A transmitting apparatus arranges data in matrix, calculates error correction codes in the data's column direction, arranges the calculated error correction codes in matrix having the same number of columns as the data, attaches number information corresponding to a row number to each row having data or error correction code, encapsulates, into each packet, each row having number information and data or error correction code, plus error detection code detecting one or more bit errors at least in the number information and the data or error correction code in the packet, and transmits the packet. Receiving apparatus discards received packets having detected errors using the error detection code in each packet, checks packet losses according to number information, and restores lost data using the error correction codes. An error correction method compensates for packet losses and bit errors in a packet, realizing efficient transmission with less delay by simple configuration.

The FEC (forward error correction) method is known as a method for compensating for bit errors and losses in digital data. By the FEC method, the transmitting side encodes data according to an error correction code and the receiving side detects and corrects for errors or losses. Various codes such as the BCH code, Reed-Solomon code, and convolutional code have been proposed as error correction codes (refer to Non-patent document 1, for example).
An error correction code includes a bit string of (N+n) bits in which an n-bit error correction code is added to N-bit data which is called "codeword." With occurrence of bit errors in a codeword, the receiving side can detect error positions and hence can correct the errors completely as long as the number of errors is within the error correction capability. The error correction capability depends on the error correction code. For example, a (15, 10) Hamming code, that is, a Hamming code in which 15-bit codeword is formed by adding a 5-bit error correction code to 10-bit data, can correct a burst error of up to 2 bits. Although error detection codes as typified by the parity code and the CRC code add an error detection code to data like error correction codes do, they merely detect errors in codewords and cannot correct errors.
To cope with errors such as burst errors that are difficult to correct by an error correction code alone, various FEC methods have been proposed and used in which plural kinds of error correction codes are combined or an error correction code and an error detection code are combined.
The conventional FEC methods are generally classified into three. The first method is an FEC method which is used in a stream-type transmission system. The second method is an FEC method for compensating for packet losses in a packet-type transmission system. The third method is an FEC method for correcting for packet losses and bit errors in a packet in a packet-type transmission system. Conventional FEC methods will be described below with reference to FIGS. 6-9.
FIG. 6 is charts illustrating an FEC method which is used in a stream-type transmission system. FIG. 6(a) shows a system using one kind of error correction code, and FIG. 6(b) shows a system using two kinds of error correction codes.
In the system of FIG. 6(a) which uses one kind of error correction code, in the transmitting side, transmission data are divided in units of a predetermined number of bits and codewords are generated by calculating an error correction code for each piece of divided data. In the receiving side, errors are corrected by using the error correction codes.
FIG. 6(b) shows a system using a code called "product code" which is a combination of two kinds of error correction codes. As shown in FIG. 6(b), data having a certain length are arranged in a matrix format. For example, first, error correction codes are calculated in the vertical direction (column direction) and an outer code which is an error correction code is added at the end of each column. The term "outer code" means a code, calculated first, of the two kinds of codes used.
Then, error correction codes are calculated in the horizontal direction (row direction) and an inner code which is an error correction code is added at the end of each row. The term "inner code" means a code, calculated later, of the two kinds of codes used.
In product codes, even when, for example, errors occur in one row due to a burst error in such a number as to exceed the error correction ability of the inner code, no burst error exists in the column direction and hence all the errors can be corrected by the outer codes. The error correction ability is thus increased. For example, in Japan, the ground-wave digital broadcast employs an FEC method using a product code in which the inner code and the outer code are a punctured convolutional code and a (204, 188) shortened Reed-Solomon code, respectively (refer to Non-patent documents 2 and 3, for example).
FIG. 7 is a chart illustrating an FEC method for compensating for a packet loss in a packet-type transmission system, which is described in Patent document 1. According to Patent document 1, as shown in FIG. 7, a parity cell having parity bits in a payload portion is transmitted following ATM cells having data A-D in payload portions. A parity bit for the kth bits of the data A-D is put in the kth bit of the payload portion of the parity cell. The ATM cells are assigned consecutive cell numbers in transmission order.
For example, when the ATM cell having the data B was lost, the receiving side can recognize the cell loss from the cell numbers and restore the data B using the parity cell. Although capable of compensating for a packet loss with a simple scheme, this system cannot correct bit errors. That is, when an error has occurred at the first bit of the data B, the parity cell can only judge that an error or errors have occurred in one or plural ones of the first bits of the data A-D.
FIGS. 8 and 9 are charts illustrating an FEC method for correcting for packet losses and errors in a packet in a packet-type transmission system, which is described in Non-patent document 4 and Patent documents 2 and 3, for example.
In this method, as shown in FIG. 8(a), a data sequence is divided into data A-D having a predetermined length, which are then arranged in a matrix format. Outer codes A-D are calculated in the row direction and assigned to the data A-D, respectively. Then, inner codes are calculated in the column direction for the data and the outer codes, and an inner code Z is assigned to them. A product code is thus calculated.
Then, the data of each row is divided into data having an ATM cell size, which are transmitted in order from the first row of the matrix as ATM cells which are assigned respective cell numbers indicating the cell transmission order. In FIG. 8(b), each piece of data is divided into two pieces of data.
In the receiving side, as shown in FIG. 9, the data are arranged in the same matrix format as in the transmitting side on the basis of the cell numbers. In doing so, dummy data is inserted for a lost cell (its disappearance can be detected according to the cell numbers). In FIG. 9, since the ATM cell of the data B-1 has disappeared, dummy data is inserted at the position of the data B-1. Data with errors cannot be detected at this stage, and hence data, if any, still having errors is included in the matrix. In FIG. 9, errors have occurred in the data D-2.
Subsequently, the data which are arranged in a matrix form are subjected to error correction processing using the inner codes and the outer codes, whereby the dummy data and the error are corrected. Unlike the scheme of Patent document 1 which has been described above with reference to FIG. 7, this method can also compensate for bit errors. However, this method has drawbacks of low transmission efficiency, a long delay, and a complexity of the circuit.
The low transmission efficiency is due to the presence of dedicated cells which contain outer codes. For example, Non-patent document 4 describes that a (442, 424) BCH code provides transmission efficiency of 21/22 and a (460, 424) BCH code provides transmission efficiency of 10/11.
A long delay occurs at the time of error correction in the receiving side, and depends on the time taken to receive all codewords, that is, data, inner codes, and outer codes. For example, Non-patent document 4 describes a method in which a (460, 424) BCH code is used as the outer code and a (15, 14) parity code is used as the inner code, the codeword length in the horizontal direction (data plus an outer code) is 11 cells, the codeword length in the vertical direction (data plus an inner code) is 15 cells, and the codeword length of the entire product code is 11×15=165 cells. That is, the time taken to receive 165 cells determines the delay time.
Furthermore, where an error correction code is used for each of the inner code and the outer code, a complex circuit configuration is necessary. Incidentally, an error correction encoder which performs error correction encoding, an error corrector which performs error correction according to an error correction code, an error detection encoder which performs error detection encoding, and an error detector which performs error detection according to an error detection code are described in Non-patent document 5, for example.
A method for performing two-dimensional encoding according to the turbo product code like a method using a product code has been proposed. However, the turbo product code requires a large amount of calculation. In particular, in decoding, repetitive operations are necessary and the processing becomes complex. A method using the turbo product code is described in Patent document 4, for example.
Patent document 1: Japanese Patent No. 2,762,815
Patent document 2: JP-A-03-254240
Patent document 3: JP-A-04-207734
Patent document 4: US 2004-0260996A1
Non-patent document 1: "Electronics Essentials No. 20, Essential Points of Error Correction Codes," supervised by Hideki Imai, Japan Industry Center.
Non-patent document 2: "Digital Broadcasting Systems Handbook," supervised by Osamu Yamada, edited by the Institute of Image Information and Television Engineers, Ohmsha Ltd., pp. 18-19.
Non-patent document 3: ITU-R Recommendation BT. 1306-1
Non-patent document 4: Ryoichi Iwase and Hitoshi Obara, "A Bit Error and Cell Loss Compensation Method for ATM Transport Systems," Japanese-language Transactions of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers, J75-B1, No. 1, pp. 1-11, January 1992.
Non-patent document 5: "Application Examples of Error Correction Encoding Techniques <Digital Recording Edition>," supervised by Hiroshi Harashima, published by Triceps Co., Ltd., pp. 43-44 and pp. 67-68

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation


A unitary molded crosslinked polyethylene tubular connector in a metallic sleeve and method for forming the connector with various end configurations (e.g., molded, belled) is described. The process combines the ease of thermoplastic processing combined with the desirable physical properties of a thermoset. The connector is suitable as a replacement for copper tubes with associated fittings as well as polybutylene tubing.

