A rapid thermal processing (RTP) system including a transmission pyrometer monitoring the temperature dependent absorption of the silicon wafer for radiation from the RTP lamps at a reduced power level. A look-up table is created relating unnormalized values of photodetector photocurrents with wafer and radiant lamp temperatures. A calibrating step measures the photocurrent with known wafer and lamp temperatures and all photocurrents measured thereafter are accordingly normalized. The transmission pyrometer may be used for closed loop control for thermal treatments below 500° C. or used in the pre-heating phase for a higher temperature process including radiation pyrometry in closed loop control. The pre-heating temperature ramp rate may be controlled by measuring the initial ramp rate and readjusting the lamp power accordingly. Radiation and transmission pyrometers may be included in an integrated structure with a beam splitter dividing radiation from the wafer.

Rapid thermal processing (RTP) is a term applied to several types of thermal processes including annealing, dopant activation, oxidation, and nitridation among others. The aforementioned processes are typically performed at relatively high temperatures above about 1000° C. It can be further applied to etching and chemical vapor deposition in the presence of precursor or etching gases. The latter processes are conventionally performed in an RTP chamber at somewhat lower temperatures of between 500° and 800° C. RTP typically depends upon an array of high-intensity incandescent lamps fit into a lamphead and directed at the substrate being processed. The lamps are electrically powered and can be very quickly turned on and off and a substantial fraction of their radiation can be directed to the substrate. As a result, the wafer can be very quickly heated without substantially heating the chamber and thereafter can be nearly as quickly cooled once the power is removed from the lamps. Thereby, the processing time at a predetermined temperature can be more closely controlled and the total thermal budget can be reduced. Furthermore, the total processing time can be reduced, thereby increasing throughput.
FIG. 1 schematically illustrates in cross section an RTP reactor 10 described by Ranish et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,376,804, incorporated herein by reference and generally representative of the Radiance RTP reactor available from Applied Materials, Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif. The reactor 10 includes a processing chamber 12, a wafer support 14 located within the chamber 12, and a lamphead 16 or heat source assembly located on the top of the chamber 12, all generally symmetrically arranged about a central axis 18.
The processing chamber includes a main body 20 and a window 22 resting on the main body 20. The window 22 is made of a material that is transparent to infrared light, for example, clear fused silica quartz.
The main body 20 is made of stainless steel and may be lined with quartz (not shown). An annular channel 24 is formed near the bottom of the main body 20. The wafer support 14 includes a rotatable magnetic rotor 26 located within the channel 24. A quartz tubular riser 28 rests on or is otherwise coupled to the magnetic rotor 26 and an edge ring 30 composed of silicon-coated silicon carbide, opaque silicon carbide or graphite rests on the riser 28. During processing, a wafer 32 or other substrate rests on the edge ring 30. A rotatable magnetic stator 34 is located externally of main body 20 in a position axially aligned with the magnetic rotor 24 and is magnetically coupled to it through the main body 18. An unillustrated motor rotates the magnetic stator 34 about the central axis 18 and thereby rotates the magnetically coupled rotor 26 and hence rotates the edge ring 28 and the supported wafer 30. Three or four lift pins 36 are slidably sealed to a reflector plate 38 forming a bottom wall of the main body 20. An unillustrated mechanism lifts and lowers all the lift pins 36 to selectively engage the wafer 22 to lower and raise it to and from the edge ring 30 and to and from a unillustrated paddle used to transfer of the wafer 22 into and out of the chamber 12.
The quartz window 22 rests on an upper edge of the main body 18 and an O-ring 40 located between the window 22 and the main body 20 provides an air-tight seal between them. The lamphead 16 overlies the window 22. Another O-ring 42 located between the window 22 and the lamphead 16 provides an airtight seal between them. Clamps 44 in conjunction with the O-rings 40, 42 thus seals the lamphead 16 to the main body 20.
The lamphead 16 includes a plurality of lamps 46 that are supported by and electrically powered through electrical sockets 48. The lamps 46 are preferably high-intensity incandescent lamps that emit strongly in the infrared such as tungsten halogen bulb having a tungsten filament inside a quartz bulb filled with a gas containing a halogen gas such as bromine and diluted with an inert gas to clean the quartz bulb. Each bulb is potted with a ceramic potting compound 50, which is relatively porous. The lamps 46 are located inside vertically oriented cylindrical lamp holes 52 formed in a reflector body 54. The open ends of the lamp holes 52 of the reflector body 54 are located adjacent to the window 22 with the lamps 46 separated from the window 22.
A liquid cooling channel 56 is formed within the reflector body 54 to surround each of the lamp holes 52. A coolant, such as water, introduced into the cooling channel 56 via an inlet 60 and removed at an outlet 62, cools the reflector body 54 and flowing adjacent the lamp holes 52 cools the lamps 46.
Thermal sensors such as seven or more pyrometers 70 are optically coupled by light pipes 72, such as sapphire rods, to respective apertures 72, which are formed through and are disposed and spaced across the radius of the reflector plate 38. Typically the rigid sapphire light pipes 72 and pyrometers are supported in the main body 20 but there may be an intermediate flexible optical fiber or light guide. The pyrometers 70 detect a temperature or other thermal property of a different radial portion of the lower surface of the wafer 30 and edge ring 30, as Peuse et al. describe in U.S. Pat. No. 5,755,511. Adams et al. describe such a pyrometer in U.S. Pat. No. 6,406,179, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The pyrometer 70 is more particularly a radiation pyrometer and includes an optical narrow-band filter having a passband of about 20 nm at a wavelength less than 950 nm, that is, at a photon energy somewhat above the silicon band gap of about 1.1 eV (1.1 μm), alternately expressed as photon wavelength below the band gap wavelength of the silicon wafer. Such filters are easily formed as multi-layer interference filters. Thereby, the silicon wafer 32 absorbs the shorter-wavelength visible radiation emitted from the lamps 46 so that the pyrometer 70 is sensitive to the blackbody radiation emitted from the wafer 32 rather than the radiation from the lamps 46.
The pyrometers 72 supply temperature signals to a lamp power supply controller 76, which controls the power supplied to the infrared lamps 46 in response to the measure temperatures. The infrared lamps 46 may be controlled in radially arranged zones, for example, fifteen zones, to provide a more tailored radial thermal profile to account for thermal edge effects. The pyrometers 72 together provide signals indicative of a temperature profile across the wafer 22 to the power supply controller 76, which controls the power supplied to each of the zones of the infrared lamps 46 in response to the measured temperatures, thus providing a closed loop thermal control.
The main body 20 of the processing chamber 12 includes a processing gas inlet port 80 and a gas outlet port 82. In use, the pressure within the processing chamber 12 can be reduced to a sub-atmospheric pressure prior to introducing a process gas through the inlet port 80. A vacuum pump 84 evacuates the process chamber 86 by pumping through a port 76 and a valve 88. The pressure is typically reduced to between about 1 and 160 torr. Certain processes, however, can be run at atmospheric pressure, though often in the presence of a specified gas, and the process chamber does not need to be evacuated for such processes.
A second vacuum pump 90 reduces the pressure within the lamphead 16, particularly when the processing chamber is pumped to a reduced pressure to reduce the pressure differential across the quartz window 22. The second vacuum pump 90 reduces the pressure within the lamphead 16 by pumping though a port 92 including a valve 94. The port 92 is in fluid communication with an interior space of the reflector body 54 including the lamp holes 52.
A pressurized source 98 of a thermally conductive gas, such as helium, fills the lamphead 16 with the thermally conductive gas to facilitate thermal transfer between the lamps 46 and the liquid cooling channels 56. The helium source 98 is connected to the lamphead 16 through a valve 100 and port 102. The thermally conductive gas is introduced into a gas manifold 104 formed between a lamphead cover 106 and the base of each lamp 46. Opening the valve 100 causes the gas to flow into the manifold 104. Since the lamp potting compound 50 is relatively porous, the thermally conductive gas flows through the potting compound 50 and in the gap between the walls of the lamp 46 and the lamp hole 52 to cool the lamps 46.
The described RTP chamber, however, suffers some drawbacks in its use at lower temperatures. The typical radiation pyrometer used for silicon RTP includes a silicon photodiode detector, which detects the intensity of usually a narrow bandwidth of the Plankian radiation spectrum emitted from a hot body and determines the temperature of that body from the detected intensity. However, pyrometry is generally used for measuring high temperatures, for example, above 500 or 800° C. In the configuration of RTP reactors in which the chamber parts are relatively warm and there is light leakage from radiant bulb, conventional pyrometry is relatively ineffective at wafer temperatures of less than about 450° C. Photocurrents of a conventional pyrometer exposed to a 350° C. body are in the neighborhood of 0.8 pA, a level easily overwhelmed by thermal and electronic noise in a typical RTP environment. Furthermore, the wafer is partially transparent at these temperatures and the chamber is not light tight. It has been observed that immediately after the incandescent lamps are turned on in the presence of a cold wafer, the pyrometers immediately register about 350° C. from the direct and indirect lamp radiation.
Low-temperature control of wafer temperatures occurs in at least two situations for RTP. In high-temperature RTP, the higher wafer temperatures are very finely controlled by a closed loop control system using the radiation pyrometers, which, as explained above, are effective only above about 450° C. To reach this temperature, however, the wafer must first be heated under an open loop control system in which predetermined amounts of current are supplied to the radiant lamps. When the pyrometers detect that the temperature has reached a lower detection limit for the radiant pyrometers, thermal control switches to the closed loop system. The pre-heating during the open-loop period is not closely monitored beyond typically a switch off condition. As a result, temperature gradients or excessive heating rates may occur. The wafer may become misshapen during the pre-heating into a domed or potato-chip shape that prevents effective RTP at yet higher temperatures. It has thus been necessary to closely optimize the pre-heating conditions, particularly the distribution of zonal heating to achieve uniform pre-heating. Such pre-heating optimization has conventionally required a skilled engineer to experiment with a large number of wafer to establish a pre-heating recipe which avoids warpage or other deleterious results. However, the optimized recipe strongly depends on the features already established on the wafer. Except in the situation of very long production runs, it is infeasible to optimize for each level of each chip design. Instead, the optimization is performed on a few classes of unpatterned stock wafers having a top layer of a given type of material, for example, either metal or oxide. For production, the pre-heating recipe is selected for a similar top layer. Generally, this approach has proven unsatisfactory and results in uncertain pre-heating rates and other uniformities requiring yet further adjustments.
A demand has arisen for RTP performed at temperatures below 500° C. and even below 250° C. to nearly room temperature, for example, in nickel, cobalt, or titanium silicide contacts being envisioned for future generations of integrated circuits. It would be convenient to apply conventional radiation pyrometry to these advanced processes requiring relatively low thermal treatment temperatures. It is conceivable to design an automated low-temperature RTP chamber with cold walls and low-temperature radiation pyrometers, but it is more desirable to adapt commercialized high-temperature RTP chambers for low-temperature processing. It is further desired to provide an RTP chamber that can be used for both low-temperature and high-temperature processing so that the same chamber can be used for different processing steps.
Hunter et al. have described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,151,446, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, a transmission pyrometer useful for determining when a wafer supported on lift pins induces enough photocurrent in a photodetector to generally indicate that the wafer has achieved a chamber temperature before the wafer is lowered onto the edge ring. The transmission pyrometer includes some sort of filtering effective within a band near the silicon band gap. As the silicon wafer warms up, its band gap energy decreases (wavelength increases). The transmission pyrometer is intended to detect the radiation from the radiant heating lamps, usually held at a low intensity, as filtered by the silicon wafer. As the silicon band gap passes into or out of the detector's bandwidth, the detector signal significantly changes, thereby providing an indication of the temperature of the silicon wafer. The Hunter transmission pyrometer was incorporated into the chamber's lift pins to determine when it is safe to lower the wafer onto the warm edge ring. It is described as operating only up to about 400° C. Although Hunter provides some feedback control of the lamp power, closer and finer control of wafer temperature is desired.

