The present invention concerns a method for contact metallization on a semiconductor where a contact hole is formed in an interlevel dielectric layer down to a doped silicon region on the silicon substrate, and then the wafer is placed into a sputtering chamber where titanium is sputtered onto the wafer. A titanium nitride layer is sputtered on top of the titanium layer in the contact hole. This invention saves time and money, because the titanium nitride layer depositing and titanium layer forming steps can occur in the same chamber without forming the boro-phosphorous silicate glass layer in between. The titanium layer reacts with the silicon to form a silicide layer at the time of the sputtering in a hot deposition or in later steps that supply heat to the wafer for a period of time. Optionally, an additional titanium layer can be formed on top of the titanium nitride layer to clean off the titanium target used to sputter the titanium and titanium nitride layers on the wafer. A metal layer including aluminum is then formed on top of the titanium layer or the titanium nitride layer to form the contact metallization with the doped silicon region in the semiconductor.

This invention relates to a method of forming a contact metallization to a doped silicon region on a silicon substrate in a semiconductor. Specifically, this invention relates to methods using a titanium nitride (TiN) layer.
A prior art contact metallization method is described with respect to FIG. 1. A silicide layer is formed on the semiconductor wafer comprising the silicon substrate 2 with field oxide regions 4 and doped silicon regions 4. The silicide layer 8 is formed by sputtering a titanium layer off of a titanium target so that titanium is deposited on the wafer.
After sputtering the titanium on to the wafer, the wafer is put into a furnace or a rapid thermal processor. The titanium forms a silicide layer 8 when the titanium reacts with the silicon. The silicide layer typically has the formula TiSi.sub.2, but this silicide layer 8 may also contain intermediate compounds.
The titanium that is on the field oxide regions 4 will not react to form silicide. This titanium on the field oxide regions would short the semiconductor chip if not removed. The undesired titanium on top of the field oxide 4 is removed with a wet etch before an interlevel dielectric is placed on top of the wafer.
The silicide layer 8 is necessary because titanium nitride has a high contact resistance with the silicon in the doped silicon region 6. The silicide layer 8 has a low contact resistance with the doped silicon region 6.
A layer of an interlevel dielectric such as boro-phosphorous silicate glass or BPSG 10 is deposited over the top of the wafer. Contact holes are created in the BPSG layer 10 and typically, the BPSG layer 10 is heated so that it reflows to form a smooth surface. A layer of titanium nitride 12 is then formed on top of the BPSG layer 10 and the silicide layer 8. The titanium nitride layer 12 is formed by sputtering titanium from a titanium target in a chamber containing nitrogen gas so that the titanium reacts with the nitrogen gas to form titanium nitride. This titanium nitride forms a layer over the BPSG layer 10 and the silicide layer 8. The titanium nitride (TiN) layer 12 has a low contact resistance with the silicide layer 8. The titanium nitride layer 12 is used as a barrier metal to prevent spiking and epitaxial silicon growth in the contact hole. Spiking may cause a sputtered aluminum layer to drive through the doped silicon junction.
A metal layer including aluminum 14 is then sputtered on top of the titanium nitride layer 12. The metal layer 14 includes aluminum and may include other alloying elements. The titanium nitride layer 12 has a low contact resistance with the metal layer including aluminum and the silicide layer. The titanium nitride layer has a high electromigration resistance.
In the contact metallization, there is a problem with electromigration. Electromigration occurs when the cross-section of the metallic layer is small and therefore the current density going through the metallic layer is high. This high current density causes kinetic energy to transfer to the metal atoms which migrate away from the narrow cross-section. Faults caused by electromigration are problematic because they might not be found when the semiconductor chip is tested after production, but could occur after the testing when sufficient current has been put through the aluminum layer 14. The titanium nitride layer 12 resists the electromigration of the metal atoms.
Since the metal layer including aluminum 14 has a low contact resistance with the titanium nitride layer 12, and the silicide layer 8 also has a low contact resistance with the titanium nitride layer 12, the total contact resistance of the junction is low. The silicide layer 8 is necessary because of the high contact resistance between the doped silicon region and the titanium nitride layer.
This prior art process, however, does have disadvantages. The cost and time needed to produce a silicon chip depend upon the number of steps involved. It is therefore an object of the present invention to have a method of forming a titanium nitride contact metallization using fewer steps than the prior art methods.


The present invention discloses a method and an apparatus for encoding and decoding video. A video decoding method comprises reconstructing a residual value by entropy-decoding received bitstream and dequantizing and inverse-transforming residual value information, generating a final prediction unit by performing inter prediction on a prediction unit which is partitioned from a coding unit into at least two prediction units by asymmetric motion partitioning (AMP), the two partitioned prediction units comprising a first partitioned prediction unit and a second partitioned prediction unit, and reconstructing a picture by adding the final prediction unit to the residual values.

The present invention relates to image processing, and more particularly, to an inter prediction method and an inter prediction apparatus.
Recently, demands for high-resolution and high-quality videos, such as high-definition (HD) and ultrahigh-definition (UHD) videos, are increasing.
To provide videos with higher resolution and higher quality, the amount of video data increases. Accordingly, costs of transferring and storing video data rise so as to provide high-quality videos as compared with conventional video data processing methods. In order to solve these problems occurring with an increase in resolution and quality of video data, high-efficiency video compression techniques may be utilized.
As video data compression technology, various schemes are used such as inter prediction of predicting pixel values included in a current picture from other pictures, intra prediction of predicting pixel values included in a current picture using information on other pixels than the current picture, and entropy encoding/decoding of allocating shorter codes to frequently occurring or appearing signals.

Method and apparatus for encoding image, and method and apparatus for decoding image


A multi-ply fabric is provided that includes an inner ply positioned between two outer plies that contain both thermoplastic fibers and absorbent staple fibers. The plies are ultrasonically bonded together. The material used to form the inner ply may be selectively controlled to optimize certain properties of the fabric for a particular application, such as strength, bulk, absorption capacity, absorption rate, handfeel, etc.

Domestic and industrial wipers are often used to quickly absorb both polar liquids (e.g., water and alcohols) and nonpolar liquids (e.g., oil). The wipers must have a sufficient absorption capacity to hold the liquid within the wiper structure until it is desired to remove the liquid by pressure, e.g., wringing. In addition, the wipers must also possess good physical strength and abrasion resistance to withstand the tearing, stretching and abrading forces often applied during use. Moreover, the wipers should also be soft to the touch.
In the past, nonwoven fabrics, such as meltblown nonwoven webs, have been widely used as wipers. Meltblown nonwoven webs possess an interfiber capillary structure that is suitable for absorbing and retaining liquid. However, meltblown nonwoven webs sometimes lack the requisite physical properties for use as a heavy-duty wiper, e.g., tear strength and abrasion resistance. Consequently, meltblown nonwoven webs are typically laminated to a support layer, e.g., a nonwoven web, which may not be desirable for use on abrasive or rough surfaces. Spunbond webs contain thicker and stronger fibers than meltblown nonwoven webs and may provide good physical properties, such as tear strength and abrasion resistance. However, spunbond webs sometimes lack fine interfiber capillary structures that enhance the adsorption characteristics of the wiper. Furthermore, spunbond webs often contain bond points that may inhibit the flow or transfer of liquid within the nonwoven webs. In response to these and other problems, composite fabrics were also developed that contained a nonwoven web of substantially continuous fibers hydraulically entangled with pulp fibers. Although these fabrics possessed good levels of strength, they sometimes lacked good oil absorption characteristics.
As such, a need remains for a fabric that is strong, soft, and also exhibits good absorption properties for use in a wide variety of wiper applications.

Ultrasonically laminated multi-ply fabrics


This invention relates to a catalyst for synthesis of dimethyl ether and its preparation methods. More specifically, this invention relates to a catalyst with improved formulation for a highly efficient synthesis of dimethyl ether via dehydration of methanol. These catalysts are composed of hydrophobic zeolites, cations selected from alkali metal, alkaline earth metal, or ammonium along with alumina, silica, or silica-alumina. The methods of manufacturing the catalyst of this invention include (a) combining hydrophobic zeolites and precursors of alkali or alkaline earth metal cations with pastes of inorganic binders (at least one selected from the group consisting of bohemites, silica sol, and clay) and calcining the mixture at high temperature; (b) combining particles, which are obtained by calcining the hydrophobic zeolites impregnated with precursors of alkali or alkaline earth metal cations, with pastes of inorganic binders (at least one selected from bohemites, silica sol, and clay) and calcining the mixture at high temperature; (c) combining hydrophobic zeolites with pastes of inorganic binders (at least one selected from the group consisting of bohemites, silica sol, and clay), calcining the mixture at high temperature, impregnating the calcined product with precursors of ammonium cations and calcining the mixture at high temperature. The catalysts of this invention provide significantly high yields of dimethyl ether because they do not result in the production of hydrocarbon side products and their high catalytic activities are maintained for a prolonged period of time.

