The invention relates to a method of producing partially aromatic copolyamides from polymeric esters of aromatic dicarboxylic acids by amidation of the ester groups with diamines, removal of the split-off alcohols or diols and after-condensation of the low-molecular precondensates as well as by the following compounding to polyamide molding materials.

Partially aromatic polyamides with terephthalamide- or isophthalamide units have been known in principle for several decades already; however, they did not become commercially available since the seventies on account of their demanding production methods. Methods and apparatuses for the production of high-melting, partially crystalline polyterephthalamides have even not been available until the middle of the eighties (e.g. the so-called "aerosol process" by AMOCO as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,108).
Because the pure high-temperature polyamides (homopolymers) are very difficult to manage on account of their high melting point, usually, copolyamides derived therefrom with reduced melting point (or even amorphous ones, depending on the molar ratio) are produced such as e.g. PA 6T/6I or PA 6T/66 or PA 6T/6, which are only partially aromatic (as regards the amount of dicarboxylic acid) and which, however, also offer interesting possibilities of industrial use.
Theoretically, a plurality of different, partially aromatic copolyamides from aromatic dicarboxylic acids, diamines as well as lactams (respectively .omega.-aminoacids) are available. However, all previously known production methods share the common feature that the above-mentioned components are used as such in pure, monomeric form as raw material and that dicarboxylic acid(s) and diamine(s) are purposefully converted in a solution container connected in front of the polycondensation reactor at first in approximately equimolar amounts to aqueous, optionally lactam-containing "nylon" saline solutions.
Apart from the above paragraph and at first apparently without a connection to the end product striven for, there is a known problem in another area of polymer use: In the bottling of beverages, especially for carbonated soft drinks, user-friendly polyester bottles have largely displaced glass bottles. The problem of recycling arises for the large number of non-returnable bottles and also for worn-out returnable bottles because the pile of household waste should not be additionally enlarged by polyester bottles and on the other hand polyester bottles constitute in principle a valuable raw material. Various concepts for the collection and reuse of polyester bottles have already been developed and partially introduced such as is presented, e.g., in the lecture of H.-W. Blumschein: "Chance or Risk for PET-Packaging, -Recycling-, How to Close the Loop in Western Europe" (Davos Recycle '92, International Forum and Exposition, Apr. 7-10, 1992). In addition to the purely mechanical comminution, purification and reuse (flakes or regranulate for fibers, etc.) this lecture also describes chemical recycling methods such as e.g. methanolysis or glycolysis, which comprise the complete degradation of the polymer down to the monomers. Because the monomers may be reused to produce polyester for grocery packagings it is possible to close the circuit in this manner; however, this is not the most economical way to reuse material. In particular, the purification of the recycling monomers is expensive in this method. An example of this is the method described in EP 0,497,662 A1 for the production of pure terephthalic acid from PET waste. This method comprises the depolymerization of PET chips with pure sodium hydroxide, the dissolving of sodium terephthalate in water with subsequent purification in a special activated-carbon--adsorption/regeneration process, precipitation of terephthalic acid with sulfuric acid as well as filtering off, washing and drying the pure terephthalic acid. In addition to the high expense the method has two serious disadvantages: A large amount of sodium sulfate, which must be disposed of, as byproduct and the resulting terephthalic acid is very fine-grained on account of the precipitation at a relatively low temperature in comparison to commercial terephthalic acid and is therefore difficult to handle.
DE 32 21 341 C2 describes a depolymerization method of PET waste with neutral hydrolysis and simultaneous activated carbon purification. The disadvantage of this method resides in the high pressure necessary (high-pressure container) and the relatively long residence times.
In order to circumvent the expensive detour via the decomposition into monomers, suggestions have been made for preparing polyester waste by suitable methods directly for reuse. EP 0,483,665 A2 describes a method in which the PET waste is melted, filtered and in the last step after-condensed either in melt phase or solid phase to a higher (or original) molecular-weight level. Such higher-valency higher-analysis! PET regranulate can be used after extrusion together with original raw material in the middle layer of foils.
According to a report in Plastic Focus, Vol. 26, No. 19, Sep. 26, 1994, a similar, improved method ("super cleaning") apparently succeeded in achieving a recycling PET quality which can be used in direct contact with groceries. In spite of this breakthrough one must realize that the circuit can never by completely closed in this way, that is, to approximately 100% and that "virgin" granulate must always be admixed for the high requirements of purity placed on grocery and beverage packagings because in organic material like PET degradation reactions always occur at the melt temperatures which impair the quality. Therefore, for a part of the recycling polyester further possibilities of use should be sought in addition to the use for other polyester applications.
A first attempt to produce other products from polyester waste is described in H. G. Zengel, M. J. Bergfeld: A new process for the production of p-phenylenediamine alternatively from polyester waste, terephthalic ester, or terephthalic acid; Ind. Eng. Chem., Prod. Res. Dev., Vol. 15, No. 3, 1976, pp. 186-189. As the title already states, p-phenylenediamine can be produced from PET waste which p-phenylenediamine can be used as raw material to produce e.g. azo dyes, diisocyanates or aromatic polyamides. The process, carried out in suspension or solution, consists of the three steps PET degradation with ammonia to terephthaldiamide, the reaction with chlorine to terephthaldichloroamide as well as of a Hofmann rearrangement with sodium hydroxide solution to diamine (with subsequent purification). However, this expensive method with not quite harmless reagents still does not supply an end product but rather a monomeric intermediate product.

Method of producing partially aromatic copolyamides from aromatic dicarboxylic acid esters


An circuit-component-migration-apparatus is a computer that performs migration of design data between different pieces of circuit design software. The circuit component migration apparatus may be a design apparatus in which circuit design software of a migration destination of design data operates. The circuit component migration apparatus includes a storage unit, an obtaining unit, and a control unit.

In the related art, circuit design software to perform circuit design such as computer aided design (CAD) is known. In circuit design software, a unique shape may be used for a symbol representing a circuit component for some circuit components in each piece of software.
A technology has been proposed in which design data is migrated between such different pieces of circuit design software. For example, a technology has been proposed in which CAD data of a conversion source is converted into CAD data having another format based on conversion specification data that prescribes specification of conversion. In addition, a technology has been proposed by which circuit diagram information is extracted from circuit diagram information of a conversion source, a conversion information database is searched for conversion information of a corresponding symbol, and the circuit diagram information and the conversion information are combined to generate circuit diagram information of a conversion destination.
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2005-316741 and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 7-36946 are examples of the related art.
However, in the related art, there are technologies with which data of a circuit component of a migration source is converted into data of a circuit component corresponding to circuit design software of a migration destination, and the shapes of symbols representing the circuit components of the migration source and the migration destination may be different.
A technology according to the embodiments discussed herein is made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the technology is to provide a circuit component migration apparatus, a circuit component migration program, and a circuit component migration method by which a symbol is allowed to be taken over to migrate a circuit component.

Circuit component migration method and apparatus


A mixer for a separate-stream turbojet nozzle, the mixer comprising along a longitudinal axis (X-X′) both a fastener shroud (10) for connecting said mixer to the exhaust casing of the nozzle, and a lobe structure (20) presenting a succession of inner and outer lobes (22 and 21) distributed circumferentially around the longitudinal axis (X-X′) of the mixer. The lobe structure (20) is made of a ceramic matrix composite material and further comprises a stiffener ring (30) that forms a connection between at least some of the lobes of said structure. Thus, the major portion of the mixer, i.e. the lobe structure, is made of a ceramic matrix composite material, thereby significantly reducing the weight of the mixer, and consequently reducing the weight of the nozzle.

The present invention relates to the general field of nozzles fitted to airplane turbojets. It relates more particularly to separate-stream nozzles fitted with stream mixers that serve to reduce the noise emitted by the jet leaving the nozzle, while also improving the performance of the engine.
More precisely, the separate-stream nozzles of turbojets are generally constituted by a confluent flow nacelle containing a primary cover defining a first annular channel for the flow of a primary stream (or hot stream) coming from the combustion chamber, and a secondary cover disposed concentrically around the primary cover so as to define a second annular channel for the flow of a secondary stream (or cold stream) coming from the fan.
In order to reduce the noise of the jet generated at the outlet from such a nozzle, it is known to use mixers having a special design for encouraging mixing between the primary and secondary streams coming from the turbojet. One of the designs in widespread use at present in civilian turbojets comprises the lobe mixer. The lobe mixer serves to obtain radial shear between the primary and secondary streams, thereby encouraging mixing between those streams. Embodiments of lobe mixers for separate-stream nozzles are described in particular in the following documents: EP 1 141 534; U.S. Pat. No. 5,755,092; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,924,632.
Nevertheless, although a mixer of that type serves to improve the efficiency and the sound performance of turbojets having separate-stream nozzles, it inevitably increases the weight of the nozzle, thereby impacting the dynamics of the engine as a whole and of its connection with the wiring pylon. A lobe mixer is traditionally made of a metal, typically of Inconel® 625. Consequently, it represents a non-negligible extra weight cantilevered out from the engine, leading to an increase in the mechanical load on the flange of the nozzle exhaust casing, in particular in the event of extreme or limiting loads as occur with the loss of a blade or in response to unbalance. This additional weight also generates an increase in the forces at the engine-to-pylon interfaces.


