Process for the preparation of (-)-pimara-9(11),15-diene-19-oic acid(acanthoic acid) and pharmaceutical compositions comprising acanthoic acid useful for the treatment of diseases caused by an excessive production of interleukin-1 or tumor necrosis factor-.alpha..

Acanthopanax koreanum Nakai (Araliaceae), which is found indigenously in Cheju Island, the Republic of Korea, has been used traditionally as remedies for neuralgia, paralysis, lumbago, etc. Various useful components, including acanthoic acid of the following formula (A), have been isolated from its root bark(Kim Y. H. and Chung, B. S., J. Nat. Pro., 51, 1080(1988)). ##STR1##
Acanthoic acid has been reported to have various pharmacological effects, e.g., analgesic and anti-inflammatory activity which is due to its ability to inhibit the leukocyte migration and prostaglandin E.sub.2 (PGE.sub.2) synthesis, and to exhibit very low toxicity, e.g., 1000 mg/kg of minimum lethal dose(MLD) when administered to a rat(Lee, Y. S., "Pharmacological Study for (-)-Pimara-9(11),15-Diene-19-oic Acid, A Component of Acanthopanax koreanum Nakai", doctorate thesis, Dept. of Pharmacy, Seoul National University, Korea, 1990).
As is well known, IL-1 is a regulatory factor which participates in a wide range of human defensive and immune mechanisms(see, e.g., Dinarello, D. A., FASEB J., 2, 108 (1988)). IL-1, first discovered to be produced by activated macrophages, is produced and secreted by various cells, e.g., fibroblasts, keratinocytes, T cells, B cells, and astrocytes of brain; and has been reported to have various functions including: stimulating the proliferation of CD4+T cells(Mizel, S. B., Immunol. Rev., 63, 51(1982)); stimulating the cell-killing effect of thymic T.sub.c cells through its binding to a T cell receptor(TCR)(McConkey, D. J., et al., J. Biol. Chem., 265, 3009(1990)); inducing the production of various materials participating in the inflammatory mechanisms, e.g., PGE.sub.2, phospholipase A.sub.2 (PLA.sub.2), and collagenase(Dejana, E., et al., Bolid, 69, 695-699 (1987)); inducing the production of acute-phase proteins in liver(Andus, T., et al., Eur. J. Immunol., 123, 2928(1988)); raising blood pressure in the vascular system(Okusawa, S., et al., J. Clin. Invest., 81, 1162(1988)); inducing the production of other cytokines, e.g., IL-6 and TNF(Dinarello, C. A., et al., J. Immunol., 139, 1902(1987)), etc.
As has been reported, IL-1 relates to various immune diseases, e.g., rheumatoid arthritis(Nouri, A. M., et al., Clin. Exp. Immunol., 58, 402(1984)), rejection mechanisms after the kidney transplantation(Mauri and Teppo, Transplantation, 45, 143(1988)), and septicemia(Cannon, J. G., et al., Lymphokine Res., 7, 457(1988)). IL-1 has been also reported to induce a fever and pain when administered in a large amount to a human body(Smith, J., et al., Am. Soc. Clin. Oncol., 9, 710(1990)).
TNF-.alpha., first discovered in a serum of an animal treated with BCG(Bacille Calmette-Guerin) or LPS(lipopolysaccharide) (Carswell, E. A., et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 72, 3666(1975)), has been reported to be produced by various cells, e.g., activated macrophages and fibroblasts. Further, TNF-.alpha. has been reported to have the functions of: killing the fibrosarcoma L929 cells(Espevik and Nissen-Meyer, J. Immunol. Methods, 95, 99(1986)); stimulating the proliferation of fibroblasts(Sugarman, B. J., et al., Science, 230, 943(1985)); inducing the production of PGE.sub.2, arachidonic acid, etc. which may be involved in inflammatory responses(Suttys, et al., Eur. J. Biochem., 195, 465(1991)); inducing the production of IL-6 or other growth factors(Van Hinsbergh, et al., Blood, 72, 1467(1988)), etc.
TNF-.alpha. has been also reported to participate, directly or indirectly, in various diseases; and examples of said diseases are: infectious diseases carried by trypanosoma, strains of the genus Plasmodium, etc.(Cerami, A., et al., Immunol. Today, 9, 28(1988)); autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus(SLE) and arthritis(Fiers, W., FEBS, 285, 199(1991)); AIDS(Mintz, M., et al., Am. J. Dis. Child., 143, 771(1989)); septicemia(Tracey, K. J., et al., Curr. Opin. Immunol., 1, 454(1989)); and infections (Balkwill, F. R. 1989, Cytokines in Cancer Therapy, Oxford University Press).
These observations have buttressed the importance of regulating the production of IL-1 and TNF-.alpha. for the maintenance of the homeostasis of immune system in a human body and for the treatment and prophylaxis of related diseases.
Accordingly, there have been proposed numerous approaches to regulate the production of interleukins. For instance, it has been reported that the occurrence of septicemia, arthritis, inflammations, etc. in animal models can be decreased by the inhibition of IL-1 binding to its receptors by employing naturally occurring IL-1 receptor inhibitors(IL-1 Ra)(Dinarello, C. A. and Thompson, R. C., Immunol. Today, 12, 404(1991)), and there have been proposed certain methods for inhibiting the activity of IL-1 by employing particular antibodies(Giovine, D. F. S. and Duff, G. W., Immunol. Today, 11, 13(1990)). In case of IL-6, proliferation of myelocytes in a patient suffering from myeloma which is caused by an excessive secretion of IL-6 has been suppressed by employing antibodies against IL-6 or IL-6 receptor(Suzuki, H., Eur. J. Immuno., 22, 1989(1992)).
However, no substance or method has been reported to inhibit specifically the productions of IL-1 and TNF-.alpha. and, therefore, efforts have continued for the discovery of specific inhibitors against the production of IL-1 and TNF-.alpha..

Method for inhibiting the production of interleukin-1 or tumor necrosis factor-.alpha. by administering acanthoic acid

Korea Institute of Science and Technology


Methods and systems to enable touch-free call origination using a communication device equipped with a microphone. The method comprises processing a first microphone signal at the device in an attempt to detect a spoken activation command potentially contained therein. Responsive to detection of a spoken activation command in the first microphone signal, the method continues by establishing a communication path between the device and a network entity to convey to the network entity a second microphone signal. Finally, the method comprises processing the second microphone signal at the network entity in an attempt to detect a call origination command potentially contained therein; and, responsive to detection of a call origination command in the second microphone signal, attempting establishment of a call in accordance with the detected call origination command. Thus, a call can be established without tactile interaction with the device and, moreover, with minimal computational load on the device.

As users of telephony services become increasingly mobile, certain elements of their environment have unfortunately not adapted to the specific needs brought on by this increased mobility. For example, mobile users are still constrained to touch or otherwise physically handle a telephone when originating a call. Although in some instances voice recognition can be used to recognize dialing commands, it remains the case that an initial tactile interaction (usually pressing a button) is required to activate the phone and place it into a mode in which dialing commands can subsequently be detected and responded to.
For users who wear wireless headsets, this limitation poses an inconvenience, as the very purpose of wearing a headset is to keep one's hands free, which is not possible when the headset or phone base must be physically manipulated in order to originate a call. Similarly, drivers wishing to originate a call must liberate at least one hand from the steering wheel or stick shift while activating their phones, even if voice recognition is used to recognize a subsequent dialing command. This brief moment of distraction poses a safety hazard.
Thus, an improvement is needed which would enable a user of a communication device who wishes to originate a call to do so without touching the communication device.

