A LCD device includes a first substrate including a plurality of pixels each having a white (W) sub-pixel and red (R), green (G), blue (B) and yellow (Y) sub-pixels surrounding the W sub-pixel; thin film transistors each connected to gate and data lines over the first substrate; first to fourth pixel electrodes connected to each of the thin film transistors and disposed to correspond to one of the R, G, B and Y sub-pixels; a color filter layer including red (R), green (G), blue (B) and yellow (Y) color filters on a second substrate, each of the R, G, B and Y color filters corresponding to one of the R, G, B and Y sub-pixels; a common electrode on the color filter layer; and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the color filter layer and the first to fourth pixel electrodes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display (LCD) device, and more particularly, to a LCD device having a dynamic aperture ratio control system for controlling aperture ratio and brightness.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A cathode ray tube (CRT) has been mainly used as displays for televisions and desktop computer monitors, but the CRT has disadvantages of heavy weight, large dimension and high power consumption. Therefore, flat panel display (FPD) devices have been demanded to substitute the CRT. For example, liquid crystal display (LCD) devices and electroluminescent display (ELD) devices have been researched and developed. Particularly, the LCD devices make use of optical anisotropy and polarization properties of liquid crystal molecules that are interposed between array substrate and color filter substrate
FIG. 1 is an expanded perspective view of a liquid crystal display device according to the related art. The LCD device includes an upper substrate 5 that is commonly referred to as a color filter substrate, a lower substrate 22 that is commonly referred to as an array substrate, and a liquid crystal material layer 14 that is interposed between the upper and lower substrates 5 and 22, respectively. A color filter layer 7 is formed in the shape of a matrix on the upper substrate 5, and a black matrix 6 is also formed on the upper substrate 5. The color filter layer 7 includes a plurality of red (R), green (G) and blue color filters 7a, 7b and 7c, which are surrounded by the black matrix 6. Additionally, a common electrode 18 is formed on the cover of the color filter layer 7 and the black matrix 6.
A plurality of thin film transistors T are formed on the lower substrate 22 in the shape of a matrix corresponding to the color filters 7a, 7b and 7c. A plurality of crossing gate lines 13 and data lines 15 are perpendicularly positioned such that each thin film transistor (TFT) T is located adjacent to each crossing of the gate lines 13 and the data lines 15. Furthermore, a pixel electrode 17 is formed on a sub-pixel region Ps defined by the gate lines 13 and the data lines 15 of the lower substrate 22. The pixel electrodes 17 are formed of a transparent conductive material (e.g., indium-tin-oxide; ITO) in a matrix type, and each pixel electrode 17 corresponds to each of the color filters 7a, 7b and 7c. The sub-pixel regions Ps are often referred to as dots, and are actually employed for displaying images with the corresponding color filters by the modulation of the liquid crystal layer 14.
A scanning signal is supplied to a gate electrode of the thin film transistor T through the gate line 13, and a data signal is supplied to a source electrode of the thin film transistor T through the data line 15. As a result, the liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal material layer 14 are aligned and re-arranged by enablement of the electric field between the common electrode 18 and the pixel electrodes 17. The liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer 14 have a spontaneous polarization property such that the liquid crystal arrangement changes in accordance with the electric field when voltages are applied to the pixel and common electrodes 17 and 18. The re-arrangement of the liquid crystal molecules acts as photo modulation that shuts and opens incident light passing through the liquid crystal layer 14, thereby displaying desired images. Further, the LCD device includes driving circuitries, wherein the circuitries control and change RGB data and other control signals originating from the driving system into desired signals in order to enable the liquid crystal panel to display the color images.
FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating the liquid crystal display device according to the related art. In FIG. 2, a liquid crystal display (LCD) device 100 includes a liquid crystal (LC) panel 120 and a driving circuit 130. The LC panel 120 includes a plurality of gate lines 122 and a plurality of data line 124. The gate lines 122 perpendicularly cross the data lines 124 to define sub-pixel region Ps with the data lines 124. A switching element T, e.g., a thin film transistor, is disposed near a crossing of the gate and data lines 122 and 124 and connected to the gate and data lines 122 and 124. The driving circuit 130 normally receives RGB data and other control signals from a driving system (not shown), and then applies electric signals to the LC panel 120. The driving circuit 130 includes a timing controller 136, a gamma voltage generator 138, a gate driver 132 and a data driver 134. The gate driver 132 is connected to the plurality of gate lines 122 and supplies gate signals to the gate lines 122. The data driver 132 is connected to the plurality of data lines 124 and supplies data signals thereto.
In addition, the timing controller 136 transmits the RGB data and other control signals received from the driving system (not shown) to the data driver 134. The control signals are a plurality of timing synchronization signals that include a vertical synchronization signal as a frame identification, a horizontal synchronization signal as a line identification, an enable signal as a data input indicator, and a main clock. After receiving the timing synchronization signals, the timing controller 136 generates data control signals and gate control signals, respectively, and re-arranges the RGB data in accordance with the timing synchronization signals. Namely, the RGB digital data, a horizontal synchronization signals, a vertical line start signal for RGB digital data input, and source pulse clock for data shift are transferred to the data driver 134 from the timing controller 136. Furthermore, the timing controller 136 transmits a vertical synchronization signal, a vertical line start signal for gate-on-signal input, and a gate clock for sequential gate signal input into the gate driver 132. Additionally, the gamma voltage generator 138 generates an RGB reference voltage using the RGB data and transmits the RGB reference voltage to the data driver 134.
Meanwhile, when the LCD device displays moving images after displaying a still picture for a long time, some image patterns of the previous still picture remain occasionally, i.e., it is called as residual images. Especially, such residual images occur at the time of applying DC voltage between the common and pixel electrodes because the liquid crystal has refractive birefringence property and is easily deteriorated by the DC voltage. Therefore, the liquid crystal layer is generally driven and operated by an AC voltage. Further, if the polarity of voltage applied to the pixel and common electrodes is fixed, the liquid crystal deterioration is further increased, whereby the applied voltage polarity may be converted for each frame with respect to the driving method. Specifically, one of a field inversion driving method, a line inversion driving method and a dot inversion driving method may be employed for converting the applied voltage polarity.
In the field inversion method, the data signal supplied to the LC panel is inverted whenever the field is changed. In the line inversion method, the data signal is inverted in accordance with the gate line of the LC panel. Further, in the dot inversion method, the data signal polarity of one pixel is opposite to that of adjacent pixels, and the data signal applied to the LC panel is inverted in each field. When adopting such inversion methods to the LCD device, the driving circuitry 130 of FIG. 2 may include a polarity applier (not shown). Among the inversion methods mentioned above, the dot inversion method is widely used because the dot inversion method most frequently changes the polarity.
Referring back to FIG. 1, the sub-pixel regions Ps correspond to the R, G and B color filters 7a, 7b and 7c, and the set of R, G and B color filters 7a, 7b and 7c form a pixel that represents a desired color by mixing the red (R), green (G) and blue (B) colors so as to display an image. If the LCD device of FIG. 1 adopts the dot inversion method, each sub-pixel has a polarity different from its neighboring pixels. Namely, the data signal is inverted for each of the R, G and B colors. At this point, the color filters 7a, 7b and 7c corresponding to the sub-pixel regions Ps are proposed to have the following arrangements.
FIGS. 3-7 are plan views illustrating arrangements of sub-pixels: a stripe type, a mosaic type, a triangle type, a square type, and a quad type.
FIG. 3 shows a stripe type arrangement of color filters. In FIG. 3, the sub-pixel regions Ps line up uniformly in rows and columns. The red (R), green (G) and blue (B) color filters are alternately arranged in a row direction, but the same color filters, red (R), green (G) or blue (B), are also arranged in a column direction.
FIG. 4 shows a mosaic type arrangement of color filters. In FIG. 4, the sub-pixel regions Ps line up uniformly in rows and columns. However, unlike the stripe type arrangement of FIG. 3, the red (R), green (G) and blue (B) color filters are alternately arranged in both the row and column directions.
FIG. 5 shows a triangle type arrangement of color filters. In FIG. 5, the sub-pixel regions Ps line up in row, but the sub-pixels disposed in a column make a diagonal loop shape. The red (R), green (G) and blue (B) color filters are alternately arranged in the row direction. However, in the column direction, the red (R), green (G) and blue (B) color filters are arranged so as not to have the same colored filters attached together. Namely, if the red (R) and green (G) color filters are arranged to be attached to each other in a first row, the blue (B) color filter is positioned in an area between the red (R) and green (G) color filter in a second row. In this manner, the red (R) color filter of the second row is positioned in an area between the green (G) and blue (B) color filters of the first row, and the green (G) color filter of the second row is positioned in an area between the blue (B) and red (R) color filters of the first row. Therefore, the red (R) and green (G) color filters of the first row and the blue (B) color filter of the second row form a triangle shape. Hence the reason why the arrangement of FIG. 5 is called the triangle type.
FIG. 6 shows a square type arrangement of color filters. In FIG. 6, the sub-pixel regions Ps are drawn up uniformly in rows and columns. The red (R), green (G) and blue (B) color filters are alternately arranged in the row direction, but only two colored filters are alternately arranged in the column direction. For example, the red (R) and green (B), green (G) and blue (B), or blue (B) and red (R) color filters are alternately arranged along the column direction without the other colored filter.
FIG. 7 shows a quad type arrangement of color filters. In FIG. 7, white (W) color filters are included with the red (R), green (G) and blue (B) color filters. The sub-pixel regions Ps stand uniformly in rows and columns. The red (R), green (G), blue (B) and white (W) color filters are gathered together to form a larger rectangular shape. Namely, two of the red (R), green (G), blue (B) and white (W) color filters are alternately arranged in a first row, and the other two color filters are alternately arranged in a second row. Due to the fact that the white (W) color filter is additionally formed, the LCD device having the quad type arrangement of color filters can have improved brightness, high aperture ratio, and better contrast ratio. Further, the sub-pixel having the white (W) color filter may be operated by an additional data signal.
Meanwhile, the white (W) sub-pixels may not have any colored filters because a light source employed in the LCD device usually emits white-colored light.
Among the above-mentioned color filter arrangements, the stripe type, mosaic type, triangle type and square type arrangements provide relatively low brightness, and have the disadvantages of the invariable and stationary aperture and contrast ratios. Furthermore, although the high brightness and improved aperture and contrast ratios are obtained, the LCD device having the quad type arrangement needs a complicated circuit and requires the high costs of production because an additional data signal is required for the white (W) sub-pixel. Further, the LCD device having the red (R), green (G) and blue (B) color filters may have a narrower color gamut because only three colors, red, green and blue colors, are employed to display desired color images.

