A method for operating a nitride trapping memory cell is provided to resolve hard-to-erase condition by employing a reset technique to eliminate or reduce the number of electrons in the middle of a junction region. When a hard-to-erase condition is detected after a series of program and erase cycles, such as 500 or 100 program and erase cycles, a substrate transient hot hole (STHH) reset operation is applied. The substrate transient hot hole reset injects holes that are far away junction than band-to-band tunneling hot hole (BTBTHH) injection such that the STHH reset on cycle endurance is able to maintain a desirable cycle window to eliminate or reduce the hard-to erase condition in subsequent program and erase cycles.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electrically programmable and erasable memory, and more particularly, to resolve hard-to-erase condition under high cycle endurance in charge trapping memory.
2. Description of Related Art
Electrically programmable and erasable non-volatile memory technologies based on charge storage structures known as Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM) and flash memory are used in a variety of modern applications. A flash memory is designed with an array of memory cells that can be independently programmed and read. Sense amplifiers in a flash memory are used to determine the data value or values stored in a non-volatile memory. In a typical sensing scheme, an electrical current through the memory cell being sensed is compared to a reference current by a current sense amplifier.
A number of memory cell structures are used for EEPROM and flash memory. As the dimensions of integrated circuits shrink, greater interest is arising for memory cell structures based on charge trapping dielectric layers, because of the scalability and simplicity of the manufacturing processes. Memory cell structures based on charge trapping dielectric layers include structures known by the industry names Nitride Read-Only Memory (NROM), SONOS, and PHINES, for example. These memory cell structures store data by trapping charge in a charge trapping dielectric layer, such as silicon nitride. As negative charge is trapped, the threshold voltage of the memory cell increases. The threshold voltage of the memory cell is reduced by removing negative charge from the charge trapping layer.
NROM devices use a relatively thick bottom oxide, e.g. greater than 3 nanometers, and typically about 5 to 9 nanometers, to prevent charge loss. Instead of direct tunneling, band-to-band tunneling induced hot hole injection BTBTHH can be used to erase the cell. However, the hot hole injection causes oxide damage, leading to charge loss in the high threshold cell and charge gain in the low threshold cell. Moreover, the erase time must be increased gradually during program and erase cycling due to the hard-to-erase accumulation of charge in the charge trapping structure. This accumulation of charge occurs because the hole injection point and electron injection point do not coincide with each other, and some electrons remain after the erase pulse. In addition, during the sector erase of an NROM flash memory device, the erase speed for each cell is different because of process variations (such as channel length variation). This difference in erase speed results in a large Vt distribution of the erase state, where some of the cells become hard to erase and some of them are over-erased. Thus the target threshold Vt window is closed after many program and erase cycles and poor endurance is observed. This phenomenon will become more serious when the technology keeps scaling down.
A typical flash memory cell structure positions a tunnel oxide layer between a conducting polysilicon tunnel oxide layer and a crystalline silicon semiconductor substrate. The substrate refers to a source region and a drain region separated by an underlying channel region. A flash memory read can be executed by a drain sensing or a source sensing. For source side sensing, one or more source lines are coupled to source regions of memory cells for reading current from a particular memory cell in a memory array.
A traditional floating gate device stores 1 bit of charge in a conductive floating gate. The advent of NROM cells in which each NORM cell provides 2 bits of flash cells that store charge in an Oxide-Nitride-Oxide (ONO) dielectric. In a typical structure of a NROM memory cell, a nitride layer is used as a trapping material positioned between a top oxide layer and a bottom oxide layer. The ONO layer structure effectively replaces the gate dielectric in floating gate devices. The charge in the ONO dielectric with a nitrite layer may be either trapped on the left side or the right side of a NROM cell.
A frequently used technique to program NROM cells in an NROM array is the hot electron injection method. During a erase operation, a common technique used to erase memory cells is called the band-to-band tunneling hot hole injection where the erase ability is highly dependent on the lateral electric field. The other side potential, from the side that is being erased, of a NROM cell is likely to have a lateral electric field effect on the erase ability. Evaluating the endurance and retention of a NROM array, the lack of uniformity in erase ability causes a margin loss due to cycling and baking. The other side of NROM cells are left floating (or connected to ground) which may be coupled to an uncertain voltage level (e.g. 1 volt or 4 volts), which causes an variation of the erase threshold of array cells. This in turn causes Vt distribution after an erase operation to be wider.
A NROM type of device typically undergoes a series of program and erase cycles which causes electrons to migrate closer to the middle of a channel region. In a subsequent erase operation using a technique such as BTBTHH, it would be difficult to move holes toward the middle of the channel region which makes the residual electrons located near the channel region hard to erase. The hard to erase scenario typically occurs in a multi-bit cell like NROM with localized hot electron and hot hole injection program and erase schemes.
A typical spatial distribution in a charge trapping memory is that electrons and holes tend localized. It is frequently the case that the electron distribution may not match the hole distribution, which results in a threshold voltage Vt that trends upward after every program/erase cycle that leaves some electrons in the channel region of an oxide-nitride-oxide structure. Consequently, the threshold voltage Vt window between a programming event and an erase event becomes narrower under high cycle endurance, as the electron accumulations become worse. This phenomenon is commonly referred to "hard-to-erase" condition. A hard-to-erase condition cannot be easily resolved by band-to-band tunneling hot hole erase because hole injection has a tight spatial distribution.
Accordingly, it is desirable to design a method to resolve hard-to-erase scenario in nitride trapping memory to overcome the mismatch of electron and hole injections that occurs after a number of program and erase cycles.

Methods to resolve hard-to-erase condition in charge trapping non-volatile memory


A system and method is provided for automatically identifying and removing malicious data packets, such as denial-of-service (DoS) packets, in an intermediate network node before the packets can be forwarded to a central processing unit (CPU) in the node. The CPU's processing bandwidth is therefore not consumed identifying and removing the malicious packets from the system memory. As such, processing of the malicious packets is essentially “off-loaded” from the CPU, thereby enabling the CPU to process non-malicious packets in a more efficient manner. Unlike prior implementations, the invention identifies malicious packets having complex encapsulations that can not be identified using traditional techniques, such as ternary content addressable memories (TCAM) or lookup tables.

