The present invention provides a developing apparatus to be provided in a quick start up electrophotographic image forming apparatus that can efficiently prevent generation of unevenness by a screw pitch in a short period of time. The developing apparatus rotates a developer transporting screw so as to transport and supply a developer to a developer bearing member, and develops a latent image formed on an image bearing member by the developer. The developer transporting screw includes a vane winding around a rotation shaft in a spiral form. A vane surface on other side of a developer transport direction of the vane includes two planes having different angles with a rotational center line of the rotation shaft. Relationships of θ2<θ1 and 10°≦θ2≦60° are satisfied, where θ1 denotes an angle between: the plane that has a longer distance from the rotational center line; and the rotational center line, and θ2 denotes an angle between: the face that has a shorter distance from the rotational center line; and the rotational center line.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a developing apparatus that develops a latent image formed on an image bearing member by a developer so as to convert the latent image into a visible image, a process cartridge provided with the developing apparatus, and an image forming apparatus, such as a copier and a printer, which is provided with the developing apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, which optically scans an original image portion that is on an outer circumferential surface of a uniformly electrified photosensitive drum (an image bearing member) so as to form an electrostatic latent image, and converts the electrostatic latent image into a visible image by using a toner that is a colored resin, is known. Such an image forming apparatus is capable of forming an image at a high speed, and thus has been used widely for digital printers, copiers and the like.
In recent years, there have been increasing demands particularly for forming color images. As electrophotographic image forming apparatuses, apparatuses for forming full color images composed of toner images of four colors: yellow (Y); magenta (M); cyan (C); and black (Bk) also have been realized. Recently, there have been increasing demands to reduce the size of the electrophotographic image forming apparatus bodies to save space, in addition to the demands for enhancing their printing speeds and image qualities.
Moreover, due to the establishment of fixing techniques by lowering melting points of toners and utilizing an induction heating method, electrophotographic image forming apparatuses that can instantly fix toners on recording sheets and can start up quickly have been developed widely.
On the other hand, a two-component developer containing a toner and a carrier has been widely used for developing electrostatic latent image to provide high image quality and low operating costs. In this case, an electrostatic latent image that is formed on a surface of the photosensitive drum is developed using a developing apparatus that is provided with a development sleeve having magnets disposed therein, by rubbing the developer against the surface of the photosensitive drum with a magnetic brush.
In such a developing apparatus, two developer transporting screws are arranged horizontally in the developing apparatus, and a developer is circulated between these two developer transporting screws, whereby the toner and the carrier can be mixed uniformly, and frictional charging of the toner can be performed sufficiently.
The sufficiently stirred developer is supplied to the development sleeve by a magnetic force of the magnets, and is transported according to rotation of the development sleeve. The transported developer passes through a developer regulating member, whereby an amount of the developer on the development sleeve is regulated to be a proper amount, and a uniform layer of the developer is formed on the development sleeve. The magnetic brush of the developer that is born by the development sleeve is in contact with the photosensitive drum that rotates at a development portion, and then the electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum is developed.
FIGS. 9A to 9C show a developer transporting screw for transporting a developer in the prior art, more specifically, FIG. 9A is an external perspective view of the developer transporting screw, FIG. 9B is a cross-sectional view of the developer transporting screw cut by a plane passing through a rotational center line, and FIG. 9C is a view describing a state of the developer transporting screw transporting a developer. In FIGS. 9A to 9C, reference numeral 33 denotes a rotational center line, reference numeral 34 denotes a rotation shaft, reference numeral 35 denotes a vane that winds around the rotation shaft 34 in a spiral form, and reference numeral 41 denotes a developer. Reference character θ′ denotes an angle between: a vane surface on a developer transport direction side of the vane 35; and the rotational center line 33, and reference character θ denotes an angle between: a vane surface on other side of the developer transport direction of the vane 35; and the rotational center line 33. When the vane surface on the developer transport direction side of the vane 35 is closer to perpendicular with respect to the rotational center line 33 (the angle θ′ is closer to 90°), the force required to transport the developer is larger, and thus the angles θ and θ′ usually are set to be within a range from about 70° to about 85° (θ=θ′), considering the draft angle of a forming die and the like.
As shown in FIG. 9, in accordance with the rotation of the developer transporting screw, a developer 41 receives a pushing force in a traveling direction by the vane 35, and thus the developer 41 leans toward the vane surface on the developer transport direction side of the vane 35. Further, since the amount of the developer 41 decreases as the distance from the vane 35 increases, the developer 41 between each of the vanes 35 is transported in a state shown in FIG. 9C. Thus, from a distribution of the developer 41 in a longitudinal direction of the developer transporting screw, it is found that a part with a large amount of the developer 41 and a part with a small amount thereof are formed in accordance with a pitch of the vane 35 (hereinafter, this deviation of the developer is called a "maldistribution").
Since the developer transporting screw transports the developer 41 in the longitudinal direction by its rotation, this unevenness of the distribution of the developer 41 results in unevenness of density of an image in an oblique direction (hereinafter, this poor image is called "unevenness by the screw pitch").
Such unevenness by the screw pitch easily is generated, in particular, when using a small-sized developing apparatus for a two-component developer in which a development sleeve and a developer transporting screw for transporting a developer are arranged close to each other. In order to prevent the maldistribution of the developer in the screw vane pitch, a developer transporting screw in which an angle between: a vane surface on a developer transport direction side of a vane; and a rotational center line is set to be 60° or less (for example, see JP 2004-117507 A), and a developer transporting screw provided with a bulk-increasing vane between transporting vanes, the bulk-increasing vane having a smaller angle between: a vane surface on a developer transport direction side thereof, and a rotational center line than that of the transporting vane (for example, see JP 2004-151326 A) are suggested.
In a developing apparatus using each of the above-described developer transporting screws, the developer transporting screw rotates so that the vane surface on the developer transport direction side of the vane generates a power to push the developer in a direction perpendicular to the rotation shaft, whereby this power is utilized so as to prevent the maldistribution of the developer.
However, the configurations according to the above-described JP 2004-117507 A and JP 2004-151326 A have problems described below.
It is known that, in the case of using the usual developer transporting screw, the height of the developer 41 decreases as the distance from the vane surface on the developer transport direction side of the vane 35 increases, as shown in FIG. 9C. Thus, as described in JP 2004-117507 A, in the case where the angle between: the vane surface on the developer transport direction side of the vane; and the rotational center line is set to be 60° or less, when the developer transporting screw is in a static state, the position of the vane surface becomes lower as the distance from a tip of the vane toward a downstream side of the developer transport direction increases, and thus the maldistribution of the developer remains in a position at a long distance from the tip of the vane. In particular, in an image forming apparatus that can start up quickly, which currently is becoming popular, a quick development is necessary. However, according to the configuration of the above-described JP 2004-117507 A, a long period of time is required from the start of the rotation of the developer transporting screw to eliminating the maldistribution of the developer. As a result, if developing shortly after the start of the rotation of the developer transporting screw, the maldistribution of the developer cannot be resolved, and the unevenness by a screw pitch remains on the image.
In addition, as described in JP 2004-151326 A, in the case of providing a bulk-increasing vane having a smaller angle between: the vane surface on the developer transport direction side thereof; and the rotational center line than that of the transporting vane, when the developer transporting screw is in a static state, the maldistribution of the developer is improved due to the presence of the bulk-increasing vane. However, since such a bulk-increase is achieved at a position where the height of the bulk of the developer is not the smallest, the maldistribution of the developer remains near the vane surfaces on the other side of the developer transport direction of the transporting vanes that are long distances from the bulk-increasing vane and are adjacent to each other. Therefore, in the case of JP 2004-151326 A, similarly to the case of JP 2004-117507 A, if developing shortly after the start of the rotation of the developer transporting screw, the maldistribution of the developer cannot be resolved, and the unevenness by the screw pitch remains on the image.
The present invention is provided to address the above-described problems. The inventors of the present invention have been resolving the maldistribution of a developer near an outer circumferential part of the screw in a static state and in a rotating state, by providing an bulk-increasing portion on the vane surface on the other side of the developer transport direction of the vane of the developer transporting screw, and utilizing a bulk-increasing effect obtained thereby. However, by providing the bulk-increasing portion between the vanes that are adjacent to each other, the amount of the developer to be transported by the developer transporting screw is decreased by the thus increased bulk, and thus an image density is decreased. The inventors of the present invention have conducted a keen study by examining: an angle between the vane of the developer transporting screw and the rotational center line of the screw; and an angle between the bulk-increasing portion and the rotational center line. A result of the study, they found conditions that enable resolution of the maldistribution of a developer near the outer circumferential part of the screw in a static state and in a rotating state, and enables securing an amount of a developer to be transported.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


Compounds having structure (1) wherein R1 is —H a protecting group, a linker or a binding partner; and R2 and R34 are as defined in the specification. The invention also provides intermediates and methods make the structure (1) compounds, as well as methods to use the compounds as labels in diagnostic assays and to enhance binding to complementary bases.