Dimethyl ether, one of essential basic chemicals in the chemical industry, has high potentials as an aerosol propellant and as a clean fuel. Currently, the potential of dimethyl ether as a clean alternative fuel for internal combustion has been much increased and thus it is in urgent need to develop a more economical process for its manufacture.
There are two general methods of manufacturing dimethyl ether as follows.
The first method relates to a direct synthesis of dimethyl ether from hydrogen and carbon oxides as delineated in the following equation.
      [          Equation                                      1        ]                                                          CO              2                        +                          3                                            H                2                                              →                                                    CH                3                                          OH                        +                                          H                2                                          O                                                            (          1          )                                                          CO            +                          2                                            H                2                                              →                                    CH              3                                    OH                                                (          2          )                                                          2                                      CH              3                                    OH                    →                                                    CH                3                                                          OCH                3                                      +                                          H                2                                          O                                                            (          3          )                                                          CO            +                                          H                2                                          O                                →                                    CO              2                        +                          H              2                                                            (          4          )
The manufacturing method of dimethyl ether directly from a gaseous mixture of H2/CO/CO2 using methanol catalysts and dehydration catalysts in fixed bed reactors are described in East German Pat. No. 291,937, U.S. Pat. No. 5,254,596, etc. Catalysts for methanol synthesis that can be used in the above Equation 1 include ZnO/Al2O3 and CuO/ZnO/Al2O3, and zeolites can be used as a dehydrating catalyst (U.S. Pat. No. 4,536,485, Korean Pat. No. 228,748).
The second method involves dehydration of methanol as delineated in the Equation 2.
      [          Equation                                      2        ]              2                    CH        3                  OH        →                            CH          3                                  OCH          3                    +                        H          2                        O
The synthesis of dimethyl ether via dehydration of methanol as described in the Equation 2 is achieved at 250-450° C. using a solid catalyst. Gamma-alumina (Japanese Laid-Open Pat. Appl. No. 1984-16845) and silica-alumina (Japanese Laid-Open Pat. Appl. No. 1984-42333) are ordinarily used as solid catalysts in a synthesis of dimethyl ether.
The conversion of methanol into dimethyl ether is carried out using an acid catalyst. The activity and selectivity of a catalyst vary depending on the acidity of an acid catalyst because the conversion of methanol into dimethyl ether is an intermediate step in hydrocarbon synthesis.
For instance, in the presence of a catalyst bearing mainly strong acid sites, methanol, after it is converted into dimethyl ether, is proceeded further to generate hydrocarbons as side products. On the other hand, in the presence of a catalyst bearing mainly weak acid sites, the activity of the catalyst becomes low and thus results in insufficient conversion of methanol into dimethyl ether.
The use of a hydrophobic zeolite such as USY, Mordenite, ZSM family, Beta, and others in dehydration reaction of methanol shows a stronger catalytic activity than the use of gamma-alumina at low temperature. However, the strong acidity of such zeolites produce hydrocarbons and cokes as side products during the conversion of methanol into dimethyl ether thereby reducing selectivity. According to the results of the present inventors, conventional H-USY, H-ZSM-5, and H-Beta zeolites are too acidic they produce hydrocarbons as by-products such as methane, ethane, and propane. Further, the hydrocarbon by-products are low molecular weight alkanes with little value and also lead to the deactivation of catalysts via coking.
A method for synthesizing dimethyl ether using crude methanol containing 5-50 mole % water in order to inhibit hydrocarbon production by hydrophobic zeolites has been disclosed by the present inventors (Korean Pat. Appl. No. 2004-51032; U.S. Pat. No. 6,740,783).

Catalyst for dimethyl ether synthesis and its preparation methods


A semiconductor structure 300 comprises a plurality of first track conductors 303, a plurality of second track conductors 304, which are insulated with respect to the first track conductors 303 and form a grid together with these first track conductors 303, and a plurality of third track conductors 307 parallel above the first track conductors 303, which third track conductors 307 partly cover the second track conductors 304 and are insulated with respect thereto, in which semiconductor structure 300, between in each case two adjacent second track conductors 304, there is located an electrical contact 305 between each first track conductor 303 and the corresponding third track conductor 307 which lies above it.

The invention relates to a semiconductor structure having buried track conductors and to a method for generating an electrical contact with buried track conductors.
According to the prior art, memory cell arrangements, for example flash memories, are produced as large matrix-like memory arrays comprising transistors. A certain arrangement of track conductors is required both for storage and to read out the memory cells. To optimize the space required, some of the track conductors are diffused into a semiconductor substrate as buried bit lines. However, diffused-in bit lines have the problem that the electrical resistances of the diffused-in bit lines are higher than the electrical resistances of track conductors in metallization levels.
The RC time constant which results from the level of the resistances of the diffused-in bit lines consequently limits the signal propagation time. The term signal propagation time is to be understood as meaning the time required to write to memory cells or to read them out. According to the prior art, to reduce the signal propagation time in each case one metallic track conductor is used in parallel to the diffused-in bit lines. These metallic track conductors are electrically connected to the diffused-in bit lines at regular intervals by means of contacts, known as stitch contacts. This allows the resistance of the diffused-in bit lines and therefore the signal propagation time to be resistance of the diffused-in bit lines and therefore the signal propagation time to be reduced. For clarification, FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show a semiconductor structure which represents a memory cell arrangement of this type.
FIG. 1 shows a top view of a semiconductor structure 100 in accordance with the prior art.
In a semiconductor substrate 101, a group of first track conductors 103 is integrated at a substrate surface 102. The first track conductors 103 are arranged parallel and next to one another and end substantially flush with the substrate surface 102. The first track conductors 103 are usually produced by means of diffusion of electrically conductive ions into the semiconductor substrate 101. The first track conductors 103 may, for example, be provided as buried bit lines.
Furthermore, on the substrate surface 102 of the semiconductor substrate 101 there is a group of second track conductors 104, which are arranged parallel and next to one another on the substrate surface 102, electrically insulated with respect to the first track conductors 103. Together with the first track conductors 103, the second track conductors 104 form a regular grid. The second track conductors 104 are usually produced by means of conventional methods for producing metallization levels.
In each case two adjacent first track conductors 103 and one second track conductor 104 which lies above them form a transistor. The two first track conductors 103 act as the two transistor electrodes known as source and drain in the transistor region, for which reason the first track conductors 103 are referred to as bit lines. In the transistor region, the second track conductor 104 acts as the transistor electrode known as gate, for which reason the second track conductors 104 are referred to as word lines.
On the substrate surface 102, in each transistor region an oxide-nitride-oxide layer sequence (not shown) comprising silicon dioxide (SiO2) and silicon nitride (Si3N4) is located between the first track conductors 103 and below each second track conductor 104, it being possible for up to two bits to be stored in the silicon nitride layer.
To reduce the electrical resistance, the first track conductors 103 are connected to metallic bit lines 106 by means of self-aligning contacts 105. These metallic bit lines 106 run in parallel over the first track conductors 103, bridge the second track conductors 104 and are electrically insulated with respect to the second track conductors 104. Contact is made between the first track conductors 103 and the metallic bit lines 106 in the direction of the metallic bit lines 106 by means of the self-aligning contacts 105 after in each case four second track conductors 104.
FIG. 2 shows a part of a cross section through the semiconductor structure 100 shown in FIG. 1, on section line A—A.
A first insulating layer 201 is located above the substrate surface 102 and therefore above the first track conductors 103, which are integrated in the semiconductor substrate 101. The first insulating layer 201 is intended to provide electrical insulation between the second track conductors 104 and the first track conductors 103. Furthermore, the second track conductors 104 are encapsulated by a second insulating layer 202, and a third insulating layer 203 fills up empty regions between the second track conductors 104, in order to ensure that the second track conductors 104 are electrically insulated with respect to the self-aligning contacts 105 and with respect to the metallic bit lines 106.
The following process sequence is usually employed to produce the self-aligning contacts 105: after the first insulating layer 201 and the second track conductors 104 have been produced, the second track conductors 104 are encapsulated by a second insulating layer 202. For this purpose, first of all an insulating material is deposited over the surface of the second track conductors 104. Then, an etching mask is applied above the second track conductors 104 and the insulating material at exposed locations which are not covered by the etching mask are removed all the way to the substrate surface 102. Then, the etching mask is removed again.
Then, the third insulating layer 203 is produced in the exposed openings between the second track conductors 104. In this case, the material used for the third insulating layer 203 is usually an insulating material which can be etched selectively with respect to the insulating material of the second insulating layer 202. By way of example, silicon nitride (Si3N4) can be used for the second insulating layer 202 and silicon dioxide (SiO2) for the third insulating layer 203.
To complete production of the self-aligning contacts 105, the third insulating layer 203 is now removed at certain places, and in this way the first track conductors 103 are locally uncovered again. These certain places are then filled with an electrically conductive material, for example tungsten, until the second insulating layer 202, the remaining third insulating layer 203 and the certain places which have been filled with electrically conductive material have a common surface 204 which is parallel to the substrate surface 102. The certain places which have been filled with electrically conductive material now act as self-aligning contacts 105.
In the end, the metallic bit lines 106 are located on the common surface 204 and are required for coupling of electrical signals into the semiconductor structure 100. Furthermore, the metallic bit lines 106 create the possibility of making contact with the integrated first track conductors 103 by means of a plurality of self-aligning contacts 105.
As has already been mentioned above, therefore, to reduce the signal propagation time, in accordance with the prior art in each case one metallic bit line is used in parallel with the diffused-in bit lines. The metallic bit lines are electrically connected to the diffused-in bit lines by means of the self-aligning contacts at intervals of four word lines. The contacts only align themselves perpendicular to the second track conductors.
However, the above-described method for producing the self-aligning contacts does not allow alignment parallel to the second track conductors. Therefore, there is a risk of a contact being produced offset parallel to the second track conductors. An offset contact of this type can lead to electrostatic effects on the semiconductor substrate, which can cause a short circuit between adjacent diffused-in bit lines. A short circuit of this type inevitably leads to failure of the immediately adjacent transistors. It is possible that all the transistors in the relevant bit lines may even be affected by this disturbance. Therefore, when the etching mask is being produced during the production process for each individual contact, the etching mask has to be positioned very accurately, which involves a high level of outlay.
The invention is therefore based on the problem of providing a semiconductor structure and a method for generating an electrical contact, in which the signal propagation times in the semiconductor structure are reduced further and more reliable contact is ensured.
The problem is solved by a semiconductor structure and a method for generating an electrical contact which have the features described in the independent patent claims.

