An injection molding tool having a first section moveable with respect to a second section. In a first position, the first section contacts the second section along a parting line and forms a cavity. An expandable cavity part is moveably mounted with respect to the second section. In a closed condition, the expandable cavity part is in a retracted or molding position. The expandable cavity part can be moved away from the molding position or the closed condition to a release position or an expanded condition with allows access to molded part or other article. A core pin is either moveably mounted with respect to the expandable cavity part or is in a fixed position with respect to the expandable cavity part.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an expandable cavity element and an attachment for the expandable cavity element, such as within an injection molding tool or system.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Conventional expandable cavity elements are known for use in injection molding systems. Expandable cavity elements have been used with striker plates to guide movement of and hold the expandable cavity element in position during an injection molding process. After a plastic article is injection molded, the expandable cavity element opens to a release position or a discharge position, so that the article can be picked, removed or recovered.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,387,389 discloses a conventional expandable cavity element used with an injection molding method and system. The known expandable cavity element can be used with an A-side striker molding system or with a B-side striker molding system, depending upon various design features of a produced plastic article.
Many known injection molding systems use plates that are movably or fixedly mounted with respect to each other, some of which are grouped together, to accomplish movement between an injection molding step of the process and an article release step of the process. A driver or another suitable mechanical system can be used to fix or move the ejection plate relative to a striker plate.
Many known expandable cavity elements require significant disassembly to maintain, remove, replace or change a used, spent or retired expandable cavity element with another new, refurbished or different expandable cavity element. There is an apparent need for an expandable cavity element with an attachment or connection that provides relatively quick replacement standardized designs and/or standard sizings.

Expandable cavity for injection molding tool

Progressive Components International Corporation


A waste compaction apparatus may include a housing and a connector arm. The housing may define a drive chamber and a compaction chamber and the connector arm may include a drive piston portion movably positioned within the drive chamber and a compaction piston portion movably positioned within the compaction chamber. The drive chamber may be selectively fluidly coupleable to the near-vacuum of outer space, such that the compaction piston portion of the connector arm is configured to move within the compaction chamber to compact waste material contained within the compaction chamber in response to movement of the drive piston portion of the connector arm within the drive chamber.

Motorized actuation systems and devices used aboard spacecraft are often the result of extensive, timely, and costly development. For example, developing a motorized actuation device for a specific application onboard a spacecraft, including its associated controller, involves a substantial time and capital investment. Additionally, such devices are often heavy, thus adding weight to the spacecraft.
Additionally, conventional Waste Collector Systems (WCS) aboard, for example, the Space Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS), utilize air flow to entrain human waste. For example, fecal material is typically collected by air flow entrainment. For instance, air may enter in a fairly uniform radial direction under a seat of the WCS. Air drag then helps separate the fecal bolus and draw it into a tank or fecal collection bag. The collected feces are generally thrown overboard. Because a substantial portion of fecal matter is comprised of water, disposing of collected fecal matter in this manner results in a loss of water, a valuable resource for space travel, from the spacecraft.


The vessel (10) comprises a housing (12) having openings (14, 16) closed by pairs of rotatable path-defining rollers (18, 20, 22, 24) through which a sheet material path (30) extends. Liquid level control means (38) define a dynamic liquid level (L) in the treatment chamber (32) above the sheet material path (30). A buffer comprises one or more drip chambers (34, 36) positioned to receive liquid escaping from the treatment chamber (32) through the nips (26, 28) and between the rotatable path-defining rollers (18, 20, 22, 24) and the housing (12). The buffer has a maximum total volume such that a static liquid level (S) is established below the sheet material path (30), without the buffer overflowing. In a non-operative condition, treatment liquid, which escapes through the nips and between the path-defining rollers and the housing, is all retained in the buffer, for later re-use as desired.

As a rule, a processing apparatus for photographic sheet material comprises several vessels each of which contains a treatment liquid, such as a developer, a fixer and a rinse liquid. As used herein, the term "sheet material" includes not only photographic material in the form of cut sheets, but: also in the form of a web unwound from a roll. The sheet material to be processed is transported through these vessels in turn, by transport means such as one or more pairs of drive rollers, and thereafter optionally to a drying unit. The time spent by the sheet material in each vessel is determined by the transport speed and the dimensions of the vessel in the sheet feed path direction.
Apparatus for the processing of photographic sheet material such as aluminium lithographic printing plates is known, for example from EP-A-410500 (Agfa Gevaert NV), comprising a plurality of treatment vessels mounted one beside another to define a substantially horizontal sheet material path through the apparatus. Each vessel comprises a housing having a sheet material inlet and a sheet material outlet. The inlet and outlet are each closed by a pair of rotatable path-defining rollers biased into contact with each other to form a nip there-between through which the sheet material path extends.
The path-defining rollers are used to remove excess treatment liquid from the sheet as it passes from one treatment vessel to the next. This reduces carry-over of treatment liquid and thereby reduces contamination and wastage. A good removal of processing liquid is also required to reduce the drying time of the sheet material after the last process bath, and hence to reduce the energy use. Sealing means may be provided to seal each path-defining roller to the housing and liquid level control means to define a dynamic liquid level above the nip plane.
It has been proposed to provide drip trays so positioned to collect treatment liquid which may escape through each nip and/or between the path-defining rollers and the sealing means.
However, when the processor is in a non-operative condition, treatment liquid continues to escape into the drip chambers. These drip chambers eventually overflow and treatment liquid is lost. If the escape of treatment liquid through the nips, and between the path-defining rollers and the sealing means is reduced, the possible disadvantage arises that any photographic sheet material present in the vessel remains immersed in treatment liquid.

Vessel for the wet processing of photographic sheet material


A microwave resonance plasma generating apparatus, a plasma processing system having the same and a method of generating a microwave resonance plasma are provided. The apparatus includes a microwave generating unit which generates a microwave, and a plasma producing unit which produces electrons and photons of high energy using the microwave generated from the microwave generating unit. The plasma producing unit includes a coaxial waveguide having an inner electrode disposed adjacent to the microwave generating unit, an outer electrode connected to the microwave generating unit and disposed to coaxially surround a portion of the inner electrode, the outer electrode being shorter than the inner electrode, and a dielectric tube disposed between the inner electrode and the outer electrode to insulate between the inner electrode and the outer electrode. The coaxial waveguide utilizes a principle of “cut or truncated electrode of coaxial waveguide” and a resonance phenomenon of Langmiur.

1. Field of the Invention
Apparatuses and methods consistent with the present invention relate to plasma generating, and more particularly, to a microwave resonance plasma generating apparatus and a plasma processing system having the same, which is used for a semiconductor substrate processing for etching and removing a thin film from a substrate or depositing the thin film on the substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, as a need of high speed microprocessors and high recording density memories increases, an ultra large scale integrated (ULSI) circuit made of one semiconductor chip having many elements mounted thereon have been actively developed. To manufacture such a next generation ULSI circuit, it is necessary to process a 30 cm wafer having a design standard of less than 0.1 μm by using plasma. At this time, the plasma should have a high density of more than 1011 cm−3 and a large diameter of more than 40 cm at a low pressure of less than 50 mTorr. Particularly, to manufacture a large electronic device such as a flat panel display and a solar cell, the plasma should have a diameter of at least 1 m.
In order to embody the ULSI circuit technique, it requires that a high performance deposition and/or etching device is used during a manufacturing process of the semiconductor chip. As examples of the high performance deposition and/or etching device, a plasma etcher, a plasma sputtering system, a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition PECVD system and the like are well-known.
FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view illustrating an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) plasma processing apparatus 10 that uses a microwave resonance phenomenon. The ECR plasma processing apparatus 10 is adapted for use in a plasma etcher, a plasma sputtering system, or a PECVD system.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, the ECR plasma processing apparatus 10 includes a magnetron 11, a waveguide 13, a horn antenna 14, a resonance channel 15, and an electromagnet 16.
The waveguide 13 propagates a microwave generated from the magnetron 11 to the horn antenna 14. The horn antenna 14 propagates the microwave transmitted thorough the waveguide 13 into the resonance channel 15, so that the microwave can form a resonance mode in the resonance channel 15.
The electromagnet 16 is disposed around the resonance channel 15 to form a magnetic field in a direction parallel to the propagation direction of the microwave, that is, a direction of Z, in the resonance channel 15.
The microwave moved into the resonance channel 15 transfers energy to electrons that gyro-motion about the magnetic field formed in the resonance channel 15 by the electromagnet 16. The electrons to which the energy is applied collide against a gas in the resonance channel 15 to ionize the gas and thus to form plasma.
Such a conventional ECR plasma processing apparatus 10 has an advantage that can obtain plasma of high density at a relatively low pressure by using a microwave having a high frequency of about 2.45 GHz. However, since the conventional ECR plasma processing apparatus 10 requires a magnetic field of about 875 Gauss for producing the plasma, it needs the electromagnet 16 that consumes much electric power. Further, the conventional ECR plasma processing apparatus 10 does not uniformly form the plasma.
Further, in order to maximize a plasma producing efficiency, the conventional ECR plasma processing apparatus 10 should be designed in an optimum ECR condition. Therefore, process conditions of the conventional ECR plasma processing apparatus 10 may not be freely selected, but restricted.
Also, the conventional ECR plasma processing apparatus 10 uses a plurality of parts including the waveguide 13, the horn antenna 14, the electromagnet 15, and the like. Accordingly, there is a problem that the structure may be complicated, the size may be enlarged, and the manufacturing cost may be increased.
In order to solve this problem, there has been provided a surface wave excitation microwave plasma processing apparatus 50 that uses an annular waveguide 53 having a plurality slots formed at an inner side surface thereof, as illustrated in FIG. 2. The apparatus 50 is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,875.
The microwave plasma processing apparatus 50 includes a microwave generating unit (not illustrated) such as a magnetron, a waveguide 53, and a plasma generating chamber 51.
As illustrated in FIGS. 3 through 5, a microwave 73 generated from the microwave generating unit is guided to the waveguide 53, and is then distributed left and right by a distributing block 71 to propagate in the waveguide 53 having a wavelength longer than a free space.
Then, the microwave 73 is introduced into the plasma generating chamber 51 as a leaky wave 75 through slots 72 formed at intervals of ½ or ¼ of the wavelength and a dielectric body 52. The leaky wave 75 generates plasma 77 in the vicinity of the slots 72.
Also, the microwave incident at an angle of more than Brewster angle to a straight line vertical to a surface of the dielectric body 52 is total-reflected at the surface of the dielectric body 52, and is propagated as a surface wave 76 inside the dielectric body 52. A leaky electric field of the surface wave 76 also produces plasma 77′.
The produced plasma 77 and 77′ excites a gas supplied into a process chamber 61 through a gas injection tube 65, and the excited gas processes a surface of a substrate 62 disposed on a substrate holder 63.
This microwave plasma processing apparatus 50 as described above has an advantage that can obtain the plasma of high density with a relatively simplified structure compared with the ECR plasma generating apparatus 10 including the electromagnet and the like to increase the manufacturing cost and the size.
However, the microwave plasma processing apparatus 50 is configured, such that the microwave 73 generated from the microwave generating unit is propagated into the plasma generating chamber 51 through the slots 72 along the annular waveguide 53. Accordingly, the microwave propagated into the plasma generating chamber 51 has different intensity according to a position of slots due to attenuating characteristic of wave. As a result, the plasma is unevenly formed, and the plasma producing efficiency is deteriorated.
Therefore, what is needed is a microwave plasma processing apparatus capable of obtaining a sufficient plasma producing efficiency while having a relatively simplified structure so as not to increase the size and the manufacturing cost.