Liquid crystal display with the red, green, blue, and yellow sub-pixels surrounding the white sub-pixel


A program includes expressions written in a process-based language. A process kernel executes sets of operational semantics rules governing the meanings of the expressions in the program. A first expression is parsed. The first expression describes that a process is a choice of two processes. The first process of the two processes expresses that a first query is submitted to a queue, after which the first process continues with a first set of actions. The second process of the two processes expresses that a second query is submitted to the queue, after which the second process continues with a second set of actions. The first expression reduces to a second expression. The second expression describes that a third query is submitted to the queue after which the first process runs in parallel with the second process if the third query is in canonical form.

Natural language is a language spoken or written by humans, as opposed to a programming language or a machine language. A programming language is any artificial language that can be used to define a sequence of instructions that can ultimately be processed and executed by a computer. Defining what is or is not a programming language can be tricky, but general usage implies that the translation process—from the source code which is expressed using the programming language, to the machine code, which is the code that the computer needs to work with—be automated by means of another program, such as a compiler. Both natural languages and programming languages are systematic means of communicating information and instructions from one entity to another, such as man to man or man to machine. Unfortunately, prior programming languages have been an imperfect way of communicating information and instructions from man to machine.
For example, early in the computing era, assembly languages were used to form low-level programming languages. Assembly languages use abbreviations or mnemonic codes in which each statement corresponds to a single machine instruction. Along with the advantage of high efficiency due to direct programmer interaction with system hardware and resources came the undesirable consequence of having to manually update ad hoc organizational schemes, such as data structures, when even slight changes were made to an assembly language program. The high-level languages of today, which provide a level of abstraction above the underlying machine language, evolved from assembly languages. High-level language statements generally use keywords (usually in English) that are translated into more than one machine-language instruction. High-level languages have built-in support for data structures and define a set of syntactic and semantic rules that define the structure of the language. When a slight change is made to a program written in a high-level language, a compiler, which transforms the program into object code by following a predetermined set of syntactic and semantic rules, either reflows the object code as necessary to correspond with the change made to the program or unabashedly informs a programmer of the apparent programming error.
Programmers have leveraged the ability of a compiler to detect errors in the invocation of application programming interfaces (APIs) by checking the signature of an invoking API against the corresponding signature of a defined API. An API is an interface of a program that defines the sort of inputs the program will accept to perform a desired task and the sort of outputs the program will return after the performance of the desired task. APIs allow programs to cooperate together to provide greater functionality than each could provide alone.
An API only specifies what must be provided to the API and what will be returned from the API—not the behaviors of the program underlying the API. For example, to properly cooperate, an "initialization" program must be called before a "do work" program is called, and correspondingly, the "do work" program must be called before a "clean up" program is called. APIs do not capture this ordering idea, or any other ideas that express how programs should cooperate. As a result, like the laborious tasks of maintaining the assembly programs of yesteryear, programmers must once again fit square pegs into round holes by working within the limit of the expressiveness of present high-level languages to ensure that programs correctly cooperate.
The foregoing problem is exacerbated with the proliferation of Web services, which are basically programs located on any number of computing devices interconnected by the Internet. Whereas the specification and the laborious verification of the cooperation of programs within a single computing device can be undertaken—albeit arduously—the task of verifying the intricate ballet associated with the cooperation of multiple Web services (which send multiple messages from multiple computing devices) is an insurmountable problem because of the lack of the expressiveness of present high-level languages. What is needed is a programming language that can express the cooperative dimensions of programs or services, such as ordering and timing, among other things, so that such cooperative dimensions can be programmatically verified.
One partial solution is the use of π-calculus, which is a mathematical language for describing processes in interactive, concurrent systems, such as a system 100 shown in FIG. 1. The system 100 includes a client 102, which is a computer that accesses shared network resources being provided by another computer, such as a server 106, on a local area network or a wide area network, such as the Internet 104. A number of Web services 108, 116 are statically stored as programs on the client 102 and the server 106.
Early operating systems allowed users to run only one program at a time. Users ran a program, waited for it to finish, and then ran another one. Modern operating systems allow users to execute (run) more than one program at a time or even multiple copies of the same program at the same time. A thread is the basic unit used by the operating system to allocate processor time to a program. A thread can include any part of the programming code, including parts currently being executed by another thread. A processor is capable of executing only one thread at a time. However, a multi-tasking operating system, i.e., an operating system that allows users to run multiple programs, appears to execute multiple programs at the same time. In reality, a multi-tasking operating system continually alternates among programs, executing a thread from one program, then a thread from another program, etc. As each thread finishes its sub-task, the processor is given another thread to execute. The extraordinary speed of the processor provides the illusion that all of the threads execute at the same time.
While the terms multi-tasking and multi-processing are sometimes used interchangeably, they have different meanings. Multi-processing requires multi-processors. If a machine has only one processor, the operating system can multi-task, but not multi-process. If a single machine has multiple processors or there are multiple machines (the client 102 and the server 106), each of which has a processor, the operating system of the single machine or the operating systems of multiple machines can both multi-task and multi-process. Both a single machine having multiple processors and multiple machines, each having a processor, define a concurrent system. This is an object of interest for π-calculus.
The core of π-calculus consists of systems of independent, parallel processes (such as Web services 108, 116) that communicate via links (such as a link 124). Links can be any of the following: APIs that become as remote procedure calls; hypertext links that can be created, passed around, and removed; and object references (e.g., "rose") passed as arguments of method invocations in object-oriented systems. The possibilities of communication for a process with other processes depends on its knowledge of various different links. Links may be restricted so that only certain processes can communicate on them. What sets the π-calculus apart from other process languages is that the scope of a restriction (the context in which a link may be used) may change during execution. For example, when the Web Service 116 sends a restricted name, such as an API previously known only to the Web Service 116, as a message to the Web service 108, which is outside the scope of the restriction, the scope is expanded (or extruded in the mathematic idiom of π-calculus). This means that the scope of the API is enlarged to embrace the Web service 108 receiving the API. In other words, the Web service 108 can now invoke the function represented by the API whereas before the Web service 108 had no knowledge of the API, hence was unable to invoke the API. This procedure allows the communication possibilities of a process to change over time within the framework of π-calculus. A process can learn the names of new links via scope extrusion. Thus a link is a transferable quantity for enhancing communication.
What has been central, foundational, and unchanging about π-calculus is its intense focus on names, such as "rose," and the passing of names as messages over links. In particular, π-calculus places great emphasis on pure names, each of which is defined to be only a bit pattern. One example of a pure name is the 128-bit space GUID (Globally Unique Identifier) that uniquely identifies an interface or an implementation in the COM component model. Another example of a pure name is a function signature or an API as described above. For additional emphasis, consider the above-discussed problem in this light: suppose there are three APIs ("initialization," "do work," and "clean up") sent to the Web service 108 from the Web service 116, but the Web service 116 must invoke these three APIs only in a particular order (e.g., "initialization" and then "do work" and then "clean up"). While existing π-calculus and its variants allow the three APIs to be sent over the link 124 to reach the Web service 108 from the Web service 116, the existing π-calculus and its variants lack a way for the Web service 116 to express to the Web service 108 the particular order in which the three APIs are to be invoked. In this sense, existing π-calculus and its variants cannot completely express the cooperative dimensions of programs or services, such as ordering and timing, among other things, so that such cooperative dimensions can be programmatically verified.
One Elizabethan poet succinctly provided this adage, metaphorical in form but embodying a timeless observation: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." This observation made long ago precisely points to a present problem of π-calculus and its variants—a lack of tolerance for the passage of structured data on named links (such as the link 124). In fact, π-calculus unfavorably refers to structured data as "impure names," which is a negative linguistic construction. Pureness is desirable while impurity is abhorred. Thus impure names in the context of π-calculus are data with some kind of recognizable structure, such as an extensible markup language (XML) document. In practice, it is useful (and at times necessary) for one process to communicate structured data to another process.
Without a flow of data, it is difficult to facilitate communication between processes—except in a very indirect way—to represent mobility or dynamism among processes. To solve this problem, computer scientists have investigated the possibility of allowing processes to flow in communication over links. For example, a process 110 may send to the process 118 a message which represents a third process (not shown). This is known as higher-order π-calculus. Because of the rigidity with which π-calculus handles pure names, instead of sending a process over a link, even higher-order π-calculus variants send a name, which gives access to a desired process, instead of sending the process itself.
Sending a name, rather than a process, can be likened to the traditional programming technique of passing by reference, i.e., passing an address of a parameter from a calling routine to a called routine, which uses the address to retrieve or modify the value of the parameter. The main problem with employing the passing by reference technique in higher-order π-calculus variants is that the technique can inhibit the ability of a concurrent system to become distributed. There are many implementations of π-calculus, namely PICT, Nomadic PICT, TyCO, Oz, and Join, among others. However, these other implementations are either not distributed (PICT) or are not higher-order forms of the π-calculus (Nomadic PICT, TyCo, Oz, and Join).
Thus there is a need for better methods and systems for allowing processes in concurrent, distributed computing networks to interact while avoiding or reducing the foregoing and other problems associated with existing π-calculus and its variants.