Method for generating an electrical contact with buried track conductors


An apparatus for controlling and monitoring the lifetime of a superconducting fault current limiter. The apparatus may include a processor; and a memory unit coupled to the processor, including a lifetime routine, where the lifetime routine is operative on the processor to monitor the superconducting fault current limiter. The lifetime routine may include a lifetime estimation processor to receive a set of fault information for a fault event of a superconductor tape of the superconducting fault current limiter, determine a present state of the superconductor tape based upon the set of fault information, and determine an estimated lifetime of the superconductor tape based upon the present state. The present state may be determined from additional information such as fault history on the superconducting fault current limiter, as well as a database of superconductor tape behavior with respect to various faults.

A fault current limiter (FCL) is a device for limiting fault currents, such as in a power system. Various types of FCLs have been developed over the last several decades, including superconducting fault current limiters (SCFCLs), solid state fault current limiters, inductive fault current limiters, as well as other varieties known in the art. FCLs may be implemented in a system having generation, transmission, and distribution networks for providing power to various industrial, commercial, and/or residential electrical loads.
A fault current is an abnormal current in an electrical system resulting from a fault in the system, such as a short circuit. A fault current may arise in a system due to any number of events or failures, such as power lines or other system components being damaged by severe weather (e.g. lightning strikes). When such a fault occurs, a large current (a fault current) can quickly appear in the circuit as the current is no-longer limited by load. This surge of current is undesirable because of potential damage to the load, including the network itself, or equipment connected to the network.
Many superconducting fault current limiters are based upon high-critical temperature (high TC) superconductor materials having a TC above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen (77 K). These materials are also characterized by a critical current, IC, a parameter referring to the maximum current the superconductor may transmit at a given temperature, above which maximum current the superconductor transitions to normal state conductivity, having a finite resistance. Immersing in liquid nitrogen enables the superconductor tapes to be sufficiently cooled to be in the superconducting state and to conduct current without resistance loss during normal operation. When a fault condition takes place, the current passing through the superconductor tape exceeds IC of the tape, causing the superconductor tape to transition or "quench" to a normal state conductor. As a normal state conductor, the superconductor tape presents resistance to current flow, generating heat, where the heat changes the temperature of the superconductor tape anywhere in the interval of 77 K-600 K in many instances. In known fault current limiters, after the fault event passes, the superconductor tape cools back down and is restored to a superconducting state, wherein the fault current limiter may be placed back on-line for operation.
Notably, known high TC superconductor tapes are based upon oxide-type superconductor materials, including those based upon Re1Ba2Cu3O7-x materials, where Re stands for a rare earth element. As a result of the quenching and heating phenomenon, the superconductor tape may lose a certain amount of O2 every time a fault takes place, where oxygen loss degrades the superconducting properties, as is known. The occurrence of faults may also degrade critical current of the superconductor tape to the extent where, after a given number of faults, the superconductor tape may fail, meaning the superconductor tape can no longer be restored to a superconducting state, at least at the level of current designed to pass through the fault current limiter for normal operation.
When a superconductor module of a superconducting fault current limiter fails, the failure may be inconvenient and costly to fix. Moreover, at present, the ability to predict failure or lifetime of a superconductor tape is lacking.
With respect to these and other considerations the present disclosure is provided.

Tape lifetime monitor in fault current limiter

Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc.


A rewritable optical disk is protectively enclosed in a cartridge having a base and having a hinged cover which is swingable to an open position permitting removal of the disk from the cartridge. A door with shutters is slidable on the cartridge between open and closed positions relative to access apertures formed in the cover and the base. The shutter for the access aperture in the cover is hinged relative to the remainder of the sliding door to enable that shutter to swing as the cover is opened and closed. The cover carries an axially and radially floatable hub which co-acts with the optical disk and the spindle of the disk drive to establish a precisely concentric relation between the disk and the spindle.

The present invention relates generally to cartridges for data information disks. The invention relates more particularly to cartridges for protecting rewritable optical disks used for mass storage of alphanumeric data which may be accessed by a computer. Such a disk is preferably enclosed within a cartridge to prevent the disk from being scratched or nicked during handling. In use, the cartridge containing the disk is inserted into a disk drive having an optical reader/writer and thereafter a sliding door on the cartridge is opened to expose portions of the disk to the reader/writer.
A cartridge of this general type is disclosed in Sandell et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,908,817. The cartridge of that patent comprises a pair of interlocking shells which define a compartment containing the disk. The sliding door is generally U-shaped and is formed in part by a pair of shutters which normally close access apertures formed in opposite sides of the cartridge. When the door is slid open, the shutters open the access apertures. Upon opening of the apertures, one side of the disk is exposed to a rotary drive spindle of the disk drive and to a laser for reading and writing data on the disk. The other side of the disk is exposed to a magnetic head for erasing data from the disk.
The Sandell et al cartridge is disadvantageous in that, for all practical purposes, the disk becomes a permanent part of the cartridge and cannot be easily removed from the cartridge and replaced with another disk. The shutters also commonly are made of metal, which is susceptible to scratching and necessitates costly stamping and cleaning during manufacture. Suzuki et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,746,013 discloses a cartridge with a hinged cover which may be opened to permit removal and replacement of a compact disc. That cartridge, however, is adapted for use only with a read-only memory (ROM) compact disc and cannot be used with an erasable or rewritable optical disk since the hinged cover does not include a shuttered aperture capable of providing access to an erasing head.
When the disk contains alphanumeric data, it is necessary that the disk rotate precisely about a predetermined axis in order to maintain a precise relationship between the disk and the read/write laser. In the cartridge of the Sandell et al patent, apertured metal hubs are glued to opposite sides of the disk and coact with the spindle and the magnetic pulley assembly of the disk drive to cause the disk to rotate precisely and concentrically about the axis of the spindle with virtually no run-out. It is tedious, time-consuming and expensive, however, to affix the hubs to the disk. Moreover, the hubs must be assembled to the disk with great positional accuracy and, in many cases, this is not achieved in mass assembly procedures and thus a relatively large number of disks must be scrapped.

Protective cartridge for rewritable optical disk


The present invention provides a system and method encompassing a new metric and MATLAB tool box that phone makers may use to improve the design of the secondary path, in order to improve ANC performance. The metric measures how invertible the secondary path is and then evaluates ANC performance at a worst case scenario where P(z)=1 and W(z) becomes a complete predictor. The invention can be easily extended to a multi-channel ANC system.