Microwave resonance plasma generating apparatus and plasma processing system having the same


The push-push latch of the present invention is attached to a storage compartment and allows the door of the compartment to move between an open position and a closed position. The latch will remain closed and in a locked position when the door is subjected to a force greater than a predetermined force. The latch includes a track member and a guide member. The track member is molded of a polymer and generally defines a heart shaped track having an integrated retaining section and a channel connecting the heart shaped track and the retaining section. The guide member moves within the heart shaped track to facilitate opening and closing of the compartment door. In the event that the compartment door is subjected to a force greater than a predetermined value while in the closed position, the guide member will be forced through the channel and locked into the retaining section, thereby retaining the door in its closed position.

Push-push latches are being used much more frequently in automotive compartments. There is a large probability that in the event of an accident, the push-push latch will be subjected to a force that opens the compartment and allows the objects within the compartment to exit as projectiles. Therefore, there is a need to retain the latch in a closed position in the event that the latch is subjected to an excessive force.


Methods of treatment or prevention of hyperproliferative diseases or pre-cancerous conditions affecting epithelial cells, such as psoriasis, vitiligo, atopic dermatitis, or hyperproliferative or UV-responsive dermatoses, hyperproliferative or allergically mediated diseases of other epithelia and methods for reducing photoaging, or oxidative stress or for prophylaxis against or reduction in the likelihood of the development of skin cancer, are disclosed.

Human skin consists of two layers, the dermis and the epidermis. The epidermis, which is the uppermost of the two skin layers, encompasses many different cell types, including melanocytes and keratinocytes. Melanocytes are specialized cells in the basal layer of the epidermis which synthesize melanin; the melanin is then packaged into melanosomes and then transported into keratinocytes. Exposure of skin to the sun results in vitamin D synthesis, sunburn (erythema), and tanning, the skin's major form of endogenous protection against subsequent skin damage from ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. Various morphologic and enzymatic changes occur at the cellular level in epidermal melanocytes in response to UV irradiation. Melanin, which is increased in "tanned" skin, serves as a filter with absorbance within the UV range and provides photoprotection for the individual.
The peak action spectrum for erythema is in the UV-B range, 290–305 nm. UV-B rays are absorbed by proteins and nucleic acids of the epidermis, causing the production of many photo products including thymine dimers, which are known to be formed by UV irradiation of nuclear DNA and to be excised from the DNA strand by the action of highly specific enzymes, including endonucleases. If not removed, these dimers can stall DNA replication forks generating regions of single-stranded DNA. Failure to remove thymine dimers and other forms of DNA damage in the genome may lead to somatic mutations resulting in carcinogenesis.
In bacteria it is known that single-stranded DNA released as fragments during the course of DNA repair or exposed at stalled replication forks can interact with nuclear proteins which then regulate the expression of specific genes in the DNA as part of the organism's SOS response to UV damage. The tanning response of skin might reasonably be considered part of the analogous SOS response in mammalian skin. The precise stimulus for UV-induced tanning, however, remains unknown.
UV irradiation is successfully used in phototherapy and photochemotherapy for certain dermatological conditions. For example, psoriasis is a common dermatologic disease affecting 1 to 2 percent of the population. Psoriasis can be treated with UV-B irradiation, either alone or in conjunction with agents such as coal tar or anthralin, or with UV-A irradiation in combination with psoralens (PUVA therapy). Other diseases which respond to UV irradiation treatment include atopic dermatitis and vitiligo. Despite the benefits of phototherapy and photochemotherapy, these treatments carry the same risks as chronic exposure to sun, including wrinkling, "photoaging," and skin cancer.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


An efficient thermal engine is disclosed. In some embodiments, a remainder of energy remaining after an expansion cycle is used to power a subsequent compression cycle. In other embodiments, novel configurations for a larger expansion volume than compression volume are provided. In addition, work of compression may be reduced in a compression cycle, and recovered in an expansion cycle.