Operational semantics rules for governing evolution of processes and queries as processes


A network selection scheme operable in a network environment having one or more radio access networks (RANs), one or more core networks (CNs), and one or more service networks (SNs). Upon obtaining identity information of a particular network combination, a wireless user equipment (UE) device is operable to register with a roaming broker (RB), whereby additional information may be provided to the device for facilitating appropriate network selection.

When a wireless network is deployed, there is a need to broadcast an identifier such that a wireless user equipment (UE) device wishing to obtain service can identify the wireless network. In a typical implementation, a single broadcast identifier is provided. However, where the constituent radio access network (RAN), core network (CN) and service network (SN) are segmented and individually identified, such a technique becomes woefully inadequate.

Network selection scheme using a roaming broker (RB)


A normal structure element image representing normal structure of at least predetermined one of structure elements of an object images of which are included in an image of the object is artificially generated. A structure-removed image, which is an image obtained by removing the predetermined structure element from the image of the object, is generated by an image operation between the image of the object and the normal structure element image of the predetermined structure element.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image processing method for forming an image suitable for image diagnosis such as abnormal shadow detection, an apparatus for carrying out the image processing method, a computer program for causing a computer to execute the image processing method, a computer readable medium on which the program is recorded, an abnormal shadow detecting method using the image processing method, a computer program for causing a computer to execute the abnormal shadow detecting method, and a computer readable medium on which the program is recorded.
2. Description of the Related Art
When detecting an abnormal shadow representing a growth or the like on the basis of a medical image representing a predetermined affected part, so-called energy subtraction has been carried out in order to make invisible the bone which is an obstruction to the detection.
Energy subtraction is a process for generating an image free from a part of the structure element of an object by preparing two images of the same object different in X-ray dose and taking the difference between the two images on the basis of the fact that the X-ray absorption for a given amount of X-rays irradiated to the object differs from structure element to structure element of the object. That is, by subtracting a bone-enhanced image (an image in which bones are enhanced) from a soft-part-enhanced image (an image in which soft parts are enhanced), an image free from bones can be obtained. An image obtained in this way is referred to as "an energy-subtraction image". See U.S. Pat. No. 4,855,598 (will be referred to as "patent publication 1", hereinbelow).
Further, when detecting an abnormal shadow representing a newly generated growth or the like, so-called temporal subtraction has been carried out in order to obtain an image of a predetermined affected part in which the abnormal shadow is enhanced.
Temporal subtraction is a process for generating an image in which change with time of the affected part is enhanced by preparing two images of the same object taken in different times and taking the difference between the two images. When an image representing the part before generation of the disease and normal is used as a past image, an image in which an abnormal shadow representing a newly generated growth or the like is enhanced can be obtained. See U.S. Patent Laid-Open No. 20010002934 (will be referred to as "patent publication 2", hereinbelow).
However, there has been a problem in energy subtraction in that two images of the same object different in X-ray dose must be prepared, and there has been a problem in temporal subtraction in that two images taken in different times must be prepared. That is, the two processes both require a plurality of images, and an image from which bones are removed or in which an abnormal shadow is enhanced cannot be obtained only a single image taken in a simple manner.
In order to obtain an image from which bones are removed or in which an abnormal shadow is enhanced, a special system and/or a special technique is required, which results in the fact that an image necessary to the image diagnosis cannot be effectively generated.
Further, in the medical field, there has been put into practice computer-aided abnormal shadow detection (CAD) in which an abnormal shadow in a digital medical image is automatically detected by the use of a computer. As the computer-aided abnormal shadow detection (CAD), there has been known chest CAD in which, on the basis of a digital chest X-ray image, a growth shadow in the chest is detected.
The chest X-ray image includes so-called feature background image comprising images of structure elements having various anatomical features such as ribs, a clavicle and the like, which is an obstruction to detection of an abnormal shadow and deteriorates the detection capability.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,289,374 (will be referred to as "patent publication 3, hereinbelow) proposes a technology in which chest CAD is performed after removing the feature background image by filtering.
However, since a chest is complicated in anatomical structure and the feature background image cannot be satisfactorily removed from the chest X-ray image by the chest CAD employing filtering, the detection capability cannot be improved by the approach.

Method, apparatus and program for image processing, and abnormal shadow detection


A memory device and a method of making a memory device that includes a stack of alternating layers of a first material and a second material different from the first material over a substrate, where the layers of the second material form a plurality of conductive control gate electrodes. A plurality of NAND memory strings extend through the stack, where each NAND memory string includes a semiconductor channel which contains at least a first portion which extends substantially perpendicular to a major surface of the substrate and at least one memory film located between the semiconductor channel and the plurality of conductive control gate electrodes. A source line including a metal silicide material extends through the stack.

Recently, ultra high density storage devices have been proposed using a three-dimensional (3D) stacked memory structure sometimes referred to as a Bit Cost Scalable (BiCS) architecture. For example, a 3D NAND stacked memory device can be formed from an array of alternating conductive and dielectric layers. A memory hole is formed through the layers to define many memory layers simultaneously. A NAND string is then formed by filling the memory hole with appropriate materials. A straight NAND string extends in one memory hole, while a pipe- or U-shaped NAND string (p-BiCS) includes a pair of vertical columns of memory cells. Control gates of the memory cells may be provided by the conductive layers.

Three-dimensional non-volatile memory device having a silicide source line and method of making thereof


