A bulk, generally elastomeric and pliable, layered mat formed to permit selective trimming into size-chosen mat trims/tiles, each of which is structured to perform as a self-puncture(wound)-sealing, defined-liquid-reactive, anti-puncture-leakage coating element applicable bondedly to the outside surface of a selected wall in a container holding the defined-liquid. The mat is made by preparing it as a generally elastomeric, pliable, layered arrangement of coatings formed of self-puncture-healing, defined-liquid-reactive, anti-puncture-leakage material, or materials; and is applied for use in relation to a selected container wall by (1) trimming, from the prepared mat, one or more trims/tiles shaped for specific use on the outside surface of that wall; and (2) applying and surface-bonding the one or more trims/tiles to the outside surface of the selected wall.

This invention relates to a structure involving a prefabricated coating mat material from which pieces, called trims and tiles herein, may be cut to shape, and applied by adhesive bonding to the outside surface of the wall in a liquid container holding a defined-liquid for the purpose of providing rapid self-healing of a container-wall puncture wound, such as a bullet wound. For the purpose of exposition herein, a preferred embodiment of the present invention is described in a military setting, wherein what is to be protected against leakage, by use of the present coating, is some form of petrol-chemical fuel container, such as a field storage container, a vehicle tanker container, a vehicle fuel tank, etc. In this setting the present invention in all of its aspects has been found to offer particular utility.
Puncture wounds of the walls of defined-liquid-holding containers present serious issues which need to be addressed, particularly where the liquid that is stored, referred to herein as a defined-liquid, is flammable and dangerous, and with respect to which an uncontrolled and massive leakage escape of this fluid can take place. In a military setting, protection of petrol-chemical fuel containers is important in a combat zone where an enemy may wish to disrupt military activities by puncturing and igniting dangerous liquid, such as petrol-chemical fuel.
In this setting, and in fact in relation to any other relevant setting, the present invention proposes a unique, pre-fabricated, plural-layer, mat-like coating material which can be delivered to a use site for the cutting out therefrom of what are referred to herein as trims or tiles of material that are then applied, typically in an edge-to-edge abutting manner, to the outside surface of the wall in a container which is to be protected. Application of such tiles is performed preferably utilizing an adhesive bonding agency.
Preparation of such a coating herein takes the form of preparing, in a pre-fabrication mode, what is referred to as a bulk, layered mat of material—and particularly material which is generally pliable and elastomeric in nature, and functionally reactive (as will later be explained herein) to the specific defined-liquid which is held in a subject, protected container. Bulk preparation of large quantities of useable coating material, as contemplated by the present invention, promotes an easy task of creating "non-specifically-shaped", yet-undedicated protective coating material which is easily employed at a use site by there cutting out, or trimming, appropriate container-wall conforming shapes of tiles for use in that particular container setting. Bulk coating material prepared in accordance with the present invention may typically and preferably be organized as a deliverable dispense roll of pre-formed mat material from which the mentioned tiles and/or trims may be cut, and then edge-to-edge abutted and bonded to a particular surface which is to be protected.
These and other features and advantages which are offered by the present invention will now become more fully apparent as the description which follows below is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Adhereable, pre-fabricated, self-healing, anti-puncture coating for liquid container


The invention is a blank firing attachment for use on a gas operated automatic rifle or light machine gun. The device restricts the exit of gases from the rifle barrel when a blank cartridge is fired, thus retaining sufficient gas pressure in the barrel to actuate the rifle's automatic firing mechanism and permit blank cartridges to be fired automatically or semiautomatically. The device has a body adapted to be attached to the muzzle compensator of a rifle and a stem having an axial cavity. The stem is adapted to seal against the inner bore of the compensator.

Some types of gas operated rifles or light machine guns have an automatic firing mechanism which is actuated by the pressure waves created by an ignited cartridge and bullet as the bullet travels down the rifled barrel. The automatic firing mechanism loads the next cartridge to be fired into the breach of the rifle. In such rifles or light machine guns, the pressure waves travel through a gas system connecting the barrel and the loading mechanism. However, when a blank cartridge is fired there is no bullet to create the proper pressure-time relationship needed by the rifle or light machine gun in order to function in an automatic or semi-automatic mode. If the exploding gases from the blank cartridge are permitted to exit the muzzle of the barrel without proper restriction, the pressure-time relationship in the barrel and gas system will not match the energy requirements needed to make the automatic firing mechanism function. The rifle or light machine gun will accordingly not operate automatically when firing blank cartridges. To create the required pressure wave and achieve automatic firing, it is necessary to restrict the escape of gases from the muzzle of the rifle or light machine gun.


There is provided a method of depositing a Ge—Sb—Te thin film, including: a Ge—Sb—Te thin-film forming step of feeding and purging a first precursor including any one of Ge, Sb and Te, a second precursor including another one of Ge, Sb and Te and a third precursor including the other one of Ge, Sb and Te into and from a chamber in which a wafer is mounted and forming the Ge—Sb—Te thin film on the wafer; and a reaction gas feeding step of feeding reaction gas while any one of the first to third precursors is fed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a phase-change random access memory (PRAM) for storing data by changing a phase, and more particularly, a method of depositing chalcogenide which is a phase-change material.
2. Description of the Related Art
A PRAM uses a phase-change material of which the electrical resistance varies depending on an amorphous/crystalline state and the phase-change material may be chalcogenide (GST or Ge—Sb—Te; hereinafter, referred to as Ge—Sb—Te) including germanium (Ge), antimony (Sb) and tellurium (Te). Such a phase-change material is changed to the amorphous state or the crystalline state by heating or cooling. The resistance of the phase-change material is high in the amorphous state, but is low in the crystalline state. The values 0 and 1 of data can be identified by the change of the resistance. In order to grow a material Ge—Sb—Te which is the phase-change material, a sputtering method using the material Ge—Sb—Te as a target is generally used.
However, when a Ge—Sb—Te thin film is formed by the sputtering method, the composition of Ge, Sb and Te is very hard to be adjusted and a step-coverage is poor.


A standing aid for use with a checkout counter to assist an operator of the checkout counter while standing above a floor, comprising a base frame adapted to be mounted above the floor adjacent the checkout counter, a buttocks cushion adapted for engaging the buttocks of the operator of the checkout counter while standing, and support structure mounted to the base frame for movably supporting the buttocks cushion above the floor in a plurality of vertical positions and in a plurality of lateral positions, the buttocks cushion being pivotally mounted to the support structure.

Checkout counters, such as those used in the retailing and supermarket industries, typically require that the operator of the checkout counter stand for long periods of time, regardless of whether the current activity level is low or high. As is commonly known, standing for long periods of time places undue stress on the feet, legs and lower back, causing muscle and joint fatigue and discomfort.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,953,664 of Vrooman, et al addresses the problem of fatigue in operators of such checkout counters by providing a comprehensive checkout counter system for supermarket and merchandising industries. The checkout counter system includes a chair which allows the operator to sit and rest during periods of low activity. The chair can be swung out of the way to allow the operator to work while standing during periods of higher activity and is adjustable both vertically and horizontally. Unfortunately, many existing checkout counters cannot readily be provided with such a chair. Also, those individuals responsible for supervising checkout counter operators may be reluctant, for diverse reasons, to provide such a chair for the operators.
Accordingly, it can be seen that a need yet remains for an aid for use with a checkout counter to provide some relief from fatigue caused by working while standing for long periods of time. It is to the provision of such an aid that the present invention is primarily directed.

Standing aid for use with a checkout counter


A protective guide internally holds long members including at least one of flexible cable and duct to move in harmonization with the movement needed by the long members. The guide includes a flexible long plate-shaped base made of a synthetic resin and having a longitudinal direction, flexible sectioning members made of a synthetic resin, and two brackets. The sectioning members uprise from ends of the base, spaced apart from each other by gaps in the longitudinal direction, the ends facing in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction, and cooperatively define a space for accommodating the long members along the base. The brackets detachably connect ends of the base to fixed and movable members of a machine installing the guide. Each bracket has a first engaging means detachably engaging the bracket with the gaps and a second engaging means detachably connecting the bracket to the fixed or movable member.

Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flexible protective guide for guiding the behaviors of flexible cables and/or ducts to a given path, while protecting the cables and/or ducts, the cables and/or ducts connecting a fixed side of a machine in which the protective guide is installed to a movable side of the machine to transmit electrical signals therebetween or transfer a physical medium therebetween, and relates to a bracket used for the protective guide. In particular, the present invention relates to a flexible protective guide preferable for an application in which cables and/or ducts are bent for connection between a fixed side of a machine in which the protective guide is installed and a movable side of the machine, and relates to brackets used for the protective guide.
Related Art
It is well known that various machines available today are provided with a movable member, such as a linear actuator or a robot, which is connected, for actuation, to a member on a fixed side (hereinafter referred to as a fixed member) of the machine. In most of such machines, energy, such as electrical power, control signals and/or air, are required to be transferred to the movable member from the fixed member via cables and/or ducts (hereinafter just referred to as cables). Since the cables are connected between the fixed member and the movable member, it is important to guide the movement of the cables to a desired path, with the protection of the cables.
In order to take measures against these problems, JP-A-2001-514725 suggests a cable protective member. The protective member is configured by segments each of which is formed by injection-molding a synthetic resin into a flat one-piece structure. These segments are mutually connected via bendable bridges so that the protective member is foldable.
However, in the foldable cable protective member of JP-A-2001-514725, each segment is provided by injection-molding a synthetic resin into a one-piece flat structure. Therefore, the injection-molded segments have to be folded one by one and the folded segments have to be assembled. Thus, troublesome work is involved in the assemblage. It is desirable that both ends of the protective member are detachably connected to the fixed frame and the movable frame of a machine installing the protective member. However, since the protective member obtained by folding and assembling the segments has a complicated structure, the brackets used for connecting the protective member to the frames necessarily have a complicated structure. Accordingly, lots of troublesome work is involved in mounting the brackets to the protective member. Moreover, in spite of low efficiency processes, the resultant connection of the protective member to the frames is unstable, allowing the protective member to easily come off from the frames.

Protective guide for cables and bracket used for the protective guide


A computer implemented system for automatically determining a reliability score of a data report. The system includes a data structure indicative of data lineage that includes data assets flowing into a data report. The system further includes a processor configured to calculate trust scores for data assets based on characteristics of the data assets as well as a data report trust density score indicative of the reliability score of the report based on the calculated trust scores. The system further includes an output device configured to output the calculated data report trust density score.

The present disclosure relates generally to business intelligence and, more particularly, to determining reliability of data reports.
Most large enterprises invest in a data warehouse to consolidate critical data. Such a data warehouse is used to facilitate reporting, analysis and decision making systems. The data warehouse is fed from the operational systems of the enterprise which are used to process day-to-day transactions. Once in the data warehouse, the information will then be moved to domain-specific data marts and will be available from there for analytical reporting. The reports help the enterprise and external regulators to see trends, risk exposure, data, etc.
The extraction of data from operational systems and its placement into the data warehouse is usually done using an Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) tool, an example of such a tool being IBM® InfoSphere® DataStage®. The movement of data from the warehouse to a data mart is done with a similar tool. The reports are designed and run using a data reporting tool, an example of such a tool being IBM® Cognos® Enterprise.
In certain scenarios, developing the warehouse, populating it, moving the data to a mart and then creating the necessary reports is a large and complex project. In many cases, dozens of developers are needed to develop, test and maintain the ETL code that is needed to produce the final reports. Also associated with the project are analysts, data stewards, data modelers, enterprise architects and project managers. These, combined with the ETL and other developers, result in very large teams that are dedicated to the reporting project.
The flow and transformation of information from the operational systems to the reports via the warehouse and marts is very complex. The data may flow through reporting layers, OLAP layers, data marts, data warehouses, staging databases, intermediate files, file transfers, ETL processes and operational data stores. Within the enterprise no single person may be able to understand this flow in its entirety.
Consider a report that needs to be delivered to government regulators: the enterprise needs to provide associated information that convinces the regulators that the results are indeed accurate and reliable. Since no single person may understand the data flow in its entirety, it is exceedingly challenging for an enterprise to validate the entire data flow and therefore the report's accuracy and reliability. It requires validating every step of the data lifecycle, including, verifying that the ETL code is moving and transforming the data as designed, verifying that the code is accessing and aggregating the data as designed, and verifying that the data sources used throughout the flow do not have any quality issues.
Accordingly, data quality issues reduce the reliability of reports and every enterprise has data quality issues to some extent. Decision-makers reading the reports need to know how reliable the report data is.

International Business Machines Corporation


The modulation indication bit is interpreted as a QPSK/xQAM modulation indication if both the user equipment and the serving cell support 64QAM modulation, such that if QPSK is indicated, the 7 code-set information bits in the HS-SCCH part 1 structure is interpreted as is presently interpreted today as defined in the 3GPP release 5 specification, and if xQAM is indicated, the 7 code-set information bits in the HS-SCCH part 1 structure is interpreted such that only 6 bits are used for code information and one bit is stolen for use for the 16QAM/64QAM selection.

The 3GPP Release-5/6/7 specifications define HSDPA with adaptive modulation where the used modulation is either QPSK or 16QAM depending on the Node B scheduler decision for providing communication in for example, a cellular telecommunications system such as schematically represented in FIG. 1 and generally designated 4. Recently there has been discussion on also introducing the possibility of using 64QAM with HSDPA in 3GPP. At the same time, 3GPP is specifying a MIMO (multiple input-multiple output) multi-antenna technique for HSDPA MIMO which requires some redesign for the HSDPA related control channels.
With reference to FIG. 2, the current HS-SCCH structure used to inform the format of the actual HS-DSCH transmission (including the used modulation) is split to two parts. HS-SCCH Part 1 contains 8 bits of which 7 bits are used to inform the used HS-PDSCH codes for the HS-DSCH transmission and one bit is used to inform or identify the modulation (QPSK/16QAM) used on those HS-PDSCH codes. HS-SCCH Part 2 provides further information for example, transport block size, HARQ information, etc.
The reader is referred to the literature in the art and numerous text references for a further understanding of HSDPA such as found for example in Chapter 12 of the text titled "WCDMA Requirements and Practical Design" published by Wiley, and which is incorporated herein by reference.
Still considering FIG. 2, the HS-SCCH transmission starts 5120 chips earlier than the HS-DSCH transmission in order to allow the user equipment (UE) receiver to get the first part (part 1) of the HS-SCCH before the HS-DSCH reception starts and thus to know in advance the codes and modulation used on the HS-DSCH.
Now with the added requirement of HSDPA MIMO, the intention is to further add two bits of the antenna weights used for the HS-DSCH transmission to HS-SCCH part 1 and one bit indicating the number of streams, one or two, used in the downlink's transmission (a rank-indicator bit) to also provide this MIMO specific information to the receiver. Part 1 of HS-SCCH structure therefore would be required to carry either 8 bits or 11 bits depending on whether MIMO is in use or not. As a consequence of the HSDPA MIMO requirement, two different HS-SCCH Part 1 formats must be specified.
The problem that must now be solved is how to add a new modulation (64QAM) indication to the part 1 of the HS-SCCH structure.
Ericsson's R1-062935 in 3GPP RAN1 meeting #46bis in October 2006, entitled "Higher Order Modulation for HSPA-Impact on RAN1 specifications" which is incorporated herein by reference suggests using the same approach as was done with the antenna weight bits with MIMO, that is, to make room for one additional bit to the part 1 of the HS-SCCH structure by reducing the error correction coding of the part 1. The approach described by Ericsson for adding a new modulation indication to the HS-SCCH part 1 for identifying 64QAM modulation is not satisfactory because a further additional bit must be added to the HS-SCCH part 1 structure.
The disadvantages of adding a new modulation bit to the HS-SCCH first part for 64 QAM or HSDPA MIMO operation include at least the following concerns that make the proposal unacceptable:
1) two new HS-SCCH formatted structures are required in addition to the other two HS-SCCH formatted structures. The number of HS-SCCH formats would be doubled to 4 different HS-SCCH formats to cover the situations with/without MIMO and with/without 64QAM support and would require additional buffering to determine the modulation indication to distinguish between 16QAM modulation and 64QAM modulation, and
2) there would be a reduction in the coding protection of the HS-SCCH part 1 as less error correction coding can be applied resulting a non-negligible impact to the performance.
What is needed is a single HS-SCCH structure that allows for the introduction of 64QAM modulation indication without requiring additional room for bits in the HS-SCCH part 1 structure to provide the 64 QAM modulation indication without requiring a different coding for the HS-SCCH when 64QAM modulation usage is enabled. or reducing the error correction coding that can be applied when 64 QAM modulation is enabled.