The prior art to the current invention is embodied in particular by one recent published paper by Tinker, "Occult Parasitic Energy Loss in Heat Engines", Frank A. Tinker, International Journal of Energy Research, 2007:31, 1441-1453 [1], U.S. Pat. No. 7,441,530 to Tinker [2], and US patent publication 2007/0227347, also to Tinker [3]. This paper by Tinker and his two patent publications are incorporated in their entirety by reference. The prior art on thermal engines is immense, but a subset most pertinent to the current disclosures is presented in the listing of prior art patents.
After decades of large research and engineering investments, thermal engines, to include Diesel engines, are indeed improved from their earlier designs. But the improvements in efficiency have been disappointing and are disproportionate to the large amounts of time, money and intellectual energy invested. It is this applicant's contention that achievement of significant further improvements in thermal engine efficiency will require abandonment of the conventional engine designs, most of which are today well over 100 years old. In their place we will develop new, creative and innovative solutions derived from new insights into the physics of thermal engines. Recent rises in oil prices make this the right time to examine radical departures from "old engine" technology.
Thermal engines are almost as old as the science of Thermodynamics itself. Yet, after well over at least 100 years of concerted effort, there are few (arguably none) thermal engines that even come close to approaching the theoretically possible thermal to mechanical conversion efficiency. With few (if any) exceptions, they almost all suffer from thermal efficiency that is markedly below that which should be theoretically obtainable from their specific power (heat) source.
In Tinker [1], a new thermodynamic theory of thermal engines is developed and proved with experimental data. The key element of Tinker's new discovery is that remarkably, the efficiency of the Carnot Cycle has been incorrectly derived by thousands of physicists for over a hundred years. It would seem that all before Tinker have ignored the rather obvious fact that the input work for each Carnot Cycle compression phase must come from "somewhere", and that "somewhere" must be from a portion of the engine's own output work in a prior expansion phase. Therefore the real available net output work is in reality less by an amount equal to the compression work. As can be easily appreciated, this then reduces the efficiency of the thermal engine from what might have been expected otherwise. Tinker's modified new theory correctly predicts a lower engine efficiency than other prior theories. Tinker's new theory also aligns almost perfectly with carefully conducted experiments whose data have long been in the literature. Practitioners have apparently ignored these data, or at least attributed their deviations from prediction to other possible effects, no doubt in part because such other theories did not predict these data until presented in Tinker [1] and further disclosed in Tinker [2] and to a lesser extent Tinker [3] which also presented the corrected new theory.
In Tinker [2], a means is proposed to improve the efficiency of thermal engines using his new theory. Although Tinker [2] also presents elements of the new theory for the efficiency of heat engines, its focus is on a mechanical addition that is claimed to improve the efficiency of the engine by recovering energy between cycles in the engine. The mechanical addition is claimed to neutralize the compressive force through the use of a conservative force, thereby driving the compressive work to zero and hence improving the efficiency of the engine significantly. But it is not at all clear (at least to this applicant) within the context of Tinker's new theory, how the patent of Tinker [2] is supposed to work. The claimed conservative force, while indeed reducing the compression work, must also of necessity (since it is conservative) reduce the output work by the same amount saved during compression in order to "recharge" the conservative force. In effect this is the same mechanism as the venerable flywheel, and only serves to keep the engine operating more smoothly and at lower rotation speeds. To the extent that the "conservative force" might implement a custom contoured compression pressure profile resulting in improved efficiency is also not at all clear (at least to this applicant) from Tinker [2].
In Tinker [3], again the concept of neutralizing the compressive work through a conservative force is promulgated. But this time the use of orthogonal pistons and cylinders held in a specifically defined geometry is proposed to produce the claimed conservative force that exactly balances the compressive force. Again, it is not at all clear how this scheme is supposed to work, for any force applied to counter the compression force must derive from an expansion force from an earlier or later cycle.
Given the points above, one is drawn to conclude that Tinker has made a very significant discovery, but despite Tinker [2], until more evidence to the contrary, this applicant fails to see how the scheme in Tinker [2] or Tinker [3] capitalizes on this new discovery vis-à-vis a viable physically realizable thermal engine with significantly higher efficiency. It is therefore a first objective of the current invention to disclose pragmatic, realizable and significant improvements in thermal engines either enabled by and/or inspired by Tinker [1]. These improvements may be instantiated singly for modest improvements in efficiency, but preferably employed collectively or at least in subsets of cooperative improvements which introduce synergisms to improve the efficiency than beyond that of individual improvements alone or in few.
It is a second objective of the current invention to disclose a method for deriving the design of an optimally efficient engine based on the first principles efficiency equation given in Tinker [1], combined with the systems requirements and constraints of the engine under design. This is illustrated using the well-known Calculus and Spectral Signal Processing techniques such as the Fourier Transform. It is shown how the practitioner can use this method to derive a candidate instantiation mechanism for an engine that would meet a set of top level design requirements and constraints by transforming the thermodynamic design into a set of mechanical cycle bases, not unlike the way orthogonal functions such as Sines and Cosines can be combined in Fourier Series to produce desired functional forms. In a like manner, the volume for the mechanical operation of a thermodynamic cycle can be synthesized by the intelligent combination of basis cyclic mechanisms. The result is a basic design of the mechanism that will instantiate the volume profile for an optimally efficiency engine. That is, given a set of descriptive equations for a maximally efficient engine, the current invention quantitatively determines a mechanical mechanism that will instantiate these equations into a maximally efficient thermal engine embodiment. Through this method, the practitioner of engine design may enjoy a significantly streamlined design process that both encompasses all the multiple optimization criteria needed in modern engines (emissions constraints, temperature constraints, friction constraints, etc.) as well as the most straight forward mechanical embodiments for engines which meet these multiple criteria with maximal thermal efficiency and simplicity of mechanical design.
It is a third objective of the current invention is to use the enabling theory and insights of Tinker [1], the new improvements disclosed from the first objective, as well as the combination of these and other known improvements, and through the method of design illustrated after the second objective, to then develop and disclose some specific designs of improved thermal engines that are at least significantly more efficient than other engines currently in the art, and which arguably can begin to approach the maximally efficient Carnot Cycle efficiency. Although some of these engines may bear some resemblance to current engine designs or proposals, they are significantly different in the important ways needed to optimize efficiency to the end of achieving high double digit efficiency values, nominally greater than 50%, that are otherwise not achievable without the teachings presented herein.
Back To Basics: The Carnot Cycle
We begin with a basic refresher on thermal engine thermodynamic efficiency. There is nothing new or novel in this review and the details are available in books on thermodynamics, as should be apparent to one skilled in the art. All thermal engines operate on a cycle that accepts heat in from a hot temperature source and discharges waste heat to a cold temperature sink. The intervening thermal engine converts some of the heat from the hot source to mechanical work. For maximum efficiency we seek to maximize the work extracted from the engine and minimize the waste heat. An immediate outcome of the Second Law of Thermodynamics applied to thermal engines teaches that we can never reduce the waste heat to zero, and consequently we can never realize a thermal engine with perfect (100%) conversion efficiency of input heat energy to output work. However, we can potentially achieve a theoretically limited efficiency only somewhat less than 100%. This theoretical maximum efficiency is given by the well-known Carnot Cycle as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B.
It is a fundamental result of Thermodynamics that a Carnot Cycle gives the maximum theoretically possible efficiency for a thermal engine: there is no cycle that can be more efficient than a Carnot Cycle. FIG. 1A shows the Pressure-Volume, and Temperature-Entropy is shown in FIG. 1B. This particular cycle was computed in MATLAB using a normalized set of units to aid in seeing the relative magnitudes of the variables. Note that in what follows, all processes are assumed to be perfect and reversible in accordance with the assumptions used to analyze the Carnot Cycle.
The cycle begins at point "1" which has a Pressure, P1, equal to 1; a Volume, V1, equal to 10; a Temperature, T1, equal to 10; and an Entropy, Si, of 1.4 (related to the Specific Heat Ratio, representatively assumed to be 1.4). From point "1" the Carnot Cycle executes an Isothermal Compression that goes to point "2". During this phase of the Carnot Cycle work is done on the system and heat is extracted from the system. Compression progresses at just the right rate to compensate for the heat lost to the cold sink in such a manner to maintain the working gas of the engine at a constant temperature. Conversely, the rate of heat extracted might be adjusted to the mechanical compression performed, again to the purpose of maintaining the temperature constant.
Next, the working gas undergoes an Adiabatic Compression from point "2" to point "3". During this phase mechanical work is applied to the working gas to compress it without input or extraction of heat. Because no heat can escape, the temperature therefore rises, and as the volume decreases the pressure rises. This phase of the Carnot Cycle ends with the system in a state of maximum compression where the Volume, V3, is 1; the Temperature, T3, is 100; the Pressure, P3, is 14, and the Entropy, S3 is 0 (all in our normalized units). This point represents the most mechanically stressing part of the cycle due to the confluence of highest pressure and highest temperature in the cycle.
The third phase of the cycle takes it from point "3" to point "4" under an Isothermal Expansion. It is during this phase that the heat is added to the engine, some of which will be converted to the desired output work in accordance with the engine's efficiency. The working gas temperature during this phase of the cycle, T3→T4, is maintained at a temperature of 100 by adding just enough heat to compensate for the mechanical expansion, or conversely by expanding at just the right rate to compensate for the rate of heat being input.
Finally, an Adiabatic Expansion takes the cycle from point "4" back the beginning at point "1". More work is extracted during this phase but there is no additional heat allowed to enter, or exit, the engine during this expansion. At the end of this last phase the engine is back in the state it was in the beginning, ready for another work producing cycle.
The Carnot Cycle produces the highest theoretically possible efficiency between a given heat source and a given heat sink: no other engine cycle can exceed it. This efficiency is given by:
  η  =      1    -                  T        c                    T        h            Where η the efficiency, Th is the temperature of the hot thermal source (T3 in FIG. 1) and Tc is the temperature of the cold sink (T1 in FIG. 1).Realization of Carnot Cycle
At this point we summarize the well-established physics described in the prior section looking for insight to higher efficiency thermal engines:                All thermal engines must execute a "cycle" to convert heat energy into work energy.        This conversion can never be done with perfection: there will always be some waste heat.        A perfect efficiency thermal engine is therefore impossible without violating physical laws.        The highest efficiency that any thermal engine might ever attain is described fully by a Carnot Cycle: no other thermal engine can ever exceed this theoretical efficiency.The Carnot Cycle is proven to produce the highest theoretical efficiency possible for any thermal engine. So all that is needed is to use a Carnot Cycle engine, and we then know a priori that we are obtaining the highest efficiency possible. Appropriate modifications can then be made to consciously trade some of that efficiency for other desirable attributes such as power, fuel, etc.
However, there is no "Carnot Cycle Engine". And therein lies the issue. There are Otto Cycle engines, Diesel Cycle Engines, Rankine Cycle engines, Brayton Cycle Engines, Humphreys Cycle Engines, Atkinson Cycle Engines, Miller Cycle Engines and a host of lesser well-known cycles. But to our knowledge there are no overt "Carnot Cycle Engines". And therefore, we can be certain that higher efficiency thermal engines can be built than any of the engines mentioned above.
But why are there no overt Carnot Cycle thermal engines? To be sure, no machine is perfect, and therefore due to friction and other practicalities we cannot really make a perfect Carnot Cycle engine. But within the limits imposed by these practical considerations we should be able to make a Pseudo-Carnot Cycle engine with close to optimum theoretical efficiency. So the question remains, why is there not a Carnot Cycle engine?
The answer to this question appears to be foggy at best. It may simply be a perception that design and development of a Carnot Cycle engine is somehow far more difficult that other cycle engines. This perception dates back some time (at least to 1946) as evidenced by reference [4], page 180, containing the following passage regarding implementation of the Carnot cycle:                "Although it may appear from the analysis that the Carnot Cycle is highly impractical, since an engine working under the specified conditions could not be built . . . ".But there are no physical laws prohibiting the construction of a near ideal Carnot Cycle engine, and the success of the Otto Cycle engine is ample proof that even an imperfect Carnot Cycle engine that does not perfectly meet its theoretically limited efficiency could be quite successful.
The reason for the apparent perception of Carnot Cycle engine impracticality was perhaps because of the limited manufacturing capabilities of the day when thermo-engine research was young and at its peak development. But it is important to note that what "could not be built" back in 1946 (or earlier) can today be programmed into a CNC machine and reproduced economically a thousand-fold without error. Therefore, the constraints limiting the realization of a pragmatic and economically manufacturable Carnot Cycle or Carnot-like thermal engine that may have existed in the past, no longer necessarily constrain its development today or in the future.
Furthermore, if one seeks other attributes like power, weight, etc., one may have to trade away some of the ideal Carnot Cycle efficiency to obtain those attributes. But in doing so one will have designed in those attributes as trade-offs to the engine efficiency instead of just accepting them post facto. In such a case one can then design the highest efficiency thermal engine that also achieves the desired additional attributes, using the desired attributes as constraints to the efficiency of the now most efficient pseudo-Carnot Cycle. The difference between this engine and others before it is that it will be fully optimized.
