to replace. Even at the approximate weight of 20 pounds and size of about 0.7 cubic feet achieved so far, pneumatic drivers remain unwieldy and substantially not portable for a patient who is kept alive by an artificial heart.
In essence, a portable driver needs to be reliable, durable, easy to use, and sufficiently simple in design to be affordable. Unfortunately, each of these requirements contributes to the complexity of the design, which in turn has produced devices that are not sufficiently small and light-weight to be manageable in the hands of a patient. Furthermore, it is essential that the pneumatic driver be able to provide the correct pressure balance between the left and right ventricles of the artificial heart to ensure the proper operating pressure to the pulmonary and systemic circuits regardless of the speed of operation. Typically, this requires that the driver be able to operate so as maintain, on average, a right atrial pressure of about 9 mmHg, a mean pulmonary artery pressure of about 35 mmHg, a left atrial pressure of about 10 mmHg, and a mean aortic pressure of about 95 mmHg.
This need to provide different operating pressures to the right and left chambers (ventricles) of the artificial-heart device has not been met heretofore with a simple design suitable for a portable driver. For example, the blood pump described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,611,578 includes a configuration wherein two reciprocating pistons in a common cylinder may be operated alternatively to provide redundancy or independently to actuate two separate pneumatically driven blood pumps. This issue is not addressed in the patent, but it describes a sophisticated control system that arguably could be used to provide the correct operating pressure to each chamber of the artificial heart. However, the complex and multi-component structure of the device necessarily requires a relatively heavy and large apparatus, though described as portable. The commercially available module weighs about 25 pounds and is approximately 0.6 cubic feet in volume.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,766,207 describes another portable pneumatic driver for ventricular assist devices that could also be adapted for an artificial heart. The single pump of the invention could be used to drive both ventricles of an artificial heart, but only at the same pressure and volume rate. Thus, this device, even if modified to meet the other requirements of a portable artificial-heart driver, would not be suitable as an alternative to the stationary modules currently in use.
Copending U.S. application Ser. No. 12/454,440, hereby incorporated by reference, describes a portable driver configured to optimize size, weight, reliability, durability, extended battery life, ease of use, and simplicity of design. The driver consists of a pneumatic pump that provides coordinated and independent periodic actuation pressure to each ventricle of the artificial heart, limiting peak pressures and peak vacuums to provide a safe and efficient cycle of operation, allowing only partial filling of each ventricle of the cardiac device to ensure redundancy of capacity, providing sufficient pneumatic stroke to completely eject the blood from the ventricles at each beat, readily adjusting the rate at which the artificial heart is actuated, and minimizing overall size and weight to enable portability.
In the preferred embodiment, the pneumatic pump 50 comprises two coaxial cylindrical pumping chambers (60 and 62) defined by a common housing 52, each enclosing a disk-shaped piston (54 and 56) incorporating seals 66 to eliminate leakage, as illustrated schematically in FIG. 4. The pistons are connected to one another through a partition 58 by a tube 64, thereby forming a monolithic piston assembly that is driven axially by a common electrical actuator 68 providing reciprocating motion through a rod connected to the top piston. The tube travels through a seal in the partition that separates the two chambers and, by defining the boundary between the pistons, also acts as a bulkhead for the top chamber.
The volume in the bottom chamber is selected as needed to provide the desired pressure in the left ventricle of the artificial heart driven by the pump. According to one aspect of the invention, the diameter of the tube connecting the pistons is selected such that the stroke volume (i.e., the displacement) of the top chamber is reduced with respect to that of the bottom chamber as needed to match the reduced pressure requirements of the right ventricle of the artificial heart. Namely, the maximum pressure achieved at the respective output port (70 and 72) in each chamber should be as needed to fully eject blood from each ventricle of the artificial heart substantially at the operating pressures of the human pulmonary and systemic circulatory circuits. A limit check valve (74 and 76) is preferably used in each chamber to ensure venting of excess pressure during the compression stroke. A limit check valve (78 and 80) is also preferably used in each chamber to limit the vacuum generated during the reverse, aspiration stroke.
FIG. 5 illustrates in sectioned view the actual pneumatic driver that incorporates the concepts of the invention disclosed in Ser. No. 12/454,440. As clearly illustrated by FIGS. 4 and 5, the pneumatic pump is actuated by a reciprocating mechanism that drives the pistons. Many such mechanisms are known in the art that could be used to operate the pump. The device commonly referred to as a scotch yoke is preferred because of its simplicity, reliability and suitability for implementation in a small volume, all of which are critical for a portable artificial heart driver.
However, an additional requirement for such an application is redundancy, which is not readily available from a conventional application of scotch-yoke technology wherein a motor 68 (FIG. 5) with a rotating output shaft is the driving source for actuating the reciprocating pistons of the pump. The present invention provides an ingenious solution to this problem in a configuration designed particularly to meet the critical redundancy requirements of the SynCardia artificial heart driver.

