An engine system which combines an internal combustion engine with a unique air-cooling system. The air-cooling system includes a cooling cylinder(s) which is disposed in the engine block. Input air is expanded through the cooling cylinder from the intake manifold directly to the exhaust manifold. No high compression or combustion takes place in the cooling cylinder. Heat from the cooling cylinder is transferred to the input air, and the heated air is then exhausted to the internal combustion engine exhaust stream where it is used to help power a turbocharger.

The current method for maintaining an internal combustion engine at the manufacturer's optimum operating temperature is a closed circulating liquid coolant system. Typically, these closed systems circulate a liquid inside the internal combustion engine's block and around the outside of the combustion cylinders. The circulating liquid is contained in passageways in the block and is pumped to an external heat exchanger known as a "radiator". The radiator (radiating the heat to the atmosphere) cools the liquid and the liquid is then re-circulated back to the internal combustion engine. The engine's temperature is controlled with a liquid thermostat that opens and closes to maintain the optimum temperature.
Other engine designs use direct air cooling to keep the internal combustion engine at the manufacturer's recommended operating temperature. Ambient air is used to cool the engine. In these designs direct air is used to eliminate the water/air heat exchanger. The air cooling is done exclusively externally of engine.
In both of the above examples, the heat energy transferred away from the engine is transferred to the atmosphere and lost.


A cleaning device for cleaning a video drum or video head of a video unit comprises a cassette tape type housing. A carrier arm pivotal in the housing carries a brush for cleaning the video drum and video head. A linkage arm under the action of a drive spring pivots the carrier arm into cleaning engagement with the video drum. A control member under the action of a return spring pivots the linkage arm to return the carrier arm. A timing wheel times a cleaning cycle and controls the linkage arm and the control member.

Cleaning devices for cleaning a video drum and a video head of a video unit are known. For example, European Patent Application Specification No. 0,210,787A discloses such a cleaning device. The cleaning device comprises a housing substantially similar to the cassette housing of a video tape cassette. A cleaning tape is mounted around a pair of reels which are rotatable in the housing and engagable with the take-up and feed reel spindles of the video unit. The cleaning tape is fed from one reel to the other during a cleaning cycle. A carrier arm pivotally mounted in the housing carries a cleaning brush for cleaning the video drum and video head. On the cleaning tape being drawn out of the housing by the tape guide rollers of the video unit, and being brought into engagement with the video drum, the carrier arm and brush are pivoted outwardly so that the brush engages the video drum assembly and video head for cleaning thereof. The cleaning tape engages the drum and carries out some cleaning thereof in tandem with the cleaning brush. However, in certain cases the use of a cleaning tape for cleaning the drum and video head is undesirable.
Belgian Patent Specification No. 891.096 and Japanese Patent Specifications Nos. 59-63,020A and 58-45,621A all disclose cleaning devices for a video head and video drum of a video unit. These cleaning devices comprise a housing which is substantially similar to the housing of a video tape cassette. In each of these three cleaning devices, a cleaning member is mounted on a carrier arm which is movable from the housing into engagement with the video drum. However, these devices suffer from many disadvantages, in that there is virtually no control over the movement of the carrier arm with the result that the carrier arm or cleaning member can become impaled in the guide rollers and guide arms of the tape control mechanism in the video unit at the start-up and shutdown of the video unit. This, in general, would lead to serious damage being caused to the video unit, which in many cases may be irreparable. A further problem with the devices of the Belgian and Japanese patent specifications is that where a video unit is provided with a detecting mechanism to detect a tape jam in the video unit and to shut down the video unit in the event of a tape jam, these devices do not operate.
Other playback and/or recording units are provided with a moving head and/or drum which may be rotatable or otherwise movable. It is necessary to clean or otherwise treat the moving head and/or drum of such playback and/or recording units. There are many such playback and/or recording units. In general, such playback and/or recording units comprise a moving head and/or drum for recording and/or playing back magnetically and/or electronically encoded data. Such data may be encoded on a tape or other data carrier medium. Such playback and/or recording units may be, for example, a video unit, a digital audio tape recording and/or playback device, a mass data back-up storage recording and/or playback unit for computer data, a camcorder or an eight millimetre RV-2000 unit. Indeed, there are many other such playback and/or recording units. In some such playback and/or recording units, the playback and/or recording head may be rotated to scan the data using a helical scan technique, although needless to say, any other scanning techniques may be used.
There are no suitable devices for treating and/or cleaning the moving head and/or drum of such playback and/or recording units. Indeed, as mentioned above, in the case of video units where cleaning devices are provided, these have been found to be unsatisfactory. Furthermore, other than cleaning, there are no devices for treating the video head and/or video drum of a video unit in any other way.
There is therefore a need for a device for treating the moving head and/or drum of a playback and/or recording unit. In particular, there is a need for a device for cleaning the moving head and/or drum of a playback and/or recording unit. Even more particularly, there is a need for a device for treating, for example, cleaning the video drum and/or video head of a video unit which overcomes the problems of prior art devices.

Timer controlled device for cleaning a moving head and/or a drum of a playback and/or recording unit


The present invention relates to rubber compositions containing o-salicylsalicyclic acid of the formula: ##STR1##

Processing aids are commonly used in both natural and synthetic rubber compositions. Such processing aids are used during the mixing, permitting incorporation of fillers and other ingredients rapidly with lower power consumption. In instances where the filler is silica, well-known sulfur containing organosilicon compounds are used to further assist in compatibilizing the silica in the rubber composition.

Rubber compositions containing o-salicylsalicyclic acid


Improved extruded polypropylene sheets containing a high level of beta crystallinity and A process for making such sheets are disclosed herein. The polypropylene sheets comprise a resinous polymer of propylene and an effective amount of beta spherulites. Uniaxially or biaxially oriented mesh structures produced from the disclosed sheets exhibit lower density, higher strength, and higher torsional rigidity than polypropylene meshes without beta spherulites. Thus, lighter weight mesh structures which meet all of the physical property requirements for end-use applications, such as reinforcing grids to stabilize concrete and soil in civil engineering and landfill applications, are produced. The lighter weight extruded beta-nucleated sheet can also be stretched at higher line speeds, thereby reducing manufacturing costs.

Plastic net structures are used as reinforcing grids to stabilize concrete and soil in civil engineering and landfill applications. These plastic net structures generally are either uniaxially or biaxially stretched to provide a highly stable, corrosion resistant construction used for such applications as soil stabilization, veneer stabilization, drainage nets in landfills, and concrete stabilization in roads, bridges, and similar structures. Biaxially oriented polypropylene nets have been used to reinforce road beds. Typically plastic net structures are formed of a polypropylene homopolymer or a copolymer of propylene with ethylene or butene.
In applications where the reduction or elimination of creep is important, such as in the stabilization of roads and soil, the reinforcing material should have minimal creep, so that it does not stretch excessively under load. Polyolefin plastic nets are particularly suitable for these applications since they are not subject to hydrolysis. In order to have minimal creep, the plastic web should have a high modulus and be of sufficient thickness so that it deforms to a minimal extent (i.e. exhibits low creep) when a loads are applied to it. Although, presently available plastic reinforcing net structures have proven generally satisfactory for their intended purpose, improved processes and reduced cost structures are desirable.
In the prior art used to produce a biaxially oriented polypropylene netting, the material located at the periphery of the junctions of the machine-direction and cross-machine-direction strands, herein referred to as "nodes", mainly contains a random molecular orientation. These node regions therefore have undesirably low strength. Moreover the central regions of these nodes tend to be in the form of thick, unoriented humps. These humps constitute areas of weakness, and areas in which the material is inefficiently used. However, the junctions of the machine-direction and cross-machine-direction strands must be strong since these junctions bear a considerable amount of the load when the netting is used for its intended function.
Crystalline polypropylene (also known as "isotactic polypropylene") is capable of crystallizing in three polymorphic forms: the alpha, beta and gamma forms. In melt-crystallized material the predominant polymorph is the alpha or monoclinic form. The beta or pseudohexagonal form generally occurs at levels of only a few percent, unless certain heterogeneous nuclei are present or the crystallization has occurred in a temperature gradient or in the presence of shearing forces. The gamma or triclinic form is typically only observed in low-molecular weight or stereoblock fractions that have been crystallized at elevated pressures.
The alpha form also is also referred to as "alpha-spherulites" and "alpha-crystals". The beta form is also referred to as "beta-spherulites", "beta-crystals", "beta-form spherulites", or "beta-crystallinity". Beta-crystals have a melting point that is generally 10-15° C. lower than that of alpha-crystals.
Generally, extruded polypropylene sheets primarily contain alpha spherulites. Beta nucleants can be added to a polypropylene resin to increase the amount of beta spherulites in the resulting polypropylene sheet.
Porous polypropylene films containing beta spherulites have been used as microporous films. (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,975,469 to P. Jacoby and C. Bauer) The presence of beta nucleants results in the formation of beta spherulites in the sheet, which produce a microporous structure in the resulting stretched film. The micropores allow gases to permeate through the film.
Similarly, beta nucleants have been added to thermoformable thermoplastic resin polypropylene in order to broaden the temperature range over which the sheets can be processed and to prevent sag in the thermoforming oven. (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,310,584 to Jacoby et al.) The beta nucleants induce microvoiding in the sheet when it is deformed during the thermoforming process. Sheets containing high levels of beta spherulites can be thermoformed at lower temperatures than polypropylene sheets formed from alpha nucleated polypropylene or non-nucleated polypropylene since the beta spherulites melt at a lower temperature than the alpha spherulites. This allows the sheets to soften without excessive sag in the thermoforming oven.
Poly propylene net structures must be strong and flexible. They are formed by a process that involves stretching in one or two directions. Thus, sagging in an oven is not a problem in the formation of oriented net structures. Also, if beta spherulites were added, induced microvoiding could lead to an undesirable strength reduction in the oriented strands that comprise the net.
Therefore it is an object of the invention to provide a biaxially oriented polypropylene net that has improved properties and costs less than standard polypropylene nets.
It is a further object to provide a more efficient and less expensive process for making polypropylene nets.

