There is described an image forming apparatus, wherein a visible image retained on an intermediate transfer belt is collectively transferred to recording material by means of a collective transfer device including a transfer roller and a back-up roller. The recording material that has passed through a transfer nipping region is guided by means of a recording material guide member. In such an image forming apparatus, the intermediate transfer belt is set at an angle of 50.degree. or less relative to the reference line passing through the exit of the transfer nipping region between the transfer roller and the back-up roller among normals orthogonal to a line passing through the center shafts of the transfer roller and the back-up roller, in the area downstream from the transfer nipping region, and the recording material guide member is provided downward at an angle of 5.degree. to 20.degree. relative to the reference line L.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, such as a copier or a laser printer, which adopts electrophotography or an electrostatic recording method, and more particularly, to an improvement in an image forming apparatus which temporarily transfers onto an intermediate transfer belt visible images formed on image carriers from electrostatic color materials (such as toner) and collectively transfer the visible images onto a recording material.
2. Description of the Background Art
In an existing and known image forming apparatus of intermediate transfer type, color toner images formed on photosensitive materials are sequentially and primarily transferred to an intermediate transfer belt, and multicolor toner images thus formed on the intermediate transfer belt are collectively transferred onto a sheet by means of a secondary transfer device (e.g., a collective transfer device) (see Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei-2-213879).
The image forming apparatus of this type usually adopts the following system. For example, as shown in FIG. 10, the collective transfer device comprises an intermediate transfer belt 202 and a transfer roller 203 remaining in pressed contact with the outer surface of the intermediate transfer belt 202. For example, a back-up roller 204 which also serves to extend the intermediate transfer belt is provided behind the intermediate transfer belt 202 opposing the intermediate transfer roller 203. A transfer electric field is formed between the transfer roller 203 and the back-up roller 204, thus collectively transferring to a sheet the multicolor toner images formed on the intermediate transfer belt 202. In FIG. 10, reference numeral 201 designates a photosensitive material, and reference number 205 designates a power feed roller which feeds power to, e.g., the back-up roller 204.
The sheet on which the color toner images are collectively transferred is removed (peeled) from the intermediate transfer belt 202 by means of a sheet guide 206 positioned immediately behind the collective transfer device. After having been guided to a sheet transfer device (not shown), such as a transfer belt, provided in the position downstream from the collective transfer device, the sheet is transferred to a fixing device 207.
In the image forming apparatus of intermediate transfer type mentioned previously, because of restrictions on the layout of the intermediate transfer belt 202, the transfer belt 202 is configured so as to make a comparatively large angle .theta.B relative to the direction in which is discharged the sheet that has passed through a nipping area "n" between the transfer roller 203 and the back-up roller 204 in the position downstream from the transfer nipping area "n."
In this type of layout, the intermediate transfer belt 202 forms a contact angle of about 90.degree. relative to the back-up roller 204, which is a power feed member, in the position downstream from the transfer nipping area "n." A comparatively strong electric field is inevitably formed in the vicinity of the exit of the transfer nipping area "n."
The sheet that has passed through the transfer, nipping area "n" inevitably passes through the strong electric field. If an unfixed toner image formed on the sheet is subjected to the influence of the strong electric field, an image formed on the sheet becomes jumbled, thus resulting in picture imperfections (defects) such as retransfer of a toner image to the intermediate transfer belt from the sheet.
In terms of prevention of such image imperfections (image quality defects), it is thinkable that the intermediate transfer belt 202 will be configured so as to make a comparatively small angle relative to the direction in which is discharged the sheet that has passed through the transfer nipping area "n" in the position downstream from the transfer nipping area "n" in order to weaken the electric field produced in the vicinity of the exit of the transfer nipping area "n."
However, in this type of image forming apparatus, it is difficult to ensure a distance between the sheet, which has passed through the transfer nipping area "n," and the intermediate transfer belt 202, thus rendering technical problems apt to arise at low humidity, such as a failure to remove a sheet from the intermediate transfer belt or jumbling of an image resulting from a removal failure.
In fact, if an attempt is made to save space in so-called a tandem image forming apparatus comprising a plurality of photosensitive materials positioned on an intermediate transfer belt in order to ensure productivity, the angle between the direction in which is discharged the sheet that has passed through the transfer nipping area and the intermediate transfer belt situated in the position downstream from the transfer nipping area is set to a small angel, thus rendering technical problems, such as those mentioned previously, likely to occur.


It is intended to find novel pharmaceutical use of sphingomyelin and to provide preventive or therapeutic agents for various diseases as well as a food and drink product and feed comprising any of these agents. The present invention provides a pharmaceutical agent which contains sphingomyelin as an active ingredient and is any of the following agents: 1) a sialomucin secretion promoter, 2) an agent for preventing drunken sickness (hangover), 3) an antiallergic agent, 4) an antioxidant, 5) an agent for defending against infection, 6) a hair growth agent, 7) a therapeutic agent for demyelinating disease, 8) an anti-pigmentation agent, 9) an anti-inflammatory agent, and 10) an agent for improving learning ability. The present invention also provides a food and drink product or feed, characterized by comprising the agent. It is preferred that the sphingomyelin should be derived from milk.

Sphingomyelin is a type of phospholipid found abundantly in milk and accounts for approximately 30% of phospholipids in cow milk. Sphingomyelin has a structure in which phosphocholine is bound with a ceramide skeleton composed of sphingosine and fatty acid, and has been known to be also found in the brain or nervous tissues. Moreover, sphingomyelin has been reported to be also contained in small amounts in food such as yolk.
Sphingomyelin has been known to influence cell growth or differentiation in vivo via the signal transduction system. Moreover, it has also been suggested that sphingomyelin has an effect of suppressing reduction in protein kinase C activity attributed to aging and is effective for the prevention or treatment of Alzheimer-type memory disorder (Patent Document 1). However, its effect of improving learning ability in a general sense has not been known by any means. It has further been known that sphingomyelin has an effect of improving lipid digestion/absorption function associated with aging (Patent Document 2). However, its other effects have been little known. Therefore, the development of a pharmaceutical agent, a food and drink product, or feed comprising sphingomyelin as an active ingredient has been expected.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-146883    Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-269074