At this point it is believed instructive to briefly review some of the more common thermal cycles so they can be compared to the Carnot Cycle and evaluated against it. Arguably the most common (and successful) thermal cycle is the Otto Cycle shown in FIG. 2, and in other detail with its intake and exhaust cycles shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B.
Comparing FIG. 2 with FIG. 1, one thing is immediately apparent (yet seldom really fully acknowledged): The Otto Cycle is NOT a Carnot Cycle. It does not even do a particularly good job of mimicking a Carnot Cycle.                Heat is not withdrawn gradually and isothermally in the early part of the compression stroke        Heat is added all at once from the heat source in an Isochoric (Isovolume) process        Heat is not added gradually and isothermally in the early part of the expansion stroke        Heat is released to the cold sink all at once in an Isochoric process at the end of the cycleThe Otto Cycle is therefore a rather poor emulation of a Carnot Cycle and so distorts the Carnot Cycle that we should be surprised that it provides any worthwhile efficiency at all! Yet, car manufacturers have spent untold millions of dollars trying to glean minute efficiency improvements from a cycle that is fundamentally and irrevocably flawed as far as optimizing efficiency is concerned. It is of course acknowledged that there are many good reasons for the Otto Cycle's success, not the least of which is ease of manufacturability as previously noted. But what we see in the above discussion is that when it comes to efficiency, we have reached a point of diminishing returns trying to improve the Otto Cycle if for no other reason that the Otto Cycle is not a Carnot Cycle nor even a good approximation of a Carnot Cycle.The efficiency of the Otto Cycle is given by:
  η  =            1      -                        T          1                          T          2                      =          1      -              1                  r                      γ            -            1                              where T1 is the sink temperature, T2 is the pre-combustion compression temperature, r is the compression ratio and gamma is the specific heat ratio. Because of this latter relation, it is often claimed that the efficiency of the Otto Cycle is related to the compression ratio: higher compression ratio begets higher efficiency (ergo the Diesel engine is generally (but not necessarily always) more efficient than the Gasoline Otto engine).
It should be pointed out though that this is a deduced result, not the fundamental result. It is important to now note that the Carnot Cycle's efficiency is 1−T1/T3 (in the nomenclature of FIG. 1A, 1B and FIG. 2), not 1−T1/T2 as for the Otto Cycle. In other words, the Carnot Cycle's efficiency is dependent only on the temperatures of the heat sink and the heat source. But the Otto Cycle's efficiency is related only to the temperature of its heat sink and its pre-combustion compression temperature. This pre-combustion compression temperature is much lower than the peak temperature (T3) in FIGS. 1A, 1B and FIG. 2 (assumed to be equal in both figures), and consequently, the Otto Cycle is guaranteed to be less efficient than the Carnot Cycle by a non-trivial amount.
Comparing the Carnot Cycle with the Other Cycles
The general conclusions discussed above are not limited to the Otto Cycle. Rather, all the currently popular thermal cycles suffer similar deleterious efficiency degradations inherent in the basic design of their cycles. This is because, by definition, they are not Carnot Cycles. The Diesel Cycle is actually quite similar to the Otto Cycle. The key difference is that it replaces the trans-ignition Isochoric compression with an isobaric (constant pressure) "cap" to the P-V diagram as illustrated in FIGS. 3A and 3B. The efficiency of the Diesel Cycle is given by:
  η  =      1    -                  1        γ                                    (                      1            r                    )                          γ          -          1                                  ⌊                                            r              co              γ                        -            1                                              r              co                        -            1                          ⌋            where η is again the efficiency, Gamma is the ratio of specific heats, r is the compression ratio, and rco is the (Diesel injector) cut-off volume ratio (V3/V2). This equation is a bit more difficult to assess qualitatively, but considering limits helps. In the limit where the cut off ratio, rco, goes to 1, the Diesel efficiency achieves its maximum. This should not be surprising because then the top left corner of the P-V diagram of FIG. 3A starts looking like a Carnot Cycle. However, if V3=V2, this means the injector never injects any fuel into the cylinder! That of course results in very low power output and a rather useless engine (even if it does have higher efficiency).
Beyond this unrealistic limit, the Diesel Cycle does generally end up being more efficient than the Otto Cycle on a comparative basis. But note why this is true. There is still no isothermal path in the beginning of the compression stroke, nor is there an isothermal expansion at the beginning of the expansion stroke, and the heat is still being pulled out at the wrong place in the cycle through an isochoric process at the end of the cycle. But at least the heat is now being added in the beginning of the expansion phase. Its still not an adiabatic expansion as called for in the Carnot Cycle, but at least the heat is being added in the correct phase of the cycle. Because of this, the Diesel Cycle more closely resembles the Carnot Cycle than the Otto Cycle, and with its higher compressing ratios is more efficient as a result.
FIGS. 5A and 5B show the Miller Cycle is a modification of the Otto and Diesel Cycles wherein some of the compressive work is lessened by letting the intake valve stay open for a short period past the bottom dead center of the intake stroke. This lets some of the air fuel mixture escape back out into the intake manifold where (assuming a good supercharger) it can return the energy on the next intake stroke. Note that other than a small corner near the start of the cycle (i.e. what we have been calling position "1"), there is no difference between the Miller Cycle and the Otto Cycle. To be sure, the Miller Cycle is indeed more efficient than a standard comparable Otto Cycle. But this is not because the cycle is fundamentally more efficient. Rather, it is simply because the Miller Cycle, if implemented correctly (which apparently is not a trivial thing to do) reduces the intake and exhaust pumping losses.
Note that we have not shown the pumping cycles in any figures to this point, because they are not part of the fundamental cycle physics that limits the efficiency. Therefore, the Miller Cycle certainly does improve the efficiency of either Otto or Diesel engines, but not because of any change real to the fundamental thermodynamic cycle. The underlying cycle is still not a Carnot Cycle and it is therefore still suboptimal. All the Miller Cycle really does is to reduce some instantiation losses to get a little closer to the theoretical efficiency of the Otto and Diesel Cycles respectively.
The Atkinson cycle, as shown in FIGS. 6A-6D produces two different compressed volumes at the two Top Dead Center (TDC) positions that occur in its 4 stroke cycle process. This manifests a slightly longer power stroke (FIG. 6D), a near zero volume at top dead center of the exhaust stroke (FIG. 6A) for more complete exhaustion of the burnt gases, and a slightly lower pumping loss upon compression of the air-fuel mixture provided by a slightly shorter compression stroke (FIG. 6C) that leaves more volume at top dead center of the compression stroke than at top dead center of the exhaust stroke. It is this later feature that is often confused with the Miller Cycle and vice versa. The Miller Cycle achieves lower pumping losses by cheating (leaving the intake valve open longer than typical in an Otto Cycle engine). In the Atkinson Cycle, lower pumping loss is achieved because the intake phase volume is actually smaller than the expansion phase (power stroke) volume. There is a differential embodiment of the Atkinson Engine with two pistons exhibiting in dual volumes the behavior described above.
The Brayton and Humphrey Cycles are shown comparatively in FIGS. 7A and 7B, respectively. The Brayton Cycle (FIG. 7A) is characterized by two constant pressure phases in the cycle. The high temperature phase mimics that of a Diesel, so we should expect some higher efficiency from that aspect of the cycle. Additionally, at least the heat is being added at the correct phase of the cycle. However, the low temperature constant pressure process is not part of the Carnot Cycle and will therefore detract from the efficiency. The efficiency of the Brayton Cycle is given by:
  η  =            1      -                        T          1                          T          2                      =          1      -              1                  r                      γ            -            1                              Note that this is identical to the theoretical efficiency of the Otto Cycle. This supports the previous statement that claimed there should be an improvement from the high temperature and pressure constant pressure phase ("2"−"5" in FIGS. 7A and 7B) because it adds heat at the right time. But there will be a degradation in efficiency from the low pressure & temperature constant pressure phase ("6"-"1" in FIGS. 7A and 7B).
The Humphrey Cycle (FIG. 7B) is also shown in FIGS. 6A-6D for comparison. It suffers the same ills (as far as efficiency is concerned) as the Otto Cycle from point "2" to point "3", and the same problem as the Brayton Cycle from point "4" to point "1". Its efficiency is given by:
  η  =      1    -          γ                              T          1                          T          2                                                                      (                                                T                  3                                                  T                  2                                            )                                      1              /              γ                                -          1                                                    T              3                                      T              2                                -          1                    This is a more complex expression than the others so far, but at its core the T1/T2 factor tells us its comparable to the Otto cycle. Additionally, the structure of the other terms have a form that is complementary to the Diesel efficiency equation with appropriate conversion of the temperatures to compression ratio. This is due to the symmetry of the P-V plot's constant pressure phase "4"−"1" path bearing a complementary relation to the constant pressure path in the Diesel Cycle. Where the Humphrey Cycle may pick up some advantage is from realistic instantiation, where T3 can be made quite high. This reduces the magnitude of the subtracted term, thereby yielding a higher efficiency value. But unless T3 is high, it is not much more efficient than the other cycles, and still much less efficient than a Carnot Cycle.New Emerging Higher Efficiency Engines
The prior sections focused on the most common and least efficient engines. This section presents a very short discussion on two other emerging thermal engine cycles with higher potential efficiency: the Stirling Cycle and the Ericsson Cycle engines.
The Internet is rich with information on the Stirling engine which will not be repeated here. Suffice it to say that the Stirling engine is an external combustion closed cycle engine which in fact does a better job of emulating a Carnot Cycle (at least by comparison to the prior engines discussed so far). The Ericsson engine by contrast is a bit less well known. It also uses external combustion but with an open cycle that otherwise bears several similarities to the Stirling engine both in design and in efficiency. There have been some new designs in recent years that increase its potential on par with Stirling engines.
Our key reason for mentioning the Stirling and Ericsson cycle engines is that they both have a particularly interesting attribute in common with the Carnot cycle: they both have the same theoretical efficiency as the Carnot Cycle! The key difference is that their temperature-entropy plots (T-S) are parallelograms, whereas the Carnot Cycle is a rectangle. For the Stirling Cycle the Parallelogram of the T-S plot slants to the right (toward higher entropy change) and for the Erickson it slants towards the left (toward lower entropy change). But for the same Tc and Th, the area under both the rectangle T-S plot of the Carnot Cycle or parallelogram T-S plots of the Stirling and Erickson Cycles is the same, and therefore so too are their efficiencies.
So if the Stirling and Ericsson cycles have the same theoretical efficiency as the Carnot cycle, why not just use them? Indeed, with the recent rise in fuel costs several efforts are underway to do just that. But there are implementation issues with both the Stirling and Ericsson engines. Both are external combustion engines. This is often considered a key advantage in a globally warming world, since it is usually presumed that external combustion will produce less pollution than internal combustion. But there are still challenges with obtaining a truly efficient external burner and regenerative heat exchangers. And if the burners/exchangers are not efficient enough (currently the case) then maximum efficiency cannot be realized. Additionally, less efficient burners/exchangers can also present pollution problems, although this is considered less challenging than with internal combustion
Perhaps most important though is that external combustion imposes limits on cold start availability and load following. These two engines need to "warm up" before they can supply power. The startup time might not be all that much of an imposition with additional engineering, but in an impatient world, every second counts off points against the design. The load following limitation is perhaps the more stressing problem because it limits the applications these engines can be applied to. For example, activating an electric space heater places a dramatic load change on a 1.5 kW generator, which is easy for a gasoline or Diesel engine to follow, but very challenging for a Stirling or Ericsson engine to follow.
Finally, a closer examination of these cycles reveals that they both tend to "clip the corners" of the ideal theoretical cycle diagram (as do many engines). This is paramount to deviating from the theoretically optimum thermal cycles in a manner not unlike the way the Otto and Diesel cycles deviate from the Carnot cycle. The result is further reduction in efficiency from that which would otherwise be expected.
Summary and Assessment of Common Conventional Thermal Engines
The sections above have given P-V and T-S plots for the more common thermal cycles. These are the main cycles that companies spend millions of dollars on each year trying to improve the efficiency of. With the exception of the Stirling and Ericsson cycles, all these cycles bear more resemblance to each other than they do to the Carnot Cycle which they should attempt to emulate: sometimes these cycles even share the exact same efficiency equation, none of which is the Carnot Cycle's efficiency equation.
The reasons that these engines deviate from a true Carnot are both historical and pragmatic. Yet, after over 100 years of thermal engine development few of these cycles bear anything but a passing resemblance to the Carnot Cycle that they must follow for optimum efficiency. None of them does a good job emulating the Carnot Cycle. In some cases heat is not even added or removed during the correct phase of the cycle. In other cases the cycles deviate significantly from a Carnot Cycle. In all cases none of these cycles contain the correct isothermal and adiabatic processes needed during the compression and expansion strokes of a true Carnot Cycle.
The Stirling and Ericsson cycles have the same theoretical efficiency as the Carnot cycle, but they suffer from cold start and load following problems due to the latency of their external combustion heat source. Furthermore, both the external combustor and the details of the cycle implementation limit them from achieving their true theoretical efficiency.
The conclusion from these observations is that we should not be at all surprised that most thermal engines today have less than optimum thermal efficiency. There are many factors (mechanical friction, fuel combustion, fluid drag, etc.) that can degrade efficiency. But if one starts with a theoretically lower than optimum efficiency design, there can be no hope of making significant improvements in efficiency afterwards. We need a new fresh approach to deriving high efficiency from thermal engines, and Carnot has already told us what it needs to be: a Carnot Cycle.