Extruded polypropylene sheets containing beta spherulites


A cleaning apparatus for an image forming apparatus includes a cleaned member and a cleaning member having a cleaning blade coming into contact with a surface of the cleaned member thereby scraping off a toner, wherein the cleaning blade includes an elastic material having an anisotropy in tensile stress and the cleaning blade shows a deformation, resulting from a tensile stress induced in a direction of load by a friction with the cleaned member, smaller than a breaking elongation of the cleaning blade in the vicinity of a contact portion of the cleaning blade with the cleaned member. In this manner a longer service life of the image forming apparatus can be realized while securing a desired cleaning performance.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cleaning apparatus for an image forming apparatus utilizing an electrophotographic process such as an electrophotographic copying apparatus or an electrophotographic printer.
2. Related Background Art
Recently, a composite apparatus having functions of all the output terminals for a copying apparatus, a printer, a facsimile and the like is widely accepted in the market. An image forming apparatus utilizing an electrophotographic process is widely accepted as an output terminal adaptable to a network, but a duty cycle of a main body of the apparatus is pointed out as a major issue to be solved.
A duty cycle means a limit print number for which the main body can be operated without a maintenance operation by a service personnel, and one of the largest issues for such duty cycle is a service life of an image bearing member. Also from the ecological point of view, most important issues are an elimination of discarded materials, a reduction in consumables, an extended service life of consumables and an increase in the reliability.
On the other hand, a transition from the prior analog apparatus to a digital configuration is showing a remarkable progress, and a reduction of the cost of a digital apparatus to that of an analog apparatus or lower is also another issue. Furthermore, monochromatic copying apparatus and printer have been principally employed, but full-color originals and output files are showing a rapid increase also in the office market. Thus, there are being desired not only a digital apparatus equivalent to the analog apparatus in cost but also a full-color printer equivalent to the monochromatic apparatus in the cost of the main body and in the running cost, and, for such purposes, a technology capable of drastically reducing TCO (total costs from the standpoint of a user) is desired.
In an image forming apparatus utilizing an electrophotographic process technology, in order to realize a full-color printer having an engine equivalent in cost to a monochromatic printer, there is conceived a technology of employing an intermediate transfer member and superposing images of four colors on the intermediate transfer member by a single photosensitive member. Also an intermediate transfer member constructed as a running belt member increases the freedom of layout in the main body of the printer, thereby enabling a compactization of the apparatus. Therefore, while the photosensitive member alone is an image bearing member in a monochromatic printer, the intermediate transfer member also becomes an image bearing member in a full-color printer, so that a surface cleaning operation is required in a wider area in order to use various image bearing members in repeated image formation cycles.
For cleaning a surface of the image bearing member, there is employed a method of contacting an edge of a cleaning blade, constituted of an elastic material such as rubber, with a surface of an image bearing member to be cleaned and scraping off residual toner adhering to such surface, thereby cleaning such member to be cleaned.
FIG. 2 shows an example of a known cleaning apparatus for cleaning an intermediate transfer member, in which a cleaning blade 19 of a cleaning apparatus is so positioned close as to contact an intermediate transfer belt 4 of a belt shape having an axis perpendicular to the plane of the drawing. Though not illustrated, a photosensitive member and a secondary transfer roller are provided along a periphery of the intermediate transfer belt 4.
Though not illustrated, the cleaning apparatus has a casing having an aperture in a direction toward the intermediate transfer belt 4, and, in the aperture of the casing, there is mounted an edge of the cleaning blade 19 formed for example by urethane rubber. An edge of the cleaning blade 19 is contacted with the intermediate transfer member 4 in a counter direction to a driving direction A thereof, and, a transfer residual toner, generated in an unillustrated secondary transfer portion, upon reaching the edge portion of the cleaning blade 19, is scraped off by the cleaning blade 19.
Also when the transfer residual toner, scraped off and remaining by the cleaning blade 19, is supplied again in a small amount to the edge portion of the cleaning blade 19 by the rotation of the intermediate transfer belt 4, the cleaning blade 19 is prevented from being turned up owing to a lowered friction by the presence of the powder of the transfer residual toner, whereby a satisfactorily stable cleaning performance can be obtained. The cleaning blade 19 is so set, depending on a thickness of a rubber material, a length (free length) of a front rubber portion and a contact pressure, as to achieve an improved toner eliminating ability and a prevention of the turning-up of the cleaning blade.
In order to more satisfactorily clean the transfer residual toner on the image bearing member, it is proposed, for example in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. S56-055979 to functionally select constituting materials, such as constituting the cleaning blade with plural layers, and employing a hard material in a portion of the cleaning blade coming into contact with the image bearing member.
In an image forming apparatus utilizing an electrophotographic process technology, because a discharge phenomenon is utilized for example in a charging step, substances such as ozone products adhere to the surface of the image bearing member such as a photosensitive member. Such phenomenon increases a friction between the cleaning blade and the cleaned surface, thereby resulting in a turning-up of the cleaning blade or a perturbation of image formation by a substance adhering to the surface of the image bearing member, thus leading to an image defect. It is therefore desirable that the cleaning blade is easily slidable. Also the cleaning function includes not only an eliminating function for the transfer residual toner remaining on the surface of the image bearing member, but also a function of polishing the cleaned surface. For this reason, a harder surface is preferred for the cleaning blade, but it is difficult to contact a hard material uniformly over a wide area. Therefore, in case of employing a hard cleaning blade for obtaining a long service life, there has been required a pressurizing method for precisely pressing such cleaning blade to the cleaned surface.
Also a technology of realizing a hard surface layer with a low friction by a progress in the rubber material is proposed for example in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H04-212190.
This technology is based on coating a surface of a cleaning blade material with a resin containing lubricant particles. This technology realizes a stable contact state in a simple configuration by the flexibility and the adaptability of the rubber material, also avoids the turning-up of the cleaning blade by the lubricant particles and also provides a polishing function for the surface of the image bearing member by the hard surface layer.
In such configuration, however, because the resinous material is coated thinly on the surface of the cleaning blade, such coated portion may be abraded off or peeled off in a prolonged use, thereby restricting the service life of the cleaning blade.
Also a cleaning blade utilizing an ordinary urethane rubber, though showing a very high frictional coefficient, provides a low frictional coefficient in a three-component system including powder, in the presence of fine particles such as toner.
However the supply of such powder material varies for example by an image to be formed, so that the cleaning blade shows an unstable behavior in an actual contact portion. The polyurethane rubber shows a high abrasion resistance because it is not easily torn when a blade edge is strongly pulled in an eventually unstable friction state, and is not deteriorated by a repetition of such state.
On the other hand, a hard material such as a resinous material is, in comparison with a soft material such as a rubber material, stronger in a resistance against an external force such as an elongation or compression, but is smaller in a possible amount of elongation or contraction. Therefore, in case a cleaning blade is made harder only in a vicinity of a portion coming into contact with the image bearing member, a portion close to the surface of the cleaning blade cannot withstand a deformation by an elasticity of the entire cleaning blade, whereby the cleaning blade is abraded or broken to result in for example a chipping in the blade, thereby deteriorating the cleaning ability.
Also polyurethane rubber, commonly employed in the cleaning blade, is resistant to repeated deformation as long as physical properties are not changed, but the resinous material generally shows a deterioration such as a decrease in a tensile stress or a decrease in a breaking elongation, by repeated deformations.
While a longer service life for the image bearing member is being realized for example by an improvement in the abrasion resistance of the photosensitive member, the cleaning blade are now required to meet various functions and a longer service life is also essential for the cleaning blade itself.

Cleaning apparatus for image forming apparatus


A new and unique cultivar of Hakonechloa plant named ‘Hakbri1’ that is characterized by its variegated foliage that is chartreuse in color with yellow and creamy white stripes.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Hakonechloa macra and will be referred to hereafter by its cultivar name, 'Hakbri1'. 'Hakbri1' represents a new ornamental grass grown for landscape use.
The inventor discovered the new cultivar in spring of 2016 as a naturally occurring shoot mutation of Hakonechloa macra 'All Gold' (not patented) that was growing in a container in a production block in Elma, Wash.
Asexual propagation of the new cultivar was first accomplished by tissue culture using meristematic tissue in Elma, Wash. in 2017 by the Inventor. Asexual propagation by tissue culture has determined that the characteristics of this cultivar are stable and are reproduced true to type in successive generations.


An organic light-emitting diode display panel, a manufacturing method of an organic light-emitting diode display panel and a display device are provided. The organic light-emitting diode display panel includes: a substrate; a pixel definition layer, located on the substrate; and an encapsulation layer, located on the pixel definition layer, a desiccant is added to at least one of the pixel definition layer and the encapsulation layer.

