A patient hydration system with an infusion subsystem which infuses fluid into a patient and a urine output measurement subsystem for measuring the amount of urine output by the patient. A controller is configured to control the infusion subsystem and is responsive to the urine output measurement subsystem. The controller includes a balancing function which controls the infusion subsystem to administer fluid infused into the patient to balance the urine output with the fluid infusion. The controller also includes a taper down function which controls the infusion subsystem to administer fluid infused into the patient at a rate less than the rate of urine output by the patient.

The "cath lab" in a hospital is where a patient is injected with a radiocontrast media, imaged, diagnosed, and often operated on. Typically, a cardiologist refers the patient to the cath lab and the patient is instructed not to eat or drink the night before. In the case of a patient suffering a heart attack, the patient may be transferred directly to the cath lab.
Often, the patient is dehydrated when the patient arrives at the cath lab. The patient is prepped and the radiocontrast media injected. If, after diagnostic imaging, a possible problem is detected, intervention occurs in the form of angioplasty or the placement of a stent. During these procedures, additional radiocontrast media may be injected into the patient and the patient imaged so the interventional cardiologist or radiologist can view the progress of the operation.
Unfortunately, the radiocontrast media can be toxic to the patient especially a patient who is dehydrated at the time the radiocontrast media is injected. A patient who already suffers from various medical problems such as diabetes or kidney problems is even more prone to medical problems due to the injection of the radiocontrast media.
It has been observed that dehydration increases the risk of contrast induced nephropathy (CIN) when radiocontrast agents are injected into a patient during coronary and peripheral vascular catheterization procedures. CIN is the third most common cause of hospital-acquired renal failure. It occurs in over 5% of patients with any baseline renal insufficiency and can occur in 50% of patients with preexisting chronic renal insufficiency and diabetes. Radiocontrast media has a variety of physiologic effects believed to contribute to the development of CIN. One of the main contributors is renal medullary ischemia, which results from a severe, radiocontrast-induced reduction in renal/intrarenal blood flow and oxygen delivery. The medullary ischemia induces ischemia and/or death of the metabolically active areas of the medulla responsible for urine formation, called the renal tubules. Medullary ischemia is attributed to the increase of oxygen demand by the kidney struggling to remove the radiocontrast media from blood plasma and excrete it from the body at the same time as the normal process of controlling the concentration of urine. Oxygen consumption in the medulla of the kidney is directly related to the work of concentrating urine. Since the presence of radiocontrast media in the urine makes it much more difficult for the kidney to concentrate urine, the work of the medulla outstrips the available oxygen supply and leads to medullary ischemia.
Although the exact mechanisms of CIN remain unknown, it has been consistently observed that patients with high urine output are less vulnerable to contrast injury. It is also clear that dehydration increases the risk of CIN, likely because urine (and contrast media inside the kidney) is excessively concentrated. As a result, patients predisposed to CIN are hydrated via intravenous infusion of normal saline before, during and after the angiographic procedure. Hydration is commonly performed at a conservative rate, especially in patients with existing heart and kidney dysfunction, since over-hydration can result in pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs), shortness of breath, the need for intubation, and even death. Thus, the patients at highest risk for CIN are those least likely to receive the only proven therapy for preventing CIN (I.V. hydration) due to the unpredictability of side effects from I.V. hydration.
A major limitation to the more widespread use of the already known therapeutic, or optimal, levels of I.V. hydration is the current inability to balance the amount of fluid going into the patient to the amount of fluid being removed or excreted from the patient. It is possible to have a nurse measure a patient's urine output frequently but this method is impractical as nurses are often responsible for the care of many patients. In addition, the only accurate method of measuring urine output is to place a catheter into the patient's urinary bladder. Without a catheter, the patient must excrete the urine that may have been stored in the bladder for several hours. During this time, the amount of I.V. hydration can be significantly less than the amount of urine produced by the kidneys and stored in the bladder, leading to dehydration. Since many patients do not normally have such a catheter during procedures using radiocontrast media, a valid measurement of urine output is not possible.
There seems to be indisputable scientific evidence that CIN in patients with even mild baseline renal insufficiency can lead to long term complications and even increased risk of mortality. This scientific knowledge has not yet been extended to daily clinical practice as routine monitoring of renal function post-catheterization is not usually performed and limits the identification of the known short-term clinical complications.
At the same time, there is a great deal of awareness in clinical practice that patients with serious renal insufficiency (serum creatinine (Cr)≧2.0) often suffer serious and immediate damage from contrast. Many cardiologists go considerable length to protect these patients including slow, overnight hydration (an extra admission day), administration of marginally effective drugs, staging the procedure, or not performing procedures at all.
There are approximately 1 million inpatient and 2 million outpatient angiography and angioplasty procedures performed in the U.S. per year (based on 2001 data). Based on the largest and most representative published studies of CIN available to us (such as Mayo Clinic PCI registry of 7,586 patients) we believe that 4% of patients have serious renal insufficiency (Cr≧2.0). This results in the initial market potential of 40 to 120 thousand cases per year from interventional cardiology alone. There is also a significant potential contribution from peripheral vascular procedures, CT scans and biventricular pacemaker leads placement. As the awareness of the CIN increases, the market can be expected to increase to 15% or more of all cases involving contrast.
According to the prior art, hydration therapy is given intravenously (I.V.) when someone is losing necessary fluids at a rate faster than they are retaining fluids. By giving the hydration therapy with an I.V., the patient receives the necessary fluids much faster than by drinking them. Also, dehydration can be heightened by hyperemesis (vomiting), therefore the I.V. method eliminates the need to take fluids orally. An anesthetized or sedated patient may not be able to drink. Hydration is used in clinical environments such as surgery, ICU, cathlab, oncology center and many others. At this time, hydration therapy is performed using inflatable pressure bags and/or I.V. pumps. A number of I.V. pumps on the market are designed for rapid infusion of fluids (as opposed to slow I.V. drug delivery) for perioperative hydration during surgery, ICU use and even emergency use for fluid resuscitation.
An infusion pump is a device used in a health care facility to pump fluids into a patient in a controlled manner. The device may use a piston pump, a roller pump, or a peristaltic pump and may be powered electrically or mechanically. The device may also operate using a constant force to propel the fluid through a narrow tube, which determines the flow rate. The device may include means to detect a fault condition, such as air in, or blockage of, the infusion line and to activate an alarm.
An example of a device for rapid infusion of fluids is the Infusion Dynamics (Plymouth Meeting, Pa.) Power Infuser. The Power Infuser uses two alternating syringes as a pumping engine. Since it is only intended to deliver fluids (not medication), the Power Infuser has accuracy of 15%. It provides a convenient way to deliver colloid as well as crystalloid for hydration during the perioperative period among other possible clinical settings. The Power Infuser provides anesthesiologists with the ability to infuse at rates similar to that seen with pressure bags, but with more exact volume control. The maximum infusion rate is 6 L/hr. It has the flexibility of infusing fluid at 0.2, 1, 2, 4 and 6 L/hr. A bolus setting of 250 mL will deliver that volume in 2.5 min. In a large blood loss surgical case, the use of Power Infuser enables large volumes of colloid to be delivered to restore hemodynamics.
It is also known in the art that loop diuretics such as Lasix (furosemide) reduce sodium reabsorption and consequentially reduce oxygen consumption of the kidney. They also reduce concentration of contrast agents in the urine-collecting cavities of the kidney. They induce diuresis (e.g., patient produces large quantities of very dilute urine) and help remove contrast out of the kidney faster. Theoretically, they should be the first line of defense against CIN. In fact, they were used to prevent CIN based on this assumption until clinical evidence suggested that they were actually deleterious. More recently, doubts have been raised regarding the validity of those negative clinical studies.
In two clinical studies by Solomon R., Werner C, Mann D. et al. "Effects of saline, mannitol, and furosemide to prevent acute decreases in renal function induced by radiocontrast agents", N Engl J Med, 1994; 331:1416-1420 and by Weinstein J. M., Heyman S., Brezis M. "Potential deleterious effect of furosemide in radiocontrast nephropathy", Nephron 1992; 62:413-415, as compared with hydration protocol, hydration supplemented with furosemide adversely affected kidney function in high-risk patients given contrast. Weinstein et al. found that furosemide-treated subjects lost 0.7 kg on average, whereas a 1.3-kg weight gain was noted in patients randomized to hydration alone, suggesting that in furosemide-treated subjects the hydration protocol has been insufficient and patients were dehydrated by excessive diuresis.
The clinical problem is simple to understand: diuresis is widely variable and unpredictable but the fluid replacement (hydration) at a constant infusion rate is prescribed in advance. To avoid the risk of pulmonary edema, fluid is typically given conservatively at 1 ml/hr per kg of body weight. The actual effect of diuretic is typically not known for 4 hours (until the sufficient amount of urine is collected and measured) and it is too late and too difficult to correct any imbalance. Meanwhile, patients could be losing fluid at 500 ml/hour while receiving the replacement at only 70 ml/hour. The effects of forced diuresis without balancing are illustrated in the research paper by Wakelkamp et. al. "The Influence of Drug input rate on the development of tolerance to flrosemide" Br J Clin. Pharmacol. 1998; 46: 479-487. In that study, diuresis and natriuresis curves were generated by infusing 10 mg of I.V. furosemide over 10 min to human volunteers. From that paper it can be seen that a patient can lose 1,300 ml of urine within 8 hours following the administration of this potent diuretic. Standard unbalanced I.V. hydration at 75 ml/h will only replace 600 ml in 8 hours. As a result the patient can lose "net" 700 ml of body fluid and become dehydrated. If such patient is vulnerable to renal insult, they can suffer kidney damage.
To illustrate the concept further, the effects of diuretic therapy on CIN were recently again investigated in the PRINCE study by Stevens et al. in "A Prospective Randomized Trial of Prevention Measures in Patients at High Risk for Contrast Nephropathy, Results of the PRINCE. Study" JACC Vol. 33, No. 2, 1999 February 1999:403-11. This study demonstrated that the induction of a forced diuresis while attempting to hold the intravascular volume in a constant state with replacement of urinary losses provided a modest protective benefit against contrast-induced renal injury, and importantly, independent of baseline renal function. This is particularly true if mean urine flow rates were above 150 ml/h. Forced diuresis was induced with intravenous crystalloid, furosemide, and mannitol beginning at the start of angiography.
The PRINCE study showed that, in contrast to the Weinstein study, forced diuresis could be beneficial to CIN patients if the intravascular volume was held in a constant state (no dehydration). Unfortunately, there are currently no practical ways of achieving this in a clinical setting since in response to the diuretic infusion the patient's urine output changes rapidly and unpredictably. In the absence of special equipment, it requires a nurse to calculate urine output every 15-30 minutes and re-adjust the I.V. infusion rate accordingly. While this can be achieved in experimental setting, this method is not possible in current clinical practice where nursing time is very limited and one nurse is often responsible for monitoring the care of up to ten patients. In addition, frequent adjustments and measurements of this kind often result in a human error.
Forced hydration and forced diuresis are known art that has been practiced for a long time using a variety of drugs and equipment. There is a clear clinical need for new methods and devices that will make this therapy accurate, simple to use and safe.
In addition, patients involved with a variety of medical procedures such as cardiac surgery often retain water. Some patients, such as heart failure patients, may be overloaded with fluid. Often, a diuretic such as Lasix is administered and a nurse is directed to check when the patient has expelled a certain amount of urine. Often, the patient is weighed to determine the amount of fluid loss.
Nurses, however, are often very busy and it is possible that a patient, once given a diuretic, could expel urine to the point the patient becomes dehydrated. Also, to prevent dehydration, the nurse may administer a hydration fluid such as saline. There is no known prior art system which achieves automatic balanced hydration in a patient. The applicant's co-pending applications directed to a balanced hydration system are incorporated herein by this reference. They are U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/936,945 filed Sep. 9, 2004 entitled "Patient Hydration System and Method"; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/408,851 filed Apr. 21, 2006 entitled "Patient Hydration System With a Redundant Monitoring of Hydration Fluid Infusion"; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/408,391 filed Apr. 21, 2006 entitled "Patient Hydration System With Abnormal Condition Sensing"; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/409,171 filed Apr. 21, 2006 entitled "Patient Hydration System With Hydration State Detection"; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/580,354 filed Oct. 13, 2006 entitled "Patient Connection System For a Balance Hydration Unit".
One of the purposes of balanced hydration therapy in accordance with these co-pending patent applications is to achieve and maintain a high urine flow. Continuing to induce fluid to balance the patient's urine output causes the patient to continue to urinate at a high rate. Sometimes, there may be a delay between the infusion of saline and urine production. Therefore, if fluid infusion is stopped abruptly, such as at the end of therapy, the patient's urine output rate can continue to be high for some time. This risks dehydrating the patient as the high urine flow can continue with no infusion to balance it. This high urine rate can also be uncomfortable for a patient if he is discharged immediately following therapy.
A similar clinical situation exists in the case of a patient having a physiologic high urine flow that needs to be balanced with replacement fluid. In such situations, reducing urine flow without causing dehydration is often desired. Again, when balancing is stopped abruptly, the result can be dehydration or patient discomfort.
Additionally, a clinical situation exist where a net fluid removal from the patient may be desired. Fluid overload can be caused by a number of factors, among them congestive heart failure, and significant fluid infusion during surgery. The fluid often needs to be removed as quickly and as safely as possible without causing electrolyte imbalance or dehydration.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Patient hydration system with taper down feature