Methods and designs for increasing efficiency in engines


In a relational database system, facility is provided for a navigator controlling a procedure executor and a panel executor. Procedures are specified by a procedural language which includes current panel operations being permitted as a panel commands in the procedural language. The panel may call these procedures and the procedures may thus include panel actions executed by the panel executor upon being called. The procedure monitors the state of the current panel which may comprise monitoring multiple fields and may effect changes thereto automatically and as a function of the monitoring, as well as direct commitment of data in the panel. Provision is further made for looping logic in the procedures whereby batch panels are effected without the need for user interaction.

In the operation of modern computerized database systems, it has been conventional to provide for certain automated actions such as commitment or manipulation of data and prompt display as a function of user interaction and data input. For example, a particular response to a yes/no field of a screen panel (also called a form) might automatically invoke a display of next permissible actions on the database or data from another table not previously visible, or commitment of such related data. The intent was to provide a facility whereby alerts could be provided back to the user and whereby procedures may be invoked to manipulate data independently of that being input.
Thus, a technique began to appear in commercial computerized database products employing capabilities often called triggers which, in turn, might invoke procedures. Representative examples of this technology may be better understood in greater detail with reference to the commercial database products "Oracle", "Informix" and "SQL Server" (Ashton-Tate/Microsoft) and their associated respective support documentation and publications such as the following:
Oracle SQL*Forms Designer's Reference, Version 2.0, Copyright 1987, Part No. 3304-V2.0, pp 8-2 to 9-34.
Informix-SQL Relational Database Management System User Guide, Copyright 1987, Version 2.10, Part No. 200-404-1015-0 Rev. A, Chapter 6 "Creating Your Own Forms"--Attributes.
Ashton-Tate/Microsoft Learning Transact-SQL, Copyright 1989, Chapter 14, "Creating Triggers".
These materials and database software are published by and available from Oracle Corp., Belmont, Calif.; Informix Software, Inc., 4100 Bohannon Drive, Menlo Park, Calif. 94025; Ashton-Tate Corp., Microsoft Corp., and Sybase, Inc., c/o Ashton-Tate Corporation, 20101 Hamilton Avenue, Torrance, Calif. 90502-1319.
Essentially, in accordance with such techniques, a form or panel could be monitored in a predetermined and specified fashion to detect entry before or after a query or change was executed, when an exit was performed or keystroke was actuated, or the like. Upon detection of such a state which activated a trigger, various functions required by the needs of the database user could be performed. These functions might include, for example, data validation such as range-checking for one of the fields, or the like as desired. While this trigger technique did offer significant improvement in database technology, there were nevertheless deficiencies.
First, the trigger was typically limited in being activated by a few relatively simple preset conditions. Thus it was not able to monitor a complex or complete state of a panel including multiple fields as desired, detect complex functional interrelationships between fields, or perform calculations with multiple fields for purposes of initiating procedures.
Accordingly, the primary intent of such triggers as previously indicated was to serve as alerts or prompts to the data enterer, as, for example, in indicating incorrect entry or a next available set of choices. Additionally, the further primary intent was to start procedures which might manipulate data independent to that which appeared in the panel.
As a result of this limited intent and function of the prior triggers, the triggers tended to become collections of pre-defined triggers for specific purposes as they arose, each with their own limitations and inability to work together cooperatively. As an example, if a value was changed in a field and a trigger could be defined for the change, the trigger typically could not be automatically initiated by the change being made by another trigger without some operator input. Thus, the panel designer was constrained to the limitations of the available trigger set. As additional trigger needs arose, more pre-set triggers were simply added to the product but the user or application designer had no flexibility in expanding the triggers beyond the discrete number pre-set by the product prior to its execution.
The existing database technology thus exhibited a need for a more flexible improved procedure-panel interaction provided by the subject invention, wherein panel operations are permitted as panel commands in a procedural language utilized to specify the procedures, thereby permitting a panel designer to have complete control of sequencing, error recovery, and the coupling of actions together.
As an example, it might be desirable in response to customer data input on a panel, to automatically call a procedure to check a customer's credit status and then report back dynamically to the data inputter on the panel a type of letter desired to be sent to the customer (i.e., payment request; increase of credit limit; etc.) when meeting only certain criteria, such as the percentage of on-time payments, as a function of multiple particular panel fields.
However, the prior art triggers, as previously indicated, were not capable of monitoring the plurality of fields, interrelating them in accordance with functional relationships, calling panel actions from procedures, and modifying forms to perform these desired tasks.
Moreover, due to this inability of the called procedure to include current panel operations as commands in the procedures and the associated procedural language specifying the procedure, there was no provision for looping logic to effect batch panels in order to obviate the need for user input. There was no provision, for example, for printing panel results or effecting other multiple panel actions based on conditions of fields as determined by procedural logic; bypassing of rows automatically by procedures which the particular application does not desire the user to process; and user specific initialization based on procedure logic and determination of the particular user running the application; such capabilities being afforded by the procedure's knowledge of the values of fields in the input form in accordance with the invention.
These and other problems are overcome by the subject invention which provides an improved panel-procedure interaction facility.