At present, an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display panel usually comprises a substrate and an encapsulation layer. A surface of the substrate is provided with a pixel definition layer. The pixel definition layer has a plurality of openings, and an organic light-emitting unit is disposed in each of the openings. The encapsulation layer disposed on a side of the pixel definition layer to isolate the organic light-emitting unit from external environment to avoid the influence of water from the external environment on the organic light-emitting unit.
Because organic light-emitting layer materials and cathode metal materials of the organic light-emitting unit are easily to be affected by the water from the external environment, and the materials for manufacturing the organic light-emitting layer of the organic light-emitting unit contain a certain amount of water, so that a certain amount of water is sealed between the substrate and the encapsulation layer in the process. The certain amount of water releases water vapor to affect the organic light-emitting unit, which damages the organic light-emitting unit due to moisture absorption, and thus the lifetime of OLED display panel is shortened.

Organic light-emitting diode display panel, manufacturing method thereof and display device

CHONGQING BOE OPTOELECTRONICS TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


A system for reducing lead edge (LE) smearing in an electrostatographic machine is provided. The system comprises a pretransfer corotron positioned between a developing station and a transfer station in an electrostatographic imaging device. The pretransfer corotron is configured to apply a predetermined charge to at least a portion of a developed toner image on a photoreceptive surface. The predetermined charge is greater than a charge applied to the rest of the developed toner image. The system further includes a controller operably associated with the pretransfer corotron. The controller is configured to activate the pretransfer corotron to apply said predetermined charge to the developed toner image at a lead edge region of the developed toner image when leading edge smearing is detected during imaging operations.

In high-speed reproduction machines, such as electrostatographic copiers and printers, a photoconductive member (or photoreceptor) is charged to a uniform potential and then a light image of an original document is exposed onto a photoconductive surface, either directly or via a digital image driven laser. Exposing the charged photoreceptor to a light image discharges the photoconductive surface thereof in areas corresponding to non-image areas in the original document while maintaining the charge on the image areas to create an electrostatic latent image of the original document on the photoconductive surface of the photoreceptor. A developer material is then brought into contact with the surface of the photoconductive member to transform the latent image into a visible reproduction. The developer material includes toner particles with an electrical polarity opposite that of the photoconductive member, causing them to be naturally drawn to it. A blank print substrate such as a sheet of paper is brought into contact with the photoconductive member and the toner materials are transferred to it by electrostatic charging of the substrate. The substrate is subsequently heated and pressed to permanently bond the reproduced image to the substrate, thus producing a hard print reproduction of the original document or image. Thereafter, the photoconductive member is cleaned and reused for subsequent print production.
The process of transferring charged toner particles from an image bearing member, such as the photoreceptive member, to an image support substrate, such as a print sheet, is accomp lished at a transfer station. In a conventional electrostatographic machine, transfer is achieved by transporting an image support substrate into the area of the transfer station where electrostatic force fields sufficient to overcome the forces holding the toner particles to the photoconductive surface are applied to the substrate to attract and transfer the toner particles to the image support substrate. In general, such electrostatic force fields are generated via electrostatic induction using a corona generating device. The reverse side of the print sheet is exposed to a corona discharge while the front of the print sheet is placed in direct contact with the developed toner image on the photoconductive surface. The corona discharge generates ions having a polarity opposite that of the toner particles, thereby electrostatically attracting and transferring the toner particles from the photoreceptive image bearing member to the print sheet.
The interface between the image bearing surface and the print sheet, however, is not always optimal. In particular, non-flat or uneven image support substrates, such as copy sheets that have been mishandled, paper that has been left exposed to the environment, or substrates that have previously passed through a fixing operation (for example, heat and/or pressure fusing) often tend to yield imperfect contact with the photoconductive surface. Some printing applications require imaging onto high quality papers having surface textures which prevent intimate contact of the paper with the developed toner images. In duplex printing systems, even initially flat paper can become cockled or wrinkled as a result of paper transport and/or the first side fusing step. Also, color images can contain areas in which intimate contact of toner with paper during the transfer step is prevented due to adjacent areas of high toner pile heights. The lack of uniform intimate contact between the belt and the copy sheet in these situations can result in spaces or air gaps between the developed toner powder image on the selectively charged imaging surface and the copy substrate. When spaces or gaps exist between the developed image and the copy substrate, various problems may result. For example, there is a tendency for toner not to transfer across gaps, causing variable transfer efficiency and, under extreme circumstances, creating areas of low toner transfer or even no transfer, resulting in a phenomenon known as image transfer deletion.
In order to minimize transfer deletions, transfer assist blades (TABs) have been utilized to press the back of the copy substrate against the imaged area of the charged imaging surface. The transfer assist blade is typically moved from a non-operative position spaced from the copy substrate, to an operative position in contact with the copy substrate. A mechanism supporting the TAB is operable to press the TAB against the copy sheet with a typically pre-determined force sufficient to press the copy substrate into contact with the developed image on the photoconductive or other charged imaging surface in order to substantially eliminate any spaces therebetween during the transfer process.
While the transfer assist apparatus of the type described above may be used to improve transfer efficiency, it may also induce copy quality defects in the lead edge area of the copy sheet. For instance, when the developed toner image extends to the lead edge of the imaged area on the photoreceptor, there may be a loss of toner electrostatic tack force in the lead edge region. As a result, drag force on the image substrate caused by pressing the TAB onto the substrate may be greater than the tack force between the substrate and the photoreceptor, which, in turn, generates a velocity mismatch between the copy sheet and the photoreceptor, manifesting itself as a smeared image on the lead edge of the copy sheet. This lead edge image defect is unacceptable in most high speed environments where customers demand lead edge to trail edge copy quality as the electrostatographic printing process penetrates further into the offset printing market.
One method that has been utilized to minimize the leading edge smear defect is delaying the engagement of the TAB to allow the electrostatic tacking force to increase by providing a timing delay between sensing of the leading or trailing edge of a copy substrate and actuation of the mechanism that urges the TAB toward the copy substrate. Delaying engagement of the TAB, however, may result in spaces or air gaps between the developed toner powder image on the selectively charged imaging surface at the lead edge resulting in transfer deletions at the lead edge.

Pretransfer toner treatment in an electrostatographic printer


A method for smoothing a surface of a semiconductor portion is disclosed. In the method, an intentional oxide layer is formed on the surface of the semiconductor portion, a treated layer is formed in the semiconductor portion and inwardly of the intentional oxide layer, and then, the intentional oxide layer and the treated layer are removed to obtain a smoothed surface. The method may also be used for widening a recess in a manufacturing process for a semiconductor structure.

In a method for manufacturing a fin-type filed effect transistor (FinFET) device, a gate stack and gate spacers are formed on a portion of a semiconductor fin, exposed portions of the semiconductor fin are etched to form recesses, and source-drain regions are regrown in the recesses. The dimensions and profiles (including, e.g., but not limited to, surface roughness) of the recesses may affect the performance of the FinFET device.

Method for manufacturing semiconductor structure with enlarged volumes of source-drain regions

TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LTD.


An address synchronous circuit includes an address control signal generating unit for generating a control signal in response to operation mode signals of a semiconductor memory and an internal clock signal, and an address synchronous unit for controlling output of an address which is buffered in accordance with a clock enable signal, in response to the control signal.

The present disclosure relates to a semiconductor device and, more particularly, to an address synchronous circuit.
A semiconductor memory device, including a DRAM, has a memory cell array with a plurality of memory cells for storing data and a peripheral circuit for controlling data input/output operations.
The memory cell array forms a matrix which has a plurality of rows and columns, namely, word lines and bit lines. A predetermined address is assigned to each row and column. A row address is used to designate a specific row, and a column address is used to designate a specific column.
Meanwhile, a clock is used as a reference for adjusting operation timing in a system or a circuit. The clock is also used for guaranteeing a faster operation without an error. Examples of such a clock synchronous semiconductor memory device are a SDRAM (Synchronous DRAM) or a DDR SDRAM (Double Data Rate Synchronous DRAM).
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional address synchronous circuit, and FIG. 2 is a detailed circuit diagram of the address synchronous circuit of FIG. 1.
As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional address synchronous circuit includes an address input buffer unit 100, a setup hold delay unit 200 and an address synchronous unit 300.
As shown in FIG. 2, the address synchronous unit 300 includes a cross-coupled latch unit 301 for synchronizing an address ADD_OUT which is output from the setup hold delay unit 200 with an internal clock signal CLKP4 and a driving unit 302 for pull-up or pull-down driving in response to an output signal of the cross-coupled latch unit 301.
According to the conventional address synchronous circuit, an address ADD is input to the address input buffer unit 100 and then is input to the address synchronous unit 300 via the setup hold delay unit 200. The inputted address is synchronized with the internal clock signal CLKP4 through the cross-coupled latch unit 301.
However, the conventional address synchronous circuit continuously consumes a current because it outputs the address in synchronization with the internal clock signal CLKP4 whenever the address changes. Such an unnecessary current consumption causes an increase in the current consumption in the memory, especially in the DRAM.