Scotch-yoke mechanism for redundant actuation applications


A fastening and loosening device is provided with a device main body (101) having an upper portion supported along an arrangement direction of stud bolts (65) in a freely movable manner by a conveyance device (73), a bolt tensioner (102) freely ascendable/descendable with respect to the stud bolts (65) together with the device main body (101) by a lift device (74), a guide device (103) coupled with the device main body (101) in a freely relatively movable manner via a cylinder (121) and having right and left guide members (123 and 124) contactable with an outer periphery of a nut (66) from both the right and left sides of a moving direction of the device main body (101), and a guide position adjustment device (105) capable of moving an inner guide member (123) in a horizontal direction intersecting with the moving direction of the device main body (101).

For example, a pressurized water reactor (PWR) uses light water as a reactor coolant and a neutron moderator, fills a reactor core with not-boiled, high-temperature and high-pressure water, sends the high-temperature and high-pressure water to a steam generator to generate steam by heat exchange, and sends the steam to a turbine generator to generate power.
A reactor vessel used for such a pressurized water reactor is constructed of a reactor vessel main body and a reactor vessel cover mounted on the reactor vessel main body so that a reactor-internal structure can be inserted in the reactor vessel, and the reactor vessel cover is openable/closable with respect to the reactor vessel main body. Further, when the reactor vessel cover is mounted on the reactor vessel main body in a freely attachable/detachable manner, a stud bolt is caused to penetrate an outer peripheral flange of the reactor vessel cover and is screwed in and embedded in an upper outer peripheral flange of the reactor vessel main body, and a nut is screwed with the stud bolt with tension acting on the stud bolt, so that fastening is performed.
Such a fastening and loosening device is disclosed in Patent Literature 1 described below. A device disclosed in Patent Literature 1 performs work using a bolt tensioner.

Fastening and loosening device for stud bolts and nuts of a reactor vessel


A liquid crystal material filling apparatus which includes, in a vacuum chamber, a liquid crystal pot having a liquid crystal reservoir for storing a liquid crystal material. A groove part is coupled with the liquid crystal reservoir at a certain angle and contains a medium for holding the liquid crystal material. A filling jig cassette is provided to accommodate a plurality of liquid crystal panels having injection ports faced downwardly, and an elevation device is provided for moving the liquid crystal pot up and down. Also, a posture control mechanism is provided for switching a posture of the liquid crystal pot in accordance with the up/down movement of the liquid crystal pot thereby to cause the liquid crystal material to flow from the liquid crystal reservoir to the groove part at a raised position and bring the medium in touch with lower faces of the injection ports of the liquid crystal panels.

The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for filling a liquid crystal material to liquid crystal panels (panel cells).
A dipping method has been employed to inject and fill a liquid crystal material to liquid crystal panels heretofore.
A conventional liquid crystal filling apparatus is shown in FIG. 4. A plurality of liquid crystal panels 1 are accommodated in a filling jig cassette 18 of the apparatus with injection ports 1a thereof faced down. A constant amount of a liquid crystal material 11 is stored in a liquid crystal pot 20. Both the filling jig cassette 18 and the liquid crystal pot 20 are placed in a vacuum chamber 19 so that the liquid crystal panels 1 are held out of touch with the liquid crystal material 11.
The vacuum chamber 19 is first reduced to at least about 10.sup.-3 to about 10.sup.-4 Torr, whereby air dissolved in the liquid crystal material 11 stored in the liquid crystal pot 20 is degassed. After the air in the liquid crystal material 11 is degassed sufficiently, the pot 20 is raised by an elevation device 17 and stopped at a position where lower parts of the liquid crystal panels 1 fully immersed in the pot.
Thereafter, N.sub.2 gas is introduced into the vacuum chamber 19, thereby to raise the chamber to an atmospheric pressure. In consequence, the liquid crystal material 11 in the pot 20 is pressed out by the pressure and injected/filled through the injection ports 1a to the liquid crystal panels kept still in the vacuum state inside. When all of the liquid crystal panels 1 are filled with the liquid crystal material 1, the liquid crystal pot 20 is lowered and the filling jig cassette 18 is taken out of the vacuum chamber 19. The filling is completed in this manner.
According to the above method and apparatus for filling the liquid crystal material to liquid crystal panels, a larger amount of the liquid crystal material than required should be stored beforehand in the pot so as to prevent the mixture of bubbles into the liquid crystal panels in the middle of the filling operation which would result from the lack of the liquid crystal material.
The liquid crystal material is contaminated and turned unusable after repeated filling operations. This is a waste of the expensive liquid crystal material.
Since the lower ends of the liquid crystal panels after the filling operation are totally wet with the liquid crystal material, the liquid crystal panels should be swabbed and cleaned afterwards, which requires a significant amount of time and cost.

Apparatus for filling liquid crystal material

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


There is provided a communication apparatus including an antenna unit configured to transmit or receive a wireless signal, and a wireless processing unit configured to process the wireless signal transmitted or received via the antenna unit. The antenna unit is configured or arranged to maintain a satisfactory communication characteristic regardless of arrangement and a direction with respect to an antenna of a communication partner apparatus that transmits or receives a wireless signal of high directivity.