A computer network is a geographically distributed collection of interconnected subnetworks for transporting data between nodes, such as computers. A local area network (LAN) is an example of such a subnetwork. The network's topology is defined by an arrangement of client nodes that communicate with one another, typically through one or more intermediate network nodes, such as a router or switch. As used herein, a client node is an endstation node that is configured to originate or terminate communications over the network. In contrast, an intermediate network node is a node that facilitates routing data between client nodes. Communications between nodes are typically effected by exchanging discrete packets of data according to predefined protocols. In this context, a protocol consists of a set of rules defining how the nodes interact with each other.
Each data packet typically comprises "payload" data prepended ("encapsulated") by at least one network header formatted in accordance with a network communication protocol. The network headers include information that enables the client nodes and intermediate nodes to efficiently route the packet through the computer network. Often, a packet's network headers include at least a data-link (layer 2) header, an internetwork (layer 3) header and a transport (layer 4) header, as defined by the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Reference Model. The OSI Reference Model is generally described in more detail in Section 1.1 of the reference book entitled Interconnections Second Edition, by Radia Perlman, published September 1999, which is hereby incorporated by reference as though fully set forth herein.
The data-link header provides information for transmitting the packet over a particular physical link (i.e., a communication medium), such as a point-to-point link, Ethernet link, wireless link, optical link, etc. To that end, the data-link header may specify a pair of "source" and "destination" network interfaces that are connected by the physical link. A network interface contains the mechanical, electrical and signaling circuitry and logic used to couple a network node to one or more physical links. A network interface is often associated with a hardware-specific address, known as a media access control (MAC) address. Accordingly, the source and destination network interfaces in the data-link header are typically represented as source and destination MAC addresses. The data-link header may also store flow control, frame synchronization and error checking information used to manage data transmissions over the physical link.
The internetwork header provides information defining the packet's logical path (or "virtual circuit") through the computer network. Notably, the path may span multiple physical links. The internetwork header may be formatted according to the Internet Protocol (IP), which specifies IP addresses of both a source and destination node at the end points of the logical path. Thus, the packet may "hop" from node to node along its logical path until it reaches the client node assigned to the destination IP address stored in the packet's internetwork header. After each hop, the source and destination MAC addresses in the packet's data-link header may be updated, as necessary. However, the source and destination IP addresses typically remain unchanged as the packet is transferred from link to link in the network.
The transport header provides information for ensuring that the packet is reliably transmitted from the source node to the destination node. The transport header typically includes, among other things, source and destination port numbers that respectively identify particular software applications executing in the source and destination nodes. More specifically, the packet is generated in the source node by the application assigned to the source port number. Then, the packet is forwarded to the destination node and directed to the application assigned to the destination port number. The transport header also may include error-checking information (i.e., a checksum) and other data-flow control information. For instance, in connection-oriented transport protocols such as the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), the transport header may store sequencing information that indicates the packet's relative position in a transmitted stream of data packets.
As used herein, a dataflow is a stream of data packets that is communicated from a source node to a destination node. Each packet in the flow satisfies a set of predetermined criteria, e.g., based on the packet's contents, size or relative position (i.e., temporal or spatial) in the data flow. An intermediate network node may be configured to perform "flow-based" routing operations so as to route each packet in a data flow in the same manner. The intermediate node typically receives data packets in the flow and forwards the packets in accordance with predetermined routing information that is distributed using a protocol, such as the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol. Because each packet in the flow is addressed to the same destination node, the intermediate node need only perform one forwarding decision for the entire data flow, e.g., based on the first packet received in the flow. Thereafter, the intermediate node forwards packets in the data flow based on the flow's previously determined routing information (i.e., adjacency information). In this way, the intermediate node consumes fewer resources, such as processor bandwidth and processing time, than if it performed a separate forwarding decision for every packet in the data flow.
In practice, the intermediate network node may implement a hash table which stores packet-related information used to classify received packets into their corresponding data flows. The hash table is typically organized as a table of linked lists, where each list may be indexed by the result of applying a conventional hash function to "signature" information. In this context, a signature is a set of values that remain constant for every packet in a data flow. For example, assume each packet in a first data flow stores the same pair of source and destination IP address values. In this case, a signature for the first data flow may be generated based on the values of these source and destination IP addresses. Likewise, a different signature may be generated for a second data flow whose packets store a different set of source and destination IP addresses than packets in the first data flow. Of course, those skilled in the art will appreciate that a data flow's signature information is not limited to IP addresses and may include other information, such as TCP port numbers, IP version numbers and so forth.
Each linked list in the hash table contains one or more entries, and each linked-list entry stores information corresponding to a particular data flow. Such information may include, inter alia, the data flow's associated signature information and a data-flow identifier ("flow ID"). The flow ID identifies the particular data flow and also may be used to locate routing information associated with the data flow. To that end, the intermediate network node may maintain a data structure that maps flow ID values to the memory locations of their corresponding routing information, e.g., stored in the node's local or internal memory. Alternatively, the flow ID values may directly incorporate the memory locations of their data flows' routing information.
When a packet is received by the intermediate network node, signature information is extracted from the packet's network headers and hashed using a conventional hash function, such as a cyclic redundancy check (CRC) function. The resultant hash value is used to index a hash-table entry which, in turn, references a linked list. Entries in the linked list are accessed sequentially until a "matching" entry is found storing the extracted signature. When a matching linked-list entry is located, the entry's stored flow ID value is used to associate the received packet with a data flow and the packet is routed in accordance with that flow.
The intermediate network node typically receives a large number of data flows from various sources, including client nodes and other intermediate nodes. Each source may be responsible for establishing one or more data flows with the intermediate node. To optimize use of its processing bandwidth, the intermediate node may process the received flows on a prioritized basis. That is, as packets are received at the intermediate node, they are identified as belonging to, e.g., a high or low priority data flow. Packets in the high-priority flow may be processed by the intermediate node in advance of the low-priority packets, even if the low-priority packets were received before the high-priority packets.
Denial-of-service (DoS) attacks have become fairly common techniques for disabling access to resources and/or services in an intermediate network node. A DoS attack corresponds to a data flow of "malicious" packets which, when processed by the intermediate network node, deprive non-malicious packets (i.e., non-DoS packets) access to certain resources and/or services in the node. The DoS packets may be sent from a single source or may be coordinated among a plurality of sources. This latter case is often referred to as a distributed DoS (DDOS) attack. For example, a computer hacker may launch a DDoS attack through a multitude of compromised endstations that transmit data packets to a target intermediate node, thereby overwhelming the intermediate node's processing bandwidth.
DoS attacks typically involve sending large quantities of a specific type of network traffic, such as packets formatted in accordance with the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) or the Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP), to the intermediate network node. In many cases, the DoS packets are pre-pended by a complex arrangement of network headers. Thus, the targeted intermediate network node becomes overburdened not only by the large quantity of received DoS packets, but also by the consumption of resources required to process them. Since the intermediate node's resources become overly consumed processing these malicious packets, other non-malicious packets sent to the intermediate node are often dropped or discarded. Accordingly, different types of intermediate network nodes attempt to prevent DoS attacks in various ways.
The high-end "core" routers and switches typically have enough processing bandwidth to process both malicious DoS packets as well as non-malicious packets. In this context, the high-end routers and switches are designed to handle large amounts of network traffic, e.g., on a network "backbone." Consequently, the malicious packets can be processed at the rate at which they are received, i.e., at "line" rate. These high-end intermediate nodes thus rely primarily on hardware forwarding solutions that cannot become over-subscribed while identifying and removing the malicious DoS packets. As a result, a substantial portion of processing bandwidth in the central processing unit(s) (CPU) executing the software may be consumed identifying and removing DoS packets. Another disadvantage of this solution is that the routing or switching software becomes more complex by the inclusion of code for filtering the DoS packets from the received data flows.
The "mid-range" routers and switches, unlike their high-end counterparts, typically become oversubscribed as a result of a DoS attack. These intermediate nodes are usually enterprise or LAN routers/switches that manage a relatively large number of data flows. In order to identify and remove DoS traffic (i.e., data packets), the mid-range routers and switches typically utilize software executing on a centralized CPU or on a network processor supporting a general-purpose CPU. Like the software in the high-end routers and switches, the software in the mid-range routers and switches consumes an excessive amount of processing bandwidth and complexity for thwarting the DoS attack.
Hardware support for prioritization of ingress traffic is sometimes implemented in the mid-range routers and switches when the "problem" DoS traffic can be filtered and put on a low-priority queue serviced by the software. However, because the number of malicious packets typically becomes exorbitant during the DoS attack, the low-priority queue usually fills and is therefore tail-dropped, dropping both the malicious DoS traffic as well as non-malicious low-priority traffic. Furthermore, the hardware filtering is typically implemented as a simple table lookup on data link (layer 2) or internetwork (layer 3) information contained in the received data packets. The table lookup may be performed using a content addressable memory (CAM), such as a ternary CAM (TCAM). If the DoS attack traffic arrives via a complicated encapsulation, this table-based filtering cannot support these encapsulations and the DoS traffic is then forwarded to the software executing on the CPU. As a result, the hardware support does not prevent the CPU from being burdened with processing the DoS traffic.
The low-end "access" routers and switches are typically single CPU systems that process a relatively small amount of network traffic and are therefore more susceptible to a DoS attack than the above-noted mid-range and high-end intermediate network nodes. There is only one CPU in the low-end routers and switches, so CPU bandwidth is typically not consumed pre-processing or prioritizing in-coming data packets. Such preprocessing would require the software executing on the CPU to process each received packet twice (prioritize and route) thus consuming an unacceptable amount of processing resources. Therefore, the low-end routers and switches usually only filter received data packets (if at all) using simple lookup tables or TCAMs that are not able to identify complex DoS packet encapsulations.
There is generally a need for an intermediate network node that can identify and remove DoS traffic without consuming an excessive amount of processing resources or bandwidth in the node. Further, the intermediate node should identify and remove DoS traffic having encapsulations of any arbitrary complexity. In addition, the malicious DoS packets should be removed from the intermediate node without affecting the processing of non-malicious packets, such as low-priority non-malicious packets.