A personal audio device, such as a wireless telephone, includes an adaptive noise canceling (ANC) circuit that adaptively generates an anti-noise signal from a reference microphone signal and injects the anti-noise signal into the speaker or other transducer output to cause cancellation of ambient audio sounds. An error microphone is also provided proximate the speaker to measure the ambient sounds and transducer output near the transducer, thus providing an indication of the effectiveness of the noise canceling. A processing circuit uses the reference and/or error microphone, optionally along with a microphone provided for capturing near-end speech, to determine whether the ANC circuit is incorrectly adapting or may incorrectly adapt to the instant acoustic environment and/or whether the anti-noise signal may be incorrect and/or disruptive and then take action in the processing circuit to prevent or remedy such conditions.
Examples of such Adaptive Noise Cancellation systems are disclosed in published U.S. Patent Application 2012/0140943, published on Jun. 7, 2012, and also in Published U.S. Patent Application 2012/0207317, published on Aug. 16, 2012, both of which are incorporated herein by reference. Both of these references are assigned to the same assignee as the present application and name at least one inventor in common and thus are not "Prior Art" to the present application, but are discussed herein to facilitate the understating of ANC circuits as applied in the field of use.
Referring now to FIG. 1, a wireless telephone 10 is illustrated in proximity to a human ear 5, or more specifically the pinna of a human ear. The pinna is the part of the human ear that extends from the head, and varies in shape and size between various individuals. As a result, the acoustical characteristics of a wireless telephone and the human ear will vary from person to person, based on the shape and size of their pinna 5. Moreover, how closely wireless telephone 10 is held to the pinna 5 will vary the acoustical characteristics and thus affect noise cancellation. For this reason as well as others, adaptive noise cancellation techniques are used to adaptively cancel background noise in a manner that is responsive to changes in the acoustical path between wireless phone 10 and pinna 5.
Wireless telephone 10 includes a transducer, such as speaker SPKR that reproduces distant speech received by wireless telephone 10, along with other local audio events such as ring tones, stored audio program material, injection of near-end speech (i.e., the speech of the user of wireless telephone 10) to provide a balanced conversational perception, and other audio that requires reproduction by wireless telephone 10, such as sources from web-pages or other network communications received by wireless telephone 10 and audio indications such as battery low and other system event notifications. A near-speech microphone NS is provided to capture near-end speech, which is transmitted from wireless telephone 10 to the other conversation participant(s).
Wireless telephone 10 includes adaptive noise canceling (ANC) circuits and features that inject an anti-noise signal into speaker SPKR to improve intelligibility of the distant speech and other audio reproduced by speaker SPKR. A reference microphone R is provided for measuring the ambient acoustic environment, and is positioned away from the typical position of a user's mouth, so that the near-end speech is minimized in the signal produced by reference microphone R. A third microphone, error microphone E, is provided in order to further improve the ANC operation by providing a measure of the ambient audio combined with the audio reproduced by speaker SPKR close to ear pinna 5, when wireless telephone 10 is in close proximity to ear pinna 5. Exemplary circuit 14 within wireless telephone 10 includes an audio CODEC integrated circuit 20 that receives the signals from reference microphone R, near speech microphone NS and error microphone E and interfaces with other integrated circuits such as an RF integrated circuit 12 containing the wireless telephone transceiver. CODEC 20 may incorporate ANC circuitry to provide adaptive noise cancellation.
In general, ANC techniques measure ambient acoustic events (as opposed to the output of speaker SPKR and/or the near-end speech) impinging on reference microphone R, and also measures the same ambient acoustic events impinging on error microphone E. The ANC processing circuits of illustrated wireless telephone 10 adapt an anti-noise signal generated from the output of reference microphone R to have a characteristic that minimizes the amplitude of the ambient acoustic events at error microphone E.
Since acoustic path P(z) (also referred to as the Passive Forward Path) extends from reference microphone R to error microphone E, the ANC circuits are essentially estimating acoustic path P(z) combined with removing effects of an electro-acoustic path S(z) (also referred to as Secondary Path) that represents the response of the audio output circuits of CODEC IC 20 and the acoustic/electric transfer function of speaker SPKR including the coupling between speaker SPKR and error microphone E in the particular acoustic environment, which is affected by the proximity and structure of ear pinna 5 and other physical objects and human head structures that may be in proximity to wireless telephone 10, by the proximity and structure of ear pinna 5 and other physical objects and human head structures that may be in proximity to wireless telephone 10, and how firm the wireless telephone is pressed to ear pinna 5.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the relationship between the elements of a type of ANC circuit known as Feed Forward ANC. The various types of ANC circuits (Feed-Forward, Feedback, and Hybrid) are described in more detail in the paper entitled On maximum achievable noise reduction in ANC systems, by A. A. Milani, G. Kannan, and I. M. S. Panahi, in Proc. ICASSP, 2010, pp. 349-352, published on March 2010 and incorporated herein by reference. The diagram of FIG. 2 is not an electrical block diagram, but rather illustrates the relationship of electrical, mechanical, and acoustical components in the overall system as shown in FIG. 1.
Input to the device is from reference microphone R, which outputs signal x(n) which represent the source of acoustic noise recorded by the reference microphone. The transfer function between the reference and error microphones is known as the Primary path P(z) or the passive forward path between error microphone E and the reference microphone R. Primary Path P(z) is represented in block 210. The noise signal after passing through P(z) is called d(n) which also represents the auto output received by error microphone E.
Secondary path S(z) is represented by block 230 and represents the transfer function of the electrical path, including the microphones E, R, and NS, digital circuitry (of FIG. 1), and canceling loudspeaker SPKR (of FIG. 1) plus the acoustical path between the loudspeaker SPKR (of FIG. 1) and the error microphone E. The input signal x(n) is fed to anti-noise filter 260 which has a transfer function W(z). The output y(n) from anti-noise filter 260 is then passed to adder 245, where it is added to a training signal (generally white noise) from Personal Entertainment System 290 (e.g., cellphone, pad device, or the like) and, after being inverted by inverter 255 (so as to subtract the resultant anti-noise signal) is input to secondary path transfer function 230. The output of this secondary path is added in adder 220 and the resultant signal e(n) is output to error microphone E via speaker SPKR (not shown).
SE(z) in block 280 represents an estimate of S(z). Due to the delay characteristics of the primary and secondary paths P(z), S(z), the feed-forward system of FIG. 2 may include an estimator to predict future noise and compensate for the delay characteristics in the overall system. Output signal e(n) is fed to adder 225 having an output that is inverted in inverter 235 and fed to least means square filter 250 which in turn generates a predicted S(z) filter value SE(z) in block 240. The output of block 240 in turn is fed into adder 225 in a feedback loop, so that this filter value is updated over time.
Predictive filter SE(z), that is shown as block 280, then accepts the input x(n) and uses the output through Least Means Squared filter 270 to create anti-noise filter value W(z) for anti-noise filter 260
The transfer function between the reference and error microphones is known as the Primary path P(z) or the passive forward path between error microphone E and the reference microphone R. The noise signal after passing through P(z) is called d(n).
Block 230 represents transfer function S(z) or the secondary path, which comprises the combined transfer functions of (a) a D/A converter, (b) a power amplifier, (c) speaker SPKR, (d) the air gap between speaker SPKR and error microphone E, (e) error microphone E itself, (f) an A/D converter, and (g) the physical structure of the audio device.
The ANC includes an adaptive filter (not shown) which receives reference microphone signal x(n), and under ideal circumstances, adapts its transfer function W(z) to be a ration of the primary path and secondary path (e.g., P(z)/S(z)) to generate the anti-noise signal. The coefficients of the adaptive filter 260 are controlled by a W(z) coefficient control block 260 that uses a correlation of two signals to determine the response of the adaptive filter, which generally minimizes, in a least-mean squares sense, those components of reference microphone signal x(n) that are present in error microphone signal.
The signals provided as inputs to LMS block 270 are the reference microphone signal x(n) as shaped by a copy of an estimate of the response of path S(z) provided by filter 280 and another signal provided from the output of a combiner 225 that includes the error microphone signal. By transforming reference microphone signal x(n) with a copy of the estimate of the response of path S(z),SE(z), and minimizing the portion of the error signal that correlates with components of reference microphone signal ref, adaptive filter 32 adapts to the desired response of P(z)/S(z).
One problem encountered in designing an adaptive noise cancellation system for a cellular telephone or other device is that the performance of an ANC system is very much dependent on the secondary path structure S(z). The secondary path contains the transfer functions of the D/A converter(s) and power amplifiers within integrated circuit 14, as well as the speaker, the air gap between the speaker and error microphone, the error microphone, A/D converter(s) within the integrated circuit 14, as well as the physical structure of the wireless telephone 10 itself.
Thus, in the prior art, a phone designer (or designer of other audio device) might place microphones and the speaker on the device based on aesthetic design criteria, or based on assumptions as to what would be a good location for a microphone or speaker. Only by building a testing model of the device could the designer evaluate the microphone and speaker placements. At that stage, it may be difficult to change the design if the microphone and speaker placements are found to be less than optimal. Moreover, testing each microphone and speaker combination and placement may be time consuming, particularly in terms of data acquisition and processing. Comparing different combinations of microphones and speakers and their placement, as well as phone case design and other secondary path variables may be difficult, as some combinations may provide superior performance in one frequency range, while others may provide better performance in other frequency ranges.
The inherent delay in the non-minimum phase S(z) is the major bottleneck which forces W(z) to be a predictor. This delay is mainly produced by the speaker transfer function and the air gap which corresponds to the relative placement of the speaker SPKR and the error microphone E. As a result, some of the zeros of S(z) fall outside the unit circle and make S(z) non-invertible. As transfer function W(z) is causal, if there is more delay, then the worse the performance of ANC system becomes. The physical structure and design of the audio system alter the transfer function S(z). There is no single metric that ANC designers and phone makers can use to evaluate the secondary path design (i.e., selection and placement of speaker and microphones, as well as the physical structure and design of the audio device).
Thus, it remains a requirement in the art to provide a metric and tool to evaluate secondary path design in an adaptive noise cancellation system, to allow designers to improve the design of such audio devices, and compare different designs more easily.

Metric and tool to evaluate secondary path design in adaptive noise cancellation systems


An error handling method/system for correcting an error stimulates a removal of the device from the computer and automatically turns off the device. The method/system also automatically turns on the device and stimulates an insertion of the device. This allows a pre-existing initialization routine to correct the error.