Medicine, food and drink or feed containing sphingomyelin


A semiconductor memory device includes a plurality of memory cell arrays. Each of the memory cell arrys includes a plurality of memory blocks. A row decoder is located adjacent to the memory cell array. Capacitance of the memory block becomes smaller as the memory block location becomes farther from the row decoder.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device.
2. Description of Related Art
It is very important for semiconductor memory devices such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM) to increase the operation speed and to reduce the production cost and power consumption as the chip size becomes miniaturized.
In such a DRAM, a row address and a column address are synchronized in response to control signals and clock signals and then are sequentially inputted through the same package pins. The inputted row address simultaneously activates a plurality of memory cells that are connected with one word line selected by a row decoder. However, since a plurality of the memory cells that are connected with one word line are arranged in a longitudinal direction of the word line, due to a line resistance of the word line, the farther the memory cell is from the row decoder, the more delayed the activation time of the memory cell is. Therefore, an enable time of the word line depends on an activation time of the farthest memory cell from the row decoder. The activation time of the memory cell affects a row access time (tRAC), thereby lowering an operation speed of the semiconductor memory device.
Further, the memory cell has been gradually miniaturized according to a trend of a high integration, and thus a portion of the word line to which the memory cell is connected is made of not a metal but a polycrystalline silicon, whereupon a word line enable time and a charge sharing time, which greatly affect an activation time of the DRAM, become lengthy.
Furthermore, the memory cell array typically includes a plurality of sub-cell arrays. Even though the numbers of the sub-cell array and sub-word line driver are decreased in order to reduce a chip size, since the number of the memory cells that are connected with the word line increases, a word line activation time becomes lengthier.
FIG. 1 is a plan view illustrating a memory cell array of a semiconductor memory device according to a conventional art. A 256M DRAM includes four memory cell arrays. Each of the memory cell arrays has the capacity of 64M bits. As shown in FIG. 1, the memory cell array 10 includes 16 memory blocks BLK0 to BLK15 and 17 sub-word line drivers SWD0 to SWD16. The sub-word line driver is driven by one row address and includes 8 odd sub-word line drivers SWD1, SWD3 to SWD15 and 9 even word line drivers SWD0, SWD2 to SWD16. Each of the memory blocks includes 4 MOSFET transistors arranged at a crossing point of the 16K sub-word lines SWL and 256 bit line pairs BL/BLB. In other words, one word line SWL is connected with 256 cell transistors, and thus when one word line is selected, 256 cell transistors go to an active state at the same time. The sub-word line is directly connected with a gate electrode of the transistor and is made of polycrystalline silicon.
The sub-word line drivers SWD0 to SWD16 are respectively arranged between a pair of the memory blocks. In other words, a pair of the memory blocks shares one sub-word line driver. The sub-word line drivers are connected with 16K metal word lines WL (not shown in FIG. 1) that are formed over the cell transistor. The odd sub-word line drivers SWD1 to SWD 15 are enable-controlled through first enable drivers PXID0 to PXID7, and the even word line drivers SDW0 to SWD16 are enable-controlled through second enable drivers PXIDB0 to PXIDB8, respectively. Therefore, each of the sub-word line drivers is enabled through the corresponding enable driver and activates the corresponding sub-word line SWL in response to a word line driving signal transmitted via the metal word line WL.
A row decoder RD is arranged at a location adjacent to the memory block BLK15 of the cell array 10. The row decoder RD decodes a row address and generates a first signal PNWEi for activating the selected metal word line WL.
An enable controller PXI provides the first enable drivers PXID0 to PXID7 and the second enable drivers PXIDB0 to PXIDB8 with enable signals through control lines CL and CLB, respectively.
An operation of the word line activation is explained hereinafter. The row decoder RD decodes a row address to select the first signal PNWEi. Then, enable signals are transmitted from the enable controller PXI to either of the first and second enable drivers PXIDi and PXIDBi, respectively, through either the signal line CL or CLB. The enable signals are conveyed to the nearest sub-word line driver SWD15 or SWD16 to the row decoder RD before the others. The enable signals are conveyed to the farthest sub-word line SWD1 or SDW0 to the row decoder RD after the others.
Out of 256 cell transistors that are connected with the sub-word line SWL activated by the sub-word line driver SWD1, the nearest cell transistor CELL255 is the first to be activated, and the farthest cell transistor CELL0 is the last to be activated.
Of 255 cell transistors that are connected with the sub-word line SWL activated by the sub-word line driver SWD1, the nearest cell transistor CELL255 is the first to be activated, and the farthest cell transistor CELL0 is the last to be activated.
Since the sub-word line SWL is made of polycrystalline silicon that is greater in resistance than a metal, the cell transistor CELL255 of the sub-word line SWL is activated by the sub-word line driver SWD1 is activated before the cell transistor CELL0 of the sub-word line SWL activated by the sub-word line driver SWD15. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2, a word line activation time is delayed up -to an activation time of the cell transistor CELL0 of the sub-word line SWD1, thereby increasing a row access time (tRAC) and a row precharge time (tRP). FIG. 2 is a timing diagram illustrating wave forms of sub-word lines. At this point, the vertical axis denotes voltage, and the horizontal axis represents time.
In case of high-integrated DRAM having the capacity of 1G, 4G, or 16G bits, a delay difference between the earliest cell transistor and the latest cell transistor becomes greater, thereby increasing a word line activation time length.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a semiconductor memory device having a short word line activation time length.
According to a feature of an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor memory device having a short word line activation time length. According to another feature of an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a semiconductor memory device having a plurality of memory cell arrays, each of the memory cell arrays having a plurality of memory blocks. Each of the memory blocks has a plurality of transistors. According to another feature of the present invention, the semiconductor memory device further includes a row decoder located adjacent to the memory cell array. According to yet another feature of the present invention, a capacitance of a memory block becomes smaller as the memory block becomes farther from the row decoder.
According to another feature of an embodiment of the present invention, the memory cell array further includes a word line activated by the row decoder. The word line includes a plurality of sub-word lines. Each of the sub-word lines is connected with the plurality of the transistors. A plurality of sub-word line drivers activate the sub-word lines. A plurality of enable drivers enable the sub-word line drivers. An enable controller provides the plurality of the enable drivers with enable signals. One sub-word line of the farthest memory block from the row decoder is connected with 224 transistors, and one sub-word line of the nearest memory block to the row decoder is connected with 288 transistors.
According to another feature of an embodiment of the present invention, each of the memory cell arrays includes 3 memory blocks having 224 transistors per one sub-word line, 3 memory blocks having 240 transistors per one sub-word line, 4 memory blocks having 256 transistors per one sub-word line, 3 memory blocks having 272 transistors per one sub-word line, and 3 memory blocks having 288 transistors per one sub-word line.
Using the semiconductor memory device according to features of preferred embodiments of the present invention, a word line activation time can be reduced, thereby decreasing a row access time (tRAC) and a row precharge time (tRP) leading to a high-speed operation.

Semiconductor memory device having a memory block with a decreased capacitance


An EMI internal shield made of an electrically conductive material that absorbs and reflects electromagnetic interference (EMI) signals associated to fit with an EMI shield top cover. The EMI internal shield is formed to fit without solder or welding as an EMI shield apparatus over EMI susceptible electronic circuitry on a printed circuit board. The EMI internal shield apparatus not only shields circuitry from EMI sources external to the printed circuit board, but also isolates certain electronic circuits from other electronic circuitry on the printed circuit board. Additionally, the EMI internal shield permits the communication of desired electromagnetic radio frequency and electrical signals to the circuitry inside the shield. The EMI internal shield apparatus includes the use of an electrically conductive layer that is integral to the top of the printed circuit board and which includes conductive channels that penetrate the printed circuit board. The channels prevent EMI from passing through the printed circuit board to the shielded electronic circuits. Also, the channels receive tangs found on the EMI internal shield. The tangs are positioned to prevent EMI from passing through the juncture of the EMI internal shield with the conductive layer. As EMI signals reach the EMI internal shield, they are absorbed and conducted to an electrical ground or reflected from the EMI internal shield. Signal trace openings through the conductive layer permit electrical leads from the electronic circuitry to connect to external circuitry.

The prior art packaging of printed circuit boards containing electronic circuitry to prevent EMI signals from leaving the package or from reaching and adversely affecting highly-susceptible electronic circuitry within the package is both labor intensive to manufacture and service and suffers from several functional limitations. Keeping EMI from leaving an electronics module that contains EMI-emitting components has required soldering certain shielding materials to the printed circuit board and fastening other shielding materials to the soldered shielding material using various screws or other fastening hardware. Keeping EMI from reaching and affecting susceptible electronic circuits in an electronics module, on the other hand, has required placing the printed circuit board fully in a sealed box made of a material that effectively shields most of the EMI signals.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/834,908, entitled "EMI Shield Apparatus and Methods" by W. F. Weber and assigned to "the assignee of the present invention" (the Weber Shield) describes a solderless EMI shield apparatus that overcomes the limitations of prior art devices. Even with the improvements of the Weber Shield, there is a need for an EMI internal shield that effectively separates certain electronic circuits from the rest of the electronic circuitry on a printed circuit board. For example, if certain electronic circuits under the Weber Shield require isolation or shielding from the remaining circuitry, there is no known apparatus or method that provides a solderless, easily removable internal shield. Prior art devices for internal shielding require labor-intensive welding or soldering of multiple shield pieces that may later inhibit repair or replacement of electronic circuitry.
It is an object of the present invention, therefore, to provide an EMI internal shield that may be used with an EMI shield such as the Weber Shield and that effectively separates certain electronic circuits from other electronic circuitry on a printed circuit board to shield the certain electronic circuits from EMI that the other electronic circuitry emits and EMI that may penetrate through the EMI shield, while permitting communication of desired electromagnetic radio frequency and electrical signals with the certain electronic circuits.