A method and apparatus related to enhancing corneal accommodation to address the effect of presbyopia. Corneal/scleral topology measurements in accommodating and non-accommodating states are indicative of a presbyopic subject's nominal corneal accommodative power. A desired accommodative power intended to improve on the effect of presbyopia can be determined, suggesting a selective biomechanical intervention in the corneal structure outside of the optical zone to create flexure regions. These flexure regions would allow enhanced corneal accommodation upon presentation of an accommodating stimulus. Intervention could be in the form of, for example, corneal surface ablation, intrastromal ablation, conductive keratoplasty (CK), laser thermal keratoplasty (LTK), and corneal and/or scleral implants. An improved topology measuring apparatus having an improved field of view and other attributes is disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention include methods and apparatus that are generally directed to addressing the effect of presbyopia, and which are more particularly directed to addressing solutions to the problem of presbyopia through corneal accommodation.
2. Description of Related Art
The eye is a multi-component structure providing multiple functions for forming images and enabling sight. A master diagram of the basic anatomy of the human eye 10 is shown in FIG. 1. In very general terms, the anterior portion 19 of the eye includes the cornea 4 and the sclera 5. The cornea is the outer, transparent, domelike structure that covers the iris 2, pupil 3, and anterior chamber. The cornea provides approximately seventy percent of the optical power of the eye. The tough, white, outer layer of the eyeball is called the sclera. In combination with the cornea, the sclera protects the entire eyeball. The crystalline lens 6 is located posterior to the cornea and is held in place by fibers controlled by the ciliary muscles, which enable the crystalline lens to change shape for focusing. The retina 12, located at the back of the eye, is the image forming surface of the eye.
The total eye structure operates to receive light coming from an object and form an image of the object on the retina. As mentioned above, the cornea provides the bulk (˜70%) of the refractive power of the eye for focusing incoming light onto the retina Common vision defects referred to as nearsightedness (myopia) and farsightedness (hyperopia) typically result from a misshaped corneal surface that either provides too much focusing power or too little focusing power resulting, in any event, in a blurry image. The crystalline lens and the muscle (ciliary) control structures associated therewith provide the eyes with the ability to accommodate; that is, to focus both on objects that are very far away and objects that are very close. However, with age, the crystalline lens in the human eye stiffens and loses its ability to change its shape and/or position in response to the desire to view an object that is close to the viewer's eyes. This condition is referred to as presbyopia, which is the inability of the eye to accommodate. Unfortunately, one hundred percent of the population will develop presbyopia by the time they are fifty years old, give or take several years.
Presbyopia is typically addressed by auxiliary lenses in the form of spectacles or contact lenses that provide the extra focusing power for viewing close-up objects. Spectacle lenses can be of the bifocal or multi-focal type, which provide different lens regions with different focusing powers so that a range of near distance viewing is made possible. Alternatively, contact lenses of the alternating vision type or the simultaneous vision type provide either multiple viewing zones similar to multi-focal spectacles, or provide a near focus and a far focus image simultaneously and rely on the brain to discriminate for the actual view.
Due to the enormous market for presbyopia correction, new methods and devices for addressing the problem are in constant development. For example, scleral bands, refractive laser surgery, accommodating intraocular lenses (IOLs) and other techniques are being used to treat presbyopia. However, treatments to date have not provided optimized results, and many of the proposed treatments are severely invasive in nature and thus traumatize the optical zone of the eye.
Accordingly, the inventor has recognized the need for a method and apparatus improvement useful for addressing the problem of presbyopia, and that overcome the shortcomings in the current state of the art, and which offer benefits and advantages associated with the successful treatment of presbyopia.

Method and apparatus for enhanced corneal accommodation


The invention includes lubricant concentrate and use solution compositions having an amine compound of the formula, EQU R.sub.1 --O--R.sub.2 --NH.sub.2, EQU R.sub.1 --O--R.sub.2 --NH--R.sub.3 --NH.sub.2,. and mixtures thereof. wherein R.sub.1 may be a linear saturated or unsaturated C.sub.6 -C.sub.18 alkyl, R.sub.2 is a linear or branched C.sub.1 -C.sub.8 alkyl, and R.sub.3 may be a linear or branched C.sub.1 -C.sub.8 alkyl. The concentrate also comprises an acidulant, optionally a stabilizing hydrotrope, and a surfactant. The lubricant use solution resulting from dilution of the concentrate has an amine compound in a concentration ranging from about 10 ppm to 10000 ppm. Also disclosed is a method of lubricating a conveyor system which includes providing a use solution of the lubricant concentrate composition.