Methods and systems for touch-free call origination


A heat transfer system including mechanical and electrical components for use with a mechanical air conditioning system to enable the system to efficiently reject heat to a water source, such as a pool or spa while simultaneously cooling an interior space. The air conditioning system incorporates three primary heat transfer coils in a mechanical refrigeration cycle to provide comfort cooling to an interior space while rejecting heat to either the atmosphere or a water source, such as a swimming pool. In an alternate heat pump embodiment, the system is capable of operating in an additional mode to absorb heat from the atmosphere and reject heat to the interior space.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mechanical heat transfer systems, such as air conditioning systems, and more particularly to a apparatus and method for converting an otherwise conventional residential or commercial air conditioning system into a heat transfer system capable of cooling an interior space while simultaneously heating a body of water, such as water from a swimming pool.
2. Description of the Background Art
Mechanical air conditioning and refrigeration systems, for absorbing heat from one source and rejecting heat to another source, are well known in the art. In a conventional mechanical air conditioning system, a pair of heat exchangers are fluidly connected in a refrigeration circuit through which a heat transfer medium (hereinafter "refrigerant") flows. In a typical system an evaporator coil is in heat transfer communication with interior space, and a condenser coil is in heat transfer communication with a suitable heat sink, such as ambient air from the atmosphere. Mechanical air conditioning systems are well known in the art. Such systems may be either "packaged," wherein all of the necessary components are packaged in a single unit, or "split systems," wherein typically the evaporator is remotely located with respect to the compressor and condenser.
Furthermore, the background art reveals heat transfer systems directed to rejecting heat into a water source, such as a swimming pool, to raise and maintain the temperature of the pool water at a comfortable level. The heat transfer systems of the background art recognize the efficiency of utilzing the waste heat of condensation, which would otherwise be rejected to the atmosphere without being put to any beneficial use, to heat water from a pool or spa for recreational purposes. In warm climates, the use of the swimming pool may be limited to those months where the ambient temperature is sufficient to warm the swimming pool water to a comfortable level, especially pools that are not exposed to direct sunlight. In colder climates, swimming pool water must be continually heated in order to provide comfortable aquatic recreation. In addition, there exists a number of other needs and uses for warmed water, including domestic hot water and water used for irrigation or other commercial purposes.
A number of references are directed to providing a mechanical system for rejecting heat to a water source. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,216, issued to Holmes, discloses a combination air conditioner and pool heater. U.S. Pat. No. 5,184,472, issued to Guilbault et al., discloses an add-on heat pump swimming pool control. U.S. Pat. No. 4,232,529, issued to Babbitt et al., discloses a mechanical refrigeration system for selectively heating swimming pool water. Babbitt et al. discloses three operating modes for selectively transferring heat. In the first mode, heat is transferred from the atmosphere to pool water. In a second mode, heat is transferred from a conditioned space to the atmosphere. In a third mode, heat is transferred from the conditioned space to pool water.
There are, however, a number of inherent disadvantages present in the prior art systems. Specifically, the prior art systems fail to disclose a system or method for routine modification of installed air conditioning systems for converting a straight cool system into a system capable of selectively heating pool water. Accordingly, there exists a need for a retrofit kit for mechanical air conditioning systems, for universal use with existing or new equipment, for converting the system to enable rejected heat to be used to warm pool water. Furthermore, additional energy savings would be realized if such a modification were capable of converting a straight cool air conditioning system into a heat pump such that the interior space served by the system could be efficiently heated, such that the energy savings of a heat pump were realized.
In addition, most mechanical air conditioning systems suffer from limitations in connection with the need to maintain an adequate supply of lubricating oil in the compressor. Specifically, oil used to lubricate the compressor is routinely carried by the refrigerant through the refrigerant lines. Furthermore, systems having hermetic compressors do not have a crankcase oil return connection and must rely on the refrigerant to return sufficient oil to the compressor. When the distance between certain components (e.g. evaporator and compressor) is substantial, care must be taken to insure the compressor is not starved for oil and that sufficient oil is returned to the compressor through the refrigerant lines. Accordingly, systems with heremetic compressors have historically been limited to applications having relatively short refrigerant line length requirements. As a result, it is recognized in the background art that hermetic compressors are prone to premature compressor failure in applications wherein the heat transfer coils are substantially spaced and connected by long refrigerant line runs. The oil return problem is most pronounced in complex heat transfer systems, such as those capable of rejecting heat to multiple sources, due to the spacing of components and existence of extended refrigerant line lengths. Accordingly, there exists a need for insuring that an adequate supply of lubricating oil is returned to a hermetic compresser in complex heat transfer systems.
A further disadvantage realized by most heat transfer systems results when oil, carried by refrigerant through the system, accumulates on the interior tube walls of the heat transfer coils and acts as a heat transfer insulator thereby degrading heat transfer efficiency. Accordingly, there exists a need for a mechanical air conditioning system capable of rejecting heat to a water source wherein heat transfer efficiency is maximized, and long runs of refrigerant tubing may be accommodated, by substantially eliminating the accumulation of lubricating oil from the heat transfer surfaces by separating entrained oil from compressed gas and returning the separated oil back to the compressor.

Combination air conditioning system and water heater


Systems and methods for authorizing web service requests. In some embodiments, a computer-implemented method includes receiving a web service request having an authorization header and business code, authenticating a Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) token included in the authorization header and constructing a security context based on attributes of the SAML token. The process also includes passing the security context to an authorization interceptor to interact with a policy information point (PIP) and a policy decision point (PDP), receiving a permit response, and then authorizing the web services request. In some implementations, the requested web service is then transmitted to the client computer that requested the web service.

Embodiments of the invention generally relate to authenticating and authorizing web service requests. In some embodiments, an enforcement point intercepts web service requests and authenticates and authorizes them based on the content of the request.
Apache CXF is an open source services framework. CXF is utilized by developers to build and develop services using front-end programming application protocol interfaces (APIs), such as JAX-WS and JAX-RS. JAX-WS is used for XML-based services only, particularly SOAP, while JAX-RS is used for RESTFul services and can support any data encoding. These services can speak a variety of protocols such as SOAP, XML/HTTP, RESTful HTTP, or CORBA and work over a variety of transports such as HTTP or JMS.
Conventional approaches for providing access control for web services involve creating a security context that a web service must process to determine if the client is authorized to perform the action before executing any business logic. However, any change in authorization policy requires making changes to the code containing the application business logic. In order to make this task less onerous, some frameworks permit the annotation of sections of the code. Although this is somewhat easier than modifying the code itself, it still involves modification of the package that contains the web service business logic and requires re-compilation and restart of the runtime.
For authentication, some frameworks provide callback methods that the developer must implement for performing the required authentication requests. Even though the code for these callbacks is typically separated from the business logic, the callback code is still often found in the same package, which means that if there is a change in authentication policy then re-compilation and restart of the runtime is necessary.
The present inventor recognized opportunities for providing methods and systems for configuring authentication and authorization logic for web service calls which do not require modification of any of the business logic and do not require re-compilation and restart of the runtime.

Methods and systems for authorizing web service requests


A method simplifies a data structure representing physical measurements of a real-world phenomena, such as an image of a scene of an object. Input data are first acquired, sensed, or measured. If the data are acquired with a camera, then measurement errors for data points in the data structure are not normally distributed. Therefore, an error term for each data point is constructed according to a Lorentzian estimator. The error term can be determined by taking a difference between the value of the data point, and the value at the data point when a model is fitted to the data structure. The error term is then minimized using a downhill simplex minimization process. Finally, each data point is adjusted by the minimized error term to produce a simplified data structure of the real-world phenomena.

The present invention applies filters to digitized images so that the images can be simplified. Because filtering techniques are pervasive in many different image-processing applications, common filters and their usual applications are now distinguished so that the filters according to the invention, and their application to image simplification techniques are not confused with prior art other image processing applications. Image simplification according to the invention is not concerned with noise, smoothness, edge, classification, or reconstruction filtering, which are now distinguished in greater detail.
Noise Filtering
Filtering can remove noise contaminations from digital images. Some common types of the noise removal filters are low-pass filters, neighborhood-averaging filters, median filters, mode filters, reconstruction filters, enhancement filters, morphological filters, Laplacian filters, Gaussian filters, to name but a few. Gaussian filters remove high-frequency noise but cause blurring. Gaussian filters are the most common noise filters used in image reconstruction, and are described in further detail below. There, a normal convolution kernel is applied to localized regions of pixels of the image. A harmonic filter is a non-linear mean filter that is also good for removing Gaussian noise and positive outliers.
Smoothness Filtering
Low pass filtering, otherwise known as "smoothing," removes high spatial frequency noise from a digital image. Noise is often introduced during analog-to-digital conversion as a side effect of the physical conversion of analog patterns of light energy into digital electrical signals. Low-pass filters usually move some sort of moving window operator across the image to affect all the pixels in the image. The operator affects one pixel of the image at a time, changing its value by some function of a local region of pixels. Neighborhood-averaging filters replace the value of each pixel by a weighted-average of the pixels in some neighborhood near the pixel. If all the weights are equal, then the operator is a mean filter. Morphological filters can also be used to remove image irregularities. A special kind of morphological filter is a dilation filter that can be used to smooth small regions of pixels with negative gray-levels
Edge Filtering
Median filters change each pixel value by the median of its neighboring pixels, i.e., the value such that 50% of the values in the neighborhood are above the pixel's value, and 50% of the values are below the pixel's value. This can be difficult and costly to implement due to the need for sorting the values. However, this method is generally very good at preserving edges. Median filters remove long tailed impulsive noise with a minimum amount blurring. Median filters are scalable, have constant additivity, but are non-linear. Therefore, median filters are hard to analyze. A Laplacian filter is a generalization of the second derivative and is also usually reserved for edge filtering.
Classification Filtering
Mode filters replace each pixel value by the value of the most common neighboring pixel. This is a particularly useful filter for image classification applications where the pixels correspond to objects that must be placed into a class. The mode filter is also used for remote sensing, for example, here the classes are some type of terrain, crop type, water, etc.
Reconstruction Filtering
In reconstruction filtering, an image is restored based on some knowledge of the type of degradation the image has undergone. Filters that enable image reconstruction are often called "optimal filters." Image reconstruction can also remove noise while preserving some local constraints such as edges that generally correspond to object boundaries. Reconstruction can be considered a smoothing operation that does not adversely affect object boundaries.
Frequently, images are reconstructed to better estimate content of the images. By regularizing or smoothing the brightness of the images, the reconstruction works as an independent smoothness constraint in disparity estimation, surface model fitting, and optical flow based motion estimation processes, see Black et al., "The outlier process: unifying line process and robust statistics," IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, Seattle, (1994), and Black et al., "Estimating optical flow in segmented images using variable-order parametric models with local deformations," IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, (1998).
Image reconstruction is also applicable to modeling spatial discontinuities, see Geman et al., "Constraint reconstruction and recovery of discontinuities," IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, (1992), and for problems such as surface recovery. Image reconstruction is also used for image enhancement, see Geiger et al., "Parallel and deterministic algorithms from MRF's: Surface Reconstruction," IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, (1991). Enhancement filtering attempts to improve the subjectively measured quality of an image for machine interpretability. Enhancement filters are generally heuristic and application oriented.
Image Simplification
In contrast with the above image processing applications, image simplification is a tool for reducing the complexity of image patterns for various purposes including segmentation, editing, animation and manipulation, low bit rate object-based image compression. Image simplification can also be employed in scalable video coders to adapt video content to network constraints. Image simplification may be used to decrease the spatial color variance and color dynamic range. In addition, textures within the boundaries of objects can be suppressed. Therefore, it is desired to provide a method that is specifically designed for image simplification.
Downhill Simplex Minimization
As described below, the method according to the invention uses a minimization technique. One simple minimization technique is introduced here. Downhill simplex minimization was first described by Nelder and Mead in "The downhill simplex method," Computer Journal, 7:391–398, 1965. The method evaluates functions instead of taking derivatives in order to determine a (local) minimum. The downhill simplex method is frequently the best method to use in case of parameter dimensions higher than twenty. The simplex method can be explained in terms of geometric figures.
A simplex is a geometrical figure of N+1 vertices in N dimensions, and all their interconnecting edges, line segments, or polygonal faces, and the like. In two dimensions, a triangle is one example a simplex, and in three dimensions, a tetrahedron. Of interest are non-degenerate simplexes, i.e., simplexes which enclose a finite N-dimensional volume. If any point of a non-degenerate simplex is taken as the origin, then the N other points define vector directions that span the N-dimensional vector space.
The method then makes it way "downhill" from a starting vertex, through the unimaginable complexity of an N-dimensional topography, until it encounters, at least, a minimum vertex. The method does this by taking a series of steps and moving a vertex with a maximum value through the opposite face of the simplex to a lower location having a lower value. These steps are called reflections, and they are constructed to conserve the volume of the simplex, and hence maintain its non-degeneracy. When it can do so, the method expands the simplex in one or another direction to take larger steps. When it reaches a "valley floor," the method contracts itself in the transverse direction and tries to "ooze" down the valley. If there is a situation where the simplex is trying to "pass through the eye of a needle," it contracts itself in all directions, pulling itself in around its minimum or "best" vertex.
The simplex method differs from the well-known and widely used Levenberg-Marquardt and Gauss-Newton methods in that the simplex method does not use derivatives. Therefore, the simplex method has better convergence properties because it is much less prone to finding false minima. One of the more remarkable features of the downhill simplex minimization method is that it requires no divisions. Thus, the "division-by-zero" problem is avoided.

