The invention is directed to an apparatus and process for the continuous fabrication of resin impregnated material webs in which low-solvent resin is extruded to form a film which is joined with the material web to form a layer formation, or the resin is spread on the material web. The layer formation is subsequently subjected to an area pressure. The apparatus including an extruder or a spreading device, and a continuously operating double band press exerting an area pressure.

Resin impregnated material webs are needed for the fabrication of laminates or laminated materials, such as decorative laminates, for the surface coating of chip boards, copper-lined laminates as base material for printed circuit boards, and the like. In the fabrication of laminates, the resin impregnated material webs are arranged in layers in the desired sequence and pressed together. Normally, fiber or woven webs are used as material webs, e.g. paper webs, woven glass webs, fiber glass mats, etc. Duroplastic resins such as melamine, urea, phenol, epoxy and thermoplastic resins are used for impregnating the material webs.
Resin impregnated material webs are fabricated by winding off the material web from a roll, guiding the web through an impregnating bath and a subsequent drying channel, and winding the web on a roll which is stored for further processing. The resin which can be provided with a hardener and an accelerator, if required, is in a fluid state in the impregnating bath. The resin is dissolved in a solvent for this purpose. Water, alcohol, ester or hydrocarbons or mixtures thereof are used as solvents. If a duroplastic resin is used, this is pre-cured, to a certain extent, i.e. to the so-called A-state. The material web is saturated with resin solution when passing through the impregnating bath. The excess resin is squeezed out when it leaves the impregnating bath.
The solvent is removed from the material web in the drying channel by supplying heat by infrared radiators or a flow of hot air. The duroplastic resin is simultaneously cured to the so-called B-state. The B-state involves a reaction of the resin resulting in a stable, but still meltable state of the resin. The fabrication of the resin impregnated material web, also called prepreg, is then concluded.
During the subsequent pressing of the resin impregnated material webs which can be carried out, e.g., continuously in a double band press or discontinuously in a platen press, the duroplastic resin is finally completely cured until reaching the C-state and connects the individual layers to form the compact laminate.
A disadvantage in this method is that a solvent is required to achieve the fluid state of the resin in the impregnating bath which enables penetration into the material web. This solvent must then be removed in the drying channel, which leads to considerable environmental loading. The solvent can usually not be removed completely so that inclusions of the solvent remains in the laminate during the subsequent pressing of the material webs to form the laminate, which in turn lowers the quality of the laminate. Further, it has been shown that the application of resin is very often not uniform over the surface area, which ultimately leads to fluctuations in the characteristics of the laminate. The penetration of the resin into the fibers of the material webs is sometimes unsatisfactory, resulting in a poor bond between the individual layers of the laminate. Moreover, very long drying channels are required before the resin has cured to the B-state, which greatly increases the cost of the installations for the fabrication of resin impregnated material webs.
DE-OS 38 34 993 discloses a process in which the material web which has not been impregnated with resin is wound off a roll and placed on the portion of a press band returning to the inlet zone of a double band press from the outlet zone. Prior or subsequent to this, the material web is provided with a low-solvent resin. The returning band portion is heated so that the material web provided with resin is acted upon by heat and the impregnating and drying processes for the material web takes place on the returning band portion. The resin impregnated material web is combined with the rest of the material webs at the inlet to the double band press and then pressed together to form a laminate in the double band press under the influence of heat and pressure.
In this process, the impregnation of the material webs with resin and the pressing of the material webs to form the laminate are integrated in a one-step process. To obtain a laminate which is completely cured to the C-state in pressing, the press bands of the double band press must be operated at a feed rate which is dependent on the state and type of the resin. The impregnation and drying processes carried out on the returning band portion take place at the same speed depending on the system. This speed however is generally not the same as that at which resin impregnated material webs which are optimally cured to the B-state before entering the double band press are obtained. The pre-curing and curing conditions at the returning band portion or in the actual reaction zone of the double band press are in a ratio which is fixed by the given dimensions of the apparatus, but unfavorable for optimal curing conditions because they cannot be varied. There is accordingly a risk that laminated webs will be produced which do not satisfy demands with respect to quality.
In many cases, laminates are composed of more than two resin impregnated material webs. For example, the laminated material core of copper-lined laminates may require between eight and ten woven glass webs impregnated with epoxy resin. The impregnating and drying processes of a plurality of material webs must accordingly be carried out simultaneously on each of the two returning band portions of the two press bands of the double band press. Since the material webs are arranged, one on top of the other, it has been shown that the material webs are not impregnated and pre-cured uniformly and sufficiently. This results in low quality laminates.
Although the one-step process according to DE-OS 38 34 993 makes it possible to use low-solvent resins, this process has not been successful. Part of the reason for this is that increasingly greater quantities of prepreg which must be pressed in sheets are needed for the operation of existing production plants outfitted with platen presses, and particularly for the gluing of multiple-layer printed circuit boards. These quantities will increase even more in the future.
It is therefore an object of the invention to improve the fabrication of resin impregnated material webs so as to ensure a resin impregnation into the fibers of the material webs completely and uniformly over the surface with the use of solvent-free resin.
Another object of the invention is to provide a process and apparatus for the continuous fabrication of resin impregnated material webs.

Process of making resin-impregnated material webs


A claw pole type motor is provided and includes: a rotor which includes a magnet and a rotation shaft around which the magnet is attached; and a stator which includes a bobbin, a winding wound around the bobbin, and a yoke which includes a plurality of pole teeth disposed to oppose the magnet and which is located outside the winding, wherein a vibration suppressing means is provided which makes contact with a distal end portion of the pole tooth and by which the pole tooth is pressure-supported on an inner circumferential surface of the bobbin, whereby the pole tooth is suppressed from vibrating.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a claw pole type motor configured to reduce noise.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to the recent trend of energy conservation, the automotive industry, for example, faces an urgent need to develop hybrid vehicles in which both a gasoline engine and an electric motor are used to thereby reduce fuel consumption, or electric vehicles in which a motor to drive wheels is electrically activated by means of a battery.
In the circumstances described above, hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles are increasingly further developed. In the hybrid vehicles and the electric vehicles, an electric motor is used as a driving source, and so in-vehicle noises are lowered thus largely enhancing quietness in the vehicle. As the result of the lowered in-vehicle noises, the noise level of an actuator, which is conventionally accepted for an in-vehicle HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) system, is not good enough for the hybrid vehicles and the electric vehicles in which cabin quietness is improved, and therefore it is requested that noises be further reduced. That is to say, the noise produced by the conventional actuator is now too loud for the hybrid and electric vehicles, and further noise reduction is required.
In view of the above situation, for the purpose of reducing vibration noises of an actuator, it is required to further reduce noises of a motor which causes the vibration noises. With regard to noises from an actuator used for the in-vehicle HVAC system, in the case when a claw pole type motor is used for an actuator, a magnetic field generated in a winding causes a pole tooth to vibrate thus producing noises. Conventional countermeasures to reduce such vibration noises are disclosed in Japanese Patent Applications Laid-Open Nos. S63-144736 and 2003-189584.
While the countermeasure suggested in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. S63-144736 is not mainly aimed to prevent or suppress vibration, it is described therein that the inner surface of bobbin (6a′, 6b′) is tapered so as to form a chevron mark, whereby, for example, when a inner yoke tooth (11a, 11b) is press-fitted, the inclination of the inner yoke tooth (11a, 11b) is corrected so that a inner yoke (5a, 5b) can be positioned accurately, which results in that the inner yoke (5a, 5b) and the bobbins (6a′ 6b′) are fixed to each other completely. Consequently, a problem of vibration generated by a motor in which a winding is not fixed to a yoke in an accurate manner can be remedied.
Referring now to FIG. 1 of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-189584, a cup-shaped stator core (20, 22) includes a stator yoke portion (20a, 22a) and a magnetic pole (20b, 22b) which extends in the axial direction such that the width decreases toward the distal end, and a magnetic pole housing portion (39) which is formed to have a substantially same shape as the magnetic pole (20b, 22b) is provided at an inner circumferential surface of a cylinder portion (33) (see FIG. 3 thereof) of a winding bobbin (30).
When the magnetic pole (20b, 22b) of the stator core (20, 22) is inserted into the magnetic pole housing portion (39) of the cylinder portion (33) of the winding bobbin (30), a circumferential side surface of the magnetic pole (20b, 22b) is brought into contact with the magnetic pole housing portion (39) in a sliding manner, thereby automatically correcting positional misalignment. That is to say, the circumferential side surface of the magnetic pole (20b, 22b) makes contact with a circumferential side surface of the magnetic pole housing portion (39) of the cylinder portion (33) of the winding bobbin (30), which is effective in preventing or suppressing characteristic anomaly, vibration and noise which are attributable to positional misalignment.
However, the countermeasure described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. S63-144736, in which only the center portion of the yoke tooth (11a, 11b) is brought into contact with the bobbin (6a′ 6b′), does not work sufficiently to absorb the vibration of the yoke tooth (11a, 11b) (refer to FIGS. 8A and 8B of the present invention).
On the other hand, in the countermeasure described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-189584, the circumferential side surface of the magnetic pole (20b, 22b) is only in contact with the circumferential side surface of the magnetic pole housing portion (39). In the above structure, if the distal end portion of the magnetic pole (pole tooth) is disposed freely with respect to a width direction of a steel plate of the magnetic pole (pole tooth), which is oriented orthogonal to (90 degrees different from) the circumferential direction of the contact and in which vibration tends to occur, the countermeasure fails to sufficiently prevent or suppress vibration or noise attributable to the resonance at an eigen frequency of the pole tooth.