Address synchronous circuit capable of reducing current consumption in DRAM


A metal gasket of the invention is used for an internal combustion engine and is basically formed of one metal plate. The plate includes a hole, an elongated or annular recess formed on the metal plate to surround the hole and a bead formed in the elongated recess. The elongated recess extends from an outer surface of the metal plate, and the thickness of the bead is less than the thickness of the metal plate. A top portion of the bead projects outwardly beyond the outer surface of the metal plate. Thus, when the metal plate is tightened, the top portion of the bead is compressed to a level corresponding to the outer surface of the plate to protect the bead. Therefore, creep relaxation of the bead is reduced or prevented.

The present invention relates to a metal gasket having a bead with a reduced thickness to regulate a surface pressure of the bead and to prevent creep relaxation of the bead.
In a metal gasket or a metal laminate gasket, a bead is generally formed around a hole to be sealed. The bead may be a projection projecting outwardly from a flat portion of a metal plate, or a step or an inclined wall on a metal plate. When the metal gasket is tightened between a cylinder head and a cylinder block, the bead on the metal plate is compressed to provide a surface pressure and to seal around the hole.
When the bead receives high temperature and pressure, the bead may creep. As a result, the bead can not provide sufficient sealing pressure thereat. In order to reduce creep relaxation of the bead, a surface pressure regulation plate may be laminated over the metal plate with the bead so that the bead can not be compressed more than the predetermined pressure. In this case, the thickness of the gasket is increased.
In view of providing a high quality engine, it is preferable to reduce the thickness of the gasket. In this respect, elimination of the surface pressure regulation plate is desired.
In the engine, on the other hand, a high pressure is formed in the cylinder bore due to combustion of fuel, while a moderate pressure is formed in other holes, such as water holes and oil holes. In order to securely seal around the high pressure portion, it is required to provide high surface pressures around the cylinder bores. For this purpose, bolts are arranged around the cylinder bores to securely seal around the cylinder bores. However, since the areas around the other holes need not have high surface pressures, the other holes are simply arranged near the cylinder bores and are sealed by the bolts situated around the cylinder bores.
Since the surface pressures required around the holes except the cylinder bore are different depending on the location and kind of the holes, it is preferable to form beads around the various holes, which can provide different surface pressures. However, in case the thickness and property of one metal plate is the same, it is difficult to provide beads with different surface pressures in one metal plate.
Of course, if the size of the bead, i.e. height and width of the bead, is changed, the surface pressure of the bead can be changed. However, the adjustment of the surface pressure by the size of the bead is limited.
In Japanese Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 5-44847, a bead is formed on a metal plate around a cylinder bore, and except the area around the cylinder bore where the bead is formed, the thickness of the metal plate is reduced by etching. Since the thickness of the plate around the cylinder bore is increased, when the metal plate is compressed, the surface pressure around the cylinder bore is increased. However, since the bead is directly compressed without the surface pressure regulation plate, the bead may creep.
The present invention has been made in view of the above situations, and an object of the invention is to provide a metal gasket with a bead, wherein a surface pressure of the bead can be easily changed and adjusted.
Another object of the invention is to provide a metal gasket as stated above, wherein creep relaxation of the bead can be reduced or prevented without using a surface pressure regulation plate.
A further object of the invention is to provide a metal gasket as stated above, wherein when a plurality of beads is formed in one metal plate, surface pressures of the beads can be adjusted or regulated easily.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.

Metal gasket with reduced thickness bead


A system and method for applying a two-part adhesive to a substrate includes a prime mover for providing an output torque, a first pump connected to the prime mover for receiving the output torque, the first pump having an inlet and an outlet, a second pump connected to the prime mover for receiving the output torque, the second pump having an inlet and an outlet, a first compound in communication with the inlet of the first pump, a second compound in communication with the inlet of the second pump, a first accumulator in communication with the outlet of the first pump, a second accumulator in communication with the outlet of the second pump, a first manifold in communication with the outlet of the first pump, and a second manifold in communication with the outlet of the second pump.

In many roofing applications, for example in large, flat commercial roof decks, a roofing membrane is used to seal and protect the roof deck from environmental weather conditions. The roofing membrane may be made of various materials, such as polymeric materials including EPDM (ethylene propylene diene M-rubber) or TPO (thermoplastic polyolefin). The roofing membrane is adhered overtop insulation boards or panels. The insulation boards are typically secured to the roofing substrate or roof deck via an adhesive composition. A conventional adhesive composition used to adhere the insulation boards to the roof deck includes polyurethane. The polyurethane adhesives are oftentimes applied directly onto the roof deck via an applicator system and the insulation boards are then laid onto the roof deck surface. Conventional polyurethane adhesives oftentimes include two separate parts that are mixed by an applicator just prior to being applied onto the surface of the roof deck. The two parts include an isocyanate blend and a simple polyol blend. Upon mixing, the isocyanate blend reacts or crosslinks with the simple polyol blend to form the polyurethane adhesive.
However, these conventional two-part polyurethane adhesives are sensitive to weather conditions due to the effects of temperature on the viscosity, and therefore the reaction speed, of the adhesive. Accordingly, conventional two-part polyurethane adhesives are packaged and formulated into various grades, such as Summer, Winter, and Regular, that vary the composition of the adhesive in order to account for temperature.
One solution to the problem of temperature effects on conventional two-part polyurethane adhesives is to use a high-viscosity adhesive. However, the applicator systems used to apply the adhesives to the roofing substrate are pump driven and oftentimes are unable to reliably pump high-viscosity two-part polyurethane adhesives. Therefore, there is room in the art for a pump driven applicator system that reliably pumps high viscosity adhesives.

Method of applying a polyurethane adhesive to a substrate


A container constituted of a microwave transparent material for the heating or cooking of foods or comestibles through the intermediary of microwaves at a high degree of efficiency and with an enhanced temperature uniformity. The present invention is directed to the provision of a simple and inexpensive multi-compartmented container structure which is constituted of a microwave transparent material, wherein the multi-compartmented container base is configured in a manner to produce in each compartment a generally upwardly curved bottom wall and inwardly curved and outwardly curved grooved lateral end walls and lateral side walls, respectively, with the lower end of each side wall including a curvilinear transition wall surface joining the respective end and side walls with the respective bottom wall, which will disperse the food or comestible within the container to an optimum extent so as to increase the heating and cooking efficiency thereof and to provide a more uniform temperature distribution throughout the container contents, thereby enabling the rapid and even heating and/or cooking of the food by microwave energy.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a microwaveable container and, more particularly, relates to a container constituted of a microwave transparent material for the heating or cooking of foods or comestibles through the intermediary of microwaves at a high degree of efficiency and with an enhanced temperature uniformity.
In recent years, the heating and cooking of foods through the utilization of microwaves has immensely gained in popularity with homemakers in view of the simplicity and rapidity in the preparation and cooking of various kinds of foods in this manner. Generally, the foods, which may be in a frozen state or at ambient temperature, are heated or cooked in suitable containers, which may be reusable in nature, i.e. Pyrex.RTM. or other non-metallic cookware, or disposable, such as foamed plastic material or the like. Such containers are formed from a material which is transparent to microwaves to enable the foods within the container to be raised to suitable heating or cooking temperature in the absence of any undue heating of the container itself, tending to possibly cause distortions adversely affecting the integrity of the container. Furthermore, during the heating or cooking of the foods in the container through microwaves, the heating of the foods is frequently generally irregular or uneven in nature; in essence, various locations within the container are raised to higher or non-uniform temperatures, causing the formation of so-called "hot spots", thereby resulting in an uneven heating or cooking of the foods and adversely affecting the taste and appearance thereof to a consumer.
In order to attain a high degree of efficiency and temperature uniformity in cooking the foods in containers through the intermediary of microwaves, various steps have been undertaken in the development of microwaveable containers in order to solve the encountered problems. Among these solutions are the use of laminated or complex types of materials for the containers, such as special susceptor materials which will improve upon the microwave efficiency. Furthermore, in order to further ameliorate problems encountered in the nonuniform heating or cooking of foods in containers which are constituted from microwave transparent materials, consideration has been given in the technology towards suitable configuring of the containers, such as raising at least portions of the bottom surfaces thereof such as to distribute the contents of the container in a more optimum or expedient manner, and to thereby obtain a greater degree of temperature uniformity during the microwave heating or cooking process. Although the various measures which have been undertaken in the technology in order to improve upon efficiency and temperature uniformity during microwave cooking of various comestibles, these will still have not proven to be entirely adequate; necessitating, either the employment of expensive materials or container constructions, or configuring microwave-transparent containers in a manner which has still proven to be somewhat elusive in providing the required degree of temperature uniformity during the cooking of the foods.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Thus, Matsui U.S. Pat. No. 4,704,510 discloses a container for food service which is adapted to withstand heating in a microwave oven, wherein the container is formed from a laminate sheet material consisting of a non-stretched polyethylene terephthalate film laminated to the interior of a foamed plastic sheet. Moreover, the bottom of the container is raised to curved concavely towards the center thereof in order to distribute the container contents and thereby improve upon the heat distribution within the container during the heating or cooking of the contents with microwaves. However, the laminated container material employed herein is of a complex and resultingly expensive construction.
Bowen, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,486,640 pertains to a utensil for cooking and/or baking foods in a microwave oven in which a generally flat bottomed container base incorporates a removable tray and a closure lid possessing apertures to enable the escape of steam which is generated during cooking. This microwaveable container structure is relatively complex and expensive, while it does not enable the optimum distribution of foods or comestibles within the container to allow for a more uniform temperature distribution therethrough during cooking with microwave energy.
Watkins U.S. Pat. No. 4,416,906 discloses a microwave food heating container having a central raised core in the container bottom to essentially distribute the food contained therein about an annulus to improve upon the uniform heating thereof. As in the other above-mentioned patents, there is no optimum distribution of the food within the container so as to allow for a greater efficiency during cooking and a degree in the uniformity of the temperature which will meet the demands of the technology for cooking with microwave energy.
Isakson, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,838 describes a vapor-tight microwave oven package incorporating a vent enabling the escape of steam or vapor which is generated during cooking, and does not provide for an optimum distribution of foods within a generally rigid microwaveable container to attain uniform temperatures during microwave cooking or heating of the food contents of a container.
Levendusky, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,560,850 discloses a microwave container with a cover incorporating a port for the release of steam, and with a raised container bottom to distribute the foods therein for more even cooking or heating. This structure also fails to provide for the optimum dispersion of a food within a specially configured container and does not allow for an adequately uniform temperature distribution through the food as it is cooked by microwave energy with a resultant higher degree of efficiency.
Ragusa et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,859,822 assigned to a common assignee overcomes all of the above problems. The present application similarly not only also solves all of the aforementioned problems, but is also an improvement over said U.S. Pat. No. 4,859,822 in that the present shape is more functional for deli-type containers and is more readily acceptable by the industry, and moreover is multicompartmented.