Image simplification using a robust reconstruction filter

Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.


An electronic apparatus has a housing which is formed with a suction port and an exhaust port. The interior of the housing is partitioned with a first chamber and a second chamber by a partition wall. The first chamber accommodates a CPU generating heat. The suction port and the exhaust port are open to the second chamber. A heat pipe which transfers a heat of the CPU from the first chamber to the second chamber is disposed pass through the partition wall. A fan is disposed in the second chamber. The fan suctions air from the suction ports and discharges the suctioned air from the exhaust port. The heat of the CPU transferred to the second chamber is emitted out of the housing. A part where the heat pipe pass through the partition wall is liquid-tightly sealed through a sealing member.

1. Field
Embodiments of the the invention relate to an electronic apparatus in which a circuit component generating heat, for example, a CPU is mounted, and more particularly to a structure for enhancing waterproofness with the heat radiation performance of a circuit component maintained.
2. Description of the Related Art
A CPU for use in an electronic apparatus such as portable computer has increased in the quantity of heat generation during operation with the heightened processing speed and multifunctionalization thereof. When the temperature of the CPU becomes excessively high, there occurs the problem that the efficient operation of the CPU is lost, or that the CPU falls into an inoperable state.
As a measure against heat, a related-art electronic apparatus includes a cooling unit which forcibly cools the CPU. The cooling unit is accommodated in the housing of the electronic apparatus together with the principal constituents thereof, for example, a printed circuit board and a hard disk drive.
The cooling unit includes a heat radiation plate which is thermally connected to the CPU, a heat conduction duct which is attached to the heat radiation plate, a fan which is accommodated in the heat conduction duct, and a heat pipe by which the heat of the CPU conducted to the heat radiation plate is transferred to the vicinity of the heat conduction duct.
The heat conduction duct has suction ports and an exhaust port. The suction ports and the exhaust port are open to the exterior of the housing. When the fan operates, cool air outside the housing is imbibed from the suction ports into the heat conduction duct, and the imbibed air is emitted out of the housing through the exhaust port. As a result, the heat conduction duct is forcibly cooled, and the heat of the CPU conducted to the heat conduction duct through the heat radiation plate as well as the heat pipe is radiated out of the housing afloat in the currents of the air (refer to, for example, JP-A-10-51170).


A digital notification and response system utilizes an administrator interface to transmit a message from an administrator to a special needs contact device and responders contact devices. The system comprises a dynamic information database that includes member contact data, priority information, response data, and grouping information. The administrator initiates distribution of the message based upon grouping information, priority information, and the priority order. The message is transmitted through at least two industry standard protocols simultaneously to groups of contact devices based upon priority information. Once the message is received by the contact device, the contact device transmits a response through the industry standard protocol back to the dynamic information database.

Special needs people have difficulty in receiving information concerning emergency messages. Special needs people, may need special oxygen, wheelchairs, or other special equipment, when they have to be moved, due to emergencies. The special needs information needs to be communicated to shelters and emergency personnel so that special needs people are transferred to shelters with the correct equipment needed to accommodate their special needs.
A need exists for a system and method for automating and delivering messages to members of a special needs network, which include messages to facility managers, individuals, vendors and others, so that evacuations can occur easily, and special needs people can be taken directly to facilities that can provide them with the equipment, oxygen and other necessary instruments to survive in the face of a major hurricane or other natural disaster.
A need exists for a digital information and response system to bridge the gap between the government and the public for communicating with special needs people, facilities, support services, and first responders without being limited to one communication device or one message.
A need exists for a method of communication from an administrator which reaches all possible forms of communication devices, so that all members of the special needs network can be reached in multiple languages.
The present embodiments meet these needs.
The present embodiments are detailed below with reference to the listed Figures.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Special needs digital notification and response system


A method and apparatus for grinding a knife blade to form a sharpened edge. The blade is held in a fixture including a self-centering clamp with a pair of jaws gripping the knife blade by engaging opposite sides of a part of the blade tapered toward an edge location, and holding the blade so that the intended edge location of the blade is in a desired location with respect to the fixture. This permits use of profiled grinding wheels of hard material mounted on a carriage under computer control to grind an edge bevel accurately on each side of the blade, forming a sharp edge.

The present invention relates to manufacture of knife blades, and in particular relates to accurate mechanically-performed grinding of sharp edges on a series of similar knife blades.
In many knives the blade is tapered between its back and its edge by being beveled on both sides, either with a flat surface or hollow ground. It is desired in sharpening such a blade to provide a narrow edge bevel area on each side of the knife blade, ground at a somewhat steeper angle to provide the actual sharpened edge. It is desired for that narrow portion to conform closely to the profile of the blade, and for the two sides of the blade to be ground symmetrically. The edge bevel areas should be parallel with the entire knife profiles from the plunge to the tip of the blade to be cosmetically appealing.
Mass produced knife blades have slight dimensional variations resulting from the grinders used to produce the flat or hollow ground beveled side surfaces of such blades. In order to produce a desired sharp edge with symmetrical edge bevels on opposite sides of a knife whose blade has been beveled or hollow ground on both sides, it has therefore been necessary in the past for a person to hold each blade and to move the blade manually along a suitable abrasive wheel to sharpen knife blades by hand during the normal process of manufacture. That is, it has not been practical to use machines to automatically grind a final bevel surface to define a sharp edge with the necessary angle to produce a desired appearance, bevel width, and symmetry.
Some knife blade blanks intended to have serrations in an edge have been beveled flat or hollow-ground on each side to establish a tapered thickness of the blade, narrowing from the back of the blade toward the edge. The tang of such a tapered blade blank has then been clamped into a fixture, and a serrated portion of an edge has been ground into one beveled face using an abrasive wheel dressed to the shape required to provide the desired serrated edge profile. This method of holding a knife blade has not been found useful in sharpening entire knife blades during manufacture, however, because a knife blade cannot be located precisely enough by clamping the tang of the blade to form symmetrical edge bevels reliably on both sides of a blade without having to confirm or readjust the position of the blade between grinding steps. As a result, automatic sharpening of tapered knife blades has not been practical, and such blades have previously been costly because of the amount of skilled labor needed to finish the edge of each blade.
It is therefore desired to be able to grind both sides of a knife blade automatically to produce a symmetrically ground sharpened edge without having to readjust or check the blade's position in a fixture holding the blade during the process of grinding the edge.


A semiconductor memory arrangement for operation in a data memory system with at least one semiconductor memory chip for the storage of user data includes a memory controller for control of the at least one semiconductor memory chip, and at least one unidirectional signal line bus for control and address signals connected with the memory controller and branching at least once. The at least once branching bus directly connecting at least one semiconductor memory chip with the memory controller and connecting the semiconductor memory chips among each other.