The latch circuit having an input stage supplied with an input signal and, when activated, producing an output signal responsive to the input signal, and an latching stage coupled to the input stage and, when activated, holding a level of the output signal, the input stage including a pair of bipolar transistors Q1, Q2 coupled in a differential form, the latching stage including a pair of insulated gate field effect transistors M1, M2 coupled in a differential form.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a latch circuit, and more particularly to a latch circuit receiving small amplitude signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
A circuit using a bipolar (BipTr) is employed conventionally in a semiconductor logic circuit aimed mainly at high speed operation, in which a small amplitude signal represented by an emitter coupled logic (ECL) level is employed in a latch circuit using the small amplitude signal as an input.
Referring to FIG. 8 an example of conventional latch circuit will be described. Collectors of BipTrs Q21 and Q22 which input complementary input signals EIN and EIN/ (hereinafter, the symbol "/" denotes the inversion) as their base inputs and having their emitters are connected in common, are connected to respective one side ends of resistors R21 and R22 with the respective other ends connected to the highest power supply voltage (Vcc) as well as to the bases of BipTrs Q23 and Q24 constituting an emitter follower circuit.
The emitters of BipTrs Q23 and Q24 are connected to current sources I21 and I22, respectively, and are made to be output signals EOUT and EOUT/, and the emitter potentials of the BipTrs Q23 and Q24 are input to the bases of BipTrs Q26 and Q25, respectively.
The collectors of the BipTrs Q25 and Q21, and of Q26 and Q22 are respectively connected in common. Common emitter of a current switch consisting of the BipTrs Q21 and Q22 is connected to the collector of a BipTr Q27, common emitter of a current switch consisting of the BipTrs Q25 and Q26 is connected to the collector of a BipTr Q28, common emitter of a current switch consisting of the BipTrs Q27 and Q28 is connected to a current source I23, and their bases are receiving latch switching signals ECLK and ECLK/.
Next, the operation of the circuit having a through state and a latch state shown in FIG. 8 will be described.
When the latch switching signal ECLK/ is at an active level (a high level) and the ECLK is at an inactive level (a low level), the BipTr Q27 is turned on and the BipTr Q28 is turned off, the current switch consisting of the BipTrs Q25 and Q26 is deactivated, and the current of the current source I23 is supplied to the current switching consisting of the BipTrs Q21 and Q22.
In this case, when data inputs EIN and EIN/ are input, one of the BipTrs Q21 and Q22 for which a high level signal is input as a base input is turned on (is in conductive state), the other for which a low level signal is input as the base input is turned off (is in non-conductive state). Potential drop due one of load resistors R21 and R22 connected to the BipTr in on-state is increased causing its collector potential to go to the low level, and potential drop of the resistor connected to the BipTr in the off-state is decreased (or not decreased) bringing its collector potential to the high level. In this way, a potential difference is generated in the collector potentials of the BipTrs Q21 and Q22, which is received by the emitter follower of the BipTrs Q23 and Q24 and is output as a potential difference of the outputs EOUT and EOUT/.
This condition is the through state of the latch circuit so that it operates in a manner similar to a general ECL logic buffer.
In the latch state, the latch switching signal ECLK/ goes to the low level and the ECLK goes to the high level, the current switch consisting of the BipTrs Q25 and Q26 is activated and the current switch consisting of the BipTrs Q21 and Q22 is deactivated.
The collector of the BipTr Q25 which inputs by feedback the output signal EOUT to the base, out of the BipTrs Q25 and Q26 constituting a current switch, is connected to the collector of the BipTr Q21 and its signal is input to the base of the BipTr Q23 constituting an emitter follower circuit which outputs the output signal EOUT/ from the emitter. The collector of the BipTr Q26 which inputs by feedback the output signal EOUT to the base is connected to the collector of the BipTr Q22 and its signal is input to the base of the BipTr Q24 constituting an emitter follower circuit which outputs the output signal EOUT from the emitter. Because of this, the BipTr Q25 or Q26 whose collector is connected to the collector of the BipTr Q21 or Q22 whose collector is on the low level side, is turned on so that it goes to the latched state and is capable of holding the data (for example, when the collector potential of the BipTr Q21 is at the low level, the BipTr Q25 is turned on, and its collector potential is held at the low level).
This kind of circuit configuration has been described in, for example, "Digest of Technical Papers, pp. 38-39, ISSCC, 1989".
One of the factors which determine the operating speed of a latch circuit using the conventional ECL current switch described in the above is the response speed of the common collector terminal. If this terminal fails to operate at high speed, it will become meaningless even if the driving capacity of the subsequent emitter follower is enhanced (not possible to achieve a high speed operation). However, the capacity of this terminal is increased because of its being connected to a current switch for latching, which becomes a factor for obstructing a high speed operation.
Moreover, there is still another problem that in example of circuit where many BipTr are used the area occupied by the latch circuit as a whole becomes large because of the large area of a single element of the BipTr.
When considering a recent trend in which synchronous circuits where register circuit employing two latch circuits are controlled by clocks used for input and output, multibit configurations in which the number of data input and output is increased, and the like are introduced, the above fact is becoming an important element of problems for determining the chip area.

Latch circuit for receiving small amplitude signals


A portable Chlorophyll Fluorescence Imaging Time (CFIT) system for use in determining plant health. The system includes an enclosure for placement around a plant to be imaged in-situ. There is a controlled light source that controllably provides to the plant light of a desired wavelength range, to controllably irradiate the plant within the enclosure. The chlorophyll fluorescence emitted from the plant both spatially and temporally is captured, and the captured fluorescence information is analyzed to provide plant health information.

Plant health and growth is affected by the chlorophyll pigments and their relationship to photosynthesis in plants. Plants are green because the chlorophyll pigments reflect visible green light and absorb blue and red light from the visible light spectrum. The photon absorbed energy is passed on to two photosynthetic reaction centers, Photosystem II (PSII) and Photosystem I (PSI). The photon absorbed energy in PSII has three competing uses; (1) the increase of photon energy extracts hydrogen electrons from water releasing oxygen to the atmosphere. The electron transport is used to increase photochemistry in the form of photosynthetic chemicals ATP and NADPH which react with absorbed carbon dioxide to produce carbohydrate for the growth and yield of plants; (2) some of the absorbed energy is also emitted in the form of heat and is not part of the photosynthetic process and (3) a low amount of absorbed photon energy is emitted in the form of chlorophyll fluorescence in the red spectral region. These competing uses result in the following. If photochemistry and/or non-photosynthetic heat are active for absorbed energy, fluorescence will be low. If they are inactive, then fluorescence will be high. This simplified description of photosynthesis and the inverse relationship of fluorescence to photosynthetic efficiency has had considerable detailed study in the past. Researchers have sought to detect plant stress responses by measuring the emitted fluorescence and the photosynthesis relationship with the use of various instruments for applications in biology, agriculture and ecology.
The important universal parameter that relates photosynthetic efficiency and health in plants is the yield and lifetime of chlorophyll pigments which absorb light energy in certain visible spectral bands and, as chlorophyll fluorescence, emit part of this energy at longer wavelengths in the far-red and near-infrared spectral regions. Chlorophyll fluorescence will increase if the chlorophyll-absorbed energy exceeds the plant's immediate photosynthetic activity or efficiency. In general, the magnitude of fluorescence emission is inversely proportional to the photosynthetic efficiency of the plant. The fluorescence emission is also an indicator that is directly proportional to the concentration of chlorophyll (yield) in the plant leaf.