Additional modulation information signaling for high speed downlink packet access


A disk drive includes a plurality of optical heads corresponding to a plurality kind of disks, and a disk distinction device for distinguishing whether a set disk is a first disk or a second disk when a disk is set on a disk tray, a first disk tray conveying mechanism for the first disk and/or the second disk tray conveying mechanism for the second disk conveys the disk tray to a first tray position in which recording and/or reproducing is performed on the first tray or the second tray position in which recording and/or reproducing is performed on the second tray, according to a result distinguished by the disk distinction device, thereby, an optical head corresponding to a disk set to the disk tray is selected correctly and a recording or reproducing operation is performed on the disk.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk drive which includes a plurality of optical heads for performing a recording and/or reproducing operation of a data on an optical disk by light, and selects an optical head to be used depending on a condition so as to perform the recording and/or reproducing operation of the data on the optical disk corresponding to the optical head.
2. Description of the Background Art
A recording/reproducing optical disk drive in which a recording or reproducing operation is performed, by using optical beam, on a disk-shaped recording medium such as CD or DVD having further high recording density, and an optical disk medium used in the above disk drive have been widespread use. In addition, recently, technology for further high recording density has been increasingly developed.
As recording and reproducing type of the device and the medium, there are various kinds depending on its usage such as read-only type, recordable type or rewritable type. As seen in a relation between CD and DVD, the recording/reproducing forms has been widely ranged in view of a difference of a wavelength of a light source used in the recording/reproducing operation.
Thus, there are wide variety of optical disk drives and optical disk media used therein in the present circumstances, and the device and medium have to correspond to each recording and reproducing operations. Among the devices, especially an optical head which directly emits and receives optical beam is ideally constituted by one head which can correspond to the various recording and reproducing forms or recording density.
However, it is difficult for the optical head to have characteristics required for each of the combinations of a plurality of wavelengths and various kinds of optical systems in many cases. As a result, sufficient performance margin cannot be provided and its characteristics are varied because of a subtle working condition and then it becomes unusable in some cases. In order to avoid the above-mentioned problems, it is preferable in many cases that a plurality of optical heads which specialize wavelength of the optical beam or the optical system are used and a recording or reproducing operation is performed on a disk corresponding to a specific optical head in view of a size of the optical head, reliability margin, manufacturing and adjustment cost, or cost of parts. In other words, it is preferable that each optical head corresponding to a standard of the recording/reproducing system to be used is mounted on the device as it is.
From this point of view, a constitution of a disk drive on which a plurality of optical heads corresponding to respective standards are mounted is disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2943918, for example.
FIG. 24 is a perspective view showing the conventional optical disk.
A description is made of a schematic constitution of this example. According to this example, there is provided an optical disk drive which comprises two optical heads and performs a recording or reproducing operation on an optical disk corresponding to each of the optical heads.
Reference numerals 501a and 501b designate a first optical head and a second optical head each corresponding to the optical disk on which the recording or reproducing operation can be performed in the optical disk drive in this example, reference numerals 502aL and 502aR designate first small guide shafts for supporting the first optical head 501a when housed, and reference numerals 502bL and 502bR designate second small guide shafts for supporting the second optical head 501b when housed. The first small guide shafts 502aL and 502aR and the second small guide shafts 502bL and 502bR constitute an optical head housing part 551 together with a rotating plate 503 and a support base 504. The rotating plate 503 is supported by the support base 504 so as to be rotated around a turn spindle 503A by rotating means (not shown) in the direction of an arrow 801. In addition, the first small guide shafts 502aL and 502aR and the second small guide shafts 502bL and 502bR are provided so as to be parallel to each other and perpendicular to the rotating plate 503. A distance between a plane surface containing the first small guide shafts 502aL and 502aR and the turn spindle 503A is equal to a distance between a plan surface containing the second small guide shafts 502bL and 502bR and the turn spindle 503A.
Reference numeral 505 designates an optical disk on which the recording or reproducing operation is performed in the device, reference numeral 506 designates a disk motor for rotating the optical disk 505, reference numerals 507L and 507R designate guide shafts for guiding the first optical head 501a or the second optical head 501b in one radius direction of the optical disk 505 when the recording or reproducing operation is performed on the optical disk 505, and reference numeral 508 designates a transport support which integrally supports the disk motor 506, and the guide shafts 507L and 507R. In addition, the support base 504 and the transport support 508 are supported by a base board 509.
The optical heads 501a and 501b are transported by transport driving means (not shown) over the guide shafts 507L and 507R so that it can scan the optical disk 505 in one radius direction to perform the recording or the reading operation.
A function or an operation of each component is described hereinafter.
The first optical head 501a and the second optical head 501b are housed in the optical head housing part 551 while supported by the first small guide shafts 502aL and 502aR, and the second small guide shafts 502bL and 502bR, respectively. At this time, objective lenses 501aA and 501bA of the optical heads 501a and 501b, respectively are opposed to each other in the optical head housing part 551.
Referring to FIG. 24, the small guide shaft 502aL and the guide shaft 507L, and the small guide shaft 502aR and the guide shaft 507R are linearly arranged, respectively. The first optical head 501a is moved from the housing part 551 to the side of the transport support 508 in the direction of an arrow 802 and the first optical head 501a can be transported on the guide shafts 507L and 507R so as to perform the recording or reproducing operation on the optical disk 505 by using the first optical head 501a.
In addition, when the rotating plate 503 is rotated by the rotation driving means (not shown) in either direction of the directions of arrows 801, by 180 degrees, the small guide shaft 502bR and the guide shaft 507L, and the small guide shaft 502bL and the guide shaft 507R are linearly arranged, respectively. Then, the second optical head 501b is moved from the housing part 551 to the side of the transport support 508 in the direction of the arrow 802, so that the second optical head 501b can be transported on the guide shafts 507L and 507R so as to perform the recording or reproducing operation on the optical disk 505 by using the second optical head 501b.
When each optical head completes the recording or the reproducing operation, or when the optical head is to be exchanged with the other optical head after the optical head is moved to the side of the transport support 508, for example, because it is determined that the optical head cannot perform the recording or reproducing operation as a result of detection of the kind of the optical head set on the disk motor 506 by the optical head on the side of the transport support 508, the above process is reversely performed, that is, the optical head is moved from the transport support 508 to the housing part 551 and the other optical head is moved from the housing part 551 to the transport support 508 again.
According to the above device, when the recording or reproducing operation is performed on the specific optical disk 505, for example, either one of the first optical head 501a or the second optical head 501b is selected and moved to the side of the transport support 508. Prior to this operation, it is necessary to distinguish the kind of the optical disk 505 in order to determine which one of the first optical head 501a and the second optical head 501b is appropriate to be used.
However, in the above-mentioned prior art, the disk corresponding to both the first optical head 501a and the second optical head 501b, is a type of disk which does not use a containing case or the like, that is, a so-called bare disk. Therefore, it is necessary to determine that the optical head is appropriate to the disk or not by mounting one optical head to the transport support 508, performing the recording or reproducing operation and reading a focus signal or a tracking signal, for example. At this time, although the recording and/or reproducing operation can be continued when the mounted optical head is appropriate, the optical head has to be exchanged with the other one when it is not appropriate. In this case, time for starting the recording or reproducing operation is delayed for that. Thus, when a user wants to record data, its timing could be lost. It is to be noted that the wording of "recording and/or reproducing" means "at least one of recording and reproducing" in the specification.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A process for purifying fluoromethyl 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropyl ether containing at least 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropyl alcohol. The purifying process comprises the treatment of causing fluoromethyl 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropyl ether containing at least 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropyl alcohol, to contact with a basic aqueous solution. The basic aqueous solution contains a basic substance in an amount providing a chemical equivalent ratio of the basic substance to 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropyl alcohol being within a range of not less than 1.