As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional computer includes, among other things, a Central Processing Unit (CPU) 101, Input/Output (I/O) bus 103 and I/O devices 105. The I/O bus 103 allows information to flow between the I/O devices 105, the CPU 101 and Random Access Memory (RAM). Examples of buses are ISA (Industry Standard Architecture), EISA (Extended Industry Standard Architecture), PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect), and MCA (Micro Channel Architecture).
Typical I/O devices include key boards, printers, network devices, game devices, etc. The I/O bus, in turn, is connected to each I/O device by means of a hierarchy of hardware components including: I/O ports 107, interfaces, and device controllers 109. Each device connected to the I/O bus has its own set of I/O addresses. In operation, the CPU selects an I/O port and uses the I/O bus to transfer data between a CPU register and the port.
In particular, in an exemplary arrangement as shown in FIG. 2, the CPU 101 writes into a control register 201 the commands to be sent to the I/O device and reads from a status register 203 a value that represents the internal state of the I/O device. The CPU 101 also fetches data from the I/O device by reading bytes from an input register 205 and pushes data to the I/O device by writing bytes into an output register 207.
An I/O interface 209 is a hardware circuit and/or software operating between a group of I/O ports and the corresponding device controller. It acts as an interpreter that translates the values in the I/O ports into commands and data for the device. In the opposite direction, it detects changes in the device state and correspondingly updates the I/O port that plays the role of status register. Examples of common interfaces are: keyboard interface, disk interface, bus mouse interface, network interface, parallel port, serial port, Universal Serial Bus (USB), PCMCIA interface, PCI interface, SCSI interface, etc.
The system level operations of the above-described components are performed by an operating system that includes a kernel. The kernel provides basic services for the operating system. Typically, the kernel (or any comparable center of an operating system) includes an interrupt handler that handles all requests or completed I/O operations that compete for the kernel's services, a scheduler that determines which programs share the kernel's processing time in what order, and a supervisor that actually gives use of the computer to each process when it is scheduled.
In conventional operating systems, the kernel is required to handle I/O device errors. Many error handling routines and the calls made by those routines are complex and extensive. In order to handle individual errors for all I/O devices, the kernel itself becomes complex. This complexity tends to lengthen the development time of the kernel. It also makes the debugging and maintenance of the kernel an arcane and difficult process.

Hot plug interfaces and failure handling


Provided is an in-vehicle control device which is able to protect a seal material even when being interposed by a fixing member which is fixed to a vehicle while suppressing the protruding of the seal material toward an inner space.

An in-vehicle control device to be mounted in an engine room is required to have a high attaching flexibility in order not to limit a mounting position into a vehicle. As a general fixing method to a vehicle, a flange is provided in an in-vehicle control device, a through hole is provided in the flange, and the in-vehicle control device is fixed to a fixing member of the vehicle using a bolt. However, in recent years, as a method of simplifying work and not using a bolt for lowering costs, a bracket provided in the vehicle is used to interpose and fix the in-vehicle control device in many cases.
In addition, environment resistance specifications, which are strict to corrosion and degradation, and a long life span are also required. In particular, a long life span against salt resistance such as salt water is required. A seal structure, a seal thickness, a seal length, and a draining performance of salt water are important to avoid development of crevice corrosion.
An increase in size of a housing led by high functionality of the in-vehicle control device and an increase in the number of electrodes of a connector are progressing even more than a technical progression in miniaturization of an electronic component to be mounted in a board and in miniaturization of a mounting structure. A decentralization technique of the in-vehicle control device and a wireless technique to reduce the number of electrodes of the terminal of the connector are not possible to be simply realized in the in-vehicle control device for an engine mounted in the engine room and in the in-vehicle control device for a transmission.
In addition, a housing of the in-vehicle control device is required to be made low and light while the size is increased in order to attribute to fuel efficiency required in a vehicle. Therefore, there is a need to develop a molding technique of a housing of which thickness is small while deformation is suppressed. The electronic component is necessarily made low as well as an aluminum electrolytic capacitor, and a seal structure for waterproof is also necessarily made low together with the electronic component. In particular, as a housing of an electronic control device for an engine to be mounted in the engine room, a high heat dissipating housing is required in which the housing is made thin and also has a radiation performance for a high functionality, and made low and light at a low cost.
Further, a seal material having a long life span used in the engine room is different from a general-purposed material, and thus is generally expensive. A seal length has to be secured while reducing an amount of use of the seal material together with variation in works and assembling processes.
Conventionally, as a seal structure of the in-vehicle control device, there is known a structure which is able to suppress a leakage of the seal material from a junction surface between a case and a cover of the housing while the seal material fills a gap between the junction surfaces regardless of a dimensional tolerance therebetween (for example, see PTL 1).
In addition, there is known a structure in which the seal material is hard to peel in the vicinity of a boundary even in a case where a load is applied from the inside to the seal material in an electronic device in which a connecting portion of the case is sealed by the seal material (for example, see PTL 2).
Further, there is known a structure of a small and cheap housing which is improved in a waterproof seal performance between the case and the cover of the housing in which a circuit board is sealed and stored (for example, see PTL 3).

Abstract: The in-vehicle control device includes a first housing (20), a second housing (30) which is fixed to face the first housing (20), and a seal material (40) which seals the inner space which is disposed between a flange of the first housing (20) and a flange of the second housing (30) and is formed by the first housing (20) and the second housing (30). The first housing (20) includes a shape (22) (bank-shaped portion) which is disposed on a side near an inner space (11) from the seal material (40), faces the flange of the second housing (30), and suppresses the moving of the seal material (40) toward the inner space (11).


In a stretchable wiring member having a relatively hard portion, such as a contact point, there is provided a solution to malfunction of the stretchable wiring member caused by stress generated at a boundary between the hard portion and a flexible portion. A stretchable wiring member includes a flexible substrate having stretchability, a stretchable wiring line disposed along the flexible substrate and configured to be stretched in association with stretching deformation of the flexible substrate, and a hard member that is harder than the flexible substrate. The flexible substrate has an extension layer portion interposed between the hard member and the stretchable wiring line.

Wearable devices, such as smart watches, activity meters, or pulsimeters, have been developed widely in recent years. Such wearable devices are equipped with sensors for measuring body conditions and activities, for example, by taking the pulse or by counting the number of walking steps. A typical wearable device includes a unit in which semiconductor devices are arranged in a flexible substrate or a rigid substrate. Such a wearable device does not follow body movement and may give an uncomfortable wearing feeling. On the other hand, a technique for obtaining a flexible wearable device has been developed. Such a flexible wearable device uses a stretchable wiring member in which stretchable electroconductive wires are formed on an elastic member or clothes having stretchability.
The stretchable wiring member used for the wearable device still has hard electrodes that serve as contact points. In this case, when the stretchable wiring member is stretched, stress is concentrated at the boundary between a contact point and the flexible substrate, which may cause the contact point to detach from the flexible substrate. If a stretchable electroconductive wire is laminated on a detached portion, the wire may break simultaneously with detachment. To solve this problem, disposing a reinforcement member is proposed by Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2012-033597 (PTL 1) and also by Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2016-145725 (PTL 2).


An immersion lithography process is described. First, a photoresist layer on a material layer is formed. Then, an acid compensation layer is formed on the photoresist layer. An immersion exposure step is performed on the acid compensation layer and the photoresist layer. The acid compensation layer contains a photo-acid generator with a concentration of the photo-acid higher than that produced by a photo-acid generator in the photoresist layer after the immersion exposure step. Then, a development step is performed to pattern the acid compensation layer and the photoresist layer.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a semiconductor process, and particularly to an immersion lithography process and a patterning process.
2. Brief Description of Related Art
Photolithography is one of the most important technologies in semiconductor production. All patterns or doping areas regarding to metal oxide semiconductor device are defined by photolithography. In general, photolithography process includes photoresist coating, light exposure and development. In the exposure step, exposure light beams travel through a mask to reach a photoresist layer or directly reach the photoresist layer to generate photochemical reaction at exposed sections of the photoresist layer. After baking and developing steps, mask patterns are transferred to the photoresist layer to form a patterned photoresist layer.
As the integration of integral circuits increases, the device size of the integral circuits decreases. In order to meet the requirement in reduction of device size, an immersion lithography process has been developed. Currently, this immersion lithography process is conducted in liquid phase. By taking the advantage that the refractive index of liquid is higher than that of air, the wavelength will be shortened while light travels through liquid. The resolution of exposure is thereby increased to achieve the reduction in device size.
However, the immersion lithography process has several critical concerns to be overcome, such as interaction between the immersion liquid and the photoresist layer and the control of micro-bubbles in the liquid. Specifically when the exposure step is conducted, part of chemicals enters the liquid from the photoresist layer due to the contact with the liquid, which deteriorates the photoresist layer. Particularly, when photo-acid generator (PAG) contained in the photoresist layer diffuses into the immersion liquid during the exposure step, the PAG concentration will be lowered. As a result, the developed photoresist patterns have T-top problem. As such, the process resolution, the process window, and the critical size and uniformity of the photoresist patterns are adversely affected.
One approach has been proposed to solve the T-top problem in the art by forming a barrier layer over the photoresist layer. The barrier layer does not contain photo-acid generator, and is used to stop the photo-acid generator from diffusing into the immersion liquid. The formation of the barrier layer is complicated as the property of the barrier layer must be unsolvable in the immersion liquid during the exposure step while solvable in tetra-methyl-ammonium hydroxide (TMAH) developing agent. Furthermore, forming the barrier layer on the photoresist layer adds cost to the total production.