Hardware filtering support for denial-of-service attacks


A wrist support for use with electronic computing devices includes a plurality of rollers rotatably attached to roller supports, which are attached to a base. The rollers are positioned arcuately within the roller supports having a center roller positioned at a slightly higher elevation as compared to adjacent rollers. The rollers have protuberances at each end for engagement with holes in the roller supports for enabling the rollers to rotate about an axis. The rollers may also be inclined at a first angle extending from an inner roller support toward an end roller support and at a second angle extending from the inner roller support toward the other end roller support. Pads are attached to the base for enabling the base to flex and provide a cushion between the base and a support surface. Spacers are attached to the base so that the rollers contact the spacers instead of contacting the base. The wrist support may additionally include a pivot attached to the base and to a support for enabling the base and rollers to pivot about the support for use with a computer mouse. Alternatively, the wrist support may include an expandable member attached to a two piece base for enabling a person to adjust the space between adjacent sets of rollers.

The invention relates to wrist supports and, more particularly, to a wrist support for use with electronic computing devices.
Long operation and repetitious muscle movement of a person's hands may cause or contribute to tiredness, strain, carpal tunnel syndrome or other serious health problems when the person's wrists are not properly positioned. Various supports have been used to alleviate or avoid risk of health problems.
One such device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,950 issued to Dumitru and entitled "Multipurpose Forearm/Wrist Support for Users of Data Input Devices". The support includes a plurality of beads rotatable about a fixed rod, which is attached to a base. However, the beads do not provide a large contact area for a person's wrist due to the space or non-contact points between each of the beads.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,478,034 to Cunningham et al. and entitled "Keyboard Comfort Aid" discloses a wrist support device including two rollers rotatable about a fixed rod and attached to a base. However, the rollers are not positioned angularly or arcuately for improving the comfort and health benefits of a wrist support.
Therefore, what is needed is an apparatus for supporting a wrist or hand of a person during use of a computer keyboard and mouse which utilizes arcuately and angularly positioned rollers for providing maximum contact points and comfort for support of the user's wrist and/or hand.

Wrist support for use with electronic computing devices


A surgical drape for use during surgery includes a sheet that is configured for covering at least a portion of a patient. The sheet has a top surface and a bottom surface that is opposite from the top surface. An expandable member is carried by the sheet. The expandable member has an unexpanded orientation and an expanded orientation. The expandable member forms a raised portion when in the expanded orientation.

Various types of surgical drapes have been used to keep a surgical site on a patient sterile during a surgical procedure. Disposable drapes are sometimes employed and typically include a nonwoven paper or fabric that forms a substantial part of the disposable drape. A reinforcement area is often placed around a fenestration to provide structural strength and/or to absorb bodily fluids from the surgical site.
Certain surgical procedures involve large amounts of fluid, for example blood or saline irrigation fluid, at the point of surgery. In order to remove unwanted fluid, towels, suctioning devices, surgical sponges, and other fluid management devices are sometimes employed. Additionally, surgical drapes are sometimes provided with a plastic trough, pouch, or other device, which is configured to allow fluid to be transported from the point of surgery to a more remote area of the surgical drape. Wherein, the excess fluid may be contained within a pouch or other member capable of containing the excess fluid, and may be subsequently disposed.
Surgical drapes have also been designed in order to maintain surgical instruments thereon that are used during a surgical procedure. For instance, a plurality of binding strips of material may be attached to the upper surface of the drape and include a hook and loop type fastener in order to engage and retain one or more surgical devices. Designs of this type require the surgeon to manipulate the device in order to remove and attach the surgical instruments therefrom.
The present invention provides for an improved surgical drape that allows for channeling of fluid on the surgical drape, retention or collection of fluid, securement of instruments on the surgical drape, cushioning for the patient and/or healthcare provider during surgery, and/or helping to define inlet openings in pouches, pockets, sleeves, and the like.

Surgical drape having an expandable member


A computer-implemented method dynamically detects and corrects an error in a query. The method includes identifying an error in a first query. The method further includes generating a set of alternate execution structures for the first query. The method includes running each of the alternate execution structures, including generating a set of results corresponding to each set of alternate execution structure, comparing each of the set of results against each other of the set of results, and storing each of the set of alternate execution structures to include a result of the set of results, for each alternate structure. The method further includes selecting, from the set of alternate execution structures, a first alternate execution structure based on a predetermined criteria, and implementing the first alternate structure in place of the first query.