EMI internal shield apparatus and methods


The present disclosure relates to a graphene paper which reduced graphene oxide layers and coating layers are stacked in sequence. The graphene paper prepared according to a preparation method of the present invention has excellent electrical conductivity and mechanical properties, and can be economically prepared in large-sized graphene paper, therefore may be efficiently applied to various electrical devices such as thin-film electrodes, flexible electrodes, super capacitors, semiconductor insulating layer reinforcements and TFT semiconductor layer-electrodes, and the like.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a graphene paper which graphene oxide layers and coating layers are stacked in sequence and a preparation method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, graphite is a stack of two-dimensional graphene sheets formed from a planar array of carbon atoms bonded into hexagonal structures. Recently, when single or multiple graphene layers were removed to analyze the properties and found useful properties of graphene sheets that were different from existing material.
The most noticeable of these properties is that electrons flow as zero mass in the graphene sheets. As a result, the electrons flow at the velocity of light in a vacuum, which means flowing in the speed of light. In addition, an anomalous half-integer quantum hall effect for both electron and electron holes are observed in graphene sheets.
Currently, the electron mobility of graphene sheet is as high as about 20,000 to 50,000 cm2/Vs. Also, it is preferable to manufacture products using graphene sheets rather than carbon nanotubes, since products made from graphite are inexpensive while products made from carbon nanotubes which are used in applications similar to those in which graphene sheets are used, are expensive due to low yields during synthesis and purification processes even though the carbon nanotubes themselves are inexpensive. Single wall carbon nanotubes exhibit different metallic and semiconducting characteristics according to their chirality and diameter. Furthermore, single wall carbon nanotubes having identical semiconducting characteristics have different energy band gaps depending on their chirality and diameter. Thus, in order to obtain a metallic single wall carbon nanotube composition or a semiconducting single wall carbon nanotube composition, it is desirable to separate the single wall carbon nanotubes from each other in order to obtain desired metallic or semiconducting characteristics respectively. However, separating single wall carbon nanotubes is not a simple or inexpensive process.
On the other hand, it is advantageous to use graphene sheets since it is possible to design a device to exhibit desired electrical characteristics by arranging the graphene sheets so that their crystalline orientation is in a desired direction since their electrical vary with crystalline orientation. It is envisioned that these characteristics of graphene sheets will render them useful in carbonaceous electrical devices or carbonaceous electromagnetic devices in the future.
However, although graphene sheets have these advantageous characteristics, a process of economically and reproducibly preparing a large-sized graphene sheet has not yet been developed.
Three methods that are currently available for preparing graphene are micromechanical method, SiC crystal thermal decomposition method and chemical vapor deposition method (CVD).
According to the micromechanical method, a graphene sheet separated from graphite can be deposited on the surface of Scotch™ tape by attaching the tape to a graphite sample and detaching the tape. In this case, the separated graphene sheet does not include a uniform number of layers, and the graphene sheets have an irregular shape similar as a ripped paper. Furthermore, a large-sized graphene sheet cannot be prepared using the micromechanical method.
In SiC crystal thermal decomposition method, a single crystal SiC is heated to remove Si by decomposition of the SiC on the surface thereof, and then residual carbon C forms a graphene sheet. However, single crystal SiC which is used as the starting material is very expensive, and a large-sized graphene sheet cannot be easily prepared.
In addition, in chemical vapor deposition method, transition metals such as nickel (Ni) or copper (Cu) are used as the catalyst layer which can adsorb carbon at high temperatures. When reacted with methane and hydrogen gas mixture, the carbon atom adsorb to the catalyst layer. These carbon atoms contained in the catalyst layer are crystallized on the surface when cooled, therefore generating graphene.
However, chemical vapor deposition method is advantageous for obtaining large-sized graphene with identical crystalline forms, but graphene can not exist in independent form since they are always transcribed on the substrate surface.
Meanwhile, an attempt has been made to prepare graphene using a chemical process. However, the process is not completely controllable. Another method of preparing graphene was by forming and dispersing graphene oxide. Since graphene oxide is easily dispersed, a thin layer made of the graphene oxide can be easily formed. Other attempts are being made to manufacture graphene by reducing the graphene oxides.
Patent Document 1 [Korean Patent Application No. 10-2007-0126947] discloses a method of preparing a reduced graphene oxide thin layer comprising the steps of: forming a graphene oxide layer by coating a graphene oxide dispersion on a substrate; reducing the graphene oxide by immersing the substrate comprising the graphene oxide layer in a reducing agent-containing solution; and doping an organic dopant and/or inorganic dopant on the reduced graphene oxide.
Patent Document 2 [Korean Patent Application No. 10-2009-0013137] discloses a graphene sheet including intercalation compound and a preparation method thereof, to control the electrical, optical, and physical properties of the graphene sheet according to the intercalated compounds without deteriorating the intrinsic electrical properties, transmittance, and flexibility of the graphene sheet.
Patent Document 3 [Korean Patent Application No. 10-2009-0054708] discloses a method of manufacturing a large-sized graphene film through the process of spin drying and reducing a graphene film dispersed in a hydrophilic solution, comprising the steps of: manufacturing a dispersion solution by dispersing graphene oxide in a hydrophilic solution; spin drying the dispersion solution; and reducing the graphene oxide film obtained by spin drying.
However, none of the above disclosed methods could perfectly reproduce the mechanical properties and electrical properties of the graphene.
Thus, the present inventors have performed intensive research to develop a graphene paper with excellent electrical conductivity and mechanical properties. As a result, the present inventors identified that graphene paper which the reduced graphene oxide layers and coating layers are stacked in sequence prepared according to the method of the present invention has excellent electrical conductivity and mechanical properties, thereby leading to completion of the present invention.

Graphene paper which reduced graphene oxide layers and coating layers are stacked in sequence and preparation method thereof

Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials


A fuel cell system that employs a heat exchanger and a charge air cooler for reducing the temperature of the cathode inlet air to a fuel cell stack during certain system operating conditions so that the cathode inlet air is able to absorb more moisture in a water vapor transfer unit. The system can include a valve that selectively by-passes the heat exchanger if the cathode inlet air does not need to be cooled to meet the inlet humidity requirements. Alternately, the charge air cooler can be cooled by an ambient airflow.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a fuel cell system that employs a water vapor transfer (WVT) unit for controlling the humidity of cathode inlet air to a fuel cell stack and, more particularly, to a fuel cell system that employs a WVT unit for controlling the humidity of cathode inlet air to a fuel cell stack and a charge air cooler for controlling the temperature of the cathode inlet air.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Hydrogen is a very attractive fuel because it is clean and can be used to efficiently produce electricity in a fuel cell. A hydrogen fuel cell is an electrochemical device that includes an anode and a cathode with an electrolyte therebetween. The anode receives hydrogen gas and the cathode receives oxygen or air. The hydrogen gas is dissociated at the anode catalyst to generate free protons and electrons. The protons pass through the electrolyte to the cathode. The protons react with the oxygen and the electrons at the cathode catalyst to generate water. The electrons from the anode cannot pass through the electrolyte, and thus are directed through a load to perform work before being sent to the cathode.
Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) are a popular fuel cell for vehicles. The PEMFC generally includes a solid polymer electrolyte proton conducting membrane, such as a perfluorosulfonic acid membrane. The anode and cathode typically include finely divided catalytic particles, usually platinum (Pt), supported on carbon particles and mixed with an ionomer. The catalytic mixture is deposited on opposing sides of the membrane. The combination of the anode catalytic mixture, the cathode catalytic mixture and the membrane define a membrane electrode assembly (MEA). MEAs are relatively expensive to manufacture and require certain conditions for effective operation.
Several fuel cells are typically combined in a fuel cell stack to generate the desired power. For example, a typical fuel cell stack for a vehicle may have two hundred or more stacked fuel cells. The fuel cell stack receives a cathode input gas, typically a flow of air forced through the stack by a compressor. Not all of the oxygen is consumed by the stack and some of the air is output as a cathode exhaust gas that may include water as a stack by-product. The fuel cell stack also receives an anode hydrogen input gas that flows into the anode side of the stack.
The fuel cell stack includes a series of bipolar plates positioned between the several MEAs in the stack, where the bipolar plates and the MEAs are positioned between two end plates. The bipolar plates include an anode side and a cathode side for adjacent fuel cells in the stack. Anode gas flow channels are provided on the anode side of the bipolar plates that allow the anode reactant gas to flow to the respective MEA. Cathode gas flow channels are provided on the cathode side of the bipolar plates that allow the cathode reactant gas to flow to the respective MEA. One end plate includes anode gas flow channels, and the other end plate includes cathode gas flow channels. The bipolar plates and end plates are made of a conductive material, such as stainless steel or a conductive composite. The end plates conduct the electricity generated by the fuel cells out of the stack. The bipolar plates also include flow channels through which a cooling fluid flows.
As is well understood in the art, fuel cell membranes operate with a certain relative humidity (RH) so that the ionic resistance across the membrane is low enough to effectively conduct protons. The relative humidity of the cathode outlet gas from the fuel cell stack is typically controlled to control the relative humidity of the membranes by controlling several stack operating parameters, such as stack pressure, temperature, cathode stoichiometry and the relative humidity of the cathode air into the stack.
As mentioned above, water is generated as a by-product of the stack operation. Therefore, the cathode exhaust gas from the stack will include water vapor and liquid water. It is known in the art to use a water vapor transfer (WVT) unit to capture some of the water in the cathode exhaust gas, and use the water to humidify the cathode input airflow. Water in the cathode exhaust gas at one side of the membrane is absorbed by the membrane and transferred to the cathode air stream at the other side of the membrane.
If the cathode exhaust gas has a relative humidity below 100%, then the water transfer efficiency of the WVT unit significantly decreases. To overcome this loss of water transfer efficiency, it would typically be necessary to increase the size of the WVT unit to achieve the desired stack inlet humidity. However, as the size of the WVT unit increases, the cost of the WVT unit significantly increases. Also, larger WVT units could present packaging problems in the fuel cell system.
The cathode inlet air is heated by the compressor. It is known in the art that the cathode inlet air can be cooled prior to being sent to the WVT unit so that the cathode inlet air is at the proper temperature for absorbing more water and water vapor. In one known system, the stack cooling fluid that is used to cool the fuel cell stack is also used to cool the cathode inlet air so that the temperature of the cathode inlet air is about the same as the stack temperature.