Immersion lithography process, and structure used for the same and patterning process


The present invention provides a machine tool whose width dimension is not increased even when it includes a tool magazine. The present invention includes: a bed; a saddle disposed on the bed to be movable in a forward and backward (Y-axis) direction in a front view of the machine tool; a table disposed on the saddle to be movable in right and left (X-axis) direction; a column fixed on the bed a spindle head disposed on the column to support a spindle and movable in a vertical (Z-axis) direction; an automatic tool changer disposed on a back face side of the column, wherein the column has an opening which allows the back face side and a front face side of the column to communicate with each other, and the automatic tool changer replaces a tool on the spindle side by a tool on a tool magazine side through the opening.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a machine tool that machines a workpiece while moving a vertically set spindle and the workpiece relatively to each other in X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis directions.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, a vertical machining center that machines a workpiece using a table movable in X-axis and Y-axis directions and a spindle movable in a Z-axis direction is generally structured, as shown in FIG. 10, to include: a column 61 fixedly disposed on a back end of a fixed bed 60 when seen from a front side of the machine; a saddle 62, for placing a workpiece W thereon, disposed on a front part of the fixed bed 60 to be movable in the Y-axis direction (forward and backward direction); a table 63 disposed on the saddle 62 to be movable in the X-axis direction (right and left direction); and a spindle head 65, with a spindle 64 attached thereto, disposed on a front face of the column 61 to be movable in the Z-axis direction (vertical direction).
In some conventional vertical machining centers of this type, a tool magazine 66 of an automatic tool changer is disposed on a side face of the column 61 for replacing a preceding working tool T attached to the spindle 64 by a subsequent working tool housed in the tool magazine 66.


Procedure for the assembling between at least two panels, and a device associated thereto, where said procedure is carried out through at least a single operator or machine, and comprises the following steps: receiving at least two panels, where said panels comprise respectively at least one through hole; introducing an assembling device comprising a nut and a screw, through the respective hole of each panel; turning the device around the same side where it was introduced previously, in such a way that the nut and the screw rotate jointly, until the device comes into contact with at least one blocking element, and the joint movement of the nut with the screw is stopped; and next the nut and the screw are brought mutually closer together, in such a way that both panels are assembled.

The constant search for cost cutting in the manufacturing and assembly stages for all the components of a vehicle as such is well known in the vehicle manufacturing industry. With respect to the assembly stage, this stage requires qualified workers, who are generally located on an assembly line, where they assemble the corresponding parts of the vehicle onto the chassis of a vehicle.
Namely, in said assembly phase, one of the stages relates to the assembly of the inner panels of the vehicle, coupled to the bodywork panels of the vehicle; and where this step is currently performed as follows:                The worker receives one of the panels to be assembled, where said panel has been previously perforated in order to introduce the corresponding joining devices.        The worker inserts the respective joining screws through the openings and from only one side of the panel.        Subsequently, another worker located at the other side of the panel then places another panel that rests on the screws, in order to then thread a nut onto each screw and therefore make the joining devices fasten and assemble the corresponding panels.
This procedure thus requires two workers or machines, depending on the automation of the assembly line, where one inserts a screw into the panel on one side and then another worker couples the other panel and proceeds to assemble the whole by tightening the corresponding nut.
One of the possible solutions in order to save assembly costs is that of reducing the cost of the fastening device, where we currently have a device consisting in a screw and a nut, preferably made in plastic materials, since:                The material is cheaper to shape with respect to the cost of metallic materials;        the material is lighter and therefore reduces the total weight of the vehicle, increasing its performance and reducing consumption; and        the material is more elastic and allows filtering possible vibrations generated in the body.
But the savings on the device itself do not involve very important savings with respect to the costs in investment in order to reduce its manufacturing cost.
Therefore, the other possible solution considered is reducing the cost of the assembly procedure and the coupling of the respective panels in order to reduce the assembly stages and manage to reduce the price of the total cost of the corresponding vehicle; and it is therefore necessary to invent a new procedure protocol for panel assembly and a new device associated to the procedure which allows reducing assembly times and also saving time and preventing handling risks and the need of the worker to travel about the work area.

Procedure for panel assembly and device associated thereto


Methods of forming a microelectronic packaging structure and associated structures formed thereby are described. Those methods may include forming a thermal interface material comprising a thermally conductive serpentine foil located between a first and a second interface material. The serpentine foil may be in a parallel position or a rotated position, in embodiments.

As microelectronic packaging technology advances for higher processor performance, advances in packaging structures may include improving temperature management when implementing thermal interface materials (TIMs). Many packaging applications require the use of TIMs, wherein the TIM may be used within a package structure itself, and in locations outside the package structure. Thermal performance is an important requirement of a TIM. Some package applications may possess more aggressive thermal requirements, such as packages comprising server central processing units (CPU's) for example, while other applications, such as packages comprising memory dies for example, may have less aggressive thermal requirements. Additionally, it is important for a TIM to provide good mechanical coupling between surfaces. Some applications may require a TIM to be a compliant link in order to reduce the risk of mechanical failure during operation, while other applications may require a more rigid TIM for optimal mechanical performance.

Methods of forming serpentine thermal interface material and structures formed thereby


An image formation system is configured by connecting two or more image formation devices. The system includes a fixing device fixing an unfixed development image to a record medium and a charge elimination device eliminating a charge of the record medium in an inlet of the fixing device of the second or later image formation device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image formation system configured by connecting two or more image formation devices comprising a fixing device for fixing an unfixed development image to a record medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an image formation device using an electrophotographic method, a development image made of coloring particles formed on a photoconductor is transferred to a record medium such as paper and an unfixed development image adhering to the record medium is fixed to the record medium by a fixing device and thereby an image is obtained.
As a method for fixing an unfixed development image on a record medium, a fixing device called a thermal roller fixing method in which a heat source is had in the inside and a toner image is brought into direct contact with a heating roller made of metal material heated to a temperature enough to melt toner and simultaneously a pressure is applied by a pressurizing roller and fixing is performed by inserting a record medium between both the rollers is used.
In such an image formation device, a tandem type image formation system for disposing a joint path for transporting a record medium between plural image formation devices and forming an image is proposed.
In the tandem type image formation system, using coloring particles of different colors every each image formation device, images of plural colors can be formed, or an image of one side of the record medium can be formed by the first image formation device and an image of the back side of the record medium can be formed by the next image formation device.
In the tandem type image formation system, in a fixing process by image formation of only one side of the record medium, the record medium passes between both the rollers in a state in which the side to which a toner image is transferred makes contact with a heating roller in the first image formation device and the second image formation device and at this time, a slight amount of toner electrostatically adheres to a surface of the heating roller. Generally, in the heating roller, a cleaning web impregnated with silicone oil etc. is arranged so as to make sliding contact with the surface of the heating roller in order to ensure release characteristics of the heating roller and the toner on the record medium.
This cleaning web is non-woven fabric and makes sliding contact with the surface of the heating roller and thereby, silicone oil gradually seeps from the inside and the oil is applied to the heating roller and simultaneously by rubbing action, a slight amount of toner adhering to the surface of the heating roller is captured by the non-woven fabric and the cleaning web has action of cleaning the surface of the heating roller.

Image forming system having charge balancing system


A radiation-sensitive composition can be used to prepare positive-working imageable elements having improved sensitivity and solvent resistance. These elements are useful for making lithographic printing plates and printed circuit boards. The composition includes a water-insoluble polymeric binder that has at least 20 mol % of recurring units comprising hydroxyaryl carboxylic acid ester groups, some of which can be substituted with cyclic imide moieties.

In lithographic printing, ink receptive regions, known as image areas, are generated on a hydrophilic surface. When the surface is moistened with water and ink is applied, the hydrophilic regions retain the water and repel the ink the ink receptive regions accept the ink and repel the water. The ink is then transferred to the surface of suitable materials upon which the image is to be reproduced. In some instances, the ink can be first transferred to an intermediate blanket that in turn is used to transfer the ink to the surface of the materials upon which the image is to be reproduced.
Imageable elements useful to prepare lithographic (or offset) printing plates typically comprise one or more imageable layers applied over a hydrophilic surface of a substrate (or intermediate layers). The imageable layer(s) can comprise one or more radiation-sensitive components dispersed within a suitable binder. Following imaging, either the exposed regions or the non-exposed regions of the imageable layer(s) are removed by a suitable developer, revealing the underlying hydrophilic surface of the substrate. If the exposed regions are removed, the element is considered as positive-working. Conversely, if the non-exposed regions are removed, the element is considered as negative-working. In each instance, the regions of the imageable layer(s) that remain are ink-receptive, and the regions of the hydrophilic surface revealed by the developing process accept water or aqueous solutions (typically a fountain solution), and repel ink.
Similarly, positive-working compositions can be used to form resist patterns in printed circuit board (PCB) production, thick-and-thin film circuits, resistors, capacitors, and inductors, multichip devices, integrated circuits, and active semiconductive devices.
"Laser direct imaging" methods (LDI) have been known that directly form an offset printing plate or printing circuit board using digital data from a computer, and provide numerous advantages over the previous processes using masking photographic films. There has been considerable development in this field from more efficient lasers, improved imageable compositions and components thereof.
Thermally sensitive imageable elements can be classified as those that undergo chemical transformation(s) in response to, exposure to, or adsorption of, suitable amounts of thermal energy. The nature of thermally induced chemical transformation may be to ablate the imageable composition in the element, or to change its solubility in a particular developer, or to change the tackiness or hydrophilicity or hydrophobicity of the surface layer of the thermally sensitive layer. As such, thermal imaging can be used to expose predetermined regions of an imageable layer that can serve as a lithographic printing surface or resist pattern in PCB production.
Positive-working imageable compositions containing novolak or other phenolic polymeric binders and diazoquinone imaging components have been prevalent in the lithographic printing plate and photoresist industries for many years. Imageable compositions based on various phenolic resins and infrared radiation absorbing compounds are also well known.
A wide range of thermally-sensitive compositions that are useful in thermal recording materials are described in patent GB 1,245,924 (Brinckman), whereby the solubility of any given area of the imageable layer in a given solvent can be increased by the heating of the layer by indirect exposure to a short duration high intensity visible light and/or infrared radiation transmitted or reflected from the background areas of a graphic original located in contact with the recording material.
Thermally imageable, single- or multi-layer elements are also described in WO 97/39894 (Hoare et al.), WO 98/42507 (West et al.), WO 99/11458 (Ngueng et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,840,467 (Kitatani), U.S. Pat. No. 6,060,217 (Ngueng et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 6,060,218 (Van Damme et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 6,110,646 (Urano et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 6,117,623 (Kawauchi), U.S. Pat. No. 6,143,464 (Kawauchi), U.S. Pat. No. 6,294,311 (Shimazu et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 6,352,812 (Shimazu et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 6,593,055 (Shimazu et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 6,352,811 (Patel et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 6,358,669 (Savariar-Hauck et al.), and U.S. Pat. No. 6,528,228 (Savariar-Hauck et al.), and U.S. Patent Application Publications 2002/0081522 (Miyake et al.) and 2004/0067432 A1 (Kitson et al.).
Positive-working thermally imageable elements containing thermally-sensitive polyvinyl acetals are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,255,033 and 6,541,181 (both Levanon et al.) and WO 04/081662 (Memetea et al.).
Offset printing plates recently have been the subject of increasing performance demands with respect to imaging sensitivity (imaging speed) as well as resistance to common printing room chemicals (chemical resistance). Often, the compositional features used to provide one desired property do not always improve other properties.