The present technology disclosed herein relates, for example, to a communication apparatus that transmits or receives a wireless signal carrying large capacity data such as images of high resolution. The present technology relates in particular to a communication apparatus that transmits or receives a high frequency wireless signal of high directivity.
High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) (registered trademark) cables are, for example, used in order to send signals for images of high resolution that are reproduced and output from reproduction apparatuses such as Blu-ray disc players, to display apparatuses such as television sets. HDMI (registered trademark) is an interface standard for digital images and audio input and output, which has been primarily developed for home appliances and AV apparatuses, and allows digital data to be sent at high speed.
Fewer cables are used today because of wireless connections established between reproduction apparatuses and display apparatuses. For example, WirelessHD (registered trademark) uses a millimeter wave frequency band of 60 GHz to achieve a sending speed of some GMbps. Accordingly, even if signals for images of high resolution which are not compressed are streamed, the images of high quality can be reproduced and it is also possible to make HDMI (registered trademark) wireless.
Millimeter waves are shorter in wavelength and travel much more straightly than microwaves, which are in widespread use in the technology of wireless local area networks (LAN). Reflection attenuates millimeter waves hard and brings considerable propagation loss, so that wireless signals have a short flying distance and fail to get to distant places. Accordingly, when wireless communication is established in accordance with the WirelessHD (registered trademark) standard, the flying distance has to be extended by applying a communication method such as the array antenna technology to at least one of transmission apparatuses and reception apparatuses, the array antenna technology taking advantage of the directivity of antennas. As a result, the arrangement and direction of transmission apparatuses and reception apparatuses are so limited that the transmission apparatuses and the reception apparatuses each face in the directivity direction in which the maximal gain is obtained while wireless signals are sent.
For example, such a communication method has been devised in which one of two communication apparatuses that have established wireless communication in accordance with the WirelessHD (registered trademark) standard outputs electronics sounds according to the wireless reception states and users check the electronic sounds to make the antenna unit of each communication apparatus face in the directivity directions in which the maximal gain is obtained while wireless signals are sent (see, for example, JP 2011-254523A).
A projector has been devised that includes a WirelessHD reception apparatus that wirelessly receives image information, a monitoring unit that monitors the reception sensitivity, and a driving unit that changes the direction of the WirelessHD reception apparatus, the projector changing the direction of the WirelessHD reception apparatus on the basis of the reception sensitivity (see, for example, JP 2011-117660A).
When stationary image display apparatuses such as television sets and projectors are used as reception apparatuses, the reception apparatuses are rarely moved while they are in use (i.e., while reproducing images). Thus, the reception apparatuses can stably keep receiving wireless signals of high directivity from transmission apparatuses if the arrangement and directions of the reception apparatuses which offer satisfactory reception characteristics are decided only once when the reception apparatuses start to be used.


A method and apparatus for forming a magnetic component on a printed circuit board. The printed circuit board has at least one inner layer including a trace that forms a winding of the magnetic component. Another winding of the magnetic component is formed by a length of wire that is disposed externally to the printed circuit board.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for forming a magnetic component on a printed circuit board, such as a transformer or inductor.
The inventor""s U.S. Pat. No. 5,973,923, incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, describes a packaging technology for power converters and power magnetics, wherein the windings of a magnetic element or component are incorporated on layers of a multiple layer printed circuit board. This concept has provided many advantages, including reducing the printed circuit board surface area that must be devoted to magnetic circuit components, and reducing the reactance associated with the leads of the magnetic component. As just one example, a particularly advantageous application of the concept is described in the inventor""s U.S. Pat. No. 5,990,776, also incorporated by reference herein in its entirety. Notwithstanding the concept""s many advantages, however, there are some practical limitations.
One limitation is that, especially where the windings are long, there may need to be many layers in the printed circuit board to carry the windings. However, the cost to fabricate the printed circuit board generally increases dramatically with the number of layers, so that it is usually desirable to minimize this number.
Another limitation is that the resistance of the traces may not be sufficiently well controlled in the standard printed circuit board fabrication process for a given application of the magnetic component. Precise control of the dimensions of the traces is typically not critical in printed circuit board fabrication; however it may become critical where the traces are employed as part of the magnetic component, especially where the windings of the component are long and their combined resistance becomes appreciable.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus for forming a magnetic component on a printed circuit board that provides for reducing the cost of fabricating the circuit board as well as the completed assembly, and that provides for increased control over the electrical resistance of the magnetic components.
The method and apparatus for forming a magnetic component on a printed circuit board of the present invention solves the aforementioned problems and meets the aforementioned needs by providing a printed circuit board having at least one inner layer having a trace that forms a winding of the magnetic component. At least one other winding of the magnetic component is provided by a supplemental length of wire formed in a loop that is disposed externally to the printed circuit board. Each type of winding provides advantages, and the proportion of each may be selected to optimize cost and circuit parameters.
Therefore, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a novel and improved method and apparatus for forming a magnetic component on a printed circuit board.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for forming a magnetic component on a printed circuit board that provides for decreasing the manufacturing cost of the printed circuit board as well as the completed assembly.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for forming a magnetic component on a printed circuit board that provides for increasing control of critical component parameters, such as the resistance of the magnetic component.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide such a method and apparatus that provides for decreasing parasitic electrical effects.
The foregoing and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more readily understood upon consideration of the following detailed description of the invention, taken in conjunction with the following drawings.