Apparatus for synchronizing the output pulses from a pair of magnetic switches. An electrically conductive loop is provided between the pair of switches with the loop having windlings about the core of each of the magnetic switches. The magnetic coupling created by the loop removes voltage and timing variations between the outputs of the two magnetic switches caused by any of a variety of factors. The only remaining variation is a very small fixed timing offset caused by the geometry and length of the loop itself.

This invention relates to magnetic switches. More particularly, this invention relates to an apparatus for causing multiple magnetic switches to switch in a synchronized manner.
Numerous magnetic modulator applications including particle beam accelerators, high power linear induction voltage adders and laser drivers require the timing of the output pulses be synchronized both to the trigger pulse and between multiple machines. The timing drift on the output of a magnetic modulator can be separated into two categories. Slow changes such as core heating and prime power supply drift cause slow steady timing drifts that can be easily compensated by monitoring the output timing and slowly adjusting the trigger timing to compensate. Random shot to shot variations due to main power supply ripple, primary switch jitter and reflections that effect the bias state of the switches from shot to shot and therefore the timing, require a compensation mechanism that is fast enough to act between shots.
Techniques have been developed to compensate for both of these types of time shifts. The most generalized of these utilize a combination of precision charge voltage control and trigger timing compensation based on measurement of the charge voltage and bias currents just before a shot. While this type of jitter control has been used with great success, it involves the complexity of both microprocessors and analog circuitry in the feedback loop, and it requires calibrations to be established and maintained that correlate the required timing offsets to the measured bias and charge voltage offsets.

Magnetic switch coupling to synchronize magnetic modulators


In order to reduce the computational burden required for scanning and to enhance the recognition accuracy, an image recognition device is configured so that a scanning pattern recording unit that records a plurality of scanning patterns for directing how to scan recognition areas of predetermined size in the image data is included, and different scanning patterns for successive frames are read out from the scanning pattern recording unit and applied to scan the recognition areas.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image recognition device for performing recognition processes to detect presence of a target object.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional image recognition device, in order to speed up its recognition processes by skipping pixels in image data, the number of pixels skipped in the recognition processes, which is referred to as the skipping distance hereinafter, is configured in accordance with the size of a recognition target, and an image in a recognition area has been scanned with the configured skipping distance (see, for instance, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 99724/2000 (FIG. 2)).
In addition, in the conventional image recognition device, in order to enhance detection-accuracy tolerance to luminance variations, a normalization process such as luminance tone adjustment is performed on the whole image or the recognition area within the image data. In order to calculate parameters for the normalization process, feature quantities such as pixel values of the whole image or in the recognition area are obtained. It then corrects the pixel values by using a look-up table or an equation that represents a luminance tone-curve.
In the conventional image recognition device, once the skipping distance has been set, it remains fixed intact. Therefore, a problem has been that cases may occur in which a recognition target cannot be found when the recognition target is present within the skipping distance.
Another problem of the conventional image recognition device has been that an algorithm used in the normalization process that corrects pixel values of the whole image or in the recognition area is fixed, and the amount of computations cannot be neglected when the number of pixels increases.


Embodiments disclosed herein provide systems and methods to provide wireless network application access to a wireless device via an untrusted access node. In a particular embodiment, a method provides receiving communications directed to an application system within a wireless communication network from a wireless communication device via a wireless access node external to the wireless communication network. The method further provides determining whether the communications are authorized for the application system based on a signature included in the communications, wherein the signature comprises a unique identifier generated at the wireless communication device that corresponds to an identity of the wireless communication device and an identity of an integrated circuit within that wireless communication device that is associated with a subscriber of the wireless communication network. Upon determining that the communications are authorized, the method provides transferring the communications to the application system.

Wireless communication networks provide application services to wireless communication devices, such as voicemail, messaging, media, or any other type of service that may be provided to a wireless device. When a wireless device is connected through an access node of a particular wide area wireless network, such as a cellular communication network, the wireless network uses authentication procedures to determine whether the wireless device is allowed to access the network. Accordingly, a system within the wireless network that provides an application service may rely on the authentication procedures to ensure the wireless device is allowed to access the application service.
To conserve wireless resources on the wide area wireless network, the wireless device may use other wireless networks, such as WIFI networks, for wireless connectivity. While the use of a WIFI network may have its benefits, a WIFI access node does not use the same procedures as the wide area wireless network to authenticate the wireless device. Therefore, if the wireless device attempts to access the application service via the WIFI access node, the system that provides the application service cannot rely on the authentication procedures to ensure the wireless device is allowed to access the application service.

Wireless network application access by a wireless communication device via an untrusted access node


Described herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer readable media for performing an alignment between a first vehicle sensor and a second vehicle sensor. Two-dimensional (2D) data indicative of a scene within an environment being traversed by a vehicle is captured by the first vehicle sensor such as a camera or a collection of multiple cameras within a sensor assembly. A three-dimensional (3D) representation of the scene is constructed using the 2D data. 3D point cloud data also indicative of the scene is captured by the second vehicle sensor, which may be a LiDAR. A 3D point cloud representation of the scene is constructed based on the 3D point cloud data. A rigid transformation is determined between the 3D representation of the scene and the 3D point cloud representation of the scene and the alignment between the sensors is performed based at least in part on the determined rigid transformation.

On-board sensors in a vehicle, such as an autonomous vehicle, supplement and bolster the vehicle's field-of-view (FOV) by providing continuous streams of sensor data captured from the vehicle's surrounding environment. Sensor data is used in connection with a diverse range of vehicle-based applications including, for example, blind spot detection, lane change assisting, rear-end radar for collision warning or collision avoidance, park assisting, cross-traffic monitoring, brake assisting, emergency braking, and automated distance control. In addition, the sensor data can be used to perform a variety of machine learning tasks that support the above-described vehicle-based applications such as object detection, semantic segmentation, instance segmentation, and the like.
On-board sensors can include, for example, cameras, light detection and ranging (LiDAR)-based systems, radar-based systems, Global Positioning System (GPS) systems, sonar-based sensors, ultrasonic sensors, inertial measurement units (IMUs), accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, and far infrared (FIR) sensors. Sensor data may include image data, reflected laser data, or the like. Often, combining (e.g., fusing) the sensor data from different sensors can provide a more powerful dataset that results in better performance, more accurate calculations, etc. when performing computational tasks related to autonomous vehicle operation. In order to successfully fuse sensor data from different sensors, the sensors must be aligned/calibrated with one another. Discussed herein are technical solutions that address technical drawbacks associated with convention sensor alignment/calibration systems.


The present invention is useful for routing data traffic in data communications networks where some or all of the network interface links are protected by cryptographic techniques, e.g., encryption. The invention routes datagram traffic in such networks toward interface links perceived to have strong encryption protection and away from interface links perceived to have weak or weakening encryption protection, based on the remaining encryption capacity for such links.