This invention relates to the field of labels, particularly labels for diagnostic or analytical use. In particular, it relates to oligonucleotides that are modified to enhance the binding affinity or the binding specificity of the oligonucleotides for complementary sequences and that in addition optionally bear a readily detectable characteristic.
Sequence specific binding of oligonucleotides both to single stranded RNA and DNA and to duplex DNA is widely known. This phenomenon has been harnessed for a great variety of diagnostic, therapeutic and analytical, e.g., sequence determination or gene mapping, purposes. Previously, one objective of research in this field has been to increase the affinity of such oligonucleotides for their complementary sequences. For example, workers have described oligonucleotides containing 5-substituted pyrimidine bases that substantially increase the Tm for oligonucleotide binding to complementary bases (International Publication No. WO 93/10820).
Publications have described the use of fluorescent cytosine derivatives to prepare labeled DNA probes. See Inoue et al., Jpn. Kokai JP 62059293, (1987). In addition, fluorescent labeled nucleotides have been employed in DNA sequencing. See Prober et al., "Science" 238:336-341 (1987).
1,3-Dihydro-2H-imidazo[4,5-b]-quinolin-2-one derivatives as phosphodiesterase inhibitors are disclosed by Raeymackers et al. (EP 541,153).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,502,177, discloses phenoxazine polycycle-containing oligonucleotides and monomers for preparing the oligonucleotides.

Pyrimidine derivatives and oligonucleotides containing same


A test device 1 for analyzing a specific component in a test solution with a reagent by allowing the solution introduced via a feed opening 4 to react with the reagent maintained in a predetermined position in a capillary tube 3 having the opening 4 and an air outlet 5. The tube is provided with two hydrophilic regions 31, 33 and a hydrophobic region 32. The region 31 transfers the solution from the opening 4 to the reagent. The region 33 is delimited to a predetermined area maintaining the reagent. The region 32 separates the region 31 from the region 33. The reagent and the solution are applied in predetermined amounts to the region 33. A measuring device need not previously measure the solution. The device is useful as an analytical device for rapid and easy analysis, and can be produced in a less number of steps because the reagent can be fixed by merely applying it onto a predetermined position.

A simple test device for analysis of a liquid sample by reaction with a reagent generally utilizes capillary action for introduction or transfer of a sample to a site for reaction with the reagent in the test device. As this test device, there are the-type of device where a reagent applied onto a capillary tube comes to be dissolved in a sample and the type of device where a sample penetrates into a reagent layer provided on a capillary tube.
As an example of the former, JP-A63-274839 describes a test device comprising a lower stretching member also serving as a shaft and an upper member containing a reagent while forming a capillary tube via a spacer with said lower member. As an example of the latter, JP-A 4-188065 describes an analytical device comprising a carrier, a reagent layer sealed to the carrier, and a cover which while covering the reagent layer, is fixed so as to form a capillary chamber with the carrier, said cover having a sample feed opening and an air outlet.
However, in the type of device where a reagent comes to be dissolved in a sample, such as in the test device described in JP-A 63-274839, the concentration of a reaction solution should be accurately defined, so a sample to be fed should previously be introduced into a vessel with a known volume such as pipette. Further, in the type of device where a sample penetrates into a reagent layer, such as in the test device described in JP-A 4-188065, the reagent should be contained in a paper or a film separate from a capillary tube and then fixed to the capillary tube in order to maintain the volume of the reagent layer.
Accordingly, the object of the present invention is to provide a test device which can easily measure a predetermined amount of a sample and simultaneously analyze the sample without pipetting the sample into another vessel or separately preparing a reagent layer for fixing the sample.

Test device for analysis of a liquid sample


A method and apparatus for cell reselection during transmission of data between a mobile station and a network through a first cell of a plurality of cells, each of the plurality of cells defining a corresponding radio coverage area. A control stack (305) organizes the data within frames during the transmission of data, and an adjustment module (324) adjusts a size of the frames prior to detection that a second cell of the plurality of cells is a candidate for reselection.

The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) and Enhanced Data for Global Evolution (EDGE) is intended to enable a service subscriber to send and receive data in an end-to-end packet transfer mode without utilization of network resources in the circuit-switched mode. GPRS, EDGE and 3rd Generation (3G) packet radio services permit the efficient use of radio and network resources when data transmission characteristics are i) packet based, ii) intermittent and non-periodic, iii) possibly frequent, with small transfers of data, e.g. less than 500 octets, or iv) possibly infrequent, with large transfers of data, e.g. more than several hundred kilobytes. User applications may include Internet browsers, electronic mail and so on.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a typical cellular communication system for use in explaining the operation of the present invention. As illustrated in FIG. 1, a cellular communication system 100 includes a number of cells 102–116, each defining a radio coverage area established by a fixed site base station located within each cell. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 1, cell 102 defines the radio coverage area established by a base station 118 located in cell 102, and similarly, each of the remaining cells 104–116 define an associated radio coverage area established by a corresponding base station (not shown) located within each of cells 104–116.
As a mobile station, such as a cellular telephone device, for example, travels with a user from position x to position y in cellular communication system 100, the mobile station continuously monitors the signal characteristics from the base stations of cells 102–116 and, based on certain selection criteria, selects a cell from which to receive and transmit packet data with a network 120 through the associated base station. For example, while the mobile station is positioned in cell 114, if the signal characteristics from cell 114 are such that, based on the selection criteria, cell 114 is selected as the "best" coverage area, cell 114 is considered to be the "serving cell", or cell from which the mobile station transmits and receives packet data.
The mobile station continues to monitor the signal characteristics from cells 102–116, and, as illustrated in FIG. 1, as the mobile station subsequently moves along the marked path from position x to position y, the mobile station moves from the coverage area associated with cell 114 into the coverage area associated with other cells, such as cells 116 and 106 for example. Once the signal characteristics from another cell, cell 116 for example, are such that cell 116 is considered the best cell, the mobile station reselects cell 116 as the serving cell, until the signal characteristics from another cell, cell 106 for example, are such that cell 106 is considered the best cell, and the mobile station reselects cell 106 as the serving cell, and so on.
Since a user of a mobile station may be traversing the radio coverage area associated with more than one of cells 102–116, a known ordinal integrity mechanism, specified in the current GSM specification, GSM 04.60, "Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+); General Packet Radio Service (GPRS); Mobile Station (MS)—Base Station System (BSS) interface; Radio Link Control/Medium Access Control (RLC/MAC) protocol", (European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), European Standard (Telecommunications Series), is incorporated into packet data services to ensure the ordinal integrity of data flow when a mobile station leaves the coverage area of one cell and enters a new cell.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a partial representation of a data plane for GPRS/EDGE. As illustrated in FIG. 2, both a mobile station 200 and a network 202 include equivalent hierarchically related control layers, such as a logical link control (LLC) layer 204, a radio link control (RLC) layer 206, a medium access control layer 208 and a physical layer 210. Packet data that is transmitted between mobile station 200 and network 202 is organized at logical link control layer 204 for transmission within logical link control frames, with each logical link control frame varying in size up to 1530 octets. As one logical link control frame logically propagates downward through the data plane, it is divided into multiple radio link control data blocks, with each radio link control data block being 22 to 54 octets. Each radio link control data block is in turn interleaved over four physical layer bursts with added redundancy.
As illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2, if mobile station 200 is located at position x and is sending GPRS/EDGE data to network 202 via the serving cell, i.e., cell 114, cell 114 receives and acknowledges all of the radio link control data blocks that comprise the logical link control frames corresponding to the GPRS/EDGE data transmitted to network 202. If, while serving cell 114 is receiving a logical link control frame from mobile station 200, mobile station 200 reselects to a new serving cell, serving cell 116 for example, mobile station 200 reselects to cell 116, aborting the current temporary block flow on cell 114 and re-establishing the temporary block flow on cell 116, which now becomes the serving cell.
According to the known ordinal integrity mechanism, once the temporary block flow is re-established on new serving cell 116, mobile station 200 reorganizes its radio link control data block transmission window and begins by sending the first radio link control data block in the last unacknowledged logical link control frame. As a result, all of the radio link control blocks corresponding to the last logical link control frame being transmitted while cell 114 was the serving cell would have to be re-transmitted, despite the fact that some of those radio link control blocks may have been correctly received in serving cell 114. For example, if 53 radio link control blocks were needed to transmit a single logical link control frame, and radio link control blocks 1–50 were successfully transmitted up to the point at which reselection is performed, radio link control blocks 1–50 would be discarded and would therefore have to be retransmitted to the new selected cell to continue transmission of the logical link control frame.
In this way, in an environment in which rapid cell reselection is likely to occur, such as a congested urban environment for example, the known ordinal integrity mechanism produces a severe reduction in data throughput because of the periodic discarding of properly received information upon each reselection to a new serving cell.
Accordingly, what is needed is an improved method and apparatus for reducing the impact of cell reselection on user data transfer rates.