Method and apparatus for forming a magnetic component on a printed circuit board


Disclosed is a single-crystal ingot manufacturing apparatus, which includes a crucible in which a melt is accommodated, a heater configured to heat the crucible, a heat shield member configured to shield radiant heat from the heater and the melt, and a neck cover configured to encompass a seed crystal unit above the crucible with being introduced into an opening of the heat shield member, the radiant heat being not shielded in the opening, the neck cover being vertically moved in linkage to vertical movement of the seed crystal unit within a predetermined range.

FIG. 1 is a view illustrating a conventional single-crystal ingot manufacturing apparatus.
The single-crystal ingot manufacturing apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1 includes a crucible 10, a seed crystal 30, heat-shields 42 and 44, a heater 50, a wire 62, and a pulling motor 64.
With a silicon single-crystal manufacturing method using a Czochralski process, after the crucible 10 is filled with polysilicon, the crucible 10 is heated by the heater 50 to melt the polysilicon, which results in silicon melt 20. Next, the seed crystal 30 is lowered to come into contact with the silicon melt 20, and thereafter is pulled upward by rotating the wire 62 connected to the seed crystal 30 using the pulling motor 64 so as to subsequently form a neck portion, a shoulder portion, and a diameter portion (or a straight body) having a predetermined diameter of an ingot. In this way, growth of the single-crystal ingot is completed. In this case, the heat-shields 42 and 44 serve to shield radiant heat generated from the silicon melt 20, the crucible 10, and the heater 50.
Slip dislocation occurs in a lower end of the seed crystal 30 at a high density from thermal shock due to a rapid temperature difference when the seed crystal 30 comes into contact with the silicon melt 20. A necking operation of removing the slip dislocation is essential, in order to grow a dislocation-free silicon single-crystal ingot. The necking operation developed by Dash creates an elongated neck portion having a diameter within a range of about 3 mm to 4 mm and a length within a range of about 100 mm or more.
The neck portion having a small diameter within a range of 3 mm to 4 mm may be damaged with increasing diameter and weight of the silicon single-crystal ingot during growth, which causes serious accidents, such as fall of the single-crystal ingot, etc. In particular, a greater diameter and weight of the single-crystal ingot may worsen damage to the neck portion.

Single crystal ingot, apparatus and method for manufacturing the same


According to one embodiment, a virtual block is constructed according to configuration conditions that, when a plurality of physical blocks included in the virtual block are selected, the sum of the number of physical block pairs and the number of single blocks allocated from the same memory chip to one virtual block is less than or equal to a first value.

Physical blocks which are arranged over a plurality of memory chips are combined to configure a virtual block, thereby achieving read and write accesses to a non-volatile memory, in order to improve the performance using the parallelism of processes or perform the error correction protection of a memory in which an error is likely to occur, when data is written to the non-volatile memory. When the number of normal (good) physical blocks in all chips is sufficient, the physical blocks can be combined such that the number of parallel processes is the maximum in all virtual blocks. However, with the miniaturization of the non-volatile memory, the number of defective blocks (hereinafter, referred to as bad blocks) which are not normally operated in the non-volatile memory has increased due to various causes.
In addition, in some cases, the physical block which has not been a bad block at the initial start of the system changes to the bad block when it is used for a long time. For example, a wear leveling method has been used which controls the number of erasing/writing processes for each block to perform wear leveling for each block. However, it is difficult to completely control the generation of the bad block due to, for example, a difference in durability which depends on finish in a manufacturing process or the position on the chip.
If as many virtual blocks as possible are to be configured by using physical blocks other than bad blocks, a virtual block might be configured by selecting a plurality of physical blocks from the same plane of the same memory chip in some cases. The physical blocks belonging to the same plane of the same memory chip cannot be accessed from a controller at the same time. Therefore, depending on the method of configuring a virtual block, the time required for access varies between virtual blocks.

Memory system and constructing method of virtual block


A reference timing architecture is disclosed that provides a level of flexibility that was not available with the architecture in the prior art. In particular, the present invention provides for multiple reference timing outputs that can be routed to equipment nodes relying on the timing information, wherein each of the timing processing paths that provide timing outputs can be controlled independently of one another.