Monitoring plant fluorescence emissions provides the opportunity to monitor plant health. A low emission is normal in healthy plants. Abnormal increased fluorescence emissions are caused by external plant stress stimuli that decrease photosynthetic activity or efficiency or damage photosynthesis pathways. If the stress condition is removed, and no photosynthetic damage has resulted, the plant will acclimate to an Early Stress stage and even recover from an Advance Stress stage. If the stress condition continues unabated, the deterioration of photosynthesis will continue and extend to a Critical Stress stage, with the first visible indication (color change or wilt) of photosynthetic pathway damage and a non-recoverable plant stress condition. This disrupts the photosynthesis process where the yield and quanta of chlorophyll molecules decreases, exacerbating the condition to the Lethal stage with extreme visible symptoms) and causes plant death.
Plant stress pressures may be caused by pathogens including worms or viral, bacterial and fungal disease, or from environmental causes including temperature, water drought, chemicals or industrial effluents. Other stressors may be due to plant metabolism and physiological changes due to under-fertilization or over-fertilization. The fate of chlorophyll, i.e. its yield and lifetime, must be taken into account when monitoring plant health and the physiological response to plant stress conditions.
A low-cost measure of early plant stress remains the key objective of laboratory research or ground-based systems for commercial grower application. In most cases, a measurement of chlorophyll is the basis on which a determination of stress is made. Simple metering devices may use solar reflectance or active light to measure chlorophyll fluorescence at a sensitive spectral wavelength and compare it to the fluorescence at a second wavelength outside the region of sensitivity. However, these metering methods do not account for fluorescence changes due to the natural variable distribution of chlorophyll fluorescence (located interveinal) or that caused by the plant stress condition. The plant stress condition will vary, so that the fluorescence emission is not uniformly distributed on plants or plant leaves. Fluorescence usually begins at the outer rim of a leaf and on the upper leaves where more photosynthetic activity is located. A limitation of present metering instruments is the inability to spatially locate the varied distributed emission for accurate measurement.
Airborne and satellite remote sensing of vegetation first used passive solar reflectance to measure chlorophyll changes. When plants are measured with a suitable radiometer, the blue reflectance (450–480 nm) and red reflectance (620–700 nm) will be slight, the green reflectance (500–550 nm) will increase and the near infrared reflectance will be greater. The changes are due to the absorption of light by the chlorophyll pigments. Any physiological stress, disease, nutrient or reduced amount of photosynthetic pigments causes an increase in the blue and red reflectance and a substantial decrease in the near infrared reflectance. Data obtained from various spectral ranges and developed as ratios such as NIR/R and NIR−R/NIR+R have been used as vegetation indices to assess plants from airborne or satellite remote sensing platforms. Changes in these ratios can be a relative estimate of stress when data from different areas of the field are compared, even if the specific cause for the stress cannot be identified.
An important limitation of solar passive reflectance is the variation in solar radiation in one location due to atmospheric conditions and/or sun angle and/or that caused by plant orientation. The plant's diurnal changes due to transpiration in the morning are a cause of additional water stress. High humidity, and the presence of dew on leaves, also influence the spectral reflectance. The spectral signature is also influenced by the amount of pigments, leaf angle, leaf texture, the physiological factors of stress, and the plant growth stage. These limitations account for the number of different vegetation indices and relate to the difficulty in correlating a spectral ratio number to the broad range of plant vegetation response.
The remote sensing of vegetation exhibits sharp reflectance changes in the 690–740 nm range. This phenomenon has encouraged the use of narrow-band, multi-spectral radiometry to isolate the two signatures for plant stress response. The analysis of red reflectance, (690 nm), and the ratio of red to NIR reflectance, (690/740), has been shown to be responsive to the status of chlorophyll in the vegetation canopy and in individual plants.
To improve the chlorophyll measurements and remove the limitations of reflectance measurements, ground-based systems have sought the use of active light sources. Active chlorophyll fluorescence measurements use actinic (photosynthetic active) light sources to induce the kinetics of electron transport and to measure chlorophyll fluorescence. Filtered light sources of low wavelength pass-band in the near UV or visible range discriminate the low-level, fluorescence signals from out-of-band noise, and with Fabry-Perot interference filters, detect and improve the resolution for specific chlorophyll fluorescence signatures, usually in the NIR. Laser Induced Fluorescence (LIF) methods use laser light as the light source in a number of science studies. McMurtrey and Chappelle describe LIF using laser light in the NUV (355 nm) to irradiate plants and detect fluorescence signatures at blue, 440 nm; green, 520 nm; red, 690 nm and far-red, 740 nm. The ratios of 690/740, 690/520 and 690/440 are used to determine plant stress in the field (in-situ). Laser Induced Fluorescence Imaging (LIFI) studies by DOE use a laser light source with a line-scan imager to detect chlorophyll fluorescence imaging for sensing with airborne helicopter at night for the detection and measure of induced plant stress (arsenic). Lichtenthaler et al use LIFI to measure the same ratios of non-chlorophyll and chlorophyll fluorescence values at 440/690 or 440/740 to determine plant stress. LIFI methods, with high frequency, high energy NUV lasers, remain a deterrent for commercial application to consumers and non-scientific users.
The measure of low-level chlorophyll fluorescence in the field is difficult in daylight unless the plants or leaf parts are shrouded from ambient light scatter. To overcome this limitation, researchers have sought means to provide a better measure of fluorescence in the field. McFarlane et al described a Fraunhofer line discriminator using 656 nm to measure chlorophyll fluorescence in wet vs. dry water stress in trees. Fraunhofer lines are observed as dark spectral lines of solar light indicating their opacity due to the absorbance by gases in the sun's or earth's atmosphere. The line at 656 nm is due to hydrogen absorption in the solar atmosphere. The Fraunhofer A, B lines at 686 nm and 759 nm are due to the absorption by oxygen in the earth's atmosphere and overlap the spectral bandwidth for the emission of chlorophyll fluorescence. When recording measurements from the vegetative canopy with a spectral detector such as a photo-multiplier, the difference signal at the Fraunhofer center wavelength compared to the adjoining spectral band is chlorophyll fluorescence without any additional out-of-band noise-signal from light scatter. However, fluorescence can reflect and light scatter onto an adjacent plant leaf. To assure that the fluorescence measurements of a single plant leaf are correct, a caveat requires that the plant being measured must be isolated and not affected by the fluorescence/reflectance emission of adjacent plants or leaves.
Kebabian in U.S. Pat. No. 5,567,947 cites the use of Fraunhofer wavelengths at 690 nm and 760 nm to measure chlorophyll fluorescence emissions from vegetative canopy. The Fraunhofer lines, due to the absorption by oxygen in the earth's atmosphere, will eliminate noise from out-of-band light scatter in these bands, leaving only chlorophyll fluorescence and the in-band emissions from the canopy. The method focuses light from the vegetation canopy with a lens and narrow-band filters as input to a quartz tube of oxygen in a spherical cavity, and measures a delayed, secondary emission of oxygen fluorescence at 760 nm that is proportional to the fluorescence/reflected light levels from the vegetative canopy.
In the above references, a simple ratio of reflectance or chlorophyll fluorescence tested in two spectral bands is used to detect the plant stress response. However, single number ratios provide no additional information related to the temporal-related values of fluorescence emission to diagnose the plant stress damage stage.
Lussier in U.S. Pat. No. 5,130,545, describes a Video Plant Management System, using active Chlorophyll Fluorescence Imaging from absorbed light, 400 to 600 nm, with NIR video to image and record the time-dependent chlorophyll fluorescence signatures to detect plant stress. The system uses dark-adapted plants and shutters light to induce transient fluorescence emission (the Kautsky Effect and chlorophyll fluorescence quenching) that is directly attributed to photosynthetic electron transport and energy transfer in the plant's chloroplast cells. The method uses video data (frames per second) to record visually and temporally the time dependent fluorescence emitted to determine the plant's physiological response to disease and plant stress. The method uses a delayed timing to image and measure the chlorophyll fluorescence intensity across a leaf with a line scan, and records the temporal changes of the line scan according to the video rate.