An OE spinning apparatus 1 with a spinning rotor 2 having a hollow shaft 26 supported radially in a wedge-like gap 25 of a support-disk bearing 4 and driven by an individual motor 9 comprising an armature 11 integrated into hollow shaft 26 at its end and a stator 10 fixed to spinning-box housing 12. Pressure roller 8 rotates about axis 24 angled acutely to rotor shaft 3 to urge rotor shaft 3 into the gap 25 and also in the direction of axial bearing 13, which may be a permanent magnet bearing or pneumatic bearing. Spinning apparatus 1 thereby has a high natural frequency, which makes possible very high rotor speeds.

The present invention relates to open-end spinning apparatus and, more particularly, to an open-end spinning apparatus with a spinning rotor having a rotor shaft supported in a wedge-like gap, or spandrel, between two spaced pair of support rollers and driven by an individual drive motor.
It is especially important in the continuing development of open-end spinning machines that, in addition to improving the quality of the yarns produced, the production output of such textile machines is increased. The speed of the spinning rotor is primarily determinative of the production output of open-end rotor spinning machines. For this reason, various drive and bearing variants have been developed for spinning rotors over the course of past years which make it possible to achieve rotor speeds above 100,000 rpms.
In the embodiment most frequently used in practice, two pairs of disk-like support rollers are provided in spaced relation about adjacent rotational axes for supporting the axial shaft of the spinning rotor in the wedge-like gap, or spandrel, defined by the rollers, with the rotor shaft being driven by a tangential belt which biases the shaft into the gap. The axes of the support disk pairs are slightly out of parallel to intersect one another at an acute angle, so that a force component directed on the end of the rotor shaft is produced. The necessary axial support of the rotor shaft takes place in these known rotor spinning devices preferably via a mechanical axial bearing or via a magnet bearing, as is shown by way of example in German Patent Publication DE 40 22 562 A1.
Another spinning apparatus which has a comparable support arrangement for the rotor shaft is described in German Patent Publication DE 37 34 545 A1. This publication discloses, among other things, a variant in which the individual spinning rotors are not driven by a common tangential belt running the length of the machine but rather are driven by individual drives. In this case, the rotor shafts of the individual spinning rotors are each biased into the support roller gap by a drive roller engaging the rotor shaft in opposition to the support rollers and driven by an electromotor. Although the publication explains that rotor speeds of greater than 150,000 rpms can be achieved with such a device, this known device has not been accepted in practice.
Single-motor drives for spinning rotors are also known from Japanese Patent Publication JP-A 60-224823 and German Patent Publication DE-OS 22 03 586.
Japanese Patent Publication JP-A 60-224823 discloses a spinning rotor supported with its rotor shaft supported in a bearing formed of support-disk pairs with an electric drive operating on the rotor shaft in the area between the support disks. Specifically, a rotor armature fixed externally to the rotor shaft rotates in a stator fixed to the support body of the support-disk bearing or to the spinning-box housing.
German Patent Publication DE-OS 22 03 586 describes a similar device wherein the individual electric drive is also formed by a rotor armature fixed externally to the rotor shaft and by a stationary stator arranged on the spinning-box housing. The drive can be arranged either on the end of the rotor shaft or as in Japanese Patent Publication JP-A 60-224823 in the area between the support disks.
These devices have the particular disadvantage that it is not possible to exchange the spinning components without expensive mounting work on the spinning unit since spinning rotors designed in this manner can not be readily removed to the front out of the rotor housing as is customary in other known open-end spinning machines, e.g., those machines having spinning rotors driven via tangential belts.

Open-end spinning apparatus with a spinning rotor driven by a single motor


Provided is a mask for an evaporation apparatus, which includes a first division mask and a second division mask. The first and second division masks are directly bonded to each other by welding, thereby forming welding portion between the first and the second division masks. A method and apparatus for manufacturing a mask for evaporation are also provided. The division masks according to the embodiment do not use subframes, and are directly bonded to one another by welding, so that a shadow effect does not occur. The apparatus for manufacturing a mask for evaporation includes a work stage, a clamp fixing a first division mask and a second division mask to the work stage, and a laser welding part welding the first division mask to the second division mask. The apparatus may further include a first roller leading the laser welding part and a second roller following the laser welding part.

1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to a mask for evaporation including a first division mask and a second division mask, and a method and apparatus for manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an organic light emitting diode (OLED) includes an organic layer interposed between a first electrode (i.e., an anode) and a second electrode (i.e., a cathode). The first electrode is a transparent electrode formed of, for example, indium tin oxide (ITO), and the second electrode is formed of a metal having a low work function, such as Ca, Li, or Al. When a forward voltage is applied to the OLED, holes emitted from the anode combine with electrons emitted from the cathode to form excitons, and while the excitons are making the transition from an excited state to a ground state, light is emitted.
The second electrode is generally formed as a reflective electrode that reflects light, while the first electrode is generally formed as a transmissive electrode that transmits light. Thus, an OLED emitting light emitted from the organic layer to the second electrode may be manufactured.
Here, the organic layer may be formed by various methods. One of the methods is an evaporation method. To manufacture an OLED display device by an evaporation method, a mask having the same pattern as a thin film to be formed is attached to a surface on which the thin film will be formed, and a material for the thin film is evaporated to form the thin film having a predetermined pattern.
Meanwhile, as a flat panel display becomes larger, such a mask also becomes larger. For example, in current manufacturers of masks, a mask corresponding to a size of a 5.5 G substrate (1320 mm×1500 mm) cannot be manufactured, and thus a division mask should be used.
Generally, such a division mask is formed by equally quartering a mask frame into lattice-type subframes, and bonding masks disposed to correspond to divided openings by welding.
However, the method of equally dividing the mask frame into the subframes and bonding the masks to the divided openings by welding leads to a shadow effect due to the subframe. Thus, it is difficult to perform uniform evaporation.

Mask for evaporation, and method and apparatus for manufacturing the same

Samsung-ro, Giheung-Gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-Do


A processor-implemented method includes receiving, from a mobile device, transmission information corresponding to an audio data transmission associated with an audio data packet loss of one or more audio data packets. The processor determines, based at least in part on the transmission information, a geographic region associated with a wireless communication network transceiver. The processor further determines an average audio data packet loss rate associated with the geographic region and a correlation between the audio data packet loss and at least one key performance indicator (KPI). The KPI is indicative of the audio data transmission. Based at least in part on (i) the average audio data packet loss rate and (ii) the correlation between the audio data packet loss and the at least one KPI, the processor generates a handover instruction comprising at least one threshold value for transitioning control from a first cell channel to a second cell channel.

Modern telecommunication systems include heterogeneous mixtures of second, third, and fourth generation (2G, 3G, and 4G) cellular-wireless access technologies, which may be cross-compatible and may operate collectively to provide data communication services. Global Systems for Mobile (GSM) is an example of 2G telecommunications technologies; Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) is an example of 3G telecommunications technologies; and Long Term Evolution (LTE), including LTE Advanced, and Evolved High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA+) are examples of 4G telecommunications technologies.
Telecommunication systems may allocate certain bands of frequencies for transmission of signals based on predicted data traffic and availability of the communication channels. Network coverage for modern telecommunications systems is often allocated, in part, using prediction analysis and field testing. Handover settings control when and how network connections are handed from one cell channel to another cell channel, and control the frequency bands assigned for the handover. A variety of factors may be considered for the settings, such as known cell tower location, power associated with the cell tower, frequency band availability, and observations of connectivity and transmission issues. Furthermore, consideration needs to be given to the handover process in that audio quality is correlated to the handover process.

Wireless communication network audio data packet loss diagnostics and visualization system


According to one embodiment, an inspection apparatus includes an image generation device which generates a second image corresponding to a first image and a defect detection device which detects a defect in the second image with respect to the first image. The defect detection device is configured to extract a first partial region in which an amount of change of a luminance of the first image and an amount of change of a luminance of the second image have a correlation, and correct, in the first partial region, the luminance of the first image with respect to the luminance of the second image.

In inspection of a circuit pattern provided on a semiconductor device, a process of comparing and computing an image to be inspected, which has been actually acquired, with a reference image, which is used as a reference based on which it is evaluated whether the circuit pattern is in the correct state, is performed, thereby generating a differential image between them. If no defect exists in the image to be inspected, the differential image will be a flat image with a substantially constant tone. If a defect exists, a pattern that shows a notable light-dark change with respect to its surroundings appears at the same position as that of the defect in the differential image.
Owing to a cause that is unavoidable in principle, the environment during inspection, etc., a position gap and spatial distortion exist in an image to be inspected. In such a case, a pattern called a false defect that exhibits a notable light-dark change with respect to its surroundings, even though it is not actually a defect, may occur in the differential image generated in the above manner.
To suppress erroneous defect detection due to a false defect, various schemes have been proposed for measuring and estimating a position gap and distortion based on comparison of a circuit pattern. However, when a reference image is generated from a database, a luminance difference may occur between the reference image and an image to be inspected, and the luminance difference may prevent the position gap and the spatial distortion from being estimated with a high precision.

Inspection apparatus that detects defect in image and inspection method and storage medium thereof


By providing vias of increased mass flow blocking capability next to respective line segments of an electromigration test structure, the reliability of respective assessments may be enhanced, since electromigration-induced void formation in the test line segment under consideration may be efficiently decoupled from metal diffusion of neighboring test areas of the test structure.