Beverages and other comestibles are often processed and packaged on mechanized conveyor systems which are lubricated to reduce friction between the packaging and the load bearing surface of the conveyor. In the past, the lubricants commonly used on the load bearing surfaces of these conveyor systems typically contained fatty acid soaps as the active lubricating ingredient.
Moreover, at least in a bottling operation, it is highly desirable that a lubricant be efficacious in lubricating the tracks upon which the various types of containers translate i.e. cans, glass and PET articles. Fatty acid lubricants are efficacious in conjunction with any of these types of containers. Thus, the lubricants disclosed in the above-referred to patents are "universal" lubricants in their application to various beverage containers.
These fatty acid lubricants have in the past provided excellent lubricity. However, fatty acid lubricants are also known to form insoluble precipitates in the presence of calcium and magnesium cations commonly found in hard water. Water softeners and chemical chelating agents such as EDTA must be used with lubricants based on fatty acids to prevent formation of such precipitates. Failure to implement such measures generally results in the formation of a precipitate which may plug the spray nozzles used for applying the lubricant to the conveyor.
Antimicrobial agents are particularly useful for conveyor systems which may transport food substances. Spillage of beverage and other comestibles on the conveyor often results in the growth of bacteria, yeast and mold and may create a slime or soil which, in turn, hampers conveyor performance and may also detract from product purity and appearance. Antimicrobial agents are particularly useful for reducing slime formation in conveyor systems which may transport food substances.
Fatty acid based lubricants have been formulated with effective antimicrobial agents, however, the tendency to react with water hardness ions compromises the overall performance of the lubricant.
Jansen, U.S. Pat. No. 4,839,067 discloses a process for the maintenance of chain-type conveyor belts by treating the conveyor belt with an antimicrobial lubricant composition containing a lubricating amount of a neutralized C.sub.12-18 primary fatty amine. However, as noted in Jansen, the primary fatty acid amines tend to form a precipitate in the presence of anions such as SO.sub.4.sup.-2, PO.sub.4.sup.-3 and CO.sub.3.sup.-2, commonly found as impurities in water. The precipitate may plug spray nozzles and soil the surfaces of the conveyor system in much the same way as fatty acid soaps in the presence of water hardness.
Schmidt et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,182,035 discloses aliphatic ether diamine acetates which are used in lubricant compositions in combination with alcoholic hydrotropes used to enhance physical stability.
Weber et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,062,978 also discloses aqueous lubricant compositions based upon fatty alkyl amines which are useful in conveyor belt operations, especially in the transport of bottles.
Schapira, Published European Patent Application No. 0,533,552 A1 discloses lubricant compositions comprising branched saturated or unsaturated C.sub.6 to C.sub.21 alkyl ether amines and diamines. The lubricant compositions are useful in conveyor operations and may also comprise a surfactant, and alcohol solvent.
Even though primary fatty acid amines have been found to provide adequate lubricity and antimicrobial activity, their usefulness is limited because of the tendency to form precipitates in the presence of those anions commonly found in water.
Accordingly, a substantial need still exists for an antimicrobial conveyor lubricant which provides a combination of superior lubricity, tolerance for both anions and cations commonly found in the water used to dilute the lubricant formulation prior to application to the conveyor system, and non-reactivity in the presence of food spillage such as beer.


A container includes a transparent containing body, a metallic outer layer member, and an upper part; the containing body has a base, and a wall projecting from the base, which wall has a raised portion on a portion of an outer side, and a recess portion on the other portion of the outer side; the base is formed with a fitting trench thereon, which is next to the recess portion of the wall; the outer layer member is closely fitted over the recess portion, and inserted into the fitting trench of the base at a lower end; the upper part has an opening, and a fitting trench on a lower side thereof, and it is secured on top of both the containing body and the outer layer member with an upper end of the outer layer member being inserted into the fitting trench thereof.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a container, more particularly one, which includes a transparent plastic containing part, and a metallic outer layer securely fitted on a portion of the plastic containing part such that people can see the contents thereof through a portion of the enclosing wall of the containing body that isn't covered with the outer layer.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Transparent plastic containers are available, which allows people to see the contents without opening the lids while there are no transparent metallic containers available. However, plastic containers usually are cheaper than and don't look as high class as metallic ones. Therefore, some manufactures have developed various new containers that are comprised of metallic parts and plastic ones.
Referring to FIG. 10, a prior container includes a metallic outer part 61, and an inner part 62; the outer part 61 is formed with several ornamental holes 611 on the wall portion. The inner part 62 is made of transparent plastics, and it is closely fitted in and stuck to the outer part 61; thus, people can see the contents of the container through the holes 611 of the metallic outer part 61. Because plastics and metals have different coefficients of expansion, the adhesion between the inner and the outer parts 62, 61 is prone to reduce owing to change of temperature. Consequently, the inner and the outer parts 62, 61 are no longer firmly joined.
An improvement on container was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,341,712B1 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,349,841B1, which includes a metallic inner barrel part, and a plastic outer part, which inner part has several ornamental holes thereon, and which outer part is directly formed over the inner part, with some portions thereof projecting into the ornamental holes, by means of injection molding. Therefore, the advantages of plastic containers and metallic ones are combined. However, the inner and the outer parts of the container are prone to lose the firm connection between them, and in turns separate from each other, because they have different coefficients of expansion.


A method and apparatus for operating a light assembly with fewer peripheral devices than is currently required is presented. The apparatus of the invention includes a lamp unit, a current restricting unit coupled to the lamp unit, and a current sensing unit that is coupled to the current restricting unit. Upon detecting a current output exceeding a predetermined magnitude for at least a predetermined time period, the current restricting unit increases the load on one of the lamps. The current sensing unit senses the output from each of the lamps as modified by the current restricting unit, and sums the outputs to determine a total current flow through the lamps. A current control unit that is coupled to the current sensing unit uses the total current flow to adjust the current input to the lamps.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for driving a light source for a display device.
2. Description of Related Art
There are various types of display devices that are commonly used for computers and television sets. The types of display devices include self-emitting displays such as light emitting diodes (LEDs), electroluminescence devices (ELs), vacuum fluorescent displays (VFDs), field emission displays (FEDs) and plasma panel displays (PDPs), and non-emitting displays such liquid crystal displays (LCDs). Unlike the self-emitting displays, the non-emitting displays require a light source.
An LCD includes two panels with field-generating electrodes and a liquid crystal (LC) layer with dielectric anisotropy interposed therebetween. The field-generating electrodes generate an electric field in the liquid crystal layer in response to applied voltages, and the transmittance of light passing through the panels varies depending on the strength of the electric field. The strength of the electric field is controlled by the applied voltages. Accordingly, desired images are displayed by adjusting the applied voltages.
The light source for an LCD may be an artificial light source that is installed in the LCD device or natural light. When using the artificial light source, the overall brightness of the LCD screen is usually adjusted by either regulating the ratio of "on" and "off" durations of the light source or regulating the current through the light source.
The artificial light source, which is part of a backlight assembly, is often implemented as a plurality of fluorescent lamps that are connected to a plurality of inverters for driving the lamps. The lamps may be disposed under an LC panel assembly, such as in a direct-type backlight assembly, or may be disposed along one or more edges of the LC panel assembly, such as in an edge-type backlight assembly. The inverter receives a DC (direct current) input voltage from an external device and converts it to an AC (alternating current) voltage, and then applies the voltage to the lamps to turn on the lamps and to control the brightness of the lamps. The voltage may be stepped up by a transformer prior to being applied to the lamps. The inverter also monitors a voltage related to a current flowing through the lamps and controls the voltage applied to the lamps based on the monitored voltage.
Accordingly, the artificial light source needs several peripheral devices such as inverters and sensors, which undesirably increase manufacturing cost. Aside from the associated cost increase, the peripheral devices are undesirable because they increase the volume and the weight of the backlight assembly, adversely affecting the mobility of the display device. Thus, a display device design that allows operation with fewer peripheral devices is desirable.


The invention relates to a portable overnight degreasing system, a work station and a method of use. The invention includes a portable soak tank with a disposable liner bag liner removably placed within the interior of the soak tank. The liner bag is then filled with a cleaning solution and soiled items are lowered into the bag liner upon removable grates. An agitator pump is positioned within the portable soak tank to agitate the cleaning solution. The soiled items remain within the locked soak tank overnight or until grease and carbon falls off of the soiled items. An optional heater may be used within the soak tank to increase the speed of degreasing. The soak tank also includes a slanted floor that funnels fluid from the interior of the soak tank into a pipe that connects to a valve on the front wall of the soak tank. Fluid is removed from the system through the valve and then the empty liner bag is disposed. When used as a workstation, a protective cover is placed over the lid and upper portion of the soak tank and a cutting board is placed over the protective cover in a recessed pocket for use by kitchen staff.

Kitchen appliances, such as hood filters, pots, pans, and the like accumulate large deposits of carbon and grease during normal daily usage. Many layers are baked on throughout the day without being cleaned. These deposits are removed regularly in order to maintain a sanitary cooking environment. Failure to remove these deposits can result in an unsanitary cooking environment that may not be compliant with local health codes and also may foster conditions that may constitute a fire hazard.
Removing the deposits from the kitchen appliances can be a very time consuming process, especially in commercial kitchens, which can be operational up to 24 hours a day. Commercial kitchens would benefit from a system for cleaning the appliances without occupying a large portion of the kitchen, a large amount of the kitchen staff and/or a large amount of the kitchen staff's time.
Presently, commercial kitchens utilize conventional methods of dishwashing for smaller cooking utensils and hire outside companies to clean the larger items like hood filters. Examples of conventional methods include: manually scrubbing, acid baths, caustic chemical soaking and boiling. Conventional cleaning methods reduce the efficiency of the kitchen because the kitchen staff must allocate a substantial portion of the day to cleaning the utensils rather than other kitchen tasks. In addition, the cleaning materials used in conventional methods often damage the utensils and are often relatively ineffective. Hiring an outside cleaning service adds a regular expense to the cost of running commercial kitchens, which often run on very tight budgets. A cleaning system for the smaller and larger cooking apparatuses would increase kitchen efficiency and reduce cost.
Cleaning systems, such as automatic dishwashers, are currently utilized in many commercial kitchens. These dishwashers can be very large and cumbersome, thereby occupying large swaths of kitchens for only one use, dishwashing.
Existing prior art has attempted to solve these kitchen problems through the use of soak tanks. The prior art OZ Tank© includes a double skinned soak tank that electrically heats a solution to remove grease from kitchen utensils soaked within the tank. The OZ Tank© has several disadvantages. The OZ Tank© utilizes a heater that requires a constant flow of electricity, the lining of the tank is stainless steel and must be cleaned after the removal of the cleaning solution, and the tank drain is positioned near floor level, which makes it difficult to drain the cleaning solution into a slop sink or commode.
The prior art Fog Tank includes a soak tank that heats a carbon removing powder and water to 185 degrees Fahrenheit. Kitchen equipment is placed in the tank and soaked to remove carbon and grease. However, the Fog Tank requires constant electricity to maintain the fluid at 185F, the interior of the tanks needs to be cleaned regularly, and the drain is near floor level making it difficult to drain the fluid from the tank into a slop sink or commode.
The prior art Clean X-Press includes a metal tank filled with a cleaning solution. Kitchen appliances are placed within the metal tank and heated using an electronic heater. The appliances remain in the solution for an extended period of time until the carbon and grease is loosened to a point that it may be scrubbed off in a kitchen sink. The disadvantages of the Clean X-Press are that it needs a constant flow of electricity to function, the tank is lined with metal that must be cleaned after uses, and the drain is positioned near floor level, which makes it difficult to drain the cleaning solution into a slop sink or commode.