In plumbing installations, copper tubing is widely employed. In risers, used for connecting tubing to fixtures or tanks, the end of the copper tubing is shaped to form a bulb sealing surface and such bulb includes a shoulder permitting the tubing and the bulb sealing surface to be drawn into biting or sealing engagement with the fixture. The cost of such copper tubing and the cost of forming the same to permit the connection to such fixtures or tanks is substantial.
More recently, polymers such as polybutylene have been approved for use in plumbing. Tubing or pipe made of polybutylene is normally joined by heat-fusion techniques, by mechanical compression, and by cold flaring. In order to provide such polybutylene tubing with a bulb sealing surface or an end cap for such purposes, a variety of techniques have been employed. Two commonly employed techniques are: (1) spin-welding a separately molded bulb onto the outer diameter (O.D.) of the end of a tube; or (2) insert molding a bulb onto the O.D. of the end of a tube. All such processes have cost and performance drawbacks. Most require separately molded parts which must be joined to the tubing in assembly operations. Moreover, a two-part tubing end cap or bulb sealing construction does not have the performance integrity or the expected useful life of the tubing itself In the spin welding technique, excessive clamping pressures may cause the loaded part to become dislodged or separated from the O.D. of the tubing and the interface of the parts provides a possibility of leakage. In the case of a neoprene or like washer employed on the O.D. of the tubing, depending on the configuration of the tube/washer interface, the same leakage susceptibility is potentially present. Moreover, a flange formed to receive the washer may itself create a point of weakness if excessive clamping pressures are employed. Further neoprene washers are known to deteriorate with age and temperature exposure. Lastly, insert molding forces hot material over a cold tube surface, which can separate from the tube.
The solution to this problem of providing polybutylene tubing with an attached bulb sealing surface of unitary construction is detailed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,316,870, 4,446,084 and 4,525,136, which are hereinby incorporated fully by reference. The thrust of these references however, is to teach the ability to maintain a constant diameter opening within the tubing, while the wall thickness is variable. This is of necessity, due to the configuration of the mold cavity, and insertion of the mandril inside the tubing during some of the processing steps.
A corresponding associated problem with the formation of the above-described male end of the polybutylene tubing, is the ability to bell an opposed end of the tubing, without any accompanying wall thickness compromise, which would make the product unsuitable for all plumbing applications, for which polybutylene has been approved, provided that a wall thickness can be maintained at 0.062"+0.010", as defined by ASTM 3309. In particular, it is desirable to use 3/8" O.D. polybutylene tubing with wall thickness of 1/16" (0.062") and subsequently insert a 1/2" CTS (copper tube size) fitting of nominal 0.501" O.D. The only way this can be achieved is through belling one end of the tubing from 3/8" O.D. (1/4" I.D.) to 5/8" O.D. (1/2" I.D.). While it is possible to use 5/8" O.D. tubing to start, this uses more raw materials than necessary.
Prior art solutions to the formation of a bell on one end of polybutylene tubing is by heating a portion of the end of the tubing, followed by insertion of a mandril into the heated open end, the O.D. of the mandril being matched to the targeted inner diameter (I.D.) of the tubing. While this approach will bell the tubing, it is incapable of reproducibly making tubing product with a constant wall thickness of 0.062"+0.010" throughout the belled end, particularly in the neck region of the bell. This is due to the fact that the bell is made by expanding the I.D. and thus thinning the walls. A solution to this problem is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,527,503, the teachings of which are hereinby fully incorporated by reference.
The trend today however, is to shift from thermoplastic materials, e.g., polypropylene, polybutylene, etc., to combined thermoplastic/thermoset materials, e.g., crosslinked polyethylene wherein at least a portion of the polymer is crosslinked, for example approximately 65% thermoset/35% thermoplastic. However, this shift in materials is not simple in that there are several processing changes which must be incorporated in order to fabricate acceptable parts. Since thermosets in general, cannot be extruded like thermoplastics, differing processing conditions must be employed in different sequences in order to achieve similar functionality for the thermoset/thermoplastic product. Previously crosslinked material will not chemically bond to itself even when heated to the clear state. This means that the material forms from crosslinked material is not completely sealed upon itself, but rather molded in place with pressure. One prior art solution to this problem is the use of metal inserts which are positioned into rubber or plastic tubes and subsequently crimped in order to achieve a fitting. This is an inherent weak spot in the final product, and the industry has long sought to find a solution to the problem of developing a one-piece plumbing part made out of a thermoset plastic.
One of the drawbacks to using plastic tubing, whether of one-piece construction or not, lies in the fact that plastic tubing does not retain shape characteristics, e.g., bends of defined radius, which the plumbing installer may wish to make in the tubing. Another drawback is the lack of ability to plate or effectively color the plastic with a shiny appearance. While it is possible to tint the plastic, this coloration does not simulate the shiny appearance of chrome or nickel plating, which is necessary in plumbing connections made to pedestal sinks, for example.

Thin wall copper sleeve for all plastic conduit


A circuit breaker has within a casing filled with a dielectric gas, especially SF.sub.6, a first arcing contact electrically connected to a first terminal, and a second arcing contact electrically connected to a second terminal. The second arcing contact is movable within a fixed cylinder. A piston is movable within said fixed cylinder. The fixed cylinder and the piston form a compression chamber. The first arcing contact and the piston are movable relative to each other. An actuating mechanism actuates the first arcing contact in a direction opposite to that of displacement of the second contact, and actuates the piston in a direction opposite to that of the displacement of the second contact.

Generally, in such circuit breakers, the first contact and the piston are fixed, the separation of the contacts and compression of the dielectric gas in the compression chamber being effected simply by movement of the second, movable contact.
French patent FR 2 491 675 discloses a cut-out device whose contacts are moved in opposite directions in order to increase the speed of contact separation without increasing the speed of the movable contact. The actuating means are formed by a system of links and connecting rods.
French patent FR 2 320 626 describes a circuit breaker with a movable contact and piston movable by means of rods, the fixed contact being integral with the cylinder forming the blast chamber.
In a circuit breaker with a dielectric gas such as SF.sub.6, high speed of separation of the contacts and a large stroke to withstand the voltage are sought after in order to interrupt capacitive currents. To interrupt short circuit currents and currents due to remote faults, a high blast pressure and a rapid build-up of pressure are required.
The object of the invention is to interrupt these types of current adequately, while using as little energy for operation as possible.

Circuit breaker with triple movement for high or medium voltages


An indirection texture magnification system and method for producing high-resolution indirection texture results. The system and method uses an indirection texture, designed for use with a low-resolution texture image, and a high-resolution texture image, which is a higher-resolution version of the low-resolution texture image. The indirection texture magnification system and method re-interprets an indirection texture computed for a low-resolution image so that a higher-resolution image can be used with the same indirection texture. This generates additional samples and allows the generation of a magnified, high-resolution indirection texture result. The indirection texture magnification system and method takes three or more neighboring pixel coordinates stored in an indirection texture and offsets those pixel coordinates in order to access the higher-resolution image with an increased precision. Colors obtained from adding this offset are combined to obtain a color for a corresponding pixel at a certain location in the magnified, high-resolution indirection texture result.

Texture mapping is an efficient and popular way to add details on surfaces in computer graphics applications. However, creating large and detailed texture maps is a difficult and tedious task. Moreover, these texture maps are usually at high resolution and often do not fit into available memory. Texture synthesis algorithms (such as sample-based texture synthesis techniques) are aimed at automatically generating large textures from a small example image (known as a texture sample or exemplar). Sample-based texture synthesis both reduces content creation time and storage requirements since the large texture can be generated from the exemplar and a set of parameters.
In general, sample-based texture synthesis takes a low-resolution texture image (called an exemplar image) and generates additional content based on that exemplar image to create much more content that is contained in the exemplar image. Sample-based texture synthesis analyzes a given exemplar image to create visually similar images. In graphics, these images often contain surface attributes like colors and normals, as well as displacement maps that define geometry itself. Sample-based texture synthesis alleviates the need to store explicitly an entire expanse of content. Instead, the content is generated "on the fly" from the much smaller exemplar image.
The output of many texture synthesis algorithms can be interpreted as indirection textures. An indirection texture is a texture that stores the coordinates of pixels contained in a separate texture image. A key feature of an indirection texture is that the pixel coordinates map directly to pixels in the separate texture image. In this manner, a color of a pixel can be retrieved given the pixel coordinate.
One drawback, however, of texture synthesis applications is that it is expensive to generated high-resolution results. Often it is desirable to obtain high-resolution textures, but most texture synthesis techniques do not produce high-resolution output because it is too expensive. In order to obtain a high-resolution result, the texture synthesis technique must be applied several times, thereby increasing expense. For this reason, current texture synthesis applications typically produce low-resolution indirection texture results.


A growable packet switching arrangement where the number, S, of distribution network stages is reduced by bounding S according to log.sub.2 (max(L,N))<S+1<[log.sub.2 (max(L,N))].sup.2 /2. Since the distribution network is made up of stages of opto-electronic nodes and interconnecting free-space optical link stages, there is no need to transmit input signals using different frequencies. Input signals are instead distinguished based on their spatial location. Accordingly, there is no receiver tunability restriction on L, the number of inputs. Further, because signals are regenerated at each network stage and there is only a 3:1 power loss (approximate) at a given stage, high signal/noise ratios and corresponding low bit error rates are achieved.