1. Field of the Invention
Generally, the present disclosure relates to the formation of microstructures, such as advanced integrated circuits, and, more particularly, to the formation and examination of conductive structures, such as metal regions, and their characteristics during stress conditions.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the fabrication of modern microstructures, such as integrated circuits, there is a continuous drive to steadily reduce the feature sizes of microstructure elements, thereby enhancing the functionality of these structures. For instance, in modern integrated circuits, minimum feature sizes, such as the channel length of field effect transistors, have reached the deep submicron range, thereby increasing performance of these circuits in terms of speed and/or power consumption. As the size of individual circuit elements is reduced with every new circuit generation, thereby improving, for example, the switching speed of the transistor elements, the available floor space for interconnect lines electrically connecting the individual circuit elements is also decreased. Consequently, the dimensions of these inter-connect lines have to be reduced to compensate for a reduced amount of available floor space and for an increased number of circuit elements provided per unit die area. The reduced cross-sectional area of the interconnect lines, possibly in combination with an increase in the static power consumption of extremely scaled transistor elements, may require a plurality of stacked metallization layers to meet the requirements in view of a tolerable current density in the metal lines.
Advanced integrated circuits, including transistor elements having a critical dimension of 0.13 μm and even less, may, however, require significantly increased current densities in the individual interconnect lines, despite the provision of a relatively large number of metallization layers, owing to the significant number of circuit elements per unit area. Operating the interconnect lines at elevated current densities, however, may entail a plurality of problems related to stress-induced line degradation, which may finally lead to a premature failure of the integrated circuit. One prominent phenomenon in this respect is the current-induced material transportation in metal regions, i.e., lines and vias, also referred to as "electromigration," which may lead to the formation of voids within and hillocks or protrusions next to the metal regions, thereby resulting in reduced performance and reliability or complete failure of the device. For instance, aluminum lines and vias embedded into silicon dioxide and/or silicon nitride are frequently used as metal for metallization layers, wherein, as explained above, advanced integrated circuits having critical dimensions of 0.18 μm or less, may require significantly reduced cross-sectional areas of the metal lines and, thus, increased current densities, which may render aluminum less attractive for the formation of metallization layers.
Consequently, aluminum is increasingly being replaced by copper as copper exhibits a significantly lower resistivity and exhibits significant electromigration effects at considerably higher current densities as compared to aluminum. The introduction of copper into the fabrication of microstructures and integrated circuits comes along with a plurality of severe problems residing in copper's characteristic to readily diffuse in silicon dioxide and a plurality of low-k dielectric materials. To provide the necessary adhesion and to avoid the undesired diffusion of copper atoms into sensitive device regions, it is, therefore, usually necessary to provide a barrier layer between the copper and the dielectric material in which the copper lines and vias are embedded. Although silicon nitride is a dielectric material that effectively prevents the diffusion of copper atoms, selecting silicon nitride as an interlayer dielectric material is less then desirable, since silicon nitride exhibits a moderately high permittivity, thereby increasing the parasitic capacitance of neighboring copper lines. Hence, a thin conductive barrier layer that also imparts the required mechanical stability to the copper is formed to separate the bulk copper from the surrounding dielectric material, and only a thin silicon nitride or silicon carbide or silicon carbon nitride layer in the form of a capping layer is frequently used in copper-based metallization layers. Currently, tantalum, titanium, tungsten, tungsten/cobalt/phosphorous compounds, tungsten/cobalt/boron compounds and their compounds with nitrogen and silicon and the like are preferred candidates for a conductive barrier layer, wherein the barrier layer may comprise two or more sub-layers of different composition to meet the requirements in terms of diffusion suppressing and adhesion properties.
Another characteristic of copper significantly distinguishing it from aluminum is the fact that copper may not be readily deposited in large amounts by chemical and physical vapor deposition techniques. Additionally, copper may not be efficiently patterned by anisotropic dry etch processes, thereby requiring a process strategy that is commonly referred to as the damascene or inlaid technique. In the damascene process, first a dielectric layer is formed which is then patterned to include trenches and vias which are subsequently filled with copper or copper alloys, wherein, as previously noted, prior to filling in the copper-based metal, a conductive barrier layer is formed within the trenches and vias. The deposition of the bulk copper material into the trenches and vias is usually accomplished by wet chemical deposition processes, such as electroplating and electroless plating, thereby requiring the reliable filling of vias with an aspect ratio of 5 and more with a diameter of 0.1 μm or even less in combination with trenches having a width ranging from 0.1 μm or less to several μm. Although electrochemical deposition processes for copper are well established in the field of electronic circuit board fabrication, a substantially void-free filling of high aspect ratio vias is an extremely complex and challenging task, wherein the characteristics of the finally obtained copper metal line depend significantly on process parameters, materials and geometry of the structure of interest. Since the dimensions of interconnect structures are determined by the design requirements and may, therefore, not be significantly altered for a given microstructure, it is of great importance to estimate and control the impact of materials, such as conductive and non-conductive barrier layers, of the copper-based microstructure and their mutual interaction on the characteristics of the interconnect structure so as to insure both high yield and the required product reliability. In particular, it is important to identify and monitor degradation and failure mechanisms in interconnect structures for various configurations to maintain device reliability for every new device generation or technology node.
Accordingly, a great deal of effort has been made in the past decades in investigating the degradation of copper lines and vias, especially in view of electromigration, in order to find new materials and process strategies for forming copper-based metal lines and vias. Although the exact mechanism of electromigration in copper lines and vias is still not quite fully understood, it turns out that voids positioned in and on sidewalls and interfaces and voids and residuals at the via bottom may have a significant impact on production yield and reliability. Except for gross failures, such defects in vias, which may be provided in the form of via chains as control monitor structures in wafer scribe lines, are difficult to detect in standard electrical testing procedures. Thus, great efforts are made in designing appropriately configured test structures in order to estimate the electromigration behavior of vias and lines to estimate the expected time to failure for vias and metal lines, wherein the results may be indicative for the specifics of actual metallization structures only when well-defined conditions may be established in the test structure. Otherwise, the respective test results may lead to substantially meaningless statements with respect to the actual circuit features. For example, for estimating the mean time to failure of a via and a line connected thereto, which are manufactured according to a specific process flow on the basis of specified materials, such as copper, aluminum, silver and the like, including specific barrier materials, a test structure is formed on the basis of the specific process flow, wherein the design of the test structure is selected such that an electromigration induced failure, i.e., a respective flux divergence of the material flux in the line or via, is caused in a specified section of the test structure only. Thus, by applying well-defined stress conditions, such as temperature and an injected current, the respective section may be monitored with respect to a resistance increase that may indicate an electromigration induced void formation and thus a line or via failure.
With reference to FIGS. 1a-1c, a typical conventional test structure for estimating electromigration effects in metallization layers of semiconductor devices will now be described in more detail in order to demonstrate the principles and the problems associated with the conventional test regime.
FIG. 1a schematically illustrates a cross-sectional view of a portion of a test structure 100 comprising a substrate 101, which may represent any appropriate substrate for forming semiconductor devices or any other microstructural features which require a metallization layer for providing electrical connections in accordance with a specific circuit layout. For instance, the substrate 101 may represent a semiconductor substrate, such as a silicon substrate, having formed thereon a respective semiconductor layer suitable for the formation of circuit elements, such as transistors, capacitors and the like. A first dielectric layer 102, which may be comprised of any appropriate dielectric material as may be used in the metallization layer under consideration, is formed above the substrate 101 and may represent the dielectric material of a respective metallization layer. For instance, the dielectric layer 102 may be formed on the basis of the same process techniques and materials as are used for metallization layers in other substrates or the layer 102 may represent a portion of a metallization layer of a semiconductor device including the test structure 100 at a specific substrate location. Moreover, a metal line 103 may be formed within the dielectric layer 102 and may have specified dimensions and characteristics so as to exhibit a reduced probability for suffering from electromigration effects, that is, metal diffusion when subjected to predefined test conditions. The metal line 103 may be confined by a conductive barrier layer 104, comprised of, for instance, tantalum and the like, and a dielectric cap layer 109 that may be comprised of any appropriate material, such as silicon nitride and the like. Furthermore, respective metal lines 106 are provided in a next metallization level comprising a further dielectric layer 108 including a cap layer 110, wherein the metal lines 106 are connected to the metal line 103 by respective vias 105. Similar to the metal line 103, the lines 106 and the vias may also include a conductive barrier layer 107.
The test structure 100 may represent a test structure for evaluating the reliability of the metallization level comprising the metal lines 106 and the vias 105. As previously explained, electromigration effects have been the subject of extensive investigations over several decades, wherein it was recognized that electromigration, originating from the interaction of the moving electrons with diffusing metal atoms, thereby exerting a net force on the diffusing metal atoms at high charge carrier densities, may be one dominant reason for premature device failure, thus requiring efficient mechanisms for identifying and avoiding or reducing metal line and via degradation mechanisms. Since electromigration is an interaction between electrons and diffusing metal atoms, such as increased diffusion activity, for instance due to increased temperature, an increased degree of lattice defects, or in general due to the presence of increased diffusion paths, such as grain boundaries, respective interfaces and the like, electromigration is highly dependent on the specific manufacturing techniques and materials used. In advanced semiconductor devices, the dimensions of the respective vias and metal lines may also have a significant influence on the finally achieved degree of material transport within the metal lines. Although, in modern semiconductor devices, copper and copper alloys are frequently used which exhibit a significantly higher resistance against electromigration and have a lower electrical resistance, the ongoing reduction in line width has resulted in moderately high current densities, also causing a high degree of electromigration in copper-based metallization layers. Since a plurality of complex mechanisms may have a significant influence on the electromigration behavior, such as grain size, grain orientation, type of barrier material used, type of dielectric barrier materials and the like, it is of great importance to effectively monitor manufacturing techniques in order to control and improve product reliability. Thus, specifically designed test structures, such as the structure 100, have been developed, which may enable obtaining meaningful estimations on the electromigration characteristics.
When the characteristics of the lines and vias 106, 105 are to be examined, the metal line 103 is typically configured such that, with respect to the respective electromigration conditions, a corresponding material transport may substantially not occur. For this purpose, in conventional techniques, the line 103 may have a significantly reduced length compared to the lines 106, which are typically formed on the basis of design rules of actual devices.
FIG. 1b schematically illustrates a top view of the test structure 100 as shown in FIG. 1a, wherein voltage taps 111 are shown which are connected to the line 106, which may be considered as a device under test (DUT). Hence, the voltage taps 111 enable obtaining measurement values with respect to resistance degradation of the line 106 during an electromigration test.
FIG. 1c schematically illustrates a top view of the structure 100 according to a space-efficient implementation, wherein a plurality of lines 106 are connected by means of the vias 105 and respective short metal lines 103. The test chain of the structure 100 allows enhanced measurement accuracy and statistical significance, due to the plurality of metal lines 106 involved, wherein the measurement data may be obtained by appropriately positioned voltage taps, such as the taps 111.
The test structure 100 may be formed on the basis of well-established techniques, using the inlaid or damascene technique, wherein, as previously explained, the conductive barrier layer 107 is provided in order to obtain the required characteristics with respect to the suppression of diffusion of copper into the dielectric material and diffusion of reactive components into the copper-based metal regions, wherein, additionally, the characteristics of the barrier layer 107 may significantly affect the electromigration behavior.
During operation of the test structure 100, a respective current may be injected into the lines 106 in order to create an electron flow from one of the lines 106 to another line 106 via the metal line 103 and the vias 105. By means of the voltage taps 111, a respective resistance increase may be detected which indicates a corresponding void formation in the via 105 and/or the metal line 106, since these components are expected to be the "weakest" members of the entire conductive path. Consequently, the resistance change may be used as an indication for the electromigration behavior of the interconnect system including the via 105 and the metal line 106. For example, respective mean times to failure may be estimated on the basis of the resistance measurements. In practice, the corresponding time to failure and, thus, the reliability metrics derived from the test structure 100 may, in some cases, lead to unrealistic predictions for actual devices, especially for extremely scaled metallization structures involving the formation of respective barrier layers. For example, the corresponding barrier layer 107 may have been formed with reduced thickness or coverage at the bottom of one or more of the vias 105 due to process related non-uniformities during the physical vapor deposition, as is typically used for applying the barrier layer 107. Due to the non-uniformity of the barrier layer 107 at the via bottom, a significant mass flow may also occur in the metal line 103 during the stress test, thereby acting as a reservoir of copper for the metal line 106 located downstream of the metal line 103, representing the device under consideration. Hence, a regular void formation, corresponding to the electromigration conditions presently established, in the metal line 106 under consideration may be significantly reduced due to the replenishment of lost copper by the mass flow through the line 103, which is usually expected to lack a significant mass flow. As a consequence, based on the electromigration test, the line 106 under consideration may indicate a long life time and thus reliability of the respective actual metallization structures, while, however, the test structure 100 itself may be faulty, thereby rendering the measurement results of the test structure 100 less reliable.
The present disclosure is directed to various methods and systems that may avoid, or at least reduce, the effects of one or more of the problems identified above.