Water transfer efficiency improvement in a membrane humidifier by reducing dry air inlet temperature


A production method of a monocrystalline silicon includes: forming a shoulder of the monocrystalline silicon; and forming a straight body of the monocrystalline silicon. In forming the shoulder, the shoulder is formed such that a part of growth striations, which extend radially across the shoulder, has an outer end interrupted by another part of the growth striations not to reach a peripheral portion of the shoulder and that no remelt growth area with a height of 200 μm or more in a growth direction is generated.

Low-resistive monocrystalline silicons have recently been demanded. In a known production method of such monocrystalline silicons where an n-type dopant is densely added, single crystallization is sometimes hampered and thus studies have been conducted on prevention of such a problem (see, for instance, Patent Literature 1).
Patent Literature 1 discloses that addition of a large amount of the dopant significantly increases a freezing-point depression to cause compositional supercooling and an abnormal growth (Cell growth), which is different from a silicon growth on a silicon growth face, is induced on a crystal growth interface when such compositional supercooling is large, hampering single crystallization.
According to the production method of Patent Literature 1, which takes into account that a temperature gradient in a silicon melt cannot be directly measured, a monocrystalline silicon is produced such that a predetermined relationship is satisfied between a temperature gradient of the monocrystalline silicon, which is referred to instead of the temperature gradient in the silicon melt, a dopant concentration in the silicon melt, a pull-up speed, and a coefficient corresponding to a dopant type.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


Processes and devices associated with reducing the amount of organic substances in a fluid are described. In one example method, oxidizing agents may be introduced into a local constriction of flow in a flow-through chamber as the fluid is flowed therethrough. Cavitation bubbles which contain and/or are associated with the oxidizing agents may form. Collapse of the cavitation bubbles may produce pulses of ultraviolet light, thereby ionizing the oxidizing agents, producing hydroxyl radicals, and degrading and/or oxidizing the organic substances in the fluid. An example device may include a flow-through chamber including a local constriction of flow, a port configured to introduce oxidizing agents into the local constriction of flow, and may include an area configured to collapse the cavitation bubbles, thereby initiating events leading to degradation and/or oxidation of organic substances in a fluid flowed through the device.

Organic substances in fluids may be removed from the fluids by combining oxidizing agents and ultraviolet light in a process called ultraviolet oxidation. Ultraviolet oxidation may be used, for example, to treat contaminated groundwater, wastewater, aqueous fluids from manufacturing processes, and the like, to break chemical bonds within the organic substances and/or to oxidize the organic substances. The ultraviolet oxidation process generally may result in destroying and/or oxidizing the organic substances with little or no generation of toxic by-products.
Generally, ultraviolet oxidation may involve the action of ultraviolet light on oxidizing agents to produce hydroxyl radicals. The hydroxyl radicals may degrade and oxidize organic substances. To produce enough hydroxyl radicals to degrade and/or oxidize the organic substances, a sufficient concentration of oxidizing agent capable of being irradiated may be necessary. In some instances, it may be that the concentration of oxidizing agents is too low for ultraviolet light irradiation to produce levels of hydroxyl radicals that affect substantial amounts of organic substances.

Water treatment processes and devices utilizing hydrodynamic cavitation


A first computer process serves remote procedure calls received from an instruction set that executes within a second computer process, and the second computer process executes concurrently and independently of the first computer process. The remote procedure calls are served by the first computer process which: receives a request for a data file from the instruction set where the request is according to a data file retrieval protocol; determines that the request for the data file specifies a function which is defined within the first computer process where the function includes computer instructions that perform a task which is unrelated to both generation and retrieval of any data file specified in the request; and executes the function to execute the computer instructions in response to receipt of the request.

One of the latest, most exciting advances in popular computing is the advent and growth of the Internet and, in particular, the World Wide Web. The World Wide Web supports interrelated multimedia documents in which users can select, using conventional graphical user interfaces, which related document to display next. Such multimedia documents can include text, graphics, audio, and/or motion video. Within the sphere of Internet computing, one of the most exciting and promising developments is the development of applets written, for example, in the Java programming language developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. of Mountain View, Calif. By supporting applets in the World Wide Web, active documents, i.e., documents which cause processing in a local computer when viewed, are added to the types of multimedia documents which can be accessed and viewed through the World Wide Web and other network protocols.
An applet is a collection of computer instructions which are designed to be transported through a computer network and executed within an applet viewing process executing within a local computer system. The computer system is local from the perspective of a user who requests retrieval and execution of the applet. Applets, by their very nature, raise security issues for such local computer systems. In general, computer programs can be configured, intentionally or inadvertently, to cause harm to the local computer system. Such harm can include, for example, erasing contents of persistent storage devices such as magnetic and optical disks, writing to sensitive areas of memory which are necessary for the proper functioning of the local computer system, and searching storage for sensitive information such as passwords and passing such information to a recipient elsewhere on the computer network.
Applet viewing processes are sometimes referred to herein as applet viewers. Applet viewers, such as the Netscape Navigator World Wide Web viewer available from Netscape Corporation of Mountain View, Calif., generally prevent certain types of behavior of an applet to prevent harm from execution of the applet. For example, applets are prevented by the applet viewer from writing data to any persistent storage, thus protecting current contents of the persistent storage. In addition, some applet viewers perform array bounds checking and memory address checking to ensure that an applet does not read data from or write data to a portion of memory to which the applet should not have access. Similarly, while general purpose programming languages allow mathematic operations to be performed on memory address pointers for added flexibility, such is generally not permitted of applets since such makes checking memory access for unauthorized addresses particularly difficult.
Some applet viewers provide a virtual machine in which the applet executes. The virtual machine includes a virtual processor which executes computer instructions from an instruction set, and applets are constructed of computer instructions of that instruction set. In executing the applet, the computer instructions of the applet are translated into a native instruction set capable of execution by the physical processor of the local computer system and then executed by the physical processor. In addition, the virtual machine has a virtual memory space which is used by the applet as if the virtual memory space was a physical memory space accessed by a conventional computer process. The applet viewer translates addresses of the virtual memory space into addresses in a physical memory space of the local computer system and effects memory access by the applet in the physical memory space. The applet viewer can therefore prevent the applet from gaining access to sensitive information stored in the physical memory space of the local computer system. The result of the virtual machine is that the applet perceives itself to be the sole computer process within a computer, namely, the virtual machine. The applet is therefore intentionally isolated by the applet viewer such that execution of the applet cannot interfere with the proper functioning of the local computer system and other computer processes executing therein.
One disadvantage of such isolation of applets is that other computer processes executing concurrently with and independently of the applet viewer cannot communicate with applets executing in the virtual machine. A computer process is a collection of computer instructions which define a task to be performed by a computer and an execution state which includes, for example, an address space for storing data which can be manipulated by execution of one or more of the computer instructions. Many computer programs in use today are not implemented as a single computer process but as multiple computer processes which communicate with one another though conventional interprocess communication mechanisms. In addition, many computer processes serve as server computer processes to receive processing requests from client computer processes and to process such requests. Thus, one attribute of a computer process which is currently highly desirable in certain computer processing environments is the attribute of responsiveness to processing requests of another computer process.
Applets are generally prevented from using any conventional means for receiving and responding to computer processing requests from other computer processes. Many conventional interprocess communication protocols operate at a low level, i.e., by direct manipulation of computer system resources. As described above, such direct manipulation of resources of the client computer system is typically disallowed by the applet viewer. Higher level protocols for interprocess communication would require modification of the applet viewer to implement such an interface with the applet. However, the developer of the applet and the developer of the applet viewer are most frequently separate entities such that modification of the applet viewer by the developer of the applet itself is impractical.
What is needed is an interprocess communication mechanism in which applets can receive and respond to processing requests of other computer processes and can send processing requests to such other computer processes without requiring modification of applet viewers. In addition, the interprocess communication mechanism should not submit the local computer system to undue risks of harm from the applets whether the applets are malicious or negligent.

Interprocess communication mechanism for heterogeneous computer process


A servo control device to execute an operation in a discrete time system may include a velocity feedback path having a difference means calculating a pseudo-velocity from a detected position and a lowpass filter, and a PI control means executing a proportional integration control operation on a deviation between the pseudo-velocity and the position deviation to create a drive command for the driver. The velocity feedback path includes a first gain means applying a first gain to the pseudo-velocity, a delay means delaying the pseudo-velocity, and a second gain means applying a second gain to the delayed pseudo-velocity. A sum of an output of the first gain means and the second gain means is inputted to the lowpass filter, and “Fa(z)=1/(1−z−1Fb(z))” is satisfied where a transfer function of the PI control means is Fa(z), and a transfer function of the lowpass filter is Fb(z).