Method and apparatus for low temperature pyrometry useful for thermally processing silicon wafers


An optical device includes an electrooptic crystal substrate, a polarization-inverted region formed in a part of the electrooptic crystal substrate, an optical waveguide formed in the electrooptic crystal substrate, and a groove for relaxing stress disposed between a domain wall of the polarization-inverted region and the optical waveguide.

1. Field
The embodiment(s) discussed herein are directed to an optical device that controls an optical signal in optical communication.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, ultra-high-speed WDM (wavelength division multiplex) systems are required to support features such as broadband, low voltage and low insertion loss.
A Mach-Zehnder modulator using an electrooptic crystal substrate of LiNbO3, LiTaO3 or the like and having a waveguide is an optical modulator which has low insertion loss, low frequency chirping and is less wavelength-dependent, and is therefore advantageous in WDM systems.
FIG. 1 illustrates a configuration example of an optical modulator as an optical device. FIG. 1A is a top view of the optical modulator, FIG. 1B and FIG. 1C are cross-sectional views along line A-A′ and line B-B′ of FIG. 1A respectively.
The optical modulator is formed as follows. Using an electrooptic crystal substrate of LiNbO3 or LiTaO3 or the like, an optical waveguide 2 (2A, 2B) is formed by forming a metal film on a part of a crystal substrate 1 and making the metal film thermally diffuse or realizing proton exchanges or the like in benzoic acid after patterning. Electrodes (signal electrode 3A and grounding electrode 3B) are then provided in the vicinity of the optical waveguide 2 to form the optical modulator.
In such a case, an isolation film of SiO2 or the like is formed as a buffer layer 4 between the signal electrode 3A, grounding electrode 3B, and the electrooptic crystal substrate 1 to prevent light absorption by the electrodes.
Here, to drive the optical modulator at high speed, terminals of the signal electrode 3A and grounding electrode 3B are connected together via a resistor to form a traveling wave electrode and a microwave signal is applied thereto from the input side.
In this case, an electric field causes refractive indexes of the pair of waveguides 2A, 2B to vary as +Δna, −Δnb respectively, which causes a phase difference between optical signals propagating through the waveguides 2A and 2B to vary. In this way, signal light whose intensity is modulated with respect to an optical signal incident on the waveguide 2 (in) on the incidence side is output from the output waveguide 2 (out).
Furthermore, by changing the sectional shapes of the signal electrode 3A and grounding electrode 3B to control the effective refractive index of microwave and causing the velocity of light to match the velocity of microwave, it is possible to obtain wideband optical frequency response.
However, when the absolute values of electric fields applied to the pair of waveguides 2A, 2B are different, Δna<Δnb results, producing a phenomenon (chirping) in transition from ON-state to OFF-state that the wavelength of output light varies.
To solve this problem, a crystal substrate, in a part of which a polarization-inverted region is formed, is used. That is, in FIG. 1, the portion surrounded by the broken line is a polarization-inverted region 5 and the signal electrode 3A is made to pass over the waveguide 2A in the non-inverted region outside the polarization-inverted region 5 (FIG. 1B) and over the waveguide 2B inside the inverted region 5 (FIG. 1C). In the figure, the arrow "+Z" denotes the polarization direction.
In FIG. 1A, when the length of the waveguide is approximately L1=L2, the phase of light passing through the waveguides 2A and 2B changes by +Δθs, −Δθg in the non-inverted region and by +Δθg, −Δθin the inverted region respectively. Here, Δθs and Δθg denote the amounts of phase variation of light by the signal electrode 3A (signal) and grounding electrode 3B (ground) respectively.
Therefore, the phases of light passing through the waveguides 2A and 2B vary by +(Δθs+Δθg) and −(Δθs+Δθg) respectively at a Y-branch waveguide 2D on the output side, resulting in a phase modulation with the two values having the same absolute value yet inverted signs. This allows wavelength chirping to be reduced to 0.
As another optical device using polarization inversion, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-274793 discusses a variable chirp modulator using demodulation in a polarization-inverted region, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-284129 discusses a modulator having an optical modulator with flattened frequency response characteristics and Japanese Patent No. 3303346 discusses an example of a wavelength conversion element.
Here, in the optical function element whose electrooptic crystal substrate includes the polarization-inverted region, stress is generated in the boundary between the polarization-inverted region 5 and crystal substrate 1 when an ambient temperature changes. This stress generated causes a problem that the refractive index of the optical waveguide portion varies with the temperature.
With regard to a strain in such an inversion boundary, "Suppression of thermal drift in an ultra-high-speed LiNbO3 optical modulator" T. Shiraishi et al., LEOS2007, TuC2 discusses an optical modulator device using a domain wall strain.
Furthermore, in accordance with a temperature variation, a change of refractive index of an optical waveguide has various adverse influences on device characteristics. In the Mach-Zehnder interferometer type optical modulator illustrated in FIG. 1 in particular, a refractive index change caused by temperature results in an operation point variation and deteriorates modulation characteristics significantly. This phenomenon is called a "temperature drift phenomenon."
On the other hand, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-166566 discusses a technique of widening bandwidths of an optical modulator using a structure with long ridge-like grooves, that is, ridge grooves (ridge waveguides) formed on both sides of an electrooptic crystal substrate in which optical waveguides are formed.
Furthermore, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-275121 discusses an optical modulator including both a ridge waveguide and the polarization-inverted region 5. In the example described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-275121, the ridge waveguide is applied to a region where the optical waveguide and microwave interact with each other.
FIG. 2 illustrates a typical optical modulator provided with the above described ridge waveguide and polarization-inverted region with a top view (A) and cross-sectional views (FIG. 2B: section along line A-A′) and (FIG. 2C: section along line B-B′). Parts similar to those in FIG. 1 are assigned the same reference numerals.
Here, a result of research conducted by the present inventor shows that in a case where there are ridge grooves 6 on a substrate surface between a domain wall 7 (boundary between a polarization-inverted region and non-polarization-inverted region) and waveguides 2A and 2B, stress generated from the domain wall 7 is reduced by the ridge grooves 6, which reduces the possibility of the stress affecting the waveguides 2A and 2B.
On the other hand, since the ridge waveguide having the ridge grooves 6 is formed in the vicinity of the waveguides 2A and 2B, light insertion loss thereof increases due to scattering by sidewall of the ridge structure. Therefore, optical modulators with no ridge waveguide formed are often adopted.
Moreover, even in the case where the ridge waveguide is formed, the formation of the ridge waveguide needs to be limited to a minimum area.
Furthermore, a result of research conducted by the present inventor proved that increasing the depth of the ridge grooves 6 increases the effect of reducing stress. However, increasing the depth of the ridge grooves 6 of a normal ridge waveguide too much results in an increase in the drive voltage, and therefore it is not possible to increase the depth for only the effect of reducing stress and the effect of reducing stress is insufficient. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-166566 discusses that the depth of the grooves should be within a range of 1 to 10 μm.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an optical device that solves problems associated with typical a optical device including the problem of a temperature drift phenomenon caused by such a polarization-inverted structure inside crystal and strain of an boundary of polarization inversion and sufficiently reduce the temperature drift without increasing light insertion loss nor deteriorating optical modulation characteristics of drive voltage or the like.