Hitherto fluoromethyl 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropyl ether has been extensively utilized as an inhalation anesthetic which is safe for use. A method of producing fluoromethyl 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropyl ether is described in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 4,250,334, and arranged as follows: First, concentric sulfuric acid and hydrogen fluoride are added to paraformaldehyde to obtain a reaction mixture. Then, 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropyl alcohol is added dropwise to the reaction mixture upon being heated, thereby to generate gas which is to be collected. The collected gas contains unreacted 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropyl alcohol, and by-products such as formal, acetal and the like, in addition to the objective product of fluoromethyl 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropyl ether.
Besides, International Publication No. WO97/25303 describes a method of producing fluoromethyl 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropyl ether, arranged such that bis(fluoromethyl)ether, 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropyl alcohol and sulfuric acid are mixed with each other thereby to obtain fluoromethyl 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropyl ether together with unreacted bis(fluoromethyl)ether and acetal.
Regarding the above production methods of fluoromethyl 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropyl ether, 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropyl alcohol has the generally same boiling point (about 58.6° C.) as that of the objective product (fluoromethyl 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropyl ether), and therefore it seems that the recovered objective product contains 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropyl alcohol though the content of 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropyl alcohol is different in accordance with reaction conditions.
In regard to the above, it is impossible to separate 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropyl alcohol from fluoromethyl 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropyl ether under distillation which is the most commonly used for purification of organic substances, since they have the generally same boiling points. Additionally, separation of them is impossible even under a separation method employing the difference in freezing point (−68° C. and −3.3° C.) between them. Additionally, even though 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropyl alcohol is soluble in water in any mixing ratios between them, it cannot be sufficiently removed upon rinsing with water.

Process for purifying fluoromethyl 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoroisopropyl ether


A system and method for enabling multithreading in a embedded processor, invoking zero-time context switching in a multithreading environment, scheduling multiple threads to permit numerous hard-real time and non-real time priority levels, fetching data and instructions from multiple memory blocks in a multithreading environment, and enabling a particular thread to modify the multiple states of the multiple threads in the processor core.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of embedded processor architecture and more particularly to multithreaded central processing units (CPUs).
2. Description of Background Art
Conventional embedded processors, e.g., microcontrollers, support only a single hard real-time asynchronous process since they can only respond to a single interrupt at a time. Most software implementations of hardware functions-called virtual peripherals (VPs)—respond asynchronously and thus their interrupts are asynchronous. Some examples of VPs include an Ethernet peripheral (e.g., 100 Mbit and 10 Mbit Transmit and receive rates); High-speed serial standards peripherals, e.g., 12 Mbps universal serial bus (USB), IEEE-1394 Firewire Voice Processing and Compression: ADPCM, G.729, Acoustical Echo Cancellation (AEC); an image processing peripheral; a modem; a wireless peripheral, e.g., an IRDA (1.5 and 4 Mbps), and Bluetooth compatible system. These VPs can be used as part of a home programmable network access (PNA) system, a voice over internet protocol (VoIP) system, and various digital subscriber line systems, e.g., asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL), as well as traditional embedded system applications such as machine control.
An embedded processor is a processor that is used for specific functions. Embedded processors generally have some memory and peripheral functions integrated on-chip. Conventional embedded processors have not been capable of operating using multiple hardware threads.
A pipelined processor is a processor that begins executing a second instruction before the first instruction has completed execution. That is, several instructions are in a "pipeline" simultaneously, each at a different stage. FIG. 1 is an illustration of a conventional pipeline.
The fetch stage (F) fetches instructions from memory, usually one instruction is fetched per cycle. The decode stage (D) reveals the instruction function to be performed and identifies the resources needed. Resources include general-purpose registers, buses, and functional units. The issue stage (I) reserves resources. For example, pipeline control interlocks are maintained at this stage. The operands are also read from registers during the issue stage. The instructions are executed in one of potentially several execute stages (E). The last writeback stage (W) is used to write results into registers.
One example of a non-conventional multithreaded processor is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/748,098 that is referenced above, that enables each stage of the pipeline to be processing a thread that is different from the thread in either the preceding or following stage. This permits the multithreaded processor to interleave the processing of multiple threads which permits the timely processing of time-critical applications and interrupts, for example.
A problem with conventional multithreaded processors is that each thread has a separate hardware state for each thread. This hardware state may be in the form of separate sets of registers. However, in normal operation such conventional systems permit each thread access only to its own set of state registers, i.e., its own state. There is no ability to use or alter the characteristics of other states. This restriction limits the ability for a particular thread to take control of the system and to initialize a thread while other threads are still operating, for example.
What is needed is a system and method that (1) enables a thread in a multithreaded processing environment to access states of other threads and; (2) enables a thread to store states of other threads.

System and method for reading and writing a thread state in a multithreaded central processing unit


The present invention relates to a male and female screw set wherein the male screw comprises at least a projecting part pressing against the flank plane of the female screw when the male and female screws are engaged. A dimensional difference is formed between the pitches of the female and male screw threads. When the female and male screws are engaged, the advancing side flank plane of the female screw thread is contacted by the advancing side flank plane of the male screw thread, while the other receding side flank plane of the female screw thread is contacted by other receding side flank plane of the male screw thread, and these respective flank planes are pressed together with tightening. In addition, the thread angle of the female screw is made approximately 1 degree 20 minutes to 3 degrees 30 minutes larger with respect to the male screw, so that when the male screw is taken as the standard thread angle, the respective flank angles of the male and female screw load threads mutually contact at the crest of the male screw when loaded, thereby preventing loosening and dislodging when the male and female screws are engaged.

The present invention relates to a screw used for fastening parts and in particular to a screw designed so as to prevent loosening and dislodging when male and female threads are engaged.
According to the conventionally used metric screw standard, as shown in FIG. 9, the male screw 1 thread angle is 60 degrees, comprising 30 degree opposing angles with respect to the axial perpendicular plane V. The female screw 2 as well is formed with the same thread angle.
However, in the case of a conventional screw 1 of this type, when a load is applied to the contacting threads during tightening, since the elastic deformation of angles of the male screw 1 exceeds that of the female screw 2, the surface pressure produced by the load in the the flank planes 6 and 8 is not uniform. While flank planes of the male screw 1 and female screw 2 remain in contact, the elastic deformation and load operating center operate eccentrically at the sides of roots of the male screw 1. Consequently, since the torque radius decreases, a problem was encountered whereby the male screw was loosened or dislodged.

Loosening and dislodging preventing screw


An image processing device includes: a processor; and a memory storing computer-readable instructions therein. The computer-readable instructions, when executed by the processor, causes the image processing device to perform: a first separation to separate a target image represented by target image data into a plurality of regions that include a first region and a second region different from the first region; a second separation to separate the first region into a plurality of sub-regions and to separate the second region into a plurality of sub-regions; and generating a consolidated region by consolidating at least two sub-regions among the plurality of sub-regions separated from the first and second regions.

There has been conventionally proposed an image process for separating a single image into a plurality of regions. According to one example of such an image process, a suitable threshold is first used to convert an entire image into a binary image. Character rectangles are found out by extracting groups of connected black pixels out of the binary image. A threshold value is determined for each rectangle, and each rectangle is locally converted into a binary image by using the determined threshold value. That is, each rectangle is locally binarized by using the determined threshold value. A threshold value for the entire image is then determined based on the threshold value for each rectangle. Parts of the entire image other than the already-binarized portions are binarized by using the threshold value determined for the entire image. This method is described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-291058, for example.

Image processing device that separates image into plural regions


Methods, systems, and computer-readable media provide for the detection, location stamping, and logging of electronic events and subsequent generation of habitat information. According to implementations, electronic events are detected and location stamped. Associated descriptions and other data corresponding to the electronic events is retrieved and stored along with the geographic locations of the electronic events in an activity log. The information in the activity log is used to generate visual representations of one or more geographic areas in which electronic events that meet user-defined or default criteria occurred within a predetermined frequency.