Considering the continuously increasing processor working speed in computers, such as personal computers, workstations, and servers, it is indispensable to increase the working speed of semiconductor memories in order to prevent losses of performance. Consequently, memory modules with very fast and high density memory components, DDR-DRAMs (Double Data Rate Dynamic Random Access Memory) of generations 1, 2, and 3 have been developed in recent years, in which the working speed and structure density were continually improved.
In a conventional DIMM semiconductor memory module with DDR-DRAMs serving as semiconductor memory chips, for example, two or four ranks per semiconductor memory module are provided, where one rank each is arranged on the front and back side of the semiconductor memory module, or 2 ranks each are arranged on a same side of the semiconductor module in a stack, respectively. According to common definition, in this context "rank" denotes the number of semiconductor memory chips (DRAMs) required to cover the entire bit width of a control and address bus connecting the semiconductor memory units to a memory controller. Therefore, at a bus width of 64 bit or 72 bit including an ECC error correction component (Error Correction Code), a total of 16 (or 18 including ECC) semiconductor memory chips with 4 bit data width or 8 (or 9 including ECC) semiconductor memory chips with 8 bit data width are needed. For example, in registered DIMMs, in which, aside from the memory components, specific buffer components for signal conditioning and decoupling of a bus system provided on the system main board are provided, 4 ranks with memory units of 8 bit width each are realized. More specifically, on one x8-based DIMM with 4 ranks on the front and back side of the wiring plate two ranks each of 8 memory components each are located, which are wired together on several wiring levels by vias and signal line cable runs penetrating through the wiring board.
"Lane" designates a bus of a specific width. In the case of a DDR3 architecture, one speaks of a byte lane which then consists of 8 bits. With x4 based DRAMs, one speaks about a nibble lane. Generally, the term lane combines a group of signals which are identical among each other, which, however, differ as a group from other signals.
In a conventional memory chip topology, for example, in DDR3 DRAMs, the individual memory chips are connected by flyby topology with the memory controller. Here, the control and address signal pins of the individual memory chips are each connected in series to a flyby bus.
A major disadvantage of the flyby topology is the too narrow bandwidth for high data rates of 1.6 Gbit/s/pin, for example, and a too low structural density. An improved semiconductor memory arrangement, which allows large bandwidth and high structure density to be realized even at high data rates of at least 1.6 Gbit/s/pin, is desirable.

Semiconductor memory arrangement with branched control and address bus


An electric power plug comprises blades, a bridge and a plug body. The bridge includes sleeves for covering the roots of the blades and a core for holding the lower ends of the blades. The blades and the core are integrally molded. The plug body is molded so that the plug body embeds the bridge except the upper portions of the sleeves. The core may embed the lower portions of the blades, cords, a caulking portion for connecting the lower ends of blades and wire conductors of the cords. A cavity may be formed at the central portion of the core. The plug body may be molded so that the plug body embeds the bridge and the cords except the upper portions of the sleeves.

A conventional electric power plug provided with tracking resistance is described in the Japanese Patent 3,327,093. The described electric power plug is of a construction that connecting terminal members or blades are inserted in the thermosetting resin and are connected at its bottom portion to power cords by caulking. The plug body is made of polyvinyl chloride material or the like. The connecting terminal members are provided with gap fillers or sleeves for wrapping or covering the roots of the connecting terminal members. When the resin such as polyvinyl chloride material or the like for making the plug body is injected or inpoured into die assembly, the gap fillers are made simultaneously with the plug body by inflow of the resin through connecting terminal inserting hole.
Since at the conventional power plug the surface of thermosetting resin is exposed to the front surface of the plug body, the thermosetting resin easily gets out of the plug body. In order to prevent the thermosetting resin from getting out of the plug body, the thermosetting resin is required to be provided with a relatively long leg portion which extends into the plug body. Although the gap fillers are made by inflow of the resin through connecting terminal inserting hole when the resin such as polyvinyl chloride material or the like is injected into die assembly, it is very difficult to mold or form a thin gap fillers by that step, and therefore it is believed that it is very difficult to mold a thin gap fillers simultaneously with the perfect molding of plug body.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electric power plug in which sleeves and a core can be integrally molded to prevent the thermosetting resin from getting out of the plug body.
It is the other object of the present invention to provide a method of producing an electric power plug in which sleeves and a core can be integrally molded to prevent the thermosetting resin from getting out of the plug body.

Electric power plug and method of producing the same


A rail-to-rail operational amplifier capable of reducing current consumption includes an amplification stage circuit including a first compensation output terminal and a second compensation output terminal, for generating an amplified signal according to an input signal, an output stage circuit coupled to the amplification stage circuit, for outputting the amplified signal, and a compensation circuit coupled to the amplification stage circuit and the output stage circuit. The compensation circuit includes a first voltage generator for generating a first voltage, a second voltage generator for generating a second voltage, a first compensation capacitor, a second compensation capacitor, and four switches named from a first switch to a fourth switch, wherein the first voltage is approximately a steady state voltage of the first compensation output terminal and the second voltage is approximately a steady state voltage of the second compensation output terminal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rail-to-rail operational amplifier, and more particularly, to a rail-to-rail operational amplifier capable of reducing current consumption by controlling bias of compensation capacitors.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With the advance of semiconductor technologies, operating voltages of integrated circuits become lower and lower. For the design of analog circuits, problems of insufficient input and output common-mode voltage of an operational amplifier often occur, and thus the operational amplifier needs to have a rail-to-rail common-mode input and output range to solve these problems.
Generally, a conventional operational amplifier has a two-stage structure, which includes a first stage amplification circuit (amplification stage), and a second stage output circuit (output stage). The first stage amplification circuit is utilized for increasing current or voltage gain of the operational amplifier, and the second stage output circuit is utilized for driving capacitive or resistive loads connected to the operational amplifier. In addition, since the operational amplifier may suffer loop instability problems, Miller compensation capacitors are commonly used to perform frequency compensation for improving loop stability.
Please refer to FIG. 1, which is a schematic diagram of a conventional operational amplifier 10. The operational amplifier 10 is a rail-to-rail operational amplifier including an amplification stage circuit 11, an output stage circuit 12 and a compensation circuit 13. The operational amplifier 10 receives an input signal via a positive input terminal VP, outputs an amplified signal via an output terminal VOUT and forms a feedback path from the output terminal VOUT to a negative input terminal VN. The amplification stage circuit 11 includes a first differential input pair 110, a second differential input pair 120, a first current mirror 130, a second current mirror 140 and a third current mirror 150. The first differential pair 110 includes a pair of matched NMOS transistors MN1 and MN2 and a current source 11 coupled to sources of the transistors MN1 and MN2, which is utilized for providing quiescent currents of the first differential input pair 110. Similarly, the second differential pair 120 includes a pair of matched PMOS transistors MP1 and MP2 and a current source 12 coupled to sources of the transistors MP1 and MP2, which is utilized for providing quiescent currents of the second differential input pair 120.
The first current mirror 130 and the second current mirror 140 are active loads for the first differential input pair 110 and the second differential input pair 120, respectively. The first current mirror 130 includes PMOS transistors MP3, MP4, MP5 and MP6. The second current mirror 140 includes NMOS transistors MN3, MN4, MN5 and MN6. Gates of the transistors MP5, MP6, MN5 and MN6 are all coupled to a bias VB. The third current mirror 150 is represented as current sources 13 and 14, and is utilized for performing summation of output signals from the first differential input pair 110 and the second differential input pair 120 and outputting the summation result to the output stage circuit 12. Operation of the current mirror is well-known to those skilled in the art and explanation is not given here.
The output stage circuit 12 is a class AB push-pull output circuit including a PMOS transistor MP7 and an NMOS transistor MN7, in which gates of the transistors MP7 and MN7 are respectively coupled to a node E and a node F of the amplification stage circuit 11. The compensation circuit 13 is coupled between the amplification stage circuit 11 and the output stage circuit 12 and includes switches S1-S4 and compensation capacitors CM1 and CM2. The switches S1 and S2 and the compensation capacitor CM1 are coupled to a node A; the switch S1 and the amplification stage circuit 11 are coupled to a node B. The switches S3 and S4 and the compensation capacitor CM2 are coupled to a node C; the switch S3 and the amplification stage circuit 11 are coupled to a node D. In the operational amplifier 10, the compensation capacitors CM1 and CM2 are charged and discharged according to switching of the switches S1-S4, which helps loop stability. When the input signal of the operational amplifier 10 is in a transition state where the voltage of the input signal transits from a high level to a low level and from the low level to the high level, the switches S1 and S3 are turned off and the switches S2 and S4 are turned on such that the amplified signal does not pass through the compensation capacitors CM1 and CM2. On the other hand, when the input signal of the operational amplifier 10 is in a steady state, the switches S1 and S3 are turned on and the switches S2 and S4 are turned off such that the amplified signals pass through the compensation capacitors CM1 and CM2, for performing frequency compensation for improving loop stability.
Please note that, when the input signal is in the transition state, the node A is connected to a power supply terminal VDD and the node C is connected to a ground terminal GND. In this situation, a voltage level of the node A is not equal to a steady state voltage level of the node B, and a voltage level of the node C is not equal to a steady state voltage level of the node D. Therefore, when the input signal is in the steady state and the switches S1 and S3 are turned on, charge sharing occurs between the nodes A and B and between the nodes C and D so that the voltage level of the node B is higher than the normal steady state voltage level and discharging occurs on the node B; and the voltage level of the node D is lower than the normal steady state voltage level and charging occurs on the node D. The discharging occurs on the node B and the charging occurs on the node D increase current consumption of the transistors MP6 and MN6.
From the above, the charging and discharging effects occurring on the nodes B and D when the input signal is in the steady state results in unnecessary current consumption and thereby extends the settling time of the operational amplifier 10. In addition, switching of the switches S1-S4 is controlled by an external circuit, which limits the application of the operational amplifier 10.