Radiation-sensitive compositions and elements containing poly(vinyl hydroxyaryl carboxylic acid ester)s


The fire extinguisher of the present invention includes a container housing a fire inhibiting material which may automatically discharge its fire inhibiting contents in response to a fire. In one exemplary embodiment, the fire inhibiting material is pressurized within the container and the container is structured and arranged to discharge its fire inhibiting contents in a predetermined direction. Also, a method is provided for constructing a container for holding fire inhibiting contents under pressure and a method and apparatus for effectively and efficiently filling and pressurizing the container with fire inhibiting material, forming a container structured and arranged to expel the fire inhibiting material contained therein in a predefined direction in response to a fire.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for extinguishing fires as well as to methods and materials used to construct the fire extinguishing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Fire extinguishers generally operate to extinguish a fire by ejecting a fire inhibiting substance onto the fire. Fire extinguishers that automatically discharge a fire inhibiting substance in response to detection of a fire are useful in many circumstances. For example, should a fire break out in an area that is not readily accessible, a fire extinguisher that functions to discharge its fire inhibiting substance on the fire automatically in response to detection of the fire is very useful. One such automatic fire extinguisher is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,909,776, the entire disclosure of which is hereby explicitly incorporated by reference herein.
In the case of an automatic fire extinguisher, it is most useful to provide an extinguisher positioned and constructed to directly apply its fire inhibiting contents to the fire.


The present invention is an apparatus which will detect small voids in elastomeric gloves and will also provide an efficient means for donning such gloves. The apparatus includes a first chamber and a second chamber. Each chamber will receive and maintain a glove. A first conduit is coupled to the first chamber and a second conduit is coupled to the second chamber. Located within the first conduit is a first check valve and a second check valve is located within the second conduit. A conventional connector connects the first conduit to the second conduit. Coupled to the conventional connector is a third conduit. This third conduit is sandwich between the connector and a vacuum pump. For enabling each chamber to operate independently and separately from each other, a third check valve is utilized and is located within the third conduit. A power source enables the apparatus to operate while a switch provides the user to activate when desirable. Accordingly, a glove is secured to each chamber to provide for the finger portion to hand downward within each chamber. Once secured, the switch is activated for activating the system. The vacuum is able to operate and will remove air from each chamber. Ambient air is able to flow within the glove and will cause the glove to inflate. A void will not allow the glove to remain inflated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus which will to detect any defective glove for its removal and more particularly to an apparatus which will inflate the gloves to inherently facilitate its donning while also provide a means of detecting voids in the gloves for their elimination for preventing the transmission of infectious and deadly organisms.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Through the years, health care workers and their patients are becoming more concern as to the sanitary conditions of their working environment. As more research indicates, infectious and deadly organisms can easily be transmitted by way of bodily fluid. To prevent the spread of disease, such as acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), health care workers and the like will usually wear elastic gloves. These gloves will act as a barrier and will offer protection to the wearer and the patients.
In a typical day, a health care worker, such as nurses, doctors, surgeons, dentists, dental hygienist, or the like, will wear a different and new pair of gloves per patient. Ordinarily, the health care worker will scrub down with an antibacterial soap, dry their hands quickly and then place the gloves thereon, hoping for contamination free gloves. Since these gloves generally assumed a "skin tight" fit when worn, they are inherently difficult to put on, especially if the hand and/or glove is damp. Additionally, adding to the frustrations, air pockets may form at the finger tips requiring several adjustments to release this trapped air. Without an apparatus to assist the user, it is seen that it can be tedious, irritating and time consuming for the donning these gloves.
Once the glove is on, there is no way of indicating if it has any tiny voids in which contaminated fluids can pass therethrough. To avoid this problem some health care professionals will don two gloves for each hand. This extra glove adds to the time wasted for donning the supplemental glove and adds unnecessary cost for the health care professional, insurance companies and patient.
Health care providers are only a few individuals who utilize gloves for protection. Other individuals and professions include, but are not limited to, scientists, researchers, food preparation personnel, and the like, all who recognize the need for protection from products and/or worker contamination.
Accordingly, efforts have been made to aid and assist the health care provider during the procedure of donning gloves. Such a device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,078,308 issued to Sullivan. In this patent, there is disclosed an apparatus which operates without internal or external energy sources. The apparatus comprises a cylinder which receives a glove. A tube couples the cylinder to fluid reservoir. The cylinder further includes a one-way check valve which is mounted so that its air inlet communicates with the interior of the cylinder and its air outlet communicates with the ambient environment. For utilizing this device, the user places a glove in the cylinder and makes a fist and quickly inserts and removes the fist from the glove. This will displace the air below the glove forcing it out through the valve. The glove should be in an expanded position due to a partial vacuum which exists below the glove. This apparatus, though useful, does suffer some shortcomings. Since the user must insert a fist into the glove for activating a vacuum, an individual may apply too much pressure and force, inherently causing the glove to be completely removed from the cylinder, an error which is not only undesirable, but irritating as well. Additionally, for those who have large hands, this apparatus may be cumbersome and difficult to master, since their hands, formed as fists, could not properly enter the non-inflated glove. Further, it is questionable if a defective glove can be detected with such a slight vacuum, something that is a necessity in the medical field. In addition, the structure and operation of this device only allows the user to inflate one glove at a time. Such a configuration may require the individual to use the gloved hand for donning the second glove onto the second hand. Since it is desirable for the gloves to remain contact free after leaving the vacuum, the arrangement could contaminate the first glove used in assisting the attachment/release of the second glove.
Yet another device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,915,272 issued to Vlock. Vlock discloses a device having a pair of chambers for receiving a glove for each hand. A pump is used to cause a vacuum to exist in the cylinders once the gloves are attached thereto. Though this device is successful, this apparatus is complex as well as cumbersome for utilization. For example, some switches are located within the cylinders, requiring a sterile hand to activate these mechanical devices. Sterilization of the apparatus is virtually impossible since the chambers are at least double or tripled walled. Utilization of the apparatus would require several hours of training and may not offer the best solution, especially in environments where sterilization if of the utmost importance.
Hence it is seen that none of these previous efforts provide the benefits intended with the present invention. Additionally, prior techniques do not suggest the present inventive combination of component elements as disclosed and claimed herein. The present invention achieves its intended purposes, objectives and advantages over the prior art device through a new, useful and unobvious combination of component elements, which is simple to use, with the utilization of a minimum number of functioning parts, at a reasonable cost to manufacture, assemble, test and by employing only readily available material.

Apparatus and method for detecting voids in and donning elastomeric gloves


Metallic guide elements having a functional area are made from profiled blanks by hot forming the profiled blanks and subsequently milling in a high speed milling cutter system the profiled blanks by a position-controlled milling cutter head with milling disks of a great diameter, wherein in the step of hot forming the profiled blanks are matched with regard to a cross-sectional mass distribution of the profiled blanks, respectively, to the subsequent step of milling such that by a partial cutting removal in the areas of the profiled blanks that become the functional area of the guide element narrow dimensional tolerances are produced. The material flow of the profiled blanks within the high-speed milling cutter system is controlled autonomously by an integrated stacking device that has manipulators and turning stations.