The term broadband covers a host of new products, technologies, services, and networks. One way to define broadband networks is to categorize them as those networks that support services requiring bit rates well above one megabits per second. Business and residential subscribers will be connected to broadband networks via a common access, operating at 150 megabits per second or above, that can handle a range of different broadband service types. ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) has been chosen as the communication principle on which broadband networks will be based. A future broadband ISDN (integrated services digital network) will offer the flexibility needed to handle diverse services ranging from basic telephone service to high speed data transfer, videotelephony, and high quality television distribution. The key to this flexibility is ATM which carries digital information in special cells. This allows the network to be used efficiently by applications and services with widely differing bandwidth requirements and call characteristics.
A growable packet switching arrangement disclosed in a paper by K. Y. Eng et al., entitled "The Growable Switch Architecture: A Self-Routing Implementation for Large ATM Applications", International Conference on Communications, June 1991, has been proposed for use in ATM applications. In the disclosed arrangement, a partition is made between a front-end distribution network and a column of output packet switching modules. The outputs are divided into groups of n lines each. All incoming cells are routed through the front-end distribution network for substantially instantaneous delivery based on their destination output group addresses. As such, the distribution network must not buffer full cells and must instead perform its routing function for all the cells arriving in each packet time slot. Since the N outputs are grouped into n lines each, there are a total of N/n output groups. For each output group, the corresponding output packet switching module has m(m>=n) inputs, meaning that up to m cells can be accepted for that output group in each time slot. The output packet switching module has buffers for storing full received cells. In an L.times.N packet switch, up to L cells can arrive simultaneously for a particular output group so the design range of m is n<=m<=L. According to the generalized knockout principle, it is possible to pick m<<N to yield an arbitrarily small cell loss probability that is acceptable for the switching system design, even under the most general traffic assumptions. The maximum number of cells accepted into each output group is restricted to m; if there are more than m cells destined to the same output group in a time slot, the excessive cells are simply dropped.
A first example of a growable packet switching arrangement is disclosed in the above-referenced Eng et al. paper. The distribution network is partitioned into a sorting network and a second stage of banyan-type routing elements called modified banyans. The interconnect pattern between the sorting network and the modified banyans is a perfect shuffle. A serious problem with this first growable packet switching arrangement relates to the number of stages required when the sorting network is implemented as a plurality of stages of 2.times.2 nodes. In that important case, the sorting network must have at least [log.sub.2 (max(L,N))].sup.2 /2 node stages. For reasonable values of L=1024 and N=1024, at least 50 node stages are required for the sorting network alone.
A second example of a growable packet switching arrangement is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,093,743 issued to K. Eng et al. on Mar. 3, 1992. A distribution network is constructed from a plurality of fixed wavelength transmitters which are used to transmit arriving data packets through a star coupler, and a plurality of tunable receivers which tune to whatever frequency is necessary to receive the desired data from the star coupler. A control network, constructed from a plurality of fixed wavelength receivers and a plurality of tunable transmitters, determines what frequencies the tunable receivers should tune to, and sends a signal to effectuate such tuning. With the second growable packet switching arrangement, the value of L is seriously limited due to the tunability of the receivers. An arrangement with L=1024 is not practical with existing technology. Since all the input signals are combined and transmitted to all the receivers, and since each receiver selectively receives only one frequency, there is a large power loss in transmitting a packet through the second arrangement. This results in low signal/noise ratios and corresponding high bit error rates.

Free space optical, growable packet switching arrangement


The invention provides a heat-shrinkable polyester-based film roll obtained by winding a heat-shrinkable polyester-based film with a shrinkage ratio of 30% or more in a film main shrinkage direction in hot water at 90° C. for 10 seconds. The film roll has a winding length of 2000-25000 m and a width of 400-2500 mm. The film has a thickness of 5-40 μm. In thickness unevenness in a width direction of the film on a surface layer of the film roll, there are positions having concave thickness patterns, and in a concave portion that has a maximum thickness difference (maximum concave portion), thickness unevenness in the maximum concave portion, which is obtained from the maximum thickness difference in the maximum concave portion and an average thickness of the film is 10% or less. The winding hardness of the surface layer of the film roll is 400-800.

In recent years, for the purposes of: label packaging for protecting glass bottles, PET bottles and the like and for product description; cap sealing; assembling packaging; and the like, drawn films made of polyvinyl chloride-based resin, polystyrene-based resin, polyester-based resin and the like (so-called heat-shrinkable films) have been widely used. Among such heat-shrinkable films, polyvinyl chloride-based films have problems that they have low heat resistance, generate hydrogen chloride gas while they are incinerated, cause dioxin, and the like. Further, polystyrene-based films have problems that they have poor solvent resistance so as to require using ink with a special composition for printing, they require to be incinerated at a high temperature, and they generate a large amount of black smoke with a foul smell during the incineration. Thus, polyester-based heat-shrinkable films, which have high heat resistance, can be incinerated easily, and have excellent solvent resistance, have been utilized widely as shrinkable labels, and a used amount thereof tends to be increased according to the increase of the distribution amount of PET bottles.
Moreover, as the heat-shrinkable films, films which are shrunk largely in their width directions are generally utilized due to their easy handling during the production of labels. Thus, conventional heat-shrinkable polyester-based films have been manufactured by being drawn at high magnification in width directions so as to exhibit sufficient shrinkage force in the width directions when they are heated.
However, since such heat-shrinkable films are finally disposed as rubbish in most cases, reduction of their thicknesses has been required for environmental response. Such thickness reduction also decreases resilience of heat-shrinkable films so as to cause poor appearance of film rolls after slitting the films, thereby exposing a defect. Thus, when printing or processing the film rolls, a trouble is caused. In particular, a problem of poor flatness is caused at a location where sag is generated, and printing error or the like is further caused at the location where the sag is generated along a width direction of the film rolls, thereby causing a loss. The inventors of the present invention have been newly found that, due to such thickness reduction of films and increase of printing speed and colors, seriousness of these problems caused by sag has stood out, whereby even a film roll of a film having sag, which has been conventionally accepted with no problem, is now difficult for the application.
For forming a tube-shaped label from a heat-shrinkable film, one end portion of the film in its width direction is required to be fixed to be overlapped with other end portion. As this fixing method, a solvent bonding method (Patent Document 1), a method using an adhesive agent (Patent Document 2) and the like have been used conventionally. Among them, the solvent bonding method enables processing into a tube-shaped label at high speed, and thus has been used widely.
Since a process of processing surfaces of a heat-shrinkable polyester film into a tube-shaped label (tubing process) by this solvent bonding method can increase a production efficiency and can reduce costs, many of labels are produced by this method. However, if sag is generated at a position to which solvent is attached, lack or unevenness of adhesive strength is caused, so that it is difficult to obtain a favorable tube-shaped heat-shrinkable label. The inventors of the present invention have newly found that, also in the tubing process, according to the increase of processing speed, the seriousness of above-described problems caused by sag has stood out more, whereby even a film roll of a film having sag which has been conventionally accepted with no problem is now difficult for the application.

Heat-shrinkable polyester-based film roll


The present invention discloses a RISC processor and a method of processing flag bits of a register in the RISC processor. Said RISC processor comprises a physical register stack, an operating component connected to the physical register stack and an decoder connected to the operating component; the physical register stack comprises an emulation flag register for emulating to realize flag bits of a flag register in a CISC processor; the operating component comprises a flag read-write module for reading and writing the values of the flag bits of the emulation flag register. The operating component further comprises an operating controller for performing an operation control according to the values of the flag bits of the emulation flag register when the RISC processor is in the working mode of X86 virtual machine during an operation process.

Virtual machine is a concept put forward and put into practice by IBM Corporation in the 60's of the 20th century, when mainframes were the mainstream computers. A mainframe was divided into multiple virtual machines and virtual machine monitors (VMMs) were used for compartmentation so that a variety of applications or a plurality of users could share this scarce resource.
However, with the reduction of cost in hardware and the enhancement of computing capabilities as well as the emergence of a multi-task operating system (OS), VMMs gradually step down from the stage of history, while microcomputers and personal computers (PCs) are becoming increasingly popular.
Nevertheless, as virtual machines are powerful and successful in that users may access to and use those functions and equipment that can be formed simply through a combination of instruction sets. In recent years, virtual machine monitors have once again become a focus in the academic circle and industry circle. Virtual machine monitors provide a virtual solution for the limitation of the modern computer system architecture, making it a powerful tool which will greatly enhance the capacity of modern computer systems.
Today's complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor architecture, such as the X86 instruction set-based CISC processor architecture, holds a dominant position in many applications, i.e., the X86 instruction set-based CISC processor architecture is used in many large-sized server-based service applications. In order to enable server-based service applications to be widely run on a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) architecture-based microprocessor, it has been a necessary task to realize its compatibility with CISC processors. In addition, in the existing CISC processor-based computers, the applications are more diverse and plenty of commercial software is based on the CISC processor. So, in order to run a wider range of diverse applications on a RISC microprocessor, it's also very urgent to realize the compatibility of the RISC microprocessor with the CISC processor.
As a major branch of RISC processors, the MIPS instruction set-based RISC processor currently has many open-source virtual machine platforms capable of realizing a heterogeneous support from the MIPS instruction set-based RISC processor to an X86 instruction set-based CISC processor.
Many aspects need be taken into account if a virtual machine is used to make an X86 instruction set-based CISC processor compatible with an MIPS instruction set-based RISC processor. One aspect is the use of flag bits of the EFLAGES in the X86 instruction set-based CISC processor.
The flag register (EFLAGS) in the X86 instruction set mainly includes the following three parts of contents:                1. status Flags, including a total of 6 bits, which are CF (carry flag), PF (parity flag), AF (auxiliary flag), ZF (zero flag), SF (sign flag) and OF (overflow flag);        2. DF (direction flag) for controlling the direction of a string operation instruction; and        3. other system flags and I/O privilege level (IOPL), including single-step mode flag, interrupt enable, I/O priority and so on, which cannot be modified by a user program.
The fixed-point operating instruction of the X86 instruction set supports the operation of a total of 6 bits (CF bit, PF bit, AF bit, ZF bit, SF bit and OF bit) of the flag bits of a flag register (EFLAGS). That is to say, in addition to data values, many operating instructions will also generate flag bits of a flag register, thereby enabling some transfer instructions to use the flag bits as a transfer condition to realize an instruction jump.
However, in the RISC processor-based X86 virtual machine in the prior art, the operation of 6-bit flag bits of a flag register is performed via simulation, which will be a considerable overhead and cause a great impact on the performance.