Rail-to-rail operational amplifier capable of reducing current consumption


Techniques are described for determining quality of experience (QoE) rate information for streaming video. For example, QoE rates can be calculated by a client while receiving and decoding an encoded video stream. The QoE rates can be calculated based on the number of video stalls that occur at the client while decoding the encoded video stream during a plurality of time periods. Determining whether a video stall occurs during a given time period involves comparing an encoded frame rate to a decoded frame rate. Indications of the QoE rates can be output.

Providing a high-quality video streaming experience is important for many organizations, from organizations that provide live streaming solutions (e.g., live video game streaming services) to video-on-demand solutions. In typical large-scale video streaming solutions, a given video stream may be streamed to hundreds or thousands of clients simultaneously. Understanding the playback quality that the clients are experiencing can be important.
There are many factors that determine the quality of the playback experience at a video streaming client. For example, there can be issues with video content encoding, video stream transcoding, video content distribution, network bandwidth, and computing resource utilization at the client just to name a few. Similarly, there are many ways to measure the quality of the playback experience at the video streaming client. In some solutions, packet loss is used to measure the playback experience at the client. However, packet loss may not accurately reflect playback experience because packet loss is not necessarily related to what the user sees on the display (e.g., video frames may still be decoded and displayed). Similar issues are present with other solutions for measuring quality, such as decoder buffer fullness.

Measuring video quality of experience based on decoded frame rate


On the back side of a base body, three layers of polysilicon layer are formed. These polysilicon layers contain boron. A boron concentration C.sub.B(1), C.sub.B(2) and C.sub.B(3) of the first, second and third polysilicon layers from the base body side have a relationship of C.sub.B(1) .ltoreq.C.sub.B(2) .ltoreq.C.sub.B(3). On the other hand, between the polysilicon layers, silicon oxide layers are formed respectively. Upon fabrication of a semiconductor device, at first, a gettering heat treatment is effected for the substrate under a given condition. Thus, contaminating impurity is captured at the grain boundary of polysilicon layers formed on the back side of the base body. Next, the polysilicon formed at the most back side is removed by etching. By this, contaminated impurity is removed from the semiconductor substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a fabrication process of a semiconductor device, such as a large scale integrated circuit (LSI) and so forth, and a semiconductor substrate. More specifically, the invention relates to a semiconductor substrate having polysilicon layers which can prevent an active region of the device from being contaminated by a contaminating impurity, and a fabrication process of a semiconductor device utilizing the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Recently, associating with increasing of integrated density and lowering of power consumption of an integrated circuit, in the field of dynamic random access memory (DRAM), for example, a longer data retention time is required than that in the prior art, has been required. The data retention time is determined depending upon p-n junction leakage current. The p-n junction leakage current is caused by contamination of semiconductor substrate by penetration of heavy metal impurity, such as Fe, Ni and Cu or so forth, in a device active region of the semiconductor substrate.
As means for removing these heavy metal impurity (contaminating element) from the active region of the device, various gettering technologies have been proposed. Among the gettering technologies, a method for gettering contaminating element to the grain boundary of the polysilicon layer by forming the polycrystalline silicon layer on the back surface of the wafer is effective. This method is generally referred to as PBS (Polysilicon Back Sealing) method, and has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,053,335. When gettering of the contaminating element is performed by using the PBS method, the gettering capacity depends upon grain size of the polysilicon layer. It has been well known that the smaller grain size results in higher gettering capacity.
However, for example, during fabrication process of the DRAM, when a step for thermal process at high temperature is included, grain size of the polysilicon layer becomes large through heat treatment to lower performance in gettering.
Thus, as a solution for the problem set forth above, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. Heisei 5-182974 discloses a semiconductor device, in which a first polysilicon layer, a silicon oxide layer and a second polysilicon layer are stacked on the back surface of the wafer. The prior art disclosed in the above-identified publication will be hereinafter referred to as "first prior art".
FIG. 1 is a section showing the semiconductor device in the first prior art. On the back side of a base body 1, a first polysilicon layer 2 is formed in a thickness of approximately 100 nm. The back side of the first polysilicon layer 2 is slightly oxidized to form a silicon oxide layer 3. Then, on the back side of the silicon oxide layer 3, a second polysilicon layer 4 is formed in a thickness of 400 to 900 nm.
In the first prior art as set forth above, the silicon oxide layer 3 is interposed between the first polysilicon layer 2 and the second polysilicon layer 4. Therefore, even when the device is subjected to a heat treatment, growth of polysilicon grains of the second polysilicon layer 4 located at the most back side of the device can be prevented.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Heisei 5-286795 discloses another semiconductor device, in which a silicon oxide layer is formed between the base body 1 and the first polysilicon layer 2. The prior art disclosed in the above-identified publication will be hereinafter referred to as "second prior art".
FIG. 2 is a section of the semiconductor device of the second prior art. On the back surface of the base body 5, a first silicon oxide layer 6 is formed in a thickness of 7 to 20 .ANG.. On the back side of the first silicon oxide layer 6, the first polysilicon layer 7 is formed in a thickness of approximately 2000 .ANG.. On the back side of the first polysilicon layer 7, a second silicon oxide layer 8 is formed in a thickness of 7 to 20 .ANG. and the second polysilicon layer 9 are formed in order.
In such second prior art, since the second silicon oxide layer 8 is formed between the first and second polysilicon layers 7 and 9, similar effect to the first prior art can be obtained. On the other hand, since the first silicon oxide layer 6 is formed between the base body 5 and the first polysilicon layer 7, growth of the grains of the first polysilicon layer 7 can also be restricted.
Accordingly, with these method, even in a LSI fabrication process having step of providing heat treatment for the device at high temperature, the semiconductor device which does not lower gettering performance, can be formed.
On the other hand, in the fabrication process of the LSI, such as DRAM or so forth, a plurality of times of high temperature heat treatment is generally performed for the device. Gettering for avoiding the contaminating impurity is consisted of the following three steps as disclosed in J. S. Kang and D. K. Schroder, "Gettering in Silicon" J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 65, No. 8 (1989), pp. 2974-2985. The three steps are consisted of a first step, in which the contaminating impurity is released from an active region of the device, a second step, in which the contaminating impurity is diffused into a gettering layer (polysilicon layers), and a third step, in which the contaminating impurity is captured in the gettering layer.
However, after once capturing the contaminating impurity in the gettering layer, if the gettering layer is subject to high temperature again by the subsequent heat treatment, the impurity may be released from the gettering layer again to diffuse into the active region of the device. Such re-discharging of the impurity is caused when thermal energy kT applied to the device by the heat process is larger than a coupling energy E between defects in the gettering layer and the contaminating impurity.
Accordingly, a plurality of times of high temperature heat treatment encounters a problem to cause growth of grains of the polysilicon layer formed on the back surface of the base body to lower gettering performance, and to re-discharging of the contaminating impurity in the once captured polysilicon layer. In the fabrication process of DRAM and so forth, in which high temperature heat treatment is repeated for a plurality of times, possibility of re-discharging of contaminating impurity once captured in the polysilicon layer to the base body (silicon wafer) becomes high.
In general, a temperature, at which the contaminating impurity is released from the gettering layer, is lower than a temperature, at which the grains of the polysilicon layer is grown. Accordingly, it is important to find a method for effectively preventing growth of the grains of the polysilicon layer. However, it is more important to prevent re-discharging of the contaminating impurity from the polysilicon layer.
In consideration of such point, in the first and second prior art, since growth of grains of the polysilicon layer during fabrication process is prevented, gettering performance of the contaminating impurity may not be lowered. However, these prior art may not prevent re-discharging of the contaminating impurity. Accordingly, in the prior art, in all of the process steps in the LSI fabrication process, it has been difficult to obtain superior gettering effect.
In the PBS method, the contaminating impurity is gettered at the grain boundary of the polysilicon layer formed on the back surface of the base body. As set forth above, at a high temperature T.sub.0, at which the thermal energy kT becomes sufficiently larger than the coupling energy E between the defect presenting at the grain boundary of the polysilicon and the contaminating impurity, the contaminating impurity cannot be captured in the polysilicon layer.
On the other hand, in general, the temperature, at which the contaminating impurity is released from the active region of the device, is lowered than the temperature where the contaminating impurity is released from the gettering layer. Accordingly, at the foregoing temperature T.sub.0, the contaminating impurity uniformly present in the gettering layer and non-gettering layer (base body) at a concentration C.sub.0. Then, when the temperature is lowered, the contaminating impurity is captured at the defect of the grain boundary of the polysilicon layer. On the other hand, at a certain temperature T, when the contaminating impurity concentration in the gettering layer and the contaminating impurity concentration in the non-gettering layer reaches a balanced condition, the contaminating impurity is distributed in the gettering layer and the non-gettering layer. Such activity of the contaminating impurity has been disclosed in Hayamizu et al. "Evaluation of gettering Efficiency in Silicon wafer" TECHNICAL REPORT OF IEICE, SDM 93-105 (1983), pp. 83-89. The concentration of the contaminating impurity in the non-gettering layer can be derived from the following equation (1). EQU C=C.sub.0 /{1+W.sub.2 (K-1)/(W.sub.1 +W.sub.2)} (1)
Here, W.sub.1 shows the thickness of the non-gettering layer, and W.sub.2 shows the thickness of the gettering layer. Also, K is a segregation coefficient of the contaminating impurity between the gettering layer and the non-gettering layer. When the large part of the contaminating impurity is captured in the gettering layer, the concentration of the contaminating impurity in the non-gettering layer becomes lower. Accordingly, smaller value of the contaminating impurity concentration C derived from the equation (1) represents higher gettering performance. Namely, assuming that the thickness of the base body is constant, greater segregation coefficient K and the thickness of the gettering layer W.sub.2, the gettering performance becomes higher. In the PBS method, concretely, greater thickness of the polysilicon layer and smaller the grain size of the polysilicon layer represent higher gettering performance.
However, in general, the thickness of the polysilicon layer used in the PBS method, is approximately 1 .mu.m. When the thickness of the polysilicon layer becomes greater, stress of the base body is loaded to cause deformation of the silicon substrate to affect for the LSI fabrication process. Even when the thickness of the polysilicon layer is increased in the extent not causing deformation in the substrate, it is not possible to enhance gettering performance.
Thus, M. Saito et al., "Gettering of iron using boron doped poly-Si (1), (2), "The Japan Society of Applied Physics and Related Societies (The 41.sup.st Spring Meeting, 1994)", AP 941113-01, 29p-ZD-16, 17, P268-269 discloses that, as means for increasing the value of K, there is a method to add boron in the polysilicon layer. Accordingly, in order to enhance the gettering performance, it is effective to make the grain size of the polysilicon layer smaller and to add boron in the polysilicon layer to make the segregation coefficient K greater.
However, even when the segregation coefficient K is made greater, the contaminating impurity once captured is inherently released and diffused at high temperature as set forth above. Thus, under certain cooling condition, the contaminating impurity can be captured in active region of the device. By this, p-n junction leakage current may be caused to lower the characteristics of the semiconductor device.