The invention relates to a high-speed milling cutter system for producing metallic guide elements by combining hot forming with subsequent machining by cutting wherein in the step of hot forming a profiled section blank, matched with regard to its cross-sectional mass distribution to the step of machining by cutting, is produced such that narrow dimensional tolerances are generated by partial cutting removal in the functional area of the guide elements.
The invention also concerns a method for producing the aforementioned metallic guide elements.
Such a device or method is disclosed in German patent 196 21 536 C2. In methods and devices for producing profiled steel rods for linear guide elements by means of a combination of hot forming and subsequent cold forming, a forming step done by cutting is provided between the manufacturing stages of hot forming and cold forming. In this way, cost-intensive and time-consuming production steps are avoided.
In the case of far-reaching forklift mast systems (great lifting travel), the essentially U-shaped or H-shaped guide elements used for forklift construction are subjected, in accordance with the prior art, to a cold drawing operation after hot forming in order to narrow the dimensional chamber tolerances (functional area). In this way, the corresponding tolerances can be approximately cut in half. However, this method is not optimal in regard to business-economical and value-analytical considerations and leads to high production costs. Moreover, it has been attempted to confine the chamber dimensions by means of conventional milling technologies. This manufacturing technology however has not found acceptance in mass production because of cost and performance considerations.
Cold drawing is however not economical for this task and leads to high production costs. Moreover, it has been attempted to confine the chamber dimensions by means of conventional milling technology. This manufacturing technology however has not found acceptance in mass production because of cost and performance considerations.

High-speed milling cutter system and method for producing metallic guide elements


The present invention relates to a photocurable adhesive composition. The photocurable adhesive composition comprises a urethane(meth)acrylate resin, a functional-group-containing polybutadiene, a photocurable monomer and a photoinitiator; and the functional group is either an epoxy group or a hydroxyl group. The photocurable adhesive composition ensures good outdoor readability, has outstanding adhesive properties, and impact strength and optical transparency, and minimizes the phenomenon whereby substantial contraction occurs during photocuring, and thus can be suitably used for a display.

In general, mobile displays can be classified into displays for mobiles, and displays for TVs and monitors. For such display panels, it is an important issue to improve outdoor visibility and impact strength so as to correspond to increase in panel size. In this regard, optical adhesive films serve to improve outdoor visibility and impact resistance.
A display panel includes a glass window layer as an outermost layer, an air layer placed under the window layer, and an ITO glass placed under the air layer. The air layer is filled with a transparent material having a similar index of refraction to that of the window glass to improve outdoor visibility.
Currently, materials used as optical adhesives are classified into liquid type and film type materials. Despite the use convenience, film type materials have difficulty in application to various structures and removal of bubbles created upon attachment to a substrate. Moreover, since the film type material has high internal cohesion and thus does not allow easy removal, the film type material has undesirable reworkability and is produced through a complicated process causing increase in manufacturing costs.
Accordingly, development of inexpensive liquid phase materials allowing easy removal of bubbles is a recent trend in the art. Such a liquid phase material is formed into a film through photocuring. A liquid type adhesive is formed into a film through a process of filling a matrix with the liquid type adhesive, followed by photocuring of the liquid type adhesive. Although such a liquid type adhesive allows easy removal of bubbles, there is a problem of high contraction rate upon photocuring. In addition, a typical liquid phase adhesive composition has a high acid value of less than pH 4, thereby causing substrate corrosion.
Further, with the recent trend of increasing the size of mobile displays, a photocurable material is often separated from an upper material, such as glass, polycarbonate or polymethyl methacrylate, due to deterioration in adhesion therebetween by contraction upon photocuring. Particularly, isoprene or butadiene resins used as rubber materials applicable to displays have a limitation in enhancement of adhesion after photocuring. Moreover, with increasing sizes of display products, there is a need for a material having lower viscosity than that of typical materials in order to allow more efficient dispensing of liquid materials.

Photocurable adhesive composition and display device comprising same


A method and apparatus for compression timed ignition in internal combustion engines, the varying mass of the fuel-air mixture having controlling effect to retard timing by cooling a heater element to vary the current therethrough, and characterized by an igniter with a pre-chamber in communication with the engine combustion chamber via at least one and preferably a multiplicity of radiating ports for projecting burning plasma into the engine combustion chamber.

This invention relates to Timing Chamber Ignition as it is disclosed and claimed in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,977,873 issued Dec. 18, 1990 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,817 issued May, 5, 1992, it being an object of this invention to control ignition timing by means of mass changes in the combustible mixture, in order to gain a positive slope proportional to engine load. This invention recognizes ignition delay in the Timing Chamber concepts taught by the aforesaid patents that increases when density decreases, producing a timing curve proportional to load but with a negative slope. The present invention has a timing delay but advantageously with a positive slope.
It is an object of this invention to provide an igniter with improved catalytic torch characteristics. With the catalytic plasma torch as it is herein disclosed (CPT) engine ignition is timed properly and lean stability is extended. The concept herein disclosed is based upon compression ignition of the charge in the igniter's pre-chamber, induced by timed catalytic reduction of the pre-chamber's activation energy. This produces substantially instantaneous combustion in the pre-chamber and is divided into multiple high velocity torches that efficiently ignite the cylinder chamber charge. The timing of the ignition event is based upon the location of the heated catalyst in the pre-chamber and the mass of the charge inducted into the cylinder.
It is an object of this invention to modify the basic timing curve by means of control which directly affects the catalyst activity. Dynamic modification to the timing event is accomplished by using the catalyst as an in-cylinder hot-wire anemometer. It is another object therefore to employ the activity of the catalyst to control ignition timing inversely proportional to the mass of the combustible charge. It is a primary object of this invention to utilize said hot-wire as an anemometer sensitive to changes in mass of the combustible fuel-air mixture, causing corresponding changes in the hot-wire mass so as to simultaneously function firstly as a catalyst to accelerate and improve combustion, secondly as a timing means to retard ignition when cooler and to advance ignition when hotter, and thirdly to produce a signal responsive to resistance changes in said hot-wire mass to govern control means for fuel injection and the like. This method and igniter replaces conventional spark ignition, including distributor, breaker points, coil and high tension leads, and spark plugs. Advantageously, this inventive concept has no moving parts, no sophisticated controls, and is essentially waterproof as well.
It is an object of this invention to provide an engine ignition system that inherently increases power, by vastly improving ignition. With the present invention the timing event occurs instaneously within the pre-chambers from which confinement the explosive plasma escapes through at least one and preferably through a multiplicity of directive ports. These ports are essentially nozzles that project fingers of plasma flame to cover the entire combustion chamber cross section. In practice, these fingers project tangentially from a circle described about the center axis of the igniter, in a spider-like manner.
It is another object of this invention to provide the same effect as a spark ignited fuel rich pre-chamber, but without the added complexity of a pre-chamber fuel supply. Accordingly, this Catalytic Plasma Torch has an extended lean limit that results in better fuel efficiency and lower emissions than spark ignition.
It is an object to provide an ignition system that is readily adjusted and/or controlled by conventional electrical or electronic means. In carrying out this invention there is a heater element and/or catalyst subject to current control means responsive to temperature, for example air intake temperature.
It is an object of this invention to provide an ignition system that has a low energy requirement while satisfying energy requirement prior to combustion via timed selective ionization of reactants in the pre-chamber. Conventional six or twelve volt current renders the heater element of this igniter fully operative, eliminating high tension coils and protected leads. This is a self timed ignition system, basically a single part per combustion chamber and with no moving parts. This system and igniter with its pre-chamber inherently retards timing with load as normally required, and it is adapted to current control so as to be responsive to mass of the combustible mixture that enters the pre-chamber for properly timed ignition.
From the foregoing it will understood that the heater element is responsive to the mass of the combustible mixture, as it changes during engine operation. Said heater element is itself a small sensitive part that operates at ignition temperatures, utilizing the principle of anemometry. The heater element is placed in a fixed location that will provide optimum light load operation of the engine, i.e. most advanced. In practice it is a hot wire exposed to the surrounding moving gas in such a way as to be cooled by said moving gas. Since the velocity of this gas is commensurate with piston velocity times a ratio, and since the heat removal ability of said moving gas is directly proportional to its mass, then the final temperature of said heater element is inversely proportional to the mass of the combustible charge. This causes ignition delay to increase with increased load, giving the timing curve a positive slope. And, as engine speed increases, so does the gas velocity; and at the same load the net mass passing the heater element remains constant so that the net temperature change remains the same. Therefore, for a given load the ignition delay remains constant in terms of crank angle throughout the speed range. Since the time for cumbustion decreases with increasing RPM, the timing is advanced with a proportional increase in current. Detonation is readily compenstated for by dropping the current through the heater element in response to a signal from a detonation sensor. Hense, this ignition method and igniter dynamically responds to engine load, as it is specially tailored to each cylinder and its combustion chamber. A feature is the simplicity of reliable controls to compensate for engine speed, and detonation, as may be necessary. Another feature is the inherent compensation for changes in atmospheric pressure. As atmospheric pressure decreases, this system and igniter inherently advances, so as to compensate for altitude and weather changes. Another feature is inherent compensation for engine wear, by lowering the charge density and advancing the ignition event as needed for each individual cylinder. And, temperature is compensated for by employing a resistance temperature detector (RTD) which lowers current through the heater element as the ambient temperature increases.

Mass controlled compression timed ignition method and igniter