Optical device and method related thereto


A process for manufacturing a photoreceptor for electrophotography excellent in electrophotographic characteristics such as charging properties and sensitivity, which process comprises the steps of forming on a substrate, which comprises an electroconductive support or a support having an electroconductive film thereon, a thin film composed of a material selected from the group consisting of silicon dioxide and silicon oxides, containing predominantly SiO.sub.2, by deposition from the vapor phase to produce an under coat layer, and forming on said under coat layer a carrier generation layer and a carrier transport layer in this order.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photoreceptor for electrophotography and a process for manufacturing the same.
2. Description of Related Art
Those multi-layered organic photoreceptors which have been used heretofore as photoreceptors for electrophotography, generally have a structure comprising an electroconductive support, a carrier generation layer (CGL) formed on the support, and a carrier transport layer (CTL) formed on the carrier generation layer. There may be a case where an under coat layer (UL) is formed between the electroconductive support and the carrier generation layer, if necessary.
Materials to be used for the carrier generation layers include azoic materials and phthalocyanine based materials which are capable of generating charge carriers. Those carrier generation materials (referred to as CGM hereinunder) may be used in the form of dispersion in a binder such as polycarbonate resins and the like. Materials to be used for the carrier transport layers (i.e., carrier transport materials referred to as CTM by abbreviation) comprise a combination of hydrazone and the like capable of transporting charge carriers and a binder for enhancing mechanical strength. The under coat layers may be provided for improvement in accuracy of mechanical processing of the electroconductive supports as well as for preventing the carriers from leaking out of the carrier generation layer into the support. The under coat layers (referred to as UL hereinunder) may be formed on the electroconductive support as by a dipping technique where in general a polyamide resin is dissolved into an alcoholic solvent and then applied by dipping.
However, the UL should have a film thickness as thin as about 1 .mu.m for inhibition of a reduction in sensitivity. For this reason, the conventional dipping method has a technical difficulty in achieving such films. If the UL is not uniform in thickness and quality, electrical properties of the organic photoreceptor with the UL are uneven resulting in non-uniformity of images obtained. Therefore, there is a demand to form a uniform thin film over all the surface of the support which is not easy to achieve technically. Moreover, there is a need to use an apparatus equipped with antiexplosion means because solvents for dissolving the polyamide resins are alcoholic. In addition, the formation of the carrier generation layer on the UL requires to select deliberately such a solvents as not causing any elution of the materials out of the film so that the types of materials for use in the carrier generation layers and the carrier transport layers are limited.

Multi-layered photoreceptor for electrophotography


A method and system for automatically recording position information of an electronic device are provided. The method includes receiving a header notification from the electronic device; receiving a WAP query message comprising query information and position information of the electronic device; forwarding the WAP query message to a content server; and transmitting the position information of the electronic device to a corresponding GPS database so as to continuously record position information of the electronic device.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to position information, and more particularly to a method and a system for automatically recording position information on a portable electronic device.
2. Description of Related Art
Navigational systems, such as the Global Positioning System (GPS) are gaining popularity with the public. Generally, GPS works by utilizing a cluster of satellites to determine a receiver's location. For example, each satellite in the cluster broadcasts a signal with identification, time and location information. A receiver receives this information from the cluster of satellites to determine the receiver's position.
By utilizing the GPS, a user is capable of obtaining exact position of the user and the efficient path to a destination. However, such function is generally activated by the user. As a result, the position of the user cannot be obtained while the user is unable to activate the corresponding GPS functions, such as in a kidnapping event.
Accordingly, a method and a system for automatically recording position information of a portable electronic device are called for in order to overcome the limitations described.

System and method for automatically recording position information


A method and means for the control of a cursor upon a display screen of a computer system by a pointed object such as a pen, stylus, or finger upon an electrical writing surface is disclosed. The method and means will allow the cursor to continue to scroll across the display screen in a fixed direction and at a fixed speed once the pointed object has transited from a workzone region to an edgezone region of the touchpad. Once the pointed object is in the edgezone region, the pointed object may be stopped. If a different direction or speed of movement of the cursor is desired, the pointed object can be moved in the new direction to establish the new direction and speed of movement of the cursor. The control of the cursor will return to the normal movement when the pointed object returns to the workzone from the edgezone.

1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates to computer input devices such as digitizers referred to as a touchpad for the control of a cursor upon a display screen of a computer system, and more particularly to the systems and methods necessary to acquire signals from such input devices and to convert the acquired signals to digital codes necessary to control a cursor upon a display screen.
2. Description of Related Art
Touchpads are small digitizer based input devices that are used to replace a computer input device commonly referred to a mouse. The touchpad digitizers may be of three types, capacitive, resistive and electromagnetic.
Referring to FIG. 1, the surface 12 of the touchpad becomes a "writing surface" for capturing the position of an pointed object 10 such as a finger, pen or stylus upon the touchpad. The touchpad signals are analog signals that will be captured by a touchpad interface circuit 28 and translated to digital codes that will be transferred to a computer system 32 on an interface 30. The interface 30 may be an industry standard serial interface, an industry standard parallel interface, or a custom interface requiring special adapter circuitry within the computer system 32 to accept the digital codes from the touchpad interface 28.
An example of a resistive touchpad, as shown in FIG. 1, is made up of multiple layers of resistive films and protective layers. The protective hard coating 12 is the surface onto which the pointed object 10 is pressed upon. A first layer of resistive film 14 is attached to the protective hard coating 12 on the surface opposite the writing surface. This first layer of resistive film forms the Y-plane of the touchpad. Attached to the surface of the Y-plane resistive film 14 opposite the surface attached to the hard protective coating 12 is a second resistive film 16. This second resistive film 16 forms the X-plane of the touchpad. Finally attached to the side of the X-plane resistive film 16 is a supporting back layer 18. This back layer provides protection and mechanical support for the for the X-plane and Y-plane resistive films 14 and 16.
The touchpad interface 28 is connected through the touchpad interface lines 20, 22, 24, and 26. Each line will provide a stimulus such as a current or voltage to the periphery of the X-plane resistive film 16 and the Y-plane resistive film 14. As shown in FIG. 2, as the pointed object 10 is pressed 40 on the touchpad surface 12, the Y-plane resistive film 12 will deform and touch the X-plane resistive film 14. The X-plane resistive film can not deform because it is supported by the supporting back layer 18. This causes the Y-plane resistive film 14 and the X-plane resistive film 16 to come into contact with each other. This will cause a response in the form a change in voltage or current depending upon whether the stimulus from the touchpad interface 28 of FIG. 1 is a constant voltage or a constant current. If the stimulus from the touchpad interface 28 of FIG. 1 is a constant voltage the currents through the touchpad interface lines 20, 22, 24, and 26 will be modified according the position of the pointed object 10 on the touchpad surface 12. However, if the stimulus from the touchpad interface 28 of FIG. 1 is a constant current the voltages between the touchpad interface lines 20, 22, 24, and 26 will be modified according the position of the pointed object 10 on the touchpad surface 12.
Within the touchpad interface 28 of FIG. 1 will be a touchpad driver. The drivers will consist of metal oxide semiconductor transistors (MOST) M1, M2, M3, and M4 that will selectively couple the power supply voltage source Vdd and the ground reference point GND to the X-plane 16 and the Y-plane 14. When the pointed object 10 is pressed on the touchpad 110 at point 40, the driver select lines X+sel and X-sel will be activated applying the power supply voltage source Vdd to one side on the X-plane at the Vx+ and the ground reference point GND to the opposite side of the X-plane at the Vx-.
The parasitic resistances Rpx+ and Rpx- represent the resistance of the distribution network respectively from point X+ to the side of the X-plane at Vx+ and the on resistance of the MOST M1 and the from the point X- to the opposite side of the X-plane at Vx- and the on-resistance of the MOST M2.
The resistors Rpx+, R.sub.xplane, and Rpx- form a voltage divider network. The pointed object 10 for the Y-plane 14 to contact X-plane 16 at point Vx. The point Y- will be the sense point for the voltage Vx developed at the contact point.
After the select lines X+ sel and X- sel are deactivated, the select lines Y+ sel and Y- sel are activated, connecting the power supply voltage source Vdd to the Y-plane at point Vy+ and the ground reference point GND to the Y-plane at point Vy-.
As described above, parasitic resistors Rpy+ and Rpy- will be formed as a result of the distribution network and the on-resistances of the MOST M3 and M4.
The resistors Rpy+, R.sub.yplane, and Rpy- form a voltage divider network. The pointed object 10 has forced the Y-plane 14 to contact the X-plane 16 at point Vx. Now the point X- will sense the voltage developed at the point Vx.
Referring back to FIG. 1, the touchpad interface 28 will have a set of analog to digital converters that will sense the change in the analog responses from the touchpad interface lines 20, 22, 24, and 26 and convert them to digital codes indicating the absolute position of the pointed object 10 upon the touchpad surface 12. For the computer system 32 to use the absolute coordinates generated by the touchpad interface 28 to control the movement of the cursor 36 upon the display screen 34, these absolute coordinates must be modified to codes that define the relative motion of the cursor 36. The relative motion will be the speed and direction of the cursor 36 as it is moved across the display screen 34. The modification from absolute coordinates to relative motion information must be done within an internal mouse emulation program resident within the computer system 32 or the touchpad interface 28.
If the touchpad is to emulate the mouse movements, when the cursor 36 is to be moved across the display screen 34 for a relatively long distance, the pointed object 10 must be lifted and placed back on the touchpad surface 12 repeatedly giving a "rowing" motion to get the cursor 36 to move the long distance. In traditional mouse operations, if the cursor 36 is to drag an object being displayed upon the display screen 34 a button on the mouse is depressed while the mouse is moved. The button can be held depressed while the mouse is moved in the rowing motion to drag the object across the display screen 34. This is difficult to accomplish on the touchpad. If the pointed object 10 is lifted from the touchpad, the touchpad interface 28 will not be able to communicate the "rowing" motion to indicate that the cursor 36 is to travel a long distance. Also, the touchpad interface 28 will not be able to communicate that there is an intention for the cursor 36 to drag the object on the display screen 34. Additional buttons must be added to the touchpad or special areas within the surface of the touchpad surface 12 in order for the touchpad interface 28 to communicate the desire for the cursor 36 to be moved long distances across the display screen 34 or that the cursor 36 is to drag objects upon the display screen 34.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,161 (Logan, et al.) use a method to emulate mouse input devices using a program resident within a computer system. A touchpad input device has a controller that generates a digital code that contains the absolute position of a pen or finger on the mouse pad. This requires a special interface that is unique to the touchpad circuitry. Additionally, this patent describes a method for the continuation of cursor movement when a pointed object is touching the touchpad and has been moved on the touchpad to a special border area. The pointed object must be stopped within the border for the continuous motion to be engaged. The direction of the scrolling may be made as a modification of the original direction and velocity of the pen prior to the transiting and stopping within the border area of the touchpad. This modification will be made as a change in the velocity of the movement of the cursor along an axis parallel to the edge of the touchpad adjacent to the border area where the pointed object is resting.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,376,946 (Mikan) describes a circuit using an EPROM to convert signals from a touch screen adhered to a computer display screen to digital codes of the industry standard computer input mouse protocols.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,266,750 Yatsuzuka) discloses a tablet input device and circuitry for providing stimulating voltages to the tablet input device and for sensing the response voltages from the tablet input device when the tablet input device is being pressed. The circuitry provides an OFF state wherein power to the tablet is minimized during a waiting period.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,543,590 (Gillespie, et al.) describes a sensor system that can detect the location of a finger or stylus on a sensor matrix. The location is determined and translated as electrical signals for use in other circuitry such as a computer system to control a cursor upon a display screen. Further this patent discusses an "edge motion" detection feature that will allow a finger or stylus within a "outer zone" of the sensor matrix to move the cursor across a display screen for long distances and avoid the "rowing" motion.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,543,591 (Gillespie, et al.) discloses methods for recognizing tapping, pushing, hopping and zigzagging gestures upon a conductive sensor pad that can be interpreted into cursor control motions such as clicking, double clicking, and click and drag use with computer mouse devices. Further this patent also describes the "edge motion" feature as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,543,590 (Gillespie, et al.).