The present disclosure relates to database management, and, more specifically, to detecting and correcting errors in database queries.
Modern database systems can contain relatively large amounts of data, on the order of petabytes (250 bytes) and greater. Careful attention is given while generating the queries configured to retrieve, filter, sort, and/or perform other functions on the data. However, errors can still be present in the queries.

Dynamically detecting and correcting errors in queries

International Business Machines Corporation


A surgical site chemical dispensing system for dispensing a liquid chemical agent, such as an antibiotic, anesthetic, growth factor, hormone, anti-neoplastic agent, or the like, directly onto a site of a surgical procedure. The system includes at least one bladder formed from a pair of thin sections of a flexible material to have an internal cavity that connects to an open tube wherethrough the liquid chemical agent is passed, under pressure, into the bladder. The liquid chemical agent passes, as a low volume flow, through at least one hole formed through a bladder section of material and onto the surgical procedure site. The invention includes a fixation device that includes at least one hollow pin for passing a volume of the liquid chemical agent therethrough directly into or onto a bone proximate to a fracture therein.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to surgical devices and procedures for their use for implanting the surgical device in a patient during a surgical procedure to dispense a chemical to a site of that procedure for a period of time thereafter.
2. Prior Art
In a surgical procedure where a part of a human body is opened and a procedure performed thereon, it is common to apply an antibiotic, chemical deadening agent, growth stimulator, chemotherapeutic agent, radioactive isotope, or the like, onto the site of that procedure prior to closing to provide for infection control, pain control, and for other chemically-mediated biological response. In an orthopedic surgical procedure it is often necessary to open the skin to a bone surface or cortex to perform a procedure, such as one involving a joint replacement, fracture reduction, or the like, which bone site or location is particularly prone to infection after closure. Where such infection is present, often large to even massive doses of antibiotics are required to be taken, orally or by injection, to overcome such infection. Such doses themselves often create undesirable side effects.
The present invention, by providing for dispensing an appropriate chemical agent or agents to an actual site of such treatment, limits the amount of such chemicals as needed to overcome the infection or provide treatment, thereby minimizing the likelihood of unwanted side effects. In addition to passing an antibiotic, or like chemical, onto a surgical site, for infection control, or other treatment, the devices and procedures of the invention can also be used for dispensing a local anesthetic agent, or the like, to that site, to minimize a patient's discomfort during healing. Additionally, the invention can also be used to deliver local growth factors to the site to encourage healing, or chemotherapeutic agents to destroy unwanted cells, such as cancer cells.
Certainly, applications of chemical agent onto a site of a surgical procedure prior to closing are not new. Also, arrangements for providing a medication conduit to a potential injection site have been in use. For example, an article presented in "The Journal of Arthroplasty", titled, Treatment of Acutely Infected Arthroplasty With Local Antibiotics, Vol. 6, No. 2, dated June 1991, pages 179-183, sets out an implantable reservoir with a feed conduit into a surgical site is shown as having been used on a number of patients. Further, such an implantable reservoir and feed conduit connecting into the vena cava has been used as a substitute for a peripheral venous catheter to provide long term infusion support is currently in use and is known as a porta-cath or central line. Such other devices and arrangements, however, unlike the present invention, have not involved a range of implantable devices to be positioned directly on or closely adjacent to a site of infection, injury, or tumor, to pass a chemical agent therefrom. With the devices or the invention and methods for their use chemical agents can be delivered through a connecting line from a reservoir maintained at or just below the patient's skin surface. Further, such implants, as those of the invention can be made to be biodegradable to be absorbed by the body after removal of the transmission line.

Fixation device chemical dispensing system


Image recognition and parsing techniques are provided herein. In the described examples, an input image, such as an image of a document (e.g., a scanned document), can be received. Scan mark candidates in the input image can be identified that correspond to blueprint scan marks for a stored set of form blueprints. The blueprint scan marks can indicate form entry areas or other features of a form associated with the form blueprint. Identified scan mark candidates can be compared with the corresponding blueprint scan marks. Based on the comparing, it can be determined that at least some of the scan mark candidates are confirmed scan marks. Based on the confirmed scan marks, one form blueprint can be identified that corresponds to the input image. Information can be extracted from the input image, for example by optical character recognition, based on the form blueprint to which the input image corresponds.

Paper document processing has traditionally been a time consuming task. It has been a daily practice in businesses to handle paper documents manually, incurring several man-hours in the repetitive process of classifying forms and finding desired information thereon. Examples include processing tax returns for income calculation in the lending industries, processing sales invoices for bookkeeping, and comparing quotations from different suppliers. Since the advent of scanning and optical character recognition (OCR) technologies, a number of manual, paper-based tasks have been automated, e.g., for archiving purposes. Challenges remain, however, in the fields of scanned document image recognition and parsing.


A processor comprises a cache, a first TLB, and a tag circuit. The cache comprises a data memory storing a plurality of cache lines and a tag memory storing a plurality of tags. Each of the tags corresponds to a respective one of the cache lines. The first TLB stores a plurality of page portions of virtual addresses identifying a plurality of virtual pages for which physical address translations are stored in the first TLB. The tag circuit is configured to identify one or more of the plurality of cache lines that are stored in the cache and are within the plurality of virtual pages. In response to a hit by a first virtual address in the first TLB and a hit by the first virtual address in the tag circuit, the tag circuit is configured to prevent a read of the tag memory in the cache.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to the field of processors and, more particularly, to caching structures in processors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Processors typically implement virtual addressing, and also typically implement caches for storing recently accessed data and/or instructions. Typically, the processor generates a virtual address of a location to be accessed (i.e. read or written), and the virtual address is translated to a physical address to determine if the access hits in the cache. More particularly, the cache access is typically started in parallel with the translation, and the translation is used to detect if the cache access is a hit.
The cache access is typically one of the critical timing paths in the processor, and cache latency is also typically critical to the performance level achievable by the processor. Accordingly, processor designers often attempt to optimize their cache/translation designs to reduce cache latency and to meet timing requirements. However, many of the optimization techniques may increase the power consumption of the cache/translation circuitry. In many processors, the cache/translation circuitry may be one of the largest contributors to the overall power consumption of the processor.
As power consumption in processors has increased over time, the importance of controlling processor power consumption (and designing processors for reduced power consumption) has increased. Since the cache/translation circuitry is often a major contributor to power consumption of a processor, techniques for reducing power consumption in the cache/translation circuitry have become even more desirable.
To improve performance, set associative caches are often implemented in processors. In a set associative cache, a given address indexing into the cache selects a set of two or more cache line storage locations which may be used to store the cache line indicated by that address. The cache line storage locations in the set are referred to as the ways of the set, and a cache having W ways is referred to as W-way set associative (where W is an integer greater than one). Set associative caches typically have higher hit rates than direct-mapped caches of the same size, and thus may provide higher performance than direct-mapped caches. However, conventional set associative caches may also typically consume more power than direct-mapped caches of the same size. Generally, the cache includes a data memory storing the cached data and a tag memory storing a tag identifying the address of the cached data.
In a conventional set associative cache, each way of the data memory and the tag memory is accessed in response to an input address. The tags corresponding to each way in the set may be compared to determine which way is hit by the address (if any), and the data from the corresponding way is selected for output by the cache. Thus, each way of the data memory and the tag memory may be accessed, consuming power. Furthermore, since the cache access is often a critical timing path, the tag memory and data memory access may be optimized for timing and latency, which further increase power consumption. Still further, the caches are typically tagged with the physical address, and thus the translation circuitry is also typically in the critical path and thus optimized for timing and latency, which may increase power consumption in the translation circuitry.