1. Field of Art
The present invention relates generally to the field of data communications networks, and more particularly to data communications networks protected by cryptographic techniques (e.g., encryption). Still more particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for routing data traffic in cryptographically-protected data communications networks.
2. Related Art
Data communications networks are typically comprised of a set of nodes (e.g., computers, routers and/or switches) connected by a set of interface links (e.g., wires, cable, fiber, microwave or radio wave channels, etc.). In a data communications network, a node is a connection point, either a redistribution point or an end point, for data transmissions. In general, a node (especially if the node is a switch or router) has a programmed or engineered capability to recognize, process and/or forward data traffic to other nodes.
A "router" is a device or, in some cases, software in a computer, that determines the next connection point to which a packet of data should be forwarded toward its final destination. A router is connected to at least two network interface links and determines which way to send each data packet based on its current understanding of the state of the links to which it is connected. A router may be located at any network gateway (where one network meets another), including, for example, host computers and points-of-presence on the Internet. Put another way, a router is a device or program that determines the route and specifically to which adjacent connection point in a network a data packet should be sent.
A router is often included as part of a network "switch," which is also a network device that selects a path or circuit for sending a packet of data to its next destination. In general, however, a switch is a simpler and faster mechanism than a router. A router may create or maintain a table of available routes and their conditions and use this information, along with distance and cost algorithms, to determine the best route for a given data packet. Routers and switches may both be configured to implement schemes to control the network links used to transmit data packets to their destinations, as well as the order and speed in which data or data packets flow over a given link. However, switches are generally less sophisticated than routers in terms of the algorithms and the quantity and quality of network information it uses.
Often the links in a data communications network are "weighted" or assigned numeric values to reflect some functional, qualitative or quantitative aspect of each link, such as its capacity to transmit data traffic. These numeric values are often called link metrics. Conventional routers and switches use algorithms based on link metrics to determine the "best path" to send a data packet to its intended destination. Several well-known algorithms, such as Shortest Path First Routing (sometimes called Link State Routing), or Distance Vector Routing, and their many variants, for example, have been advantageously applied in the data communications industry to optimize routing of data traffic through data communications networks.
Some types of secure networks employ a technique called "link encryption." Link encryption (also called "link level encryption" or "link layer encryption") is a data security process for encrypting information at the data link level as it is transmitted between two points within a data communications network. In such networks, a data packet is considered to exist "in the clear" while it is still located in a first network routing device's memory. The data packet is encrypted before it is sent across the link from this first network routing device to a second network routing device, and then is decrypted as it is received at the second network routing device. It is again considered to be "in the clear" when it arrives in an unencrypted state in the second network routing device's memory. A given data packet may thus proceed hop by hop through the data communications network, being encrypted before it is sent across each link, and then decrypted after it is received from that link.
The actual link encryption and decryption of the data is generally performed by cryptographic devices and/or algorithms, known as "cryptos." Link encryption typically requires a pair of collaborating cryptos—one at each end of a link. Cryptos may reside in the router, the switch or elsewhere in the data communications network as stand-alone devices, computers or computer programs.
In most cases, a pair of collaborating cryptos will share a secret encryption "key." An encryption key typically comprises a variable value that is applied (according to an algorithm usually) to a string or block of unencrypted data to produce encrypted data, or applied to a string or block of encrypted data to produce unencrypted data. The length or number of bits in the encryption key is usually a significant factor in how difficult it will be for an unauthorized recipient of a an encrypted data packet to decrypt the data packet. Typically, an "upstream" crypto will use the encryption key to encrypt a packet's contents before the packet is transmitted across the link, and a "downstream" crypto will use the same encryption key to decrypt the packet upon receipt.
Often it is deemed undesirable to use the same encryption key for too long a period of time because the more traffic encrypted with a single encryption key, the easier the encryption code is to break. If an unauthorized person breaks the encryption code, then the security and/or integrity of the data traffic may be compromised. The more data traffic that has been encrypted with a given key, the more data traffic will be compromised if that encryption code is broken. Thus, encryption keys are often changed from time to time, e.g., weekly, daily, or even from minute to minute. Usually, when a key is changed, it must be changed at both the upstream and downstream cryptos. One approach is to change keys after a certain number of traffic bytes have passed through the crypto. For example, the two cryptos might be configured so that they switch to new encryption keys once five megabytes of data traffic has been encrypted (and/or decrypted) under the previous key. Alternatively, the keys may be updated periodically, for example once per hour. When using one of these approaches, the term "remaining encryption capacity" may be used to refer to the number of additional bytes of data traffic that can be encrypted, or the remaining amount of time that encryption may be applied on a link before all of the keys or key material currently on hand will be exhausted.
In the data communications network industry, many different techniques are used to supply cryptos with encryption keys. One common technique, appropriately termed "sneaker net," is to have a trusted person carry the keys in some kind of physical container (such as a laptop computer or more specialized device) from one crypto to another. Another common technique employs mathematical algorithms and specialized cryptographic protocols, such as the well-known Diffie-Hellman Key Exchange Technique. A third technique that is now becoming more popular is quantum cryptography.
Quantum cryptography differs from traditional cryptographic systems in the sense that it depends more on physics, rather than mathematics, as the central aspect of its security model. Basically, quantum cryptography relies on the use of individual particles and waves of light (photons) and their intrinsic quantum properties to develop what is essentially an unbreakable encryption scheme—because it is impossible to measure the quantum state of any system without disturbing that system. It is theoretically possible that other particles could be used, but photons have been found to work very well for transmitting encryption key data. Moreover, photon behavior is relatively well-understood, and they are the information carriers in optical fiber cables, one of the most promising medium for extremely high-bandwidth data communications.
Each of the above-described techniques for supplying keys and key material to cryptos, including the quantum cryptography key distribution method, takes some time to employ. Thus, it is possible that the new key material will not be delivered in time, i.e., before too much time has passed using the old key, or before too many bytes of data traffic have been encrypted via the old key. While the link may continue to operate—it may be considered "insecure" or "degraded" because the data traffic can no longer be encrypted or because a particular key has been used longer than desired and therefore may no longer be trusted as secret. Alternatively, such links may be abruptly removed from service until new keys are supplied and made operational, thereby adding a measure of congestion and/or denied access to the data communications network.
Among other shortcomings, conventional routing systems for data communications networks (including those described above) do not take remaining encryption capacity into account when making routing decisions. From a routing, point of view, the links between connection points in an encrypted network are usually assumed to be encrypted. Consequently, when a crypto runs out of keying material, the link continues to operate in an "unsecure" or "degraded" fashion or, alternatively, is abruptly taken out of service. Attempts to transmit highly-sensitive data traffic across unsecure, congested or inaccessible links may pose too great a risk in some data communications contexts. In a military context, for example, whether certain data transmissions reach their intended destination on time, with absolute secrecy and with unquestionable integrity could mean the difference between life and death.
Accordingly, there is a need for systems and methods of routing data traffic in cryptographically-protected networks where the remaining encryption capacity of links contained in the network is taken into consideration (i.e., used as a "link metric") for making routing decisions. There is a further need for such systems and methods to include programs and devices that generate, report and analyze remaining encryption capacity data and distribute the results to other network routing programs and devices in the data communications network. The other network routing devices may then use the remaining encryption capacity data to help determine the optimal path for routing data traffic.

Method and apparatus for routing data traffic in a cryptographically-protected network