Portable overnight degreasing system and method of use


A host server computer system that includes a hypervisor within a virtual space architecture running at least one virtualization, acceleration and management server and at least one virtual machine, at least one virtual disk that is read from and written to by the virtual machine, a cache agent residing in the virtual machine, wherein the cache agent intercepts read or write commands made by the virtual machine to the virtual disk, and a solid state drive. The solid state drive includes a non-volatile memory storage device, a cache device and a memory device driver providing a cache primitives application programming interface to the cache agent and a control interface to the virtualization, acceleration and management server.

The present invention generally relates to virtual machine acceleration in virtual environments and, more particularly, applying a non-volatile memory-based cache architecture in a hypervisor environment.
Data center virtualization technologies are now well adopted into information technology infrastructures. As more and more applications are deployed in a virtualized infrastructure, there is a growing need for performance acceleration, virtualization services and business continuity in various levels.
A virtual server is a type of virtual machine, which as used herein refers to software that executes programs like a physical machine. Virtual servers are logical entities that run as software in a server virtualization infrastructure, referred to as a "hypervisor" or a virtual machine manager. A hypervisor provides storage device emulation, referred to as "virtual disks", to virtual servers. Hypervisors implement virtual disks using back-end technologies, such as files on a dedicated file system, or raw mapping to physical devices.
Whereas physical servers run on hardware, virtual servers run their operating systems within an emulation layer that is provided by a hypervisor. Virtual servers may be implemented in software to perform the same tasks as physical servers. Such tasks include, for example, running server applications, such as database applications, customer relation management (CRM) applications, email servers, and the like. Most applications that run on physical servers are portable to run on virtual servers. Within the context of virtualization, one distinction should be mentioned for clarification purposes, which is, the distinction between virtual desktops and virtual servers: virtual desktops run client side applications and service individual users, whereas virtual servers run applications that service multiple and potentially large numbers of clients.
The goal of virtual servers is to provide high performance, high availability, data integrity and data continuity. Virtual servers are dynamic in the sense that they may be moved from one host server computer system to another. This also entails that on a single host server computer system the number of virtual servers may vary over time since virtual machines can be added and removed from the host server computer system at any time.
As computing resources, such as CPU and memory, are provided to the virtual server by the hypervisor, the main bottleneck for the virtual server's operation resides in the storage path. Hard disk drives (HDDs) in particular, being electro-mechanical devices with all their known drawbacks, are hampered by low performance, especially in random pattern workload situations due to their rotational and seek latencies.
A solid-state drive (SSD) is a drive that uses solid-state technology to store its information and provide access to the stored information via a storage interface. The most common SSDs use NAND flash memory arrays to store the data and a controller serving as the interface between the host server computer system and the NAND flash memory array. Such a controller can use internal DRAM or SRAM memory, battery backup, and other elements.
In contrast to a magnetic hard disk drive, a non-volatile memory-based storage device (SSD or raw flash, for example, direct memory mapped rather than a block device behind a SATA interface) is an electronic device and does not contain any moving parts. As a result, seek and rotational latencies inherent in hard disk drives are almost completely eliminated in non-volatile memory-based storage devices resulting in read and write requests being serviced in an immediate operation. Thus, a flash-based device has greatly improved performance over hard disk drives, especially in an environment defined by mostly small read and write operations with random patterns.
Due to the much higher cost of non-volatile memory-based storage and limited data retention relative to magnetic hard disks, back end storage mainly uses magnetic hard disks as the primary storage tier. However, non-volatile memory-based storage acceleration is achieved in the storage level, for example, by means of caching or tiering mechanisms.
Conventional virtualization acceleration systems for disk I/O are often implemented at the physical disk level, which means they are not specifically designed to handle the demands by the virtualization paradigm, for the simple reason that they are not implemented at the hypervisor level. Consequently, these systems are not fully virtualization aware. More specifically, acceleration implemented outside the hypervisor environment suffers from inefficiency, lack of coordination between the services, multiple services to manage and recover, and lack of synergy. Therefore, it is advantageous to establish a unified environment of acceleration in the hypervisor which is much more efficient, simpler to manage, and dynamically adaptive to the changing virtual machine storage needs and synergy.
Furthermore, commonly, the main storage is located outside the physical server in a storage area network (SAN) or network attached storage (NAS) configuration to allow for multiple accesses by all physical servers and allow migration of the virtual machine. In contrast, non-volatile memory-based storage devices for caching can be placed in the physical server itself, thus providing faster access to the media with lower latency due to the short distance compared to the external storage. The capacity of the cache is limited due to its location on the physical server. Therefore, efficient caching algorithms must make complex decisions on what part of the data to cache and what not to cache. In order to be successful, these advanced algorithms for caching also require the collection of storage usage statistics over time for making an informed decision on what to cache and when to cache it.
A major aspect in virtual environment acceleration compared to a physical environment (i.e., single server) is its heterogeneous nature. Because of the plurality of virtual machines, different workload peak times coincide with different workload patterns and different service levels required. For example, a virtual environment can host a database for transaction processing during the day, and switch to database analysis for the night in addition to virtual desktops that boot together at the start of a shift and so on. As a result, virtual environment caching should support multiple, diverse modes of acceleration, while providing shared and dynamic resources for different applications at different times.
In view of the above, it can be appreciated that there are certain problems, shortcomings or disadvantages associated with the prior art, and that it would be desirable if an improved system and method were available for virtual machine acceleration in virtual environments that implements cache mechanisms on the hypervisor level and implements efficient cache algorithms.

Methods and apparatus for providing acceleration of virtual machines in virtual environments


In a disk drive system transducer suspensions are swaged to the actuator arms. The end actuator arms in the arm stack experience unbalanced forces which detrimentally effect the flying height of the transducers. A compensating swage plate is swaged on the opposite surface of each of the end actuator arms such that these unbalanced forces are canceled and the transducer maintains the proper flying height.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to transducer suspension systems and more particularly to a suspension system which compensates for actuator arm bending.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Direct access storage devices (DASD), or disk drives, store information on concentric tracks of a rotatable magnetic recording disk. A magnetic head or transducer element is moved from track to track to record and reads the desired information. Typically, the magnetic head is positioned on an air bearing slider which flies above the surface of the disk as the disk rotates. In some recently proposed disk drives, the slider (or carrier) rides on a liquid film or bearing on the disk. A suspension assembly connects the slider to a rotary or linear actuator. The suspension assembly provides support for the slider.
Examples of suspension systems are shown in the following references: U.S. Pat. No. 5,546,649, issued Aug. 20, 1996, to Shimanuki; U.S. Pat. No. 5,475,549, issued Dec. 12, 1995, to Marder et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,461,524, issued Oct. 24, 1995, to Jurgenson; U.S. Pat. No. 5,459,921, issued Oct. 24, 1995, to Hudson et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,444,587, issued Aug. 22, 1995, to Johnson et al; U.S. Pat. No. 5,299,082, issued Mar. 29, 1994, to Ananth et al; U.S. Pat. No . 5,260,847, issued Nov. 9, 1993, to Basehore et al; U.S. Pat. No . 5,187,626, issued Feb. 16, 1993, to Hopkins et al; U.S. Pat. No . 5,172,286, issued Dec. 15, 1992, to Jurgenson; U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,142, issued May 7, 1991, to Nakanishi et al; U.S. Pat. No. 4,875,117, issued Oct. 17, 1989, to Slezak et al; U.S. Pat. No. 4,870,525, issued Sept. 26, 1989, to Wong et al; U.S. Pat. No. 4,829,395, issued May 9, 1989, to Coon et al; U.S. Pat. No. 4,796,122, issued Jan. 3, 1989, to Levy et al; U.S. Pat. No. 4,346,416, issued Aug. 24, 1982, to Riggle et al; and IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin Vol. 37, No. 12, Dec. 1994, page 181.
The suspension is attached to an actuator arm of the actuator motor. The actuator motor is used to move the transducer head from track to track on the recording disk. High capacity disk drives typically have a plurality of recording disks arranged in a disk stack. Actuator arms which are located between two disks typically have two suspensions attached, one to access the disk surface above and one to access the disk surface below. However, actuator arms on each end of the stack (top and bottom arms) have only one suspension attached which accesses a single disk surface. Disk drives which have a single disk typically have an actuator arm above the disk and an actuator arm below the disk, each having a single suspension.
The inventors have discovered that in multiple disk files the transducer heads on the actuator arms having a single suspension have higher data error rates than transducer heads on actuator arms having two suspensions. This invention was designed to solve this problem.