Automatic cursor motion control for a touchpad mouse

Tritech Microelectronics International, Ltd.


In a graphic processing method in a dot matrix printer, a previous graphic mode and a previous position value of an image data are respectively compared with a current graphic mode and a current position value of an image data. If the previous and current graphic modes and position values are identical to each other, an overwrite flag is set to on, and if the previous and current position values are not identical to each other and a value obtained by subtracting the previous position value from the current position value is within a space fill-in region, space fill-in process is performed. Thereafter, the current position value is replaced to the previous position value when the value is not within the space fill-in region or the space fill-in process is ended, and a pin number is initialized. Then an image data with respect to a corresponding pin is generated, and whether or not the overwrite flag is set to on is checked. If the overwrite flag is set to on, a current image data is overwritten to a previous image data of corresponding pin number and if the overwrite flag is not set to on, the current image data is inserted to the symbolic buffer.

The present invention relates to a graphic emulation method in a printer, and more particularly to a dot matrix printing graphic emulation method in a page printer adopting band buffering system.
Generally, inputted image data for use in a dot matrix printer is directly used to image data for use in a page printer without being filtering in the page printer.
FIG. 1 shows a method forming printing fonts of the image data in an 8-pin dot matrix printer. In order to form printing fonts of the dot matrix image data by the unit of line in the page printer, the position of bits of the dot matrix image data is checked as shown in FIG. 2. Then dots having a value of "1" are connected to form line segments as indicated in FIG. 3. The line segments are stored to a frame buffer in a full buffering system. The full buffering system sets data of the unit of page to a memory in the form of 2-dimensional array. The memory stores character image data, graphic image data, etc. in response to control commands in the printer and transmits the contents of the buffer to an engine by page output control command. In the band buffering system, the line segments are stored to a symbolic buffer 402 of FIG. 4. The symbolic buffer 402 generally has a linked list shape as shown in FIG. 4.
However, since there is no filtering processes in receiving the image data regardless of the image data form, when overwriting, space fill-in, etc. are used to obtain a clear image in a dot matrix printer, various ineffective aspects occur in converting to a different printing method. When performing the overwriting in the dot matrix printer, if the control input is "TEST PRINT", bold image is obtained by repeatedly printing the printing fonts onto the same position as shown in FIG. 5 however, in the case of the page printer incapable of controlling the difference of density of dots (that is, whether a dot is printed or not), since the overwriting is not implemented, the processing time is delayed and the memory space wastes.
As shown in FIG. 6C, the space fill-in using image data of FIG. 6A and the image data line-fed by 0.5 dots of FIG. 6B is performed in the dot matrix printer to compensate the degradation of picture quality generated by the interval between mechanically designed vertical pins. However, from the emulation method in the conventional page printer, the line segments having the same thickness are generated every interval, and as a result, the space fill-in has no effect on the picture quality and leads to the delay of the processing time.


In information processing between computers which perform a remote operation via a network, all or a part of process information being executed by an operation target and data for use in a process are transmitted beforehand to an operation unit, and the operation unit continues the processing by use of the process information transmitted beforehand when connection via the network for communication between the computers is interrupted or cut. When it is detected that the communication returns to a normal state, the process information being executed by the operation unit and the data for use in the process are transmitted to the operation target, and the operation target continues execution of an information processing program by use of the received process information and the data for use in the process.

The present invention relates to an information processing system, an information processing method and an information processing device in which information processing can be continued in response to an operation input even in a case where fault is generated in communication between a first information processing device which accepts an operation input and a second information processing device which executes the information processing in response to the operation input.
A technology has been known in which a notebook-size personal computer (PC), a low-performance PC and the like access a high-performance PC and a server via a network to perform a remote operation.
In recent years, from viewpoints of security and information leakage prevention, an information processing system is put to practical use in which a storage unit such as a hard disk is not mounted on a first information processing device (hereinafter referred to also as an operation unit or a user computer) operated by an operator. In a case where the operator inputs operation information by use of a keyboard, a mouse and the like, the operation information is transmitted to a second information processing device (hereinafter referred to also as an operation target or a host computer) remotely connected via the network. The operation target processes the operation information, and transmits a result of the information processing as image data to the operation unit. The image data is displayed in a display of the operation unit.
In such an information processing system, the operation unit performs the input of the operation information and the display of the information processing result only, and any information is not stored in the operation unit. Therefore, even if the operation unit is lost or stolen, the information leakage can be prevented.
In such an information processing system, the operation unit does not execute any information processing. The remote operation target connected via the network executes the information processing. Therefore, if the connection via the network is interrupted or cut, the information cannot be processed. For example, when the operation unit accesses the operation target via a cellular phone network to perform a remote operation and the operation unit moves to the outside of the sphere of electric waves of the cellular phone network, the connection is cut, and then the subsequent operation cannot be continued. Therefore, in a case where the remote operation is performed in, for example, a train, the connection is interrupted every time the train passes through a tunnel, and the remote operation is interrupted.
To solve the problem, a technology is developed in which the operation can continuously be performed, even when the connection via the network is interrupted or cut (see, e.g., JP-A-2000-148572, JP-A-6-230995 and JP-A-10-149326).

Information processing system and method for executing process during communication error


An improved interface for use with a digital printer is presented. The interface utilizes information held by the raster imaging processor to allow an operator quick access to information about the print features of a print job and the ability to easily and quickly alter those print feature if necessary.