RISC processor and its register flag bit processing method


A tampon and delivery system for a pharmaceutical, holistic or medicinal component, includes: (1) a nonabsorbent vaginal implant having a generally cylindrical shape including a leading end and a cylindrical outer surface; (2) an outer delivery sheath applied to at least a portion of the cylindrical outer surface of the tampon, distal from the leading end (and preferably leaving the leading end exposed), where the outer delivery sheath comprises a formulation including (a) a water soluble polymer film carrier and (b) a pharmaceutical, holistic or medicinal component; and (3) an applicator containing the tampon and applied delivery sheath. Methods for preparation of the delivery system and methods of use are also disclosed.

In modern medicine, a primary goal in the administration of medication is to deliver such medication to the body of the individual by the most direct route to the target of the medication. In other words, delivery of a drug to treat a medical ailment of a patient should be highly targeted to reach and treat the ailment for which the medication is intended in the least amount of time, with the least amount of communication of the medication administered to areas of the body not requiring it. Such accurate targeting is especially desired where other parts of the body may react adversely to the medication, or where a circuitous route through the body may dilute the medication.
In the case of vaginal disorders which may occur monthly such as menstrual pain, which in studies impacts up to 80% of women and up to 10% with debilitating symptoms that limit normal daily routine, or which may be caused by viruses, yeast, or other pathogens, it is desirable that a treating medication be delivered directly to the vaginal cavity of the person. Further, in some cases, it is desirable that the medication delivery be prolonged so as to have time to communicate to regions of the vaginal canal, cervix, or uterus without problems from body fluids draining from the delivery area preventing medication delivery.
Multiple delivery systems have been employed over recent decades to provide such targeted and prolonged delivery. However, because of issues with drug delivery via the vaginal canal, suppositories and foams which provide carriers for the medication frequently fail or are rendered less than effective due to fluid flow and drainage from the canal. Tampon related devices, while advantageous for ease of use and familiarity to the user, have been tried, but the prior art is configured in such a manner that the released medication can actually be absorbed by the tampon rather than delivered to the body of the user. Furthermore, the use of a tampon as part of the delivery mechanism limits the useable window of time and the population of women that can benefit from using the device without potential adverse impact. Using an absorbent device such as a tampon outside of menses can lead to residual fiber loss, that can be breeding grounds for viruses, yeast, or other pathogens, as well as create micro tears in the vaginal epithelium which can allow for the spread of those pathogens into the bloodstream, one example of this can result in TSS (Toxic Shock Syndrome).
The forgoing prior art examples concerning vaginal drug delivery are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive, and they do not imply any limitations on the invention described and claimed herein. Various other limitations of the related art are known or will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading and understanding of the specification below and the accompanying drawings.

Delivery system for a pharmaceutical, holistic or medicinal component


A method and apparatus for ultrasonic frequency expansion is characterized by expanding audiometric frequencies before translation into the ultrasonic range. The audiometric signals are first expanded in time by a factor of 1/.beta. where .beta.<1 while generally maintaining the frequency content of the audiometric signals. Next the frequency of the signals is expanded by a factor 1/.beta. while compressing the time scale to that of the original signal. The frequency expanded signal is processed via a single-sideband upconverter to translate the frequency expanded signal into a single sideband signal in the ultrasonic range.

There are noticeable differences in perception of audiometric and ultrasonic signals by human beings. The resolution of human hearing, for example, is measured by a quantity referred to as the Just Noticeable Difference (JND). This parameter is determined experimentally as follows. A subject listens to a tone generated at a certain sound pressure level. The frequency of the tone is then shifted slightly and the JND for that frequency and sound pressure level is the amount of frequency shift which can be perceived by the subject.
Using the JND technique, it has been determined that human hearing operates on a logarithmic scale, so that the resolution at low frequencies is finer, in an absolute sense, than at higher frequencies. Generally, the JND is about 1.4% of the test frequency averaged over different sound pressure levels. For example, a 1 KHz test tone yields a JND of about 14 Hz. The same logarithmic behavior is evident in ultrasonic hearing, but with a larger conversion factor on the order of 12%.
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for translating audiometric signals into the ultrasonic range. The translated signals can be delivered to an ultrasonic transducer which when properly placed on an individual allows the individual to perceive the ultrasonic signals as audible sound.

Ultrasonic frequency expansion processor


A microwave-annealed indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) film and methods of making the same are disclosed. The methods may comprise: depositing an IGZO film onto a substrate; and microwave annealing the IGZO film to produce a microwave-annealed IGZO film.

The invention relates generally to processing of semiconductors.
In recent years, transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) have attracted attention due to the high demand for optoelectronic devices such as solar cells, light emitting diodes (LEDs), and organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Currently, indium tin oxide (ITO) is the most commonly used TCO material due to high electrical conductivity and high optical transparency in the visible region (˜80%). However, ITO has several limitations. Notably, its transparency in the near-UV region decreases rapidly and there exists a low supply of indium. Hence, it makes the cost of ITO fabrication very high.
In contrast to the disadvantages of ITO, several investigations had been done one the zinc-oxide (ZnO)-based materials such as gallium zinc oxide (GZO), indium zinc oxide (IZO), aluminum zinc oxide (AZO), and indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO). These compounds are better alternatives due to their low toxicity, high carrier mobility, excellent environmental stability and superior chemical selectivity. Among them, IGZO is a new prospective material used as TCO on optoelectronic devices due to its high transmittance, low processing temperature and excellent surface smoothness. However, the electrical resistivity of IGZO is still high for its application as transparent electrode. To decrease the electrical resistivity of IGZO, several studies have been conducted to investigate the relationship between stoichiometry and electrical properties or controlling deposition parameters. However, little attention has been paid to the influence of post-deposition processing parameters on optical and electrical properties of IGZO.
Consequently, considering such limitations of previous technological approaches, it would be desirable to have a system and method for making an IGZO thin film with improved optical and electrical properties with a reduced annealing time.

Microwave-annealed indium gallium zinc oxide films and methods of making the same


Documents are compressed. A partially compressed document is obtained. The partially compressed document includes one or more code words that replace one or more common tokens of a document to be compressed. The one or more common tokens are tokens common to a plurality of documents, and included in a common dictionary. The common dictionary provides a mapping of code words to common tokens. A document associated dictionary is created from non-common tokens of the document to be compressed. The document associated dictionary provides another mapping of other code words to the non-common tokens. A compressed document is created. The creating of the compressed document includes replacing one or more non-common tokens of the partially compressed document with one or more other code words of the document associated dictionary. The compressed document includes the one or more code words of the partially compressed document and the one or more other code words of the document associated dictionary.

One or more aspects relate to compressing a plurality of documents. Many documents stored in the Internet (e.g., in a cloud) are text/natural language based. These documents are highly redundant since they all employ more or less the same sets of words of natural languages (e.g., one set for each language). These sets of words are—in terms of size needed to represent/store these sets of words digitally—very small as compared to the total storage space occupied by the respective documents.
Storing the documents consumes valuable disk space. Transmitting the documents to the end users consumes valuable bandwidth. Reducing the size of text documents to be stored, e.g., in the Internet, e.g. in a so-called cloud, in order to save disk space or bandwidth therefore generally seems to be desirable. One class of known compression methods uses dictionaries. A dictionary can be tailored (or customized) to data to be compressed in order to improve a compression ratio. Known processes, like DB2 or DFSMS (Data Facility Storage Management Subsystem), scan a subset of the data to compute a dictionary or "generic" or "standard" dictionary (often working well, but not optimal). A dictionary may be selected from a number of existing dictionaries or compression may start with a pre-filled dictionary.
These or other known document compression methods may work in a way that a dictionary is generated from a first original document D. That dictionary is used to compress that first original document. In a cloud environment, those tuples D* of a compressed document plus its dictionary are always stored together, for each single original document D, as they were stored in a non-cloud environment before.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