Test structure for estimating electromigration effects with increased robustness with respect to barrier defects in vias


The present invention provides an anonymous selectable credential system and method therefor. In the system, a credential authority issues root credentials to a user for certain user rights. The user generates an anonymous selectable credential from the root credentials that correspond to a selected set of user rights, and presents the anonymous selectable credential to a service. Using the anonymous selectable credential, the user can prove to the service through a knowledge proof that the selected set of user rights was granted by the credential authority. Then the service may provide service to the user according to the verified user rights. By generating and presenting different anonymous selectable credentials, the user could remain anonymous no matter how many times he/she accessed one or more services. The user can selectively prove any portion of his/her full set of rights, and no matter how many rights is to be proved, the computational cost is basically the same as that for proving only one right.

With the proliferation of smart gadgets, appliances, mobile devices, PDAs and sensors, ubiquitous computing environments may be constructed, which consist of interconnected devices and services, promising seamless integration of digital infrastructure into our everyday lives. The inevitable trend is ever increasing ubiquitous communications as the users have the freedom to choose the access network technologies, applications, and services. There are methods as well that enhance the usage of mobile devices, by making them available throughout the physical environment, and effectively invisible to the users.
Before ubiquitous computing being commercially and widely adopted and deployed, there are several security and privacy challenges it must overcome. Generic security requirements of ubiquitous computing consist of authentication and authorization etc. Authorization simply means the act of determining if a particular right, such as access to some resource, can be granted to the presenter of a particular credential. Logically, authorization is preceded by authentication which is on top of confidentiality, integrity, and non-repudiation. Authentication ensures that a user is who he or she claims to be while authorization allows the user access to various services based on the user's identity.
As a classical research realm, authorization has been well studied in the academia. However, resulted solutions to authorization do not take privacy protection into consideration. For example, traditional authorizations may issue one credential to a user for certain access rights. The user can therefore present this credential to a service so as to use the service according to the rights he/she has been granted. Such kind of authorization solution could raise severe privacy concern in ubiquitous computing environment due to the fact that one credential is presented multiple times to the service and the fact that the rights a user holds have to be presented as a whole to the service.
For example, a traveler roams to a city and tries to enjoy shopping service, hotel service, traffic service, etc., provided by the city's tourism portal. The traveler may pay to the tourism portal for one-day access right on shopping service and hotel service. Suppose the tourism portal issues one credential to the traveler stating that the traveler is authorized to access shopping service and hotel service on Jan. 1, 2006 only. When the traveler presents this credential to the shopping service multiple times, his/her activities could be easily correlated because of the single credential in use and the user's behavior pattern may be modeled. And it will be effortless for the shopping service to learn that the traveler has hotel service right. In any case, these are considered privacy invasion since e.g. advertisement, direct marketing may arise.
As privacy protection is such as important task for ubiquitous computing to address, a desirable privacy respected authorization is expected to satisfy the following requirements.
1) Unlinkable authorized access. It's computationally infeasible for a ubiquitous service, or multiple ubiquitous services together, to correlate activities of its authorized user. In other words, one ubiquitous user could remain anonymous no matter how many times he/she has accessed one or more services that the user is authorized.
2) Selective minimal rights. It's computationally infeasible for a ubiquitous service or multiple ubiquitous services together, to learn any right of an authorized user other than that he/she has presented to the service/services for verification. In other words, for each admitted session, what the service learned is rights of the user that are exactly required by the session. The service can learn neither user rights on the service that are however unnecessary to the session, nor user rights on other services.
It's not hard to imagine a central authorization server that the ubiquitous user as well as the ubiquitous service needs to consult for each access. One of such approach is, for example, proposed by C. Y. Yeun, E. K. Lua, J. Crowcroft, Security for Emerging Ubiquitous Networks, IEEE 62nd Vehicular Technology Conference, 2005. By this approach, for each access attempt of a user, the service needs to consult the central authorization server in terms of what rights a user has on the service. Obviously, by this approach user privacy is somehow protected because the user never directly presents his full access rights to the service.
However, with respect to ubiquitous computing, it's not a good idea to ask ubiquitous user as well service to consult central authorization server for each access. Such approach has many problems.
For example, the users will not always have persisted connections to the central point of authorization. Weak network connection is the most advocated reason for this case. Nevertheless, there are other reasons for users not to keep persisted connections to the central point of authorization, be it long round-trip time toward central point of authorization, extra expense in money terms, or additional overhead on battery energy.
In addition, central point of authorization is not able to face the challenge of huge number of ubiquitous users. As aforementioned, if each user only has one authorization credential from the central point of authorization, such authorization credential effectively help the service to correlate activities of the users. Thus, to fulfill requirements on privacy protection, central point of authorization has to be prepared for requests from its huge number of users for each session he/she access a service. Scalability is therefore becoming a severe issue.
There are other solutions that don't need to consult central authorization server for each user access. One solution is Simple Public-Key Infrastructure (SPKI), proposed by IETF as RFC 2693. SPKI can provide authorization certificate that relies upon the uniqueness of the combination of a pseudonym and a public-key. SPKI authorization certificates can authorize actions, give permissions, and grant capabilities to or for a public-key holder. The paper entitled A First Approach to Provide Anonymity in AttributeCertificates in Proc. PKC 2004 by V. Benjumea et al. presents another solution for a user to get anonymous attribute certificate so as to anonymously access a service based on the attribute certificate.
However, in terms of SPKI, by which the user and service are free from consulting central server for each access, the certificate authority has to explicitly issue all the authorization certificates for all its users. The same analysis applies to the idea presented by V. Benjumea, because in their scheme, for each pseudonym a user acquires from the trusted third party, there is one and only one attribute certificate being generated. Therefore, to get multiple attribute certificates implies to get multiple pseudonyms from the trusted third party.
SPKI and Benjumea's approach have drawback in that when one certificate is presented to a service more than one times, the user's activities could be easily correlated. Hence, to access a service multiple times without being correlated, the user has to acquire multiple certificates. It's obvious that such schemes could not scale well in large-scale ubiquitous computing environment.
SPKI and Benjumea' approach have another drawback in that roughly speaking, the computational cost for a user to present N attributes is N times larger than that of presenting one attribute. Albeit it's possible to incorporate N attributes in one certificate so as to overcome the computation cost issue. Then, it's impossible for the user to present only a portion of N attributes without revealing the other portion of attributes which is of significant privacy concern.