A full-wave rectifying device having an amplitude modulation function receives energy emitted from a transceiver via an external antenna and then rectifies it into a DC power source for use by an IC device. One embodiment includes a positive half-wave diode and a negative half-wave diode, whose anodes are connected to ends of the antenna and whose cathodes are formed by the N-substrate. A rectifying NMOS transistor has its gate and drain coupled to ground and its source connected to the anode of the negative half-wave diode. A positive half-wave switch is coupled between the source and bulk of the rectifying NMOS transistor. A negative half-wave switch is coupled between the drain and bulk of the rectifying NMOS transistor. A modulating NMOS transistor has its source and bulk coupled to ground, its drain coupled to the anode of the positive half-wave diode, and its gate used to receive a modulated signal transmitted to the gate of the modulating NMOS transistor during a positive half-wave rectification for modulation. A bypass NMOS transistor has its bulk and source connected to ground, its gate coupled to the anode of the negative half-wave diode, and its drain coupled to the anode of the positive half-wave diode. A capacitor is coupled between the cathodes of the positive and negative half-wave diodes and the ground reference point to store electrical energy for use by the IC.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a full-wave rectifying device having an amplitude modulation function, and, in particular, to an integrated circuit (IC) device containing a full-wave rectifier having an amplitude modulation function which receives energy emitted from a transceiver via an external antenna and rectifies the energy into a DC power source for use by the IC device. The full-wave rectifier also receives a modulation code set by the IC device and then transmits it to the transceiver.
2. Description of Related Art
A typical IC is provided with an external power source. Batteries are generally used to provide a direct DC power source. Alternatively, an AC power source can be supplied which is then rectified into a DC power source. A common simple rectifying device is a full bridge rectifier. As shown in FIG. 1, conventional rectifier 1 consists of 4 diodes D1, D2, D3 and D4, and capacitor C.sub.s. A voltage at voltage point V.sub.cc represents a rectified voltage coupled to ground reference point GND through capacitor C.sub.s. An AC voltage between terminals V.sub.s1 and V.sub.s2 is rectified into a DC voltage by rectifier 1. The DC voltage is then stored in capacitor C.sub.s for application across load R.sub.L. When the AC voltage is in its positive half-wave period (V.sub.s1 >V.sub.s2), diodes D1 and D3 are turned-on, while diodes D2 and D4 are turned-off. At this time, capacitor C.sub.s is charged by a current flowing through diode D1, capacitor C.sub.s and diode D3. When the AC voltage is in its negative half-wave period (V.sub.s1 <V.sub.s2), diodes D2 and D4 are turned-on, while diodes D1 and D3 are turned-off. During this time, capacitor C.sub.s is charged by a current flowing through diode D2, capacitor C.sub.s and diode D4. The two charge states mentioned above alternate, thereby creating a power source at voltage point V.sub.cc for use by load R.sub.L. However, since parasitic devices formed on the junctions among these devices (depicted by parasitic transistors Q1 and Q2), which disable the rectifying circuit, are not eliminated, this type of rectifying circuit is not suitable for ICs, and particularly for CMOS ICs. The influence of these parasitic devices on the rectifying circuit will be described in more detail below.
When rectifying circuit 1 in FIG. 1 is made into an IC, that is, two PN junctions making up diodes D1 and D4 respectively, parasitic NPN transistor Q1 is formed by an N-type region of diode D1, a P-type region of diode D4, and an N-type region of diode D4. Similarly, another NPN parasitic transistor Q2 is also formed by an N-type region of diode D2, a P-type region of diode D3, and an N-type region of diode D3. When the AC voltage is in its positive half-wave period (V.sub.s1 >V.sub.s2) base B and emitter E of parasitic transistor Q2 are forward biased to turn on parasitic transistor Q2, and thereby a great amount of charge current is created to directly flow through parasitic transistor Q2 instead of through capacitor C.sub.s. Therefore, the rectification efficiency is decreased, even to the point where there is no rectification at all. Similarly, the same problem caused by parasitic transistor Q1 occurs during the negative half-wave period.
Referring to FIG. 2, diodes D3 and D4 of FIG. 1 are replaced with NMOS devices N3 and N4 respectively which are manufactured by a P-well process, wherein the bulk and source of NMOS devices N3 (N4) are connected to each other and the drain and gate thereof are connected to each other. Parasitic NPN transistor Q3 (Q4) is formed by an N-type region (that is, an N-substrate connected to DC voltage point V.sub.cc of diode D1 (D2), the P-well region in which NMOS device N4 (N3) is located, and the N.sup.+ drain of NMOS device N4 (N3). When the AC voltage is in its positive half-wave period (Vs1>Vs2), base B and emitter E of parasitic NPN transistor Q3 are forward biased to turn on parasitic NPN transistor Q3, thereby allowing a large amount of charging current to directly flow through parasitic NPN transistor Q3, and not through capacitor C.sub.s, resulting in decreased rectification efficiency or no rectification at all. Similarly, the same problem caused by parasitic NPN transistor Q4 occurs during the negative half-wave period.
Referring to FIG. 3, diodes D3 and D4 of FIG. 1 are replaced with PMOS devices P3 and P4 respectively, wherein the bulk (that is, N-substrate) of each PMOS device is connected to voltage point V.sub.cc, and the drain and gate of each PMOS device are connected to each other. Parasitic PNP transistor Q5 (Q6) is formed by the P.sup.+ source, bulk and P.sup.+ drain of parasitic PNP transistor P4 (P3). This parasitic transistor does not affect the operation of the rectifying circuit. However, since a voltage difference exists between the bulk and source of the PMOS transistor, a body effect occurs in PMOS P3 (P4) resulting in poor rectification efficiency and speed.
As can be seen from the above, using PMOS devices having poor rectification efficiency in place of the diodes is a better choice.
Referring to FIG. 4A, a conventional full-wave rectifying device having an amplitude modulation function is shown. External antenna ANT is made up of an inductor L and a capacitor C, one end of external antenna ANT being connected to terminal Vs1 and the other end being connected to terminal Vs2. The rectifying circuits shown in FIG. 4A and FIG. 3 are both manufactured by a P-well process. The main difference between them is that PMOS transistor P4 of FIG. 3 is replaced with NMOS transistor M.sub.N, wherein the bulk and source of NMOS transistor M.sub.N are connected to each other, and the gate of NMOS transistor M.sub.N receives signal modulation control signal S.sub.MOD transmitted from an IC. NMOS transistor M.sub.N chiefly functions as a modulating transistor. The modulation function can be implemented by controlling the on/off states of NMOS transistor M.sub.N to change the energy of the antenna inductor. However, parasitic NPN transistor Q.sub.N is formed by an N-type region (that is N-substrate) of diode D1, the P-well region of NMOS transistor M.sub.N and the N.sup.+ drain of NMOS transistor M.sub.N.
As for the operation of rectification, when an AC voltage is in its positive half-wave period (Vs1>Vs2), diode D1 is turned on and capacitor C.sub.s is charged. At this point, a charge current flows to terminal V.sub.s2 via PMOS transistor P3, thereby accomplishing positive half-wave rectification. When the AC voltage is in its negative half-wave period (V.sub.s1 <V.sub.s2), diode D2 is turned on, and capacitor C.sub.s is charged. At this point, the junction between base B and emitter E of parasitic transistor Q.sub.N is turned on, thereby accomplishing negative half-wave rectification. However, during the negative half-wave period, since terminal V.sub.s2 is positive with respect to terminal V.sub.s1, the junction between emitter E and base B of parasitic PNP transistor Q6 is forward biased, thereby turning on NPN transistor Q.sub.N resulting in a discharge of capacitor C.sub.s and affecting the rectification effect in the negative half-wave period.
Referring to FIG. 4B, an equivalent circuit of a full-wave rectifying device having an amplitude modulation function of FIG. 4A is depicted. An equivalent current source I.sub.M represents the external antenna, and R.sub.in (viewed from the both ends of the antenna towards the inside) represents an equivalent input resistor. The value of R.sub.in can be varied by controlling the degrees of the on-state of the M.sub.N transistor resulting in the voltage variation on the both ends of the antenna, thereby implementing the purpose of the amplitude modulation. Nevertheless, since the bulk of PMOS transistor P3 is connected to high-voltage V.sub.cc, the characteristics of PMOS transistor P3 are influenced by the body effect to cause its turned-on resistance to increase, such that the rectification efficiency is decreased. This affects the modulation index, which reduces the modulation efficiency.
Therefore, the disadvantages of the prior art are as follows:
(1) due to the influence caused by the PMOS body effect during the positive half-wave period, and the discharge of the capacitor C.sub.s resulting from the turned-on period of the transistor Q.sub.N during the negative half-wave period, the rectification efficiency is greatly reduced, resulting in an inability to endure a higher load.
(2) since the lower rectification efficiency during the negative half-wave period causes a lower voltage at voltage point V.sub.cc, the voltage level for controlling the turned-on period of NMOS transistor M.sub.N is relatively decreased. Therefore, the degree of the turned-on period of NMOS transistor M.sub.N is not complete, and the lower amplitude of wave trough can not be acquired. In addition, due to the body effect of the PMOS, the modulation efficiency becomes poor during transmission.
(3) since NPN transistor Q.sub.N and PNP transistor Q6 exist simultaneously, if parameters such as current amplification ratio .beta. of the parasitic transistor in the process can not be controlled well, an SCR formed by the transistors Q.sub.N and Q6 easily produces latch-up.

Full-wave rectifying device having an amplitude modulation function

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A grating coupler comprising a semiconductor substrate, a one-dimensional (1D) grating element coupled to the semiconductor substrate, wherein the 1D grating element is adapted to simultaneously couple a first polarization component of an incident optical beam with a transverse electric (TE) waveguide mode in a first propagation direction and a second polarization component of the incident optical beam with a transverse magnetic (TM) waveguide mode in a second propagation direction, and wherein the first propagation direction is opposite of the second propagation direction.

Grating couplers as key elements in silicon photonic systems have been used to couple optical signals in and/or out of a planar silicon waveguide fabricated on a chip from or to an out-of-plane optical beam. The out-of-plane optical beam may then be coupled to optical fiber communication systems either directly or through a free-space optical system. One-dimensional (1D) grating couplers, formed by silicon rails and trenches, have been used to couple light of a single polarization. In a fiber optical system, the polarization of light in an optical fiber is random; therefore, light of a single-polarization may not be used on a receiver side to couple light from the optical fiber onto a silicon waveguide. Two-dimensional (2D) grating couplers, formed by a 2D post and/or hole array have been used to simultaneously couple light at two polarizations. The structure of the 2D grating coupler may separate two polarizations from the optical signal and forward each into separate waveguides, which may be referred to as polarization splitting. Each of the polarizations in their respective waveguides may then be separately processed before they are forwarded to a single detector. However, 2D grating couplers may have both a lower coupling efficiency of below −3 decibels (dBs) and a lower optical bandwidth than their 1D grating coupler counterparts. Consequently, 2D grating couplers may limit the performance of optical fiber communication systems.