Method of efficient utilization of a single hardware system with single operating system kernel wherein a virtual environment, functionally equivalent to a full-featured operating system box, is provided to an end user without emulation of hardware, dedicated physical memory or another hardware resource. Such method is realized by separation of user processes on the level of namespace and on the basis of restrictions implemented inside the operating system kernel. Each virtual environment is invisible to other virtual environments within the system and has a completely independent root file system.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to the provision of full independent computer system services across a network of remote computer connections.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The problem of providing computer services across remote computer connections has existed during the last 30–40 years beginning with the early stages of computer technologies. In the very beginning, during the mainframe computer age, this problem was solved by renting computer terminals which were associated with a mainframe computer and then connecting the related computer terminals to the mainframe computer using a modem or dedicated lines to provide the mainframe computer with data access services (U.S. Pat. No. 4,742,477, Bach 1987). Later, with the beginning of the age of personal computers and with the widespread acceptance of the client-server model (Crowley 1997), the problem of access to large information sources in the form of computer readable data, at first look, seems to have been solved. Specifically, every user could have his own computer and then rent an Internet connection to obtain access to information sources or data stored on other computers.
Today, with wide growth of Internet access, another problem has arisen—the problem of information creation. Usually, users want to put out their own information sources in the form of websites and then provide other computer users with access to these websites. However, it is not possible to install a web server on most home connections to a personal computer, simply because the connection to the network from a home computer is usually not adequate to handle the amount of data transfer required. Accordingly, this need has given birth to an industry called a "hosting service"—a hosting service provides computer users with an ability to utilize installed web services (Eckel 1995).
When one wants to provide Internet users with information in the form of computer readable data (usually in web server form) which could be of interest to a wide range of Internet users, one must store the information and provide a reliable network connection to access the information when needed.
The problem of providing ordinary personal computer users access to information on large capacity computers occurred virtually from the beginning of personal computer production. During the era of the mainframe computer, when direct user access to computer equipment was difficult, this problem was solved by providing users with remote terminals directly connected to a single mainframe computer (U.S. Pat. No. 4,742,477, Bach 1987). These remote terminals were used to obtain certain services from mainframe computers. The advantage of using multiple remote terminals with a single mainframe computer was that the user had little trouble accessing both the mainframe computer hardware and, to some extent, the software resident on the mainframe computer. This is because mainframe computer administration has always dealt with installing and updating software.
Later, with the introduction of personal computers, each personal computer user could gain access to computing power directly from his workplace or home. With the advent of Internet access, the needs of most users for large amounts of information and robust operating systems were met.
The client-server model of networking computers (Crowley 1997) provides a system for accessing computer readable data in which a personal computer is designated as the client computer and another computer or a set of computers is designated as the server computer. Access to the server computer is carried out in a remote way covering the majority of needs of the common computer users.
But even the client-server model has some very fundamental drawbacks. Specifically, the high price of servicing many client workplace computers, including the creation of a network infrastructure and the installation and upgrading of software and hardware to obtain bandwidth for client computer network access, is a significant drawback. Additionally, the rapid growth of information on the Internet has produced more users who in turn continue to fill the Internet with more information. The required service to client computers should be provided by a sufficiently powerful server computer (usually a web or www server) which has an access channel to the Internet with corresponding power. Usually, personal computers have enough performance capability to interact with most of the web servers, but the typical network access is usually less productive than what is required. Additionally, most home personal computers cannot provide sufficient reliability and security. Apart from Internet services, the same problems occur when ordinary personal computer users utilize very complex software packages. Users spend a lot of time and effort setting up and administering these complex software packages. To solve these web service problems, a remote web host (usually supported by an ISP, i.e., Internet Service Provider) usually hosts the web servers for the personal computer users. Thus, the personal computer user is restricted to use of the standard preinstalled web server of the ISP. As a result, the personal computer user's options are limited.
Problems usually arise with the use of CGI (The Common Gateway Interface) scripts and more complex applications requiring a data base. Such computer tools cannot be used to access any of the personal computer user's programs on a remote server. The personal computer user is used to the absolute freedom of adjustment of his local machine, and therefore the limitations that are imposed by the administration of a remote node on a data storage network are often unacceptable.
One solution to these problems is the use of computer emulators. The OS/390 operating system for IBM mainframe computers has been in use for many years (Samson). The same products with hardware partitioning are produced by another vendor of computers—Sun Microelectronics (Kobert). Each personal computer user is given a fully-functional virtual computer with emulated hardware. This approach is very costly because the operating system installed in the corresponding virtual computer does not recognize the existence of the neighboring analogous computers and shares practically no resources with those computers. Experience has shown that the price associated with virtual computers is very great.
Another analogous solution for non-mainframe computers utilizes software emulators of the VMware type (VMWare Workstation 2.0 Documentation). These software programs exist for different types of operating systems and wholly emulate a typical computer inside one process of a main computer operating system.
The main problem is the limitation on the number of computer emulators that can be used on a typically configured server. This limitation is usually due to the fact that the size of the emulated memory is close to the size of the memory used by the process or in which the computer emulator works. That is, the number of computer emulators that can be simultaneously used on one server ranges from about 2–3 to about 10–15. All of the above-mentioned solutions can be classified as multikernel implementations of virtual computers; i.e., the simultaneous existence on one physical computer of several operating system kernels that are unaware of each other.
Therefore, when it is necessary for many personal computer users to deal with a hosting computer, each personal computer user must be provided with a complete set of services that the personal computer user can expect from the host; i.e., a complete virtual environment which emulates a complete computer with installed operating system. For an effective use of equipment, the number of computers in a virtual environment installed in one host computer should be at least two to three times larger than the numbers mentioned above.


Disclosed herein is an IC embedded substrate that includes a core substrate having an opening, an IC chip provided in the opening, a lower insulating layer, and upper insulating layer. The IC chip and the core substrate is sandwiched between the lower insulating layer and the upper insulating layer. The upper insulating layer is formed in such a way as to fill a gap between a side surface of the IC chip and an inner peripheral surface of the opening of the core substrate. A first distance from the upper surface of the IC chip to an upper surface of the upper insulating layer is shorter than a second distance from the upper surface of the core substrate to the upper surface of the upper insulating layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an IC embedded substrate in which an IC chip is incorporated therein, and a method of manufacturing the IC embedded substrate.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, portable electronic devices, such as smartphones and tablet PCs, have become increasingly popular. In each of portable electronic devices, in order to reduce the size of the device and improve the functionality, an IC embedded substrate in which many functions are put together are mounted. The IC embedded substrate is a module component in which a semiconductor IC of a bare chip state that has been ground so as to be very thin is embedded in the substrate, and passive components, such as capacitors, inductors, thermistors, and resistors, are surface-mounted on the surface of the substrate. This IC embedded substrate allows various power supply circuits and a plurality of wireless communication functions to be modularized. As a result, small, thin, and high-performance portable electronic devices can be realized.
A conventional IC embedded substrate disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 5,001,395 includes a core substrate, in which a cavity is formed; an IC chip, which is housed in the cavity; a first conductor pattern, which is formed on an upper surface of the core substrate; a second conductor pattern, which is formed around the first conductor pattern; and an insulating layer, which is formed on the upper surface of the core substrate in such a way as to cover the first and second conductor patterns and an opening of the cavity. The core substrate is a reinforcing member, such as glass cloth, that is impregnated with resin. In this manner, a desired level of substrate strength is ensured. The first conductor pattern is provided in such a way as to encircle the opening of the cavity, thereby keeping the insulating layer from being bent. In the first conductor pattern, a slit is formed. Part of the resin outside of the first conductor pattern goes through the slit to move to the inner side of the first conductor pattern. As a result, the insulating layer is equal in thickness on the inner and outer sides of the first conductor pattern. Therefore, the insulating layer can be flattened.
However, in the case of the above conventional embedded substrate, the following problems arise, as the core substrate is almost equal in thickness to the IC chip. That is, while the core substrate and the IC chip are covered with the insulating layer, the diameter of an IC connection via-hole conductor needs to be made larger in such a way as to pass through the insulating layer above the IC chip when the distance (height) from the upper surface of the IC chip to the upper surface of the insulating layer is long.
Therefore, the problem is that it is difficult to reduce the size of via-hole conductors and narrow their pitch. Another idea to reduce the size of via-hole conductors and narrow their pitch is to reduce the original thickness of the insulating layer. However, in this case, the problem is that the adhesive strength of the insulating layer and the flatness of the upper surface of the insulating layer could be worsened, and the reliability of a wiring layer formed on the upper surface of the insulating layer would decrease. The problem will become more obvious especially when the size of a filler contained in the insulating layer is larger than the thickness of the cured resin.
Moreover, in order to expand an effective area of the core substrate, the area of the cavity should be as small as possible. However, in such a case, the gap between a side surface of the IC chip and the inner peripheral surface of the cavity is very narrow, making it difficult to fill the gap with resin. If the gap is not sufficiently filled with resin, the fixed IC chip could become unstable, possibly leading to positional deviation of the IC chip and a connection failure.

IC embedded substrate and method of manufacturing the same


Disclosed in one embodiment is a busbar comprising: an insulating body; a plurality of neutral terminals arranged in the insulating body; and a plurality of first driving terminals, second driving terminals, and third driving terminals arranged in the insulating body, wherein the plurality of neutral terminals, first driving terminals, second driving terminals, and third driving terminals are electrically insulated, respectively, and the shape of the plurality of the first driving terminals, the second driving terminals, and the third driving terminals are the same.