Method and apparatus for reducing the impact of cell reselection of GPRS/EDGE data rates


A device and method facilitates the forming of a skin fold during deployment of a cannula. The device may be a disposable infusion device and the method comprises adhering, to a skin surface, a base member having a port for receiving a cannula, forming a skin fold having skin surfaces sloping away from opposite sides of the base member, driving a cannula through the port of the base member while maintaining the skin fold, and releasing the skin fold. To facilitate the forming of the skin fold, the device comprises a base having a base surface and a flexible layer member. The flexible layer member has a first surface adjacent the base surface and a second surface adapted to be adhered to a patient's skin. The first surface has a first portion adhered to a portion of the base surface and a second portion adherable to the base surface.

Tight control over the delivery of insulin in both type I diabetes (usually juvenile onset) and type II diabetes (usually late adult onset), has been shown to improve the quality of life as well as the general health of these patients. Insulin delivery has been dominated by subcutaneous injections of both long acting insulin to cover the basal needs of the patient and by short acting insulin to compensate for meals and snacks. Recently, the development of electronic, external insulin infusion pumps has allowed the continuous infusion of fast acting insulin for the maintenance of the basal needs as well as the compensatory doses (boluses) for meals and snacks. These infusion systems have shown to improve control of blood glucose levels. However, they suffer the drawbacks of size, cost, and complexity. For example, these pumps are electronically controlled and must be programmed to supply the desired amounts of basal and bolus insulin. This prevents many patients from accepting this technology over the standard subcutaneous injections.
Hence, there is a need in the art for a convenient form of insulin treatment which does not require significant programming or technical skills to implement to service both basal and bolus needs. Preferably, such a treatment would be carried out by an infusion device that is simple to use and mechanically driven negating the need for batteries and the like. It would also be preferable if the infusion device could be directly attached to the body and not require any electronics to program the delivery rates. The insulin is preferably delivered through a small, thin-walled tubing (cannula) through the skin into the subcutaneous tissue similar to technologies in the prior art.
While the idea of such a simple insulin delivery device is compelling, many obstacles must be overcome before such a device may become a practical realty. One problem resides in insulin supply. Patients vary greatly on the amount of insulin such a device must carry to provide treatment over a fixed time period of, for example, three days. This is one environment where one size does not fit all.
Another problem is with cannula deployment to support insulin delivery. Cannula deployment to support delivery of the insulin beneath the patient's skin must be made easy and convenient. This is not as easy as it seems because cannula deployment, as generally and currently performed in the art, requires insertion of a cannula-carrying needle into the patient and then retraction of only the needle to leave the cannula in place beneath the patient's skin.
When needles are introduced beneath a patient's skin, during an injection, for example, it is well known that the pain associated with the injection may be reduced by forming a fold in the skin at the injection site prior to the injection. The fold of skin can also increase the probability that only soft tissue will be affected during the injection. However, the forming of such a skin fold when the needle is also being driven through an associated device, such as in infusion device, for example, to deliver a cannula to a deployed position extending from the device to beneath the skin is not readily possible. The reason for this is that in such cases, the device is already adhered to the skin and covers the injection site, making it virtually impossible to form a desired skin fold to receive the needle and cannula. As will be seen subsequently, the present invention addresses these and other issues toward providing a simple, practical, reliable and relatively pain-free deployment of a cannula beneath the skin to support insulin delivery.

Disposable infusion device facilitating tissue fold formation for cannula deployment and method


Methods and systems described herein enable self-supervised road detection in images. The method includes receiving an image, segmenting the image into at least one fragment based at least in part on at least one pixel feature, determining, using a processor, a road likeness score for the at least one fragment based at least in part on a medial radius, and identifying roads based at least in part on the road likeness score.

The field of the invention relates generally to image processing, and more particularly, to self-supervised road detection in aerial and satellite imagery.
Aerial and satellite images may include various roads and portions of roads. The identification of roads is useful for a variety of purposes, including navigation. As roads vary in width, color, and layout, it is difficult to systematically identify roads in images. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a self-supervised method for identifying roads in images.

Systems and methods for identifying roads in images


In a rotary electric machine, at least one of first and second ends of each conductor segment is at least partially joined to at least one of the first and second ends of a corresponding another one of the conductor segments to provide the stator winding including a plurality of joint portions of the plurality of conductor segments. An insulating film covers each of the conductor segments except for at least the joint portions of the stator winding. At least part of the insulating film of each of the conductor segments located close to a corresponding one of the joint portions contains an evaporatable component. An amount in ppm of the evaporatable component contained in the at least part of the insulating film is adjusted to be equal to or lower than 20000 ppm.

Rotary electric machines for vehicles, such as engine-driven alternators, need to have a high power output in order to achieve reduction in the idling engine speed of a vehicle as an environmental measure. They also need to be reduced in size and weight in order to implement weight reduction of a vehicle for improvement its fuel efficiency and reduction in the width of the engine compartment for finding room therein.
For meeting the needs, some types of alternators are designed such that each of multiphase windings of a stator is made up of a plurality of conductor segments inserted in slots of the stator. One end of each of the conductor segments projecting one of the slots is sequentially welded to the other end of a corresponding one of the conductor segments projecting a corresponding another one of the slots so that the sequentially joined conductor segments provide radially layered annular windings. The configuration of each of the multiphase windings allows high density of the multiphase windings and low resistance therein.
An example of some types of alternators set forth above is disclosed in Publication U.S. Pat. No. 5,936,326 corresponding to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-69729.
On the other hand, foreign particles, such as dust particles, electrolyte components including salt-water components, car shampoo components, and the like, may enter the engine compartment of a vehicle in which an alternator is to be installed. It is necessary for the alternator installed in the engine compartment to keep its proper output characteristics even under such an environment.
Particularly, because an alternator for vehicles is designed to be cooled by a fan installed therein, cooling air generated by the fan may cause foreign particles, such as dust particles and/or electrolyte components, to likely enter the inside of the alternator together therewith. For this reason, it is important to reliably ensure environment resistance of the stator.

Rotary electric machine and stator for rotary electric machines


Exemplary appliques and methods of making the same are disclosed. An exemplary applique may include an adhesive layer having a first contour, and at least one fabric layer defining a second contour. The first contour may be inset from the second contour, with the second contour defining an outer perimeter of the applique. Exemplary appliques may further include a stitching securing the fabric layer to the adhesive layer along a third contour, where the third contour is inset from the first contour. Exemplary methods of making an applique may facilitate creation of a distressed outer edge of the applique.

Known methods of creating a distressed applique for applying to a garment include stitching one or more fabric layers directly to the garment. Stitching or embroidering the fabric layer(s) to the garment allows an outer edge of the fabric layer(s) to fray or otherwise become distressed, which is a desirable feature for some applications. However, the process of stitching or embroidering a fabric layer or applique to a garment is time-consuming and may be difficult for novice users.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved applique and method of making the same that addresses the above problems.


A valve control system that includes a gain controller for controlling the linear response of a valve. The system includes a linearization control system coupled to the gain controller to determine a gain value to control the linear response time of the valve and a set point filter coupled to the linearization control system to filter a set point value. The linearization control system determines the gain value from the filtered set point value, at least one real-time fluid parameter value, valve model data, an actuator gain, and a valve model gain.

An MFC is a device for controlling the flow of fluid through a flow path based on a desired flow rate and real-time feedback measurements of measured temperature, pressure, and flow rate of the fluid. In order to control this process and maintain the desired flow rate the mass flow controller electro-mechanically controls opening and closing of a valve to achieve the desired flow rates according to the feedback measurements. Currently, available MFC's lack the sophistication necessary to maintain the finite level of control necessary to constantly and continuously maintain the desired flow rate without the introduction of noise into the system due to various non-linear artifacts.

Mass flow valve controller and control method with set point filter and linearization system based on valve model