Digital printers are in common use today for many production processes ranging from printing of a single document to large scale production of multiple documents. When running a print job the machine operates under a number of features associated with the job. Features include things like stapling, plex (i.e. simplex or duplex), output tray designation, media source, and rotate. Historically, these features were set at the job level. In other words, the entire job ran under the same features. However, the more recent digital machines enable the user to define features at a page level. With the newer machines the features can change in the middle of the job without the need for operator action. For example, the machine can be set up to start in a simplex mode (one sided copying) and midway through the job switch to a duplex mode (two sided copying) and then perhaps back to simplex again. Thus, a print job can not only have multiple features associated with it, but also those feature can vary depending on where in the print job you are.
One of the shortfalls of the present systems is that the operator does not have easy access to the features associated with a job. There are several reasons why the operator may want to have such access. Initially, it may be necessary to change the feature while the job is running. Without easy access to features it may not be practical to change the features. In addition, from a quality control standpoint it is advantageous for the operator to have easy access to the features of the job. With easy and continuous access to the status of the features the operator can assure that the job is running correctly. For example, if the pages should be two sided, the operator can assure that two sided documents are being generated. Moreover, such access can also assist in the smooth running of the job since the operator can assure that the appropriate media and or finishing set up is available.
Thus, there is a need for a user interface on digital printers that allows the operator easy access to the features of a print job on page by page or subset basis. In addition, there is a need for a user interface where the operator can view all the features of a print job at once and in a coordinated fashion. At the same time there is a need to conserve screen space on a user interface, to allow all features to be displayed and avoid abnormally large interfaces.
Therefore, it is an object of the invention of the invention to provide a digital printer with a user interface that provides an operator fast and easy access to page by page feature information for a print job.
It is a further object of the present invention that invention that optionally provide the operator with the ability to alter the print job feature through a user interface associated with a digital printer.
It is yet another object of this invention to optionally provide a user interface that allows the operator to scroll ahead to determine what feature of a print job are defined for future pages.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a great deal of information on a display in a manner that the operator can easily scan to see what processes the print job should actually be performing.

Page and subset feature selection user interface


Novel low viscosity oligomeric polyols and the use thereof in coating compositions are disclosed. The novel low viscosity oligomeric polyols may be prepared by reacting at least one melamine aldehyde resin and at least one of α,β-diol, α,γ-diol, or mixture thereof. The reaction may occur in the presence of an acid catalyst. Coating compositions with a low VOC able to cure under ambient and forced dry conditions while providing good application and performance characteristics, such as an improved scratch resistance, are also disclosed.

Many of the high solids automotive coatings presently in use are based upon polymeric systems comprised of a binder comprising either polyester-based or polyacrylic-based polyols and crosslinking agents therefor. These coatings are generally supplied as "one-pack" or "two-pack" systems.
In a typical one-pack system, all of the coating ingredients are combined into one storage-stable mixture. Upon application, the polyol component is crosslinked, generally with an aminoplast resin (such as a melamine resin) or a blocked isocyanate, usually under heat cure conditions of 120° C. or above. In a typical two-pack system, the polyol component is combined with a crosslinking agent, generally an isocyanate, shortly before application, with curing being conducted at ambient and/or elevated temperatures.
Coatings used for painting motor vehicles and repairing the original paint are desired to have good physical properties such as hardness, mechanical strength, and resistance to water, acids, and solvents. The coatings are also desired to have good appearance properties, providing smooth films and a high gloss and high distinctness of image. It is also desirable that such coatings have an excellent car wash, scratch, and mar resistance.
A large number of cars and transport vehicles are coated with a multilayer topcoat system wherein an unpigmented clearcoat is applied over a pigmented basecoat. Both solvent borne and water borne clearcoats and basecoats are in use. So-called metallic basecoats comprise metallic flakes.
For environmental reasons, it is becoming increasingly important to develop polymeric systems with low solution viscosities, which permit the formulation of high solids coatings with low application viscosities suitable for spraying. High solids coatings (generally 50 wt. % or greater solids) significantly decrease the amount of volatile organic compounds (VOC) entering the atmosphere upon drying/curing of the coating.
One way to achieve a lower solvent content is to use so-called high-solids compositions. Such compositions comprise a relatively high level of non-volatile materials such as film forming polymer, pigments, and fillers, and a relatively low level of organic solvent. A problem when formulating high-solids coating compositions is that such compositions have an unacceptably high viscosity due to the high molecular weight of the conventional film forming polymer. The high viscosity gives rise to problems in spray application with poor paint atomization and poor flow-out and, consequently, low gloss levels and poor appearance.
The use of low-molecular weight film forming polymers results in adequate application viscosities. However, coating composition based on this type of resins generally use the crosslinker to have acceptable film properties. But scratch and mar resistance may be negatively influenced, especially in 2K coating compositions.
Polyurethane polyols, such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,753,386, are presently utilized in coating formulations to improve scratch resistant coatings.
However, these polyurethane polyols may be expensive to produce based on the high cost of polyisocyanates. Further, although these polyurethane polyols are effective at low temperatures, it is desirable to have a polyol which has more reactivity in low bake systems.
Melamine formaldehyde resins are utilized as crosslinkers in many coating applications. However, due to their reactivity, these resins have a predisposition toward self-condensation making them difficult to utilize. Further, melamine formaldehyde crosslinkers are generally utilized for high bake systems.
In EP-A-0 199 605, pigment pastes, mainly for use in paints and ink, comprising a pigment dispersing agent and, optionally, an organic solvent are disclosed. The pigment dispersing agent may be obtained by co-condensing a triazine-type amino compound, formaldehyde, a diol, and a monohydric alcohol.
WO 2003/091347 relates to polymeric dispersion additives with hyperbranched structures and the use of modified and unmodified hyperbranched polyurethanes.
WO 2003/029318 relates to polyurethane block copolymers containing one or more hydrophilic groups and the use of such copolymers as crosslinkable dispersion additives for colorant preparations.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,271,286 relates to a process for the preparation of methylolaminotriazines etherified with alkanols having per mole of the aminotriazine 0.6n to 2n methyol groups to the extent of 30% to 60%, n being the number of amino groups in the amino triazine.
GB patent no. 1465426 relates to low viscosity mixture of etherified emthyolaminotriazines with average degree of emthylolation substantially 50% to 80% for use with hydroxyl containing resins.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,293,212 relates to reaction products of hexaalkyl ethers of hexamethylolmelamines and bisphenols.
DE patent no. 1620217 relates to a cleaning process for removing residual glycol in melamine mixture.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,528,344 discloses an ungelled, crosslinkable, hydroxylgroup-containing resin having a molecular weight of less than 4500, which is the reaction product of a nonaromatic polyol having a molecular weight of less than 230, and an aminoplast.
It is an object of the present invention to provide low viscosity oligomeric polyols for use in coating compositions.
It is a further object of this invention to provide low viscosity oligomeric polyols for use in coating compositions that will cure under ambient and forced dry conditions while providing good application and performance characteristics.
It is also an object of this invention to provide low viscosity oligomeric polyols for use in coating compositions with a low VOC.
It is additionally an object of this invention to provide low viscosity oligomeric polyols for use in coating compositions resulting in dried and cured coatings with an improved scratch resistance in particular compared to coatings prepared from a coating composition comprising an acrylic polyol and a polyisocyanate compound.

Reaction product of melamine aldehyde resin and diol


A vehicular occupant restraint system includes an airbag, an inflator, and a seat belt system including a shoulder belt and a pre-tensioner. The airbag is disposed in a folded state along an upper edge of a door opening of a vehicle body. When the vehicle is involved in a side collision, the airbag is inflated by a gas generated by the inflator so that it is deployed into a curtain shape along an inner face of a side of an occupant compartment. Unlike conventional pre-tensioner systems that only tension a seatbelt when the vehicle is involved in a front collision, the pre-tensioner of the present invention also applies a tension to the shoulder belt of the seat belt system when the vehicle is involved in a side collision. Since a tension is applied to the shoulder belt by operation of the pre-tensioner that normally operates only when the vehicle is involved in a front collision, it is possible to maintain a correct positional relationship between the shoulder belt and an occupant even in the case where there is interference between the shoulder belt and the airbag that is deploying downward from above along the inner face of the side of the occupant compartment.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an occupant restraint system in which a side airbag is disposed in a folded state along an upper edge of a door opening of a vehicle body, the airbag is inflatable by a gas, generated by an inflator, when the vehicle is involved in a side collision. Upon inflation, the airbag is deployed into a curtain shape along the inner face of a side of an occupant compartment. When the vehicle is involved in either a front collision or a side collision, a pre-tensioner applies a tension to a shoulder belt of a seat belt system for restraining an occupant in a seat.
2. Description of the Related Art
An occupant restraint system in which an airbag is deployed into a curtain shape along the inner face of a side of an occupant compartment when the vehicle is involved in a side collision is known in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Nos. 2000-33847 and 11-235965. With regard to a seat belt system, there is known art in which a shoulder belt can normally be drawn from a retractor so that the body of an occupant is not restrained from moving and, when the vehicle is involved in a front collision, a pre-tensioner provided in the retractor draws in the shoulder belt so as to apply a tension thereto, thereby reliably restraining the occupant in a seat.
However, since the pre-tensioner of the known seat belt system does not operate when the vehicle is involved in a side collision, if the airbag deploys downward along the inner face of a side of the occupant compartment in this state, depending on the positional relationship between a seat belt anchor and the occupant, there is a case where the lower edge of the air bag might interfere with the shoulder belt of the seat belt system, and there is a possibility that the shoulder belt might be displaced.
The present invention has been achieved in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to maintain a correct positional relationship between the occupant and the shoulder belt of the seat belt system when the side air bag deploys downward along the inner face of a side of the occupant compartment.