MicroTLB and micro tag for reducing power in a processor


A method for handing off a wireless communication session between a first radio network and a second radio network. The method includes handing off the wireless communication session from the first wireless communication to the second radio network based on a first trigger. The method also includes handing off the wireless communication session from the second wireless communication to the first radio network based on a second trigger, wherein the second trigger is different than the first trigger.

I. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to the field of wireless communications. More specifically, this invention is directed to the handoff of wireless communication sessions between radio networks.
II. Description of Related Art
a. Wireless Communication Systems
In a typical wireless communication system, a mobile communication device (mobile station) will communicate with a fixed base station (e.g., access point) over an air interface using a radio network, and the base station provides connectivity with various resources, such as a transport network. When the mobile station first enters a coverage area of the base station (e.g., an area defined by a radio frequency (RF) radiation pattern of the base station) the mobile station will register (or associate) with the base station (access point) or other infrastructure of the particular radio network that includes the base station/access point. As long as the mobile station remains within the radio coverage area of the base station, the mobile station communicates with and through the base station so as to access the available resources.
Wireless communication systems take various forms. Two well known examples of such systems are cellular radio communication systems (e.g., code division multiple access (CDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA) or general packet radio service (GRPS) systems, which may be termed wireless wide area networks (WWANs)) and wireless local area networks (e.g., IEEE 802.11 (wireless Ethernet) or IEEE 802.15 (e.g., Bluetooth) networks.
In a WWAN, such as a CDMA network for instance, a carrier (service provider) will typically provide various radio access networks each serving a given geographic area. Each radio access network usually includes at least one base transceiver station (BTS) and at least one base station controller (BSC). The BTS radiates to define one or more coverage areas, such as cells or cell sectors, and the BSC then controls communications that occur in those coverage areas. In a usual arrangement, the BSC is then coupled with a mobile switching center (MSC) that provides connectivity with the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and/or a network access server (e.g., a packet data serving node (PDSN)) that provides connectivity with a packet-switched network such as the Internet.
When a mobile station powers on or otherwise enters a given coverage area of the cellular radio access network, the mobile station conventionally registers with the radio access network through signaling with the MSC and/or other network infrastructure entities. The mobile station may then engage in communication through the radio access network, so as to access resources such as the PSTN and the Internet.
A wireless local area network (WLAN) such as an 802.11b system, on the other hand, includes one or more access points that sit as nodes on a local area network (LAN). Each access point radiates to define a given radio coverage area of the access point. When a mobile station powers on or enters the coverage area of a given access point, the mobile station "associates" (e.g., registers) with the access point and gains connectivity with the LAN via the access point. The mobile station may then access resources that are available on or through the LAN, such as Internet connectivity or Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services, for example.
WWANs typically serve public areas. That is, for example, a mobile station served by a typical cellular radio communication system is usually able to access the WWAN system from anywhere within the geographic coverage of the system, whether the mobile station is on the road, in a park, in a building, or elsewhere. To provide this extent of coverage, the cellular carrier typically positions BTSs in centralized locations, such as alongside roads or in the middle of cities or other areas.
WLANs, on the other hand, typically serve private areas, such as the inside of a given building, for instance. To provide this sort of coverage, an individual or WLAN provider typically positions one or more wireless (radio) access points within the building, with antennas directed as much as possible within the building. In almost all WLAN setups, some coverage leaks outside of the building as well. It will be appreciated that the configurations described above are merely typical and other arrangements are possible.
b. Handoff
When a mobile station moves between wireless coverage areas, the mobile station will normally be handed off from one coverage area to another. Such a handoff may occur intrasystem, such as between WWAN (e.g., CDMA) sectors/cells or between WLAN coverage areas. Alternatively, a handoff may occur intersystem, such as between a CDMA sector and a WLAN coverage area (provided the mobile station is capable of operating in both systems), such as is described in currently pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/779,261 to Jones et al., filed Feb. 14, 2004, which is also assigned to the assignee of the present application, Sprint. The entire disclosure of U.S. Ser. No. 10/779,261 is herein incorporated by reference.
In order for such an intersystem handoff to occur, however, some mechanism must be in place to trigger the handoff, i.e., to indicate when a handoff should occur. Various triggering mechanisms may be used for this purpose. By way of example, such triggering mechanisms include (i) received signal strength, (ii) round trip signal delay and (iii) geographic location, any of which could be carried out by the mobile station itself, by the wireless network infrastructure, or by a combination of the mobile station and the infrastructure.
Received signal strength refers to the strength of signals (or the energy-to-noise ratio of signals) that the mobile station receives from the radio network infrastructure in various coverage areas. Higher received signal strength in a given coverage area often indicates that the mobile station would be better served by that coverage area. Thus, it is appropriate to use received signal strength as an indication of when to hand off from one coverage area to another.
To use received signal strength as a handoff trigger, such as when the mobile station is operating in a given coverage area and begins receiving signals (e.g. pilot signals or the like) from a neighboring/overlapping coverage area, the mobile station and/or infrastructure may monitor the strengths of the signals in order to determine when to effect a handoff. When a determination is made that the signal strength in a neighboring coverage area is sufficiently higher than the signal strength in the currently serving coverage area (e.g., the radio network the mobile station is currently being served by), the mobile station may then be handed off from the currently serving coverage area to the neighboring coverage area.
Round trip signal delay refers to the amount of time that it takes for a round trip communication between the mobile station and the infrastructure of a given coverage area. A shorter round-trip-delay for communication with the infrastructure of a given coverage area often indicates that the mobile station would be better served in that coverage area. Therefore, it is appropriate to use round-trip-delay as an indication of when to hand off from one coverage area to another, such as is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,246,673 to Tiedemann Jr. et al., issued on Jun. 12, 2001. The entire disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 6,246,673 is herein incorporated by reference.
To use round-trip-delay as a handoff trigger, such as when the mobile station is operating in a given coverage area and begins moving into a neighboring coverage area, the mobile station and/or the wireless infrastructure may monitor a round-trip-delay time in order to determine when to effect a handoff. For instance, the mobile station could send a time-stamped query signal to a base station and measure how long it takes to receive a response from the base station. Or the base station could send a time-stamped query signal to the mobile station and measure how long it takes to receive a response from the mobile station. When a determination is made that the round-trip-delay associated with a neighboring coverage area is sufficiently less than the round-trip-delay associated with a currently serving coverage area, the mobile station may then hand off from the currently serving coverage area to the neighboring coverage area.
Geographic location refers to the physical location of the mobile station within the geographic scope of various coverage areas. By maintaining data in the radio network and/or mobile station that demarcates borders between coverage areas, geographic location may be used as a trigger to effect handoff between the coverage areas. In practice, the mobile station or wireless network infrastructure monitors the geographic location of the mobile station (such as through use of a global positioning system (GPS) receiver included in the mobile station) and compares the mobile station's current location with the known geographic scope of various coverage areas. When a determination that the mobile station has entered the geographic region of a new coverage area is made, the mobile station may then hand off to that new coverage area. Such techniques are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,321,090 to Soliman, which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Because of the accuracy of GPS location techniques in determining the location of a mobile station, such techniques are becoming increasingly more common for use in cellular communication systems for making call management decisions, such as when to effect a handoff from one radio network to another (e.g., intrasystem or intersystem). However, the use of GPS techniques for determining when to effect a handoff for in-building systems is problematic. For example, the physical structure of the building may prevent reception of signals from GPS satellites, thus making it difficult or impossible to accurately determine the location of a mobile station when positioned in a building. In such a situation, handoffs of the mobile station (e.g., communication sessions associated with the mobile station) may not be accomplished in a timely fashion (or accomplished at all), thus resulting in a potential loss of connectivity of the mobile station with a serving radio network (e.g., a dropped call).