Anonymous selectable credential system and method therefor


Examples described herein relate to apparatus and methods for managing rewards for a customer of a financial institution, including but not limited to, determining a transaction pattern associated with transactions made by the customer, determining a deviation from the transaction pattern, determining an event associated with the customer based on the deviation, and determining rewards that correspond to the event for the customer.

A financial institutions typically awards customers who use financial products and services of the financial institution with various types of rewards to deepen relationships and to incentivize loyalty. For instance, based on certain customer behaviors such as opening a new account or spending above a threshold on a designated credit card, rewards may be given. The reward may represent utility which the customers may appreciate, thus enticing the customers to further use the financial products and services.

Management of rewards using transaction listening


Genes and proteins involved in the biosynthesis of benzodiazepines by microorganisms, including the genes and proteins forming the biosynthetic loci for the benzodiazepine anthramycin from Streptomyces refuineus subsp. thermotolerans including non-ribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPS). The genes and proteins allow direct manipulation of benzodiazepines and related chemical structures via chemical engineering of the enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of anthramycin.

Anthramycin is a member of a class of natural compounds named pyrrolo[1,4]benzodiazepines (PDBs) or, more simply, the benzodiazepine antibiotics. Members of the benzodiazepine antibiotics include the compounds sibiromycin, tomaymycin, neothramycin, porothramycin, sibanomycin, mazethramycin, DC-81, chicamycin and abbeymycin. Naturally occurring benzodiazepine antibiotics are structurally related tricyclic compounds, consisting of an aromatic-ring, a 1,4-diazepin-5-one-ring bearing a N10-C11 imine-carbinolamine moiety, and a pyrrol-ring, as shown below. Different patterns of substitution of the three rings distinguish the different members of this antibiotic class.

Precursor feeding studies have established the biosynthetic building blocks for anthramycin (Hurley et al., 1975, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 97(15), 4372–4378). The anthranilate moieties of these antibiotics are derived from tryptophan via the kynurenine pathway, with the three antibiotics differing in the pattern of substitution at the aromatic ring (Hurley & Gariola, 1979 Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 15:42–45). The 2-carbon and 3-carbon proline units of the antibiotics are derived from catabolism of L-tyrosine. The additional carbon atom found in the 3-carbon proline unit of anthramycin and sibiromycin is derived from methionine and is absent in the 2-carbon proline unit of tomaymycin. Despite the precursor feeding studies, the genes and proteins forming the biosynthetic locus for producing anthramycin have remained unidentified. Many low molecular weight peptides produced by bacteria are synthesized nonribosomally on large multifunctional proteins termed peptide synthetases (Konz & Marahiel, 1999, Chem. Biol., Vol. 6, pp. R39–R48). Nonribosomal peptide synthetases (NRPSs) are multidomain proteins that contain sets of functional domains arranged into units called modules. Konz & Marahiel (1999) teaches that the sinqie domains can be detected easily in sequence aliqnments by the presence of highly conserved signature or 'core' sequences that impart each domain type a characteristic fingerprint, irrespective of the enzyme origin, and discloses the conserved motifs of functional domains (FIG. 3 and Table 2 of Konz & Marahiel).
Benzodiazepine antibiotics have been shown to possess potent biological activitities, including antibiotic, antitumor and antiviral activities (Hurley, 1977, J. Antibiot. 30:349). However, clinical use of benzodiazepine has been compromised primarily because of dose-limiting cardiotoxicity. Consequently, considerable effort has been devoted to creating heterocyclic analogs of the benzodiazepine antibiotics that would retain the desired antitumor activities while avoiding the formation of cardiotoxic quinone-amine products. Elucidation of gene clusters involved in the biosynthesis of benzodiazepines expands the repertoire of genes and proteins useful to produce benzodiazepines via combinatorial biosynthesis.
There is great interest in discovering and developing small molecules capable of binding to DNA in a sequence-selective manner. Anthramycin binds the minor groove of DNA and generates covalent adducts at the 2-amino group of guanine bases. Anthramycin minor groove binding exhibits G-C base specificity. The sequence A-G-A is most favored of all, perhaps because it allows drug binding in either orientation (the acrylamide tail binds at the 5′ position of the binding site and prefers the deep minor groove of an AT pair; G-G-G is disfavored because it makes no accommodation for the acrylamide tail in either direction). Compounds having the potential to target and down-regulate individual genes would be useful in the therapy of genetic-based diseases such as cancer. Such compounds would also be useful in diagnostics, functional genomics and target validation (Thurston et al. 1999, J. Med. Chem. 42:1951–1964). Elucidation of the genes and proteins forming the biosynthetic locus for anthramycin provides a means of generating small molecules capable of binding to DNA in a sequence selective manner.
Existing screening methods for identifying benzodiazepine-producing microbes are laborious, time consuming and have not provided sufficient discrimination to date to detect organisms producing benzodiazepine natural products at low levels. There is a need for tools capable of detecting organisms that produce benzodiazepines at levels that are not detected by traditional culture tests.

Nucleic acid fragment encoding an NRPS for the biosynthesis of anthramycin


Various embodiments provide methods and systems for controlling an access to applications on a mobile terminal. In an exemplary method, an opened application can be scanned and an application identification can be obtained. The application identification can be compared with a pre-stored target application identification. When the application identification is compared to be consistent with the pre-stored target application identification, an unlock interface can be displayed. An unlock command can be obtained to run the application on the mobile terminal. An exemplary system for controlling an access to an application on a mobile terminal can include a scanning module, a comparing module, a displaying module, and an executing module.

With development of computer technology, mobile terminals are becoming increasingly popular. To meet user experience requirements, various applications are installed on a mobile terminal. These applications may contain personal information of a user. Such personal information is confidential and not supposed to be known by others. Therefore, security for accessing applications on the mobile terminal becomes more and more important.
For example, various applications may be installed on a mobile phone based on an Android platform. These applications may be used to check call records and/or personal information records, to check multimedia resources, to view an album, etc. In many cases, these applications may be easily accessed. When the phone is lost but found by others or is borrowed by others, the owner's personal/profile information may be viewed by others. In other words, the owner's personal or profile information is not effectively protected.
It is therefore desirable to provide methods and systems for controlling access to applications on a mobile terminal to ensure security of applications on the mobile terminal.

Method and system for controlling access to applications on mobile terminal

TENCENT TECHNOLOGY (SHENZHEN) COMPANY LIMITED


A method is for generating an X-ray image dataset via an X-ray detector having a converter element and a multiplicity of pixel elements. In an embodiment, the method includes first counting of at least one quantity of count signals dependent upon the incident X-ray radiation in each pixel element of the multiplicity of pixel elements; second counting of at least one quantity of coincidence count signals in each pixel element of the subset of pixel elements with at least one further pixel element of the multiplicity of pixel elements; and generating an X-ray image dataset based upon the at least one quantity of count signals counted in each pixel element of the multiplicity of pixel elements and upon the at least one quantity of coincidence count signals counted in each pixel element of the subset of pixel elements.