Generally, an electronic power steering (EPS) system is a system for securing steering safety of a vehicle, and allows easy handling by supplying power using a motor in a direction in which a driver steers the vehicle.
Such an EPS system may improve a steering performance and a steering feeling by controlling an operation of the motor according to a driving condition unlike a conventional hydraulic power steering (HPS) system.
Specifically, the EPS system controls an inverter to drive the motor according to driving conditions detected by a vehicle speed sensor, a torque angle sensor, a torque sensor, and the like of an electronic control unit (ECU). Accordingly, since a turning safety is secured and a rapid restoring force is provided, the driver may safely drive.
Recently, safety requirements have been increased in the field of vehicles. Accordingly, a technology in which a safety of a vehicle is secured even when some parts (ECU or inverter) of the EPS system are in impossible operation states is required.

Busbar, motor, and power transmission system using same


An electronic device and a method of fabricating the electronic device includes forming a first electrical contact, a dielectric layer and a second electrical contact wherein the dielectric layer is located between the first and the second electrical contacts, forming an electrically insulating layer over the dielectric layer and the first electrical contact, exposing the first and second electrical contact, the dielectric layer and a first portion of the electrically insulating layer to radiation from the side of the first electrical contact, removing a second portion of the electrically insulating layer that was not irradiated by the radiation, providing a semiconductor material over a portion of the dielectric layer, and forming at least a third electrical contact over at least a portion of the electrically insulting layer and the semiconductor material.

This is a Division of application Ser. No. 10/739,189 filed Dec. 19, 2003. The entire disclosure of the prior application is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to electronic devices such as, for example, transistors and methods for fabricating the same.
2. Description of Related Art
Electronic devices, such as, for example, transistors, have a multitude of uses. For example, low cost, large area arrays of thin-film transistors (TFTs) are important components in flat panel displays, electric paper, and imagers. In a pixel of a display, a TFT is used as an electrical switch to charge a pixel electrode that switches the display media from one state to another. A display backplane comprises an array of pixel elements that is used to address the display media. Amorphous silicon is often used as the active material in TFTs for these applications.
Polymeric semiconductors have field effect mobilities of approximately 0.01-0.1 cm2V−1s−1 and are relatively simple to process due to their solubility and ease of forming continuous films. These field effect mobilities are typically lower than those obtained for amorphous silicon, ˜0.5-1.0 cm2V−1s−1.
Additive and subtractive patterning techniques are sometimes used to fabricate patterned polymeric TFTs. Additive methods deposit only enough material for the desired pattern while subtractive methods deposit a blanket layer of material and remove the majority of it to define the pattern. Two subtractive methods for organic TFTs include photolithography and screen printing. Photolithography is a high-resolution, subtractive method for patterning, and is sometimes used to make complex circuits and displays with organic materials. An additive method sometimes used for fabrication of organic light emitting diodes, metal-organic-metal diodes, and TFTs is inkjet printing. Inkjet printing sometimes maintains registration by digital-image processing and precise spatial control of deposition.
Generally, in a transistor, the source pad and the drain pad are configured in coplanar geometry. That is, the source pad and the drain pad are positioned over the gate electrode and under the semiconductor. Also, the source pad and the drain pad are sometimes configured in a staggered geometry. That is, the source and the drain pad are located over the semiconductor.

Electronic device and methods for fabricating an electronic device


An apparatus and method for maintaining patency of a vessel or other body region is provided. The apparatus includes an appliance having a non-circumferential form and being effective in maintaining patency or openness, or causing to become patent or open, a body region in which the appliance is located. The appliance may be formed of a flexible metallic struts structured to be submucossally implanted into a wall of the vessel or other body region.

The present invention generally relates to medical devices and more specifically relates to a stent for maintaining patency of a body region.
There are many different kinds of endoprostheses, commonly called stents, which have the common characteristic of being presented into a patient's blood vessel or other body cavity or lumen in the shape of a cylinder, the wall of which forms a kind of lattice of deformable mesh in order to permit its diametrical expansion after being inserted into the body cavity in a contracted state.
A stent can maintain vascular patency by mechanically supporting vessels to prevent unintended closure. Stents can also be used to repair aneurysms, to support artificial vessels as liners of vessels or to repair dissections. Stents are suited to the treatment of any body lumen, including the vas deferens, ducts of the gallbladder, prostate gland, trachea, bronchus and liver. The body lumens typically range in diameter from small coronary vessels of about 3 mm or less to about 28 mm or more in the aortic vessel.
A typical stent is a cylindrically shaped wire formed device intended to act as a permanent prosthesis. A stent is deployed in a body lumen from a radially compressed configuration into a radially expanded configuration which allows it to expand to provide support to a body lumen.
The stent can be made to be radially self-expanding or expandable by the use of an expansion device such as a balloon catheter. A self expanding stent is made from a resilient springy material while an expandable stent is made from a material which is permanently deformable. An expandable stent can be implanted during an angioplasty procedure by using a catheter bearing a stent which has been secured to the catheter such as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,372,600 to Beyar et al. which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Commonly, stents are made of stainless steel or highly elastic metal alloy wires which are interwoven into a cylindrical mesh. The open weave wire structure typically results in loose wires at ends of the stent which can be traumatizing to the vessel walls in contact therewith. Sharp edges and loose wires oftentimes result in a fibrous change therein and the formation of an intraluminal scar which can be the nexus of another stenosis.
The present invention provides an improved apparatus for maintaining patency and/or causing patency or openness in a vessel or other body region of a living human or animal body.

Stent for maintaining patency of a body region


The invention relates to an electrical machine for submerged applications and an energy conversion system for conversion of mechanical energy of unidirectional or reciprocating linear or rotational motion into electric energy and vice versa. The electric energy may be in the form of DC or AC current and voltage. The system is totally submerged in pure or salt water. The enabling element of the invention is multi-pole permanent magnet synchronous machine with separately encapsulated stator and rotor, integrated with mechanical system and power electronics.