People often live extremely busy lives. Their daily activities may include going to work, taking care of children, maintaining a home, and participating in sports and other recreational activities. In a single day, a person might be in an automobile commuting to and from work and traveling between activities, walking in and out of the workplace, home, and stores, and meeting with various colleagues, family, and friends. To facilitate the completion of many of these tasks and in an attempt to bring some level of organization to their daily activities, many people carry personal electronic devices such as cellular telephones, personal data assistants (PDAs), and pagers. In some instances, because these electronic devices have allowed people to operate more efficiently, these devices have also allowed people to pack even more activities into their daily routine.
With the many activities that a person encounters during a day, a week, and a month, it becomes increasingly difficult to recall where and when many of these activities took place. Some people may have difficulty remembering where they were when they saw or heard something interesting. For example, a person may remember that she was talking to a certain friend on the phone when she passed a restaurant that she is interested in going to, but she cannot remember when she saw it, where it was, or when and where she was when she was talking to the friend on the telephone. Additionally, it would be helpful for a person to have access to information regarding the geographic areas in which she or someone else most commonly travels under varying circumstances in order to more efficiently plan her daily routine.

Location stamping and logging of electronic events and habitat generation


The present invention teaches various femtosecond machining and drilling apparatus and processes for fabricating tools and the like from both traditional and non-traditional materials. Also described are novel tools such as scalpels, and nozzles fabricated from the apparatus and processes of the present invention. Likewise, the present invention may be utilized in both a novel propulsion system and the production of materials formed from nanometer sized particles and the like.

The present invention is generally related to methods for machining material and more particularly to a method and apparatus for machining nontraditional materials such as diamond, ceramics, and the like.
Known to the art are various apparatus and methods for machining materials. Such apparatus include those commonly utilized in manufacturing traditional materials (i.e., metals and the like). However, such manufacturing apparatus are poorly suited for machining nontraditional materials (i.e., diamond, ceramics and the like).
Advancements in the material sciences has produced a myriad of new materials. Many of these materials are hard and brittle and therefore difficult or impossible to successfully to drill or shape with standard machinery equipment. Lasers have been utilized with some limited success in cutting and drilling some of these new materials. However, the continuous or long pulsed lasers (nanosecond or longer) couple ineffectively with the surface of the material and a great portion of the laser energy goes into heating the plasma which produce large thermal gradients in the processed material which adversely affect the materials properties near the laser interaction region. Additionally, the long pulsed lasers known to the machining art are limited to several hundred pulses per second. These fundamental limitations, in the machining art, limit the potential use for a wide array of important new materials.
Femtosecond pulse generating lasers are known to the art. Lasers of this type are capable of generating pulse lengths presently as short as 5 femtoseconds (5xc3x9710xe2x88x9215 seconds) with pulse frequencies presently as high as 10 KHz. Various methods for utilizing such lasers are also known and described in the art. For example, a method of producing electrical pulses having an extremely narrow pulse width is described by Rauscher, et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,870,295); a method of detecting atomic and molecular motion is described by McClelland, et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,151,594); a femtosecond ultraviolet laser utilizing ultra-thin beta barium is described by Edelstein, et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,034,951); a broadly tunable high repetition rate femtosecond optical parametric oscillator is described by Edelstein, et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,017,806); a real time method of processing picosecond and femtosecond laser pulses is described by Cutolo, et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,717); a method of obtaining ultra fast spectral data utilizing a femtosecond laser is described by Heilweil, et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,980,566); and a method of investigating surfaces at nanometer and picosecond resolution is described by Beha, et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,309). Additionally, Elsayed-Ali, et al. describes a femtosecond time-resolved thermomodulation of thin gold films having different crystal structures (Physical Review 47:13 599-13 610); and Reitze, et al. has measured the optical properties of liquid carbon utilizing a femtosecond spectrometer (Physical Review 45:2677-2693).
The present invention teaches various femtosecond machining and drilling apparatus and processes for fabricating tools and bulk materials and the like from both traditional and non-traditional materials. Also described are novel tools such as scalpels, and nozzles fabricated from the apparatus and processes according to the present invention. Likewise, the present invention may be utilized in a novel propulsion system, the production of new and unique materials formed from nanometer sized particles, and in surgical and dental procedures, for example, in the preparation of a tooth for a filling, and the like.

Femtosecond laser utilization methods and apparatus and method for producing nanoparticles

Board of Regents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln


A vehicle body has, in a state in which a battery unit is not installed, a frame configuring a part of the lower surface of the vehicle body. A vehicle battery unit installation apparatus for installing a battery unit in the lower part of the vehicle body includes: a striker device configured to be secured to the vehicle body and a locking device secured to the battery unit. The striker device includes a base plate and a striker secured to the base plate. The striker has a support part capable of supporting a load. The locking device is capable of securing the support part. The base plate is configured to be secured to the frame. The striker has ends secured to the base plate such that the support part is located below the frame.

In a vehicle such as an electric vehicle that is spreading widely, batteries are installed as a supply source of electric power for a traveling motor. The batteries are housed in a case as a battery unit. The battery unit is installed in the vehicle body. In such an electric vehicle, in a case where electric power stored in the battery unit installed in the vehicle body is discharged, it is necessary to charge the battery unit, or replace the discharged battery unit with a charged battery unit. The type of the electric vehicle requiring the replacement of the battery unit includes an electric vehicle enabling the installation of a battery unit on the bottom part of a vehicle body and enabling replacement of the battery unit from below the vehicle body by using a battery unit installation apparatus. In such a battery unit replacement method, various vehicle battery unit installation apparatuses are proposed in order to install the battery unit in the vehicle body efficiently.
For example, a vehicle battery unit installation apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1 includes a bolt, provided to vertically extend on the lower part of a vehicle body, and a nut secured to the bolt. In the vehicle battery unit installation apparatus, a battery unit can be installed in the lower part of the vehicle body by using the bolt and the nut.

Vehicle battery unit installation apparatus


A veneer-pressing apparatus comprising a pressing device provided with at least three pressing bodies disposed movably from a non-pressing position where the pressing bodies are vertically spaced apart from each other to a pressing position where the pressing bodies are close to each other; endless belts each adapted to be intermittently moved in a direction opposite to that of the neighboring endless belt, thereby forming a forward transfer passage between a pair of facing surfaces of the neighboring endless belts and a backward transfer passage which is opposite in transferring direction to the forward transfer passage; and a pressing member which is capable of rendering the pressing bodies provided with the endless belt to move from a non-pressing position to a pressing position to press a veneer with a predetermined pressure. This apparatus further comprises a first transfer means disposed on an upstream side of the forward transfer passage in the pressing device, a transferring direction thereof being the same as the forward transfer passage; and a second transfer means disposed on an upstream side of the backward transfer passage in the pressing device and capable of being moved in both forward and backward directions as well as in vertical direction.