Polarization splitter/combiner based on a one-dimensional grating coupler


The Invention presents a system and method of combining a medical device, a medical testing procedure, in a combination of hardware and software that provide motivation and digital rewards through a hand held video game controller or other hand held computing device.

Juvenile Diabetes strikes about 15,000 children every year under the age of 20. Currently, the United States has over 200,000 of these children that daily struggle with this disease. Contraction of diabetes requires the afflicted to frequently monitor blood glucose in order to avert long-term damage to their kidneys, eyes, and feet. However, there is no blood glucose testing devices currently available that provide or incorporate any motivation or reward mechanisms to encourage the individual to continue this testing regimen. Because the majority of the diabetic population is adults, most commercially available glucose testing meters are designed in such a fashion that is not user-friendly or socially acceptable to children. This causes children to shy away from blood glucose testing in a social setting. This anti-social aspect could expose them to episodes of hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia, and/or insulin shock.
Abstinence from regular blood glucose testing, for any reason, can have a devastating impact on the long-term wellness of the diabetic adolescent and contribute to significant increases of future health care costs. There have been many articles written and scientific studies conducted about incorporating motivational stimuli into medical testing procedures yet no significant improvements have been made to these devices. Many positive outcomes have been realized and the increased testing compliance has been achieved. (Lieberman, Debraxe2x80x94Health Education Video Games for Children and Adolescents: Theory, Design, and Research Findings)
Researchers in the field of diabetes are exploring technologies and methodologies to perform non-invasive glucose blood-level monitoring in Type I and Type II diabetics. Currently, there are two popular types of technology used in determining blood glucose levels that are found in the majority of home glucose monitoring devices. First, is the reagent type and the second is an enzyme/current differential device. The reagent strip or chemically reactant strip method requires placement of a small blood sample on a chemically treated test strip. A amount of glucose in the blood changes the color of the chemically treated test strip. A differential measurement is then taken from the test strip without a blood sample and compared to the color of the test strip once the blood has been placed on the strip and a finite testing period has been allowed to elapse. The enzyme/current differential method determines proper blood glucose by determining the amount current change that takes place when a glucose blood sample is placed on the test strip. An enzyme coating of the test strip directly affects the electrical resistance of the test strip. With both technologies proper glucose level is determined by comparison of either the color properties or the electrical current change in the test strip.
One of the most difficult challenges in the glucose testing device market has been to develop a glucose-testing device that does not require a small capillary blood sample. The xe2x80x9cnon-invasivexe2x80x9d approach would become a huge commercial success because it would eliminate the element of pain associated with extracting a blood sample and increase the frequency of blood glucose testing.
It is public knowledge that one of the non-invasive approaches that could become commercially available is using a series of EKG/EEG readings, associated with a host of complex algorithms to determine blood glucose levels. It is not believed, however, that there are not any commercially available products incorporating such technologies and/or methodologies, although a commercially viable EKG/EEG glucose-monitoring device may soon become available. It is also believed that due to this research, other new products, incorporating other sensors might become available to detect epileptic seizures and asthma attacks.
The Invention presents a system and method of combining a medical device, a medical testing procedure, in a combination of hardware and software that provide motivation and digital rewards through a hand held video game controller or other hand held computing device.
In view of the potential commercial availability of these types of devices, the embodiments of the invention miniaturize and consolidate medical diagnostic electronic circuitry with additional software and hardware circuits that provide motivational elements before, during and after the diagnostic testing procedure. Such medical diagnostic electronic circuits are those that perform tests for blood glucose, high blood pressure, lipids, peak and flow, and oxygen saturation. All of the aforementioned circuits would be redesigned into a physical form that allows said medical circuits to be physically inserted into a socially acceptable hand-held microprocessor driven controller, such as a GAMEBOY(copyright) or HANDSPRING(copyright) Personal Desk Assistant.
After glucose data is converted and proper readings are displayed via the LCD on the invention and/or stored, a user of the device can select from a menu of different commands generated by the motivational hardware/software structure of the invention. Such games would be intended to educate and encourage more frequent participation in testing and maintaining proper glucose levels. The determined medical test results serve as a root motivation for the player to advance within, regress, complete, and/or be eliminated from the game or other form of entertainment provided by the device. The entertainment portion according to an embodiment of the invention may contain multiple games within a single cartridge or adapter module. Provisions are also being made to change games via the Internet. Daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly selection of historical values or other data can be user-defined and implemented through different hardware or software switches in the device. According to another aspect of the invention, the hardware/software stores these glucose values to an EEPROM that can be retrieved at a later date,

Handheld controller for monitoring/using medical parameters


A search method includes receiving a search request to encoded text data, based on first index information produced by specifying an occurrence position of a character or a word included in original data of the encoded text data as a first axis and contents of the search request, generating second index information having a second axis superordinate to the first axis, and searching the encoded text data in response to the search request using the second index information.

Techniques for generating an index that indicates the presence or absence of each character or word in each file and using the index for searches are known.
Also, techniques are known that search a plurality of documents for an intended document based on a search condition using multi-stage layered indexes. In those techniques, a search apparatus obtains a search condition, and obtains bitmap tables from the uppermost stage to the lowermost stage in sequence based on the search condition from the multi-stage layered indexes in which hierarchically formed bitmap tables are layered in multiple stages. The search apparatus then extracts a bitmap string corresponding to the search condition from the obtained bitmap tables and performs a bit-wise operation so as to calculate a bitmap. A bit-wise operation refers to calculating a logical product when the search condition is an "AND search", and calculating a logical add when the search condition is an "OR search". The search apparatus then extracts a document corresponding to the position to which a bit is assigned in the bitmap calculated in the lowermost stage from a plurality of documents.
For example, the related techniques are disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Nos. 2009-048352 and 2014-035760.


A diffusing sheet, a surface light source unit, and a transmission type display that can attain uniform illumination so that the brightness of light on the display screen appears uniform regardless of the position from which the display screen is observed. The diffusing sheet includes, on its light-emerging side surface, a diffusion lens array having a plurality of unit lenses, each unit lens being in a shape equivalent to a part of an elliptic cylinder having an elliptical cross section. The surface light source unit includes the diffusing sheet and a convergent sheet 12 that has a plurality of unit lenses 121 having almost trapezoidal cross sections, formed on one surface thereof. It is possible to attain uniform illumination by diffusing light from cathode ray tubes in the surface light source unit, and, at the same time, to converge the light serving as backlight to enhance optical efficiency.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display such as a liquid crystal display, and more particularly to a diffusing sheet for use in a surface light source unit that illuminates a transmission type liquid crystal display or the like from its rear, to a surface light source unit, and to a transmission type display using the diffusing sheet and the surface light source unit.
2. Background Art
A variety of surface light source units that are used to illuminate transmission type liquid crystal displays or the like from their rear have been proposed and put into practical use. Such surface light source units are broadly classified into the edge light type and the direct type according to the mode of conversion of a non-surface light source to a surface light source.
Of these, a surface light source unit of direct type is so constructed that light is introduced to the rear of a transmission type display member serving as a light bulb, such as an LCD panel, directly from cathode ray tubes arranged in parallel. In such a surface light source unit of direct type, the cathode ray tubes and the transmission type display member are properly spaced, and in this space are placed a diffusing sheet and a combination of two or more optical sheets capable of converging light.
Such a conventional surface light source unit of direct type is poor in the light-converging properties although the number of optical sheets needed for this unit is great. In order to solve this problem, the structure of the transmission type display member itself, such as an LCD panel, has been improved so that even light that is obliquely incident on the display can produce an image of excellent qualities. However, this conventional way of improvement causes reduction in optical efficiency, and also makes the transmission type display member such as an LCD panel complex in construction, which leads to increase in cost.
Another disadvantage of the conventional surface light source unit of direct type has been that the light intensity (luminance) on the display member tends to be non-uniform depending on the distance from the cathode ray tubes (i.e., whether a certain point on the display member is close to the cathode ray tube or to the space between the cathode ray tubes that are arranged in parallel).
A possible method of avoiding the above-described non-uniformity is to well space the cathode ray tubes and the transmission type display member such as an LCD panel. This method has been disadvantageous in that the display has an increased total thickness.
Another possible method of avoiding the above-described non-uniformity is to increase the degree to which the optical sheets or the like that are placed between the cathode ray tubes and the transmission type display member such as an LCD panel diffuse light, or to control the amount of light which the optical sheets transmit. This method has been disadvantageous in that it causes decrease in the amount of usable light.
More specifically, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publications No. 119703/1993 and No. 242219/1999, for example, propose a method for maintaining the uniformity of light, in which a light-shielding member such as a lighting curtain or a light-shielding dot layer is provided in a surface light source unit. This method has been disadvantageous in that it causes decrease in the amount of usable light, like the above-described method.
Further, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 347613/1994 proposes a method in which, in a surface light source unit, the diffusion of light in two directions is controlled by a sheet having lenticular lenses on both surfaces. Since the function of converging light cannot be sufficiently obtained by this method, the optical axis on every area on the face of the transmission type display member such as an LCD panel changes according to the position, relative to the cathode ray tubes, of the area. Thus, this method still has been at a disadvantage in that the brightness of light on the display screen varies depending on the position from which the display screen is observed.