In servo control in which a position command is given to control a position (rotation position) of a motor or an axis of a robot, "P-PI" (proportion/proportional integration) control is often used. For example, in a servo control device in which a rotation position of a motor is controlled by "P-PI" control, a rotation speed is obtained by differentiating a rotation position obtained by a position detection mechanism (encoder or the like) connected with the motor, and the rotation position and the rotation speed are fed back to perform proportional control ("P" control) on a deviation of the rotation position and proportional integration control ("PI" control) on a deviation of the rotation speed. In a servo control device, in order to perform stable control, it is necessary to appropriately set gains (for example, a position loop gain Kp, a speed loop gain Kv and an integration gain Ki), filter elements (for example, a differential filter element and an integration filter element) and the like which are used in "P-PI" control. A gain and a filter element are commonly expressed by a transfer function. Therefore, a model is calculated from a behavior of a control system which includes a motor and its load, and the gain and the filter element used in the "P-PI" control can be determined based on respective model parameters structuring the model. The "P-PI" control is a superior technique which has robustness to disturbance and a load variation in performing the "PI" control.
When a load of a motor is varied, for example, in a case that inertia of an operation object connected with the motor as a load is varied or, in a case that disturbance is applied, in order to successively realize stable control while maintaining a command response characteristic in the "P-PI" control which is superior in robustness, it is necessary to vary the gain and the filter element which are used in the "P-PI" control according to the variation. The Patent Literature 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2016-035676) discloses that an inertia detecting means structured to detect inertia of an operation object and inertia of a motor is provided and, based on the inertia detected by the inertia detecting means, model parameters structuring an integral filter element and a differential filter element are obtained and, based on the obtained model parameters, the integral filter element and the differential filter element are adaptively varied. The Patent Literature 2 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2016-035677) discloses that an input to a motor and an output (in other words, position) from the motor are observed to estimate a motor gain element and a characteristic of a closed loop for performing "P-PI" control is matched with a desired transfer function.
However, in a method that a model is constructed for controlling a motor or a robot and "P-PI" control is performed based on the model, it is still difficult that the command response characteristic is adjusted to the desired characteristic (model). Further, when a degree affected by disturbance, in other words, robustness (disturbance characteristic) is adjusted, the command response characteristic is varied and, on the contrary, when the command response characteristic is adjusted, the robustness is varied.

Servo control device, servo control method and servo control system


A water pump assembly for an aquarium aeration system includes a housing surrounding an electric pump. Within the housing, a water conduit passes an impeller of the pump for the generation of a stream of moving water. An air-breather conduit conducts air from a location above the housing to an air-induction port in a sidewall of the water conduit. The aquarium power head is provided with a clamp for attaching the power head to the aquarium tank. The clamp has a ring which mates a tubular inlet portion of the housing and engages that inlet portion. A flow diverter to adjust the water flow exiting the power head in a desired direction is adjustably connected to the outlet portion of the housing of the power head.

This invention relates to aquarium filtering and aerating systems and, more particularly, to an aquarium power head for drawing water through a riser tube of an aquarium undergravel filter. The power head is effectively a water pump but includes an air inlet for mixing the air with the water stream, thereby aerating the water. A muffler is formed integrally with the housing for silencing sucking-in sounds produced by the air entering the power head.
Aquariums are used widely for housing fins and other aquatic life. In order to provide a proper habitat for the aquatic life, water held within an aquarium tank is generally filtered and-aerated to ensure a removal of waste matter and provide an adequate concentration of oxygen. Aeration, and filtration of water matter can be combined using the well-known undergravel filter system in which aquarium water is drawn through aquarium gravel spaced off the bottom by a porous plastic plate at the bottom of the tank. The filtered water flows upward through a riser tube and returns to the aquarium. A water pump, generally referred to as a power head, sits on the riser tube and lifts the water up the riser tube and then emits it back to the aquarium. An air passage in the power head causes air to be sucked in as the water passes and the air becomes entrained in the water so that the filtered water returning to the aquarium is now aerated.
Power heads suitable for use with an undergravel filter may be constructed to include a pump having an impeller operated by an electric motor. Water drawn into the power head passes through a water conduit. There is also provided an air-breather conduit which is in flow communication with the water conduit via an air-induction port in a sidewall of the water conduit. By venturi action, the air is drawn from the breather conduit into the flowing water to form a series of bubbles entrained in the stream of water. The motor, the impeller, and both of the conduits are encased within a housing. The housing includes water inlet and outlet ports for the water conduit, and an air inlet port for the breather conduit.
There are a number of problems which arise in the use of existing power heads. One of the problems arises from the shape of the housing of the power head. Typically, the housing is constructed with flat sidewalls. During placement-of the apparatus within the aquarium tank, a sidewall of the housing is adjacent to a wall of the aquarium tank. Frequently, a wedge-shaped space develops between the walls of the housing and the tank. A fish swimming in the tank may swim into the space between the housing and a tank wall, and become trapped and suffocated by the narrowing wedge-shaped space.
Another problem arises from the process of sucking in of air into the inlet port. This causes a hissing noise as the air enters. The air then mixing with the water also causes noise. These noises cause the known power heads to be annoying and causes users to dislike their presence in the aquarium. Some power head manufacturers place a tubing at the air inlet with a cup at the end and insert some type of foam in the cut. Absorbent cotton or polyester foam are used, but when compacted they cut the air flow severely. If not compacted, they allow excessive noise. When they get wet, they completely cut off the air supply.
A further problem relates to the support for the power. Typically, a clamp or holder must be used to retain the power head over the riser tube. The holder must permit adjustment to position the power head properly. Typically, such holders are complex apparatus, which is costly, difficult to operate, and not always aesthetically acceptable.

Clamp for attaching an aquarium power head


A reagent for calcium ion level determination comprising a phospholipid, phospholipase D, choline oxidase, a surfactant and a divalent metal salt. The reagent can easily be prepared and with which quantitative determination of calcium ion can be made over a broad range of a calcium ion concentration with ease and accuracy in a continuous manner.

In the field of clinical examinations, calcium ions in body fluids such as blood and urine are quantitatively analyzed for diagnosis of endocrine disorders such as parathyroid abnormality, circulatory diseases such as hypertension and arteriosclerosis, and the like. Quantitative analysis of calcium ions is roughly divided into two methods: one is an instrumental analysis exemplified by atomic-absorption spectroscopy and electrode method; and the other is chelate color formation exemplified by orthocresolphthalein complexone (hereinafter abbreviated as OCPC) method. In recent years, enzyme methods for calcium analysis have been proposed, in which activation or inhibition of an enzyme by calcium is utilized. For example, JP-A-62-195297 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese patent application") discloses an analytical composition which utilizes the activation of phospholipase D by calcium ions; JP-A-62-36199 discloses an analytical composition which utilizes activation of calmodulin by calcium and activation of a calmodulin-dependent enzyme by the thus activated calmodulin; and JP-A-1-231896 discloses an analytical composition which utilizes activation of phospholipase A.sub.2 by calcium ions. JP-A-2-142498 proposes an analytical composition which utilizes inhibition of pyruvate kinase by calcium ions. JP-A-2-276597 proposes a determination method using activation of amylase calcium ions.
The above-described instrumental analyses give relatively accurate values but require expensive instruments and complicated operations. In particular, atomic-absorption spectroscopy requires dilution of a sample under analysis, and the dilution operation causes errors in measurement.
Chelate color formation typically including OCPC is widely used for reasons that measurements can be made with a simple calorimeter, requiring neither special analytical instruments nor dilution operation. However, the results obtained include considerable factors of error because, for one thing, the degree of color formation is dependent on temperature, pH, etc. and, for another thing, specificity to calcium ions is not sufficient for avoiding influences of other co-present substances.
The up-to-date enzymatic methods have a narrow range of calcium analysis or easily are influenced by substances which are co-present and therefore lack reproducibility. For example, the method of using calmodulin (JP-A-62-36199) is disadvantageous in that calmodulin is hardly available, the measurable range of calcium concentration is narrow so that dilution of a sample is needed, and the two-stage activation system requires a long reaction time. The method of using phospholipase A.sub.2 (JP-A-1-231896) and the method of using pyruvate kinase (JP-A-2-142498) cause errors when applied to assay of serum because these enzymes are present in blood. Besides, the method of using pyruvate kinase has poor accuracy since it utilizes enzyme inhibition by calcium ions. Further, the method of using amylase (JP-A-2-276597) has a problem in reproducibility of determined value since blank reaction is too large. The method of using phospholipase D (JP-A-62-195297) accomplishes measurements with accuracy because the enzyme used is not present in blood, but still is influenced by co-present salts and, in addition, is unsuitable for continuous measurements.