When a numerical controller enters a DNC operation mode, a host apparatus transmits NC data to the numerical controller. When the received NC data includes a sub program call, a repeat instruction or a branch instruction, the numerical controller stores search information that is required for executing these instructions. When the numerical controller includes search information, the host apparatus transmits, to the numerical controller, NC data corresponding to the search information. The numerical controller analyzes the received NC data and executes operation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a DNC operation system which causes a host computer (hereinafter referred to as the "host apparatus") to successively send NC data to a numerical controller that controls the drive of machinery, and uses the transmitted NC data to perform operations of such machinery.
2. Description of the Related Art
A standard operation performed by a numerical controller is the system of registering the NC data in a storage device such as an SRAM or a DRAM that is built into the numerical controller, and thereby performing operations (hereinafter referred to as the "memory operation"). Nevertheless, pursuant to the high-precision of part shapes and the enlargement of parts, the size of NC data is increasing, and there is a problem in that the NC data cannot be registered in the storage device in the numerical controller, and demands for the direct numerical control (DNC) operation of performing operations while transmitting the NC data from the host apparatus are increasing.
Moreover, even if it is possible to register the NC data for creating one part in the storage device in the numerical controller, different large-capacity NC data is required for each part in order to perform a small lot production of many products, and there is a problem in that the NC data registered in the storage device in the numerical controller needs to be replaced as required, and there are demands for realizing the DNC operation with only the NC data that is registered in the storage device in the host apparatus.
Technologies of a conventional DNC operation system are now explained based on the first system shown in FIG. 17 and the second system shown in FIG. 18.
With the first system of the conventional DNC operation, NC data is transmitted unidirectionally from the host apparatus to the numerical controller, and the numerical controller merely analyzes and executes the received NC data in succession. Thus, operations are performed without registering the transmitted NC data in the storage device in the numerical controller (refer to, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-195509).
Moreover, with the second system of the conventional DNC operation, since the transmitted NC data is registered in the storage device in the numerical controller in order to realize a sub program call to the NC data stored in the storage device in the host apparatus, a registration start command and a registration end command are inserted, the NC data is registered as a subprogram in the storage device in the numerical controller together with the execution of the NC data, and the sub program registered in the storage device in the numerical controller is repeatedly executed later (refer to, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-230101).
Since the first system of the DNC operation performs operations without registering the transmitted NC data in the storage device in the numerical controller, it is not possible to register information (sequence number, NC data itself, and so on) for performing a repeat instruction or a branch instruction, and these instructions cannot be executed. Moreover, with a sub program call, while the sub program call registered in the storage device in the numerical controller can be performed, since there are no means for notifying the call information (program name, NC data information of the restoration destination, and so on) to the host apparatus, it is not possible to perform the sub program call that is registered in the storage device in the host apparatus.
Thus, with regard to the NC data to be transmitted from the host apparatus, NC data, in which the sub program call, the repeat instruction, and the branch instruction are all expanded therein, needs to be created for exclusive use in the DNC operation, and the NC data of a format that can be used in the memory operation cannot be used as is, and there are problems in that it is difficult to create such exclusive NC data and the size of the NC data will also increase.
With the second system, the numerical controller needs to internally comprise a storage device for registering the transmitted NC data, and, as with the first system, NC data for exclusive use in the DNC operation needs to be created, and the NC data of a format that can be used in the memory operation cannot be used as is, and there are problems in that it is difficult to create such exclusive NC data and the size of the NC data will also increase.


A stencil printing machine has a rotatable printing drum including an outer peripheral wall of ink impermeable material. A stencil paper is mounted on the surface of the outer peripheral wall. An ink supplying mechanism includes an ink supplying unit in the outer peripheral wall of the printing drum and supplies ink to the surface of the outer peripheral wall. A pressure roller presses a fed print sheet against the outer peripheral wall. When an initial printing operation is performed after a stencil paper is mounted on the printing drum, the ink supplying mechanism is caused to supply the surface of the outer peripheral wall, in advance, with an amount of ink which is larger than an amount of ink which is supplied for second and proceeding printing operations.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stencil printing machine which transfers ink, transuding out of pores in a stencil paper, to a print medium by transferring the print medium while pressing the print medium against a printing drum on which the stencil paper is mounted.
2. Description of the Related Art
As conventional stencil printing machines of this type, there have been an inner press type (disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 7-132675) and an outer press type (disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-246828).
The inner press type will be explained briefly as follows. The inner press type is provided with a printing drum and a back press roller whose diameters are nearly equal. The printing drum and the back press roller are arranged so as to be each capable of being rotated in a state that parts of each of the outer peripheral surfaces of the printing drum and the back press roller are made closely adjacent to each other. The printing drum, whose outer peripheral wall is flexible, is formed of an ink permeable screen. The printing drum is provided, inside the outer peripheral surface, with an ink supplying mechanism which supplies ink to the inner surface of the screen, and which can press the inner surface of the screen by an inner press roller.
Then, the printing drum on which a stencil paper is mounted and the back press roller are caused to be rotated while being synchronized with each other. A print sheet is fed between the rotated printing drum and the rotated back press roller. Thence, the inner press roller presses the screen. By the pressing, the print sheet is transferred between the back press roller and the stencil paper while being pressed against, and brought into contact with, the back press roller and the stencil paper. In the process of this transfer, ink on the side of the screen is transferred, out of pores in the stencil paper, onto the print sheet. Accordingly, an image is printed onto the print sheet.
In addition, the outer press type will be described briefly as follows. The outer press type is provided with a printing drum. The outer peripheral wall of the printing drum is formed of a porous, ink permeable member. The printing drum is provided, inside, with an ink supplying mechanism which supplies ink to the ink permeable member, and outside, with a pressure roller.
Then, the printing drum on which a stencil paper is mounted is caused to be rotated, and a print sheet is fed between the rotated printing drum and the rotated presser roller. Thence, the pressure roller presses the printing drum. By the pressing, the print sheet is transferred between the pressure roller and the stencil paper while being pressed against, and brought into contact with, the pressure roller and the stencil paper. In the process of this transfer, ink on the side of the printing drum is transferred, out of pores in the stencil paper, onto the print sheet. Accordingly, an image is printed onto the print sheet.
With regard to each of the above-described, conventional, inner and outer press types of stencil printing machines, however, an ink pool is formed in the ink supplying mechanism located inside the printing drum, and ink in the ink pool is supplied to the printing drum in the course of a printing operation. Consequently, when the printing is not performed for a long time, ink held in the ink pool and ink staining in the printing drum are left in a state of being exposed to the atmosphere for a long time. This causes a problem of the ink being changed in quality.
In addition, since various rollers for supplying ink have to be arranged inside the printing drum, this causes a problem of making it difficult to miniaturize, and to reduce the weight of, the printing drum.
Against this background, the applicant of the present invention has developed a stencil printing machine comprising: a printing drum, which is capable of being rotated, which includes an outer peripheral wall formed of ink impermeable material, and on which a stencil paper is mounted around the surface of the outer peripheral wall; an ink supplying mechanism, which includes an ink supplying unit in the outer peripheral wall of the printing drum, and which supplies ink from the ink supplying unit to the surface of the outer peripheral wall; a pressure roller which presses the fed print medium against the surface of the outer peripheral wall.
In this stencil printing machine, when the outer peripheral wall is caused to be rotated and a print medium is fed in a state that ink is supplied from the ink supplying unit to the surface of the outer peripheral wall, this print medium is transferred while being pressed against the stencil paper and the outer peripheral wall of the printing drum by the pressure roller. Concurrently, ink supplied between the outer peripheral wall of the printing drum and the stencil paper is caused, by the pressure of the pressure roller, to be spread downstream in the printing direction while being squeezed through in-between. In addition, the spread ink transudes out of pores in the stencil paper, and is transferred onto the print medium, whereby an image is printed onto the print medium. Ink which has been supplied to the outer peripheral wall of the printing drum is held in a virtually airtight space between the outer peripheral wall of the printing drum and the stencil paper, and the exposure of the ink to the atmosphere is minimized. Furthermore, various rollers for supplying ink need not be arranged in the interior of the printing drum. As a consequence, ink will not be changed in quality even when the printing is not performed for a longtime. Thus, the printing drum can be miniaturized, and the weight can be reduced.
With regard to the stencil printing machine, however, ink has not been supplied to the inner surface of a new stencil paper which has just been mounted on the printing drum. For this reason, it is highly likely that, if the same amount of ink as is used for usual printing operations is supplied to the stencil paper at this moment, the ink does not cover the entire printing surface of the stencil paper fully while an initial printing operation is performed. Since, therefore, printed sheets which include places that are not fully printed are produced, trial printings have to be repeated until printed sheets which meet a desired quality are brought about. In some cases, print sheets have been wasted.
In addition, ink which is held in the inner surface of the stencil paper is not completely free from the exposure to the atmosphere, although the exposure of the ink to the atmosphere is suppressed as little as possible as prescribed above. If, therefore, the printing drum is left in a state that a stencil paper is mounted on the printing drum for a long time, ink on the surface of the printing drum transudes out through pores in the stencil paper or does other things. In a case that printing operations are resumed while in a state that the printing drum has been left as it is for a long time, it is highly likely that ink does not fully cover the entire printing surface as long as the ink to be supplied is in the same amount as is used for usual printing operations. Since, therefore, printed sheets which include places that are not fully printed are produced, trial printings have to be repeated until printed sheets which meet a desired quality are brought about. In some cases, print sheets have been wasted.