System and method for executing panel actions from procedures

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention discloses a trenched DMOS device supported on a substrate of a first conductivity type including a core cell area which includes at least a trenched DMOS cell having a gate disposed in a trench and a drain region disposed in the substrate, the substrate further includes a termination area which includes at least a channel-stop trench. The trenched DMOS cell includes a source region of the first conductivity type extending from the top surface of the substrate adjacent to the trenches in the substrate. The trenched DMOS cell further includes a body region of a second conductivity type of opposite polarity from the first conductivity type, the body region extends from the top surface surrounding the source region adjacent the trenches in the substrate. The trenched DMOS device further includes an insulating layer lining the trenches and a conductive material filling the trenches. The channel stop trench in the termination area with the conductive material filled therein is in electrical contact with the drain region via a metal contact formed thereon wherein the channel stop trench filled with the conductive material is surrounded by and insulated from the substrate by the insulating layer lining the channel stop trench whereby a channel stop is formed therein.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the structure and fabrication process of trenched DMOS power transistors. More particularly, this invention relates to a novel and improved structure and process for fabricating a trenched DMOS power transistors provided with specially trenched channel stop structure in the termination areas to prevent leakage current by terminating a depletion current channel with a drain voltage applied over a thin oxide layer lining the specially configured trenched channel stops.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Leakage currents in the termination areas caused by an ineffective channel stop is still a technical difficulty faced by the designers and manufacturers of the trench semiconductor power devices. This difficulty is due to the special structural features in the termination areas of the trenched double-diffusion metal oxide semiconductor (DMOS) transistors. The structure differences in termination areas between the planar and trenched DMOS lead to the channel stop which is typically implemented and function properly in a planar transistor, to fail in carrying out the channel stop functions for a trenched double-diffusion metal oxide semiconductor (DMOS) device. As a result of this ineffective channel stop for the trenched transistors in the termination areas, leakage currents are often experienced which leads to degradation in device performances. In order to terminate this leakage current, some devices are manufactured with additional mask to form a specially configured channel stop in the termination area. Production costs are increased due to additional processing steps involved in applying an extra mask in a trenched semiconductor power device for the purpose for stopping the leak current.
In order to better understand the technical background of the present invention, the channel stops typically implemented for a planar device is first described. FIG. 1A is a cross-sectional view of a p-channel planar DMOS transistor 10 near the termination area. The DMOS transistor 10 is supported on a P+ substrate 15 and an P- epi-taxial layer 20 formed on its top. The transistor 10 includes a n-body region 25 with a heavily doped n+ body contact region 30 in electrical contact with a body contact 40. The transistor 10 further has a field oxide 35 defining the termination area where a channel stop 45 is formed. In order to properly configure the channel stop 45 in the termination area outside of the field oxide 35, before the termination n-body region 25' and the source region 28 are insulated by a PSG or BPSG protection layer 38, a channel stop poly 44 is formed with a thin oxide layer 50 underneath. By adding a channel stop poly 44 which is electrical contact with the source 28 through the metal layer of channel stop 45. The channel stop poly 44 has a voltage equivalent to the voltage of the epi region 20 and the drain region 15 since the termination body region 25' is floating. The drain voltage in the channel stop poly 44 is applied through the thin oxide layer 50 to stop a channel, formed by the depletion layer, as that shown by the dotted lines for conducting electrical current. Thus a leakage current in the termination area is stopped by applying a drain voltage through a thin oxide layer 50 to an immediate under-layer to cut off a current flow by forming a channel stop poly layer 44 connected to the termination source region 28 while coupled to the depleted channel layer immediately underneath the thin oxide layer 50 below the poly layer 44.
FIG. 1B is a cross sectional view of a trenched DMOS transistor 60 including the core cell area and the termination area. The core cell area includes a plurality of trenched DMOS cell with the poly gate formed in the trenches. For the sake of simplicity, since these cells are standard cells, no detail description would be necessary for illustrating the technical difficulties of the channel stop for the trenched DMOS. In the termination area which is shown on the right hand side of the field oxide 65, a protective BSG or BPSG layer 70 is formed thereon. A channel stop 75 is formed with a metallic layer, e.g., an aluminum layer, overlying a body contact region 80 in a n-body region 85. As shown by the dotted lines for a current channel formed in the epi-region 90 supported by the substrate 95, the channel for current flow cannot be stopped by the channel stop 75. The channel stop has a drain voltage. However, the drain voltage in the channel stop 75 cannot be effectively applied to the underneath layer near the channel region 98 due a greater thickness of the oxide field 70. A leakage current is conducted to flow through the depleted channel region 98 to a recombination zone 99 in the edge of the termination area for charge recombination thus forming an undesirable leakage current in the termination area.
For those of ordinary skill in the art, a device structure in the termination area as that shown in the cross sectional view of FIG. 1B is most commonly implemented. This structural difference is produced by employing a manufacture process-flow which is commonly applied as will be described below illustrated with FIG. 2. Unlike a planar device, the polysilicon for the trenched transistors is now deposited into the trenches. The polysilicon layer which is formed above the trench is then removed by a planarization process including the poly layer above the trenches in the termination areas. Therefore, in contrast to a planar DMOS, the polysilicon layer with a thin oxide layer is removed for a trenched DMOS device in the area underneath the channel stop 75. The channel stop 75 is not in contact with a polysilicon layer with a thin oxide layer underneath. Instead the channel stop 75 is insulated by a field oxide layer 65 of much greater thickness. Due to this structural difference, the channel stop which generally function properly for a planar device is not effective when the poly layer with the thin oxide layer underneath are removed during a standard trenched DMOS planarization process.
A processing flow commonly employed to manufacture the trenched DMOS transistor 60 is illustrated in FIGS. 2A to 2E. As shown in FIG. 2A, the processing steps begins by first growing a P epitaxial layer on top of a P.sup.+ substrate 95. An initial oxidation process is performed to grow an oxide layer 65 and active mask is employed to remove a portion of the initial oxide layer 65 to define the active regions. A blank n-body implant is carried out with phosphorous ions to form the n-body region 85. A n-body diffusion process is then carried out at an elevated temperature to increase the depth of the n-body region 85. A photo-resist is applied as the trench mask 84.
Referring to FIG. 2B. with photoresist 84 employed as a trench mask, a trench etch process, which is a dry anisotropic etch process, is carried out to form trenches. A sacrification oxidation process is to form oxide layer which is followed by a sacrification oxide etch process. A gate oxide layer 86 is then formed by a gate oxidation process. A poly deposition process is performed to deposit a poly layer 88. Referring to FIG. 2B, a planarization etch is performed to form a planar surface by etching a top layer to 0.2-0.5 .mu. from the deposited poly. A P+ implantation process is carried out to dope the poly layer 88. A poly etch is carried out to dry etch the poly layer 88 till the top surface is removed with the end-point detection to terminate the etch process when the polysilicon layer above the trench is removed.
Referring to FIG. 2C, a P+ block mask 89 is applied to carry out an P+ implant to form the P+ region 91. The P+ implantation is carried out with a boron ion beam, then the resist, i.e., the P+ blocking mask 89, is stripped. Referring to FIG. 2D, the P+ source regions 91 are driven into desired junction depth by a diffusion process. A BPSG or PSG is deposited to form an insulation layer 70. A BPSG flow or BSG densification process is performed. Referring to FIG. 2D, a contact mask (not shown) is applied to perform an etch process to define the contacts windows in order to be ready for making source and gate contacts. A blank phosphorous implant is carried out to form the n+ regions 93 for providing a low-resistance body contact of the DMOS cell. A metal deposition process is carried out to form an overlaying metal layer. The final DMOS transistor is completed by applying a metal mask to pattern the source contact, the gate contact, the field plate and the channel stop (CS). By the use of this standard process flow, the channel stop 75 in the termination area is formed which is insulated by a field oxide layer 65 as that shown in FIGS. 1B and 2E. The channel stop 75 is not effective to prevent a leakage current flowing through a depletion channel layer 98.
In order to overcome this difficulty, an alternate manufacture process has to be applied as that shown in FIGS. 2F to 2I. An extra mask 82 especially configured for manufacturing DMOS device with a better channel stop 75' has to be applied. This extra mask 82 is employed to block the n-body implantation into the channel strop region. The manufacture processes illustrated in FIGS. 2F to 2I are basically self explanatory. Referring to FIG. 2I the DMOS device manufactured by the use of this extra mask 82 has an improved channel stop 75' because a p-doped region 97 is now in direct contact with the channel stop 75', The leakage current flowing through a depletion region underneath the p-doped region 97 is effectively stopped with a drain voltage applied to the channel stop 75', However, the production costs are increased and more processing steps are required when this extra channel stop mask 82 has to employed.
Therefore, there a need still exits in the art of power device fabrication, particularly for DMOS design and fabrication, to provide a structure and fabrication process that would resolve these difficulties. It is preferable that the improved DMOS device is manufactured with effective channel stop without requiring additional masks or more processing steps such that the production cost would not be increased for manufacturing this improved DMOS device.