Method and system for asymmetric handoff of wireless communication sessions


A technology of dynamically allocating uplink and downlink subframes in an LTE-advanced Time Division Duplex (TDD) communication system specifically relates to a TDD adaptive frame structure retransmission method, network and terminal side device. The method includes: in a TDD adaptive frame transmission process, for an uplink subframe, if a frame structure whose Round Trip Time (RTT) period of a Physical Hybrid-ARQ Indicator Channel (PHICH) and a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) corresponding to the uplink subframe is 10 ms is found in seven already defined frame structures, transmitting PHICH data on a corresponding downlink subframe in the found frame structure, and receiving retransmitted data on the corresponding uplink subframe in the found frame structure. The technical solution of the present application ensures the Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) compatibility with an uplink data channel of an R10UE.

In the LTE and LTE-A standards, a TDD system frame is composed of ten subframes. The 3GPP supports totally seven types of frame structures, as shown in Table one.
TABLE ONETDD system uplink and downlink frame structureUplinkHandoverandpointdownlink periodstructurefromsequencedownlinkSubframe numbernumberto uplink01234567890 5 msDSUUUDSUUU1 5 msDSUUDDSUUD2 5 msDSUDDDSUDD310 msDSUUUDDDDD410 msDSUUDDDDDD510 msDSUDDDDDDD6 5 msDSUUUDSUUD
Currently in the 3GPP standard, the UE is notified of a frame structure configured by a current serving cell through system information SIB-I. According to the existing standard, a minimum change period of the SIB information is 640 ms. In a pre-research project of "dynamic TDD frame structure" formally approved by the 3GPP in the RAN54 (December 2011) plenary session, it is possible to more dynamically allocate the TDD system frame structure. The change period of the TDD system frame structure is shortened to make full use of the TDD characteristics so as to better support asymmetric traffic transmission.
However, there is no specific solution about how to set the retransmission of a downlink data frame. Further, in the uplink synchronous HARQ process, a further solution about how to retransmit PUSCH to avoid conflict with the R10UE is also needed.

Time division duplex adaptive frame structure retransmission method, network and terminal side device


A semiconductor device includes a memory block including even memory cells configured to form an even page and odd memory cells configured to form an odd page. The semiconductor device may also include an operation circuit configured to perform a program operation on the even memory cells and the odd memory cells. A first verify operation may separately verify the even memory cells and the odd memory cells, and a second verify operation may simultaneously verify the even memory cells and the odd memory cells. Further, the operation circuit may be configured to selectively perform the first verify operation and the second verify operation depending on a number of adjacent program fail cells in response to a verify result value.

1. Technical Field
Various embodiments relate generally to a semiconductor device and a method of operating the same and, more particularly, to a semiconductor device capable of storing data.
2. Related Art
After data is stored in memory cells in a program operation, a verify operation may be performed in order to confirm whether the data is normally stored. Threshold voltages of flash memory cells may be increased during a program operation. In addition, may be determined whether the threshold voltages of the flash memory cells have been increased to a target level during a verify operation.
After the verify operation, the memory cells may be divided into program pass cells in which the data is normally stored and program fail cells in which the data is abnormally stored. A program pass cell may refer to a memory cell whose threshold voltage increases at least to the target level. A program fail cell may refer to a memory cell whose threshold voltage is less than the target level.
Since a result value of a verify operation may vary depending on where the program fail cells are located, data storage speed and reliability of a semiconductor device may be reduced.

Semiconductor device and program fail cells


Disclosed is a hologram transfer film which can realize easy and good transfer of a hologram and, at the same time, can realize stable transfer of the hologram in a transfer process. The hologram transfer film comprises: a substrate film; and a transfer layer provided on the substrate film, the transfer layer comprising a hologram-forming layer and a heat-sensitive adhesive layer provided in that order on the substrate film, the hologram-forming layer having a breaking strain of 0.5 to 15% at 25° C. and a breaking strain of 0.5 to 30% at 120° C.

In conventional hologram transfer films, in general, a surface relief hologram layer, wherein a hologram is formed by providing concaves and covexes on the surface thereof, is mainly used in a hologram-forming layer. A representative construction of the hologram transfer film known in the art comprises a substrate film having thereon a release layer, a surface relief hologram layer, a reflective thin film layer, and a heat-sensitive adhesive layer.
At the time of thermal transfer, in other words, hot stamping, the hologram layer in the hologram transfer film should be sharply cut and transferred onto an object, that is, should have good transferability and should be exactly transferred onto an object.
Many of the conventional hologram transfer films, however, have unsatisfactory hologram transferability, and are very unstable in transfer process. That is, the hologram layer can be in some cases satisfactorily transferred and in some cases cannot be satisfactorily transferred. Therefore, an improvement in the transferability has been desired in the art.
Accordingly, it is a first object of the present invention to provide a hologram transfer film which can solve the above problem of the prior art and enables a hologram to be easily and exactly transferred with good stability in the transfer process.
An example of a conventional forgery-preventive sheet is such that a forgery-preventive printed pattern (a ground design) is formed by printing fine dots or hairlines on the surface of the sheet. In this sheet, upon copying in a light mode, the dots or the lines cannot be clearly copied, while upon copying in a deep mode, the dots are blurred and seen like lines or letters, and the lines are blurred to thicken the lines. In recent years, however, this method has become insufficient for preventing forgery.
In order to solve this problem, a forgery-preventive sheet has been proposed wherein, for example, a lustrous thread is infused into one side of a base sheet (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 56377/1995). This forgery-preventive sheet is intended to prevent forgery by utilizing a phenomenon such that, even upon color copying, a metallic color does not appear in portions corresponding to the lustrous thread.
Further, diffraction gratings or relief holograms have hitherto been used for the decoration or the prevention of forgery of various cards, securities and the like.
With expansion of the above applications, the diffraction grating or the relief hologram has become required to have such properties as the capability of being infused as watermarks into papers, excellent strength, heat resistance, scratch resistance, water resistance, chemical resistance, and adhesion to substrates, and conformability to flexing or expansion/contraction of objects with holograms or diffraction gratings being applied thereon. In particular, in the case of diffraction gratings or relief holograms formed of a cured product of a conventional photocurable coating composition, a resin used in the production thereof loses flexibility upon photocuring, and, thus, flexing or expansion/contraction of an object with the holograms or the diffraction grating being applied thereon results in loss of the function of the diffraction grating or the relief hologram.
Accordingly, it is a second object of the invention to provide a photocurable resin composition that can form a diffraction grating, a hologram or the like which can solve the problems of the prior art and has excellent strength, heat resistance, scratch resistance, water resistance, chemical resistance, and adhesion to substrates, and conformability to flexing or expansion/contraction of objects with holograms or diffraction gratings being applied thereon, and to provide a hologram or diffraction grating sheet.