A static random access memory device (SRAM) keeping a resistance value of a resistance element at a predetermined level regardless a process variation, by improving a special margin of a diffusion layer region at which the resistance element is formed and a node for connecting a gate electrode thereto. In the SRAM, there is provided a diffusion layer region in a substrate, having a first part of which may form a the resistance element, a second part of which is connected to the drain or source of the MIS access transistor, and a third part of which is connected to the source or drain of the MIS driver transistor and is defined the node, and there is provided an electrode layer connecting the gate of the MIS driver transistor and the node in the diffusion layer region. The diffusion layer region is formed so that the diffusion layer region is bent at the first part which may form the resistance element and is defined the node and a first direction between the first part and the second part and a second direction between the first part and the third part intersect at an obtuse angle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device, more particularly, a static random access memory (static RAM or SRAM) in which the increase of the resistance due to a shift of alignment of a pattern during production can be prevented.
2. Description of the Related Art
SRAMs operate at a high speed and do not consume large electric power. From the view point of this low power consumption, SRAMs have extensively employed as memory devices in portable electronic (or electric) apparatuses such as a portable computer or moving electronic apparatus such as a moving portable small telephone. Since a power source of such portable electronic apparatus or moving electric apparatus is normally a battery (or a power cell), there is required a SRAM operable at a low voltage as low as possible and a low power consumption.
FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram of a SRAM in which a high resistance load or a thin film transistor (TFT) as an active load element of each of inverter circuits INV1 and INV2.
The SRAM shown in FIG. 1 comprises a bit memory cell formed at an intersection point of a bit line BL and a word line WL. The memory cell comprises a first inverter circuit INV1 and a second inverter circuit INV2. The first inverter circuit INV1 is formed by a load element HR1 formed by a high resistance load element or a TFT, and a driver transistor TR1. The second inverter circuit INV2 is also formed by a load element HR2 formed by a high resistance load element or a TFT, and a driver transistor TR2. The memory cell further comprises a first access (switching) transistor TR3 connected between the bit line BL and the word line WL, and a second access (switching) transistor TR4 connected between the bit line BL and the word line WL. The memory cell comprises a first resistance element R1 provided between a first node N1 of the first inverter circuit INV1 and the first access transistor TR3, and a second resistance element R2 provided between a second node N2 of the second inverter circuit INV2 and the second access transistor TR4.
In the memory cell, the high resistance loads HR1 and HR2 are provided as the active load elements of the first and second inverter circuits INV1 and INV2, but the TFTs can be provided as the active load elements.
In the memory cell, resistance elements R1 and R2 are provided as passive loads.
The access transistors TR3 and TR4 are energized to function as transfer gates to a memory portion of the memory cell, and thus these access transistors can be called as "transfer transistors" or merely "switching transistors".
FIG. 2 is a plan view of the memory cell of the SRAM shown in FIG. 1. Note, in FIG. 2, the layout (pattern) of only diffusion layer regions, gate electrodes formed by polycide, generally, and buried (or embedded) contacts, of the transistors TR1 to TR4 shown in FIG. 1, is illustrated. The bit line BL intersects the word line WL, but the bit line BL is formed at a layer different to another layer of the word line, and the bit line BL is not illustrated for simplifying the illustration.
The access transistor TR3 operatively connecting the bit line BL and the node N1 of the first inverter circuit INV1 is connected to a source (or drain) of the driver transistor TR1 of the first inverter circuit INV1 through a first connection diffusion layer region CDR1 a part of which forms the resistance element R1. The access transistor TR4 connecting the bit line BL and the node N2 of the second inverter circuit INV2 is connected to a source (or drain) of the driver transistor TR2 of the second inverter circuit INV2 through the second connection diffusion layer region CDR2 a part of which forms the resistance element R2.
The nodes N1 and N2, which are part of the diffusion layer regions CDR1 and CDR2, are respectively connected to gate electrodes PS2 and PS1 of the driver transistors TR2 and TR1 of the inverter circuits INV2 and INV1. The access transistors TR3 and TR4 are connected to the word line WL at shaded portions of the diffusion layer regions CDR1 and CDR2 in FIG. 2.
Sidewalls SW, illustrated by double lines in FIG. 2, are formed at circumference edges of the gate electrodes PS1 and PS2 and the word line WL. Birdbeaks BB are formed at boundary positions between the diffusion layers illustrated by dotted points in FIG. 2 and the field oxide layers.
During the production process of the SRAM shown in FIG. 2, an alignment of the driver transistors TR1 and TR2 and the gate electrodes PS1 and PS2 may be shifted.
The shift of the alignment by which the overlapping area of the first connection diffusion region CDR1 and the gate electrode PS2 will be increased, will be described.
A diffusion layer is not formed on the substrate positioned beneath the gate electrode PS2, but the concentration (density) of the diffusion layers of the substrate beneath the sidewalls SW which are formed as a LDD structure for a hot carrier countermeasure, is low. Therefore, if a portion of the connection diffusion layer region CDR1 forming the resistance element R1 and connecting the access transistor TR3 and the driver transistor TR1, which is pointed out by an arrow in FIG. 2, is shifted to the upper side as shown in FIG. 3, namely, the gate electrode PS2 is shifted to the upper side, the width of the connection diffusion layer region CDR1 becomes narrow to result in the increase of the resistance value thereat. This increase of the resistance means the increase of the resistance value of the resistance element R1, in the circuit of FIG. 1. The increase of the resistance value of the resistance element R1 disturbs the rise of the potential at the node N1 to a rated level. This disturbance of the rise of the potential requires a high voltage for raising the potential at the node N1 to the rated level. As a result, the SRAM does not operate at a low voltage.
Contrarily, if the gate electrode PS2 is shifted to the lower side in FIG. 2, the resistance value of the resistance element R2 will be increased to disturb the rise of the potential at the node N2 to a rated level. Consequently, the SRAM does not operate at a low voltage.
FIG. 4 is a plan view of another memory cell pattern of the SRAM shown in FIG. 1.
In FIG. 4, the access transistors TR3 and TR4 are connected by a second connection diffusion layer region 2CDR. The diffusion layer region 2CDR is connected to a bit line contact BC. The access transistor TR3 and the driver transistor TR1 of the inverter circuit INV1 are connected through a first connection diffusion layer region 1CDR.
In the SRAM shown in FIG. 4, the shift of the alignment, by which the overlapping area of the first connection diffusion layer region 1CDR and the gate electrode PS2 will be increased, may occur. When such shift of the alignment occurs the width of the first connection diffusion layer region 1CDR forming the resistance element R1 and connecting the access transistor TR3 and the driver transistor TR1 of the inverter circuit INV1 may be narrow and the resistance value thereat may be increased. That is, the resistance value of the resistance element R1 may be increased to disturb the rise of the potential at the node N1 of the inverter circuit INV1. The SRAM does not operate at a low level.
Contrary to the above, if the gate electrode PS2 is shifted to the lower side in FIG. 4, the resistance of the resistance element R2 may be increased to disturb the rise of the potential at the node N2. Consequently, the SRAM does not operate at a low voltage.


A machine used to populate printed circuit boards (PCB) with surface mount electrical components, wherein an elongated PCB-carrying Y table intersects an elongated turret-carrying X oriented carriage structure intermediate a Y table component placement zone. Left and right vacuum quill-carrying turrets are independently movable along the carriage structure, the quills being movable in a Z direction, and the quills in each respective turret being adapted to pick-up selected components from respective left and right multiple feeder stations while the quills in the other turret simultaneously deposits components on a PCB supported on the Y table in the placement zone.