Reagent for calcium ion level determination


An optical scanning device includes a plurality of light source sections for supplying beams, and a scanning section for directing beams emitted from the light source sections to scan in a first direction and a second direction substantially perpendicular to the first direction on a beam-receiving region. The scanning section is operated such that a frequency at which beams scan in the first direction is higher than a frequency at which beams scan in the second direction. The light source sections are disposed such that an array of spots produced from supplied beams can be positioned on the beam-receiving region in the first and second directions. Gradations are represented using beams for producing spots positioned in parallel on the beam-receiving region in the first direction.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an optical scanning device, a control method of an optical scanning device, and an image display apparatus, and more particularly to an improvement of an optical scanning device which provides laser beam scan using laser beams modulated according to image signals for the purpose of image display.
2. Related Art
An image display apparatus which displays images by laser beam scan uses an optical scanning device capable of providing laser beam scan. The optical scanning device executes scan using laser beams modulated according to image signals scan in the two-dimensional direction. The image display apparatus displays images by introducing the laser beams released from the optical scanning device to a screen or the like. For modulating laser beams, pulse width modulation (hereinafter referred to as "PWM") is generally used. The PWM varies the pulse width during which laser beams are turned on in accordance with image signals. For representing gradations of all pixels in one frame of an image in accordance with image signals, the minimum unit pulse width needs to be extremely small. The minimum unit pulse width further decreases as the number of pixels and the number of gradations in the image increase. However, it is extremely difficult to accurately switch on and off a high-output laser beam source at high speed in accordance with small pulse widths. Thus, when it is difficult to raise modulation frequencies, a plurality of laser beams are used so that scan can be divided among the plural beams modulated according to image signals. For example, in the optical scanning device which provides laser beam scan on the beam-receiving region in the horizontal and vertical directions, scanning can be divided among a plurality of laser beams arranged in parallel in the vertical direction when the frequency at which laser beams scan in the horizontal direction is higher than the frequency at which laser beams scan in the vertical direction. When the plural laser beams are arranged in parallel in the vertical direction, images can be displayed at a lower modulation frequency than in the case where a single laser beam scans. However, large clearances are produced between tracks formed by a group of spots in the beam-receiving region. These clearances become larger as the number of laser beams arranged in parallel increases. Also, scan in the horizontal direction deviates from the horizontal direction of the screen and is obliquely performed. When the clearances between scanning tracks of laser beams become conspicuous, high-quality images cannot be obtained. For providing laser beam scan without generating noticeable clearances, the method has been considered as a solution that the same number of light sources as that of the scanning lines in either the horizontal or vertical direction are equipped to perform laser beam scan only in one direction. JP-A-2003-21804 proposes such a technique using the same number of light sources as that of the scanning lines, for example.
When the same number of light sources as that of the scanning lines are equipped, however, a considerable number of light sources are required and the optical scanning device including these is extremely expensive. As obvious, there has been arising a problem that high quality images are difficult to be displayed when the technique of divided scan using a plurality of beams is used.

Optical scanning device using modulated laser beams control method of optical scanning device using modulated laser beams, and image display apparatus using modulated laser beams, the system including respective gradation of each pixel by the light beams and successively illuminating each pixel of the plurality of pixels


An exhaust-gas treatment device (1) for an exhaust gas system of an internal combustion engine, in particular of a motor vehicle, includes a housing (2), the jacket (3) of which encloses an accommodating space (5) in the circumferential direction, at least one exhaust-gas treatment element (6), which is arranged in the accommodating space (5), and a bearing layer (7) made of an elastic bearing material, which bearing layer encloses the at least one exhaust-gas treatment element (6) in the circumferential direction and which lies radially against at least one exhaust-gas treatment element (6). An insulating layer (8), made of a thermally insulating, deformation resistant/compression resistant insulating material, encloses the bearing layer (7) in the circumferential direction within the jacket (3).

Usually, an exhaust gas treatment device such as for example a particle filter or a catalytic converter comprises a housing, the jacket of which encloses an accommodation space in circumferential direction, wherein in the accommodation space at least one exhaust gas treatment element is arranged, which can be for example a particle filter element or a catalyst element. Such exhaust gas treatment elements can for example have a ceramic basic body, which in particular can have a monolithic structure. Such ceramic exhaust gas treatment elements are comparatively sensitive to shock loads and must therefore be mounted in the housing or in the jacket in a shock-absorbing manner. Accordingly, a usual exhaust gas treatment device additionally comprises a bearing layer of an elastic bearing material, which encloses the respective exhaust gas treatment element in the circumferential direction.
Since such a bearing layer in conventional design additionally serves to fix the respective exhaust gas element in position in the housing, the respective exhaust gas treatment element and the housing jacket are crimped together with the bearing layer arranged between. The bearing materials used in this case are selected so that a desired holding force and the absorbing effect for the respective exhaust gas treatment element can be ensured throughout the usual temperature range of the exhaust gas treatment device. In this case, the bearing layer has to balance temperature expansion coefficients on the one hand of the metallic jacket and on the other hand of the ceramic exhaust gas treatment element.
In modern exhaust gas treatment devices, a thermal insulation can be additionally provided, which encloses the housing or the jacket on an outside in order to reduce the thermal load of the surroundings. Such a design however is disadvantageous in multiple respects. On the one hand, the insulation arranged on the outside of the jacket has to be fixed, which can for example be realized with a further metallic sleeve, which encloses the jacket. This design is comparatively involved and expensive. On the other hand, higher temperatures result for the jacket arranged radially between the insulation and the bearing layer, since the insulation located on the outside prevents cooling of the jacket. These higher temperatures in the jacket result in greater thermally-induced relative movements between the jacket and the respective exhaust gas treatment element, as a result of which the mounting of the respective exhaust gas treatment element is weakened. At the same time, a higher corrosion load results for the jacket. In order to remedy this, a more expensive material can be utilized for the jacket which has a higher corrosion resistance and/or a lower temperature expansion coefficient.
From DE 10 2008 048 314 A1 an exhaust gas treatment device for an exhaust system of an internal combustion engine is known, the housing of which comprises a jacket located inside, which encloses an accommodation space in the circumferential direction, and a jacket located outside, which encloses the jacket located inside and thus likewise which encloses an accommodation space in the circumferential direction. Furthermore, the exhaust gas treatment device comprises an exhaust gas treatment element, which is arranged in the accommodation space, as well as a bearing layer of an elastic bearing material, which encloses the exhaust gas treatment element in the circumferential direction, radially lies against said exhaust gas treatment element with a pressure force, transmitting this pressure force onto the jacket force located inside. Because of this, the exhaust gas treatment element is fixed in position relative to the jacket located inside. Furthermore, the known exhaust gas treatment device comprises an insulating layer of a thermally insulating insulating material, which encloses the jacket located inside and thus also the bearing layer and the exhaust gas treatment element in the circumferential direction within the jacket located outside. In this case, the insulating layer lies against the jacket located outside and is braced against the jacket located inside via webs so as to position it in the jacket located outside. In addition to this, the known exhaust gas treatment device is equipped with a metal foil, which is radially arranged between the bearing layer and the jacket located inside.

Eberspächer Exhaust Technology GmbH & Co. KG


The system and methods allow for emulation of random hardware failure of an internal embedded memory array of an integrated circuit (IC) device. Emulation of potential defects is performed in order to evaluate the behavior of the rest of the design. This non-intrusive emulation is performed in a pseudo-functional mode in order to evaluate the behavior of one or more memory cores in their standard functional mode. The solution enables the creation of failures and tracking both the detection of the failures and the time required time for detection. Specifically, the emulation of an internal memory array with respect of random failures and the associated diagnostic mechanism ensures that detection and correction mechanisms work as expected. A typical non-limiting use case is to ensure that safety control logic of an IC behaves as expected in cases of data corruption within an embedded memory core.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to failure detection and correction mechanisms for an integrated circuit (IC), and more particularly to emulation of random failures within a memory core of an IC.
2. Prior Art
Failure detection and correction mechanisms that are integrated within an integrated circuit (IC) aim to deal with malfunctions that randomly appear during a device's life time. Since such failure occurs randomly there is no direct way to test that the embedded detection and correction mechanisms work as expected on silicon. It would therefore be advantageous to provide a solution for emulation of such failure mechanism that would enable to ensure proper operation of a device or at least timely detection of a failure. This is of particular importance within embedded memory units commonly used in today's small and large devices.

Apparatus and method for non-intrusive random memory failure emulation within an integrated circuit


This invention is about a commercial anti-theft device, more specifically involving in a narrow acousto-magnetic (AM) anti-theft marker having multiple resonators. A type of narrow AM anti-theft marker with multiple resonators includes an elongated housing, resonators, housing cover and magnetic bias pieces. The resonators are placed inside the cavity of the housing. The aforementioned housing bottom is connected to the housing cover so that the resonators are enclosed inside the housing. The number of aforementioned resonators is two to five; the width of resonators is 1.6-5.3 mm. This anti-theft marker has high performance/cost ratio. Because resonators with smaller than conventional width are used, it meets the customer demands for protecting smaller or more exquisite merchandise. Meanwhile it saves expensive amorphous alloys of resonators and alloys of bias and double tapes, led to lower raw material costs.