The present invention relates to a safety device (2) for a prefilled syringe (1), the syringe comprising a body (3), a needle carrier (4), a piston (6) movable inside the body, and a piston rod (7) suitable for pushing the piston inside the body towards the needle carrier. The device comprises a protective sheath (10) in which the syringe body can slide between an injection position and a safe position in which the needle is withdrawn inside the sheath, said device (2) comprising a resilient element (15) suitable for acting on the syringe to bring in into its safe position after injection, said resilient element presenting two axial ends and comprising at least two elastically-deformable arms extending between said two axial ends, one of the ends (20) being arranged so as to be capable of sliding freely relative to the piston rod (7) prior to injection, and/or one of the ends being arranged in such a manner as to be capable of being fixed to the protective sheath (10) in a position of adjustable height.

European patent EP 0 317 518 discloses a device for protecting a syringe needle, which device comprises a protective case and a resilient ring having two diametrically-opposite coaxial extensions, one of the extensions forming an integral portion of one end of the protective case, and the other extension forming an integral portion of a nut connected to one end of the body of the syringe. The structure of that prior protective device is suitable for only one type of syringe, and the device is relatively complex to put into place on the syringe.


A bicycle wheel hub for mounting a brake disc in relation to a spoke-holding flange. The hub has a connection portion with a first annular sector that is axially external with respect to the spoke-holding flange and a second annular sector that is axially external with respect to the first annular sector. A circumferential groove axially arranged between the first and the second annular sectors.

As known, it is now common in bicycles to use disc brakes.
Disc brakes are indeed often preferred to conventional brakes of different design in that they ensure a high braking force and a better modularity that allows a marked braking sensitivity, as well as being less subject to problems caused by mud or water.
Typically, a disc brake comprises a brake caliper fixed onto the frame of the bicycle and a brake disc mounted on the hub of the wheel. Inside the brake caliper there are two or four opposite brake pads. The brake disc rotates inside the space defined between the opposite pads between which the brake disc rotates. By actuating the brake lever, the pads are brought closer to the brake disc, generating friction on the brake disc and, consequently, braking the wheel.
The brake disc usually comprises a radially outer braking track connected to a radially inner portion provided with a fitting hole onto the hub of the wheel.
The brake disc is made to rotate as a unit with the hub of the wheel through bolts or, in the most recent and highest performance solutions, by a shape coupling between the outer surface of the hub and the inner surface of the fitting hole of the brake disc.
It is important for the brake disc, and in particular the braking track, to be perfectly perpendicular to the rotation axis of the hub.
Indeed, a non-perfect perpendicularity leads to oscillations of the brake disc during the rotation of the wheel that cause variations of the relative position between the braking track and the pads of the brake caliper. The brake disc can thus slide accidentally, with frequencies that depend on the rotation speed of the wheel, against the pads of the brake caliper with clear drawbacks.
It is furthermore important for the braking track to be perfectly centered between the pads of the brake caliper, so as to avoid continuous and accidental sliding between the braking track and the pads of the brake caliper. The correct centering of the brake disc between the pads of the brake caliper is also essential to ensure that the pads arranged on opposite sides of the brake disc act simultaneously on it, so as to make the progressive wearing thereof uniform.
Concerning this, bicycle wheel hubs usually comprise an annular shoulder against which the brake disc is mounted in abutment.
Such an annular shoulder is formed on the hub in an axial position such as to allow the brake disc, when mounted on the hub, to be positioned exactly centered between the pads of the brake caliper.
However, the constructive tolerances in the manufacturing step both of the hub and of the brake disc, although very narrow and well respected, are of a size such as not to always be able to ensure that the brake disc is arranged exactly centered between the pads of the brake caliper and that the annular shoulder is perfectly perpendicular to the rotation axis of the hub.
It is known to work with a machine tool on the annular shoulder of the hub to ensure a perfect planarity and a perfect perpendicularity thereof with respect to the rotation axis of the hub.
However, such mechanical processing is not always possible, especially in the case in which the hub is made of metallic alloys, like for example Ergal (aluminum alloys of group 7000) or Avional (aluminum alloys of group 2000), with extremely high mechanical performance but which require a surface coating of the surfaces worked with a machine tool to avoid oxidation thereof.
The working with a machine tool of the annular shoulder would indeed remove the surface coating, exposing the bare material to oxidation processes.
Furthermore, even after mechanical processing of the annular shoulder it is not always possible to ensure that the brake disc, once the wheel is mounted on the bicycle, is positioned exactly centered between the pads of the brake caliper.
Document U.S. Pat. No. 9,267,560 B2 describes a bicycle wheel hub comprising an adjustment mechanism of the axial position of the brake disc with respect to the hub. The adjustment mechanism comprises an elastic element, such as a spring, active between an annular shoulder and the brake disc to push the brake disc towards the free end of the hub. The brake disc is locked in a predetermined axial position by locking members, such as a bush, active on the hub and on the brake disc on the opposite side with respect to the elastic element, counteracting the pushing action thereof on the brake disc. By selecting the axial position in which to activate the locking members it is possible to select the axial position of the brake disc.
This solution, devised to allow the brake disc to be positioned centered between the pads of the brake caliper, might not ensure the perfect perpendicularity between the brake disc and the rotation axis of the hub, since the elastic element does not allow a surface to be made that is stable and perfectly flat for the brake disc to rest on.

Bicycle wheel hub and related hub assembly


Provided herein are methods and compositions for water disinfection. The methods and compositions, which can include a peracid and a source of copper ions, are useful for treatment of water contaminated with recalcitrant microbes.

The treatment of water and wastewater, including household sewage and runoff, typically involves a multistep process to reduce physical, chemical and biological contaminants to acceptable limits, before such water or wastewater can be safely returned to the environment. Among the steps typically employed in a water treatment facility is a disinfection step, in which the water or wastewater is treated to reduce the levels of microorganisms present in the water or wastewater. Standard disinfection methods typically involve treatment with chlorine or chlorinated compounds, ozone, or ultraviolet light. Standard methods are not always effective for the rapid elimination of recalcitrant microorganisms, for example, Enterococci. There is a continuing need for methods of elimination of recalcitrant microorganisms in a timely and cost-effective manner.

Disinfection method for water and wastewater


Fiberoptics can be employed to detect downhole electromagnetic signals via resistive heating. A disclosed electromagnetic energy detector embodiment includes an optically-interrogated temperature sensor; and a conductive element thermally coupled to the sensor, the conductive element having a temperature response to incident electromagnetic energy. The optically-interrogated temperature sensor may be a length or coil of optical fiber to which a distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) or distributed temperature sensing (DTS) system is attached. The conductive element may be a metal coating on the fiber that experiences resistive heating in response to electromagnetic energy and creates an optically-measurable thermal response in the sensor.