Submerged power conversion systems may have applications in wave-, tidal- and hydro power conversion plants, auxiliary subsea generators, submerged blade pitching systems, subsea winches, propulsion systems, thrusters, in-pipe generators, etc. These applications are characterized by different types of primary motion.
Based on the difference in motion and on existing solutions the prior art overview below is given in two stages: first, publications on tidal- and hydro applications and then on wave energy conversion and subsea winches. Other applications may be attributed to one of the named groups of applications.
Tidal and hydro applications are characterized by rotational motion. Usually there is a turbine which rotates in one direction at slowly variable speed. The direction of the rotation may change in tidal applications but this take place only twice a day, so one may regard the system as having continues rotation in one direction.
For tidal and hydro applications there have recently been proposed several solutions with electrical machines integrated into the turbines and operating with water in the gap between separately encapsulated stator and rotor. Overview of the solutions is given below.
Electric machine disclosed as a part of the water turbine and liquid pump presented in WO2004/113717 (Royrvik, 2004) has the stator consisting of coils and encapsulation material only. Neither iron teeth nor back iron is used.
Electrical machine in OpenHydro's U52010/0026002 (Spooner, 2010) also operates with water in the gap between stator and rotor. It is slotless, but unlike the machine in WO2004/113717 it uses element made of ferromagnetic winding for conducting magnetic flux. Also the machine has diode rectifiers for each coil, connected together to provide DC voltage output from the machine.
Two publications of Clean Current Power Systems—CA2615808A1 and GB2442622B disclose axial-flux machines. CA2615808A1 (Allison, 2003) proposes a machine with two counter-rotating rotor disks with magnets on the root of the blades and encapsulated coils on stator without any iron cores.
GB2442622B (Platon, 2009) proposes a stator consisting of a row of E-shaped iron segments with a coil in each segment. The segments are separately encapsulated. There are gaps between the neighboring segments. Each coil is equipped with an individual electronics unit, and the units are connected together into a network to form a common DC voltage output.
To increase rotational speed at which mechanical-to-electrical energy conversion is carried out sometimes there are used various mechanical transmission systems. For example, in publication U.S. Pat. No. 7,530,224 B2 (Fraenkel, 2009) hydraulic speed increasing transmission is used for a tidal turbine.
The features of the solutions reviewed above, which may lead to concrete drawbacks compared to the solution proposed in the current invention, can be summarized as follows:                the machines do not have complete iron cores in the stator or do not have iron cores at all,        there are electronics units belonging to the individual segments, the units are connected into a network resulting in DC output from the machine operating as a generator,        using speed increasing gears.
The solution with incomplete stator iron cores will lead to high stray fields, as there is no closed iron path for magnetic flux, and as a consequence lower power density, lower efficiency and power factor. In addition having the incomplete iron cores (E-cores) will result in lower structural stiffness, which is important for machines with large diameter. Given the strong attraction forces between magnets and iron E-cores, ensuring constant gap between stator and rotor would require a substantial carrying structure, which may be quite expensive.
The solution with electronics units at each segment will result in numerous electrical connections which may lead to lower reliability. Moreover, the AC voltage rectification at the segments will lead to non-sinusoidal voltage and current in the coils, resulting in additional losses and lower efficiency.
So, electric machine solutions for tidal- and hydro power conversion units known from the prior art suffer from either low efficiency or high cost or both.
Subsea winches may have cyclic loads and operate with changing direction of rotation in both motoring and generating mode.
Wave energy conversion is usually characterized by a reciprocating linear motion. There are a number of concepts applying linear electrical machines for power extraction. The linear motion however may be translated into rotational motion by using winch-like arrangements (system of pulleys). Rotation in one direction due to raise of a floater may be followed by uncoiling a line (string) from a pulley and rotation of a shaft. Then rotation in reversed direction is followed by coiling the string back on the pulley which may be forced by a mechanical spring. Examples are described in publications US 2006273594 A1 (Gehring, 2006) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,208,877 (Davis, 1980). This type of arrangements can provide energy extraction only when the floater is rising, so while rotating only in one direction.
In principle power can be extracted at motion (rotation) in both directions. It was shown as early as in 1978 by Budal and Falnes (GB 1522661) who patented a system with two counter-moving floaters (buoys), where one is floating on the surface and one is submerged. Instead of the submerged floater there may be used a counter-weight (sinker bar) like in publications GB 2062113 A (Ortega, 1981) and GB 2192671 A (Shim Hyun Jin, 1988).
Further, it is quite usual to try to transform the bidirectional reciprocating rotation of the pulley into unidirectional rotation. Often there is a mechanical device (gear) for transformation of the reciprocating motion to unidirectional motion to ensure continues rotation of an electrical machine in one direction. Examples are already cited publications GB 1522661 and GB 2062113 A.
Power production from energy of waves is often intermittent or oscillating, thus measures are taken to stabilize power output. In the above mentioned publications GB 1522661 and US 2006273594 A1, as well as in GB 2408075 A (Stansby, 2005), a flywheel is used to flatten the power oscillations, while in publication GB 2192671 A a storage battery is applied for the same purpose.
In all the considered applications the electrical machine is accommodated either above the water surface (GB 2062113 A, GB 2408075 A) or in an encapsulated chamber to prevent contact with sea water like in publications US 2006273594 A1, WO 2007125349 A2 (Masters, 2007) and WO 2009105011 A1 (Sidenmark, 2009).
To increase rotational speed at which mechanical-to-electrical energy conversion is carried out, there are used various mechanical transmission systems, such as gearboxes, like in publication GB 2192671 A and AU 2007202995 A1 (Fraenkel, 2007).
If more than one primary element (floaters, sinker bars) is used, the rotation in different directions may be characterized by different force and linear speed. Examples are above cited publications GB 2408075 A and WO 2009105011 A1, where pulleys with different diameters are used for coiling/uncoiling strings moving in opposite directions, so working with different force and speed.
The ideas from the above publications on wave energy conversion relevant to the current application may be summarized in the following set of concepts:                Using mechanical spring for return motion.        Generator rotation has constant direction (unidirectional) due to use of special gear.        Flattening power output by using either a flywheel or an energy storage battery.        As in many of the applications the primary motion is characterized by low speed, gearboxes are used to increase the speed.        Accommodation of electrical machines in isolated chambers (pressurized, air or oil-filled). Consequent use of rotating seals where the shaft leaves the isolated chamber.        Masses of floaters and, if used, counter-weights can be adjustable to achieve resonance with frequency of the waves.
The main requirements to practically any renewable energy converter are high reliability, long life time and low material, production and operation costs. Difficulties with meeting the requirements explain the relatively low commercial use of the wave- and tidal power plants today.
The above mentioned system components affect cost and reliability in the following way:
(a) System cost is high due to use of:                isolated pressurized chamber,        energy storage device,        gear for translation of reciprocating motion to unidirectional,        gear for speed increase.
(b) System reliability is low and lifetime is short due to use of:                rotating seals, which are the main wear parts in any subsea device that uses this kind of arrangement,        gear for translation of reciprocating motion to unidirectional,        gear for speed increase,        isolated pressurized chamber,        energy storage devices.
(c) System efficiency is reduced due to use of:                mechanical (friction) losses in rotating seals,        mechanical losses in gear for translation of reciprocating motion to unidirectional,        mechanical losses in gear for speed increase.
It can be seen that these are the same components that affect negatively all the important performances (cost, reliability, efficiency, lifetime) of the total system.
Object
The main object of the invention is to provide an electrical machine for energy conversion systems and a system for energy conversion that partly or entirely solves the above mentioned problems of prior art, i.e. provides higher efficiency, lower material and production costs and longer life time.
An object of the invention is to get rid of:                gear for translation of reciprocating motion to unidirectional,        gear for speed increase,        isolated pressurized chamber,        energy storage devices,        rotating seals, which are the main wear parts in any subsea device that uses this kind of arrangement.
It is also an objective to provide an electric machine that would have higher power density, higher efficiency and higher structural stiffness than existing direct drive solutions for tidal and hydro applications.
It is also an object of the invention to provide an electrical machine, which may be integrated with a mechanical part of an energy conversion system for translation of linear motion to rotation and with electronics for providing DC power or AC power with constant frequency at the system output.
An electrical machine according to the disclosed system, along with its preferable features is described in herein.
A system for wave energy conversion according to the another embodiment of the disclosure is also described.
The applications discussed above are in general characterized by low rotational speed (usually below 200 rpm). This is the reason why gearboxes are used in many of them to bring the speed up to a level where standard electrical machines could be applied for energy conversion. In the present invention it is proposed to use a low-speed high-torque machine, such as a multi-pole synchronous machine with permanent magnets. It allows getting rid of the gearboxes.
The machines with permanent magnets can have a relatively wide gap between stator and rotor. This provides a possibility to encapsulate stator and rotor separately and have water (or other fluid) flowing between them. The gap may be as large as several millimeters (compared to traditional machines where it usually is fraction of millimeters) providing the space needed for encapsulation. For example ⅓ of the gap is water, ⅓ of the gap is encapsulation on the stator and ⅓ of the gap is encapsulation on the rotor. As the active parts of the machine are encapsulated there is no need for an isolated pressurized chamber. It provides the opportunity to use the electrical machine in energy conversions systems at considerable depths near the sea or river bottom. At the sea bottom the temperature is lower than near the surface, therefore cooling is better and the electrical machine may have more compact design which means using less active materials and lower cost. Furthermore, as no pressurized chamber is used there is no need for any rotating seals. As the speed in the application is low, the friction losses in the gap will be quite small.
The iron core of the disclosed machine is complete providing a closed path for magnetic flux and ensuring necessary mechanical stiffness.
According to the disclosure it is preferred to couple the electrical machine with a power electronics converter for AC-to-DC conversion in generating mode and DC-to-AC conversion in motoring mode. In generating mode the rotation of the electrical machine rotor, in both directions, is rectified by the converter into constant DC voltage with pulsating current/power at the energy conversion system output. Equally, in motoring mode the input DC voltage may be converted to bidirectional rotation of the electrical machine and, if required, to cyclic operation. When power is generated at rotation in one direction the DC power output is stable.
The power electronics converter is preferably arranged close to the electrical machine or integrated with the electrical machine. Therefore, it should be encapsulated as well.