AM technology has been widely used in electronic article surveillance (EAS) for over twenty years. The original U.S. Pat. No. 4,510,489 disclosed that some of amorphous materials have high magnetic-elastic coupling coefficient, led to strong resonating signal, and used this principle successfully applied these materials into commercial anti-theft system (AM system), such as large supermarket's anti-theft system. AM system includes detector, deactivator, and anti-theft AM markers. There are two types of anti-theft AM markers currently: anti-theft hard tags and anti-theft soft labels. Former uses the amorphous as resonators, uses permanent magnetic materials (such as bonded ferrite magnets, rare-earth bonded magnets or sintered magnets) as bias. This type of markers cannot be deactivated, which is used inside the store repeatedly. Later also uses amorphous as resonators, conventionally a semi-hard magnetic material (such as DC coercivity 10-55 Oe) as bias, or a soft magnetic material with DC coercivity less than 10 Oe used as bias, by same inventor on another invention recently. This type of anti-theft AM marker, (will be called in short as "AM label" or "label" in following) can be repeatedly deactivating or activating. After being deactivated by a deactivator, the label attached to paid merchandise will no longer set off the alarm when it is leaving detector installed at the store gate.
At present, the resonator width of anti-theft markers is generally 6 mm (so far, there are not any commercial AM markers using resonator width below 6 mm). The conventional notion is that the narrower resonator will not make practical AM labels with acceptable detection performance. Thus, the bias width and glue tape area cannot be further reduced with conventional resonator width. Any technical inventions to reduce material costs will have a big achievable economic benefit because of the large amount of AM labels consumed in multiple billions of pieces annually in worldwide market.
The resonators are made of expensive alloys containing Ni or Co (such as FeNiMoB resonators, FeNiCoSiB resonators). The bias alloys also use expensive Ni. To prevent the AM labels from being peeled off easily by shoplifters, due to unavoidable label's raised shape of the hollow resonator house, the double tape has to be made of expensive glue with thicker layer and higher affinity. Wider resonator and wider bias and bigger bottom for double tape glue area led to higher raw material costs. Narrower AM labels can reduce the raw material costs significantly. More important goal is to extend AM label application fields: the stores have some finer or slimmer merchandise, or the area on the package allowed for placement of the AM label without covering important product information or barcode information etc. is smaller, therefore the stores hope to have a narrower AM label for effectively protection. Furthermore, narrower AM label, compared to conventional labels, looks more exquisite to be favored by stores.

Narrow width acousto-magnetic anti-theft marker having multiple resonators


A coaxial cable preparation tool is provided wherein the tool includes a body, having a first end and a second end, the first end including a first cavity configured to accommodate insertion of a coaxial cable therein. An outer conductor blade is located near the first end of the body and is movably operable with the body to cut an outer jacket, an outer conductor, and an inner dielectric of the cable when the cable is inserted into the first cavity. A center conductor chamfering member is positioned at the back of a second cavity, the second cavity extending from the second end of the body. A dielectric coring blade is positioned within the second cavity, and a jacket stripping blade is positioned at least partially within the second cavity. A corresponding method of coaxial cable preparation is provided.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to the field of tools for preparing coaxial cables. More particularly, this invention provides for a coaxial cable preparation tool configured to substantially simultaneously strip the outer jacket of the cable, core the inner dielectric of the cable, and chamfer the center conductor of the cable, and a corresponding method of use thereof.
2. Related Art
Coaxial cables have become an increasingly prevalent form of electromagnetic information exchange and are common conduits for transmission of electromagnetic communications. Cable preparation tools are useful in preparing cable ends for efficient connection of the cables to cable connection components.
There are many coaxial cable preparation tools available for use in preparing coaxial cable ends. In order to accomplish different preparation steps, multiple cable preparation tools are often needed to execute each step, or known cable preparation tools include several separately operable components necessary to execute each cable preparation step. These additional tools and/or tool components add to the cost and complexity of the typical cable preparation tools and increase the time spent preparing coaxial cables. Accordingly, there is a need in the field of coaxial cable preparation tools for an improved tool design.

Coaxial cable preparation tool and method of use thereof


The invention relates to a resin composition which is characterized by including: a reaction product that includes (A) a polyphenylene ether having an average of 1.5 to 2 hydroxyl groups per molecule and (B) an epoxy compound having an average of 2 to 2.3 epoxy groups per molecule, wherein the reaction product is obtained by pre-reacting at least a part of hydroxyl groups on the polyphenylene ether (A) with epoxy groups on the epoxy compound (B) so that the concentration of terminal hydroxyl groups on the polyphenylene ether (A) becomes 700 μmol/g or less; (C) a cyanate ester compound; and (D) an organometallic salt.

In recent years, the growth in the information throughput of various types of electronic equipment has been accompanied by rapid advances in packaging technology, including higher integration of the semiconductor devices within the equipment, higher wiring density, and multi layer construction. To increase the signal transmission rate and reduce loss during signal transmission, there exists a desire for insulating materials in printed wiring boards and the like that are used in various electronic equipment to have a low dielectric constant and a low dielectric loss tangent.
Because polyphenylene ethers (PPE) have excellent dielectric properties such as dielectric constant and loss tangent even in the MHz to GHz high-frequency bands (high-frequency regions), they are effectively used in insulating materials for printed wiring boards and the like in electronic equipment which utilizes high-frequency bands. However, because high-molecular-weight PPEs generally have a high melting point, they tend to have a high viscosity and a low flowability. In addition, when such PPEs are used to form prepregs for use in the manufacture of multilayer printed wiring boards and the like and when printed wiring boards are manufactured using the prepregs thus formed, moldability problems have arisen; namely, molding defects such as voids arise during multilayer molding, making it difficult to obtain printed wiring boards having a high reliability. One known technique for resolving such problems involves lowering the molecular weight of the PPE by subjecting high-molecular-weight PPE to a redistribution reaction within a solvent and in the presence of a phenol compound and a radical initiator so as to give rise to molecular cleavage. However, when PPE is rendered to a low molecular weight, curing is inadequate and the heat resistance and other properties of the cured product tend to decline.
Hence, in order to increase the heat resistance and other properties of the cured product, as described in Patent Literature 1 below, the use of a thermoset resin such as an epoxy resin in combination with PPE has been reported. Specifically, Patent Literature 1 describes a resin composition which is characterized by including the reaction product of a polyphenylene ether having a number-average molecular weight of from 800 to 2,000 and an average of 1.5 to 2 hydroxyl groups per molecule with an epoxy resin having a small number of epoxy groups, namely, an average of 2.3 or fewer epoxy groups per molecule, and also a thermoset resin.
The art in Patent Literature 1 indicates that the heat resistance and the adhesion can be enhanced while retaining the excellent dielectric properties of PPE. However, in recent years the standards required of printed wiring boards and the like have risen further, and so materials endowed with even better properties are now desired in order to meet the demand for higher performance. For example, to enhance the reliability and heat resistance in high multilayer printed wiring boards, further improvements are desired not only in the high glass transition temperature (Tg) and heat resistance of cured resin materials, but also in the bond strength (the adhesive strength between layers or with copper foil in a copper-clad laminate or the like).
The invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and its object is to provide a resin composition which has an even higher level of bond strength while retaining the excellent dielectric properties of PPE and also the heat resistance and other properties of cured products thereof. Further objects of the invention are to provide a prepreg that uses such a resin composition, a metal-clad laminate that uses such a prepreg, and a printed wiring board that uses such a metal-clad laminate.