Bio-imaging and information system for scanning, detecting, diagnosing and optimizing plant health


A liquid crystal display composed of an array substrate; a color filter substrate; a liquid crystal material interposed therebetween; a plurality of parallely spaced gate bus lines; a plurality of parallely spaced source bus lines; a plurality of pixel electrodes; a plurality of colored layers; and a light shield portion; wherein at a central portion of the first pixel pattern, gravity center of first pixel portion provided at the central portion of the first pixel pattern corresponds to gravity center of second pixel portion provided at a central portion of the second pixel pattern; and wherein at an end portion of the first pixel pattern, with respect to each viewing angle to each pixel, each second distance between any two adjacent gravity centers of pixels provided in the second pixel pattern is reduced to be shorter by prescribed length than each corresponding first distance between any two adjacent gravity centers of pixels corresponding to gravity centers of pixels provided in the first pixel pattern, in whole display area, so that the light shield portion on the color filter substrate shields leakage of light from the array substrate.

The present invention relates to LCD (liquid crystal display) to be used as a displaying apparatus for images and textual information for OA (office automation) appliance and the like, and more particularly to a configuration of LCD of a high quality of active matrix system for constraining the (displaying quality) reduction caused due to leakage of light in the pixels of an array substrate and for increasing aperture ratio.
The displaying quality means uniformity of luminance distribution in display area. If amount of leakage of light varies sharply between two places in the display area, displaying quality is degraded. Usually, the display area is divided to form a plurality of sub areas.
Accordingly, if leakage of light varies in each sub area, luminance difference between the sub areas causes a visible line so that displaying quality degrades.
FIG. 8 is an observing view of LCD of the active matrix system when the conventional size of display area is small. FIG. 9 is a sectional view of the pixel portion.
In FIG. 8, reference numeral 100 is an LCD, reference numeral 101 is a view-point of observer, and reference numeral 102 is a viewing angle .theta..
In FIG. 9, reference numeral 10 is a first glass substrate which is a base member for an array substrate, reference numeral 11 is a source bus line formed on the surface of first glass substrate 10, reference numeral 14 is a pixel electrode which is a transparent conductive film such as ITO (indium tin oxide) or the like formed on the surface of first glass substrate 10, and reference numeral 16 is a polyimide thin film serving as an alignment layer.
An array substrate 70 is composed of first glass substrate 10, source bus line 11, gate bus line 12 (not shown) and pixel electrode 14.
Reference numeral 20 is a second glass substrate serving as a base member of a color filter substrate arranged opposite to array substrate 70, reference numeral 21 is a black matrix which is a light shield portion formed by patterning, a metal film of Cr or the like on the surface of second glass substrate 20 in lattice shape using photo-lithography, reference numeral 22 is a common electrode, reference numeral 23 is a colored layer of red, blue or green formed on the surface of second glass substrate 20, reference numeral 24 is an alignment layer which is a polyimide thin film, reference numeral 30 is a liquid crystal layer, and reference numeral 25 is a liquid crystal molecule of liquid crystal layer 30.
A color filter substrate 80 is composed of second glass substrate 20, black matrix 21, and colored layer 23.
Reference numeral 90 is a polarizer arranged on the surface of each of array substrate 70 and color filter substrate 80.
Reference numeral 40 is a clearance between pixel electrode 14 and source bus line 11, reference numeral 60 is leakage of light, showing an area where the leakage of light of the illuminating light is recognized from clearance 40 in a viewing angle when observed from view-point 101.
Leakage of light 60 of illuminating light from clearance 41 between gate bus line 12 and pixel electrode 14 not shown exists.
As shown in FIG. 9, in LCD of this type of active matrix system, a liquid crystal layer 30 is interposed through alignment layers 16 and 24 between an array substrate 70 and a color filter substrate 80 positioned on the side of view-point 101 of an observer.
A plurality of parallely spaced source bus lines 11 and a plurality of parallely spaced gate bus lines (not shown) extending in the direction perpendicular to the direction of gate bus lines are provided in lattice shape on the array substrate 70. Each area partitioned by adjacent two source bus lines and adjacent two gate bus lines is pixel portion. One pixel electrode 14 and one switching element such as TFT (thin film transistor) are provided to each pixel portion. Colored layer 23 is provided on color filter substrate 80.
Colored layer 23 is partitioned by approximately the equal distance by black matrix (BM) 21 serving as light shield portion arranged in lattice shape, to become a pixel portion.
The illuminating light exists as a back light under the array substrate 70. BM 21 serving as a light shield portion of color filter substrate 80, when pixel of LCD 100 is seen from view-point 101 of observer, is required to prevent leakage of light 60 from the clearances 40 or 41 between source bus line 11 of array substrate 70 or gate bus line 12 and pixel electrode 14 in all of the pixels.
FIG. 10 is an observation view of LCD of active matrix system when a size of display area has become larger than that shown in FIG. 8 and FIG. 9. FIG. 11 is a sectional view of its pixel portion.
A viewing angle .theta. becomes larger, in the case of the observing the right and left ends or the upper and lower ends of the display area of LCD 100, as size of the display area is enlarged (see FIG. 10 and FIG. 11).
As shown in the sectional view of a pixel portion of FIG. 11, in each area of the right and left end portions (or upper and lower end portions) of the display area where viewing angle .theta. becomes larger, the width of BM 21 serving as a light shield portion of color filter substrate 80 has to be increased to shield leakage of light 60, thereby lowering aperture ratio of the pixel portion due to increase in width of BM 21.
In addition, leakage of light is caused by positional displacement in the formation of the pixel pattern of array substrate 70. The displacement is caused by mismatching the position of source bus lines and gate bus lines with respect to the standard position determined by a mark for aligning (alignment mark) which is used at the time when array substrate is exposed.
The pixel pattern (first pixel pattern) formed on array substrate 70 is conducted in a patterning step by a lens projection system. This is a system in which a light exposure is conducted by using lens, exchanging a plurality of reticles (small-sized masks).
The light exposure is conducted for each step by moving a stage for fixing the substrate.
The method is effective for use where a light exposing operation is repeated with the use of reticle of the same design for one array substrate 70, because step by step light exposure can be performed.
However, when substrates are exposed by such stepper system in order to produce LCD having a large-sized display area, it is necessary to form a pixel pattern on array substrate 70 by dividing the large-sized display area into a plurality of exposure area and by exposing the plurality of areas. At this time, if the mask pattern is displaced from a prescribed position, the pixel pattern on the array substrate 70 is also displaced from a prescribed designed position. The displacement of the mask pattern is caused by warp of a large-sized glass substrate for array substrate or color filter substrate, or by misalignment of a mask with respect of the standard position, the mask being used when exposing.
On color filter substrate 80, BM 21 is formed by light exposure of one time for entire surface, namely, the pixel patterns (second pixel pattern) are formed at the same time, thereby making the interval of pixel portions constant in the entire area of the display area.
When array substrate 70 and color filter substrate 80 are superposed oppositely, the positional relation between the pixel of array substrate 70 and the pixel of color filter substrate 80 become different for each exposure area, thereby causing luminance difference for each exposure area.
The luminance difference is caused by displacement of pixel pattern when disposing. The displacement causes variations of aperture ratio in each exposure area. Accordingly, the variations of aperture ratio result in the luminance difference.
When LCD is observed obliquely for luminance difference, the difference is considerably observed.
FIG. 12 shows a sectional view of a pixel portion of exposure area formed as designed in the pixel pattern on the side of array substrate 70.
In this case, in observation from the oblique direction as shown, leakage of light 60 from clearance 40 between source bus line 11 on the side of array substrate 70, and pixel electrode 14 is shielded by BM 21 formed on the side of color filter substrate 80.
FIG. 13 is a sectional view of a pixel portion in exposure area formed due to displacement in the left direction of the pixel pattern on the side of array substrate 70.
In this case, in observation from the left oblique direction as shown, leakage of light 60 from clearance 40 between the source bus line 11 on the side of array substrate 70, and pixel electrode 14 can not be shielded by BM 21 on the side of color filter substrate 80. Thus, luminance difference is caused with respect to exposure area formed without displacement to the pixel pattern of color filter substrate 80.
Although adverse effects caused due to leakage of light 60 from clearance 40 between source bus line 11 and pixel electrode 14 are described, the similar problems are caused even from leakage of light 60 from clearance 41 (not shown) between gate bus line 12 (not shown) on the side of array substrate 70, and pixel electrode 14.
To prevent difference in the luminance caused due to displacement in positional relation between the pixel pattern of color filter substrate 80 for each exposure area caused in this manner and the pixel pattern of array substrate 70, the width of BM 21 to be formed on color filter substrate 80 is required to be sufficiently enlarged.
That is, in the left, right and upper, lower ends of the display area, viewing angle becomes largest.
Therefore, the width of BM 21 in the left, right and upper, lower ends of the display area is required to be largest. Conventionally, the required largest width of BM 21 is applied to all BMs in the display area.
As described above, in the conventional LCD, leakage of light from clearance between the source bus line of the array substrate or the gate bus line, and the pixel electrode, even when the central portion of the display area smaller in the viewing angle from the given view-point position (normally the central portion front face of the display area) and even when the right, left or the upper, lower end portions of the display area when the viewing angle becomes larger, is seen. To prevent the leakage of light and difference in the luminance for each exposure area from being caused, it is required to cover and hide with BM having width sufficiently large on the color filter substrate side.
Therefore, when the pixel of the color filter substrate in the entire area of the display area is formed repeatedly in the same pixel construction, the width of the BM serving as the light shield portion is necessary to be larger than the width necessary in the pixel of the exposure area of the display area central portion, thereby causing such a defect as to lower aperture ratio of the pixel.
Accordingly, an object of this invention is to solve the problems of the conventional LCD and to provide LCD which can obtain higher aperture ratio even in a large-sized LCD where the viewing angle becomes larger, and can obtain higher quality of displaying quality constrained in adverse effects caused through the leakage of light.


A device (e.g., a vending machine) and method for preparing a consumable beverage include mixing an agglomerated natural milk powder having a scorched particle mass not greater than fifteen milligrams with hot water to produce the consumable beverage. The hot water and milk powder may be mixed prior to or during their placement of the beverage in a beverage cup, such as part of operation of a vending machine. Alternatively, the hot water and milk powder may be mixed with one or more additional ingredients, such as coffee, tea, cocoa powder, and/or sugar, to produce the beverage. Further, the hot water and milk powder may be whipped together or with an additional ingredient to produce a foaming beverage, such as cappuccino.

The concept of using liquid milk in coffee and tea has been prevalent for over a hundred years.
The use of milk substitutes in powder form for coffee originated about 40 years ago. These milk substitutes made as "coffee-whiteners" were formulated with corn syrup solids, hydrogenated oils (for fat), artificial coloring and preservatives. However, ironically nobody has applied the direct use of dry milk powder in coffee or tea.
There are several reasons for this:                1. Most milk powders are processed and dried through single stage spray dryers; with applications being limited to reconstituting; baking, use in confectionary and being used as additive to soup mixes, etc. A powder that is dried in a single stage spray dryer has limited solubility and tends to clump up if used in a vending machine or if it was directly used in a hot beverage.        2. The knowledge and use of the "Agglomeration Technology" that now enables the product to be more soluble has also been limited. Agglomeration of milk or other dry powder ingredients enables the products to be more soluble and more easily dispensable and free flowing. Most milk agglomerated to date has been used for drinking purposes, with occasional use as a source for making other beverage products, such as protein shakes, etc.        3. The agglomeration process is also expensive and the equipment investment is substantial. This high costs has reduced the availability of the process and therefore has limited new innovation and applications of this technology.
Dry Milk Powder, agglomerated or otherwise as presently available in Bulk or consumer packaging is used primarily for reconstitution, baking, mixing or confectionary needs. No application has been developed or used for purposes of using the milk powder 100% directly in vending machines for beverage purposes.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method for preparing consumable vending machine beverage


A method and system are provided for distinguishing objects. Signals representative of the objects are input. From the signals, measurements of multiple types are acquired. At least one of the measurement types is continuously variable. In response to the measurements, respective amounts of mutual information of the measurement types are determined. In response to the respective amounts of mutual information, at least one measurement type is selected for evaluation in distinguishing the objects.