Diffusing sheet, surface light source unit, and transmission type display


A method for proximity detection in a wireless communication network. A node attempts to determine the proximity of the closest neighboring node by transmitting a ranging request. Other nodes respond, and the first node to receive and respond to the request will have the shortest response time and thus will be the closest node. Exact ranges can be determined by applying Time-Of-Arrival (TOA) techniques to node response times. To further avoid collisions, one or more frames of the response messages can be same, making the multiple responses appear as multi-path. The group of responders can be narrowed and individual groups probed in a search pattern until the single nearest node is known or range of the nearest node is known. The ranging node may then use ordinary unicast mechanisms to probe this node, or begin scanning the groups again, or interleave the two mechanisms as desired.

There are various scenarios in which proximity detection can be essential to an operation. For example, in an open pit mine, large equipment and numerous workers coexist at close quarters, posing a constant danger that a machine operator, who often has limited visibility, may not be able to see persons close to the machine, with possibly serious consequences. Similar situations can be found wherever large equipment is operated.
One method for addressing proximity detection requirements is to attach wireless communication devices communicating within a wireless communication network to all objects or persons within an area. Time-Of-Arrival (TOA) techniques can then used, for example, for proximity detection, by computing distances between the wireless communication devices to determine their absolute or relative locations.
However, wireless network congestion limits the scalability of various existing proximity detection techniques. Accordingly, there is a need for a scalable, flexible method for performing proximity detection in a wireless communication network.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.

Method for proximity detection in a wireless communication network


A film forming solution usable for the manufacture of an allergen free hard capsule containing pullulan polysaccharide, a neutrally charged hydrophilic amide derived from an amino acid, a rheology modifier, a plasticizer, a chelating agent, and Q.S. amount of water. The film forming solution creates hard capsules that are dimensionally stable with a combination of mechanical strength, resistance to cracking and resiliency. The created hard capsules have a body and a cap that easily engage while producing an oxygen barrier for product contained in the allergen free hard capsules.

There is a need in the art to overcome drawbacks of conventional polysaccharide film compositions to make hard capsules for use in the pharmaceutical and vitamin supplement industries.
A need exists to reduce the brittleness of polysaccharide hard capsules, which is prevalent in conventional capsules for very dry fillings. Also, the brittleness of polysaccharides film is due to the existence of "a combined content of mono-, di- and oligosaccharides of 5.0 percent to 8.7 percent". Formulation remedies are needed to overcome the effect of these mono, di- and oligo-saccharides.
A further need exists to overcome spot mechanical weakness of pullulan polysaccharides hard shell capsules that result from clumping, which is attributable to the existence of non-dispersed ultra large polysaccharides molecules in pullulan powder with molecular weight of more than 810 KDa (molecules in pullulan have a degree of polymerization (DP) above 4934 of maltotriose (C6H1205)n units).
A further need exists to accelerate the manufacturing process and improve its efficiency in order to reduce the high production cost for polysaccharides capsules.
The present embodiments meet these needs.
The present embodiments are detailed below with reference to the listed Figures.


Disclosed are a flexible solar cell apparatus and a method of fabricating the same. The flexible solar cell apparatus includes a support substrate including an internal region and an outer region surrounding the internal region, a plurality of solar cells on the internal region, and a protective layer on the outer region and the solar cells. A top surface of each solar cell is lower than a top surface of the outer region of the support substrate.

Solar cells may be defined as devices to convert light energy into electric energy by using a photovoltaic effect of generating electrons when light is incident onto a P—N junction diode. The solar cell may be classified into a silicon solar cell, a compound semiconductor solar cell mainly including a group I-III-VI compound or a group III-V compound, a dye-sensitized solar cell, and an organic solar cell according to materials constituting the junction diode.
The minimum unit of the solar cell is a cell. In general, one cell generates a very small voltage of about 0.5V to about 0.6V. Therefore, a panel-shape structure of connecting a plurality of cells to each other in series on a substrate to generate voltages in a range of several voltages to several hundreds of voltages is referred to as a module, and a structure having several modules installed in a frame is referred to as a solar cell apparatus.
Typically, the solar cell apparatus has a structure of glass/filling material (ethylene vinyl acetate, EVA)/solar cell module/filling material (EVA)/surface material (back sheet).
In general, the glass includes low-iron tempered glass. The glass must represent high light transmittance and be treated to reduce the surface reflection loss of incident light.
The EVA used as the filling material is interposed between the front/rear side of the solar cell and the back sheet to protect a fragile solar cell device. When the EVA is exposed to UV light for a long time, the EVA may be discolored, and the moisture proof performance of the EVA may be degraded. Accordingly, when the module is fabricated, it is important to select a process suitable for the characteristic of the EVA sheet so that the life span of the module can be increased, and the reliability of the module can be ensured. The back sheet is placed on a rear side of the solar cell module. The back sheet must represent superior adhesive strength between layers, must be easily handled, and must protect the solar cell device from an external environment by preventing moisture from being infiltrated into the rear side of the solar cell module.
In general, a substrate used for the solar cell apparatus mainly includes a plastic substrate or a metallic substrate. However, when the above substrates are bent due to external physical force, the substrates may be cracked to cause damage to the light absorbing layer. In addition, the filling material used in the conventional solar cell apparatus may not have a thickness sufficient to absorb external shock due to the structure characteristic thereof.

Flexible solar cell apparatus and method of fabricating the same


There is described a method of accessing a resource requiring identity authentication, the method comprising: receiving at a communications device an encrypted token in response to an identity of the communications device being authenticated over a first radio access technology; decrypting the encrypted token using the identity of the communications device; and using the decrypted token over a second radio access technology to authenticate the identity of the communications device so as to allow access to the resource via the second radio access technology.

Users of mobile devices, such as mobile telephones, may typically access data and services (stored, for example, on a network such as the Internet) through the cellular network to which the device is registered. This is generally permitted because, when the device communicates with the cellular network, its identity may be automatically authenticated by the cellular network. The device is thereby authorised to access the required data via the cellular network.
The situation is different, however, when a user attempts to access the data and services over a different radio access technology, e.g. by using a different network other than the user's registered cellular network, such a Wi-Fi network, for example. This is because, unlike the case where the data is accessed using the device's registered cellular network, the identity of the mobile device is generally not automatically authenticated when using Wi-Fi, for example. Thus, access to the data and services via a Wi-Fi hotspot, for instance, when identifying and authenticating the user is required, is limited or else is not possible. In order for the user to gain access to the data and services, the user must typically engage in a time-consuming and involved registration process often requiring the creation and use of a username and associated password, before the device's identity may be authenticated and access may be granted.
Furthermore, when a mobile device accesses data via a Wi-Fi network, the user's own cellular network is not provided with any notification of the mobile device being connected via the Wi-Fi network. Thus, access to data via the Wi-Fi network may be further restricted as a result, as the identity of the device cannot be ascertained by the cellular network.
The present invention seeks to address these and other drawbacks in the prior art, by providing a method and apparatus for communications device authentication.


A system is presented having a graphical indicator in an interface screen of an electronic program guide. The graphical indicator is configured to focus a user's attention on a selectable program instance field. The indicator has a length that depends on the duration of the selectable program instance, thereby conveying the start and stop times of the selectable instance. At least one indicator attribute is controllable by the user. For example, the user may control the indicator height, weight, width or brightness.