Semiconductor substrate having silicon oxide layers formed between polysilicon layers


A process for dispensing individual chip cards to a plurality of individual chip card users employs a chip card dispensing station (1) with at least one storage container (2). Chip cards are stored in the chip card dispensing station (1). The chip cards are capable for use in external read-write stations and contain electronic components requested by a card user for implementing chip card applications. A remotely located verification or monitoring station (5) is linked to the chip card dispensing station (1) via a cable-linked and/or radio-linked active data connection (4) for entering personal data into the chip card dispensing station via a user menu (3). A loaded chip card is issued to the card user operating the user menu. The loaded chip card is selected from the chip cards stored the chip card dispensing station (1).

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a process and to a device for dispensing individual chip cards to a plurality of individual chip card users, employing a chip card dispensing station with at least one storage container.
2. Brief Description of the Background of the Invention Including Prior Art.
EP 0,428,233 A1 discloses a process and a device for dispensing chip cards on which information can be electromagnetically stored and is readable; moreover, visual information is present that serves to identify the bearer of the card. The electromagnetically readable information and the visual information are arranged on different layers of the chip card which are arranged in a completely enclosed sheathing. A device for the production of such chip cards comprises a central processing unit, a video camera connected to it as well as a distributor machine that is likewise connected to the processing unit. The distributor machine comprises a printer in order to print a picture that has been taken by the video camera onto a suitable carrier, whereby the picture is converted into electric signals by the processing unit, as well as a magazine in which a large number of electromagnetically programmable carriers are arranged. The distributor machine also comprises an apparatus to apply a transparent sheathing layer around the carrier and the picture carrier layer that contains the picture so as to join the carrier and the picture carrier layer to each other in this manner.
DE 30 44 463 C2 discloses a process and a device for individually coding cards, each of which bears its individually assigned card code, for example, a serial number, in readable form, by means of which and using a person-specific secret code, the PIN, an output offset code is formed according to defined algorithms, and this code is recorded on the card in readable form. The PIN code is individually specified by the person and encoded with a person-specific open code, e.g. an account number, according to a defined first algorithm, in order to generate an initial offset code that is encoded with an institution-specific secret code in order to generate an auxiliary offset code. The auxiliary offset code is encoded according to a third algorithm with the information card code read off the card in order to generate the output offset code.
DE 93 10 231.3 U1 describes an information system for tourism with a display system having a data processing unit with a memory, monitor, numeric keyboard, function keys, picture fields with a plan and overview as well as an arrangement of various system components in an information carrier as well as a modem and/or interface that establishes a data connection with printout options.
WO 93/04433 describes a standardized modular card dispensing system in which modules are mechanically and electrically connected to each other in order to form a device for dispensing specific, personalized cards. For this purpose, a controller is connected to a communication bus with an input keyboard and a monitor, making it possible for the controller to acquire and forward personalizing data from various card production modules, in order to produce differently coded, personalized cards in this manner. These are always chip cards of one and the same chip card provider.

Process and device for dispensing individual chip cards


The present invention operates in a printing apparatus capable of carrying out printing by switching between a mode using a set of toners for four colors Y, M, C, and K and a mode using a set of toners for six colors including the four primary colors, light cyan, and light magenta. Specifically, when a page layout included in “Page Layout” set items is set for N (N>1) sheet/page, printing is determined to be carried out in the 4 color mode to set a print specification in a job ticket for the 4 color mode. If a plurality of page units are printed within one page, each page unit is contracted when printed. Accordingly, it is often difficult to perceive printed image quality when observing the image. Thus, even if the 6 color mode is set, printing is controlled to be carried out in the 4 color mode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print control apparatus and a print method, and specifically, to a print control apparatus such as a host computer that controls a manner of printing in a printing apparatus such as a printer which carries out printing by switching a combination of the colors of printing materials used for printing such as toners and inks in accordance with an image to be printed. The invention also relates to a print control method for the print control apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
With progress in printing apparatuses based on an electro-photographic system or an ink jet system, the level of needs for the results of printing such as a printed image is increasing. As a configuration for meeting the needs, a printer has been proposed which carries out printing by using printing materials for the three primary colors of cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y) or the four primary colors including the three primary colors and black (K), as well as, print materials for particular colors, for example, red, blue, and green, or gold, silver, and a fluorescent color. A printing apparatus has also been proposed which carries out printing by using the above print materials for the primary colors as well as print materials for, for example, light cyan (LC) and light magenta (LM) which contain thinner coloring matters.
FIGS. 1 to 3 show specific forms of printing apparatuses having increased types of printing materials. All the forms shown in theses figures are printers based on the electro-photographic system. These printers use toners for six colors including C, M, Y, K, LC, and LM, as printing materials. The form shown in FIG. 1 is a printer employing six image carriers (photosensitive members) corresponding to the six toners. The form shown in FIG. 2 is a printer having six developing devices provided around the periphery of one photosensitive member. The form shown in FIG. 3 is a printed described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-204871(1992) and employing two photosensitive members each provided with three developing devices around the periphery.
The printer shown in FIG. 1 comprises image forming sections Sa to Sf arranged along a conveyance path of an intermediate transfer belt 5 and having respective photosensitive members 1a to 1f for the corresponding printing materials and respective developing devices 41 to 46 in which the corresponding color toners are filled. This form provides a relatively high print output rate for six color printing and focuses on throughput or productivity.
In contrast, the printer shown in FIG. 2 has one photosensitive member 1 combined with six developing devices 41 to 46. A rotary 4 in which the developing devices 41 to 46 are mounted is rotated to selectively move the developing devices to a position facing to the photosensitive member 1, so that latent images are sequentially developed. Accordingly, with this configuration, a toner image developed as described above is transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 5 for each color, that is, a multi-transfer of the six-color toner image is carried out. The six-toner image formed on the intermediate transfer belt is then transferred to a print sheet. The printing apparatus based on this system provides a lower throughput than the form shown in FIG. 1 but has a relatively small size.
Further, the apparatus shown in FIG. 3 is a form corresponding to a compromise form between the apparatuses shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. Specifically, the apparatus shown in FIG. 3 has a first image forming section Sa including a photosensitive drum 1a and a second image forming section Sb including a photosensitive drum 1b. The image forming sections Sa and Sb are provided with three developing devices 41 to 43 and 44 to 46, respectively.
As described above, there are printing apparatuses using print materials for the four primary colors plus, for example, two print materials for particular colors or those having low depth of coloring matter, that is, a total of six color print materials. Some of these printing apparatuses can carry out printing by switching between a mode using only the print materials for the four primary colors and a mode using all the six color print materials. This is because printing with the four color print materials makes it possible to reduce the use amount of print materials as well as running costs, and particularly because in the configuration in which the rotary provided with the developing devices is sequentially rotated for printing as in the case of the form shown in FIG. 2, the reduced number of developing devices serves to improve the throughput.
Through a user interface such as the one shown in FIG. 4, the type of an image, on which determination as to whether to use the mode using the four color print materials or the mode using all the six print materials is based, is set. FIG. 4 shows a user interface provided by a printer driver in a personal computer. As shown in FIG. 4, setting of "Print Object" in "Print Quality" enables selection of the type of an image, for example, "Document/Table", "DTP", "Graphics", or "Photographic Image". Then, depending on this selection, the 4 color mode or the 6 color mode is specified, for example, as shown below, on the basis of a preset relationship.    Document/Table: 4 colors    DTP: 6 colors    Graphics: 6 colors    CAD: 4 colors    WEB page: 4 colors
As is apparent from the above relationship, the mode using the six color print materials is determined for an image that requires a relatively high image quality. The mode using the four color print materials is determined for an image that does not require a very high image quality.
The gradation of an image to be printed may be used as other reference for determining the mode. The mode is determined as described below by selecting, for example, "Panel Priority", "Standard", or "High Gradation" from a dialog for specifying "Gradation" as with the printer driver interface shown in FIG. 5.    "Panel Priority": follows specifications for the standard and high gradation set in the panel of the printer    "Standard": 4 colors    "High Gradation": 6 colors
Also in this example, if a high gradation image, which requires a relatively high image quality, is printed, the mode using all the six color print materials is determined, as in the case of the example shown in FIG. 4.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-318499 describes a configuration similar to that described above. This document discloses an image forming apparatus that forms an image using a dark color toner and a light color toner. This image forming apparatus switches between a mode using only the dark or light color toner (corresponding to the above 4 color mode) and a mode using both dark and light color toner (corresponding to the above 6 color mode).
However, there is a problem with the printing apparatuses capable of carrying out printing by switching between a mode using a set of predetermined types of print materials and a mode using more types of print materials. That is, in particular, in printing in the mode using more types of print materials as in the case of the 6 color mode, the effects of the mode are not substantially obtained in connection with what is called the contents of "Page Setting" such as the layout of a page to be printed and a scale factor for an image to be printed.
For example, if the layout of the page to be printed is such that a plurality of images are printed within one page (one sheet) or a contraction scale factor is used, the size of each image is reduced. Thus, even though printing is carried out in the mode using more types of print materials as in the case of the 6 color mode, to obtain a high quality image, a user may not easily perceive the high quality when observing the print image. This problem also means that large amounts of print materials are consumed for the results of printing not always perceived as intended, and causes other problem of increasing the running cost relative to the image quality.
Besides the page layout, if for example, stamp printing for "Draft", indicating that the image to be printed is a draft, is set, then in many cases, the image to be printed does not require a high image quality. In this case, if printing is carried out in a mode using more types of print materials as in the case of the 6 color mode, this mode is excessive in terms of the image quality. This also increases the running cost relatively to the image quality.
On the other hand, the image to be printed may be estimated to some degree depending on the setting of the size of a document or paper for printing or the scale factor in "Page Setting". For example, if the setting for "Document Size" in "Page Setting" is "Postcard", it can be estimated that printing with a somewhat high quality is desired when the postcard is printed in full colors. This also applies to the case in which an enlargement scale factor is used.