Various types of signals are processed. In voice signals, amplitude values are typically a function of time. In image signals, pixel intensity values are typically a function of (x,y) coordinates in an image. Such signals can be processed to distinguish one or more objects represented in the signals. For example, amplitude values in voice signals can be processed to distinguish objects such as spoken words represented in the voice signals. Similarly, pixel intensity values in image signals can be processed to distinguish one or more target objects represented in the image.
Such objects can be distinguished by processing the signals to acquire various types of measurements. The acquired measurements are evaluated relative to known measurements ("features") of objects in order to distinguish an object as being either represented or not represented in the signals. In evaluating acquired measurements, efficiency is desirably increased by selecting the acquired measurements for evaluation in an optimal order, so that uncertainty regarding the object's representation is eliminated in a short amount of processing time.
According to many previous techniques, a human developer manually selects measurements for evaluation, relying upon the human developer's subjective intuition concerning the manner in which acquired measurements relate to the goal of distinguishing objects. Nevertheless, such introspective techniques might have poor effectiveness if acquired measurements are difficult to relate to the goal of distinguishing the object. For example, it is difficult to intuitively relate the raw signal output from a naval inverse synthetic aperture radar ("ISAR") to target objects for recognition.
In some previous techniques, predefined types of measurements are always evaluated. A shortcoming of such techniques is that they fail to adapt to a recognition domain by selecting measurements for evaluation according to each measurement's usefulness. A recognition domain includes the signal acquisition device, signal environment, available measurement types, and objects to be distinguished. Essentially, such previous techniques have relatively poor efficiency and poor robustness, because they evaluate measurements according to a preconceived recognition strategy rather than by adapting to the recognition domain. Moreover, such previous techniques are frequently ineffective at distinguishing among a large number of different objects.
Certain previous techniques use a binary decision tree having one or more nodes each specifying an associated measurement for evaluation. Each node has only two branches separated by a single associated threshold value. As the binary decision tree is traversed, one of a node's two branches is specified in response to an evaluated measurement either satisfying or failing to satisfy the single threshold value. Often, it is desirable to represent more than two values for a measurement. In this case, the binary decision tree uses more than one node to represent the measurement's value. For example, a measurement for which it is desirable to represent three values would require two binary nodes.
By requiring more than one node to represent such a measurement's value, binary decision trees inefficiently occupy additional system memory, and additional processing time is consumed in traversing the binary decision tree. Accordingly, binary decision trees fail to select a suitable number of branches by adapting to a recognition domain. Likewise, binary decision trees fail to select suitable threshold values associated with the suitably selected number of branches by adapting to the recognition domain.
In response to available measurements, it might be impractical to distinguish objects in an absolutely reliable manner. In such cases, some previous techniques fail to provide a sufficiently accurate estimate of their reliability in distinguishing objects in response to available measurements.
Also, some previous techniques fail to provide a sufficiently accurate estimate of a measurement's probability of having a value within a specified range.
Thus, a need has arisen for a method and system for distinguishing among a large number of different objects in an efficient and robust manner. A need has also arisen for a method and system for distinguishing objects in a short amount of processing time. A further need has arisen for a method and system for distinguishing objects, in which system memory is efficiently occupied. Moreover, a need has arisen for a method and system for distinguishing objects by adapting to a recognition domain. Another need has arisen for a method and system for distinguishing objects, in which a sufficiently accurate estimate is provided of reliability in distinguishing objects in response to available measurements.
Also, a need has arisen for a method and system for distinguishing objects, in which measurements are objectively selected for evaluation in an optimal order. Further, a need has arisen for a method and system for distinguishing objects, in which measurements are selected for evaluation according to each measurement's usefulness by adapting to a recognition domain. An even further need has arisen for a method and system for distinguishing objects, in which measurements are effectively selected for evaluation even if introspection is difficult.
Additionally, a need has arisen for a method and system for distinguishing objects, in which more than two possible measurement values are represented in an efficient manner. Yet a further need has arisen for a method and system for distinguishing objects, in which a suitable number of branches is selected for a node of a decision tree, and in which one or more suitable threshold values associated with the suitably selected number of branches are selected by adapting to a recognition domain.
Finally, a need has arisen for a method and system for providing a sufficiently accurate estimate of a measurement's probability of having a value within a specified range.

System and method for distinguishing objects


For a BEF type dielectric filter, a plurality of one-stage band-elimination filters (BEFs) each composed of two resonant lines inter-digitally pair-coupled to each other, are provided within one dielectric block and phase-shifting-coupled to each other at an electrical angle of .pi./2 in an inter-digital or comb-line manner. In addition, an input or output resonant line is provided which is phase-shifting-coupled to an input or output resonant line of the BEF type dielectric filter at an electrical angle of .pi./2 in an inter-digital or comb-line manner.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dielectric filter, more particularly to a BEF type dielectric filter which is applicable, but not exclusively, to mobile communication apparatus and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 7 illustrates a structure of a conventional one-stage band-elimination filter (which will be referred hereinafter to as a one-stage BEF), which includes two inter-digitally-coupled resonant lines. In FIG. 7, to form the one-stage BEF, .lambda./4 resonant lines 11a, 11b are inter-digitally coupled such that their open ends and short-circuit ends are arranged to be opposite in direction to each other in a dielectric block 20. Further, FIG. 8 shows its circuit arrangement, FIG. 9 illustrates an equivalent circuit, and FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view, taken along line X--X of FIG. 7, showing how the equivalent circuit is formed.
In FIG. 10, unit length self-capacitances C11 are formed between the resonant line 11a and an external conductor and between the resonant line 11b and the external conductor, respectively. In addition, an inter-line mutual capacitance C12 is defined between the resonant lines 11a and 11b. In FIGS. 8 to 10, the references are as follows:
Zin=input impedance PA1 Ze (characteristic impedance in even mode)=.sqroot.(.epsilon.)/(vc.times.C.sub.11) PA1 where er: dielectric constant
vc: velocity of light PA2 C.sub.11 : unit length self-capacitance (see FIG. 10) ##EQU1## where Zo (characteristic impedance in odd mode) ##EQU2##
In the FIG. 9 equivalent circuit, between the input (or output) and ground, the even mode characteristic impedance Ze is connected in parallel to the series circuit made up of the coupling characteristic impedance Zk and even mode characteristic impedance Ze.
Furthermore, FIG. 11 shows an input impedance characteristic of the one-stage BEF, and FIG. 12 illustrates an attenuation characteristic. In FIG. 12, the trap frequency fT is expressed in accordance with the following equation. EQU f.sub.T =vc/4.sqroot.(.epsilon.).times.L
As seen in FIGS. 11 and 12, the impedance becomes zero at the trap frequency fT. This is because the reflective phase creates a short.
However, it is not possible to make an antenna coupler using a one-stage BEF having such a characteristic in a transmission or reception side. That is, as seen in FIG. 11, when viewed from the transmission side filter, for example, the impedance of the reception side filter becomes zero at the passband of the transmission side filter, so the signal does not flow to the antenna. The same problem may exist when the impedance of the transmission side filter becomes zero at the passband of the reception side filter.
For an antenna coupler by use of the one-stage BEF, as illustrated in FIG. 13, a phase-shifting line has conventionally been needed on either the transmission side TX or reception side RX. This increases the number of parts and, thereby, raises the cost of the antenna coupler.


A connector for eight memory cards, including an insulating body covered by a casing. A first receiving space for receiving memory cards is formed between the casing and the top surface of the insulating body. A second receiving space and a third receiving space for receiving memory cards are provided in the insulating body and below the first receiving space. A first inserting port is provided at a side of the first receiving space coupled to a front end of the insulating body. A second inserting port is provided at a side of the second receiving space coupled to the front end of the insulating body. A third inserting port is provided at a side of the third receiving space coupled to the front end of the insulating body.

The era of the flash memory comes since the NOR flash memory was invented in 1988. Since the flash memory has advantages such as high read-write property, long duration and more convenience in use, the flash memory is widely utilized in electronic devices for matching the main circuit of electronic devices with flash memory card which has different standards and serves as information storage medium. Among various flash memory cards, a SD card, a MMC card and a memory rod as three standard products play main role and have the minimized size in micro-type. For the millimeter scale of these three products, the SD card is 15 mm×11 mm×1 mm, the MMC card is 14 mm×12 mm×1.1 mm, the memory rod is 15 mm×12.5 mm×1.2 mm. Although the three products have similar sizes, the number of the contact tabs for micro SD card, the micro MMC card and the micro memory rod respectively are eight, ten, and eleven due to different standards for these three products.
The Chinese patent CN200420007132.9 discloses an improved terminal structure, in which a main body is provided outwards with a slot opening at one end thereof for inserting a memory card, and is provided with terminal ports or terminal seats at the other end thereof for respectively connecting a first terminal of the SMC card, a second terminal of the MS card and a third terminal of the SD card. The body portion of each terminal is provided backwards with a support leg, a tailing end of each support leg is bent to form a welding segment, each support leg of the first terminal, the second terminal and the third terminal is deviated towards one side (the left side or the right side) of the body portion of the respective terminal and bent so that these support legs are not be contacted with each other, and thus the welding segments of the three terminals are aligned with each other.
In the above prior art, although more than two different cards can be applied into one electronic device, it can not be satisfied that much more different cards are compatible to one electronic device.

Connector for eight different memory cards


Sheet metal parts having significantly strained portions, such as aluminum alloy body panels, can be formed by a sequence of steps comprising preform shape stamping, preform annealing and final shape stamping. The shape of the desired part is analyzed to identify portions of the geometry that cannot be formed in a single stamping step without exceeding the straining limit of the metal. A preform shape is determined in which a substantial amount of strain is stamped without tearing and the preform is annealed to re-soften the strained areas and a final stamping step completes development of the final part shape.

Automotive body panels and sheet metal products have been made of suitable steel alloys by stamping processes at ambient temperatures. The edges of a steel sheet blank are gripped by a binder mechanism and a punch pushes and draws the metal against a generally concave forming surface. Often a steel alloy is available that is suitably formable and the metal is stretched into a complex shape such as a body panel without tearing, wrinkling or otherwise marring the sheet. A progressive sequence of stamping and, for example, piercing and trimming operations may be successively performed on a single steel sheet to make a panel with each step being completed in a matter of seconds.
Aluminum sheet alloys would be substituted for steel in many applications to save weight. For example, some Aluminum Association alloys of the 1×××, 3××× and 5××× series have been used in stamping operations. But such aluminum stamping alloys are not as ductile and formable as steel alloys and the aluminum often tears if it is stamped to the same shape. The aluminum alloy work-hardens at stamping strain rates and some portion of the sheet yields and tears. This property of aluminum alloys has limited the product shapes to which they can be formed by high production rate stamping. Complex panel shapes often have to be made in multiple pieces and welded together. This usually results in higher manufacturing cost and may complicate dimensional control of the composite product.
It is an object of this invention to provide a method for using work-hardenable aluminum sheet alloys in relatively high production rate stamping operations to form one-piece products whose shape includes areas of deformation that exceed the strain limits of the starting sheet material.