This invention relates to a veneer-pressing apparatus for simultaneously pressing a plurality of veneers in multistage.
There has been proposed a pressing apparatus for hot-pressing or cold-pressing a single sheet of veneer or a laminated veneer consisting of a plurality of veneers bonded with each other via an adhesive. For example, Japanese Patent Publication S/41-1753 describes an automatic compression apparatus provided with a plurality of pressing means which are arranged vertically and in multistage.
As shown in FIGS. 14 and 15, this apparatus is generally constituted by a pressing device 200, a loader 206 and an unloader 6. This pressing device 200 comprises a plurality of compression plates 203 which are arranged in multistage or spaced apart vertically from each other by a predetermined interval and interposed between a fixed plate 201 and a movable plate 202 which are vertically spaced apart from each other, and metal belt conveyers 204 (FIG. 15), the upper portion of each metal belt conveyer 204 being disposed to move over the compression plates 203 and adapted to be intermittently moved from a loading side to an unloading side. The loader 206 is movably disposed at the loading side so as to be moved up and down and provided with a plurality of conveyers 205 each arranged to correspond with each of the compression plates 203. The unloader 208 is movably disposed at the unloading side so as to be moved up and down and provided, as in the case of the loader 206, with a plurality of conveyers 205 each arranged to correspond with each of the compression plates 203.
Plates 210 to be treated (hereinafter referred to as untreated plates 210) are successively placed on each conveyer while the loader 206 is vertically moved, and each of the conveyers of the loader 206 is aligned with each of the compression plates 203. Under this condition, the conveyers of the loader 206 and the metal belt conveyers 204 are allowed to move whereby transferring the untreated plates 210 on the conveyers onto the metal belt conveyers 204. Then, the movable plate 202 is moved vertically, thereby rendering the compression plates 203 to approach to each other so as to press each of the untreated plates 210 interposed between the compression plates 203. After keeping this pressing treatment for a predetermined period of time, the movable plate 202 is moved downward thereby allowing the space between the compression plates 203 to expand again. Under this condition, the metal belt conveyers 204 and the conveyers 207 of the unloader 208 are allowed to move whereby transferring the plates 210 thus pressed onto each of the conveyers of the unloader 208. Thereafter, the unloader 208 is moved vertically to successively unload the plates 210 from each of the conveyers 208 toward the unloading conveyers 220.
In this automatic compression apparatus however, the transferring surface (or the upper surface portion) 204a of each of the metal belt conveyers 204 is designed to be moved always in the direction from the loading side to the unloading side (as indicated by the arrow "a"). In this case, the non-transferring surface 204b of the metal belt conveyer 204 which is disposed over the untreated plate 210 is moved in the direction (as indicated by the arrow "b") which is opposite to that of the transferring surface 204a of the metal belt conveyer 204. Accordingly, if an edge portion of the untreated plate 210 is warped or bent upward and if such an untreated plate 210 is to be moved forward through a space between the metal belt conveyers 204, the warped or bent edge portion of the untreated plate 210 may be contacted with the non-transferring surface 204b of the metal belt conveyer 204 that is disposed over the untreated plate 210 and running in the direction opposite to the transferring direction, thus making it difficult to accurately transfer the untreated plate 210 in a predetermined direction and inviting a cause for a fracture of edge portion of the untreated plate 210.
It may be possible to avoid these problems if the interval between the compression plates 203 is set to a sufficient height. However, if the interval between the compression plates 203 is enlarged in this manner, the height of the apparatus will be increased, making the apparatus bulky as a whole, thus inviting another problem.
Additionally, the aforementioned automatic compression apparatus is accompanied with another problem that when a veneer as an untreated plate is hot-pressed, a sap squeezed out of the veneer due to a pressing of the veneer is likely to be adhered onto the bottom portion of the metal belt conveyer disposed over the veneer and running in a direction opposite to the transferring direction. Therefore, if this metal belt conveyer adhered with the sap is allowed to continue to move for transferring the veneer, the veneer may be transferred back to the loading side instead of being transferred to the unloading side, or may be fractured.


The present invention provides a resonant converter with a synchronous rectification drive circuit. The resonant converter with the synchronous rectification drive circuit includes a switch circuit, a resonant circuit, a transformer, a full-wave-rectifier circuit and a synchronous rectification drive circuit, wherein the switch circuit at least includes a half-bridge circuit, the resonant circuit is coupled to the switch circuit and has a resonant frequency, the transformer has a primary side coupled to the resonant circuit, the full-wave-rectifier circuit is coupled to a secondary side of the transformer and includes two switches, the synchronous rectification drive circuit includes four voltage-clamped drive circuits having output terminals coupled to the switch circuit and the corresponding switch of the full-wave-rectifier circuit, and each voltage-clamped drive circuit includes a transmission/discharge circuit for reducing the turn-off period of the coupled switch during turning off the coupled switch.

Recently, the trend of the electronic equipments is toward the application with low voltage and high current. The power management technology is developed from the rectification of the rectification diode to the synchronous rectification of the metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET). The power consumed in the equipment with the rectification diode is more than that consumed in the equipment with the MOSFET; moreover, the performance of the switching power supply can be increased by the latter. The MOSFET is used for the power supply of the LCD TV with low noise and high efficiency and for the power supply of the computer and the telecommunication equipments.
Please refer to FIG. 1(a) showing the circuit of the rectification diode typed LLC series resonant converter in the prior art. The LLC series resonant converter 10 includes a switch circuit 21, a resonant circuit 22, a transformer 23 and a full-wave-rectifier circuit 24.
In FIG. 1(a), the switch circuit 21 is composed of a first switch 211 and a second switch 212, wherein the first switch 211 is composed of a main body Q1 of a first power transistor, a first body-diode DB1 and a first parasitic junction capacitor CO1, and the second switch 212 is composed of a main body Q2 of a second power transistor, a second body-diode DB2 and a second parasitic junction capacitor CO2. The first switch 211 is connected to the second switch 212 to form a half-bridge circuit. In addition, the switch circuit 21 can be a full-bridge circuit. The resonant circuit 22 is composed of a resonant inductor Lr, a resonant capacitor Cr and a magnetizing inductor Lm. It is known by one skilled in the art that the resonant inductor Lr can be composed of a leakage inductor of the transformer 23.
As shown in FIG. 1(a), there is a DC voltage source VDC for the switch circuit 21 to provide an output voltage Vo on a load RL via the resonant circuit 22, the transformer 23, the full-wave-rectifier circuit 24 and a voltage stabilizing capacitor CL. The switch 21 is separated from the resonant circuit 22 and the full-wave-rectifier circuit 24 by the transformer 23 via a primary side winding set Np and series connected secondary side winding sets NS1 and NS2. The full-wave-rectifier circuit 24 is composed of a first rectification diode D1 and a second rectification diode D2 connected to the voltage stabilizing CL. The anode of the first rectification diode D1 is connected to the positive dotted terminal of the secondary side winding set NS1, and the anode of the second rectification diode D2 is connected to the negative dotted terminal of the secondary side winding set NS2. The junction of the secondary side winding sets NS1 and NS2 is used as the ground end of the output voltage Vo, and the cathodes of the rectification diodes D1 and D2 are used as the high voltage end of the output voltage Vo.
Please refer to FIG. 1(b) showing the frequency responses of the resonant converter shown in FIG. 1(a) with various circuit quality factors. As shown in FIG. 1(b), the circuit quality factor QK is related to the load RL and the magnetizing current im, wherein K=Lm/Lr, and the LLC series resonant converter 10 is equivalent to an LC series resonant converter when K approximates to infinity.
As shown in FIG. 1(b), there are a first resonant frequency fr1 and a second resonant frequency fr2. The first resonant frequency fr1 is related to the resonant inductor Lr and the resonant capacitor Cr, the second resonant frequency fr2 is related to the resonant inductor Lr, the magnetizing inductor Lm and the resonant capacitor Cr, and the relationships thereamong are as follows.fr1=1/(2π√{square root over (Lr·Cr)})fr2=1/(2π√{square root over (Lm+Lr)·Cr)})
As shown in FIG. 1(b), there are three operation frequency regions demarcated by the first resonant frequency fr1 and the second resonant frequency fr2. The operation switching frequency fs corresponding to the first frequency region Region-1 has the relationship as fs>fr1. The operation switching frequency fs corresponding to the second frequency region Region-2 has the relationship as fr2<fs<fr1. The operation switching frequency fs corresponding to the third frequency Region-3 has the relationship as fs<fr2. In order to achieve the zero voltage switching and the wide range of voltage stabilization, the first frequency region Region-1 and the second frequency region Region-2 are first considered to be used for the LLC series resonant converter 10; however, in order to achieve the zero voltage switching of the first switch 211 and the second switch 212 and to facilitate the design of the drive circuit, it is well known to use the second frequency region Region-2.
Please refer to FIG. 1(c) showing signals of the resonant converter shown in FIG. 1(a), which operates in the second frequency region. In FIG. 1(c), there are a first switch drive signal VGS1, a second switch drive signal VGS2, a resonant current iL, a magnetizing current im, a power transfer current ip and a periodic change of a resonant capacitor voltage drop VCr operating in the second frequency region Region-2, wherein the power transfer current ip is zero at t0, t1, t2 and t3, there is zero voltage switching on the main body Q1 of the first power transistor and the main body Q2 of the second power transistor at the dead periods of t1-t3 and t4-t6, and the magnetizing current im at the periods is approximately a constant.
Please refer to FIG. 1(d) showing signals of the resonant converter shown in FIG. 1(a), which operates in the first frequency region. In FIG. 1(d), there are a first switch drive signal VGS1, a second switch drive signal VGS2, a resonant current iL, a magnetizing current im, a power transfer current ip and a periodic change of a resonant capacitor voltage drop VCr operating in the first frequency region Region-1, wherein the main body Q1 of the first power transistor and the main body Q2 of the second power transistor are respectively turned off at t1 and t4; thereupon the power transfer current ip is gradually decreased, and the energy is continuously transferred to the load. Therefore, the magnetizing current im is continuously and linearly increased until the main body of the next power transistor is electrified, and the power transfer current ip is zero at t3 and t6. The zero voltage switching on the main boy Q1 of the first power transistor and the main body Q2 of the second power transistor is maintained due to the magnetizing current im with the triangular waveform.
In FIGS. 1(c) and 1(d), the LLC series resonant converter 10 is practiced by using the rectification diode. However, under the identical conditions, the operation of the LLC series resonant converter in the second frequency region Region-2 fails if the LLC series resonant converter uses the MOSFET as the rectification switch.
Please refer to FIG. 2 showing the circuit of the synchronous rectification typed LLC series resonant converter in the prior art. FIG. 1(a) is compared with FIG. 2. The first rectification diode D1 and the second rectification diode D2 shown in FIG. 1(a) are replaced with the third switch 243 and the fourth switch 244, respectively, and the connection of the high voltage end of the output part and the ground end is changed so as to form the circuit shown in FIG. 2. It means that the third switch 243 is composed of a main body Q3 of a third power transistor and a third body-diode DB3, and the fourth switch 244 is composed of the main body Q4 of the fourth power transistor and the fourth body-diode DB4. The main bodies Q3 and Q4 of the power transistors have sources connected to the ground end of the output voltage Vo. The main body Q3 of the third power transistor has a drain connected to the positive dotted terminal of the secondary side winding set NS1. The main body Q4 of the fourth power transistor has a drain connected to the negative dotted terminal of the secondary side winding set NS2. In addition, the fourth switch rectification current iQ4 flows into the negative dotted terminal of the secondary side winding set NS2, and the third switch rectification current iQ3 flows into the positive dotted terminal of the secondary side winding set NS1.
The operation of the synchronous rectification typed LLC series resonant converter 40 in the second frequency region Region-2 is illustrated as follows. It is set that the first switch drive signal VGS1 is identical to the fourth switch drive signal VGS4, the second switch drive signal VGS2 is identical to the third switch drive signal VGS3, and the switch drive signals are identical to those in FIG. 1(c). There is the current through one of the third body-diode DB3 and the fourth body-diode DB4 at the dead periods of t1-t3 and t4-t6, so as to transfer the power from the secondary side to the primary side of the transformer 23, and therefore the circuit cannot operate normally and safely.
When the synchronous rectification typed LLC series resonant converter operates in the first frequency region Region-1, the converter operates normally due to the magnetizing current im with the triangular waveform.
If the conventional synchronous rectification typed LLC series resonant converter 40 shown in FIG. 2 operates in the second frequency region Region-2, there must be different pulse widths for the first switch drive signal VGS1 and the fourth switch drive signal VGS4. Similarly, there must be different pulse widths for the second switch drive signal VGS2 and the third switch drive signal VGS3.
In order to practice the operations in the first frequency region Region-1 and the second frequency region Region-2 for the conventional synchronous rectification drive circuit, the drive circuit is quite complicated. Therefore, the cost is high and the energy is wasted owing to ignoring to increase the conversion efficiency.
Accordingly, the drive circuit of the synchronous rectification typed LLC series resonant converter should be simplified to reduce the volume of the circuit, so as to lower the cost and to achieve high efficiency and low noise.
In order to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art described above, the present invention provides a resonant converter with a synchronous rectification drive circuit.