Structure to provide effective channel-stop in termination areas for trenched power transistors


This optical record reproducing apparatus automatically controls the light amount of a reproducing light source and comprises a switching device switching on/off the control of a reproducing light source driving electric current by an automatic light amount controlling device to prevent the fluctuation of the emitted light amount of the reproducing light source during the operation of reading the data out of an optical recording medium and switching off the control of the reproducing light source driving electric current at least during an operation of reading out the information recorded in the optical recording medium and a holding device holding the light source driving electric current just before switching off the control of the reproducing light source driving electric current by the automatic light amount controlling device by this switching device.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an optical record reproducing apparatus for automatically controlling the amount of light generated by a reproducing light source, when this light source is driven.
2. Description of the Related Art Statement
Such a light emitting device as an LED or laser diode is often used for a reproducing light source in an optical record reproducing apparatus. The light emitting device is generally high in temperature dependence in each characteristic that, when it is driven at a fixed electric current, the light output easily varies under the influences of the heat generation of the device itself and the ambient temperature. Therefore, as shown in the publication, for example, of Japanese patent, application publication No.10481/1979, the light generated by a reproducing amount of light source of an optical record reproducing apparatus is automatically power controlled so that the light output can be fixed. The automatic power control (abbreviated, as APC hereinafter) is a feedback control wherein the amount of emitted light generated by a reproducing light source is monitored and is compared with a predetermined reference value, so that the light source driving current is adjusted on the basis of the difference between the emitted light amount and the predetermined reference value.
In the optical record reproducing apparatus currently in use making such APC, the following methods are known: (1) a method wherein, during the reading operation, an APC circuit loop is always closed and a feedback is always applied; and (2) a method wherein, during the reading operation, an APC circuit loop is closed at intervals of a fixed time and a feedback is intermittently controlled.
When such APC is made, if a difference is produced between the emitted light amount of the reproducing light source and a reference objective value to be a reference value, the light source driving current is controlled to follow the objective value in response to this difference and the emitted light amount is kept fixed.
However, in a case in which the APC described above is made, the emitted light amount of the reproducing light source fluctuates during the period after the APC starts the operation until it converges to the objective value. Therefore, in the optical record reproducing apparatus currently in use, the fluctuation of the emitted light amount is generated during the reading operation. That is to say, in the course of following the objective value, the emitted light amount of the reproducing light source fluctuates by application of the APC and, therefore, during the reading operation, a difference is produced between the objective value and the light source emitted light amount, or the emitted light amount fluctuates at regular intervals. It has been a problem that a defect such as a reading error is caused by the fluctuation of the emitted light amount.

Optical record reproducing apparatus including automatic light amount control


A method, system, and computer-program product are disclosed, each of which enable the receipt of SIAs (Server Initiated Actions) on non-SMS-enabled devices, using existing infrastructure. An existing IP-based messaging protocol, such as “chat” architecture, is utilized as a transport for the SIAs. A network server constructs an SIA chat message and delivers it to the mobile client. The mobile client examines the chat message and, if it is configured to indicate that it is an SIA message, then the message is not shown on the mobile device, and an initiation command is executed, e.g., an indication is displayed to a user of the mobile client (e.g., to indicate the receipt of new email). Alternatively, upon receipt and identification of the SIA message, the mobile client can execute an initiation command causing the performance of a function identified by the SIA message, for example, to begin to download email immediately.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mobile communications, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a method and system for activating non-SMS devices to send alerts to, and/or initiate actions on, the non-SMS devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Server systems provide data access and interactive capability for mobile employee operations within an enterprise. Mobile employees can access server resources over the web, when connected, for such resources as email.
When new email has arrived at the enterprise server for distribution to a particular mobile employee (or group of mobile employees), the mobile employee(s) needs to be notified of the arrival of the mail, so that they know to connect to the enterprise server to download and read the email. The server can send such an alert using a Server Initated Action, or SIA. SIA's can be delivered to a mobile employee using SMS (Short Message Service) enabled devices such as cell phones. Using such systems, an SMS message is sent to the cell phone, thereby "waking up" the phone and allowing delivery of the SIA in the form of an alert message indicating the receipt of email. The user then takes action to connect to the enterprise server to download and read the email.
Mobile phones can be awakened as described above because all mobile phones have a very low power way to "listen" to a signaling channel, known as the "SS& signaling channel". It is on this channel that they are signaled when a call is incoming. The phone then initiates a high-power call setup with the nearest mobile tower and the call begins. As mobile telephony systems developed, the industry realized that the SS7 signaling channel could also be used for data, allowing data to be "pushed" to mobile telephones over the SS7 signaling channel. A desirable feature of this method of delivering data to a mobile telephone was that the phone was in a low-power mode but was still able to receive the information.
For IP networks, i.e., data networks, there is no such thing as an SS7 signaling channel. Signaling is performed in a "media access specific" manner, that is, it varies with the special characteristics of the electrical or optical transmission media being used for the transmission. There is no low-level protocol available to programmers via which a device can "listen" on its network interface for commands. Therefore, in virtually all wide area IP networks (including wireless IP networks) there is no low-power method to "emulate" the signaling ability of an SS7 signaling channel. Thus, there is no universal way for a service to contact a mobile device over a wide area IP network.
Since most mobile devices are enabled with wireless connectivity, one option is to have the mobile device connect wirelessly and poll the server for SIA's; however, new infrastructure to poll the server and allow the server to know the location of the device would have to be created, and one or more applications would have to be installed on the mobile device to monitor for the SIAs. Also, there are charges associated with having the mobile device connect wirelessly.
Accordingly, there is need for a simple method and system for enabling receipt of SIA's on a non-SMS-enabled device using existing infrastructure, and without incurring any substantial cost in connection with the receipt of the SIA's.

Method, system, and computer program product for activating non-SMS device using chat protocol

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention relates to electronic information processing. In particular, it relates to a method and system for processing a document, which comprises text information, comprising monitoring the occurrence of incomplete time-related citations, in particular the citation of a date, within the text information, and completing said incomplete citation. In order to improve methods of automatic completion of time-related citations in documents, the inventional method completes incomplete citations of a date, within a text of a document by applying (160) a set of predetermined completing rules by using all time information relating to the document. The sources of time information are the text itself, the document “container” and the enclosing applications e.g. a word processor. Thus, e.g. search engines can find such documents in the Internet by entering any complete or incomplete dates. Using an index can optimize and speed up the search for relevant documents.

1.1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic information processing. In particular, it relates to a method and system for processing a document, which comprises text information, comprising monitoring the occurrence of incomplete time-related citations, in particular the citation of a date, within the text information, and completing said incomplete citation.
1.2. Description and Disadvantages of Prior Art
Today many kinds of information are digitized and stored in electronic archives, as e.g., in a database. A large portion of such information comprises text, i.e. documents in one or more languages containing words and dates.
The usability of such electronic archives, however, is dependent of the fact in which way those documents are indexed, as the index serves often for locating a document. Often users need to find documents that are relevant for a particular date or date range.
A problem is, however, that it is not clear, which date to use for the search, e.g. the date, at which the document was archived electronically, or the date, when the content of the document was generated by its author, or when it was published, etc.
Content-related dates are often incomplete, e.g., "25 of march", or "in February this year". "This year" is a vague time-related citation, the reason why this date cannot be used in prior art for indexing purposes or other purposes, in which it is important to know the precise year of the date.
A prior art text search method is known from many word processor program applications. It comprises "full text search". In this case, the whole content of a document is parsed in order to find a useful date indication, which could meet the search pattern condition. The disadvantage is that an incomplete date occurring in the text of a document will not be in the hit list, because the existing technology requires a 1:1 match in the letters and symbols. For example a query "25/3" requires the document to contain the exact sequence of the letters "2", "5", "/", "3", etc.
In prior art it is known to transform many different representations of time information into a unified format, in order to make them comparable by the computer. One example for such a canonical time indication can be a language independent date format like "DD.MM.YYYY" as defined in the ISO 8601:2000 standard.
Also in this prior art approach there is no mechanism to handle or complete incomplete date information: If a date indication relating to or comprised of the text of a document is incomplete, because the year indication is missing, for example, prior art completion methods are limited to an obvious completion, e.g., with the current year indication "YYYY".