International Business Machines Corporation


A circuit includes a bandpass filter and a self-tracking circuit. The bandpass filter has a first input node configured to receive an input square wave signal and an output node configured to provide an output sine wave signal. The bandpass filter includes a first binary-weighted programmable resistor array. The self-tracking circuit includes a second input node coupled to the output node. The self-tracking circuit includes a counter, and the counter includes an output node coupled to the first binary weighted programmable resistor array.

A resolver sensor is usable to determine the rotational speed of a motor. A resolver sensor includes an excitation coil that is driven with a sinusoidal voltage, To generate the sinusoidal voltage, a sensor interface circuit receives a square wave dock signal, and converts the square-wave dock signal to a sinusoidal signal.


A hydraulic system and work machine are provided, the hydraulic system including at least one hydraulic cylinder with a first port and a second port connected by a first fluid passage. A first pump, which is a bi-directional hydraulic pump is positioned within the first fluid passage, and a second pump is positioned in parallel with the first pump and disposed within a second fluid passage. An accumulator fluidly connects with the second fluid passage.

Hydraulic systems in a wide variety of forms are indispensable components of many modern work machines. Virtually all tractors, loaders, excavators and other off highway work machines utilize hydraulically actuated work implements. In a typical design, the work machine hydraulic system will include one or more hydraulic pumps coupled with an engine of the work machine and operable to supply a pressurized hydraulic fluid to hydraulic actuators for adjusting the position of a work implement, such as a bucket or blade. In other applications, hydraulic actuators may be used in work machine stabilizers, and even in steering systems of work machines.
Actuation of hydraulic cylinders in the hydraulic system consumes energy provided by the work machine engine, or another power source such as a fuel cell or battery. For example, a boom arm of an excavator or loader will be lifted to a raised position by providing hydraulic fluid to one or more hydraulic actuators coupled therewith. The energy required to raise the boom arm against the force of gravity, for example, may be provided by pressurized hydraulic fluid from the work machine's hydraulic pump. When lowering the boom arm, in contrast, the force of gravity acting on the boom arm will cause it to lower, urging hydraulic fluid out of one side of the hydraulic actuator. In traditional designs, the hydraulic fluid flowing from the actuator is typically transitioned to a low pressure drain. Where the boom arm is in a raised position, the system may be thought of as comprising potential energy, initially inputted to the system in the form of hydraulic energy to raise the boom arm. Where hydraulic pressure is bled to a low pressure drain as the boom arm is lowered, the potential energy residing in the raised boom arm can be lost.
In more modern designs, it is recognized that pressurized fluid derived from a gravity-assisted extension or retraction of a hydraulic actuator may be stored and later returned to the system as needed. In certain designs, an accumulator is connected with the hydraulic system, and can store pressurized hydraulic fluid, then selectively return the fluid to the system on demand. Over the years, engineers have developed a wide variety of designs for recovering hydraulic energy in work machine hydraulic systems. "Hybrid" hydraulic systems, as such designs are referred to in the art, have shown much promise for energy conservation and fuel economy purposes. In certain hybrid designs, fluid may be transitioned directly between the head and rod side of the actuator, rather than sending all of the fluid evacuated from one side of the actuator to drain.
Even the most advanced hybrid hydraulic systems, however, are not without drawbacks. In particular, a phenomenon known in the art as "voiding" may occur in both hybrid and non-hybrid hydraulic systems. Voiding describes the tendency for one of the rod chamber and head chamber of a hydraulic cylinder to develop a void or space, not filled with hydraulic fluid as the actuator is extended or retracted. Voiding is the result at least in part of the difference in fluid volumes between a rod side and a head side of the actuator. In particular, because the rod occupies a certain fluid volume, when fluid is transitioned from the rod side to the head side or a drain, a void may form in the rod side of the actuator. During operation, the generation of such a void may result in a delay in the motion of the hydraulic actuator until the system pumps and/or accumulator can provide the required fluid volume. In certain systems, voiding in the hydraulic pump itself may result from unequal fluid volumes in the head and rod, for example, when extending a hydraulic actuator.
One hydraulic system directed to storing hydraulic energy in a hydraulic system has been described in the technical publication entitled, "Displacement Controlled Linear Actuator With Differential Cylinder—A Way To Save Primary Energy In Mobile Machines", by Robert Rahmfeld and Monika Ivantysynova of the technical University of Hamberg, Germany. Rahmfeld and Ivantysynova describe a system having a variable displacement, bi-directional hydraulic pump that transitions hydraulic fluid between a head chamber and a rod chamber of a hydraulic cylinder. An accumulator and additional pump are fluidly connected with the hydraulic circuit. While the Rahmfeld and Ivantysynova design offers certain advantages, it also presents certain disadvantages, in particular the fact that much of the hydraulic energy from an overrunning load cannot be stored in the relatively low pressure accumulator.
The present disclosure is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems or shortcomings set forth above.

Hybrid hydraulic system and work machine using same


The present invention relates to a rapid, low-temperature method of forming a ceramic or ceramic-like coating on a substrate. It comprises coating the substrate with a solution comprising a solvent and one or more hydrolyzed or partially hydrolyzed preceramic silicon alkoxides and, optionally, a ceramic oxide precursor. The solvent is evaporated and a preceramic coating thereby deposited on the substrate. The coated substrate is heated to a temperature of between about 40.degree. to about 400.degree. C. in the presence of ozone to ceramify the ceramic or ceramic-like coating. Additional protective coatings may be applied onto the coating thus produced.

Electronic devices, to be serviceable under a wide variety of environmental conditions, must be able to withstand moisture, heat and abrasion, among other stresses. A significant amount of work has been reported directed toward various protective measures to minimize the exposure of these devices to the above conditions and thereby increase their reliability and life. Most of these measures, however, suffer from various drawbacks.
For instance, early measures involved potting electronics within a polymeric resin and, thereby, reducing environmental exposure, These methods proved to be of limited value, however, since most resins are not impermeable to environmental moisture and they generally add extra size and weight.
A second method of protection involves sealing the device within a ceramic package. This process has proven to be relatively effective in increasing device reliability and is currently used in select applications. The added size, weight and cost involved in this method, however, inhibits widespread application in the electronic industry.
Recently, the use of lightweight ceramic coatings has been suggested. For instance, Haluska et al. in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,749,631 and 4,753,856, which are incorporated herein in their entirety by reference, disclose silicon containing coatings produced by applying solutions of silicon alkoxides or silicon alkoxides and metal oxide precursors, respectively, to an electronic device and then ceramifying by heating to temperatures of 200.degree.-1000.degree. C. These references also describe the application of other coatings containing silicon carbide, silicon nitride or silicon carbonitride onto the initial silica layer for added protection. The ceramic coatings produced thereby have many desirable characteristics such as microhardness, moisture resistance, ion barrier, adhesion, ductility, tensile strength and thermal expansion coefficient matching which provide excellent protection to the underlying substrate.
Despite the efficacy of the above coatings, ceramification at temperatures less than 400.degree. C. is so slow that commercial application is impractical. Moreover, ceramification at temperatures in excess of 400.degree. C. often results in the destruction of many temperature sensitive devices. Therefore, a need exists for a method of rapidly applying ceramic coatings from silicon alkoxides at low temperature.
Chemical vapor deposition of SiO.sub.2 films from silicon alkoxides and ozone is well known. (See, for example CA 88:109402a and CA 105:124,818) These references, however, do not describe the solution coating method claimed herein.
The use of ozone as a method for low temperature conversion of hydrogen silsesquioxane preceramic solution to a ceramic coating has recently been disclosed by Haluska et al. in co-pending application Ser. No. 07/312,457, which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. This application, however, does not disclose the use of ozone with silicon alkoxides.
The present inventor has discovered that a ceramic coating derived from a preceramic solution of silicon alkoxides and, optionally, ceramic oxide precursors can be rapidly applied to various substrates at temperatures as low as 40.degree. C. when the ceramification is conducted in an ozone environment.

Low temperature ozonolysis of silicon and ceramic oxide precursor polymers to ceramic coatings


A vehicle transmission assembly includes a power means, a clutch connected to the power means and having an output power shaft, and a plurality of gears and substantial alignment. The gears include a first gear on the power shaft meshed with a second gear mounted on a first idler shaft. The second gear driving a third gear mounted on another idler shaft. The third gear drives a fourth gear mounted on a first PTO shaft. A second PTO shaft is operatively connected to the first shaft. A three position selector assembly on the first shaft selectively powers the PTO shafts simultaneously or individually. The method of connecting a single PTO shaft transmission assembly includes adding a second PTO shaft to said power means, and imposing a multi-position selector assembly to the gears to permit said PTO shafts to be operated together or individually.