Print control apparatus and print control method


A cushioned, articulated seat protector for vehicle seats or the like having mid-section and upper members with articulated panel sections and padded side panel members with a non-slid exterior, as well as a lower member having at least one pocket panel.

Present day infant car seats are typically placed directly on a vehicle seat causing unsightly indentations on the vehicle seat and the infant car seat can easily slip on most vehicle seat surfaces. Further, spills and infant shoes can cause stains on the vehicle seat as well. While seat protectors are known in the prior art, the excessive amount of padding makes them unwieldy and the designs do not insure secure retention to a vehicle seat. It is desired then to have a seat covering that has a non-slip surface, protects a vehicle seat and is easy to use and clean.


A thin film integrated circuit resistor is disclosed that is substantially linear at applied voltages greater than 100 volts. The integrated circuit resistor comprises a substrate, a plurality of resistive blocks electrically connected in series, a shield associated with each resistive block, and passivation means for isolating the substrate from the resistive blocks and the shields, and for isolating the shields from the resistive blocks except where they are electrically connected. Each shield substantially surrounds its associated resistive block with conductive material, and each shield is electrically connected to its resistive block such that each shield is at a potential of some point along the length of its associated resistive block.

A typical thin film integrated circuit resistor consists of a resistive block of polysilicon with a low sheet resistance (e.g., less than 1000 ohms per square). The resistive block is fabricated above a major surface of a semiconductor substrate, along with other components of an integrated circuit, and separated from the substrate by a passivation layer. The substrate typically is doped to be conductive, and it is connected to either the most positive or the most negative potential, depending on whether it was doped with p-type or n-type impurities, respectively
The typical thin film integrated circuit resistor is substantially linear for applied voltages less than 100 volts. For applied voltages greater than 100 volts, however, the typical resistor is subject to breakdown, and to nonlinearity. The nonlinearity is due to effects on the charge carrier density within the resistive block. The charge carrier density is affected by electric fields associated with potential differences between regions of the resistive block and the substrate (substrate bias voltages).
In some high voltage applications, the linearity of a thin film integrated circuit resistor is not important. Resistor linearity, however, is of great consequence in analog applications, such as high voltage sensors, precision current to voltage converters, and digital to analog converters. Moreover, resistor linearity is a particular concern in analog applications that use resistive blocks having a relatively high sheet resistance (e.g., over 1000 ohms per square), since the effects of a given substrate bias voltage electric field on charge carrier density with increasing sheet resistance.
There is therefore a need for a thin film integrated circuit resistor that is substantially linear at applied voltages greater than 100 volts.


A fixing sheet adapted for fixing a battery to a body of an electronic apparatus is provided. The fixing sheet includes a structure layer having a first portion, a second portion and a split line. The first portion is adapted to be adhered to the battery. The second portion is structurally connected to the first portion and adapted to be adhered to the body. The split line is located at a common border of the first portion and the second portion. The first portion is capable of being forced relative to the second portion once the battery is forced relative to the body, so as to separate the first portion and the second portion along the split line. An electronic apparatus having the fixing sheet is also provided.

Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electronic apparatus. More particularly, the invention relates to an electronic apparatus having an embedded battery.
Description of Related Art
In current information era, human beings by degrees tend to rely on consumer electronics devices. The electronic products such as mobile phones, smart phones and tablet PC have pervaded everywhere. Therefore, consumer electronics devices and people nowadays are closely bonded together in daily life. Electronic devices nowadays are generally included with a battery configured to provide power required for system operations, so as to allow users to carry and use the devices anywhere.
Generally, the battery of the electronic device is disposed within its body, and no plastic protective shell is covered on a core of the battery so as to reduce overall thickness of the electronic device. However, the battery must be removed by maintenance personnel to proceed with maintenance for the electronic device. The battery without being protected by plastic protective shell may easily be deformed under force applied during the process of detaching the battery, so as to further increases maintaining costs.


A method of fabricating a composite material including a matrix reinforced by ceramic fibers which are derived by ceramization of an organometallic precursor. The method includes the steps of irradiating the ceramic fibers with electromagnetic radiation of wavelength less than or equal to the wavelength of x-rays, and then impregnating or infiltrating a preform made of the irradiated ceramic fibers with a matrix forming material to form the composite. The method provides fibers and hence a composite material with improved mechanical behavior.

To make a part out of such a composite material, the procedure is generally to make a fiber preform whose shape is similar to that of the part to be made, and then to densify the preform by infiltrating with the material that constitutes the matrix within the pores of the preform. Densification may be performed using a liquid (impregnation-pyrolysis cycle(s)) or by using a gas (chemical vapor infiltration cycle(s)).
The present invention seeks more particularly to fabricate a composite material reinforced by ceramic fibers, in particular fibers derived from organo-metallic precursors, e.g. fibers made essentially of silicon carbide or of silicon nitride and derived from organo-silicon precursors.
Compared with fibers obtained by chemical vapor deposition of a ceramic coating on a metal or a carbon core, fibers obtained by pyrolysis (ceramization) of an organo-metallic precursor are generally more suitable for being subjected to textile operations, in particular weaving, and they are cheaper. However, their mechanical properties are still limited.
An object of the present invention is to remedy these drawbacks by proposing a method enabling the mechanical behavior of these fibers to be improved, and consequently enabling the mechanical behavior of composite materials in which such fibers are used as reinforcement to be improved.

Method for fabricating a ceramic fiber reinforced composite material


An aircraft operable between a deployed position and a stowed position is disclosed. The aircraft includes a fuselage, a pair of wing segments, and a translation and rotation mechanism for attaching the wing segments to the fuselage. The mechanism includes an upper assembly having an outer shaft and an inner shaft. A first wing segment is attached to the outer shaft and a second wing segment is attached to the inner shaft. The outer shaft translates downward with respect to the inner shaft. Thereafter, the outer and inner shafts rotate in opposite directions in order to rotate the wing segments on top of one another, parallel to a long axis of the fuselage, and into the stowed position. The operation of the outer and inner shafts is reversed in order to return the wing segments to the deployed position.