Method for production of stamped sheet metal panels


A cable operating mechanism is basically provided with a fixed member, a wire takeup member, a wire pulling member and a movement transmission member. The wire takeup member is movably mounted with respect to the fixed member about a first pivot axis to move between a plurality of predetermined wire positions. The wire takeup member includes a wire attachment part. The wire pulling member is movably mounted with respect to the fixed member. The movement transmission member is pivotally mounted with respect to the fixed member about a second pivot axis that is offset from the first pivot axis. The movement transmission member is operatively coupled to the wire pulling member and the wire takeup member such that a movement of the wire pulling member is transmitted to the wire takeup member via the movement transmission member.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to a cable operating mechanism. More specifically, the present invention relates to a cable operating mechanism for a cable operated bicycle shifter that operates a rear derailleur.
2. Background Information
Bicycling is becoming an increasingly more popular form of recreation as well as a means of transportation. Moreover, bicycling has become a very popular competitive sport for both amateurs and professionals. Whether the bicycle is used for recreation, transportation or competition, the bicycle industry is constantly improving the various components of the bicycle.
One part of the bicycle that has been extensively redesigned is the bicycle transmission. Specifically, a bicycle transmission typically includes front and rear shift operating devices designed to operate front and rear derailleurs to move the derailleurs laterally over a plurality of sprockets or gears. The sprockets or gears are usually coupled to the front crank and the rear wheel such that a pedaling force from the rider is transferred to the rear wheel via the chain.
In the case of a rear derailleur, usually, the rear derailleur is configured to be able to shift the chain between many gears as compared with a front derailleur. A typical rear derailleur basically includes a base member, a pair of link members and a movable member with a chain guide. The chain guide is typically pivotally mounted to the movable member. The chain guide typically has a chain cage with a guide pulley and a tension pulley. The link members are pivotally coupled between the base member and the movable member to form a four bar parallelogram linkage. A shift cable is coupled between the base member and one of the link members to move the chain guide laterally with respect to the center plane of the bicycle. Thus, an inner wire of the cable is pulled to move the chain guide in a first lateral direction with respect to the center plane of the bicycle, and released to move the chain guide in a second lateral direction with respect to the center plane of the bicycle.
With this type of rear derailleur, a larger amount of displacement of the inner wire of the shift cable is required for shifting to and from the two end shift positions than for shifting to and from the middle shift positions. Thus, the rider typically must move a shift operating device more for shifting to and from the two end shift positions than for shifting to and from the middle shift positions.
In view of the above, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure that there exists a need for an improved cable operating mechanism. This invention addresses this need in the art as well as other needs, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this disclosure.


A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor element, a lead frame, a conductive member, a resin composition and a sealing resin. The semiconductor element has an element front surface and an element back surface facing away in a first direction. The semiconductor element is mounted on the lead frame. The conductive member is bonded to the lead frame, electrically connecting the semiconductor element and the lead frame. The resin composition covers a bonded region where the conductive member and lead frame are bonded while exposing part of the element front surface. The sealing resin covers part of the lead frame, the semiconductor element, and the resin composition. The resin composition has a greater bonding strength with the lead frame than a bonding strength between the sealing resin and lead frame and a greater bonding strength with the conductive member than a bonding strength between the sealing resin and conductive member.

A conventional semiconductor device is disclosed in Patent Document 1. The semiconductor device disclosed in Patent Document 1 includes a semiconductor element, a lead frame, solder, a wire, and a sealing resin. In the semiconductor device, the semiconductor element may be a diode chip or a MOSFET (Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor). The semiconductor element is mounted on the lead frame, and the lead frame is electrically connected to the semiconductor element with the solder or the wire. The solder and wire serve as conductive members that electrically connect the lead frame and the semiconductor element. That is, solder is interposed between the semiconductor element and the lead frame, electrically connecting these. The wire is bonded to the semiconductor element and the lead frame, electrically connecting these. The sealing resin covers part of the lead frame, the semiconductor element, the solder, and the wire.

Semiconductor device and method for manufacturing semiconductor device


The present invention relates to a control method of a D/A converter, a D/A converter, a control method of an A/D converter, and an A/D converter that can suppress an existing n-th harmonic without using a large-scale circuit, such as a bootstrap. A D/A converter (10) of the present invention is a D/A converter (10) that can suppress the generation of an existing n-th harmonic (n is an integer of 2 or more) of an analog output signal. The D/A converter (10) includes a D/A conversion unit (11) that converts an input digital signal into an analog signal and a control unit (12) that arbitrarily controls the timing of the sampling phase and the integral phase of the D/A conversion unit (11). The D/A conversion unit (11) is configured to generate an arbitrary n-th harmonic and superimpose the arbitrary n-th harmonic on an analog output signal including the existing n-th harmonic.

In general, in a digital-to-analog converter (D/A converter) used in the audio field, a request relevant to distortion is strong, and a slight conversion error of an analog output signal causes the degradation of characteristics.
In this kind of digital-to-analog converter, a capacitive element is charged according to the signal level of the digital input signal, and an operational amplifier outputs an analog output signal according to the charging voltage of the capacitive element. In order to realize low distortion in the digital-to-analog converter having such a configuration, for example, PTL 1 discloses a digital-to-analog converter configured such that a connection point between an input terminal of a digital input signal and a capacitive element is connected to an output terminal of an operational amplifier at the time of connection between the capacitive element and the operational amplifier.
In a current situation where a low-distortion request for the D/A converter becomes increasingly stronger, as an example of the general technique for realizing low distortion of the D/A converter, a method of suppressing the distortion (n-th harmonic) generated due to non-linearity of the on-resistance value of a MOS switch by providing a bootstrap in a control unit of the MOS switch can be mentioned.
For example, PTL 2 relates to a low-distortion sample and hold circuit in an electronic circuit. PTL 2 discloses that a switch including a current path coupled between an input node VIN and an output node VOUT is included, and a capacitor is coupled to the output node VOUT, and a current path coupled between the input node VIN and a supply voltage node VDD is included in a replicated device, for example, a bootstrap circuit including a bootstrap capacitor is coupled between a control terminal of a first switch and a control terminal of the replicated device.

Control method of D/A converter, D/A converter, control method of A/D converter, and A/D converter


Provided is a carrier for a flexible substrate which is capable of handling a flexible substrate during a flexible substrate processing process, while allowing the flexible substrate to be easily separated. Also provided is a substrate processing apparatus, including the carrier, and a method of manufacturing a flexible display apparatus. The carrier includes a substrate supporting portion having a top surface including a mounting surface, an outer circumferential surface, surrounding the mounting surface, and a first heat cutting portion. The first heat cutting portion is located outside the mounting surface so as to be exposed on the top surface and generates heat when a current flows through the first heat cutting portion.

1. Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a carrier for a flexible substrate, which is capable of easily handling a flexible substrate during a flexible substrate processing process while enabling the flexible substrate to be easily separated, a substrate processing apparatus including the carrier, and a method of manufacturing a flexible display apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to recent interest in flexible displays, research regarding flexible displays is being actively conducted. In order to realize flexible displays, a flexible substrate formed of resin is used, instead of a conventional glass substrate. When a flexible display apparatus, such as an organic light emitting display apparatus, is to be manufactured, a thin film transistor (TFT) and/or an organic light emitting device are formed on a flexible substrate.

Carrier for flexible substrate, substrate processing apparatus including the carrier, and method of manufacturing flexible display apparatus


A propulsion system for miniature vehicles, such as model airplanes, having multiple direct-current motors arranged about a central axis of the propulsion system in a radial, opposed, in-line, or V-12 configuration. The motors drive a propeller system.

The popularity of the radio-control hobby, as it applies to miniature or model aircraft, cars, boats and miniature military vehicles, has seen dramatic growth in recent years. Advancements in electric power technology, such as the increase in power-to-weight ratio of electric motors and batteries, have encouraged interest in the hobby for all age groups.
Today's radio-controlled models are less expensive and can be purchased ready or almost ready-to-fly or launch. Aircraft models are typically made of molded foam in attractive colors with motors and control equipment pre-installed.
An important factor in the use of electric propulsion is the extreme quietness of the units. Noise pollution is almost non-existent so electric models, particularly aircraft, can be flown at almost any park, school ground or ball field.
Most recently the challenges of electric flight have diminished to the point that it has become a common form of propulsion for all types of miniature aircraft.
All electric, radio-controlled models are believed to utilize a single motor or multiple single motor configurations.
It is the intent of this invention to provide a propulsion system that can be used on model airplanes.
It is a further intent of this invention to provide a propulsion system that allows a scale-like, electric motor to power models of World War I and II vintage aircraft. There are many examples of these aircraft such as English Sopwith Camels, German Fokker Tri-planes and a vast selection of United States bi-plane trainers, fighter planes and civilian aircraft. All of the above examples sold to the public at this time use single motor configurations.
It is the intent of this invention to offer an electric propulsion system that is powerful and offers the additional advantage of scale-like appearance and sound.
It is a further intent of this invention to provide a multiple-cylinder, electric motor propulsion system, in a radial, opposed, in-line (i.e., vertical), or V-12 configuration, to power miniature model planes at a scale-like speed that is safe, quiet, durable and economical to operate and that enhances the appearance of any scale-type model by more closely duplicating in appearance the original, full-scale type of engine.