This invention relates to the field of tractors and similar equipment wherein one or more power takeoff (PTO) shafts are utilized. More particularly, this invention relates to a PTO driving assembly which allows a base unit having only a mid PTO to be produced and efficiently converted later to a unit having both a mid PTO shaft and a rear PTO shaft. The PTO shafts in the converted unit can be selectively activated separately or in combination.
Power takeoff shafts are well known. PTO shafts are used on large, medium and small horsepower tractors for a variety of reasons. On some conventional tractors, a PTO shaft extends rearwardly from the power plant or transmission to supply rotary power to equipment towed behind the tractor. On other tractors, a mid PTO shaft extends from the middle portion of the tractor to operate equipment, such as a mower deck, located thereunder.
Recently, tractor transmissions which have both mid and rear PTO shafts have been developed. Both the mid and rear PTO shafts, when engaged, rotate whenever the engine or transmission rotates. Frequently, the customer or end user does not always want both PTOs to operate all of the time.
Some manufacturers incorporate a selector mechanism into the transmission so the user can select which PTO shaft to activate. The cost of the base machine increases when the selector mechanism is incorporated. Not all customers may need, want or be willing to pay for the higher cost units. These market pressures may force the manufacturer to produce two different models, one providing the mid PTO shaft only and another model providing both mid and rear PTO shafts. The manufacturer incurs higher production and inventory costs. Distributors and dealers also face higher inventory costs when they stock both models.
Therefore, a primary object of this invention is a provision of a PTO driving assembly which is an improvement over existing PTO driving assemblies.
A further object of the present invention is a provision of a PTO shaft driving assembly wherein the mid PTO and rear PTO shafts are selectively rotatable (together or individually) depending upon the position of a three-position selector mechanism.
A further object of this invention is a provision of a PTO driving assembly which allows the manufacturer to provide a low cost base unit with mid PTO only and a conversion kit which can be utilized anytime after the initial assembly to convert the base unit to a selectable mid and rear PTO driving assembly.
A further object of this invention is the provision of a PTO driving assembly which is flexible in use.
A further object of the present invention is the provision of a PTO driving assembly which allows conversion by removing one or more rear covers from a single end of the transmission.
A further object of the present invention is the provision of a PTO driving assembly which is inexpensive to manufacture, reliable, and durable in use.
These and other objects will be apparent from the drawings, and the description and claims which follow.

Method of converting power takeoff assembly to include selectively controlled multiple power takeoff shafts


A wiper blade includes a wiper strip, a backing, a blade holder coupled to the wiper arm, and two opposed cases arranged at two longitudinal ends of the blade holder. The blade holder includes a blade holding portion, which surrounds a base portion of the wiper strip and the backing at a longitudinally central portion of the wiper strip and the backing. The blade holding portion restricts movement of the wiper strip and the backing in a direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction. Each case includes a case holding portion that surrounds the base portion of the wiper strip and the backing. The case holding portion restricts movement of the wiper strip and the backing in a direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction.

The present invention relates to a wiper blade and a wiper for a vehicle.
A known wiper blade in the prior art is formed to have a decreased height by coupling a wiper strip (rubber blade) to a support frame that combines leaf spring backings (flat main rods), which are made of a resilient material, without using a lever assembly that couples a plurality of levers in a direction intersecting a wiped surface (refer to, for example, Japanese National Phase Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2007-531663).
In the above-described wiper blade, the support frame, which holds the backing and a base portion of the wiper strip, is formed by a single member that extends over the entire length of the wiper blade in its longitudinal direction. Thus, a coupling member coupled to a wiper arm is further stacked on and fixed to the support frame. This increases the height of the wiper blade.


A computer has a processor and a memory connected to the processor. The memory stores instructions executed by the processor to receive a real time communication request from a client device and perform an evaluation of the number of client devices associated with the real time communication request. The evaluation results in the coordination of peer-to-peer communications in the event of two client devices and an attempt to host a real time communication session using a first protocol in the event of three or more client devices. A second protocol for the real time communication session is invoked in the event that the attempt to host the real time communication session using the first protocol is unsuccessful.

Real time communication tools allow users to communicate in real time. The real time communication can include audio, video, images, etc. The real time communication tools are available as stand-alone applications that can be installed on devices or as web browser based applications. However, the current real time communication tools do not provide efficient ways to integrate them into existing software applications. Further, they lack reliability, efficiency and adaptability to network bandwidth features.

Method and system for integrating real time communication features in applications


A wireless selective calling receiver performs an intermittent receiving operation in a channel lock state. The channel lock is canceled when a detected network information is judged to be different from the network information of the self receiver for a predetermined consecutive number of times. The channel lock is also canceled when such judgement is made and the detected network information remains the same at the time of the judgement.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless selective calling receiver and, more specifically, to a wireless selective calling receiver which performs an intermittent receiving operation by selecting one of a plurality of receiving channels.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional wireless selective calling receiver performs intermittent receiving as shown in a process flow of FIG. 1. Specifically, after the power-on, a sync state flag SYNC and a channel control flag LOCK are initialized (step F1). Until a frame sync signal and a frame information signal (which can be subjected to error detection and correction) are detected normally, an intermittent receiving operation is performed while the receiving frequency is sequentially switched at given intervals (hereinafter referred to as "channel scanning") for pulling into synchronization (step F2). once a frame sync signal and a frame information signal are detected normally (steps F3, F5, and F6), an intermittent receiving operation is performed (step F102), together with channel scanning, in which reception is effected only at a predetermined frame position on each channel until network information (only the area information in FIG. 1) of the self receiver is detected (steps F12 and F13). If the network information of the self receiver is detected (Yes at step F13), the receiving frequency is fixed at the frequency of a network-information-detected channel (hereinafter referred to as "channel lock"; step F103). Subsequently, an intermittent receiving operation in which reception is effected at a predetermined frame position only on the fixed channel is performed (step F104).
However, in the above conventional technique, as shown in the process flow of FIG. 1, if the network information (only the area information in FIG. 1) of the self receiver is not detected (No at step F13) even once during the intermittent receiving operation in the channel lock state (step F104), the channel lock is canceled (step F101) and an intermittent receiving operation also comes to involve the other channels (step F102).
Therefore, there is a possibility that when the sensitivity of the receiver falls due to sudden occurrence of noise or temporary entrance into an area of poor reception of radio waves, a network information signal in which errors have occurred at more than an error detectable or correctable number of bits to become another correct code is received as if it were a correct signal. Even in this case, if the value of the received network information is found different even only once from the network information of the self receiver as a result of their comparison, the channel lock is canceled to start scanning the other channels. This is a factor of shortening the battery life. In addition, this may cause a problem that should locking be made to another channel erroneously (for instance, due to accidental conversion into incorrect reception data) while the other channels are scanned, it is no longer possible to receive data on the network channel of the self receiver.
In recent years, as one measure to accommodate the increasing transmission rate in the wireless selective calling signal scheme, a transmission technique of modulating and transmitting a 4-value signal comes to be employed instead of the previous signal scheme in which a 2-value signal is modulated and transmitted. Even in this scheme of transmitting a 4-value signal, each of a preamble signal that is used to detect an intermediate level of a signal and to take bit synchronization and a frame sync signal that is used to take frame synchronization is constituted of the lowest and highest levels of the four values, and hence is substantially equivalent to a 2-value signal. Therefore, in a situation that the sensitivity of the receiver is not high, during the channel lock, it is likely that although a frame sync signal is detected, ensuing network information and frame information, which are in four values, are detected erroneously (or as incorrect information caused by accidental conversion).

Wireless selective calling receiver with a method and a system for releasing a frequency channel lock


A clamping ring having a downwardly extending finger that mates with a pocket in the periphery of a susceptor for supporting a wafer in a chemical vapor deposition chamber, provides alignment of the clamping ring, the wafer and the susceptor. A source of inert gas connected to the pocket provides a positive pressure in the pocket that prevents reactive gas in the chamber from reaching the edge and backside of the wafer. A source of vacuum connected to the susceptor support surface ensures good contact between the wafer and the susceptor.. The clamping ring also has a lip extending over the top surface of the wafer having a rear surface that has a negative angle with respect to the upper surface of the clamping ring, providing a knife edge seal to the wafer, reducing the area of contact between the clamping ring and the wafer and providing a reduced area of thermal contact between the clamping ring and the wafer.