The present invention relates to an electrical component pick and placement machine, and more particularly to a surface mount device (SMD) placement system that is used to assemble printed circuit boards (PCB) with surface mount electrical components.
SMD have connection pads instead of elongated leads, and these components are mounted onto board-like panels that are formed on suitable dielectric material and have electrical circuits printed on or otherwise applied to their surface. The printed circuits include connection pads for registration with and electrical connection to corresponding connection pads of the SMD.
The mounting of discrete electrical components onto printed circuit boards by automated means is well known. For a rather extended period of time, the electrical components, such as resistors, capacitors, inductors, and the like, included axial, radial, or in-line leads which extended through holes in the PCBs. Over the years, several types of apparatus had been developed to automate this procedure and thereby increase production. Basically, these machines bend the leads, align the components and their leads with respect to lead holes in the printed circuit board to be populated, and then insert the leads into the appropriate holes. The leads are then bent over or clinched to retain the components on the board prior to a soldering operation which both mechanically and electrically bonds the component to the board. In more recent times, however, the SMD technique was developed which does not require through-hole insertion.
Surface mount devices lack or eliminate the long leads associated with through-hole mounted components. SMD's are finding wide use in the electronic industry, and like their leaded counterparts, require accurate placement on PCB's, or other substrate media, prior to soldering. Accordingly, automatic machines have been developed to accomplish this task.
According to the prior art, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,381,601, electronic components such as semiconductor pellets or chips can be temporarily attached to the tip end of an attraction (vacuum) nozzle, held, and automatically oriented by means of a plurality of arms arranged along the outer periphery of the tip end of the sucking nozzle. The held electronic component was then transferred to a predetermined bonding position on a semiconductor device substrate before the arms were opened to bring down the electronic component onto the predetermined bonding position for bonding. Although this apparatus is adequate for the task of picking up and depositing a component, it does not include a reliable and accurate means for transporting the component from an input station to a desired location and in exact registration with connection pads on a PCB.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,393,579, a device for mounting chip-type electronic components on a substrate is disclosed which is designed to enable accurate positioning and mounting of chip-type components such as SMD in a controlled and reproducible manner. This device includes a slide having a recess for accommodating and transporting a component. The component is linearly movable in a guide between a loading position and an unloading position, and a suction device which is movable in the vertical direction serves to pick up a component from the slide when the latter is in the unloading position, and then move the component downward through a passage in the guide to position the picked-up component onto the substrate located underneath the guide. Although this is an improvement over the previously known art, it still leaves much to be desired in speed of operation and reliability.
In U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,135,630 and 4,290,732, machines are described for picking up electrical components and placing them at desired positions and orientations on a substrate. The pick-up heads of these machines utilize a vacuum or suction tool by which components are held on the pick-up head, and pawls or fingers are used to position the components on the tools. These devices work well with electrical components of a particular size and shape, but such components are not all similar in dimension. At best these machines can handle a small range of sizes of components. However, it is frequently necessary to position a number of components of widely varying sizes and shapes on a single substrate, and the above-noted prior art devices cannot provide sufficient accuracy and reliability with a single pick-up head without manually adjusting or changing the pawls or fingers, which is very inconvenient and time-consuming. Subsequently, this problem has been solved by providing a plurality of pick-up heads, each adapted to pick up a different size range of components.
More recently, a head for handling various sizes of electrical components has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,050. This device includes a head for handling electrical components, the head including a plurality of orienting jaws mounted for movement toward and away from a component carried on a datum face of a tool on a tool holder when the holder is in one of the datum positions. A key feature of this device is that the jaws have a plurality of spaced sets of cooperating datum faces disposed generally transversely to the plane of the datum face of the tool in the holder. Each set of datum faces are disposed so as to be capable of orienting a component carried by a tool mounted on the tool holder when the holder is at a corresponding one of the datum positions. This allows for the handling of a wider variety of component sizes, but still cannot accurately accommodate an infinite variety of component sizes as may be required in the industry.
In order to eliminate the multiple jaw mechanism while attempting to maintain proper pad alignment, more recent developments have provided pick and placement machines again using only vacuum heads having no jaws. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,858,308, an apparatus is disclosed for mounting small electronic parts such as chip capacitors and the like onto a printed circuit board through a series of work stations which are arranged in a closed-loop fashion at a periphery of a rotary-index table. This apparatus utilizes a plurality of suction devices for picking and placing operations. There is disclosed such an operation where suction pieces have various shapes and sizes to accommodate a wide variety of types and sizes of chips. It is taught that since a suction piece can be exchanged after mounting parts, then while one suction device performs a picking and placing operation of a chip, another suction device exchanges the suction piece to accommodate another chip configuration.
Also in this regard, attention is directed to U.S. Pat. No. 4,866,837 which concerns a dual port alignment assembly station for attaching components to circuit boards. An electrical component, such as a chip, is held by an appropriate robotic mechanism over a printed circuit board, and a dual port placement probe is inserted between the component and the circuit board. The probe is provided with a pair of oppositely directed viewing arrangements which respectively look toward the component and the circuit board. The optical images from the pads on both the component and the circuit board are then detected by respective cameras for the two, and the signals derived from the images obtained by the cameras are processed manually or by a conventional vision system. The system produces signals to drive a robot holding the component.
It should thus be clear that in the prior art in the subject area of interest most schemes require either a movable jaw mechanism or a complicated vacuum arrangement. These schemes generally lack the versatility reliability and accuracy required to handle a large variety of component sizes of SMD's that is needed in the industry. It should therefore also be clear that an accurate and reliable SMD pick and placement machine that does not utilize a jaw mechanism or a complicated viewing or vacuum system will obviate the aforementioned shortcomings and would constitute a significant advancement in the art.


Disclosed is to a single electron device, a method of manufacturing the same, and a method of simultaneously manufacturing a single electron device and an MOS transistor. Accordingly, the single electron device of the present invention comprises, on a substrate, semiconductor layers in which a source region and a drain region spaced a predetermined distance apart are formed, hemisphere-type silicon layer formed between the semiconductor layers as an active layer, the hemisphere-type silicon layer having a plurality of electron islands, a gate insulating layer formed on a top surface of the entire structure, and a gate electrode formed on the gate insulating layer in order to apply voltage to the active layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a single electron device, and more particular, to a single electron device where electron islands are effectively formed using HSG (Hemi-spherical grained) silicon process, a method of manufacturing the same, and a method of simultaneously manufacturing a single electron device and an MOS transistor.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A single electron device is an ultimate structure of electronic device which can be controlled with one electron. Based on a transistor concept, single electron devices having a structure similar to an FET (Field Effect Transistor) have already been proposed and researched for implementing ultra high integrated memories or super low-power consumption circuits. In addition, various element structures and circuits with a new concept have been researched.
Hereinafter, operation principles of a single electron device will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 1 is a schematic view illustrating a single electron device having a structure similar to an FET.
An electron island 120 is surrounded by two tunnel junctions 115 and 125 and a capacitor 135, where the tunnel junctions 115 and 125 have resistance and capacitance characteristics of (R1, C1) and (R2, C2) respectively, and the capacitance of the capacitor 135 is Cg. A constant bias voltage V is applied to a node denoted by A and a control voltage, Vg is applied to a node denoted by B in FIG. 1. Such structure is very similar to that of an MOSFET, where two nodes A and C correspond to a source and a drain, respectively, and the input node B corresponds to a gate. The electron transport characteristic with such configurations is shown in FIG. 2 where current oscillation phenomena are manifested due to the Coulomb blockade effect.
That is, as shown in FIG. 2, an oscillating pattern of the current with respect to Vg having a period of e/Cg is obtained. FIG. 2 shows a relationship between the control voltage Vg for controlling the potential of the electron island 120 and the current, i flowing the electron island through tunnel junctions with the applied voltage V. Herein, a peak region represents a conducting state and a valley region represents an insulating state by the Coulomb blockade. Further, the period, e/Cg represents a transition between states of total charges differed by e, a single electron's charge, which means that a source-drain current can be modulated by induced charges smaller than e, a single electron's charge. Therefore, this device is called a single electron transistor.
When tunnel junctions 115 and 125 have resistance and capacitance values of (R1, C1) and (R2, C2) and the capacitor 135 has a capacitance of Cg, the conditions for a single electron behavior having the characteristic as shown in FIG. 2 are as follows;Ri>>h/e2˜26 kΩ (herein, I≈1, 2)  (Equation 1)e2/Ct>>kBT (herein, Ct=C1+C2+Cg)  (Equation 2)
The equation 1 describe the condition for the localization of a electron island 120 that can discriminate the tunneling electron one by one, and the equation 2 describes the condition that the electron tunneled into the electron island 120 can block other thermally activated electrons. As can be seen from the equation 1, the resistance of the tunnel junctions should be higher than hundreds of kΩ. As can also be seen from the equation 2, the size of the device should be smaller than tens of nanometers in order for the electron island 120 to have small capacitance enough for room temperature operation.
To meet those conditions, it is essential to develop the technology where electron islands with nanometers of size are uniformly formed using silicon in order to manufacture a single electron device compatible with conventional MOS transistor technologies. In current state of nanofabrication technique, it is only the electron beam direct lithography method to meet such a stringent requirement for sub-10 nm scale lithography, but it is not suitable for mass production.
Therefore it is urgent to develop new technique toward nanoscale fabrication processes especially for silicon in order to realize integrated circuits of single electron transistors which have merits in high integration and low power.

Single electron device, method of manufacturing the same, and method of simultaneously manufacturing single electron device and MOS transistor

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


Roofing granules having surfaces treated with an oil and an elastomeric rubber. The elastomeric rubber can be an organic block copolymer having elastomeric and nonelastomeric repeating units. The oil and rubber are applied to the roofing granules' surfaces as a thin film. The thin film of oil and rubber impedes granule staining from oils in asphalt roofing materials, and reduces dust formation during granule handling. Also disclosed is a roofing shingle and a process for making the roofing granule composition.

In North America, asphalt-based roofing materials are a popular medium for covering roofs on homes and other structures. Asphalt-based roofing materials may come in shingle or roll form, the shingle being the more widely used material. A typical asphalt shingle has an asphalt substrate and a multitude of roofing granules placed thereon. The roofing granules serve an aesthetic function by providing color to the shingle and thus to the roof.
Colored roofing granules have been prepared in the following manner. First, mineral rock granules of about 420-1680 micrometers (40 to 12 US mesh) are preheated to around 100.degree.-1000.degree. F. (38.degree.-538.degree. C.). A paint slurry containing a pigment is then applied to the heated granules in a mixer. The color coated granules are then further heated in a kiln to about 350.degree. to 1200.degree. F. (175.degree.-650.degree. C.), are cooled, and are subsequently passed to a post-treatment stage where the colored granules are treated with an oil formulation in a rotary mixer. The oil formulation is applied to reduce dust and promote adhesion of the granules to the asphalt substrate. After the oil treatment, the granules are removed from the post-treatment stage, transported, and subsequently applied to the asphalt substrate.
When the granules are secured to an asphalt substrate, it has been found that there is a tendency for oils in the asphalt substrate to creep onto or be adsorbed on the granules' surfaces. This creeping or adsorption of the asphaltic oils on the roofing granules' surfaces causes a discoloration (staining) of the roofing granules and hence the shingles. Although the discoloration is normally removed by weathering after the shingles are placed on a roof, there is nonetheless a disparity in color between what the consumer sees at the time of purchase and what the ultimate color of roof becomes after weathering. This color disparity is especially emphasized when the shingles have a lighter color, particularly white.
The present invention is directed to overcoming the problem of having asphaltic oils adsorb onto and stain the surface of roofing granules. This and other objects and advantages of the invention will be more fully understood in the following description and accompanying figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, that the description and figures are for purposes of illustrating the invention and should not be read in a manner that would unduly limit the definition of this invention.