The first generation of optical fiber systems in the public telephone network used proprietary architectures, equipment line codes, multiplexing formats, and maintenance procedures. This diversity complicated the task of the regional Bell operating companies ("RBOCs") and the interexchange carriers (e.g., AT&T, Sprint, MCI, etc.) who needed to interface their equipment with these diverse systems.
To ease this task, Bellcore initiated an effort to establish a standard for connecting one optical fiber system to another. That standard is officially named the Synchronous Optical Network, but it is more commonly called "SONET." The international version of the domestic SONET standard is officially named the Synchronous Digital Hierarchy, but it is more commonly called "SDH."
Although differences exist between SONET and SDH, those differences are mostly in terminology. In most respects, the two standards are the same and, therefore, virtually all equipment that complies with either the SONET standard or the SDH standard also complies with the other. Therefore, for the purposes of this specification, the SONET standard and the SDH standard shall be considered interchangeable and the acronym/initialism "SONET/SDH" is defined as either the Synchronous Optical Network standard or the Synchronous Digital Hierarchy standard or both.
The nodes in a SONET/SDH network are synchronized to each other. In particular, SONET/SDH is governed by both frame synchronization and network synchronization. In frame synchronization, a SONET/SDH signal carries its frame pattern within its bit stream. A SONET/SDH receiver must establish frame synchronization before it can restore the bit stream of the SONET/SDH signal. In network synchronization, information transfer between interconnected synchronous systems must be possible without the data buffers in the network overflowing or buffer underflowing. Otherwise, if a buffer overflows or underflows, the underlying timing mismatch introduces degradation into the information message signal.
Underlying synchronization at both the frame level and network level is the need to have adequate timing recovery in the digital transmission system, whether or not it is SONET/SDH based. Timing recovery at equipment receiving a digital bit stream includes two issues. The first issue is how to obtain the reference clock (i.e., timing information), and the second issue is how to synchronize this clock to a benchmark or standard phase. Techniques exist in the prior art that address timing recovery issues. Furthermore, techniques to provide timing information to multiple equipment nodes exist in the prior art, as discussed below.
FIG. 1 depicts a block diagram of telecommunications network 100 in the prior art, which comprises a SONET/SDH ring network operating as a bi-directional line switching ring ("BLSR"). Telecommunications network 100 comprises five central offices, central office 101, 102, 103, 104, and 105, in which each pair of adjacent central offices is interconnected by two high-speed digital transmission lines.
Central office 101, 102, 103, 104, and 105 are interconnected for timing purposes as well as for voice and data transmission purposes. Timing interconnection in a high-speed digital network, such as telecommunications network 100, is critical for the purposes of successfully interpreting and decoding the digital information exchanged between equipment nodes.
FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram of the salient components of central office 101 in the prior art. As shown in FIG. 2, equipment cabinet 201, 202, 203, and 204 represent different telecommunications equipment nodes within central office 101. Equipment cabinet 201 constitutes a SONET/SDH node. Equipment cabinet 201 in central office 101 communicates with other SONET/SDH nodes in interconnected central office 102 via fiber 111-2-1 and fiber 112-1-2, and in central office 104 via fiber 111-1-4 and 1124-1.
Equipment cabinet 202 and 203 are T-carrier terminations. T-carrier (e.g., T-1, T-3, etc.) is a system that is used for digital telecommunication transmission. Equipment cabinet 202 interconnects with a node external to central office 101 via a dedicated T-carrier link. Equipment cabinet 203 interconnects with a node external to central office 101 via another dedicated T-carrier link.
Equipment cabinet 204 serves as an internal timing source (i.e., internal clock) for equipment within central office 101. As an internal timing source, equipment cabinet 204 can bridge, with automatic switching, short disruptions of whatever timing source is being used are the primary source. The accuracy of the internal timing source is rated at a minimum acceptable level of performance (e.g., ±20 parts per million or better, etc.).
Timing distribution system 205 provides the major source of integrated timing information within central office 101. Timing distribution system 205 accepts designated sources of timing information, evaluates the timing information against performance criteria, derives a stabilized timing signal, and then makes the timing signal available to the equipment requiring timing information. In essence, timing distribution system 205 is a source node for timing information to other nodes that require timing information.
Timing distribution system 205 accepts timing signals from a variety of sources. Path 211-1 and path 211-2 receive timing information from clock recovery circuit 206-1 and 206-2, respectively. Clock recovery circuit 206-1 through 206-5, in general, recover timing information from the information message signal in which timing is embedded. This information message signal can be SONET/SDH, T-1, T-3, or other time-division-multiplexed service signals. In the case of clock recovery circuit 206-1 and 206-2, the timing information originates from central office 102 via fiber 111-2-1 and from central office 104 via fiber 112-4-1, respectively, and is embedded within the SONET/SDH signal received. Similarly, path 211-3 provides timing information to timing distribution system 205 from SONET/SDH tributary 121. Clock recovery circuit 206-3 extracts the timing information.
Other sources of timing terminate into timing distribution system 205. Path 211-4 and 211-5 provide timing information recovered from the T-carrier links via clock recovery circuit 2064 and 206-5, respectively.
Timing distribution system 205 also accepts timing signals directly from external timing sources. Path 211-6 and 211-7 carry timing information known as BITS, or Building Integrated Timing Supply, widely used in digital networks. BITS allows for a standardized timing supply for digital networks. BITS_IN interface 207-1 and 207-2 terminate BITS signs on paths 117 and 118, respectively, and provides the BITS signals to path 211-6 and 211-7.
In addition to a variety of other possible timing inputs that are not depicted, path 211-N provides timing distribution system 205 with the timing signal from the internal clock constituting equipment cabinet 204. The number N refers to the total number of input timing information paths to timing distribution system 205.
Timing distribution system 205 also serves as a timing source node by providing timing information to receiver nodes requiring timing for synchronization purposes. Path 212-1 provides timing information to equipment cabinet 201, the SONET/SDH node within central office 101. Path 212-2 provides timing information to equipment cabinet 203, a T-carrier node. Path 212-3 provides timing information to BITS_OUT interface 208, which, in turn, provides the timing signal to a timing receiver node at a location external to central office 101 via path 119.
Other paths can provide timing information to various nodes within central office 101, external to central office 101, or both. One such path is path 212-M, which provides timing information to equipment cabinet 202, a T-carrier node. The number of output timing paths, M, can be less than, greater than, or equal to the number of input timing paths, N.
FIG. 3 depicts a block diagram of timing distribution system 205 in the prior art. Timing distribution system 205 comprises a single timing processing path. As depicted in FIG. 3, the timing processing path comprises evaluator/selector 302 and timing signal generator 303. Evaluator/selector 302 accepts a plurality of candidate timing signals 211-1 through 211-(N−1). Evaluator/selector 302 also accepts a benchmark signal (i.e., from the internal timing source depicted in FIG. 2) on path 211-N. Evaluator/selector 302 is depicted in FIG. 4 and will be discussed later in more detail.
Evaluator/selector 302 evaluates the candidate signals and selects a single active timing signal, providing it to timing signal generator 303 via path 311. Timing signal generator 303 takes the timing signal and derives a stabilized signal by passing the timing signal through a phase locked loop. Timing signal generator 303 then provides the stabilized timing signal to the receiver nodes via paths 212-1 through 212-M.
Timing signal generator 303 also accepts a backup timing signal (i.e., from the internal timing source depicted in FIG. 2) via path 211-N. The backup signal is also stabilized through the phase locked loop and is used for holdover purposes, in the event that the primary timing signal is interrupted.
FIG. 4 depicts a block diagram of evaluator/selector 302. Evaluator/selector 302 accepts a plurality of candidate signals via paths 211-1 through 211-(N−1). Evaluator 401-h, for h=1 to (N−1), accepts the candidate signal transmitted on path 211-h, appraises a characteristic of the candidate signal against that of the benchmark signal provided via path 211-N, and compares the difference to a threshold. Evaluator 401-h then provides an evaluation signal to controller 402 via path 411-h, wherein the evaluation signal is an indication of the outcome of the evaluation.
Controller 402 is used to process evaluation signals on path 411-h, for h=1 to (N−1). Controller 402 accepts the evaluation signals and derives a selection signal, provided to (N−1)-to-1 selector 403 via path 412. The selection signal can be derived by controller 402 in part by examining the evaluation signals, it is can be derived through other means.
Selector 403 accepts the selection signal via path 412 and uses the selection signal to select the candidate signal from path 211-1 through 211-(N−1) that is to be provided as output from evaluator/selector 302 via path 311.
As discussed, techniques exist in the prior art that address timing recovery and distribution. However, many of these techniques are limited in providing the flexibility that telecommunications operators require in various operating environments, in particular where there are numerous equipment nodes requiring timing information. A technique is needed that that would provide operators with the timing recovery and distribution flexibility that they require, especially as synchronized telecommunications networks grow larger and more complex.