A female connector comprises an insulating body having a socket inside and a rib positioned along a long direction of the socket. A gap is formed on the socket opposite to that rib, and a slot is positioned under the gap. A plurality of electrical leads protrude out of the insulating body. A metal housing enclosing the insulating body has a discontinuous portion. The discontinuous portion has a latch disposed on a first end of the discontinuous portion and a wing extending and inwardly hooking from a second end of said discontinuous portion. The latch is inserted into and engages with the slot.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a female connector. Particularly, the present invention relates to a female connector for engaging with a male connector having a certain number of cables.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese patent publication No. 2002-15816 dated on Jan. 18, 2002 disclosed a "Female connector." As FIG. 1 shows, it comprises an insulation body 10. An indentation 19 is placed along a long direction, wherein a plurality of contact leads 17 are disposed within that indentation 19 with one end of each contact lead 17 protruding and extending outside of the insulation body 10. A frame-like mental housing 20 is assembled outside the insulation body 10. The mental housing 20 encloses and closely engages the insulation body 10. A gap 23 is located on one side of the mental housing 20.
A clip portion 29 is positioned upon two sides of the gap 23 on the mental housing 20; taking advantage of the elasticity of the metal housing 20, the insulation body 10 and engaged portion 13 engage with each other. Furthermore, metal housing 20 has segment portions 27 respectively disposed on two sides of the gap 23. Receiving portions 15 on the insulation body 10 are provided to receive the segment portions 27 such that the metal housing 20 and the insulation body 10 can be joined closely.
Nevertheless, the assembly of the prior art forces the clip portion 29 to squeeze into the engaged portion 13. Moreover, in order to join the segment portions 27 and receiving portions 15 together, it is required to bend the segment portions 27 inwardly. The manufacture process causes difficulties of assembly and quality control. It not only increases the ratio of poor quality of manufactured products but also causes more problems when connecting the female connector with male connector.

Jinlong Machinery & Electronics Co., Ltd.


A laser transmitter based on a star coupler includes a separate controlled output port. An interferometric modulator is incorporated inside a laser cavity by means of a star coupler and enables modulation of the laser signal, independent of the means of wavelength selection used to determine the frequency of the laser.

To make optimal use of the bandwidth available in a fiber based network, it is desirable to use as many separately detectable wavelength channels as possible and to encode data onto each wavelength at as high a speed as possible. One problem with lasers that deliver multiple channels is that the cavity length for many of them is long, making direct modulation above 1 GHz impractical due to the round trip time of a photon in the cavity. A possible solution is to use an output power tap on the main laser cavity and to modulate this output while the main laser cavity runs in continuous wavelength mode. (see C. H. Joyner et. al. "An 8 channel digitally tunable transmitter with electroabsorbtion modulated output by selective-area epitaxy" IEEE Phot. Tech. Let. vol. 7, no.9, September 1995 pp. 1013-1015 or the pending patent application entitled "Improved tunable transmitter with Mach-Zehnder Modulator," Ser. No. 09/016,176, filed on Jan. 30, 1998 by C. H. Joyner. In both of the above cases the modulator was external to the laser cavity.
For increased modulation rates at lower drive voltages, it is desirable to integrate a modulator capability into a laser transmitter and to change from absorptive modulation to phase modulation.

Laser transmitter based on a coupler and having a controlled output port


A glass plate is formed with a radiating conductor. An electronic circuit unit includes a base plate soldered to the radiating conductor to be fixed to the glass plate, a frame fixed to the base plate with screws for accommodating the circuit board, and a cover crowned on the frame. The base plate is provided with a holding piece which protrudes the inside of the frame, and a hooking piece which protrudes out of frame. The cover is provided with a holding groove. A feeder line connected to the radiating conductor is inserted between the holding piece and the glass plate. The feeder line drawn out of the frame is hooked on the hooking piece, and led to the circuit board by the holding groove.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle-mounted antenna system to be mounted on the inside of a window glass of a vehicle or the like, and in particular, to a wiring structure of a feeder line which electrically connects a radiating conductor formed on an inner surface of a glass plate with a circuit board accommodated in a housing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there is known a vehicle-mounted antenna system in which a radiating conductor is formed on an inner surface of a rear glass or a front glass of a vehicle which faces the interior of the vehicle and an electronic circuit unit including a pre-amplifying circuit is attached to the inner surface, thereby allowing reception of circularly polarized waves, linearly polarized waves or the like transmitted from satellites or ground-based stations. This type of antenna system has advantages that the service life of the system can be extended and the risk of theft can be lessened, as compared to vehicle-mounted antenna systems installed outside vehicles such as roofs. Further, the antenna system also has an advantage that the size is small which allows wider viewing angles, even as compared to antenna systems set in the vicinity of a window glass inside the vehicle.
In this type of vehicle-mounted antenna system, an electronic circuit unit attached on an inner surface of a glass plate, such as a rear glass or a front glass, which faces the interior of a vehicle, is substantially constructed such that a circuit board provided with a pre-amplifying circuit and the like is accommodated in a housing. Also, a predetermined shape of a radiating conductor formed on the glass plate is electrically connected to the circuit board by an appropriate means so that the radiating conductor is supplied with power or supplied with signals.
As a conventional example, a vehicle-mounted antenna system of a construction in which a conductor piece is caused to protrude from an insulating housing which accommodates a circuit board, and the conductor piece is soldered to a feeding point of a radiating conductor is suggested (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-53722 (Pages 2 and 3, FIG. 1)). Since one end of the conductor piece is connected to an input part of a pre-amplifying circuit inside the housing, an electrical connection between the radiating conductor and the pre-amplifying circuit can be established by the conductor piece and the electronic circuit unit can be fixed to the glass plate.
The aforementioned conventional example is a vehicle-mounted antenna system in which power is fed to the radiating conductor by the conductor piece protruding from the housing of the electronic circuit unit. Since this antenna system is easily subjected to the influence of extraneous noises, there is a problem in that the reliability of the antenna system is lowered. Thus, a structure in which a feeder line which is not readily affected by the extraneous noises is connected to the radiating conductor can be taken into consideration. However, another problem occurs in which the attenuation of signals may increase if the feeder line connected to the feeding point of the radiating conductor is not efficiently led along a predetermined path.
As in the conventional example, in the case of an antenna system in which the electronic circuit unit as an integral part is fixed to the glass plate by soldering or the like, there is also a problem in that maintenance is not easy because of the complexity for removing the electronic circuit unit from the glass plate or attaching it thereto.