Metals such as tungsten are deposited in openings and on the surface of a silicon wafer during manufacture of integrated circuits, preferably using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) methods. The wafer to be processed is supported on a heated susceptor which forms one electrode. The gas manifold plate of the chamber forms the other electrode. A gas, such as WF.sub.6, is supplied through a plurality of openings in the gas manifold plate situate generally parallel to and above the susceptor.
Tungsten is generally deposited using WF.sub.6 gas. Since ions formed from WF.sub.6 are highly mobile and reactive, tungsten also deposits on the edge and backside of the wafer. The backside of a wafer is generally used for registration purposes, and therefore it is important that the wafer backside surface be kept smooth and clean. Thus any tungsten that deposits on the edge or backside of the wafer must be removed. In order to protect the edge and backside of the wafer from such deposition, a clamping ring that overlies the peripheral edge of the wafer to be processed is used to press the wafer against the susceptor, and protect the wafer edge and backside from metal deposition. The use of a clamping ring is advantageous in that only the force caused by the weight of the clamping ring is used against the wafer, which causes a minimum amount of stress on the wafer. However, several problems are still being encountered.
There are various alignment problems between the wafer and the susceptor and between the wafer and the clamping ring.
It is difficult to align the clamping ring so that its center is aligned perfectly both with the center of the wafer and with the center of the susceptor, and to align the center of the wafer with the center of the susceptor. When these elements are misaligned however, it is impossible to produce a uniform tungsten film on the wafer due to non-uniformities of heat transfer from the susceptor to the wafer, and to deposit a tungsten film that is centered with respect to the wafer. Thus the distance of the tungsten film from the edge of the wafer can vary enough so that die near the edge of the wafer may be missed entirely by the metal deposition, reducing the yield from the wafer.
Further, if the clamping ring, due to misalignment, becomes tilted with respect to the surface of the wafer, tungsten can deposit on the edge and backside regions of the wafer.
It is even more difficult to entirely prevent deposition of tungsten on the edge and backside of the wafer, even when using a clamping ring in its correct position.
Studley et al, see U.S. Pat. No. 4,932,358, addressed this problem and discloses an elaborate closure between the clamping ring and the susceptor, producing a strong force pressing the wafer to the susceptor. This strong force can cause stress in the wafer, even leading to damage and cracks in the wafer; and it can cause the susceptor to become deflected from its position parallel to the gas manifold plate, which leads to non-uniformities of the deposited film. A wafer seal ring is mounted on a movable assembly that can be pressed against a wafer mounted on a susceptor by spring means, creating a force of from about 10-40 pounds. The wafer seal is aligned only with respect to the susceptor; the wafer is aligned only by means of pin supports on the susceptor. Thus if the wafer is misaligned with respect to the susceptor, it will also be misaligned with respect to the clamping ring. Further, the clamping ring overlaps the wafer edge by about 3-5 mm. Thus the alignment of the susceptor to the wafer to the clamping ring depends on the sum of the tolerances of these parts, and thus the chances of obtaining a perfect alignment are slim.
Thus it would be highly desirable to provide an improved apparatus and method to prevent deposition of tungsten or other metals on the edge and backside of a wafer during CVD processing, and to readily align the centers of the clamping ring, wafer and susceptor to improve uniformity of the metal film deposited on the wafer.


Systems and methods are provided for diagnosing an issue associated with an enterprise application on a client device by initiating a communication from the client device to a CSR device to report the issue, generating a matter identifier associated with the reported issue, transmitting a communication containing a deep link to the client device, invoking the deep link to initiate mining of logging data corresponding to the use of the enterprise application and stored locally on the client device, formatting and/or tagging the mined logging data with the matter identifier, transmitting the formatted mined logging data from the client device to the CSR device and/or a proprietary server, analyzing the mined logging data to diagnose a source of the reported issue, and attempting to resolve the reported issue based on the analysis of the mined logging data.

Enterprises, such as retailers, have hundreds, if not thousands of actions that users may perform via an enterprise application executing on the users' devices. However, as use of such applications increases, so do instances of various operational errors and malfunctions. Fortunately, many of these reported errors and malfunctions can be easily and quickly troubleshooted and/or resolved by trained customer service representatives.
Nevertheless, a challenging aspect of troubleshooting user reported issues with an enterprise application is that a customer service representative is in a different physical location than the device itself, and the customer service representative is often incapable of seeing all of the information related to the instance of the enterprise application in the server logs. Accordingly, this can make it difficult for a customer service representative to diagnose what is causing the enterprise application to malfunction. For example, a client may report that he/she is unable to log into the enterprise application, however, the customer service representative is unable to see each and every login attempt, including failed login attempts. Thus, an error may be happening in the "local" code of the device, and a customer service representative is blind to the error.
Attempts have been made to remedy this problem by logging critical local errors and transmitting the critical local errors to a remote server for analysis. However, this technique only captures certain key events and overlooks many potential sources of errors. Conversely, reporting all the runtime activities of an enterprise application would be technologically and financially taxing. Capturing all activities of the enterprise application would slow down the operation of the application and wreak havoc on a customer's data plan because of the massive amounts of data constantly being transmitted from the device to a remote server. Additionally, sifting through logs documenting all runtime activities is tremendously time consuming and delays the diagnosis and resolution process.
Therefore, enterprises are forced to choose between a diagnostic technique that is either incomprehensive and insufficient, or excessive and unnecessarily laborious.

Client side diagnostics for enhanced customer care


A flexible circuit board and a display panel are provided. The flexible circuit board includes a base body and a protective layer disposed on the base body. The protective layer includes a glue layer, a first cover layer, a patterned function layer, and a second cover layer sequentially stacked on the base body. The patterned function layer includes a frame and a plurality of bendable components disposed in the frame. The bendable components are arranged in the frame at intervals, and an arrangement direction of the bendable components is consistent with a bent direction of the flexible circuit board.

The present disclosure relates to the field of display technologies, and more particularly to a flexible circuit board and a display panel.
Nowadays, in a flexible active matrix organic light emitting diode (AMOLED) display panel design, a flexible circuit board is bonded to a display panel and the flexible circuit board is bent in order to achieve a narrow frame, thereby reducing a length of a non-display area of the display panel and achieving a high screen ratio. However, micro cracks, circuit breaking, or circuit peeling easily occurs after the flexible circuit board is bent, resulting in a poor display of the flexible AMOLED display panel.
In existing technologies, a photosensitive glue or a TUFFY glue is coated on a bonding area and a bent area of the flexible circuit board to prevent defects of the flexible circuit board after the flexible circuit board is bent. However, a large-area coating uniformity of the flexible circuit board is not easy to control, a coating thickness of the flexible circuit board is limited, thickness of the flexible circuit board is too thick to be easily bent, and strength of a glue is limited.

Flexible circuit board and display panel

Wuhan China Star Optoelectronics Semiconductor Display Technology Co., Ltd.


A portable, folding table is described. The table includes a left panel, a middle panel, and a right panel and has an extended position in which the panels are substantially co-planar and a collapsed position in which the left and right panels fold between about 90 and about 180 degrees relative to the middle panel. The table optionally includes a handle attached to the front or rear side of the middle panel, legs attached to the left and right panels, and a motor to move the panels between the extended and collapsed positions. Optionally, the left or right panel includes a bottom flange that serves as a leg and further serves to hide the other panels when the table is in the collapsed position. The table is particularly suited for changing a child's diaper.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to portable folding tables, more specifically, portable folding tables that support infants and toddlers while an adult changes the infant or toddler's diaper.
2. Background of the Invention
Diaper changing tables are known in the art. For example, Koala Care Products (Centennial, Colo.) sells diaper changing tables (otherwise referred to as baby changing stations) that are commonly found in restaurant and store restrooms in the United States. Commonly, the tables are mounted to a wall in the restroom and fold from the wall when in use. Unfortunately, however, not all restrooms have diaper changing tables and adults often need to change diapers when a restroom with a diaper changing table is not nearby. Moreover, even if a diaper changing table is available, many adults would prefer to carry their own sanitary changing table for sanitary reasons. Adults often need to change diapers at inconvenient times and locations.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,918,147 describes a foldable portable diaper changing pad that is made up of a left panel, a middle panel, and a right panel. The pad is designed to be placed over a sink or supported by two chairs. Unfortunately, however, it is not always possible to find a supporting structure when an adult needs to change a child's diaper. In addition, the pad of the '147 patent appears as it would require the adult to use both of his/her hands to set up, which is problematic when the adult is trying to hold a baby.
U.S. Design Pat. No. 367,771 describes a portable diaper changing table. However, it is believed that the diaper changing table described therein would be overly bulky and would require the adult to use both of his/her hands to set up.
Thus, there is a need for portable, diaper changing tables that are not bulky to carry, are strong enough to support children and can be used in a variety of environments where wall-mounted changing tables are not available.


The invention pertains to a (per)fluoroelastomer composition comprising:                at least one (per)fluoroelastomer [fluoroelastomer (A)]; and        from 0.1 to 30 weight parts, per hundred parts of fluoroelastomer (A), of at least one perfluoropolyether block copolymer [polymer (E)] comprising:        A) one or more (per)fluoropolyoxyalkylene segment (chain Rf), that is to say a segment comprising recurring units having at least one catenary ether bond and at least one fluorocarbon moiety, and        B) one or more polyalkylene segment (chain Ra) comprising recurring units of formula: —(CR1R2—CR3R4)—        wherein R1, R2, R3, R4, equal to or different from each other, are selected from the group consisting of H, halogens (preferably F, Cl); C1-C6 (hydro)carbon groups, optionally containing fluorine or other heteroatoms, preferably perfluoroalkyl or (per)fluorooxyalkyl.