Photon-counting X-ray detectors are used in many imaging applications. These X-ray detectors are used, for example, in computed tomography systems in medical imaging in order to generate a tomographic X-ray image of an examination region of a patient.
The use of photon-counting detectors in X-ray imaging offers a series of advantages over energy-integrating detectors. They enable a high level of spatial resolution and an intrinsically energy-resolving scan. The image quality of present-day photon-counting X-ray detectors, however, is limited by the finite extent of the charge clouds generated (and by the generation of characteristic X-ray radiation) in the detector material. This has the result that the entire energy of the X-ray photon is not always deposited in the pixel concerned, but a part of the energy is registered in one or more adjacent pixels. As a result, firstly photons are registered under the wrong energy and, secondly photons can also be counted multiple times in adjacent pixels (=coincidence). These coincidences not only impair the spectral properties of the detector, but also lead quite generally to a deterioration of the DQE (detective quantum efficiency) of the detector due to an increase in the noise and a decrease in the spatial resolution. This is therefore an effect that degrades the image quality for all applications.
The typical circuit design approach to solving the problem consists in the implementation of so-called "charge summing" circuits in the evaluating electronics unit of the detector. Herein, during the detection process, in the analogue part of the evaluating electronics unit of a pixel, in particular, it is recognized that charge has been deposited in a plurality of adjacent pixels and the whole charge of all the pixels is assigned to one pixel (typically the pixel with the most charge or the fastest current rise). Thereby, double counting is prevented and the original charge is also almost restored. A disadvantage of such circuits is that the dead time of the pixels is hugely increased thereby. Thereby, the problem of the so-called "pulse pile-up", in which the signals of a plurality of photons become overlaid and also lead to falsified scans, is intensified. A good high flux capability, as required, for example, in computed tomography, is thus no longer available. Alternatively, by increasing the pixel size (e.g. to >0.3 mm edge length), the deterioration of the energy resolution and the DQE can be counteracted, although at the cost of the high flux capability and additionally at the cost of the spatial resolving power.
DE 10 2011 077 859 B4 discloses, for example, a quantum-counting radiation detector with an array of detector elements which each generate a charge quantity dependent upon the energy of incident radiation quanta and, to form relatively large detector units, are divided into groups of adjacent detector elements, a first processing stage, by which, for each of the groups, an electrical signal is provided which depends upon the sum of the generated charge quantities of the detector elements of the group, and a second processing stage by which the radiation quanta incident upon the respective groups are counted by evaluating the electrical signals provided, in order to obtain a count result for each group.
In "Coincidence counters for charge sharing compensation in spectroscopic photon counting detectors" by Scott S. Hsieh in IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging (doi: 10.1109/TMI.2019.2933986), a coincidence counter bin is also proposed, the implementation of which resembles existing energy bins.

Method for generating an X-ray image dataset


A lithographic process will use a mask or photomask. The photomask includes a first material layer, the first material layer providing a first outer surface of the photomask. The photomask also includes a second material layer over the first material layer, the second material layer providing a second outer surface of the photomask. The two outer surfaces are substantially in parallel and a distance between the two outer surfaces along a first axis perpendicular to the two outer surfaces defines a thickness of the photomask. Also, the two outer surfaces are connected by a plurality of sides, at least one of the sides is not perpendicular to the two outer surfaces and the at least one of the sides provides substantial area for holding the lithographic photomask.

The semiconductor integrated circuit (IC) industry has experienced rapid growth in the past several decades. Technological advances in semiconductor materials and design have produced increasingly smaller and more complex circuits. These material and design advances have been made possible as the technologies related to processing and manufacturing have also undergone technical advances. As a size of the smallest component has decreased, numerous challenges have risen. For example, the need to perform higher resolution lithography processes grows.
Photolithography processes utilize a mask (also referred to as a photomask or a reticle). A mask contains IC patterns to be printed on a substrate, such as a wafer. Any dust or contaminant particles attached to the surfaces of a mask may result in artifacts on the printed IC patterns. As IC features continue to shrink and the corresponding mask features become smaller, cleanliness in handling a mask during semiconductor manufacturing processes becomes more and more important.

Lithographic photomask with inclined sides

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


A lighting device mounting system for a dishwasher, and an associated apparatus and method, are provided, comprising a lighting device having a first portion disposed within a dishwasher tub portion and configured to emit light therefrom. The first portion has a larger lateral area than a receiving aperture defined by a tub wall of the tub portion. The lighting device includes a second portion engaged with the first portion, and adapted to extend through the receiving aperture. The second portion includes at least one laterally-extending flange extending laterally outward therefrom. A securing device having a medial hinge portion and an engageable locking mechanism associated with free opposing ends, is configured to interact with the second portion, opposite the tub wall from the first portion, and between the at least one laterally extending flange and the tub wall, so as to secure the lighting device to the tub wall.

1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present disclosure are directed to household appliances and, more particularly, to a lighting device mounting system for a household appliance such as a dishwasher, and an associated apparatus and method.
2 . Description of Related Art
A dishwasher includes a wash tub for containing the dishware to be washed, wherein the wash tub defines a front opening. The front opening is configured to be engaged by a door for closing/sealing the front opening. The door is typically hinged at the lower end thereof such that the upper end of the door can be pivoted downward so as to permit access to the interior of the wash tub. When pivoted upward to close/seal the front opening, the door is often retained in that position by a lock mechanism. The lock mechanism may further be configured to prevent the door from being opened when the dishwasher is in operation. With this structure, the dishwasher, when installed, is often recessed underneath a countertop and between cabinets. Because the wash tub is disposed underneath the countertop, such a front-opening dishwasher may not necessarily receive sufficient ambient light in the wash tub when the door is open, and thus it may be difficult for a user to see the dishware within the wash tub under such low light conditions.
Accordingly, some dishwashers may implement one or more interior lighting devices, such as incandescent lights or LEDS, disposed within and engaged with the tub of the dishwasher. In some instances, each lighting device may be attached to the top wall of the wash tub top via a "snap" fit or "snap" mechanism engaging a respective aperture defined by the top wall of the wash tub. However, because of the high temperatures and humidity experienced about the top wall of the wash tub, a uniform and consistent seal between the lighting device and the top wall of the wash tub is often required so as to prevent moisture leakage out of the wash tub. Such a uniform and consistent seal may be difficult to achieve using the discrete snap mechanisms, since such snap mechanisms generally do not extend continuously about the lighting device.
Thus, there exists a need for a mounting system capable of mounting a lighting device to a dishwasher tub wall such that a uniform and consistent seal therebetween is achieved so as to prevent moisture leakage out of the wash tub of the dishwasher.

Lighting device mounting system for household appliance, and associated apparatus and method


An intestinal catheter is inserted into the gastrointestinal tract by use of an endoscope or a guidewire in combination with an inflatable bolus and performs the functions of aspirating the stomach and feeding the small intestine. The inflatable bolus may be filled with a heavy liquid such as water so that the downstream end of the catheter is moved through the gastrointestinal tract by peristalsis.

The present invention relates generally to intestinal catheters, and more particularly to an intestinal catheter, inserted by use of an endoscope or a guidewire in combination with a bolus, for the purpose of aspirating the contents of the stomach and delivering feeding solutions to the small intestine.
The gastrointestinal tract comprises, in descending order from the mouth or nose, the esophagus, the stomach, the small intestine and the large intestine. The small intestine or bowel comprises, in descending order, the duodenum, connected to the stomach through an opening called the pylorus, the jejunum, which connects with the duodenum at a location identified by an adjacent ligament called the Ligament of Treitz, and the ileum, which in turn connects with the large bowel.
It is often desirable to emplace within the gastrointestinal tract a catheter where the downstream end of the catheter is located in the small intestine. Nelson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,676,778 and Nelson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,368,739 describe devices which can be emplaced within the small intestine. Those devices are designed to be inserted during surgery and are provided with pairs of inflatable balloons which facilitate the manipulation of the catheter through the small intestine. Because those devices require manual manipulation of the intestinal tract, they are inserted only during surgery.
There are techniques for insertion of intestinal catheters which do not involve surgery. Single lumen feeding tubes have been inserted into the intestine by use of an endoscope which attaches to a thread or cord at the downstream end of the catheter. Such catheters have sometimes been equipped with a weight or bolus portion in the catheter and are described in Russo, U.S. Pat. No. 4,769,014.
Another technique for insertion of a catheter into the intestine is by use of a guidewire. The guidewire is inserted into the tube for the purpose of adding rigidity and directional memory to the tube, and the tube and guidewire are inserted into the gastrointestinal tract. The catheter and guidewire move through the gastrointestinal tract by manipulating the guidewire at the upstream or operator end of the tube. A radiologist uses a fluoroscope to determine the position of the guidewire and catheter and to aid in moving them further through the gastrointestinal tract.
In the past, use of an endoscope or guidewire to emplace a catheter deep into the small intestine is not always satisfactory. The tight curves in the small intestine make maneuvering a catheter difficult either with an endoscope or with a guidewire. Moreover there is a need for a simple method of replacing a catheter which has been previously emplaced by use of an endoscope or a guidewire.

Gastrointestinal tube with inflatable bolus


A semiconductor device includes a first doped region disposed on a first well in a semiconductor substrate; a second doped region disposed on a second well adjacent to the first well in the semiconductor substrate, the second doped region having a dopant density higher than that of the second well; and a gate structure overlying parts of the first and second wells for controlling a current flowing between the first and second doped regions. A first spacing distance from an interface between the second doped region and the second well to its closest edge of the gate structure is greater than 200 percent of a second spacing distance from a center point of second doped region to the edge of the gate structure, thereby increasing impedance against an electrostatic discharge (ESD) current flowing between the first and second doped regions during an ESD event.

The present invention relates generally to an integrated circuit (IC) design, and more particularly to a laterally diffused metal-oxide-semiconductor (LDMOS) device with improved electrostatic discharge (ESD) performance.
As semiconductor devices continue to shrink in size, their susceptibility to ESD damage becomes an increasingly important reliability concern. An ESD event occurs when electrostatic charge is transferred between one or more pins of an IC and another object in a short period of time. The rapid charge transfer often generates voltages large enough to break down insulating films of semiconductor devices, thereby causing permanent damages. In order to protect the semiconductor devices from ESD damages, various protection circuits can be implemented at the input and output pins of the IC to shunt ESD currents away from sensitive internal structures.
The LDMOS transistor is one kind of the semiconductor devices that are particularly susceptible to damages caused by the ESD event. The LDMOS device, featured by its extended source or drain doped region, is often found in circuits operating in high voltages, such as 5, 12, 40, 100 and 1000 volts. Conventionally, the LDMOS transistor requires some additional devices or circuit modules to protect it from ESD damages. These ESD protection devices and circuit modules typically require a separate set of fabrication process steps different from those for the LDMOS transistors. Thus, the addition of these ESD protection devices and circuit modules increases the costs of manufacturing ICs that have LDMOS transistors implemented thereon.
As such, it is desirable to have a LDMOS transistor with improved ESD protection performance, thereby eliminating the need for other additional ESD protection devices and circuit modules.