Modern oil field operators demand access to a great quantity of information regarding the parameters and conditions encountered downhole. Such information typically includes characteristics of the earth formations traversed by the borehole and data relating to the size and configuration of the borehole itself. The collection of information relating to conditions downhole, which commonly is referred to as "logging," can be performed by several methods including wireline logging and "logging while drilling" (LWD). A closely related information collection technique is "permanent monitoring".
In wireline logging, a sonde is lowered into the borehole after some or all of the well has been drilled. The sonde hangs at the end of a long wireline cable that provides mechanical support to the sonde and also provides an electrical connection between the sonde and electrical equipment located at the surface of the well. In accordance with existing logging techniques, various parameters of the earth's formations are measured and correlated with the position of the sonde in the borehole as the sonde is pulled uphole.
In LWD, the drilling assembly includes sensing instruments that measure various parameters as the formation is being penetrated, thereby enabling measurements of the formation while it is less affected by fluid invasion. While LWD measurements are desirable, drilling operations create an environment that is generally hostile to electronic instrumentation, telemetry, and sensor operations.
In permanent monitoring, sensing instruments are installed in a borehole for long-term monitoring of the downhole conditions. Such instruments must survive in a hostile environment for at least months if not years, and in most cases they are not accessible for repair or replacement. The instruments can be used to measure parameters in the borehole environment or in the formation surrounding the borehole.
One of the many formation parameters of interest is conductivity (or equivalently, resistivity). Many approaches to measure the resistivity of a formation downhole rely on the measurement of varying magnetic fields. The most familiar tool that works in this way is the electromagnetic induction sonde. This sonde combines both a transmitter coil and a receiver coil. The transmitter coil converts a varying electrical current into a varying magnetic field. This field excites eddy currents in the formation, which in turn generate varying (secondary) magnetic fields. Both the primary and the secondary magnetic fields present at the receiver coil location cause a time-varying electromotive force in the receiver coil. This voltage signal is received by the tool's electronics for further processing. The intensity and phase information of the received signal, analyzed in relation to the source signal, permit a determination of the resistivity of the formation in the zone interrogated by the tool. Because a varying magnetic field also implies a varying electric field, this approach is generally described as an electromagnetic (EM) interrogation method. Unfortunately, it may be difficult to provide receiver electronics of sufficient sensitivity that can survive a downhole environment for an extended period of time.
It should be understood, however, that the specific embodiments given in the drawings and detailed description below do not limit the disclosure. On the contrary, they provide the foundation for one of ordinary skill to discern the alternative forms, equivalents, and other modifications that are encompassed in the scope of the appended claims.

Fiberoptic systems and methods detecting EM signals via resistive heating


A system and method for localizing an autonomous vehicle using a digital stereo camera mounted to the autonomous vehicle and oriented to obtain images of the road surface. The system comprises an image processor configured to analyze the images of the road surface and identify micro-features, such as pores, holes, cracks, and granular material embedded in the street. The image processor is configured to compile previously obtained images of the road surface into reference mosaics and to compare the micro-features identified in newly obtained images to the reference mosaic to determine the location of the autonomous vehicle. The system may be further configured with a communications module to transmit images and localization information to a database repository or server.

The determination of relative or absolute position is needed for many applications, particularly autonomous transportation vehicles and other mobile systems. Classic analog methods for ascertaining global position relied on accurate timekeeping and celestial navigation; maritime chronometers, for instance, could measure relative longitude by determining the difference between local noon (established with a sextant) and the time shown on the chronometer for a known line of longitude. Modern methods measure distance or the angle between an object and one or more known landmarks or locations. Global Positioning Systems (GPS), for example, determine an object's location by trilateration: calculating its distance from at least three satellites by measuring the time it takes a radio signal to propagate from each satellite to a receiver. Alternative conventional methods register sensor measurements against a map of previously measured values and recorded information. For example, the topography of terrain can be measured by stereogrammetric aerial photography and then drawn on a topographic map; observations or measurements of the terrain can then be used to locate or register an object's position with respect to the map. This process of determining an object's position in three-dimensional space is often referred to as "localization".
The position of an autonomous vehicle must be constantly reported and updated to facilitate navigation, improve adaptive routing, and ensure safe driving. GPS systems can demonstrate positional residual errors on the order of several meters, making them useful, but not sufficient, tools for real-time vehicle localization. Advances in object recognition and vision sensing technology have resulted in systems and methods which supplement global positioning data for a more accurate accounting of vehicle location during operation. Some of these solutions determine vehicle position by sensing the features in the environment through which the vehicle traverses.
Patterns or features which are suitable to enable image registration can be found by collecting image(s) of objects in the environment. Ideally, said features will have certain properties that make their identification robust, repeatable and unambiguous. Example properties of features for identification purposes include:                uniqueness among other nearby features so as not to cause ambiguity in associating a feature with its counterpart in a reference mosaic;        easily localizable, such that when features are detected in an image, their position within that image can be accurately determined, e.g. with subpixel accuracy;        invariance to the properties of the imaging device capturing the image, e.g. the features should be recognizable under varying conditions of camera distortion, resolution, exposure, color balance, perspective or hardware model;        invariance to changes in the environment, such as lighting and weather, e.g. fog, dew, frost, rain, and snow;        permanence, e.g. the feature is unlikely to be removed from the environment; and        visibility, e.g. the feature is unlikely to be obscured in the future.
Geographic, man-made, or engineered features may contain suitable identifiable features exhibiting said exemplary properties. Examples of recognizable objects may include rocks, trees, utility poles and boxes, buildings, foundations, sidewalks, curbs, roadway markings, roadway shoulders, etc. In the absence of sufficiently recognizable features, in the presence of ephemeral surroundings, or to reduce the computational burden to a simpler feature set, image sensing technologies in use for autonomous locomotion may focus on recognizing features in the very road or surface over which the vehicle travels.
Wu et al. (Tao Wu and Ananth Ranganathan, Vehicle Localization Using Road Markings, IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium IV, June 2013) demonstrated a means for localizing a vehicle using stereo cameras to take pictures of traffic signs painted on the road. Road markings and signs are surveyed ahead of time to associate GPS coordinates with the ground markers, and the images are processed to identify the markers and determine the pose, i.e. the combination of orientation and geo-spatial location of the vehicle.
Schreiber et al. (Markus Shreiber, Fabian Poggenhans and Christoph Stiller, Detecting Symbols on Road Surface for Mapping and Localization using OCR, IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems, 2014, pp. 597-602) demonstrated a similar system to detect and identify road symbols using monoscopic or stereoscopic cameras using optical character recognition of images taken of the ground.
Since the 1970s, municipal and construction authorities have utilized systems to monitor road surface conditions. Technologies including lasers and ultrasound are used to map street surface roughness, identify fissures, cracks and potholes, and to detect asphalt raveling. US Patent Publication 2013/0076871A1 (Inventor: Bryan Reed), entitled "High Speed Photometric Stereo Pavement Scanner" demonstrates a photometric stereo camera technique for illuminating and capturing images of pavement surfaces to determine surface gradients and albedos. From said images, the system disclosed in Reed can discern the existence of cracks and furrows in the road for maintenance purposes. Reed also establishes that similar feature and elevation maps of roadways can be obtained using LIDAR based laser scanning.
The systems and methods mentioned above are not capable of localizing a vehicle on a road without relying on reflective markers and road signs or previous survey data. Laser or camera systems designed to identify cracks and road irregularities are not capable of recognizing surface elements at a level of detail required to assess the current position of a moving vehicle. Therefore, there exists a need for a means of localizing a vehicle by recognizing ground images using granular identification of micro-features in the road surface.
The following collects a definition of terms used to describe embodiments of the present invention:
Herein the term "registration" refers to the determination of the parameters and transformations (for example scaling, translation, rotation, geometric distortion, etc.) that will align one image with another, or will transform the images into a shared coordinate system.
Herein the term "image" refers to any two- or three-dimensional array of values collected by photographic or electronic means. Images can be monochrome or color and can be made from visible or non-visible reflected light, for example ultraviolet or infrared light. Generally, images capture the intensities, wavelength(s), and/or polarization of reflected light after the light has passed through an aperture and been focused by imaging optics.
Herein the term "localization" refers to the determination of an object's pose within a known coordinate system, where "pose" refers to the combination of both position and orientation of an object. An object's orientation can refer to the angle an object makes with respect to at least one axis, or its bearing or heading referenced to a compass direction or the positions of other objects. An object's position may be defined by latitude and longitude, its relation to the positions of landmarks or otherwise known, or fixed, positions, or any combination thereof. An object's position may be represented in two or three-dimensions. The concept of pose may also extend to images taken of the environment around an object. Each captured image may be associated with a position (the location of the subject of the image in a coordinate system) and an orientation (the angle, bearing, or heading of the imaging device with respect to the subject of the image).
Herein the term "mosaic" refers to an image or map that has been assembled from smaller constituents. For example, a mosaic image may be created from a two-dimensional array of smaller image tiles. Image tiles that form a mosaic may be overlapping, wherein portions of a plurality of tiles depict the same subject or feature, or be non-overlapping, wherein tiles depict distinct subjects, elements, or micro-features. A mosaic image comprising a plurality of image tiles may be composed pixel by pixel. A mosaic image may also be created as a composite of multiple images having some degree of overlap, but which cannot be directly composed pixel-by-pixel, e.g. because they image an object from different angles. Such a composite mosaic may be created, for example, by extracting a value at each desired output image location based on some function of the input images, which themselves may have been transformed to account for differences in perspective.
Herein the term "host" refers to an object whose pose is desired to be known, for example a vehicle traveling on a roadway. The term vehicle shall be hereby construed to refer to any one of a variety of transportation apparatuses that traverse over a road/road surface.