Resin composition, resin varnish, prepreg, metal-clad laminate and printed wiring board

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


A plasma display device including a plasma display panel that displays images, an integrated circuit chip that controls potentials to be applied to a discharge electrode, a protection film that covers the integrated circuit chip, a thermally conductive material disposed on a portion of a surface of the protection film, and a cover plate that covers the integrated circuit chip.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display device, and more particularly, to a plasma display device that may efficiently radiate heat generated from an integrated circuit chip and that may prevent the integrated circuit chip from breaking when manufacturing the plasma display device.
2. Discussion of the Background
Generally, plasma display panels (PDP) display images by exciting a fluorescent material using ultra violet rays generated from a gas discharge. Since they may be thin and have a large screen, they are considered as a next generation display to replace the cathode ray tube.
Conventional PDPs may be alternating current (AC) PDPs, direct current (DC) PDPs, or a hybrid according to their structure and principle of operation. Particularly, AC PDPs and DC PDPs can be divided into facing discharge PDPs and surface discharge PDPs according to the discharging structure. Recently, surface discharge AC PDPs are being widely used.
Since the plasma display device displays images by generating discharges in the PDP corresponding to externally applied image signals, potentials corresponding to the image signals are applied to a discharge electrode included in the PDP. For this purpose, the plasma display device includes an integrated circuit chip, which is operated at a high voltage. Hence, the integrated circuit chip is relatively expensive.
The integrated circuit chip generates a lot of heat since it processes high-voltage signals at a high speed. Heat generated by the integrated circuit chip is particularly a serious problem in a high resolution PDP. Accordingly, heat radiation in a high resolution PDP is an important consideration when developing the high resolution PDP.
Typically, in order to radiate heat generated from an integrated circuit chip, a cover plate formed of a material having thermal conductivity is installed contacting the integrated circuit chip, or a heat radiation sheet is installed contacting the integrated circuit chip by interposing the heat radiation sheet between the cover plate and the integrated circuit chip. The heat radiation surface may be increased by coating a thermally conductive grease on a surface of the integrated circuit chip.
However, excessive force may be applied to a portion of a surface of the integrated circuit chip when installing the heat radiation sheet or the cover plate. Therefore, if excessive force is applied to the integrated circuit chip, it is very likely that the expensive integrated circuit chip will break.
Also, the heat radiation efficiency may be reduced if the thermally conductive grease, which is coated on a surface of the integrated circuit chip, does not strongly adhere to the surface of the integrated circuit chip. The reduction of heat radiation efficiency can cause the integrated circuit chip to malfunction, thereby distorting the PDP's images or degrading the quality of the PDP by reducing the lifespan of the integrated circuit chip.


A method of forming a trench in a semiconductor device formed of a substrate and a first layer formed over the substrate includes forming an initial trench that passes through the first layer to the substrate, the initial trench having a diameter that decreases from a first diameter to a second diameter, the second diameter being measured at a distance closer to the substrate than the first diameter; exposing the trench to a dopant via an orthogonal ion implant to form doped regions sidewalls of the trench; and etching the trench to remove at least some of the doped regions.

The present invention relates to semiconductors and, and more specifically, to forming semiconductor wafers having deep trenches.
Semiconductor wafers may include a base substrate layer covered by one or more layers (upper layers) formed on top of the base substrate. It may be required, in some instances, to etch the substrate after the other layers have been deposited over it. To that end, a trench is formed through the upper layers to expose the substrate layer. In some instances, a liner material is deposited on the sides of the trench before the substrate is etched.
In some cases, the substrate may be etched by a plasma etching process. The etching plasma components and sputtered material erode may the liner. This may be noticed particularly at the bottom of trench where the BOX-Si interface structure may be undercut leading to structural damage causing leakage and yield issues. This is inherent in the available plasma etch tools. Indeed, dielectric chambers are limited to fluorocarbon chemistry due to chamber materials and to provide anisotropy during silicon oxide etch. One solution is to apply a thicker liner material. The thicker liner material may reduce the width of the hole and, therefore, increase size.

International Business Machines Corporation


An air pressure regulating device comprises an expansion tank having air stored therein and having an air injection/discharge port at an outside thereof; and a pressure regulation unit provided with a three-way ball valve connected to the air injection/discharge port, a pressure gauge which is installed in any one of flow paths of the three-way ball valve to check an internal pressure of the expansion tank, and a valve core which is installed in a flow path other than the flow path in which the pressure gauge is installed to be capable of injecting or discharging air into or from the expansion tank so as to be capable of controlling the internal pressure of the expansion tank.

Generally, in buildings or large facilities, fluid pipes for circulating a large amount of fluid are installed.
The fluid pipe may be a cooling/heating pipe, a cold/hot water pipe, and the like. In the circulation of a fluid in the pipe, temperature, pressure, and volume of the fluid transferred in the pipe are changed according to use situation, surrounding environment, weather, temperature, or the like, and thus, there is a problem in that surging occurs in the fluid pipe according to such a change or the fluid pipe is damaged.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, by connecting two or more pumps for transferring fluids in parallel to change the strokes thereof, surging or damage of the fluid pipe is prevented. In addition, by installing an air chamber in the middle of the fluid pipe, surging or damage of the fluid pipe is prevented.
However, the technique of connecting the pumps in parallel has a problem in that the installation cost is greatly increased and the surging is not effectively reduced. In addition, in the technique of installing the air chamber, in order to perform a practical operation, the air chamber needs be installed at the top of the pipe, and thus, a connector is frequently broken by vibration of the air chamber during the operation of the pump, so that it is difficult to apply the technique itself.
In addition, since the compressed air in the upper portion of the chamber is dissolved in the fluid to lower the pressure, there is a problem in that the surging reduction effect also deteriorates.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, Patent Document 1 (Korean Patent No. 10-0489554) discloses a surging reduction apparatus having a configuration in which an elastic airbag is provided to compart the air and the fluid by the airbag while effectively responding to the pressure, so that surging of the fluid pipe can be prevented by the air pressure of the airbag.
However, since this apparatus is required to be directly connected to the pipeline, it is difficult to apply this apparatus to large-scale pipelines of buildings or facilities. In addition, since a large amount of the fluid is contained therein, there is a problem in that the apparatus cannot actively respond to a small change in pressure.
In addition, since the air injection port is directly connected between the airbag and the valve, there is a problem in that the above apparatus cannot be variably applied according to the situation when the air is injected or discharged.

Variable air pressure regulation device for expansion tank


Novel cyclic anti-tumor promoter compounds and therapeutic compositions are disclosed, along with method for their production and use as anti-cancer and cancer-prevention agents.

It is well known that cellular DNA can be modified by a variety of agents, occasionally resulting in the creation of a new cell species, such as tumor cells. The fact that carcinogenic agents appear to be prevalent in the environment, coupled with the relatively low occurrence of cancer in certain populations, has suggested the presence of major anti-carcinogenic factors in the environment as well.
The multi-stage nature of carcinogenesis has been previously shown for skin cancer (Berenblum, I., Cancer Res., 1, 44, 1941). In this pioneering work, inflammatory croton oil, when painted on the backs of mice, caused tumors only when the mice were pretreated with a minute dose of a carcinogen that by itself would be insufficient to cause cancer. It has been postulated that a carcinogen gives rise to a cell type indistinguishable from normal cells until exposure to a promoting agent converts it to a tumor cell. Many known tumor promoters are derivatives of 12-0-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA), the parent alcohol of the tumor promoting compounds of croton oil. Other types of tumor promoting agents include teleocidin, aplysiatoxin and okadaic acid.
Current hypotheses recognize three phases in tumor development: Stage 1--initiation, Stage 2--promotion, and Stage 3--progression to malignant neoplasm. In contrast to tumor initiation, multiple applications or prolonged exposure to a tumor promoting agent are believed to be required before tumor growth becomes inevitable. The extended nature of Stage 2 appears to provide an opportunity to prevent tumor formation by utilizing dietary and other components which inhibit the effects of tumor promotion agents.
The mechanism of tumor promotion displays a number of common characteristics among the seemingly unrelated agents which contribute to cancer, including protein kinase C activation, protease activity, induction of oxygen radicals and poly(ADP)ribose polymerase. Thus, as might be expected, numerous agents have been shown to have some activity as anti-tumor promotor agents. Such agents include protease inhibitors, retinoids, sarcophytols and nicotinamides. These agents appear to share two characteristic properties: they suppress oxyradical induction of tumor promoter-induced neutrophils and they prevent oncogene transformation in ras-induced NIH 3T3 cells.
Activated (i.e. mutated) ras genes have been found in 10 to 20% of all human cancers. Over 90% of pancreatic cancers, 50% of colorectal cancers and 30% of lung cancers have activated ras genes. A single topical application of 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene to mouse skin can induce a mutation in codon 61 of c-H-ras gene in the affected cells.
The ras genes encode guanine nucleotide binding proteins that participate in the control of eukaryotic cell proliferation. Ras proteins associate with the inner surface of the plasma membrane through the farnesyl and palmitoyl groups. Ras proteins have two states: A GTP-bound active state and a GDP-bound inactive state. Active ras protein is converted to an inactive form by an intrinsic guanosine triphosphatase (GTPase) activity that is stimulated by interaction with a GTPase activating protein (GAP). Upon binding GTP, ras proteins become activated and are capable of stimulating cell proliferation. Mutated ras proteins decrease their intrinsic GTPase activity by a conformational change in the guanine nucleotide binding site of the protein or by a nonproductive association with GAP protein. Therefore, the mutated ras protein remains in the active conformation longer (Schafer, W. R. et al., Nature, 28, 379 (1989)).
However, compounds presently known to be useful as anti-tumor promoters typically have one or more drawbacks, including low activity, high cost of manufacture and toxicity. Thus it is considered desireable to develop a highly active antitumor promoter compound which is relatively nontoxic and inexpensive to manufacture.

Cyclic anti-tumor promoter compounds, compositions and methods for production and use