LDMOS device with improved ESD performance

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


A fastener comprises a housing, a pintle and a locking feature. The housing includes a shaft, a central bore that extends axially at least partially through the housing and a ball lock aperture extending from the bore radially out through the shaft. The pintle is positioned within the bore and includes an actuation end and a rod that extends axially from the actuation end. The rod includes a ball transitioning surface and a ball locking surface. The pintle is moveable axially within the bore between a designated lock position where the ball locking surface of the pintle is aligned in register with each ball lock aperture urging a locking ball through the ball lock aperture, and a designated unlocked position where the ball lock surface of the pintle is moved axially away from each ball lock aperture allowing the locking ball to recess into the housing.

The present invention relates to a device for quickly and temporarily securing a work piece and/or a work piece holder to another work surface for use in machining operations.
In the manufacturing industry, it is often necessary to temporarily locate a work piece or work fixture at a specific position on a work surface in order to machine a mechanical part from the work piece or to perform some other industrial process on the work piece. For instance, a work piece may be machined by removing material from the work piece using a mill, router, lathe, water jet cutter, electrical discharge machine, saw, grinder or other material removing equipment.
A fixture is a work holder that is typically used to hold, support and locate the work piece during such machining operations. The fixture is further used to reference the cutting tool of a corresponding machine, e.g., to temporarily secure the work piece in a desired position relative to a cutting tool during a machining operation or to otherwise position the work piece during an industrial process. In this regard, a fixture typically includes an edge finder, center finder, or gage blocks to repeatedly and consistently position a work piece relative to the cutting tool of a corresponding machine. As such, a fixture can be used in almost any operation that requires a precise relationship in the positioning of a tool relative to a work piece.
A permanent fixture typically has a custom configuration, which is built to fit a particular part or shape. This type of fixture is often well suited for high-volume production. Alternatively, a fixture may be provided for general-purpose use. For example, in certain instances, the shape of the work piece and the machining to be performed allow for the use of a general-purpose fixture that is adaptable to different machines and/or different parts. The general-purpose fixture may be well suited for machining parts in low volume runs or for machining parts that have few critical dimensions.
Regardless of the type of fixture, the work piece is typically temporarily attached to the fixture using one or more bolts, which allows the work piece to be removed and replaced by the next part to be machined.


An electrolyte for a lithium-secondary battery including a solvent, a lithium salt and an additive, wherein the additive includes a diamine-based compound, and a lithium-secondary battery including the same.

With recent development of portable electronic devices, electric vehicles and large capacity power storage systems, demands for large capacity batteries have arisen. A lithium-sulfur battery is a secondary battery using a sulfur series material having sulfur-sulfur bonds (S—S bonds) as a positive electrode active material and using lithium metal as a negative electrode active material, and sulfur, a main material of a positive electrode active material, has advantages of being very abundant in resources, having no toxicity and having a low atomic weight.
In addition, a lithium-sulfur battery has theoretical discharge capacity of 1672 mAh/g-sulfur and theoretical energy density of 2,600 Wh/kg, which is very high compared to theoretical energy density of other battery systems currently studied (Ni-MH battery: 450 Wh/kg, Li—FeS battery: 480 Wh/kg, Li—MnO2 battery: 1,000 Wh/kg, Na—S battery: 800 Wh/kg), and therefore, has received attention as a battery having a high energy density property.
A problem that needs to be resolved first for commercializing a lithium-sulfur battery is low lifetime properties of the battery caused by lithium polysulfide. Lithium polysulfide (Li2Sx, x=8, 6, 4, 2) is an intermediate product produced during an electrochemical reaction of a lithium-sulfur battery, and has high solubility for an organic electrolyte. The lithium polysulfide dissolved in the electrolyte is gradually diffused toward a negative electrode, and is out of an electrochemical reaction area of a positive electrode, and therefore, is not able to participate in an electrochemical reaction of the positive electrode resulting in capacity loss.
In addition, lithium polysulfide elution increases viscosity of an electrolyte decreasing ion conductivity, and the lithium polysulfide reacts with a lithium metal negative electrode through a continuous charge and discharge reaction fixing lithium sulfide (Li2S) on the lithium metal surface, which causes problems of decreasing reaction activity and worsening potential problems.
In view of the above, attempts have been made to form a layer capable of protecting a Li metal negative electrode using an electrolyte additive such as LiNO3, however, when using LiNO3, the Li protective layer is formed while consuming LiNO3 leading to a problem in that protecting the Li negative electrode is no longer possible when a limit is exceeded in a repeated charging and discharging process.

Electrolyte for lithium secondary battery and lithium-secondary battery including the same


An air-cooled fuel cell-powered motorcycle allowing early detection of a malfunction in a fuel cell stack. The fuel cell-powered motorcycle includes a vehicle body; an electric motor for driving a driving wheel, an air-cooled fuel cell for supplying electric power to the electric motor and a hydrogen tank for storing a fuel gas supplied to the fuel cell, respectively housed in the vehicle body; a fan for supplying air as a reactant and a coolant to the fuel cell; and an exhaust duct for discharging the air having cooled the fuel cell out of a rear end of the vehicle body, the exhaust duct having an inlet connected to a rear end portion of the fuel cell.

A fuel cell-powered motorcycle is designed to run by rotating a drive wheel driven by a motor which in turn is driven with an electric power generated by a fuel cell installed therein. Conventional fuel cell-powered motorcycles include those equipped with a water-cooled fuel cell which can generate a relatively large electric power, and those equipped with an air-cooled fuel cell which can generate a relatively small electric power of, e.g., several kilowatts.
The air-cooled fuel cell, while it generates a relatively small power, has advantages such that it un-necessitates accessories, such as a radiator, a cooling water pump and a reservoir tank, required for the water-cooled fuel cell and it can utilize air as a reactant gas for also cooling the heat generated with the power generation. The air-cooled fuel cell has a low pressure loss through the air channel, and its cooling system has a simple structure requiring a fan as a sufficient accessory device instead of a compressor and can suppress the power consumption of the fan.
The fuel cell-powered motorcycle carrying such an air-cooled fuel cell introduces air as a reactant and also a coolant by means of a fan and supplies it to the fuel cell. More specifically, the air introduced into the fuel cell functions as an oxidant for electrochemically reacting with hydrogen as a fuel by the fuel cell, and also as a coolant for cooling the fuel cell. Thus, at the fuel cell, the heat generated with power generation is cooled with the air which is a reactant gas.
In fuel cell-powered vehicles including such a fuel cell-powered motorcycle, it has been tried to dispose a hydrogen sensor in the vehicle body for the purpose of mainly for detection of hydrogen leaked from a fuel tank and a fuel-cell stack and improve the system. For example, Patent document 1 has proposed to install a hydrogen sensor in an upper corner of a tank housing which stores a fuel tank and provide a ventilation pipe exit from a fuel cell, thereby aiming at detecting hydrogen leaked out of the fuel tank and the fuel-cell stack with a single hydrogen sensor. Patent document 2 has proposed installing a fuel cell in a fuel-cell storage case, and installing a hydrogen sensor in an air pipe connecting a compressor (blower) with the storage case. However, the application of these systems to an air-cooled fuel cell-powered motorcycle involves severe problems accompanying the accommodation of the fuel cell (or the exhaust section thereof) within a housing case for the fuel tank or the fuel cell, that is, 1) the fuel cell system becomes complicated, thus spoiling the strong point of the air-cooled fuel cell, i.e., a simplified fuel cell system because of omission of a cooling water passage, and 2) it makes difficult the realization of the fundamentally advantageous performance of the air-cooled fuel cell-powered motorcycle of improved exhaust efficiency attained by reduction of air passage resistance while omitting a compressor.
On the other hand, Patent document 3 has proposed an air-cooled fuel cell-powered motorcycle wherein a fuel cell and a hydrogen tank are arranged in this order along a passage of air introduced from the front of vehicle body, and hydrogen sensors are disposed before and after the hydrogen tank, thereby improving the detection of hydrogen leaked into the body. According to our study, however, the above-mentioned layout has made it impossible to attain the improvement in efficiency of exhaust from the fuel cell due to the presence of the hydrogen tank arranged after the fuel cell and also fails in early detection of a malfunction occurring in the fuel cell stack.


A method for fabricating composite porosity standards may include the steps of providing a plurality of uncured composite coupons, each uncured composite coupon being formed from a composite material, providing a plurality of curing processes, selecting a curing process for each of the uncured composite coupons, curing each uncured composite coupon in accordance with a selected curing process to form a plurality of cured composite coupons, each cured composite coupon being formed from the composite material and having a percent porosity, measuring the percent porosity of each cured composite coupon, and correlating each measured percent porosity of a plurality of measure percent porosities to a corresponding cured composite coupon of the plurality of cured composite coupons to form a plurality of porosity standards.