Localization of autonomous vehicles via ground image recognition


A cleaning method and apparatus using very dilute Standard Clean 1 (SC1) for cleaning semiconductor substrates, including silicon wafers. The SC1 is delivered to the core of a brush where the solution is absorbed by the brush and then applied by the brush onto the substrate. This delivery system applies the chemical solutions uniformly to the semiconductor substrate and reduces the volumes of chemical solutions used in a scrubbing process. The process of the present invention uses SC1 to convert substrate surfaces from a hydrophobic state to a hydrophilic surface state while cleaning the wafer with the brush. A hydrophilic surface state is necessary to successfully remove surface contaminants by chemical mechanical brush cleaning.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to methods of processing a substrate, and more specifically, to a chemical mechanical scrubbing process using Standard Clean 1 (SC1) for cleaning, for example, semiconductor wafers, including bare silicon wafers and processed and partially processed semiconductor substrates.
2. Background Information
In the manufacture of semiconductor devices, the surface of semiconductor wafers must be cleaned of wafer contaminants. If not removed, wafer contaminants may affect device performance characteristics and may cause device failure to occur at faster rates than usual.
A scrubber that scrubs a wafer on either one or both sides may be used to remove wafer contaminants. The type of cleaning solution (solution) used in the scrubber may depend upon the type of contaminants to be removed, the particular type of wafer to be scrubbed, and/or the particular manufacturer's preferred method for cleaning. For example, some manufacturers require a low level of contamination and may use a chemical solution for scrubbing, while other manufacturers have a higher contamination tolerance (i.e. less contamination need be removed) and may use only water for scrubbing.
Double sided scrubbers that use soft sponge like (e.g., PVA) brushes to simultaneously clean both sides of the wafer are widely used for post CMP (chemical mechanical planarization) cleaning, cleaning of silicon wafers and general fab cleaning. The effectiveness of scrubbing wafers with soft brushes to remove surface defects has been demonstrated in both research and production. The best cleaning performance is achieved when the surface state of the incoming wafer is hydrophilic. The wafer must be uniformly wetted with water while being scrubbed by the brush. The particles which are being dislodged from the wafer surface by the brush then become suspended in the film of water which covers the wafer surface. This particle-laden film is then displaced with freshly delivered, clean DI water. In this way, the particles are removed from the wafer.
If the surface of the wafer (or isolated areas on the wafer surface) is hydrophobic and, therefore, can not be uniformly wetted, the particles will remain adhered to the surface of the wafer. Particles will also deposit onto the hydrophobic wafer surface from the PVA brush. Therefore, it is required, for successful removal of surface contaminants by brush scrubbing, that the surface of the wafer is hydrophilic. This is the case for three widely employed CMP applications: CMP of interlevel dielectric, pre-metal dielectric and Tungsten (W) CMP for the definition of the interconnect structure. In these applications, the surfaces of the wafers after polishing are hydrophilic.
In the case of CMP of prime silicon or polysilicon, the surface after polishing may be hydrophobic. (A hydrophobic surface state is also characteristic of thermally grown silicon dioxide, as grown epitaxial silicon and prime silicon which has been stripped of its native or passivating oxide.) In these cases, the surface must be converted from hydrophobic to hydrophilic for successful removal of surface contaminants by brush scrubbing. One way to perform this conversion is to use SC1 chemistry.
Standard Clean 1 (SC1) is a well-known chemical combination that is used to clean bare silicon or a silicon wafer with thermally grown or deposited oxide. SC1 consists of ammonium hydroxide (NH.sub.4 OH), peroxide (H.sub.2 O.sub.2) and water (H.sub.2 O). An SC1 cleaning cycle is designed to promote oxidation and dissolution of organic impurities on the substrates in the solution of NH.sub.4 OH, H.sub.2 O.sub.2 and H.sub.2 O at a temperature of approximately 75.degree. C. to 80.degree. C. For one description of SC1 chemical cleaning, see W. Kern, "Hydrogen Peroxide Solutions for Silicon Wafer Cleaning," RCA Engineer, vol. 28-343, July/August 1983, pgs. 99-105.
Typically, to convert a hydrophobic surface of silicon or polysilicon to a hydrophilic surface, the substrates are dunked into a bath, separate from the scrubber, and then withdrawn from the bath and placed into a scrubber for cleaning. Thus, a separate piece of equipment is required for the conversion. What is desired is a way to allow substrates to go directly to the scrubber without having to use a separate piece of equipment such as a wet bath. A wet bath typically uses large volumes of water and chemicals and may become contaminated with repeated exposure to "dirty" wafers. It is also more difficult to control the chemical reaction at the wafer surface in a bath containing 50-100 wafers than in a single wafer system with the ability to deliver small amounts of fresh chemicals to each and every wafer.
The present invention provides for converting the surface of a semiconductor substrate in situ using an SC1 chemistry in a scrubber in such a way as to be compatible with the PVA brush material. The present invention provides for changing the surface state at the same time as mechanical brush cleaning. In this way, the use of additional equipment to convert the substrate surface from hydrophobic to hydrophilic is not necessary.

Method and apparatus for cleaning of semiconductor substrates using standard clean 1 (SC1)


Disclosed is an organic photoreceptor possessing a photosensitive layer having a surface layer, provided on a conductive support, wherein the surface layer of the organic photoreceptor contains a block copolymer composed of a matrix component and a low surface energy component, and possesses a sea/island structure having domains formed by aggregating the low surface energy component in the block copolymer, and also disclosed are a process cartridge, an image forming method and an image forming apparatus, employing the foregoing organic photoreceptor.

In recent years, electrophotographic copiers and printers come to be more often utilized in printing and color printing applications. In said printing and color printing applications, digital black and white images or color images having high image quality are strongly required. For this demand, it is proposed to form a high precision digital image by use of laser light having a short wavelength as an exposure light source (Patent Document 1). However, it is in a present situation that the resulting electrophotographic image has not achieved a sufficiently high quality image even though a dot latent image is formed on the organic photoreceptor via precise dot exposure.
One of the reasons lies in that even though a precise dot latent image is formed on an organic photoreceptor employing a semiconductor laser, the dot latent image can not be precisely reproduced as a toner image. In particular, the dot latent image formed by a semiconductor laser or others is reproduced as a toner image smaller or larger than a latent image in size, since a uniform surface property of the organic photoreceptor in the order of a micron dimension can not be obtained, resulting in no formation of a microscopically uniform toner image, and problems are easily produced such that transfer hollow defects (hereinafter, referred simply to as hollow defects) are generated, resulting in lowered image density, since the toner image formed on the photoreceptor is not sufficiently transferred into a transfer medium (being a transfer material or an intermediate image transfer body such as paper sheets and so forth).
Proposed as a method to improve the surface property of the organic photoreceptor is an organic photoreceptor containing fluorine-containing resin particles on the photoreceptor surface (Patent Document 2). The organic photoreceptor containing these fluorine-containing resin particles exhibits an anti-toner filming property as well as a surface anti-stain property, but fluorine-containing resin particles are difficult to be dispersed in the order of a micron dimension in a binder resin, and the fluorine-containing resin particles and the binder resin are separated at the micron size level, whereby blurred images are easily generated. Another problem is also produced such that scratches are easily generated on the surface layers of fluorine-containing resin particles because of an insufficient wear resistance property of the surface layer, whereby scratches are easily generated in halftone images.    (Patent Document 1) Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication No. 2001-255685    (Patent Document 2) Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication No. 8-328287
The present invention was conducted to solve the foregoing problems. It is an object of the present invention to provide an organic photoreceptor in which a dot latent image formed on an organic photoreceptor employing an imagewise exposure light source of a semiconductor laser can be precisely reproduced onto the organic photoreceptor as a toner image, and the reproduced toner image is assuredly transferred into a transfer medium, and also to provide the organic photoreceptor accompanied with a process cartridge, an image forming method and an image forming apparatus employing the organic photoreceptor, in which an improved cleaning ability is obtained, transferability of a toner image on the organic photoreceptor into a transfer medium is also improved, generation of hollow defects as well as degraded dot images can be inhibited, and the surface layer exhibiting an improved cleaning ability can also be obtained.

Organic photoreceptor, process cartridge, image forming method, and image forming apparatus

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.


The present invention provides compounds useful for preparing synthetic pheromone compositions that can be used as attractants or inhibitors of insect species. The compositions are useful in the control of navel orangeworm or meal moth insect pests.

Female-produced sex pheromones in moths (Lepidoptera) are normally complex mixtures of straight chain acetates, aldehydes, and alcohols, with 10-18 carbon atoms and up to three unsaturations. This group of pheromones, Type I according to Ando's classification (Ando et al., Top Curr Chem 239:51-96 (2004)) comprises ca. 75% of the known pheromones. A second major group, Type II (15%) (Ando et al., Top Curr Chem 239:51-96 (2004)) consists of polyunsaturated (up to four double bonds) hydrocarbons and epoxy derivatives with long straight chain (C17-C23) (Ando et al., Top Curr Chem 239:51-96 (2004)). While Type I pheromones are synthesized de novo (Ando et al., Top Curr Chem 239:51-96 (2004); Jurenka, R., Top Curr Chem 239:97-132 (2004)), polyunsaturated hydrocarbons seem to be derived from dietary linoleic and linolenic acid (Jurenka, R., Top Curr Chem 239:97-132 (2004); Ando et al., Top Curr Chem 239:51-96 (2004)).
The major constituent of the sex pheromones of two species in the family Pyralidae, the navel orangeworm, Amyelois transitella Walker (subfamily: Phycitinae) (Coffelt et al., J Chem Ecol 5:955-966 (1979)) and the meal moth, Pyralis farinalis Linnaeus (subfamily: Pyralinae) (Landolt, P. J. and Curtis, C. E., J Kansas Entomol Soc 55:248-252 (1982)) has been previously identified as (Z,Z)-11,13-hexadecadienal belonging to Type I (Ando et al., Top Curr Chem 239:51-96 (2004)). It has been suggested that additional pheromone components may be present in the female navel orangeworm moths (Shorey, H H., Gerber, R. G., Environ Entomol 25:1154-1157 (1996)), but hitherto conventional approaches have failed to identify the full pheromone system. The present invention addresses these and other needs.