Reticle management systems and methods. The system comprises at least one reticle and at least one cabinet with an inert gas environment. The cabinet comprises a plurality of storage spaces. When the reticle is put in a storage space, the cabinet identifies the reticle and the storage space occupied thereby. The cabinet provides inert gas to the reticle. The storage information of the reticle in the cabinet and/or an inert gas status of the reticle are provided to a query system and a dispatch system for reticle location query and lot dispatching.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to reticle management and operation for advanced technology IC foundry It is more particularly to provide not only a hardware (3 in 1 N2 e-Cabinet), but also management systems and methods to preserve MASK at a specific environment (For example: N2 gas), and charge the gas into the carrier more conveniently and efficiently, and also equip with real time information for reticle dispatching.
2. Description of the Related Art
Photolithography is an important technology in semiconductor manufacturing. The number of reticles (masks) used in photolithography corresponds to the complexity of a manufacturing process. Photolithography affects structures of semiconductor devices, such as patterns of layers and doped regions, and determines the functional effectiveness thereof. Since photolithography is complicated, photolithography apparatus, such as scanners, performing the photolithography can create a bottleneck in the manufacturing process.
Each photolithography apparatus may have a rack for reticle storage. Due to quality concern, most of PSM reticles required storage in an inert gas such as nitrogen environment, to avoid precipitation thereon, which will impact wafer quality and increase reticle repairing opportunities that kill production cycle time and tool efficiency. FIG. 1 illustrates conventional reticle management. As shown in FIG. 1, scanners (102, 104, 106 and 108) generally use a reticle stocker 120. The reticle stocker 120 is required to store the MASK in wafer fabrication clean room for manufacturing. The reticle stocker 120 is a self-contained, clean environment electronic closet in which reticles can be stored and from which reticles can be retrieved. Additionally, the reticle stocker 120 provides an inert gas environment in which reticles of critical layers are prior to use for processing.
Generally, the reticle stocker is at a specific location which operators must move to get reticles for operation, a time-consuming and inconvenient system. The cost for reticle stocker is expensive, making it impractical to provide multiple reticle stockers in a factory. Additionally, since the reticle stocker has limited space for racks charging inert gas simultaneously, most racks must wait, thereby increasing lost time of scanners, and decreasing equipment availability and throughput of the manufacturing processes.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


A decorated sheet according to the present disclosure consists of a plurality of resin layers, wherein at least one of the resin layers comprises a nano-sized additive.