Resonant converter with synchronous rectification drive circuit


Provided is a crystallization method by which a highly-pure methacrylic acid crystal can be produced with high productivity. The method for purifying methacrylic acid according to the present disclosure involves using crude methacrylic acid having a maleic acid concentration of 2000 ppm by mass or less and an acrylic acid concentration of 2000 ppm by mass or less and setting the slurry temperature to −10 to 10° C. in order to crystallize methacrylic acid. A suspension-type jacket-cooling-system crystallization vessel is used as the crystallization apparatus, and an absolute value of the difference between a crystallization temperature and a temperature of a cooling medium in the jacket is preferably 15° C. or less.

Methacrylic acid is obtained by oxidizing isobutylene, tert-butyl alcohol, methacrolein, or isobutyl aldehyde through single-stage or two-stage catalytic gas-phase oxidation reactions in the presence of molecular oxygen. In addition to the desired methacrylic acid (boiling point of 161° C./760 mmHg, melting point of 15° C.), the following byproducts are also included in the obtained product: carboxylic acids such as formic acid, acetic acid, propionic acid, maleic acid, citraconic acid, benzoic acid, toluic acid, terephthalic acid, and acrylic acid; and aldehydes such as formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, propionaldehyde, methacrolein, benzaldehyde, tolualdehyde, furfural, and the like. Most of those impurities can be isolated and purified by generally used purification methods such as distillation and extraction. However, trace impurities such as aldehydes are hard to remove. Since aldehydes absorb light in the ultraviolet region, coloration may occur in a methacrylic acid product in which not a small amount of aldehyde remains. To avoid such coloration, it is necessary to reduce as much of the remaining amount of the aldehyde as possible. Under such circumstances, crystallization methods have been studied to obtain methacrylic acid which is more highly purified than that obtained by distillation methods.
Patent Literature 1 describes the following method for producing purified methacrylic acid: methacrylic acid is crystalized in a solution prepared by adding a second component such as methanol, ethanol, propanol or butanol to crude methacrylic acid, and the deposited crystals are isolated from the mother liquor.
Patent Literature 2 describes the following method: when crystals are to be deposited by a cooling crystallization method using a condenser equipped with an external circulation device or a jacket device to exchange heat through the heat transfer surface of the condenser, crystals (scales) grow on the heat transfer surface and lower the cooling capability. Considering such situations, a change in the operational conditions of the crystallization device, a switch of condensers, a change in the conditions for reactivation treatment of the condenser and the like are proposed in the method.


A chassis for a light source for medical/surgical applications comprises a lamp assembly having a support plate slidable through a housing door into chassis mounted rails or slides and having fixed thereon lamp heat sinks having the form of mounting plates with heat dispersing fins projecting therefrom. The supporting plate further includes or supports plugs which mate with corresponding plugs in the rear as the plate is inserted on the rails and pushed back onto stops, providing secure, aligned positioning. The heat sinks that hold the lamp in position are slotted so as to resiliently secure and electrically contact the lamp under the action of first and second resilient clamps which position the lamp in predetermined alignment and allow for thermal expansion, for example, of the sapphire window. Light from the lamp is projected along a path through heat filters to an output turret assembly which allows for selection of different fiber optic cables connected to plural connectors on the turret. An attenuator in the beam path cooperative with manual and automatic controls allows adjustment of the light intensity manually or from an automated source such as a video camera seeing a field of view illuminated by light provided from the source through a connected fiber optics system. A printed circuit board is located in a part of the system partially separated by an air baffle. First and second fans apply cooling air from one rear panel portion across the optics and around the baffle over the power supply circuit board and out through louvers in an opposite rear panel portion.

Light sources are known for medical applications such as endoscopic viewing or surgery or illumination of headlamps worn by a surgeon or other medical operative on a headband. Such devices typically utilize a high intensity Xenon, halogen or other gas lamp which applies an intense light beam into an optical fiber cable through a turret assembly that allows selection of one of plural cables to receive the light. The cables transmit the light to utilization instrumentation. Losses are associated with the transmission via cable and through the instrumentation including transmission through endoscopic equipment, so that the provision of maximum light intensity of chromatically uniform spectral light is desirable. In medical applications, high reliability is also critical. In addition, such high intensity light sources have a relatively short life expectancy. This requires that surgical operations be backed up with spare supplies of light sources to fill in when a light source burns out during a procedure. This necessitates a large inventory of equipment, the more so because replacement of lamps requires return of the equipment to a factory or distributor setting where a new lamp can be installed and adjusted for proper alignment. Because the operating temperature of the lamp itself is high, the lamp tends to expand against its mounting restraints which raises a danger of breakage of such brittle components as sapphire lamp windows.
Because of the proliferation of medical equipment gathered around the limited space at a patient operating site, minimal dimensions for any instrumentation such as light sources becomes important. Such a trade-off is contrary to good heat dissipation principles in view of the substantial heat created in 150 and 300W lamps confined within small spaces.


A memory card comprising a first modular component that comprises a first interface and first conductors and a data mover that comprises second conductors coupled to the first conductors. The first modular component is replaceable with a second modular component that comprises a second interface that differs from the first interface and third conductors that are configured to couple to the second conductors.