Improved methods and systems for imaging are provided. Specifically, systems and methods for extending the range of a digital zoom are provided in which an imaging system provides continuous magnification over a plurality of interleaved optical pathways and digital zooming imagers. Systems and methods of centering an image as the field of view changes, and for masking out undesirable obstacles from a magnified image are also provided.

Many scientific and engineering applications require individuals to be able to see and manipulate items which are not visible with the naked eye. Semiconductor manufacturers, for example, must be able to examine and probe micro and nano-scale circuits fabricated on various substrates. Similarly, biological researchers must be able to see and manipulate cells, proteins, micro-organisms and other microscopic elements within their laboratories. Microscopic and metrologic applications are as prevalent and diverse as the engineers, scientists and developers (collectively, end-users) who promulgate them. However, existing tools do not provide many of the features desired by these end-users.
Optical microscopes allow end-users to see many objects too small to be visible to the unaided eye. Compound microscopes, in use since the late 1500 s, typically use a plurality of lenses to magnify an image. Modem compound microscopes use multiple glass lenses within the objective and ocular assemblies. In addition, modern compound microscopes typically provide multiple objective lenses, which may be rotated or otherwise interchanged, such that a single compound microscope can magnify an object up to about 1000×, in discrete steps (e.g., 4×, 10×, 400×, etc.).
Currently, optical zoom systems are used in microscopes in conjunction with an objective lens to provide a continuously variable magnification. Zoom systems are typically composed of two or more individual lenses whose axial position relative to one another is varied by some mechanical means. Often motors are used to facilitate the motion of the individual lenses.
The stereo, binocular or dissecting microscope is similar to the compound microscope, except that it uses two eyepieces (or sometimes two complete microscopes) to provide slightly different viewing angles to the left and right eyes. In this way, the stereo microscope produces a three dimensional visualization of the sample being examined.
Recently, digital imagers have been coupled to compound or stereo microscopes in order to digitize and manipulate magnified images of an object under examination. In the most widespread application, a digital camera or imager is attached to the microscope either at an eyepiece assembly, or at a dedicated port. The images captured by the imager are then typically fed into a computer and displayed on a monitor or stored for later usage. In addition, recent digital imagers have been attached to compound microscope assemblies without eyepieces for direct human observation.

Optically enhanced digital imaging system


A pharmaceutical composition of docetaxel comprising an effective amount of docetaxel, a polysorbate (TWEEN® compound) and a co-solvent, wherein the co-solvent is at least one member selected from the group consisting of glycerol and polyethylene glycol. The composition is an injectable solution or a freeze-dried powder for injection. The solubility of decetaxel is improved by adding a polysorbate and a co-solvent. Methods of preparation of the pharmaceutical composition are also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a pharmaceutical composition comprising docetaxel, methods for producing the same, and methods for using the composition.
2. Description of the Related Art
Taxanes are a class of potent anti-tumor agents. The mechanism of their action comprises binding to microtubules to promote and stabilize microtubule assembly, and further to prevent physiological microtubule depolymerisation and disassembly. This leads to a significant decrease in free tubulin, results in inhibition of mitotic cell division and apoptosis of the cancer cell.
Currently, the most widely used taxanes are paclitaxel and docetaxel, which have been approved for the treatment of primary and metastatic cancer comprising breast cancer, ovarian cancer, non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), small cell lung cancer (SCLC), head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, and malignant melanoma.
However, taxanes, and in particular paclitaxel and docetaxel, have very poor solubility in aqueous solutions. Thus, formulating these compounds is difficult. For example, commercially available docetaxel (Taxotere) is formulated in a highly concentrated solution containing 40 mg docetaxel and 1040 mg TWEEN® 80 (polysorbate 80) per mL. This concentrated solution has to be diluted with solvent containing 13% ethanol in saline before administration.
Although a number of methods have been reported in the literature that claim improved formulation and solubility of taxanes, these methods are based on the formation of emulsion, or microemulsion, or on the inclusion of cyclodextrins, liposomes, nanoparticles, etc. However, each of above methods is hampered by one or more problems, such as complicated preparation, high cost, and low stability of the formulations. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a pharmaceutical composition comprising taxanes, the composition having high solubility and stability, simplified preparation process, and exhibiting lower hypersensitivity in patients.

Pharmaceutical compositions comprising docetaxel and methods for preparation thereof

Beijing Century Biocom Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd.


There is provided a technology enabling the improvement of the reliability of a semiconductor device manufactured by physically fixing separately formed chip mounting portion and lead frame. A feature of an embodiment resides in that, a second junction portion formed in a suspension lead is fitted into a first junction portion formed in a chip mounting portion, thereby to physically fix the chip mounting portion and the suspension lead. Specifically, the first junction portion is formed of a concave part disposed in the surface of the chip mounting portion. The second junction portion forms a part of the suspension lead.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor device and a manufacturing technology thereof. More particularly, it relates to a semiconductor device (package) manufactured using a lead frame including a chip mounting portion for mounting a semiconductor chip physically fixed therein, and a technology effectively applicable to a manufacturing technology thereof.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2009-289892 (Patent Document 1) describes a technology of connecting a lead frame and a radiator plate by connection holes and projections. Specifically, projections are formed at a radiator plate, and connection holes are formed at prescribed sites of the lead frame respectively corresponding to the projections. Then, the projections formed at the radiator plate are fitted into the connection holes formed in the lead frame. As a result, the radiator plate and the lead frame are connected.

Semiconductor device and a manufacturing method thereof


An exemplary embodiment builds on the idea of presence and SIP messaging in conjunction with a profile comprising, for example, a lookup table and a rules module, to assist with one or more of reminders, actions, endpoint maintenance, availability, endpoint capabilities and session management. One exemplary embodiment provides a message-based notification system. SIP allows a user to associate themselves with a number of different User Agents (UAs). This means that a user may have a presence on more than one UA at any given time, e.g., soft phone, PDA, and workstation. One exemplary embodiment utilizes this fact in connection with monitoring and determining if a message is a trigger-type message to provide more timely and relevant notifications to users.

"Presence" is well known in the telecommunications industry. Presence and presence information relate to a person having multiple devices with multiple communication paths and a user's preference or preferred device of availability. "Presence information" typically refers to any information associated with a network node and/or endpoint device, such as a communications device, that is in turn typically associated with a person or entity. Examples of presence information include registration information under the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), information regarding the accessibility of the endpoint device, the endpoint(s) telephone number or address, the recency of use of the endpoint device by the person, recency of authentication by the person to a network component, and the preferences of the user, such as contact mode preferences or profiles, such as the communication device to be contacted for specific types of contacts or under specific actual scenarios or presence contacts, contact time preferences, impermissible contact types and/or subjects, such as the subjects about which the person does not wish to be contacted, parties who must not be contacted, i.e., a do not call if you are not calling on behalf of a specific person or entity, and parties who can contact at any time, e.g., "I will accept a call from the head of the company regardless of what I am doing."
Typically, the presence information is communicated and updated via one or more SIP-based messages exchanged, for example, between one or more endpoints and/or one or more application servers.
Presence information can be user configurable, i.e., the user can configure the number and type of communication and message devices (endpoints) with which they can be contacted and define profiles that govern the communication and message options presented to the incoming contact or in specified factual situations or sets of facts. By identifying a pre-defined set of facts, a profile can be accessed and followed to direct the contact to the user/preferred device.


A motor controller and a production method thereof are provided to be capable of lowering the stress applied to joint parts of terminals and a board as much as possible, even if a thermal load or external force is applied to the connector, and in addition, capable of achieving a sufficient coupling strength when arranged in proximity to the electric motor. In the motor controller, there are provided: a first securing section (56a) and a second securing section (56b) configured to secure a connector (50) to the case (20) at an outer circumference of a connector housing (53) of the connector (50); and a positioning section (58) configured to position the connector (50) to the case (20), when the connector (50) is inserted into the connector receiving depression section (22a).