Subscription television systems typically include an electronic program guide (EPG). With the development of interactive digital set-top boxes (STBs), a new type of advanced multimedia EPG was developed which may be referred to sometimes as interactive program guides (IPGs). Today, the acronyms EPG and IPG have been used interchangeably. The EPG provides an onscreen display of a program grid menu that includes a program lineup and episode information for every channel for the next several days. The program grid menu may be arranged in various ways. The program grid menu itself is a user interface where the user may navigate the program grid menu using arrow keys on a remote. For example, a typical EPG would have a program grid menu based on available channel and time. The user can navigate or scroll through the list of programs within a selected time slot until the desired program is highlighted. The boundaries of other fields associated with the highlighted field may also be highlighted such as the corresponding channel and time. The highlighted field may also sometimes be referred to either as a pill or as being active. Once the desired field is highlighted as a selectable item, the user may select the highlighted field using the select button on the remote.
Typically, a field in the EPG is shown as being highlighted by using a different color background relative to the background of any other field. Alternatively, a selectable field may be depicted as being enlarged or oversized. For the purposes of describing the present invention, the surrounding boundary or edge of the field corresponding with a selectable field is bolded to depict a field being highlighted. Although the present invention illustrates EPGs having a particular configuration or number of fields, today's EPGs include hundreds or even thousands of possibilities which the user may scroll through, highlight and select. Therefore, because of the increasing number of options within an EPG, as well as because of the difficulty some users have determining which item is selectable, there is a need to bring greater attention to the selectable item within the EPG.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Graphical indicator within an interactive program guide


A drainage pump has a pump part in which blades mounted on a rotary shaft are arranged in a pump casing and an underwater bearing unit which uses pumped water mixed with hard particles as a lubricant and has a sliding bearing for journaling the rotary shaft. A portion of the rotary shaft journaled by the sliding bearing is formed of a cemented carbide material and a shaft journaling surface of the sliding bearing is formed of a thermoplastic resin material to be embedded with hard particles.

A combination of a rolling bearing provided outside a pump casing and a sliding bearing that is provided in a pumped water path (in a pump casing) and uses pumped water mixed with hard particles as a lubricant has been widely used as a bearing for journaling the main shaft of a horizontal drainage pump.
One of sliding bearings is a ceramic bearing having excellent wear resistance as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. S62(1987)-194919 (Patent document 1). This ceramic bearing employs an elastic support structure from a viewpoint of avoiding damage caused by local contact. This elastic support structure is constructed of a metal shell having a ceramic bearing shrink-fitted thereon and rubber mounted on the outer peripheral portion of the metal shell. In order to hold the axis of the ceramic bearing and the axis of a rolling bearing provided outside a pump casing horizontally, an elastic support structure of high rigidity is employed. In the beginning after assembling, hard rubber is hardly deformed to hold the axes horizontally and hence avoids local contact and provides stable sliding characteristics.
Further, one of bearings for vertical drainage pumps is a ceramic bearing as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H6(1994)-147228 (Patent document 2). In this ceramic bearing, a spherical pivot is formed on the outer peripheral side of a metal case so as to avoid the local contact of a ceramic pad bearing fixed to the metal case and a metal ring is arranged on the outer peripheral side of the pivot and hard rubber is mounted on the metal ring in such a way as to surround the metal ring. This construction can prevent the ceramic pad bearing from being damaged by the local contact.
Still further, one of horizontal drainage pumps, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H6(1994)-346887 (Patent document 3), uses a sliding bearing of an oil lubrication type using a white metal as a bearing. This sliding bearing does not employ an elastic support structure, which is different from the ceramic bearing, and hence can hold an axis horizontally even if it is operated for a long period of time and can avoid damage caused by local contact.
On the other hand, one of sliding bearings having a sliding surface including a hard member and a soft member used for a diesel engine, a turbine, and the like is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H10(1988)-252758 (Patent document 4). According to this patent document 4, in a sliding bearing having a sliding surface including hard members and soft members which are alternately arranged, the hard members and the soft members are arranged on the slant in a sliding direction. This construction can surely pass foreign matters in a lubricating oil moving along the sliding direction over the soft members arranged on the slant in the sliding direction even if the hard members are enlarged in width so as to have a necessary loading capacity. Hence, this construction can surely embed these foreign matters in the soft members, thereby providing the sliding bearing with a sufficient loading capacity and enhancing the ability of making the foreign matters in the lubricating oil embedded in the soft members to prevent the sliding bearing from being burnt.
Furthermore, one of sliding bearings used as bearings for an internal combustion engine such as automobile, ship, agriculture machine, and construction machine is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-147459 (Patent document 5). This sliding bearing includes a backing metal layer, a bearing alloy layer provided over the backing metal layer, and an overlay layer that is laminated over the bearing alloy layer and becomes a surface layer, wherein fine crater-shaped depressed portions are formed on the overlay surface and hard particles are sprayed onto the surface of the overlay layer. These depressions provide the surface with an oil storing function to increase the thickness of an oil film produced during operation to produce stable sliding characteristics.
However, the patent documents 1, 2 disclose that the local contact of the ceramic bearing is prevented but do not disclose that the bearing is damaged by hard particles mixed in pumped water used as a lubricant. In the bearings disclosed in the patent documents 1, 2, in a case where hard particles are mixed in the pumped water used as a lubricant, there is a possibility that the bearing part might be damaged by the hard particles.
Further, in the bearings disclosed in the patent documents 3 to 5, oil-lubricated bearing is used, which is different from the sliding bearing using pumped water as a lubricant for the bearing. This type of bearing has a problem that, in order to surely prevent oil from flowing outside the bearing, a seal structure of high reliability is indispensably required to increase the cost of a bearing unit. Still further, from a viewpoint of keeping a stable bearing function, oil to be used is required to have deterioration conditions checked on a regular basis. Hence, it cannot be said that this type of bearing gives sufficient consideration to maintenance-free performance.
The present invention has been made in view of these circumstances. The object of the invention is to provide a drainage pump and an underwater bearing unit that can enhance wear resistance to hard particles mixed in pumped water and prevent abrasive wear while providing maintenance-free performance by using the pumped water as a lubricant of a sliding bearing.

Drainage pump and underwater bearing unit


A boost snubber circuit structure applied in a power supply having a boost circuit and a power conversion unit, wherein the boost circuit includes a boost unit connected to a switch element, a boost control unit for generating a driving signal to drive the switch element to control the charge/discharge of the boost unit, and a boost snubber unit for obtaining a voltage difference between a reference voltage and a detection signal and modulating the magnitude of the reference voltage or the detection signal to change the voltage difference and control the duration of outputting the driving signal. The voltage difference between the reference voltage and the detection signal determines the duration of outputting the driving signal. By controlling the voltage difference between the detection signal and the boost level, the invention prevents an occurrence of an inrush current caused by a too-large duration of generating the driving signal.

In FIG. 1, a conventional power supply (such as an AC/DC or DC/DC converter) generally includes a rectification unit 1, a boost circuit 2 (such as a conventional power factor correction unit with a boost function) and a switching power conversion unit 3, such that after an input power is passed through the rectification unit 1, and the voltage of the input power is modulated by the boost circuit 2 (such as a conventional power factor correction unit) to a predetermined boost level, and then the power conversion unit 3 converts the boosted input power into an output power, wherein the boost circuit 2 includes a boost unit 21, a switch element 22 and a boost control unit 23. The boost control unit 23 produces a driving signal for controlling an ON or OFF state of the switch element 22, and the ON or OFF state of the switch element 22 determines the charging and discharging cycles of the boost unit 21. The boost control unit 23 adjusts a duty ratio of the driving signal, which controls the ON duration of the driving signal for adjusting the ON time of the switch element 22 to control the voltage of the boost unit 21 and achieve the effect of modulating the boost voltage of the input power. After the power conversion unit 3 has obtained the input power, the boost control unit 23 of the boost circuit 2 adjusts the ON duration of the driving signal to its maximum in the same cycle to enter into the operating state, so that the boost unit 21 boosts to a predetermined voltage level (for example, a boost circuit of a general conventional power supply boosts the voltage over 380V) in the shortest time. In FIG. 2, the boost circuit 2 achieves the boost and modulation effects by continuous high frequency switching, and its operating principle is a prior art. However, the boost circuit 2 produces a large quantity of high frequency driving signals during the boost cycle, and thus the waveform shown in the figure only indicates the rise of an input power 91 and the change of duration of a driving signal 92. In the upper portion of FIG. 2, a voltage waveform of the input power 91 is shown. At the beginning, the voltage of the input power 91 is still different from a boost level 93, such that the driving signal 92 generated by the boost control unit 23 has a maximum ON duration width for modulating the input power to boost to the boost level in the shortest time, and the power supply enters into a standby state or a working state. Until the voltage of the input power 91 reaches the boost level 93, the ON duration of the driving signal 92 is reduced to a normal condition. If the boost control unit 23 uses the maximum ON duration to drive the boost unit 21 for charging, the boost unit 21 will produce a maximum inrush current, which will damage related circuits and components. The circuit will break down easily if high-voltage durable components are not used, but high-voltage durable components incur a high cost and require a larger volume, which are incompliance with the product trend for a low price and a compact size of electronic products. The issue of producing an inrush current when the boost circuit 2 boosts the voltage demands immediate attention and feasible solutions.