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company


A system for managing congestion within a network domain includes an ingress node, an interior node, and an egress node. The ingress node receives and routes data units entering the network domain. The interior node detects whether a load exceeds one or more load thresholds and generates congestion marked data units. The egress node detects the presence of congestion marked data units and reacts to the detection of the presence of congestion marked data units by invoking a congestion control process.

In the field of communications packet-switched transport is widely used. Recently, IP-based transport solutions have received more attention. IP stands for Internet Protocol. The interest in IP is at least partially due to the flexibility and wide deployment of IP technologies. However, communication networks, such as telephone networks, have different characteristics when compared to traditional IP networks, because communication networks typically desire to be simple, inexpensive and to be able to provide a defined Quality of Service (QoS). Due to Quality of Service requirements, traffic congestion control is important in communication networks.
One of the concepts for providing QoS in IP networks is resource reservation in routers by signalling along the data path. As an example, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) standardization organisation has specified a signalling protocol called RSVP (Resource ReSerVation Protocol) for making resource reservations in IP routers and for providing integrated services for real-time and nonreal-time traffic in the Internet (see e.g. R. Braden at al.: Resource Reservation Protocol (RSVP)—version 1 "Functional Specification", RFC2205, September 1997; R. Braden at al.: "Integrated Services in the Internet Architecture: an Overview", RFC1633, 1994; J. Roclawski: "The Use of RSVP with IETF Integrated Services", RFC2210, September 1997). In this technology, RSVP signalling messages reserve resources in each router along the data path before sending a real-time traffic flow. Real-time flows are admitted into the network if resources are successfully reserved in each router along the data path.
This method requires storing per-flow reservation states in each router along the data path. The reservation states are soft states, which means that they have to be refreshed by sending periodic refresh messages. If a reserved state is not refreshed, the state and corresponding resources are removed after a time-out period. Reservations can also be removed by explicit tear-down messages. With the help of per-flow states, RSVP messages always follow the data path up- and downstream. Therefore, it is able to inter-work with standard routing protocols. If the traffic is re-routed, e.g. due to overload of a router, refresh messages make reservations in the new data path. Storing per-flow states in each router also enables the possibility of local path repair. After re-routing, if there are not enough resources to support all flows desired for the new path, some flows can be terminated.
Storing and maintaining per-flow states in each router can be a problem in large networks, where the number of flows and therefore the number of reservation states can be high. In response to this scalability problem of RSVP, the IETF specified an RSVP aggregation method that allows making reservations for aggregated flows (see RFC3175, September 2001). Aggregated reservation states are not necessarily created, modified or refreshed for each flow request.
The RSVP method of aggregation is capable of making an admission control decision only at an aggregated level, which means that all flows that are treated together as an aggregate are terminated if there are not enough resources on a new path after re-routing.
As means for providing QoS in large-scale networks, an architecture referred to as Differentiated Services (DiffServ) was proposed, see RFC2475, 1998. In the DiffServ architecture scalability is achieved by offering services on an aggregate rather than per-flow basis, and by arranging the system such that as much as possible of the per-flow state information is kept at edge nodes of the network, and only aggregated state information is kept in the interior nodes. The service differentiation is achieved by using a specific field in the IP header, the so-called Differentiated Services (DS) field. Packets are classified into Per-Hop Behaviour (PHB) groups at the DiffServ edge nodes. Packets are handled in DiffServ routers according to the PHB indicated in the DS field of the message header. The DiffServ architecture does not specify any way for devices outside of the domain to dynamically reserve resources or receive indications of network resource availability. In practise, service providers rely on subscription-time Service Level Agreements (SLAs) that statically define the parameters of the traffic that will be accepted from a customer.
DiffServ networks provide QoS for real-time traffic in a scalable way. DiffServ is a static architecture in which traffic is limited at the domain edges, and interior nodes have to be designed with proper dimensioning. There are no dynamic mechanisms for dealing with overload due to re-routing within the domain, such that interior nodes and links need to be over-dimensioned with respect to average load, in order to provide a QoS guarantee up to at least a certain level.
The IETF Next Steps In Signalling (NSIS) working group is working on a protocol to cope with new signalling requirements in IP networks, see RFC3726, April 2004. The QoS signalling application protocol of NSIS is similar to RSVP, but it has some additional features, such as supporting different QoS models. One of the QoS models is Resource Management in DiffServ (RMD). RMD defines scalable admission control methods for DiffServ networks. It also includes a congestion control function that is able to terminate a number of flows in a congestion situation, in order to maintain a required QoS for the rest of the flows.
An important characteristic of IP networks and some other packet switched networks compared with other technologies used in communications, such as ATM or SDH, is that IP routing protocols automatically adapt to topology changes for example, if a link or node fails, traffic is automatically re-routed. However, a problem can occur in that the new path may not be able to support all of the re-routed flows, e.g. due to a lack of bandwidth. In such a situation congestion management is desirable.
RMD defines functions for notifying edge nodes of a DiffServ domain about congestion occurring in interior routers. These notifications are based on "remarking" of data packets in the DS field in the interior routers in proportion to the overload. An edge note can then measure the number of marked packets and send a termination message for some flows, if it is necessary to reduce the traffic load.
An algorithm for reacting to congestion is e.g. described in Andras Csaszar, Attila Takacs, Robert Szabo, Vlora Rexhepi and Georgios Karagiannis "Severe Congestion Handling with Resource Management in DiffServ on Demand", in proceedings of Networking 2002—The Second International IFIP-TC6 Networking Conference, vol. 2345 of INCS, pages 443-454, 2002, Pisa, Italy, or in Lars Westberg, Andras Csaszar, Georgis Karagiannis, Adam Marquetant, David Partain, Octavian Pop, Vlora Rexhepi, Robert Szabo and Attila Takàcs "Resource Management in DiffServ (RMD): A Functionality and Performance Behaviour Overview" in proceedings of PfHSN 2002—7th International Workshop on Protocols for High-Speed Networks, vol. 2334 of INCS, pages 17-34, 2002, Berlin, Germany.
A problem encountered in such algorithms can be that of over-reaction to a congestion condition by terminating more flows than necessary to decrease congestion. This is also called under-shoot, in that the actual load falls below a desired level due to the over-reaction.
WO 2206/052174 describes ways of dealing with the problem of over-reaction. In the described system, the interior routers of a domain mark packets in proportion to the overload, and the signalled overload is stored. In other words, the interior routers or nodes have a form of "memory" for measured overload. This memorized information is then taken into account when marking new packets in the future. Furthermore, the interior routers mark the forwarded data units proportionally to the degree of overload, and the egress nodes count the marked data units, in order to measure the degree of overload.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


An improved deposition chamber (2) includes a housing (4) defining a chamber (18) which houses a substrate support (14). A mixture of oxygen and SiF4 is delivered through a set of first nozzles (34) and silane is delivered through a set of second nozzles (34a) into the chamber around the periphery (40) of the substrate support. Silane (or a mixture of silane and SiF4) and oxygen are separately injected into the chamber generally centrally above the substrate from orifices (64, 76). The uniform dispersal of the gases coupled with the use of optimal flow rates for each gas results in uniformly low (under 3.4) dielectric constant across the film.