In recent years, as shown in Patent Literatures 1 to 5, a large number of decorated sheets in which olefin resins are used are proposed as decorated sheets alternative to decorated sheets made of polyvinyl chloride that raises concerns for environmental protection.
However, while such decorated sheets do not use a vinyl chloride resin, and thus the generation of toxic gas and the like during incineration is suppressed, the surface abrasion resistance is poor because of the use of a commonly used polypropylene sheet or flexible polypropylene sheet, and is far inferior to the abrasion resistance of conventional polyvinyl chloride decorated sheets.
The present inventors conducted research for a highly crystalline polypropylene resin having an initial flexural modulus of 1000 MPa or more and found that such highly crystalline polypropylene has excellent abrasion resistance (see Patent Literature 6), but performing bending processing such as V-groove bending processing may result in a break of a film or a crack in an outer circumferential part in post-processing depending on the processing conditions such as processing shape, processing temperature, and processing speed thereof. Moreover, those having 5% or more polyethylene that is added to improve film formability may whiten when V-groove bending processing is performed due to the poor compatibility between polyethylene and polypropylene.
On the other hand, according to Patent Literature 7, a decorated sheet that has enhanced resistance to post-processing such as V-groove bending and enhanced abrasion resistance of the decorated sheet surface is achieved by way of a decorated sheet having a transparent resin layer containing as a main component a highly crystalline polypropylene resin having a pentad fraction (mmmm fraction) of 96% or more, a melt flow rate (MFR) at 230° C. of 5 to 40 g/10 min, a molecular weight distribution (MWD=Mw/Mn where Mw is a weight average molecular weight and Mn is a number average molecular weight) of 4 or less, and an average spherulite particle size of 1 to 20 μm.
However, according to Patent Literature 7, an increase in crystallinity results in enhanced abrasion resistance but poses problems in that cracks and voids are likely to be generated during V-groove bending processing, it is thus necessary to control the melt flow rate, molecular weight distribution, and spherulite size, and, in particular, when the spherulite size is less than 1 μm due to, for example, the addition of a nucleating agent, cracks and voids are generated by interfacial fractures between spherulites and brittle fractures of spherulites, resulting in whitening. In fact, while a decorated sheet disclosed in Comparative Example 3 of Patent Literature 7, obtained by adding sodium 2,2-methylenebisphosphate as a nucleating agent to a highly crystalline polypropylene resin having a pentad fraction of 97.8%, a melt flow rate of 15 g/10 min (230° C.) and a molecular weight distribution of 2.3 and configuring the average particle size of spherulites to be 1 μm or less, has extremely good abrasion resistance, it is indicated that whitening occurred during V-groove bending processing.
The present inventors greatly improved V-groove bending processability and simultaneously achieved post-processing resistance and surface abrasion resistance by way of a decorated sheet that has at least a transparent resin layer containing as a main component 90 to 100% by weight of a crystalline polypropylene resin having an initial flexural modulus of 1000 MPa or more and 2200 MPa or less, a tensile breaking elongation of 200% or more, and a molecular weight distribution MWD of 4 or less and that has a total thickness of 80 μm or more and 250 μm or less, but the whitening and breaking of the transparent resin layer may become problematic in conditions such as high-speed bending in a low-temperature environment. There is also a drawback that whitening makes a damaged part noticeable even when damage is shallow. Accordingly, in order to address these drawbacks, the present inventors proposed a decorated sheet having excellent surface abrasion resistance and post-processability as described in Patent Literature 8. However, as applications of decorated plates in which such a decorated sheet is used increasingly broaden, and consumers are increasingly aware of quality, there are demands for further enhancement of surface abrasion resistance and post-processing resistance to bending processing such as V-groove bending.
Normally, polypropylene resins appear milky white because the spherulite size is greater than the wave length of visible light (400 to 750 nm), but since a transparent resin layer needs to protect a pattern layer and a primary sheet provided therebelow and also allow a pattern, a design, or the like printed thereon to clearly appear on the outer-most surface of a decorated sheet, a material used for a transparent resin layer is required to have particularly high transparency from the aesthetic viewpoint.
In addition to the above problems, polyolefin resins such as polypropylene resins are problematic in that it is difficult to satisfy technical criteria for noncombustible materials because of superior combustibility.
As a method for enabling a decorated sheet using a polyolefin resin to satisfy technical criteria for a noncombustible material set forth in Article 108bis(1) and (2) of the Building Standard Law Enforcement Order, it is contemplated that a filler is replace some of the polyolefin resin used for a sheet material with and thereby reduce the oxygen consumption associated with the combustion of the polyolefin resin to suppress the amount of heat released during the combustion of the decorated sheet, but since the mechanical strength of the resulting sheet material is significantly lowered when the resin material is replaced with a large amount of filler, a loading of about 20% is the limit.
Patent Literature 9 discloses that filler particles have mutually aggregating characteristics, it is thus difficult to uniformly disperse a filler in a resin material, accordingly it is difficult to fill a resin material with a large amount of filler, therefore dispersibility in a resin material is enhanced by using two kinds of fillers or specifically a layered silicate and a metal hydroxide in combination, also, the oxygen consumption during combustion is reduced by the chemical action of the two kinds of fillers to suppress the amount of released heat, and a decorated sheet that satisfies the technical criteria for a noncombustible material is thus obtained. However, since there is a limit to the reduction of oxygen consumption by the chemical action of two or more kinds of fillers as in Patent Literature 9, there are demands for the development of a decorated sheet in which a resin material can be filled with a large amount of filler and the amount of resin is fundamentally reduced.