The electronic control unit in the electric power steering apparatus controls driving of the electric motor, and includes a power module board on which power devices are mounted and a control board. The power module board is electrically connected to the electric motor through an output connector, and the control board is electrically connected to an automobile battery or a torque sensor through a power supply and signal connector.
As the electronic control unit in one technology of the electric power steering apparatus of this type, for example, the electronic control unit (see PLT 1) illustrated in FIG. 11 is known. FIG. 11 is an exploded perspective view of an example of the electronic control unit in the electric power steering apparatus, in one technology.
An electronic control unit 200 illustrated in FIG. 11 includes a case 210 made by aluminum die-casting and having a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape, a power module board 220, a base 230, a control board 240, and a cover 250 made of a metal plate.
On the mounting surface of the power module board 220, electronic parts including a power device for making a driving current flow to the electric motor (not illustrated) is mounted and an electric circuit is formed.
In addition, the base 230 overlaps with the power module board 220 and the control board 240 to support the power module board 220 and the control board 240, and an output connector 231 is integrally formed by insert molding.
Further, on the mounting surface of the control board 240, an electronic part (not illustrated) to control the driving of the electric motor is mounted and an electric circuit is formed. Furthermore, a power supply and signal connector 241 is mounted on an end edge part of the mounting surface of the control board 240. The power supply and signal connector 241 includes a housing 242, and plural electrical power terminals and plural signal terminals (not illustrated) attached to the housing 242. A connector coupled with a cable electrically connected to the automobile battery and the torque sensor, or another control device which are not illustrated is engaged with the power supply and signal connector 241.
In the assembly operation of the electronic control unit 200, firstly, the power module board 220 is set up on the inside of the case 210. Then, the power module board 240 is secured to the case 210 with plural screws 201.
Next, the base 230 is placed on the case 210, and in addition, the output connector 231 is placed in an aperture 210a of the case 210. Then, the base 230 is secured to the case 210 with plural screws 203, and the output connector 231 is secured to the case 210 with plural screws 202.
Subsequently, upper ends of terminals 221, protruding from an opening of the output connector 231, on the power module board 220 and the upper ends of terminals 232 of the output connector 231 are connected by spot welding, respectively, and upper ends of terminals 222, protruding from an opening of the base 230, on the power module board 240 and upper ends of terminals 233 of the base 230 are connected by spot welding, respectively. Hence, the power module board 220 is supported by the base 230, and in addition, the power module board 220 and the output connector 231 are electrically connected.
Then, the control board 240 is placed on tubes 234 of the base 230. The control board 240 is secured onto the base 230 and the case 210 with plural screws 204. Thus, the control board 240 is supported by the base 230.
Next, terminals 223 and 224, protruding from through holes of the control board 240, of the power module board 220, are electrically connected to the control board 240 by soldering. Hence, the control board 240 and the power module board 220 are electrically connected. In addition, the upper ends of the terminals 232, protruding from openings of the control board 240, of the output connector 231 are electrically connected to the control board 240 by soldering.
Then, the power and signal connector 241 on the control board 240 is fit in an opening, not illustrated, of the cover 250, so as to assemble the case 210 and the cover 250. Thus, the power module board 220, the base 230, and the control board 240 are accommodated in the case 210 and the cover 250. The output connector 231 and the power and signal connector 241 protrude outward from the case 210 and cover 250, and the assembly operation of the electronic control unit 200 completes.
Additionally, as a connector for use in an electric connection box mounted on an automobile, for example, the box (see PTL 2) illustrated in FIG. 12 is known, in one technology. FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view of an example of a connector, in one technology.
A connector 301 illustrated in FIG. 12 includes a connector housing 310 and plural terminals 320 attached to the connector housing 310.
The connector housing 310 is integrally formed by resin with an upper case 302, where the upper case 302 and a lower case 303 accommodate a circuit board PCB, and includes a hood section 312 having a mating connector fit cavity 311 into which a mating connector 340 is fit.
In addition, each terminal 320 includes a first protrusion section 321 backwardly protruding from a back wall 313 of the hood section 312, and a second protrusion section 322 downwardly bent substantially perpendicularly from a back end part of the first protrusion section 321 and connected to a circuit board 330.
Then, the connector housing 310 is provided with a protection wall 314 backwardly extending from the back wall 313 of the hood section 312 and covering upper side, both left and right sides, and back side of the first protrusion section 321 and the second protrusion section 322.
Further, as a supplementary module for preventing entrance of foreign materials such as water, dusts, or the like, for example, the module in one technology (see PTL 3) illustrated in FIG. 13 is known. FIG. 13 is an exploded perspective view of an example of the supplementary module, in one technology.
In the supplementary module 401 illustrated in FIG. 13, a circuit board 403 is attached to a camera (i.e., supplementary module) 402, and a connector 410 is mounted on the circuit board 403. The connector 410 includes a housing 411, and plural pin terminals 412 attached to the housing 411, and each pin contact 412 is soldered and connected onto the circuit board 402.
Then, the camera 402, the circuit board 403, and the connector 410 are accommodated in a camera case 420. The camera 402, the circuit board 403, and the connector 410 are attached to the camera case 420 with four attachment screws (not illustrated) by locating four through openings 402a formed at the circumference of the camera 402 at four screw openings 420a formed in the camera case 420, respectively.
In addition, the camera case 420 is configured to be attached to the cover 430 with four attachment screws (not illustrated) through four screw openings 420b formed at the circumference of the camera case 420 and four through holes 430a formed in the cover 430.

Motor controller and production method of the same


A cam is eccentrically journaled at one end of a compound archery bow and a pulley is journaled at the other end of the bow. A cable passes around the pulley to form a bowstring section and a second cable section, both sections forming a dual feed single cam compound bow. The amount of feed out to both ends of the bowstring is approximately the same. One embodiment of the cam provides a large radius cam groove and a smaller radius cam groove which are designed to synchronize the rate of cable feed out at both ends of the bowstring section during the drawing operation. An anchor cable is provided to tie the two limbs of the bow together during the flexing of the bow.

In the past, most compound archery bows have used two cams, respectively mounted on the limb tips at opposite ends of the bow to provide the means to store more energy in the draw cycle and to reduce the force necessary to hold the bowstring in the full draw position. Examples of such compound bows are disclosed in the following U.S. patents.
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Issued To Date Issued ______________________________________ 3,486,495 Allen June 23, 1966 3,890,951 Jennings, et al. June 24, 1975 4,060,066 Kudlacek Nov. 29, 1977 4,079,723 Darlington Mar. 21, 1978 4,112,909 Caldwell Sep. 12, 1978 4,300,521 Schmitt Nov. 17, 1981 ______________________________________
The early compound bows utilized cams consisting of eccentrically mounted circular shaped elements. As the desire for more stored energy and greater arrow velocities developed, special shaped cam elements were designed to provide these characteristics. These shaped cam elements, like the circular shaped elements, were mounted on the limb tips. It is well known in the art that to obtain the best bow performance, the cam elements at each end of the bow should be properly synchronized with each other. Patents disclosing various means to accomplish proper cam synchronization include the following:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Issued To Date Issued ______________________________________ 3,841,295 Hunter Oct. 15, 1974 3,958,551 Ketchum May 25, 1976 4,103,667 Shepley, Jr. Aug. 1, 1978 4,178,905 Groner Dec. 18, 1979 ______________________________________
The more modern compound bows have reverted back to the more simplistic design of the original U.S. Pat. No. 3,486,495 Allen patent, but the requirement for cam synchronization is still present as noted, for example, by the teachings of the following patents:
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No. Issued To Date Issued ______________________________________ 4,372,285 Simonds Feb. 8, 1983 4,440,142 Simonds Apr. 3, 1984 4,909,231 Larson Mar. 20, 1990 ______________________________________
It is obvious, of course, that the use of a single cam avoids the problem of cam synchronization and, in fact, there are single cam bows known in the prior art. One such bow, popularly referred to as the "DynaBo"was invented by Len Subber. The original Dynabo design had one working limb located at the upper end of the bow handle. A single cam element was mounted on a rigid pylon at the lower end of the bow. The single cam element functioned in the same manner as the cam elements on the previously mentioned two cam bows. As the Dynabo was drawn, one track of the cam element payed out line to the bowstring which was fixed to the upper limb tip and the other track on the cam element acted as a take-up reel for a second line that was also anchored at the tip of the upper working limb.
Since there was only a single cam element, there was not a synchronization problem between two cams. There was, however, a problem in synchronizing the rate that the cam fed out cables to the bowstring at the lower end of the bow and the rate that the flexing of the upper limb feed out cable to the bowstring at the upper end as the bow was drawn. The result was a rather unpleasant feel to the bow as it was drawn and there was a drastic movement of the nocking point and the rear end of the arrow as the bow was drawn and released. This, in turn, made it very difficult to achieve good arrow flight from the bow under normal conditions. An early version of the DynaBo was described in the September 1976 edition of "Archery World" beginning at page 28.
The Dynabo single cam concept was offered in at least three different versions from as many manufacturers during the 1970's, and at least one manufacturer, Graham's Custom Bows, employed the Dynabo concept, with two working limbs. A description of the Graham bow is contained in the June/July edition of "Archery World" magazine. The Dynabo bow, however, never did become an acceptable alternative to the two cam bows and, in fact, appears to have lost whatever popularity it had achieved by the late 1970's.
Another known prior art device that had the capability of providing a solution to the previously mentioned problems of cam synchronization and synchronized bow string feed out (the latter being desirable to enable the nock end of the arrow to travel in a smooth, consistent path upon draw and release of the arrow) is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 4,562,824 issued to Jennings. This patent teaches the use of a single multiple grooved cam mounted on a pylon attached to the bow handle. The cam had one string track feeding cable attached to an idler pulley mounted in the limb tip at one end of the bow and a second track feeding line to a second idler pulley mounted in the second limb tip at the other end of the bow. The cam also has two additional tracks, each of which are taking up line while the string tracks are feeding out line to the bow string. One take-up track is taking up a line which is anchored at one limb tip while the other take-up track is taking up a line which is anchored at the opposite limb tip. Thus, the '824 patent teaches a highly complicated system, as compared to the present invention, that is composed of considerably more parts resulting in a compound bow having greater mass weight than the more conventional two cam compound bow.
A single cam bow developed by Larry D. Miller in the late 1970's or early 1980's was the subject of a U.S. patent application titled "Archery Bow Assembly" (hereinafter referred to as the "Miller application"). The Miller application discloses the use of a single pulley, having two grooves thereon for feeding out line to the bow string. The primary groove is circular and concentric with the axle of the circular pulley. The secondary groove, also circular, may be slightly eccentric for the purpose of maintaining the nocking point of the bowstring perpendicular to the handle section of the bow. A third eccentric groove carries a take-up cable to provide the entire means of compounding (i.e. achieving the desired reduction in holding weight at full draw and storage of energy).
The Miller application, the serial number of which is not known, may be considered material to the examination of the subject application.