A computer implemented method, system, and computer program product are provided for processing professional and technical billing records relating to medical care provided to patients at a medical facility. The method includes (a) providing at a computer system a mapping of a set of professional billing codes and corresponding technical billing codes; (b) receiving at the computer system a professional billing record provided by a professional medical provider relating to medical services provided by the professional medical provider to a patient, the professional billing record comprising one or more professional billing codes; (c) identifying one or more technical billing codes corresponding to the one or more professional billing codes received in step (b) using the mapping, and providing the one or more technical billing codes to a user entering technical charges to a technical billing record to facilitate entry of technical charges relating to the medical care provided to the patient; (d) receiving at the computer system the technical billing record provided by the user, the technical charges comprising one or more technical billing codes; and (e) automatically reconciling the professional billing record and the technical billing record at the computer system to facilitate identification of errors or omissions in the one or more technical billing codes or the one or more professional billing codes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods and systems for processing billing records and, more particularly, to methods and systems for processing professional and technical medical billing records.
2. Related Art
Medical facilities use medical billing systems to collect and process information needed to prepare claims relating to medical care provided to patients. These claims are submitted to payers such as insurance companies, Medicare, and patients. Many medical facilities, especially outpatient clinics in hospitals, use "split billing" charge practices. Split billing refers to the practice of providing technical charges to a payer separately from professional charges for each patient encounter at the medical facility. Professional charges refer to charges for services rendered by physicians and other professional medical providers for each patient encounter. Technical charges refer to charges for use of facilities, clinical staff time, procedures performed by clinical staff, medications, and supplies used in the course of care for a patient.
Clinical staff members of the medical facility are typically responsible for documenting technical charges. Clinical staff includes nurses, medical assistants, and other personnel who interact with patients and deliver services that are billable as technical charges.
The technical charges for a patient encounter are usually closely related to the professional charges. Typically, all professional charges have a corresponding technical component. For example, procedures performed by a physician at the medical facility typically involve technical charges for use of facilities, staff time, and medications and other supplies used in the procedure. Even in an evaluation and management (E/M) visit, activities such as use of an examination room, chart preparation, and patient education can typically be billed as technical charges. Because the technical charges are closely related to the professional charges, attempts are made to document these charges together for each patient encounter.
Billing codes are used in medical billing records to represent details of medical charges. The billing codes used in professional billing records are generally standardized in the industry. Commonly used professional billing code lists include CPT-4 codes (Current Procedural Terminology, Version 4—maintained by the American Medical Association), HCPCS (Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System) codes, and ICD-9-CM (International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification) codes.
Technical billing codes, however, are not generally standardized and vary among medical institutions. The technical billing codes are typically maintained by each institution in a so called charge description master (CDM) database, which is also called a Charge Master. Each code in the Charge Master typically identifies the medical charge and the part of the medical institution to which the charge should be attributed. (Medical institutions typically have multiple departments and groups.) The Charge Master codes also specify unit prices for each type of service, medication, or product used in providing care. There are typically tens of thousands of CDM codes.

Method and system for processing medical billing records


Torsion springs (1) are graded by both winding and unwinding them in a test fixture (20) having a central arbor (52a) and ledges (54,58) functionally corresponding to the use of the springs. This takes hysteresis into account. Data obtained at a known location is approximated as separate straight lines for winding and unwinding. The rotation at the predetermined base or preload torque is determined from the straight lines, and the two values are averaged. To this average value a large predetermined amount (70 degrees) of rotation is added, the torque at that value of rotation is determined from the straight lines, and the two values are averaged. The spring is graded as acceptable when that average torque is within a predetermined range.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,169 to Barry et al. discloses a coupling of two rotatable members through a torsion spring. The first rotatable member is drive member of predetermined torque and the second, driven member drives a paddle in a toner hopper. The amount of deflection of the torsion spring is employed to sense the amount of toner in a hopper. In such an application, the torque characteristics of the spring must be within predetermined limits or the measurement of toner will not be sufficiently accurate.
Accordingly, characteristics of springs for such a use are measured so as to grade the spring as within acceptable range of characteristics or not. The previous known methods of grading torsion springs measures spring characteristics at particular amounts of deflection. However, this has proved not to be an accurate method of measurement.

Torsion spring grading by hystersis averaging


Described herein are methods and systems for analyzing biomedical images using new models. Example models include a linear reference region model and a reference agent model. In one example aspect, a computer-implemented method is provided. The method may involve determining, based on a set of biomedical images, a first concentration-activity curve and a second concentration activity-curve. Additionally, the method may further include determining a value of at least one pharmacokinetic (PK) parameter based on the first concentration-activity curve and the second concentration-activity curve and a linear model that relates the first concentration-activity curve to the second concentration-activity curve. The value of the at least one PK parameter may be determined based on application of a linear least square fitting algorithm to the linear model. Also, the method may include causing a graphical display to provide a visual indication of the value of the at least one PK parameter.

Biomedical imaging techniques can be used to assess physiological parameters of a tumor, organ, or other tissue of interest. For instance, biomedical imaging techniques can be used to estimate vascular permeability, the movement of fluids and molecules between vascular and extravascular compartments. Vascular permeability may characterize the ability of a blood vessel wall to allow for the flow of molecules (e.g., ions, nutrients, or water) or cells into or out of the blood vessel. Other examples of uses for biomedical imaging techniques may exist.
Current biomedical imaging techniques for assessing vascular permeability and flow are inadequate.

Assessments of vascular permeability for biomedical imaging studies

Arizona Board of Regents on Behalf of the University of Arizona


A computer aided design (CAD) system. A template generation engine generates templates from interconnect configuration files. A field solver generates high frequency passive element relationships from the templates. A circuit builder generates circuit description files from device technology models and from high frequency passive element relationships. Parameterized circuit description models may be generated for large range of sensitivity analyses. A simulator simulates circuit responses for transmission line models from the circuit description files. Interconnect configuration files may be generated by a geometry and material definition module that receives process description data from a designer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to circuit design systems and more particularly to computer aided design (CAD) systems for designing integrated circuits (ICs) operating over a wide frequency band and with circuit interconnects that might experience transmission line effects.
2. Background Description
Sets of software programs are well known in the art as computer aided design (CAD) tools. Typical CAD tools include automatic layout tools, timing analysis tools, logic synthesis tools, and so forth. In addition, a CAD tool may include electromagnetic (EM) field solvers (also known as parameter extractors) and circuit simulators for circuit conductor (interconnect) analysis and design. Integrated circuit (IC) designers have found CAD tools invaluable for designing, analyzing and verifying complex ICs and IC chip designs, such as microprocessors, microcontrollers, communications circuits and the like.
Providing an acceptable wide-band conductor description requires an accurate description of the particular conductor, e.g., its geometry and construction materials. This information may be available to the semiconductor process technologist but usually is not passed to the circuit designer. Instead, the circuit designer receives a set of ground rules that describes a range of results based on those conductor properties, e.g., capacitance/resistance/inductance per unit length or per unit area. These lump values at best provide rule of thumb design guidance and do not lend themselves to accurate wide-band electrical circuit characterizations of high-performance electrical interconnect structures.
Designers have used EM field solvers to compute conductor electrical properties, such as capacitance and inductance, from conductor geometric and physical specifications. Then, the designer can use the EM field solver results in a circuit simulator to simulate the transient or AC response, i.e., how the particular circuit devices connected by and driving the conductors respond to excitatory input signals. The excitatory input signals can be modeled to include either or both wanted and unwanted input signals, e.g., a driving logical signal such as from another such circuit, and noise signals, such as electromagnetic interference from the neighboring conductors and/or coupled noise from adjacent lines (cross talk).
For circuit signal stability the circuit model must have a valid low frequency or DC response, as well as an acceptable very high frequency transient response, e.g., to 100 GigaHertz (100 GHz) and beyond. This complicates circuit design because in addition to active element models that are accurate over the expected operating frequency range, either the circuit model must somehow accommodate wide-band models for on-chip conductors or different conductor models must be employed at each of a number of points across the frequency spectrum to accommodate the full range of conductor characteristics. Modeling conductors across this range requires a very-high level of expertise in computational models for electromagnetism that even the best IC designers do not normally have. See, e.g., Alina Deutsch et al., "On-Chip Wiring Design Challenges for Gigahertz Operation," Proceedings of The IEEE, Vol. 89, No. 4, April 2001, pp. 529–555.
Thus, there is a need for electrical circuit conductor descriptions that are valid over a very wide range of operating frequencies and in particular there is a need for such conductor descriptions in circuit design.

Computer aided design method and apparatus for modeling and analyzing on-chip interconnect structures