A cartridge is configured for slitting a mill roll in a slitting machine. The cartridge includes a first shaft mounted in bearings in a pair of endplates, with one end of the shaft having a driven yoke for rotation thereof. The first shaft includes a row of first circular blades spaced longitudinally by corresponding first spacers. A second shaft is pivotally mounted in the endplates, and is spaced parallel with the first shaft. A dovetail bar is fixedly joined to the second shaft parallel therewith. And, a row of blade holders are mounted along the dovetail bar, with each holder including a second circular blade aligned with a corresponding one of the first blades for cutting in shear a web unwound from the mill roll. The cartridge may be quickly replaced in the slitting machine for each production run thereof for alignment with cores on a corresponding arbor.

The present invention relates generally to paper slitting machines, and, more specifically, to alignment thereof.
The ubiquitous paper roll is found in various sizes for various applications including cash registers, ATM machines, adding machines, and receipt printers. Each roll typically includes a paper or plastic core around which is wound a continuous ribbon of paper.
Paper rolls are typically produced in a slitting machine in which a large mill roll of paper is mounted at one end of the machine, unwound through the machine, and then slit at numerous locations along its width to provide corresponding ribbons which are then wound on corresponding cores commonly mounted on a supporting arbor or mandrel. The slitting operation is effected by a pair of circular knives or blades which slit the web in a typical shear cut for each of the cores.
In a single production run of paper cores, several cores are mounted coaxially around the supporting arbor in longitudinal abutting contact therebetween, and fixedly mounted on the arbor by end fittings or nuts. The arbor is then mounted in the slitting machine.
The slitting blades in the machine are typically arranged in pairs on opposite sides of the paper web with the corresponding cutting or shearing lines thereof being suitably aligned with the respective joints between the cores on the arbor.
In one conventional slitting machine, a row of first circular slitting blades are mounted on a first shaft on one side of the web and driven during operation through an end yoke thereof. The first blades are separated from each other by corresponding precision spacers, and thin shims as required to precisely align the cutting edges of the first blades with the corresponding joints between the cores.
A set of second circular blades are pivotally mounted on a second shaft in the machine to selectively engage or disengage the corresponding first blades. Each of the second blades is conventionally mounted in a supporting holder which may be adjusted in position along a supporting dovetail attached to the second shaft. The individual holders may then be adjusted along the dovetail for properly engaging the second blades with their first blade counterparts to control the precise width of each ribbon slit from the web, and also control the cutting overlap or depth between the pairs of first and second blades.
Since each production run of paper cores requires the set up of the individual cores on the arbor, alignment thereof with the first blades, and corresponding alignment of the second blades with the first blades requires considerable time during the set up and alignment procedure. Since the first and second blade sets are integral parts of the slitting machine itself, and the arbor must be suitably mounted therein, the slitting machine cannot be operated during the set up procedure which correspondingly reduces the throughput of the machine, and therefore affects cost of operation.
Accordingly, it is desired to provide an improved slitting machine in which downtime for set up of each production run may be minimized for maximizing use of the machine.


A system, method and program for downloading radio software necessary for a user to a cellular phone or a radio terminal in advance so that the radio software is readily available. With the use of a service terminal, an in-service area management server, a radio software management server, a terminal management server, an accounting management server, a ticket information management server, an available service management server, a personal information management server, and an other provider management server, necessary radio software is downloaded from the radio software management server to a radio terminal or a cellular phone via a network according to location information and time information included in ticket information or personal information stored in the radio terminal or the cellular phone.

In order to enable the update of software on a radio terminal having access to a variety of radio systems, for example, there has been proposed a software radio terminal in Japanese Patent Application laid open No. 2002-199451. The software radio terminal allows a user to select a radio system (service) based on current location information, and downloads software corresponding to the selected system.
The prior art, however, has some problems. The first problem is that, when a user of the software radio terminal has entered into the service area of another radio system, the user cannot utilize radio services of the radio system until downloading of radio software corresponding to the radio system is completed. This is because the user selects a radio system based on current location information, and software is downloaded after that.
The second problem is that software download services cannot be offered to a radio terminal having no means for specifying its current location. That is, the software radio terminal requires a means for specifying its current location to use software download services.
The third problem is that the user cannot utilize services offered by other telecommunications carriers or providers simply through downloading of software corresponding to a radio system. The user is allowed to utilize services offered by another telecommunications carrier only when he/she has applied for registration as a user with the telecommunications carrier in some way.

Radio software acquisition system, radio software acquisition method and radio software acquisition program