Vulcanized (per)fluoroelastomers are materials with excellent heat-resistance and chemical-resistance characteristics, which are generally used in the manufacture of technical articles such as sealing parts, pipes, oil seals and O-rings in which the leaktightness, the mechanical properties and the resistance to substances such as mineral oils, hydraulic fluids, solvents or chemical agents of diverse nature must be ensured over a wide range of working temperatures, from low to high temperatures.
A continuing need for (per)fluoroelastomers which can be easily processed yielding final parts endowed with improved leaktightness even at low temperatures combined with the outstanding mechanical properties (i.e. stress at break, modulus and elongation at break) typical of fluoroelastomer materials exists.
One of the approaches for improving processability of (per)fluoroelastomers is the use of lubricants and processing aids dispersed in the (per)fluoroelastomer matrix. However, when such lubricants/processing aids are not compatible with the matrix and/or when they possess high volatility or low thermal resistance, in particular when it is used at high concentrations, while processing can be improved, declines in the leaktightness and elongation at break properties (typical of elastic behaviour) are observed.
Perfluoropolyethers have been thus suggested as processing aids, due to their miscibility with the fluoroelastomeric matrix. EP 0222408 A (AUSIMONT SPA) May 20, 1987 discloses vulcanizable compositions of fluoroelastomers based on vinylidene fluoride, comprising a fluoropolyether as processing aid; similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,278,776 (MONTEDISON SPA) Jul. 14, 1981 discloses the use of perfluoropolyethers processing aids in VDF-based fluoroelastomers; in particular performances obtained with perfluoropolyether greases consisting of mixtures of an oil and PTFE particles were compared to those of a perfluoropolyether polyamide in curable fluoroelastomer compounds. In all these documents, adjunction of the perfluoropolyether processing adjuvant was found to be accompanied by a significant reduction of hardness and mechanical properties (modulus). Also, these materials, due to their inherent volatility, undergo migration phenomena and could exude from the cured parts in high temperature operating conditions, so that failures occur and performances of said parts are significantly affected. Finally these materials do not possess outstanding stiction (otherwise known as static friction) properties.
There is thus still a need in the art for (per)fluoroelastomer compositions possessing improved processability and still possessing outstanding sealing properties both at low and high temperatures, combined with outstanding mechanical properties (i.e. modulus and hardness) and outstanding stiction properties.
These stiction properties are of particular interest e.g. for the use of cured parts derived from (per)fluoroelastomer compositions in semiconductors manufacturing devices, both for static applications, wherein disassembly of the device is made easier and for dynamic applications, for instance when used for door sleeves, wherein low stiction values are of interest for enabling relative movement of the sealant and the substrate which is contacted to, with no risk of damage on the softer (per)fluoroelastomer article when detached from harder substrates like ceramic materials or aluminium.


This invention discloses an interchangeable lens type video camera for deciding lens specifications on a camera side and changing control data transmitted from the camera side to a lens unit in accordance with specifications of the lens unit, thereby performing optimal control. A video camera is also disclosed in which an adapter for mounting a lens unit on the video camera is arranged, and control data outputted from the video camera side to the lens unit is corrected in accordance with lens characteristics, thereby performing the same operation as in a case wherein a video camera lens is mounted on the video camera.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lens-interchangeable video camera apparatus.
2. Related Background Art
Interchangeable lenses have been conventionally used in the field of cameras, and appropriate lenses can be selected in accordance with photographic conditions and applications.
As another tendency, various functions such as focus control, exposure control, and zoom control, all of which are required to operate a camera, are automated to improve operability. These automatic functions must be equipped as standard functions.
The recent developments in video equipment such as a video camera and an electronic still camera have been remarkable. Interchangeable lenses which have been conventionally used in only sliver-chloride film cameras except for some special equipment are proposed to be used in video cameras.
Optimal lens units can be selected in accordance with photographic conditions and applications, and the range of use of video cameras can be remarkably increased.
When interchangeable lenses are to be used in video cameras, video camera interchangeable lenses must be newly designed. However, demand may have arisen for use/connect interchangeable lenses for silver chloride film cameras in video cameras. It is therefore expected that an adapter for connecting any lens unit to a video camera be necessary.
In an interchangeable lens type camera unit of this type, a control signal is sent from a camera side to a lens unit side to control each drive system in the lens unit. For example, no problem occurs when a still camera lens unit is mounted on the camera body to perform a manual operation. However, when automatic control is to be performed from the camera side, a system cannot perform a normal auto focus operation even if the system mounted with the still camera lens unit is to be controlled as in a system mounted with a video interchangeable lens system due to the following reasons. A focus encoder may not be arranged. Even if it is arranged, the encoder area divisions are not equal to those of the video lens unit. A focus ring cannot be stopped at an optimal position even if the focus ring is controlled to be stopped at a boundary of divisions of the encoder.
When interchangeable lenses are to be mounted on video cameras and a lens unit (e.g., an existing still camera lens unit) having standards different from those of a video camera lens unit is to be connected to a video camera, an adapter is required to connect a lens unit for a silver chloride film camera to a video camera because mounts for the still and video cameras are different from each other and various differences caused by still image photography and moving image photography are present in operation and control systems.
In connection of an existing still camera lens unit to a video camera through an adapter, since design and specifications of the video camera lens are different from those of the still camera lens unit, data cannot be directly exchanged between the video camera and the mounted lens unit. For example, in an auto focus operation, an appropriate auto focus speed cannot be selected.
More specifically, a stable auto focus operation cannot be performed in lenses having different image variable magnification factors corresponding to a movement of a distance ring unless a control speed is set variable.
For example, at a nearly focused position, hunting occurs to largely change an image angle in a lens having a large image variable magnification factor as in a video camera lens unless a focus speed is controlled to be reduced. On the other hand, in a lens having a small image variable magnification factor as in a still camera lens, a change in image angle is small even if hunting occurs because the focus speed is controlled to be relatively high. However, if the focus speed is controlled as in the video camera lens, the focus speed is too low in the still camera lens although it is appropriate for the video camera lens.
Since the shortest range photographic distances of the video camera lens unit and the still camera lens unit are different from each other, a period required for shifting the state from a much unfocused state to a nearly focused state in the video camera lens unit is largely different from that in the still camera lens.
Appropriate control cannot be performed when a still camera lens unit is simply connected to a video camera unit.

Interchangeable lens type camera apparatus


A portable, monopod workstation including a planar surface and an unstable support rod. The planar surface configured to support a tablet or notepad and detachably couple to an unstable support rod. The unstable support rod comprising one or more first type mounting joints and one or more second type mounting joints and configured elevate the planar surface, and further comprises a first member and a second member. The first member and second member are configured to detachably couple to different mounting locations on the planar surface, orient the planar surface when coupled to the back side of the planar surface, and restrain articles from sliding off the planar surface.

Using a notepad, cell phone, tablet or similar object can become cumbersome when writing in a seated or reclining position or reading while using both hands for something else. Using a hard surface on a person's lap does not allow for using a notepad, cell phone or tablet at an ideal position.


An apparatus and method for providing external electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection to a semiconductor device, which may or may not include its own ESD protection, are provided. An ESD structure may be associated with each interconnect, either individually or shared between two or more interconnects. Each interconnect includes a contact tip for establishing a temporary electrical connection with a bond pad of the semiconductor device and a contact pad for electrically interfacing the bond pad with external burn-in and/or test equipment. The ESD structure may be implemented, for example, as a fusible element or a shunting element, such as a pair of diodes, a diode-resistor network, or a pair of transistors. The interconnect may be employed as part of an insert including a plurality of interconnects that provides ESD protection to a plurality of integrated circuits of at least one semiconductor device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the manufacture of semiconductor devices, such as bare dice or dice contained on a wafer. More specifically, the present invention relates to an improved apparatus and method for providing electrostatic discharge protection to a test fixture which is electrically connected to a semiconductor device during burn-in and/or testing.
2. Background of Related Art
It is well known that electrostatic discharge (ESD) can damage semiconductor devices. Thus, ESD protection circuits are typically integrated into a semiconductor die to protect the input and output circuitry. Exemplary ESD protection circuitry located between a bonding pad and internal circuitry of a semiconductor device are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,500,546, issued Mar. 19, 1996, entitled "ESD Protection Circuits Using Zener Diodes," to Marum et al. and in U.S. Pat. No. 6,040,733, issued Mar. 21, 2000, entitled "Two-stage Fusible Electrostatic Discharge Protection Circuit," to Casper et al.
In order to conserve the amount of surface area, or "real estate," consumed on a die, ESD circuitry may not always be included as part of the die. In such a case, ESD protection is typically included in the packaging for the die or in higher-level packaging, as when the die is used to construct multi-chip modules or other semiconductor die-based devices.
Bare (i.e., unpackaged) dice maybe burned-in and tested during the manufacturing process to ensure that each die is a known good die (KGD). For burn-in and testing, a bare die is placed in a carrier which provides a temporary electrical connection with the bond pads of the die for interconnection with external test circuitry. Akram et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 6,018,249, issued Jan. 25, 2000 (hereinafter "Akram '249"), which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention and hereby incorporated herein in its entirety by this reference, discloses a test system for testing semiconductor components which includes an interconnect for making temporary electrical connection with the semiconductor components.
Further, Akram et al., in U.S. Pat. No. 6,016,060, issued Jan. 18, 2000 (hereinafter "Akram '060"), which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention and hereby incorporated herein in its entirety by this reference, discloses an interconnect for temporarily establishing electrical communication with semiconductor components having contact bumps. FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of test fixture disclosed in Akram '060. As shown in FIG. 1, that test fixture, which is referred to in Akram '060 as "interconnect 20," includes a substrate 24 and a plurality of contact members 22 arranged on substrate 24 so as to contact and electrically engage the bond pads of a semiconductor device (not shown) to be burned-in or tested. Each contact member 22 is electrically connected to a corresponding contact pad 31 of the test fixture (interconnect 20) through a conductor 30. The contact pads 31 are configured to provide an electrical connection from external test circuitry (not shown) to the bond pads of the semiconductor device.
Handling of a bare semiconductor device, or die, without internal ESD protection circuitry during burn-in and test processes can destroy the semiconductor device. To protect semiconductor devices from ESD damage, state-of-the-art test carriers, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,136,137 to Farnworth et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 6,099,597 to Yap et al., include conductive metal surfaces that conduct built-up electrostatic charges away from carrier surfaces which touch, or are in close proximity to, the bare semiconductor devices.
Test fixtures that include ESD protection circuitry placed thereon so as to protect the input and output bond pads of a bare semiconductor device without its own internal ESD protection circuitry are not known in the art.

Methods for testing semiconductor devices methods for protecting the same from electrostatic discharge events during testing, and methods for fabricating inserts for use in testing semiconductor devices