It is possible to have one or more energy storage devices at DC-side of the converter for flattening the power output in energy conversion applications having a reciprocating motion, however, such devices are expensive, so, instead the disclosure benefits from the fact that generation units are usually used not alone but in parks. Power production cycles of the units in the park may be synchronized so that average produced power is stable. DC voltage at the output of an individual unit is better as DC is more convenient than AC as the inter-park voltage and DC is better to transfer over long distances due to lower losses and cheaper cables.
A low-speed high-torque multi-pole permanent magnet machine usually has a ring-shape, so it is well-suited for mechanical integration. Also a radial-flux machine may be preferable as it is easier to assemble and integrate with a mechanical system whatever it is.
There are several ways to encapsulate active parts of the electrical machine, i.e. stator and rotor. Process of encapsulating stator and rotor is by injection molding or a casting process. It can also be a metal cover/shield on the rotor and polymer or composite encapsulation on stator.
Accordingly the invention is based on using a permanent magnet synchronous machine (PMSM) with separately encapsulated rotor and stator.
The machine is coupled with a submerged AC/AC or AC/DC power electronics converter.
The machine may be integrated with a mechanical parts of energy conversion system.
The machine may use traditional closed bearings, magnetic or a water lubricated bearings.
The electrical machine will be suitable for submerged power conversion systems having applications in wave-, tidal- and hydro power conversion plants, auxiliary subsea generators, submerged blade pitching systems, subsea winches, propulsion systems, thrusters, in-pipe generators, etc.
Further details and preferable features of the invention will appear from the following example description.
Reference is now made to FIG. 1A-C which show energy conversion system topologies and load types for which the invention has been proposed. FIG. 1A shows unidirectional motion with constant load, FIG. 1B shows bidirectional (reciprocating) movement with one primary mover and FIG. 1C shows bidirectional (reciprocating) movement with two primary movers.
An energy conversion system according to the disclosure includes as main elements an AC/DC converter 11, an electrical machine 20 (motor "M" or generator "G" depending on mode of operation), as well as a mechanical link 12 (shaft or direct integration) to a mechanical system 13. The mechanical system 13 may be a primary mover itself, for example a turbine 14, like in FIG. 1A, or a system of one or more pulleys 15a-b for translation of linear motion into rotational motion. There may be one pulley 15a, like in FIG. 1B, or two and more pulleys 15a-b, like in FIG. 1C.
Reference is now made to FIG. 2A which presents an embodiment of the disclosure and covers design of the electrical machine 20 which enables all the further modifications. The electrical machine 20 has a stator 21 and a rotor 22, which are encapsulated separately, so that a gap 23 between them is open to the surroundings, i.e. that there, for example, is water (or other fluid) in the gap 23 between them. There is socket 24 integrated into an encapsulating material 25 for subsea plug connection of an electrical cable.
In FIG. 2B a variant of rotor encapsulation is shown. Magnets 26 of the rotor 22 are fixed on a back iron 27 and are preferably covered by a protective casing 28 made for example of stainless steel. The active parts are held by elements of a carrying structure 29 by using screws 30. The carrying structure 29 is preferably fastened to a rotor disk 31.
In FIG. 2C alternative variant of rotor encapsulation is shown. The magnets have corrosion-proof surface and are additionally protected by special paint.
In FIG. 2D one more variant is shown. The active parts are molded into the encapsulation material 25 which acts as the carrying structure and the rotor disk 31. The rotor disk 31 may be made solid to reduce friction losses when rotating or have holes to economize material.
Reference is now made to FIG. 2E which shows a cross-section of the electrical machine 20 of FIG. 2A. The electrical machine 20 includes stator laminations 32 and windings 33, where both stator laminations 32 and windings 33 are covered by an encapsulating polymer or fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) material 25. The electrical machine 20 further includes rotor back iron 27 and permanent magnets 26 which also are covered by layer of encapsulating composite material 25 as well. One of variants of support structure is using threaded pins 34 and nuts 35 to fix active parts to a stator support structure and rotor support structure. It can be seen that there is a gap 23 between the separately encapsulated stator 21 and rotor 22.
The threaded pin 34 preferably goes directly through the laminations 32 as shown in FIGS. 2E and 2F. No casing around stator 21 is used. Spacers 36 and washers 37 may be used together with the threaded pin 34 to improve reliability of the structure and simplify assembly. FIG. 2F also shows a winding 38 (coil sides) in slots and slot wedges 39.
Encapsulation of active parts of stator 21 or rotor 22 can be done in either an open or closed molding process. FIG. 3A illustrates a cross section of a stator 21 in an open molding process. A mold 40 can be made of either a rigid or flexible material. The mold 40 can be made as a single part or split into multiple parts that are assembled together. Resin 41 is poured into the mold from the top 42, filling a void between the stator 21 and mold 40. Higher quality castings are achieved if the resin 41 and mold 40 are put in a vacuum chamber during the casting process. A high level of vacuum allows air to be extracted from the resin 41 and avoids air enclosure during casting, resulting in higher electrical and mechanical properties of the cured resin. If a flexible material is used to create the mold 40, the mold 40 can be stiffened by the usage of a supporting frame 43 at the inner and outer radius (FIG. 3B).
In order to get high tolerances on all surfaces of the stator 21 or rotor 22 casting, a closed molding process can be used. The mold 40 in FIG. 3C is split in two or more parts and can be made of either flexible or rigid material. In order to increase tolerances for the flexible mold, a supporting frame 43 can be used at the inner and outer radius. In a closed molding process it is highly important to position the resin inlet 42 and outlet 44 correctly in order to avoid unfilled spaces in the casting. The resin inlet 42 should be placed close to the lowest point, whilst the resin outlet 44 should be placed at the point where the resin is expected to arrive last. For increased mechanical and electrical properties the closed molding can be done in a vacuum chamber. Supporting frame 43 can be used for stiffening (FIG. 3D).
With the basis of the above described electrical machine 20 and energy conversion system topologies, examples of integration of the electrical machine 20 with a mechanical system 13 will now be described.
Reference is now made to FIGS. 4A-B which show integration of the electrical machine 20 with outer rotor 22 and inner stator 21 with a winch-like arrangement 50, such as a one-pulley winch. If a pulley 15a has a large diameter, then an arrangement like in FIG. 4A may be used and if a pulley 15b has a small diameter, then an arrangement like in FIG. 4B may be used. In both these arrangements there are used a shaft 51 and bearings 52 and a container 53 for electronics which is placed inside the stator 21.
As it was mentioned before it is possible to have an arrangement with two pulleys 15a-b of different diameter to convert two linear motions into rotation with different applied forces and speeds, as shown in FIGS. 5A-C. This arrangement sets new challenges for the energy conversion system but also gives new opportunities. If the electrical machine 20 is ring-shaped, as will be the case of a permanent magnet motor, the electrical machine may be integrated into a two-pulley system as shown in FIG. 5A-C to form winch-motor or winch-generator. When the winch rotates the pulleys 15a-b may provide coiling a string on one of them while uncoiling another string from the other. This system can be further developed into three-pulley device as shown in FIG. 6. In FIG. 6 it is shown a winch-arrangement 50 having one pulley 15a with a large diameter and two pulleys 15b with a small diameter.
A cost-efficient solution for an internal stator 21 is presented in FIG. 7 where the encapsulation material 25 is used as a supporting structure. The encapsulation 25 is designed so that it contains the shaft 51 and the active parts of the stator 21. The winding 38 (end-winding) on stator 21 is connected by a cable 54 to the container 53 for electronics inside the shaft 51, which cable 54 runs through an opening 55 into the compartment 53. Then encapsulation material 25 is injected to cover the active parts and the cable 54, and form the carrying structure for the stator 21 on the shaft 51. To transfer high torques, the shaft 51 may have salient metal parts penetrating the encapsulating material 25. The container 53 is also provided with a subsea connector 53 for the connection of a DC cable 57 for output power.
When the electrical machine 20 is designed for operation at relatively high speed, the holes in rotor disk may be covered by thin plates in order to reduce water friction losses when the disk is rotating.
Reference is now made to FIG. 8 which shows an example of an energy conversion system according to the invention for a wave energy conversion application. The energy conversion system extends from a sea bottom 60 and to a sea surface 61 (waves). The energy conversion system includes an anchor 62 for arrangement of the system to the sea bottom 60. The system further includes a holding frame 63 arranged to the anchor 62 by means of a suitable construction 64. The holding frame 63 is adapted for the arrangement of a winch-like arrangement 50, like the ones shown in FIGS. 4A-B, 5A-C and 6. In this example a winch-like arrangement 50 like in FIG. 6 is shown, having two small pulleys 15b and one large pulley 15a. The winch-like arrangement 50 is securely fixed inside the holding frame 63. To the small pulleys 15b there are arranged parts of a main string 65b which extend in the vertical direction out of the holding frame 63, via through holes 66 to a joining element 67 for simultaneously movement of the small pulleys 15b. From the joining element 66 a main cord 65a extends in the vertical direction to a main floater 68, such as a buoy, arranged floating at the sea surface 61.
To the large pulley 15a of the winch-like arrangement 50 it is arranged a secondary cord 69 which extends in the vertical direction to a submerged floater 70 extending out of the holding frame 63 via a through hole 71 and coiling on the large pulley 15a. The submerged floater 70 is preferably provided with a through hole 72, through which the main cord 65a extends to the surface floater 68.
From the holding frame 63 extends an electric cable 73 for the output power from the electrical machine 20 via AC/DC, AC/DC/AC or AC/AC converter.
In this way it is provided an energy conversion system which is powered by the waves. As the floaters 68 and 70 move up and down in the vertical direction due to wave movements, the winch-like arrangement 50 coils and uncoils strings on the pulleys 15a-b, resulting in that electricity is provided by the electrical machine 20 and can be transported by means of the electrical cable 73 onshore or to be used by maritime/offshore applications, such as for powering a fish farming (pumps, winches), farms for sea weeds for bio fuel (winches) and the like.
A system of floaters may be designed so that its natural frequency is close to frequency of sea oscillations. As the sea oscillation frequency varies with time, the system may be controlled (using the electronics) so that mechanical resonance is achieved, providing higher energy harvesting.
Modifications
There can be used various system modifications. For example, one floater can be arranged to more than one holding frame/winch arrangement or several floaters can be arranged to one holding frame/winch arrangement.
The electrical machine can be used in applications using contra rotation, where the rotor rotates in one direction and the stator rotates in the other direction.
The electrical machine can further consist of multiple stators or rotors, or stator or rotor active parts, where all active parts of the stator are attached to a common stator carrying structure and all active parts of the rotor are attached to a common rotor carrying structure.
The electrical machine may also be divided in two or more parts to ease production or transportation of the machine.
A thin layer of a material of highly thermally conductive may be added on the periphery of the stator to enhance cooling. The thin layer would be in direct contact with the laminations on one side and a surrounding fluid on the other side. The surrounding fluid could be air, water, oil or any other fluid the machine could be submerged into. The thin layer could in addition be used for protection of the laminations.
Even though it is described that the electrical machine is used in a conversion system for wave energy it is obvious that it also may be used in application like tidal- and hydro power conversion plants, auxiliary subsea generators, submerged blade pitching systems, subsea winches, propulsion systems, thrusters, in-pipe generators, etc.

Electrical machine for submerged application and energy conversion system