The first successful airplane was originally developed by the Wright Brothers in 1903. Ever since then, new and improved structural designs are constantly developed in order to improve flight characteristics and meet consumer demands.
In general, an aircraft such as a fixed-wing airplane (as opposed to a rotorcraft, such as a helicopter) typically includes one or more horizontal wings, a fuselage, one or more propulsion devices, a vertical stabilizer, a horizontal stabilizer, and landing gear. These components can vary depending on the aircraft's desired purpose.
The fuselage or body of the aircraft is generally a long, thin structure having tapered or rounded ends in order to provide improved aerodynamics. The fuselage is the housing structure for the cockpit, passengers, and flight systems maintained within the interior of the aircraft.
Aircrafts include propulsion devices, such as propeller engines, jet engines, electric engines, rocket engines, and the like, in order to create thrust and initiate flight of the aircraft. These propulsion devices may be attached to the wings directly or coupled to the fuselage.
The vertical stabilizer, also referred to as a fin, is a vertical wing-like surface mounted at the rear of the aircraft. The vertical stabilizer controls the yaw of the aircraft in order to prevent unnecessary turning to the left and right. The horizontal stabilizer is also mounted at the rear of the aircraft. The horizontal stabilizer is used to control the pitch of the aircraft in order to prevent incidental tilting up or down at the front of the fuselage. A horizontal stabilizer, referred to as a canard, may also be disposed at the front end of the aircraft. Additionally, an empennage or tail having a T-tail structure functions as both a horizontal and a vertical stabilizer.
The wings of the aircraft deflect air downward as the aircraft moves forward, thereby generating lift. The wings generally extend from opposite sides of the fuselage or body of the aircraft and prevent the aircraft from rolling to the right or left during flight. Thus, the wing does not extend across the width of the fuselage. This prevents the wing from generating any lift across the width of the fuselage. Moreover, these styles of aircrafts provide aerodynamic boundary layers at the fuselage which interferes with the wing near the attachment location to the fuselage. This greatly reduces lift generated by the wings as well.
Despite the above-mentioned structural components of an aircraft, it can be dangerous or not possible to fly an aircraft in undesirable conditions such as in high wind and/or in smaller spaces. The large dimensions of a fixed-wing aircraft substantially adds to the width of the aircraft. Thus, there is a need for an aircraft capable of varying its shape and dimensions when necessary, while in flight, in order to accommodate these conditions.

Aircraft with in-flight form varying apparatus


A semiconductor device having high electrical characteristics is manufactured at low cost and with high throughput. A semiconductor film is crystallized or activated by being irradiated with a laser beam emitted from one fiber laser. Alternatively, laser beams are emitted from a plurality of fiber lasers and coupled by a coupler to be one laser beam, and then a semiconductor film is irradiated with the coupled laser beam so as to be crystallized or activated.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device. The present invention particularly relates to a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device, in which a semiconductor film is heated by laser irradiation.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, attention has been attracted to a technique for manufacturing thin film transistors (TFTs) by using a semiconductor thin film (with a thickness of about several nanometers to several hundred nanometers) formed over a substrate having an insulating surface. Thin film transistors are widely applied to electronic devices such as ICs and electro-optic devices, and development of thin film transistors as switching elements particularly for image display devices is urgently required.
With the increase in size of image display devices and image sensors and in density of pixels (higher definition), elements using semiconductor thin films capable of following higher-speed driving are required to be developed. Moreover, in order to reduce weight and cost, thin film transistors have come to be used as not only switching elements of image display devices but also driver elements provided around display regions.
In order to fulfill such requirements, researches have been carried out on a technique for improving electrical characteristics such as electric field effect mobility (also called mobility, simply) by forming a semiconductor film having a crystal structure. For example, a solid-phase growth method and a method of carrying out a heat treatment using a laser beam (also called "laser light") are studied. The method of carrying out a heat treatment using a laser beam is hereinafter referred to as a laser anneal method. In particular, the laser anneal method has advantages in that process time can be drastically shortened as compared with a solid-phase growth method and a semiconductor substrate or a semiconductor film over a substrate can be selectively heated so that the substrate is hardly damaged thermally (for example, see Reference 1: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-297751).
Lasers used in the laser anneal method are classified into gas lasers, liquid lasers, and solid lasers according to their mediums. As a laser oscillation method, a continuous wave oscillation type and a pulsed oscillation type are given.
A technique has been attracting attention lately in which a semiconductor film is heated by a solid laser (such as a Nd:YVO4 laser) instead of a method in which a semiconductor film is heated by an excimer laser, which is one kind of gas lasers (hereinafter also referred to as an excimer laser anneal (ELA) method in this specification). Although a solid laser can form a large crystal grain or a single crystal as compared with the excimer laser anneal method, a solid laser has the following drawbacks.
In the case of crystallizing a semiconductor film formed over a large substrate, a long linear beam is required in consideration of throughput. However, since a solid laser has difficulty in forming a long linear beam, mass productivity is low. This is a problem caused in the case of using a solid laser in a process for heating a semiconductor film.
In order to form a long linear beam, it is necessary to increase output power of a laser beam, and moreover, to heat a semiconductor film effectively, i.e., have a semiconductor film absorb a laser beam effectively. A wavelength of a laser beam which has high absorption efficiency to a silicon film, which is a typical semiconductor film, ranges from visible to ultraviolet regions; on the other hand, a wavelength region of a laser beam of a fundamental wave used as a solid laser mainly ranges from infrared to near-infrared regions. Therefore, in order to effectively heat a semiconductor film by using a solid laser, it is necessary to use a non-linear optical element having a function of converting a laser beam of a fundamental wave into a harmonic (such as a second harmonic or a third harmonic). However, this non-linear optical element has a threshold at which the element is damaged by input power of a fundamental wave; therefore, increasing output power of a harmonic has restriction.
Moreover, a solid laser has a complex oscillator which is sensitive to vibration, and further has problems of high power consumption, necessity of an optical system for beam shaping, necessity of maintenance and cooling water, and the like.

Method for manufacturing semiconductor device

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


A projection exposure apparatus is provided with an illumination optical system for illuminating a reticle having a predetermined pattern and a projection optical system having a predetermined numerical aperture for projecting the predetermined pattern of the reticle illuminated by the illumination optical system onto a wafer surface. The projection optical system is arranged so that, with respect to the focusing of an image of the reticle onto the wafer surface, spherical aberration, which depends on the numerical aperture of the projection optical system, shows a positive tendency corresponding to overcorrection in third-order spherical aberration and a negative tendency corresponding to undercorrection in fifth-order spherical aberration.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to projection exposure apparatus for use in the process of manufacturing semiconductor devices and, more particularly, to a projection exposure apparatus provided with a projection optical system suitable for use in transferring micro patterns.
2. Related Background Art
Reducing projection exposure apparatus have conventionally been used in the manufacturing of semiconductor devices composed of micro patterns, such as large scale integrated circuits (LSI's) and very large scale integrated circuits (VLSI's). To handle micro patterns which will be far finer in the future, great efforts have been directed to the improvement of the accuracy and stability with which micro patterns are transferred. For example, a great number of efforts have been made at reducing the wavelength of exposing illumination light or increasing the numerical apertures (NA's) of projection optical systems. To achieve stable transference of such a micro pattern, it is also necessary to use a projection optical system having high resolution and a projecting image having high contrast. For this reason efforts have been made at finding optimum exposure conditions by variously investigating the state of illumination. For example, Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 61-151 discloses a method of determined illumination conditions. In the disclosed method, a so-called o value corresponding to the ratio of the NA of the projection optical system to the NA of an illumination optical system is selected to adjust the NA's of both optical systems, thereby providing adequate balance of resolution and contrast with respect to a predetermined pattern.
The aforesaid conventional apparatus allows the illumination optical system to be optimized to some extent but, as the NA of the projection optical system increases, depth of focus becomes shallower. As a result, when the micro pattern formed on a reticle is to be transferred onto a wafer by exposure, extremely strict focusing conditions are needed. This leads to the problem that, if even a slight amount of focus variation occurs, the micro pattern will not be transferred accurately.
In general, patterns to be transferred are not formed of simple periodic structures only and, in a major part of patterns, a plurality of micro patterns having different periodic structures coexist. In addition, general projection optical systems tend to vary their best focus positions, depending on the linewidths of individual micro patterns. Accordingly, the best focus positions differ with the finenesses of patterns to be transferred, with the result that extremely strict adjustment and control steps are indispensable to the manufacturing processes.
It is, therefore, always necessary to detect focus extremely strictly and to correct a focus position highly accurately. This leads to an increase in the complexity and size of the apparatus, an increase in the duration of process time and a deterioration in throughput.
An invention intended to cope with the above-described problems is disclosed in a commonly assigned U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 07/451,166 filed Dec. 15, 1989 and now U.S. Pat. No. 4,965,630. In this invention, the amount of spherical aberration of a projection optical system is made excessive, whereby the resolution of an image formed on a resist having a thickness can be improved in excess of the limit of resolution which appears on the resist as a result of multiple reflection therewithin in the absence of any aberration.
However, it has been found that the prior invention still has the disadvantage that resolution deteriorates substantially if extremely fine patterns are transferred.