The Regents of the University of California

The United States of America Secretary of Agriculture


A system and method for improving storage system performance by reducing or avoiding load spike amplification when performing garbage collection is disclosed. A storage controller in a storage system tracks system load including write load and read load, as well as available free segments. The storage controller uses these tracked values as inputs and, with these inputs, generates a garbage collection rate. Where read load is included, a scaled portion of the read load is taken into consideration so that, as the number of free segments nears the minimum amount desired and to prevent garbage collecting too slowly, the read load is gradually excluded from the garbage collection rate determination. The garbage collection rate is therefore responsive to system load so that, in times of high system load, the rate reduces as much as is safe so that the write load takes priority with computing resources of the storage controller.

In some storage systems, such as high-availability storage systems that utilize write-back caching and some form of data redundancy, writes to persist cached data are done sequentially to the long-term storage (e.g., one or more storage devices such as hard disk drives and/or solid state drives) in full stripes. Over time, some data may be changed. For example, a host may write data to a specified logical block address (LBA) at a first point in time and, later, modify or replace the data at the specified LBA. Each time a write is persisted in such systems, it is put into a new location (e.g., a new data stripe). As a result, changed/new data for a specified LBA renders the data in the prior stripe(s) for the specified LBA invalid, which is also referred to as "garbage."
To free up those locations associated with now-invalid data in the long-term storage, some storage systems use a process of garbage collection. In garbage collection, segments (which can be formed of one or more data stripes in a pooled storage system) are identified for collection. These segments are typically identified based on the number of invalid chunks of data they contain (e.g., a segment with more invalid chunks of data may be a more likely candidate for garbage collection). In garbage collection, any valid chunks of data in the target segment are read out from the target segment and written to a new data stripe in a new segment (e.g., sequentially with current write data). Thus, garbage collection is an expensive overhead process that taxes operation of the system by consuming processing and bandwidth resources.
Current approaches toward garbage collection typically rely on matching the production of clean segments (available for use in writing new/updated data) with the consumption of clean segments from an incoming write stream. Thus, the pace of garbage collection in these approaches effectively pins the pace of garbage collection production to the pace of incoming write data. This results in load spike amplification—when the write rate increases, the pace of garbage collection increases. This is less than desirable because it increases the overhead imposed on the storage system for garbage collection at the same time that the load on the system increases from the write rate. This becomes noticeable to the end user in the form of delays.

Garbage collection pacing in a storage system


An additive manufacturing (AM) system and method configured to fabricate a 3D printed object from a liquid photocurable composition is provided. The AM system comprises a gas sphere assembly and an AM assembly. The gas sphere assembly comprises a prep chamber and a generation system having a generation chamber including a gas sphere generation unit, a jet source chamber including a sphere unit, and a gas chamber, a reservoir, and a gas cylinder. When a gas is fed to the gas chamber and the liquid photocurable composition is fed to the jet source chamber and generation chamber, the gas is pushed through a plurality of first openings of the sphere unit, and then a plurality of micro-openings of the gas sphere generation unit, to generate the plurality of closed-packed gas spheres. The plurality of closed-packed gas spheres are employed in the AM system for fabrication of the 3D printed object.

Additive manufacturing (AM) or three-dimensional (3D) printing translates computer-aided design (CAD) virtual 3D models into physical and functionally complex structured objects. By digital slicing of CAD, 3D scan, or tomography data, AM fabricates objects by successively stacking cross-sections layer-by-layer.
Among the AM processes for liquid photocurable compositions (e.g., polymeric materials), VAT photopolymerization is a process whereby a cross-section of a liquid photocurable composition in a vat is selectively cured or hardened by light-activated polymerization. A final object is fabricated in a layer-by-layer fashion as a build platform moves through the liquid photocurable composition along a z-axis.
For 3D printed objects fabricated using VAT photopolymerization, the mechanical properties thereof are dependent upon fabrication parameter choices. However, control and consistency of the mechanical properties is problematic as factors such as light source power, wavelength, fabrication speed, and liquid photocurable composition, among others, affect the curing or hardening of the liquid photocurable composition. This challenge is compounded when fabricating VAT photopolymerized 3D printed objects which are light in weight.
Fabrication of lighter VAT photopolymerized 3D printed objects have become popular, with fabrication cost and weight of 3D printed objects directly related to the weight and volume of the liquid photocurable composition effectively employed therein and emerging uses in different industry sectors, such as automotive and industrial manufacturing, aerospace, pharma and healthcare, retail, and sports. One technique used when designing weight effective 3D shapes is to reduce the interior material thereof while still fabricating a durable 3D printed object. However, there exist minimum feature size and structural design limitations for VAT photopolymerized 3D printed objects. In addition, light weight VAT photopolymerized 3D printed objects often suffer from inhomogeneous structural integrity as problematic control and consistency during the fabrication processes affects the mechanical properties thereof.
There is demand for a system and method for fabricating reduced interior material 3D printed objects employing an AM processes for liquid photocurable compositions to obviate the aforementioned problems.

System and method for close-packed gas sphere three-dimensional fabrication

National Taipei University of Technology


The present invention preferably places a hardware circuit between the SCU's ARCNET transceiver and the backplane bus rather than a parallel snooper circuit. This circuit builds the map based on the tokens it observes. When the circuit detects the token for the SCU, it blocks the token transmission to the SCU's ARCNET transceiver. It then sends a minimum length “ping” message to each unit that was present on the bus during the last token rotation, but is not present during the token rotation that just ended. Since units that have lost their token can still respond to a Free Buffer Enquiry message, the circuit can use it as a ping to verify whether the missing unit(s) are actually missing or have just lost their token due to noise. After verification, the token is forwarded to the SCU's ARCNET transceiver.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to sending data on a token bus and, more particularly, to a method for reliable real-time detection of which units are present on an ARCNET.
2. Prior Art
A token bus operates as a shared medium. Only the unit which has the "token" (alternatively referred to as an "invitation to transmit" (ITT)) is allowed to send data on the bus. When a unit (node) has transmitted any data it has to send, it sends the token to the next unit in the token rotation (i.e., transmits a token with the destination address of the next unit). Inherent in a token bus system is the ability to know which units are present on the bus by monitoring the addresses of the tokens being sent during each token rotation with a bus "snooper" circuit. Here, the snooper circuit is assumed to reside in a system controller unit (SCU).
The ARCNET LAN protocol, as described in ANSI Standard 878.1, can be summarized as follows. To build the token rotation list, which must occur whenever a new unit is added to the bus, the new unit "jams" the bus by sending a long pattern guaranteed to create a lost token situation. Once this situation has occurred, the bus will be idle until the unit with the highest address times out. (The time-out value is a function of a unit's address value.) This unit then attempts to find the unit with the next higher address value (which, due to the modulo 255 arithmetic is actually the unit with the lowest address value). This unit will in turn try to find the unit with next higher address value, and so on until each unit has determined which unit has the next highest address to its own. The token rotation is now established and each unit retains only the address of the unit to which it sends tokens. The method by which a unit finds the unit with the next higher address value is discussed further below in the discussion of units being removed from the bus.
Under normal, steady-state operation, a unit receiving a token sends a token to the next unit in the list if it has no data to send. If the unit receiving a token has data to send, it first queries the destination with a Free Buffer Enquiry (FBE) message. If the destination unit has buffer space available to receive a packet, it responds with an ACK message, and if its receive buffers are currently full, it responds with a NACK message. If it receives an ACK to the FBE, the unit with the token sends its packet and then sends the token to the next unit. If it receives a NACK message, it sends the token to the next unit immediately. (The unit will attempt to send the message again the next time it has the token.) Each unit has a finite amount of time to respond to a token by either initiating a packet transmission or sending another token. The same response time is required to respond to a FBE. If a unit fails to respond to a FBE, the sending unit assumes that this unit is not in the system and quits attempting to send that packet.
If a unit fails to respond to the token, the sending unit assumes that this unit has been removed from the system. It then attempts to find the next unit in the rotation (i.e., the unit with the next higher address value). This search for the next unit is done by incrementing the token destination address by '1'. If the unit at that address responds to the token, the sending unit stores that address as its token destination. If the unit at that address fails to respond, the unit again increments the address and sends another token and continues the process until the next unit is found.
Noise on the ARCNET bus can cause the following problems with token passing:    1) If noise corrupts a token, the destination will not recognize it and hence will not respond. The sending unit will treat this situation the same as if the unit was removed and the original destination unit will be deleted from the map. Eventually, the original destination unit will experience a time-out due to not receiving a token and will force a new-unit bus reconfiguration.    2) Noise after a token is interpreted as a response to the token. This case creates a lost token situation that is covered under normal bus reconfiguration.
The first case is the one that causes the difficulties for a token map snooper circuit since it is impossible to distinguish this event from an actual unit removal/failure. If fast real-time response is not required, the snooper can simply wait until the deleted unit causes a reconfiguration and rejoins the bus. In telecommunications systems that rely on the snooper bus map to trigger unit protection switching from a failed/removed working unit to a standby protection unit, waiting for reconfiguration is not an option. The deleted unit will wait 840 ms before triggering the reconfiguration and the protection switch must be completed within 60 ms (10 ms for detecting the removal plus 50 ms to complete the switch).

Method for real-time detection of which units are present on an arcnet