One of the primary steps in the fabrication of modern semiconductor devices is the formation of a thin film on a semiconductor substrate by chemical reaction of gases. Such a deposition process is referred to as chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Conventional thermal CVD processes supply reactive gases to the substrate surface where heat-induced chemical reactions can take place to produce the desired film. Plasma CVD processes promote the excitation and/or dissociation of the reactant gases by the application of radio frequency (RF) energy to the reaction zone proximate the substrate surface thereby creating a plasma of highly reactive species. The high reactivity of the released species reduces the energy required for a chemical reaction to take place, and thus lowers the required temperature for such CVD processes.
In one design of plasma CVD chambers, the vacuum chamber is generally defined by a planar substrate support, acting as a cathode, along the bottom, a planar anode along the top, a relatively short sidewall extending upwardly from the bottom, and a dielectric dome connecting the sidewall with the top. Inductive coils are mounted about the dome and are connected to a source radio frequency (SRF) generator. The anode and the cathode are typically coupled to bias radio frequency (BRF) generators. Energy applied from the SRF generator to the inductive coils forms an inductively coupled plasma within the chamber. Such a chamber is referred to as a high density plasma CVD (HDP-CVD) chamber.
In some HDP-CVD chambers, it is typical to mount two or more sets of equally spaced gas distributors, such as nozzles, to the sidewall and extend into the region above the edge of the substrate support surface. The gas nozzles for each set are coupled to a common manifold for that set; the manifolds provide the gas nozzles with process gases. The composition of the gases introduced into the chamber depends primarily on the type of material to be formed on the substrate. For example, when a fluorosilicate glass (FSG) film is deposited within the chamber, the process gases may include, silane (SiH4), silicon tetrafluoride (SiF4), oxygen (O2) and argon (Ar). Sets of gas nozzles are commonly used because it is preferable to introduce some gases into the chamber separately from other gases, while other gases can be delivered to a common set of nozzles through a common manifold. For example, in the above FSG process it is preferable to introduce SiH4 separately from O2, while O2 and SiF4 can be readily delivered together. The nozzle tips have exits, typically orifices, positioned in a circumferential pattern spaced apart above the circumferential periphery of the substrate support and through which the process gases flow.
As device sizes become smaller and integration density increases, improvements in processing technology are necessary to meet semiconductor manufacturers' process requirements. One parameter that is important in such processing is film deposition uniformity. To achieve a high film uniformity, among other things, it is necessary to accurately control the delivery of gases into the deposition chamber and across the wafer surface. Ideally, the ratio of gases (e.g., the ratio of O2 to (SiH4+SiF4)) introduced at various spots along the wafer surface should be the same.
FIG. 1 illustrates a typical undoped silicate glass (USG) deposition thickness variation plot 46 for a conventional deposition chamber such as the chamber described above. The average thickness is shown by base line 48. As can be seen by plot 46, there is a relatively steep increase in thickness at end points 50 and 52 of plot 46 corresponding to the periphery 42 of substrate 20. The center 54 of plot 46 also dips down substantially as well.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/571,618 filed Dec. 13, 1995, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference, discloses how plot 46 can be improved through the use of a center nozzle 56 coupled to a third gas source 58 through a third gas controller 60 and a third gas feed line 62. Center nozzle 56 has an orifice 64 positioned centrally above substrate support surface 16. Using center nozzle 56 permits the modification of USG deposition thickness variation plot 46 from that of FIG. 1 to exemplary plot 68 of FIG. 2. Exemplary deposition thickness variation plot 68 is flat enough so that the standard deviation of the deposition thickness can be about 1 to 2% of one sigma. This is achieved primarily by reducing the steep slope of the plot at end points 50, 52 and raising in the low point at center 54 of plot 46.
With the advent of multilevel metal technology in which three, four, or more layers of metal are formed on the semiconductors, another goal of semiconductor manufacturers is lowering the dielectric constant of insulating layers such as intermetal dielectric layers. Low dielectric constant films are particularly desirable for intermetal dielectric (IMD) layers to reduce the RC time delay of the interconnect metallization, to prevent cross-talk between the different levels of metallization, and to reduce device power consumption.
Many approaches to obtain lower dielectric constants have been proposed. One of the more promising solutions is the incorporation of fluorine or other halogen elements, such as chlorine or bromine, into a silicon oxide layer. It is believed that fluorine, the preferred halogen dopant for silicon oxide films, lowers the dielectric constant of the silicon oxide film because fluorine is an electronegative atom that decreases the polarizability of the overall SiOF network. Fluorine-doped silicon oxide films are also referred to as fluoro silicate glass (FSG) films.
From the above, it can be seen that it is desirable to produce oxide films having reduced dielectric constants such as FSG films. At the same time, it is also desirable to provide a method to accurately control the delivery of process gases to all points along the wafer's surface to improve characteristics such as film uniformity. As previously discussed, one method employed to improve film deposition uniformity is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/571,618 discussed above. Despite this improvement, new techniques for accomplishing these and other related objectives are continuously being sought to keep pace with emerging technologies.

Deposition chamber and method for depositing low dielectric constant films


An image capturing apparatus includes: a sensor; a camera; an image processor; a first communicator operatable in one between a first status and a second status that consumes less power than the first status; a second communicator having a lower data transmission rate than the first communicator; and a controller configured to make a request for whether to take an image with the camera to an external apparatus through the second communicator if the sensor senses an object while the first communicator is in the second status, control the image processor to generate the data of the image taken by the camera in response to an instruction received by the second communicator, and control the first communicator to switch over to the first status so that the data of the image are transmitted to the external apparatus through the first communicator.

1. Field
Apparatuses and methods consistent with the exemplary embodiments relate to an image capturing apparatus and a control method thereof, in which a predetermined object or an object body is photographed by a camera to generate photographed image data or capture image data and the photographed image data is provided to an external device so that the external device can display a photographed image based on the photographed image data, and more particularly to a wireless image capturing apparatus with a battery, which has an improved structure for reducing consumption of battery power, and a control method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
To compute and process predetermined information in accordance with certain processes, an electronic apparatus basically includes a central processing unit (CPU), a chipset, a memory, and the like electronic components for computation. Such an electronic apparatus may be classified variously in accordance with what information will be processed therein. For example, the electronic apparatus is classified into an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer, a server or the like for processing general information, and an image processing apparatus for processing image information.
The image processing apparatus receives a content signal including image data from the exterior and processes the image data extracted from the content signal in accordance with various image processing processes. The image processing apparatus may display an image based on the processed image data on its own display panel, or output the processed image data to another display apparatus provided with a panel so that on the corresponding display apparatus can display an image based on the processed image signal. In particular, the image processing apparatus that has a display panel is called a display apparatus, and may for example includes a TV, a monitor, a portable multimedia player (PMP), a tablet computer, a mobile phone, etc. Further, the image processing apparatus includes an image providing apparatus for providing image data to another image processing apparatus such as a TV. The image providing apparatus is classified into many kinds in accordance with how to generate the image data. As one kind of the image providing apparatus, there is an image capturing apparatus that includes a camera, photographs a predetermined object through the camera and generates and provides the photographed image.
The image capturing apparatus may be used for prevention of crimes like a closed-circuit television (CCTV) as well as the function of the camera since it photographs an object and generates the photographed image. The image capturing apparatus needs supply of power to operate, and a communication path is needed for transmitting the photographed image data between the image capturing apparatus and the display apparatus so that the photographed image generated by the image capturing apparatus can be displayed on an external display apparatus. Conventionally, a cable has been used for supplying the power and transmitting the data as it is connected to the image capturing apparatus. In such a conventional case, if the image capturing apparatus is used as the CCTV, its installation place may be variously restricted. To solve such a restriction, wireless communication and a built-in battery may be applied to the image capturing apparatus.
By the way, if the image capturing apparatus receives power from the built-in battery, consumption of battery power becomes a big issue. If the image capturing apparatus is installed at a place difficult for a user to reach, the battery has to supply power for as long as possible in order to increase its replacement cycle. Accordingly, for convenience of a user, there is a need of applying a structure or method of reducing wasteful power consumption to the image capturing apparatus.

Image capturing apparatus and control method thereof


Sustained release formulations of nalbuphine or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof; methods for making the sustained release formulations of nalbuphine or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof; and methods for using the sustained release formulations of nalbuphine or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof to treat patients suffering from pain are provided.

Pain is the most frequently reported symptom and it is a common clinical problem that confronts the clinician. Many millions of people in the United States suffer from pain that is chronically undertreated or inappropriately managed. The clinical usefulness of the analgesic properties of opioids has been recognized for centuries, and morphine and its derivatives have been widely used for analgesia for decades in a variety of clinical pain states.
Nalbuphine HCl (17-(cyclobutylmethyl)-4,5α-epoxymorphinan-3,6α,14-triol hydrochloride) is a synthetic opioid agonist-antagonist analgesic belonging to the phenanthrene class of opioids. Nalbuphine is related to the opioid antagonist, naloxone, and also to the opioid analgesic, oxymorphone. Nalbuphine HCl is marketed in the United States under the trade name Nubain® by Endo Pharmaceuticals and is primarily a kappa agonist/partial mu antagonist analgesic.
Although oral administration of nalbuphine has been studied (Lo, M W et al. The Disposition and Bioavailability of Intravenous and Oral Nalbuphine in Healthy Volunteers, J. Clin. Pharmacol. 27:866-87.3 (1987); Aitkenhead, A R et al. "The Pharmacokinetics of Oral and Intravenous Nalbuphine in Healthy Volunteers, Br. J. Clin. Pharmacol. 25:264-288 (1988); Jaillon P, et al. Pharmacokinetics of Naibuphine in infants, Young Healthy Volunteers, and Elderly Patients, Clin. Pharmacol. Ther. 46:226-233 (1989)), it has never received marketing approval. Currently, nalbuphine is marketed only as an injection (10 mg/ml in 10 ml multiple dose vials; 20 mg/ml in 10 ml multiple dose vials; 10 mg/ml in 1 ml ampules; 20 mg/ml in 1 ml ampules) for intramuscular, subcutaneous, and intravenous administration.
The dosing interval of nalbuphine injection is approximately every three to six hours. Although the half-life following oral administration of immediate release nalbuphine has been reported to be somewhat longer (approximately five to seven hours), the drug effect generally wears off toward the end of the therapeutic window.

Sustained release formulation of nalbuphine