According to an example aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus comprising at least one processing core, at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code being configured to, with the at least one processing core, cause the apparatus at least to receive a first signal from an exercising device, process the received signal, respond to the received signal by transmitting a second signal to the exercising device, and participate in a pairing process with the exercising device.

Different exercising devices such as ergometers, gym exercising devices, fitness devices, sports devices, weight lifting devices, exercise bikes, treadmills, rowing machines, cross trainers, etc. are known. Some of the known exercising devices are often equipped with an internal display, a user interface and/or a memory, for example exercise bikes or treadmills. Further, various mobile devices are known by means of which information can be stored, processed and/or displayed. The mobile devices typically comprise a user interface such as a touchscreen, a keyboard or at least one button. Examples of such devices are smartphones, tablets, smartwatches and wrist-watches.
User sessions, such as training sessions, may be recorded, for example in notebooks, spreadsheets or other suitable media. Recorded training sessions enable more systematic training, and progress toward set goals can be assessed and tracked from the records so produced. Such records may be stored for future reference, for example to assess progress an individual is making as a result of the training. An activity session may comprise a training session or another kind of session.
Personal devices, such as, for example, smart watches, smartphones or smart jewelry, may be configured to produce recorded sessions of user activity. Such recorded sessions may be useful in managing physical training, child safety or in professional uses. Recorded sessions, or more generally sensor-based activity management, may be of varying type, such as, for example, running, walking, skiing, canoeing, wandering, or assisting the elderly.
Recorded sessions may be viewed using a personal computer, for example, wherein recordings may be copied from a personal device to the personal computer. Files on a personal computer may be protected using passwords and/or encryption, for example.
Personal devices may be furnished with sensors, which may be used, for example, in determining a heart-beat rate of a user during a user session. A recorded heart-beat rate of a user may be later observed using a personal computer, for example.
Document FI 20155989 discloses an apparatus comprising a memory configured to store first-type sensor data, at least one processing core configured to compile a message based at least partly on the first-type sensor data, to cause the message to be transmitted from the apparatus, to cause receiving in the apparatus of a machine readable instruction, and to derive an estimated activity type, using the machine readable instruction, based at least partly on sensor data.


A method for maintaining a smooth surface of crystallizable material is disclosed. First, a substrate is provided. A target material layer is then formed on the substrate, with the target material being a crystallizable material. A protecting layer is subsequently formed on the target material layer. Next, an annealing treatment is implemented, with the surface of the target material layer, facing the protecting layer, being maintained in its original smooth state by the pressure and/or adhesion of the protecting layer. Finally, the protecting layer is removed to leave an open and smooth surface of the processed crystallizable material.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method for maintaining a smooth surface of material, and more particularly to a method for maintaining a smooth surface of crystallizable material.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally speaking, in the forming process of crystallizable materials, it is common to form a seed layer which is used as a crystal growth center. Then, a target crystallizable material is further formed based on the seed layer. The materials of the seed layer and the target crystallizable material can be the same or different. FIGS. 1A-1B show crystal-growth steps corresponding to formation of conventional zinc oxide nanorods. First, referring to FIG. 1A, a substrate 110 is provided, and a zinc oxide seed layer 120 is formed on the substrate 110. Then, referring to FIG. 1B, zinc oxide nanorods 150 are formed, wherein the zinc oxide seed layer 120 is used as a crystal growth center.
The dimension of the zinc oxide nanorods 150 is related to the crystallization of the zinc oxide seed layer 120. When the grain size of the zinc oxide seed layer 120 is larger, coarse zinc oxide nanorods 150 can be formed; when the grain size of the zinc oxide seed layer 120 is smaller, smaller zinc oxide nanorods 150 can be formed. In order to adjust the grain size of the zinc oxide seed layer 120, an annealing treatment can be implemented to the zinc oxide seed layer 120 for adjusting the crystallization of the zinc oxide seed layer 120. When the temperature of the annealing treatment is higher, the grain size of the zinc oxide seed layer 120 is bigger; when the temperature of the annealing treatment is lower, the grain size of the zinc oxide seed layer 120 is smaller. By controlling the temperature of the annealing treatment, the dimension of the zinc oxide nanorods 150 can be controlled thereby.
However, when the temperature of the annealing treatment is higher, the grain size of the zinc oxide seed layer 120 is larger, leading to a rough and uneven surface of the zinc oxide seed layer 120. The subsequently formed zinc oxide nanorods 150 will not grow in (e.g., towards) substantially the same direction and will not form an ordered array.
For the disadvantages of the prior art mentioned above, there remains a need to provide a method for maintaining a smooth surface of material. The surface of the material should be maintained smooth after the annealing treatment. High quality nano-structures could then be formed by using the smooth surface of material as a crystal growth center.

Method for maintaining a smooth surface of crystallizable material


A self-synchronizing system and method for conveyor belt sensor operation is disclosed based on the address of an RFID tag in the belt and the location of that tag in the system memory. A moving conveyor belt system has a plurality of sensors spaced along the belt and a sensor reader for detecting and identifying the presence of a sensor passing by the sensor reader. The belt further includes a plurality of identification tags spaced along the belt and a tag reader for detecting and identifying the presence of a tag passing by the tag reader. Associated time and distance target values are acquired from a calibration table for a next sensor (S1) based upon a detected and identified functional tag. Time and distance counters are initiated. The conveyor belt may be stopped in the event that the next sensor (S1) is not detected before the time and distance target values are exceeded.

In a multitude of commercial applications, it is common to employ a heavy duty conveyor belt for the purpose of transporting product and material. The belts so employed may be relatively long, on the order of miles, and represent a high cost component of an industrial material handling operation. In many applications, the belts are susceptible to damage from the material transported thereby and a rip (slit, cut or tear) may develop within the belt. A torn or ripped belt can be repaired once detected. The cost of repairing a heavy duty conveyor belt and the cost of cleaning up material spilled from the damaged belt can be substantial. If, however, such a rip or tear commences and the belt is not immediately stopped, the rip can propagate for a substantial distance along the belt. It is, therefore, desirable to detect and locate a rip in the belt as quickly as possible after it commences and to immediately terminate belt operation, whereby minimizing the extent of the damage to the belt.
It is well known to employ sensors within conveyor belts as part of a rip detection system. In a typical system, sensors in the form of loops of conductive wire are affixed or embedded in the belt and provide a rip detection utility as part of an overall rip detection system. Rip detection is achieved through the inferential detection of an "open circuit" condition in one or more of the sensor loops in the belt. Typically an electrical energy source external to the belt is inductively or capacitively coupled to a sensor loop in the belt. A break in the conductive wire loop of the sensor may be detected by a remote transmitter/receiver (exciter/detector). Disposition of a plurality of such sensors at intervals along the conveyor may be effected with each sensor passing within read range of one or more exciter/detectors at various locations. A rip or tear will encounter and damage a proximal sensor loop and the existence of the tear will be detected when the proximal sensor loop damage is detected as an open circuit by the reader at its next pass. In this manner, the existence of a tear will be promptly detected and repaired and damage to the belt therefrom minimized.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,742,477 (Enabnit; 1973) discloses a "figure eight" sensor loop useful within belt sensor system. U.S. Pat. No. 4,854,446 (Strader; 1989) teaches a "figure eight" sensor loops disposed at intervals along a conveyor belt. U.S. Pat. No. 6,352,149 (Gartland, 2002) provides a system in which antennae are embedded in a conveyor belt to couple with an electromagnetic circuit consisting of two detector heads and an electronic package. Coupling occurs only when an antenna passes across the detector heads and can only occur when the loop integrity has not been compromised.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,715,602 discloses a sensor system in which sensors are embedded at predetermined intervals along a conveyor belt. A detector detects the presence or the absence of a sensor and that information is used to evaluate the condition of the belt at the sensor location. While the system works well, certain data interpretation problems exist. The RFID tags used in the belt and the information they provide are not reliable for use in drawing critical conclusions. If the tags are not read, the system is configured to shut the belt down. Such a disruption may or may not be necessary given the location of the tag in the belt and whether the failure to detect the tag should be interpreted as a belt failure.
It is, therefore, important that the system not shutdown automatically if the tag(s) are not detected. In addition, it is desired that the reading of sensors along the belt be synchronized in a reliable manner that minimizes the possibility of faulty identification of sensor location or faulty detection of sensor malfunction. This is important as the conveyor system ages and sensor operation becomes intermittent. Intermittent sensors can result in a contradiction between the memory map in the system and the actual position of a detected sensor in the belt. The system may find itself looking for a different embedded sensor in its memory than the actual sensor that is passing by the detector head(s). As a result, the detection system and memory map may become contradictory and unreliable.
It is, accordingly, a remaining need in the industry for a conveyor belt sensor system and method that can correlate exact belt position to the stored data within the sensor system (memory map). Such a system and method should be compatible for use in a wide range of available sensor systems for conveyor belts. The method and system, moreover, should be dependable and facilitate a reliable location of intermittent or non-functioning sensors in a belt. Moreover, a suitable method and system will dependably synchronize location of the belt with a memory map so as to minimize the possibility of erroneous sensor location identification.

Method for self-synchronizing a conveyor belt sensor system