The need for portability and ease in capturing and saving information from various locations away from a user's office or work has resulted in a proliferation of portable electronic devices, such as digital cameras, personal digital assistants, and notebook computers. With the proliferation of portable electronic devices, the use of form factor cards adapted for use with these devices is steadily increasing as well, and the uncertainty of the portable electronic device market has also spilled over to the form factor card market.
The uncertainty of the form factor card market has resulted in several form factor card standards jockeying to become the dominant standard. The term "form factor card" is a general term often used to describe a memory card employing a variety of different standards, such as a SONY Memory Stick or Compact Flash card, but also applies to cards that perform other functions, including I/O cards such as serial cards, Ethernet cards, fax/modem cards, wireless pagers, and multimedia cards. Unfortunately, since none of the existing or emerging card standards are able to meet 100% of customer needs, a dominant standard has not emerged and is unlikely to emerge in the foreseeable future.
Consequently, a memory card manufacturer is forced to supply separate memory cards that accommodate the myriad of existing and emerging memory card technologies. If a memory card manufacturer wants to compete in the market, the memory card manufacturer must take into account all of the different memory card standards, which include both device interface standards and storage technology standards. For example, if there are N interfaces in the market and M different storage technologies, then the memory card manufacturer may design N times M memory cards employing different control systems to offer a full portfolio of memory cards and compete in the memory card market. This results in significant delays and could require many months to specify, design, verify, fabricate, and test the memory card before it may be brought to market. For example, a typical design period may encompass 18 months.
A need exists for a manufacturer to be able to leverage the development of memory cards by allowing the most efficient use of resources and accelerating time to market without increasing the cost of producing a memory card. The present invention may address this and other issues.

Memory card having a processor coupled between host interface and second interface wherein internal storage code provides a generic interface between host interface and processor

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A modular multilevel converter (MMC) includes multiple converter arms, each converter arm having: N submodules connected to each other in series, N being an integer equal to or greater than 2; and a circuit opening unit connected to the N submodules in series to open a circuit of the converter arm, wherein the N submodules has n submodules including full-bridge circuits and N−n submodules including half-bridge circuits, n being less than N.

A modular multilevel converter (MMC) is a type of multilevel converter which is composed of multiple submodules (SMs). The modular multilevel converter (MMC) is capable of producing high voltage output and large capacity output that a multi-converter has, and of adjusting the output voltage with a stepped output.
Such a MMC is simple in structure, compared to a general multilevel converter, and spare submodules may be used to extend life expectancy.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a general MMC.
Referring to FIG. 1, the MMC is composed of, for example, three legs 13a, 13b, and 13c and six arms 11a, 11b, 11c, 12a, 12b, and 12c, and each arm includes multiple submodules (SMs). These arms are upper arms 11a, 11b, and 11c and lower arms 12a, 12b, and 12c. The figure, as an example, illustrates four submodules (SMs) for each arm, but the number of submodules (SMs) may be changed.
The MMC converts a DC-side input voltage (Vdc) input via a bus into an AC-side output voltage through the three legs 13a, 13b, and 13c. The output voltage differs depending on on/off-state of the submodules (SMs) included in each arm. That is, when each of the upper and lower arms includes, for example, four submodules, the output voltage is adjusted at five levels (the number of submodules+1) depending on the number of submodules (SMs) that remain in the on-state. Here, in order to adjust the output voltage, on/off of a switch of the submodule (SM) of each arm may be controlled.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a submodule of a general MMC.
Referring to FIG. 2, each submodule (SM) includes a so-called half-bridge circuit having a pair of power semiconductors 21 and a capacitor 22 connected in parallel to the power semiconductors 21. The power semiconductor 21 includes a power semiconductor element 21a and a diode 21b connected thereto in inverse-parallel.
However, in a conventional MMC, there are many countermeasures against AC failure, but there are few countermeasures against DC failure. That is, in the case of a conventional submodule composed of a half-bridge circuit, when the DC failure occurs, the fault current flows from the AC side only to the diode 21b, and thus the fault current cannot be blocked. Thus, in order to block the fault current, a conventional submodule composed of a full-bridge circuit has been proposed.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating another example of a configuration of a submodule of a general MMC.
Referring to FIG. 3, each submodule (SM) includes a so-called full-bridge circuit having power semiconductors 31 in two pairs connected to each other in parallel and a capacitor 32 connected in parallel to the power semiconductors 31. The power semiconductor 31 includes a power semiconductor element 31a and a diode 31b connected thereto in inverse-parallel.
As described above, in the case of the submodule composed of the full-bridge circuit, when DC failure occurs, the reverse voltage is applied to a capacitor 33 inside due to the fault current from the AC side such that the fault current is blocked. However, the loss caused by switching operation of an IGBT 31 increases. In practice, when submodules with respect to the same number thereof are composed of full-bridge circuits, compared to half-bridge circuits, about 30% or more of switching loss occurs.

Modular multi-level converter and DC failure blocking method therefor


A GaAs field effect transistor with a source contact including both an ohmic contact and a Schottky barrier, the Schottky barrier between the ohmic contact and the gate, is disclosed. The Schottky barrier provides a high frequency source contact close to the active channel and thereby reduces the parasitic source resistance at microwave and higher frequencies.

The present invention relates to field effect semiconductor devices, and, more particularly, to the source contact of high frequency field effect devices.
Field effect transistors (FET) fabricated from gallium arsenide and with Schottky barrier gates are commonly used for microwave devices. Indeed, GaAs monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC) of such devices covering a wide range of microwave applications have been reported. See, generally, the December 1983 special issues of IEEE Trans.Elec.Devices and IEEE Trans. Micwv.Th.Tech.
The typical such FET is fabricated on semi-insulating GaAs with a n-type epilayer about 0.1 to 0.4 microns thick by evaporation of aluminum gates and deposition, lift off, and alloying of gold-germanium source and drain ohmic contacts. Channel widths may be several hundred microns, whereas channel lengths are on the order of one micron. For MMICs the use of localized implantation for isolation is common and fabrication may be by the following steps: patterned photoresist and donor implant to define the active region (which will include the source, drain, and channel regions), activation of the implant, patterned photoresist and heavy donor implant to define the source and drain within the active region, activation, deposition of aluminum by vacuum evaporation, etching of the Al to define the Schottky barrier gates, and lifting off a AuGe-Ni film and alloying it at 400 degrees C. to form ohmic contacts with the source and drain regions. In either case the use of AuGe type ohmic contacts is usual. See, for example, Sugiura et al, 12-GHz-Band Low-Noise GaAs Monolithic Amplifiers, 30 IEEE Trans. Elec.Devices 1861 (1983).
For microwave operation the FET is normally biased in the saturation region, and in the saturation region the transconductance is strongly affected by the parasitic source resistance (the resistance primarily between the active channel and the ohmic source contact). See, S.Sze, Physics of Semiconductor Devices p.341 (2d Ed. 1980), where the measured transconductance of a real FET is equal to gm/1+g.sub.m R.sub.s with gm being the ideal transconductance and R.sub.s the source resistance. Further, the source resistance also degrades the noise figure and power performance of the FET. Consequently, efforts to reduce the source resistance have been made and include moving the source contact closer to the active channel, recessing the gate, and increasing the doping underneath the source contact. See, Sugiura, cited above, commenting that the recessed gate degrades the uniformity of the active layer and using shortened source to gate spacings appears a better approach. However, M. Heilblum et al, Characteristics of AuGeNi Ohmic Contacts to GaAs, 25 Solid-State Elec.185 (1982), suggest that the formation of the usual ohmic contacts for the FET leads to limitations on the ability to move the source contact closer to the active channel and reduce the source resistance; namely, a high resistance layer under the contact several thousand angstroms deep dominates the contact resistance, and a peripheral zone extending about one micron from the contact into the GaAs exists in which the GaAs chemically differs from the rest of the GaAs. Source resistances in the range of three to four ohms for a three hundred micron wide gate seem to be the best obtainable with the known FET structures.
D.Meignant and D.Boccon-Gibod, Schottky Drain Microwave GaAs Field Effect Transistors, 17 Elec.Lett. 107 (1981) have suggested using a Schottky barrier drain contact instead of an ohmic contact, but note that ohmic source contact (gold-germanium) is still a necessity.
Thus the known FET structures have a problem of high source resistance which degrades device performance.