Aspects relate to tagging portions of streaming media such that one or more actions can be taken on the tagged portions. An action can be to remove a section of the streaming media. Another action can be to retain a portion of the streaming media, regardless of whether or not other portions are retained. Another action can be to replace content with different content. The tagging can be facilitated by the user of a lightweight embedded watermark. In another example, the tagging can be facilitated through the use of watermark types.

The Internet and the development and continuing enhancement of media enabled portable computing devices have dramatically altered the processes for generating and consuming media content. For example, using a media capable device and with an Internet connection, users can consume media content almost anywhere and at almost any time. The convenience and accessibility of media content (e.g., on demand) through the Internet has resulted in the rapid grown of Internet media consumption.
Streaming is a common method of media delivery across the Internet. Streaming media can be continuously received and presented to an end-user while the media is being delivered by a streaming provider. Streaming allows media that includes large amounts of data to be displayed on a client device even if the entire media file has not yet been transmitted and/or received at the client device.
In an example, streaming media that is originally broadcast on a television, for example, might be rebroadcast, such as on a video sharing website and, therefore, can be readily available on a client device. In some cases, the original broadcast might occur in a first country and the rebroadcast might occur in a second country. Due to the nature of the broadcasts, there might be content in the original broadcast that should be excluded from the rebroadcast. In one example, advertisements presented in the first country might not be authorized for redistribution in the second country. Thus, such advertisements have to be removed before the media is rebroadcast. Identifying and removing or altering the content can be difficult and time consuming. Further, identification of the portions of the media stream that contain the content can be heavy, such that processing capabilities are limited.


A fuel supply system has a cover, a pump unit, and metal pipes. The cover and the pump unit are connected through the use of the metal pipes so as to be moved relatively each other. A case cover, covering the pump unit, has supporting portions, each of which has a through hole. Each metal pipe is inserted through the through hole and thereby guided to be moved in its axial direction inside the supporting portion. The supporting portion has a plurality of grooves. Therefore, sliding resistance between the metal pipe and the supporting portion is reduced, that is, the pump unit can be smoothly moved relatively to the cover.

A fuel supply system installed in a fuel tank is, for example, described in a patent document of JP-A-H11-101166. This fuel supply system has a cover, a pump unit and metal pipes. The cover is fastened to an opening of a fuel tank. The cover and the pump unit are connected through the use of the metal pipes, and thereby the pump unit is stored inside the fuel tank. The pump unit has a fuel pump, which is stored in a sub-tank to be installed inside the fuel tank. Moreover, the cover and the pump unit are biased by springs so as to be drawn apart each other. One end of each metal pipe is fastened to the cover and the other end thereof is movably supported by the pump unit. That is, the pump unit can be moved in the axial direction of the metal pipe relatively to the cover. Therefore, in case the inner pressure of the fuel tank is changed on the ground of the alternation of the temperature, or the amount of the fuel is changed, and thereby the fuel tank is expanded or contracted, the pump unit is biased into the bottom of the fuel tank integrally with the sub-tank by force of the springs.
The cover has cylindrical supporting portions, each of which has a though hole. The metal pipes are inserted through respective through holes, and thereby the pump unit is guided to be moved relatively to the cover. In case the metal pipes and the supporting portions are made of the same material, noisy sounds are generated when the metal pipes are moved inside the supporting portion. Therefore, the metal pipes and the supporting portions are respectively made of different materials, and thereby the noisy sounds are restricted to be generated.
However, for example, when the metal pipes are made of metal, the solidity of which is high, and the supporting portions are made of resin, the solidity of which is low, sliding resistances between the metal pipes and the supporting portions are disadvantageously heightened. When the sliding resistances are heightened, the pump unit cannot be moved in accordance with the expansion and the contraction of the fuel tank. Accordingly, fuel suctioning performance of the fuel supply system is likely to be lowered.
It is considered that the surfaces of the metal pipes are advantageously processed. However, depending on the shape of the fuel tank, or depending on the expansion or the contraction of the fuel tank, the axes of the metal pipes are not always disposed perpendicularly to an inner bottom surface of the fuel tank. When the metal pipe is not perpendicular to the inner bottom surface of the fuel tank, the metal pipe is declined inside the supporting portion, and thereby only some parts of the metal pipe contact some parts of the supporting portion forcefully. In this case, even though the surface of the metal pipe is advantageously processed, the sliding resistance between the metal pipe and the supporting portion increases.
For example, as shown in FIG. 8, when a part of a metal pipe 101 contacts a supporting portion 100 around its upper end 100a, the other part of the metal pipe 101 contacts the supporting portion 100 around its lower end 100b. Since these contacting areas of the metal pipe 101 and the supporting portion 100 are small, loads are concentrated on the contacting areas. Therefore, the metal pipe 101 cannot be smoothly moved inside the supporting portion 100, that is, the pump unit cannot be smoothly moved relatively to the cover.

Fuel supply system installed inside fuel tank


An electronic device with flexible printed circuit board structure. The electronic device includes a first flexible printed circuit board and a second flexible printed circuit board. The first flexible printed circuit board has a first bent portion. The second flexible printed circuit board has a second bent portion penetrating the first bent portion as the first and the second flexible printed circuit boards are bent simultaneously.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic device, and in particular to an electronic device using flexible printed circuit boards.
2. Description of the Related Art
Flexible printed circuit boards (FPCB) have been utilized in a variety of electronic devices such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs) for electrical connection. The flexible printed circuit boards are light, bendable, and convenient for assembly, providing a compact profile.
FIG. 1A is a schematic exploded view of a conventional liquid crystal display 100′. FIG. 1B is a schematic front view of the conventional liquid crystal display 100′.
The liquid crystal display 100′ comprises a front bezel 10′, a panel 20′, a flexible printed circuit board of panel 30′, a plurality of optical films 21′, a light source 40′, a flexible printed circuit board of light source 50′, a light guide plate 41′, a reflector 43′, and a rear bezel 60′. The elements 40′, 41′, 42′, 43′ are assembled to form a backlight module.
As shown in FIG. 1A, the panel 20′ is sandwiched between the front and rear bezels 10′ and 60′. The light source 40′ is disposed above the rear bezel 60′. Signals produced from the panel 20′ are transmitted by the flexible printed circuit board of panel 30′ to other interfaces of the liquid crystal display. The flexible printed circuit board of panel 30′ is connected to a side of the panel 20′ and protrudes from the front and rear bezels 10′ and 60′. The protruding portion of the flexible printed circuit board of panel 30′ is an angled portion 32′. During assembly, the angled portion 32′ can be bent 90° or 180° in direction B rearward to connect with other interface.
In addition, direct backlight and edge-light technologies can be employed according to the size of LCD. Here, edge-light technology for small sized LCD is used as an example. A light emitting diode (LED) acting as light source 40′ is connected to the flexible printed circuit board of light source 50′, providing power and transmitting signals.
LED 40′ is small, and the flexible printed circuit board of light source 50′ is narrow, and both are disposed between the panel 20′ and the rear bezel 60′. A portion of the flexible printed circuit board of light source 50′ protrudes from the front bezel 10′ and the rear bezel 60′ after assembly, specifically an angled portion 52′. The angled portion 52′ and the angled portion 32′ are connected and bent 180° to the back of the panel 20′.
The flexible printed circuit boards 30′ and 50′ are welded at connection points 31′ and 51′.
FIG. 1C is a rear view of an assembled conventional LCD 100′ with flexible printed circuit boards 30′ and 50′ are angled together. FIG. 1D is a side view of an assembled conventional LCD 100′ with flexible printed circuit boards 30′ and 50′ are angled together, in which the dashed line represents the original positions of flexible printed circuit boards 30′ and 50′ before bending.
The flexible printed circuit boards 30′ and 50′, of different lengths, are connected and fixed at the connection points 31′ and 51′. When angled, since the thickness of the panel 20′ is about 0.63 mm, the angled portions 32′ and 52′ experience different radii of curvature.
Thus, when bending toward the back of the panel 20′, because the angled portions 32′ and 52′ are fixed at the connection points 31′ and 51′, the flexible printed circuit board of light source 50′ is constrained and surrounded by the flexible printed circuit board of panel 30′ with a larger radius of curvature. It is shown that the flexible printed circuit board of light source 50′ is squeezed into the limited space surrounded by flexible printed circuit board 30′. The flexible printed circuit board 50′ is deformed accordingly.
In addition to deformation, the connection points 31′ and 51′ may be separated by strain and stress on angled portions. If the flexible printed circuit boards are separated during assembly, process is interrupted and materials wasted, increasing assembly time and manufacturing costs.

Electronic device with flexible printed circuit board structure