As the use of composite materials increases, the development of advanced nondestructive testing (NDT) techniques for composite materials is in demand. Ultrasonic quantitative NDT techniques for composite materials may provide good information on manufacturing quality, material strength and perhaps useful lifetime. Additionally, the effects of porosity in composite laminates on ultrasonic attenuation can be used in gauging the porosity content in composite material.
Ultrasonic NDT techniques require a porosity reference standard to calibrate the measurements for a composite component provided by the ultrasonic testing equipment. Unfortunately, the process of fabricating porosity reference standards is complicated, time consuming, and very expensive. Typically this process requires large numbers of composite coupons to be fabricated and many testing sites or samples to be taken for porosity measurements. Selection of testing sites is essentially random, which requires iterations of coupon fabrication and porosity measurements to form reference standards representing a range of percent porosities.
Additionally, porosity standards fabricated using artificial materials to simulate porosity may not provide accurate attenuation measurements when compared to natural porosity occurring in a composite component.
Accordingly, those skilled in the art continue with research and development efforts in the field of fabrication of reference porosity standards.

Method for fabricating composite porosity standards


A press fit passive component, such as a resistor or capacitor, adapted to fit within, or partially within, a via of a printed circuit board. In one example, the press fit passive component has a cylindrically shaped body with solderable terminals at either end of the body, and a dielectric collar disposed at least partially about the cylindrically shaped body.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to printed circuit boards and electronic components used thereon and, more particularly, to passive electronic components and printed circuit boards including passive components.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Passive components, such as resistors, capacitors and inductors, are commonly provided on printed circuit boards as surface mount (SMT) components. Referring to FIG. 1, there is illustrated one example of a standard surface mount resistor 100. The resistor 100 has a package body 102 with two solderable pads 104 for connecting the resistor to a printed circuit board. Surface mount passive components are generally fairly small. For example, a standard surface mount resistor, such as that illustrated in FIG. 1, may be approximately rectangular with a length, L, of about 0.040 inches (±0.002 inches), a height, h, of about 0.018 inches (±0.002 inches), and a width, w, of about 0.020 inches (±0.002 inches). However, despite the already small size of these components, the drive toward smaller and smaller electronic devices (e.g., cellphones or cameras), and thus, smaller and more densely populated printed circuit boards, makes placement of passive surface mount components on printed circuit boards challenging.
In particular, one common type of printed circuit board package is the ball grid array (BGA). A BGA uses an array of solder balls attached to its solderable pads on one side; it uses the solder balls to connect to the circuit board or other substrates. Generally BGAs have very limited space on which to place passive components, such as resistors. This limited space creates a challenge for optimal component placement. In addition, many printed circuit boards are now multi-layer boards and therefore, vias are used to connect surface mount components to signal traces on other board layers as well as to the solder balls of the BGA. For example, referring to FIG. 2, there is illustrated an example of a BGA circuit board 106 with solder balls 108 making up the BGA. Vias 112a and 112b, and traces 110a and 110b, are used to connect the surface mount resistor 100 to the BGA, as shown. The trace 110b forms an extra stub length, which can add undesirable inductance, but is required to connect the surface mount resistor 100 to the solder ball 108 of the BGA.
FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a vertical stub caused by a via connecting a surface mount resistor to inner signal layers of a multi-layer board. A surface mount resistor 100 is mounted on layer one (which is the top or bottom of the circuit board) of a multi-layer printed circuit board and connected (by its solderable terminals 104) to a signal trace 110. A via 112 is used to connect the surface mount resistor 100 to signal traces 116 on other layers. In the illustrated example, a via pad 114 couples the via 112 to a signal trace 116a on layer two, thereby forming a series connection of the trace 110, resistor 100 and trace 116a. The remaining length of the via 112 from layer three to the bottom via pad 118 on layer six is an extra vertical stub length that adds additional inductance and could act as an antenna.
An alternative to surface mount passive components are buried passive components. With buried passive components, for example, resistors, the resistor is screened onto an inner layer of the circuit board, generally in a rectangular area, as shown in FIG. 4. In FIG. 4, a buried resistor 120 is screened onto a signal layer 122 of a circuit board and connected to traces 116 and vias 112. Although the buried component 120 may be placed on a inner layer, thereby possibly eliminating a via needed to connect the component 120 from the top or bottom of the board to a signal trace on an inner layer, vias are still needed to form connections between the signal traces on different layers. Thus, the presence of the buried component 120 on the signal layer 122 actually uses up valuable via and signal trace space on the inner layers of the board.


Monitoring systems and methods for a relief valve system. In one example, a monitoring system for a relief valve includes at least one tilt sensor coupled to one or more of a cover or a latch of the relief valve. The at least one tilt sensor is associated with an interface. Upon detection by the at least one tilt sensor that one of the cover is open or the latch is unlocked, a signal is transmitted by the interface indicating one or more of the cover is open or the latch is unlocked.

Process control systems often employ control valves to control the flow of process fluids. Relief systems, such as relief valves, are typically used for various control valves and include emergency pressure relief vents and pressure vacuum relief valves. In some examples, the conventional relief systems are coupled to a tank and monitored by observing an overall pressure of the tank. In other examples, physical, visual indicators are attached to one or more parts of the valve and require physical inspection to determine a state of the relief system, for example.
An increasing number of laws have been enacted on limiting an amount of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) being emitted from process control systems. The VOCs include organic compounds that easily become vapors or gases and contain elements that may cause various health effects including eye, nose and throat irritation, headaches, nausea, and links to cancer. As a result, for at least this reason, it is imperative for companies to constantly monitor relief valve systems to avoid or minimize fines and an excess amount of harmful VOCs being emitted into the environment.

System and method of monitoring a diagnostic system of a process control system

EMERSON PROCESS MANAGEMENT REGULATOR TECHNOLOGIES, INC.


A refrigerator includes a control apparatus and a storing space composed of an upper space and a lower space between which the air or heat exchange is limited. The storing space has a liquid in a supercooled state. A determination unit calculates an accumulated time during which the temperature of the storing space is maintained in a supercooling temperature range below the maximum ice crystal formation zone of the stored liquid after the sensed temperature enters the supercooling temperature range, compares the accumulated time with a supercooled-state determination time and determines that the stored liquid is in the supercooled state if the accumulated time is equal to or greater than the supercooled-state determination time.

Supercooling means the phenomenon that a molten object or a solid is not changed although it is cooled to a temperature below the phase transition temperature in an equilibrium state. A material has a stable state at every temperature. If the temperature is slowly changed, the constituent elements of the material can follow the temperature changes, maintaining the stable state at each temperature. However, if the temperature is suddenly changed, since the constituent elements cannot be changed into the stable state at each temperature, the constituent elements maintain a stable state at an initial temperature, or some of the constituent elements fail to be changed into a state at a final temperature.
For example, when water is slowly cooled, it is not temporarily frozen at a temperature below 0° C. However, when water enters a supercooled state, it has a kind of quasi-stable state. As this unstable equilibrium state is easily broken even by slight stimulation, water tends to move into a more stable state. That is, if a small piece of the material is put into the supercooled liquid, or if the liquid is suddenly shaken, the liquid starts to be frozen at once such that its temperature reaches the freezing point, and maintains a stable equilibrium state at the temperature.
In general, an electrostatic atmosphere is made in a refrigerator, and meat and fish are thawed in the refrigerator at a minus temperature. In addition to the meat and fish, fruit is kept fresh in the refrigerator.
This technology uses a supercooling phenomenon. The supercooling phenomenon indicates the phenomenon that a molten object or a solid is not changed although it is cooled to a temperature below the phase transition temperature in an equilibrium state. In the prior art, an electric field or magnetic field is applied to the stored object to be cooled such that the stored object enters a supercooled state. Accordingly, a complicated apparatus for producing the electric field or magnetic field should be provided to store the stored object in the supercooled state, and the power consumption is increased during the production of the electric field or magnetic field. Additionally, the apparatus for producing the electric field or magnetic field should further include a safety device (e.g., an electric field or magnetic field shielding structure, an interception device, etc.) for protecting the user from high power, when producing or intercepting the electric field or magnetic field.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 2001-4260 describes a supercooling control refrigerator which includes a temperature detection means and a control means controlling the temperature at a given set temperature in an openable/closable insulation unit and which keeps the goods cold at a temperature below the freezing point during the supercooling operation. However, since the refrigerator controls the rotation number of a cool air circulation fan to adjust the temperature in the insulation unit, if the temperature in the unit is reduced to a temperature below the set temperature, there is no means for raising the temperature to the set temperature within a short time. Korean Registered Patent No. 10-850062 describes a refrigerator having a space for storing food and a storing room for cooling the space, the refrigerator including a cool air flowing space directly cooling the food storing space and an insulation layer insulating the cool air flowing space from the space, and storing the food in a supercooled state.
Japanese Patent Publication No. 2008-267646 describes a refrigerator with a supercooling room which includes a freezing chamber with a temperature control means therein to continuously adjust the temperature between 0° C. and a temperature of a freezing temperature zone by stages, the supercooling room disposed in the freezing chamber and receiving the cool air from the freezing chamber, and a control apparatus controlling the freezing chamber so that the food stored in the supercooling room can be maintained in a supercooled state at a temperature below the freezing point without being frozen.
The aforementioned prior arts describe only the construction for storing the stored object in the supercooled state.