Wiring structure of vehicle-mounted antenna system


A method of processing queued data packets in a packet data communication system is provided. The method includes allocating a tier of service for substantially each of a plurality of individual packet data queues and determining a total number of data packets that can use an available communication resource. A proportion of a total number of data packets is allocated to a number of the tiers of service to allow individual packet data queues on a number of tiers to share a communication resource. A communication resource is provided to queued packet data users on a tier-by-tier basis, such that the communication resource is made available to substantially all tiers.

An established cellular radio communication system is GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications). A further wireless communication system currently being defined is the universal mobile telecommunication system (UMTS), which is intended to provide a harmonised standard under which cellular radio communication networks and systems will provide enhanced levels of interfacing and compatibility with other types of communication systems and networks.
A fixed network interconnects wireless communication serving elements, such as Node Bs. This fixed network comprises communication lines, switches, interfaces to other communication networks and various controllers required for operating the network. Hence, a call from a UE is generally routed through the fixed network to the destination unit specific to this call. If the call is between two UEs of the same communication system the call will be routed through the fixed network to the Node B of the cell in which the other mobile station currently is. A connection is thus established between the two serving cells through the fixed network.
Wireless communication systems are distinguished over fixed communication systems, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN), principally in that UEs move between coverage areas served by different Node B (and/or different service providers). In general, wireless subscriber units are typically provided with the ability to communicate to fixed networks such as the PSTN. If a UE wishes to call a telephone connected to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) the call is routed from the serving Node B to the interface between the cellular mobile communication system and the PSTN. It is then routed from the interface to the telephone by the PSTN.
Traditional traffic in wireless mobile cellular communication systems, such as GSM, has been circuit-switched voice data. In circuit-switched data systems, a permanent link is set up between the communicating parties, for the entire duration of the communication. Even during idle times, no other potential users may use the resources of the allocated communication path.
In addition to speech and data services, it is envisaged that, in future wireless communication systems, there will be an increasing need to support high-speed multimedia communications. A significant requirement of future wireless communication systems is their ability to provide users with improved opportunities to interact with information networks such as the Internet. It is also envisaged that the typical requirements for a subscriber communication terminal will be to transmit data at irregular intervals, in contrast to the continuous manner provided by current circuit-switched wireless communication systems. Clearly, with irregular transmissions it is inefficient to have a continuous link set up between users.
Consequently, it is envisaged that wireless communication systems will increasingly use packet-switched data technology, to interface to public data networks or information networks such as the Internet. In packet-switched data networks, information or messages are divided into standard length data packets for transmission. Each data packet is transmitted independently through the infrastructure from a source node to a destination node. This may mean that the data packets arrive out of order due to the fact that separate communication paths are established for individual data packets for the duration of the particular data packet transmission.
A cellular communication network generally interfaces with a packet-switched network, such as the Internet, via an Internet router serving as a gateway to the cellular communications network. Thus, when information is to be communicated to or from a MS or UE in a cellular communications network or system, the route is established to the appropriate Internet router, serving as the gateway of the cellular communication network. An example of a packet-based wireless communication system is the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) developed to supplement the GSM communication system for high-speed data communication. Further details on packet data systems can be found in "Understanding data communications: from fundamentals to networking", 2nd ed., John Wiley publishers, author Gilbert Held, 1997, ISBN 0-471-96820-X.
In a packet data based system, where a high number of subscriber units may require resources for packet transmissions at unknown and irregular intervals, it is important to optimise use the limited communication resource. Hence, a means of scheduling and ordering of the time of transmission of the individual packets is needed. This becomes even more important when individual data packets have different requirements with respect to delay, bit error rate etc.
Therefore, most packet based systems contain schedulers which control when the individual data packets are transmitted in order to share the available resource, whether time-slots in a TDMA system or power and codes in a CDMA system. An introduction to schedulers can be found in "Service discipline for guaranteed performance service in packet-switching networks", Hui Zhang, Proceedings of the IEEE, volume 83, no. 10, October 1995.
However, known schedulers have been optimised for environments other than CDMA communication systems. For example, scheduling algorithms used for GPRS are optimised for a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) system and therefore not optimal for CDMA-based systems such as UMTS where codes and power must be shared.
FIG. 1 illustrates a known arrangement 100 for providing a number of clients (C1 . . . CN) 110 with access to packet data based services. The individual clients 112, 114, 116 have data packets to be transferred through a network and are competing for a time-shared resource (S) 130 such as a communication channel or CPU time. A gateway 120 is positioned between the clients and the shared resource, to co-ordinate the transferral of the data packets onto the resource. Hence, a number of data packets are "queued" until the gateway transfers the data packet to the time-shared resource (S) 130. The gateway 120 includes a gateway queue algorithm (GW) that determines how the resource is to be shared between queued data packets from the respective clients.
Two well know queue service algorithms, to allocate the communication resource between queued data packets, are:                (i) Weighted fair queuing; and        (ii) Hierarchical round robin.


In an exemplary application, an apparatus according to a disclosed embodiment receives a radio frequency signal and outputs an intermediate frequency signal. Rejection of image components in the intermediate frequency signal is obtained without the need to preprocess the radio frequency signal with an image reject filter. Such an apparatus may also exhibit an image rejection performance that is robust to frequency deviation of a local oscillator.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the conversion of radio frequency (RF) signals.
2. Background Information
In general, wireless communications comprises the modulation of one or more baseband information signals onto one or more carrier signals, transmission of the resulting bandpass signal(s), and demodulation at a receiver to recover one or more of the information signals. Modern receivers typically employ the heterodyne technique, which involves either down-converting or up-converting an input RF signal to some convenient intermediate frequency (IF) and then demodulating the IF signal by using an appropriate detector. Heterodyne receivers are easily tunable and offer high stability. The difference between the input and output frequencies of such a receiver also provides a high degree of immunity from self-oscillation due to stray coupling. Additionally, adjacent channel rejection may be obtained by using high-Q filters only in the IF stage, which may operate at a fixed frequency much lower than the carrier frequency.
A basic heterodyne conversion circuit as shown in FIG. 1 may be used to convert all types of modulated RF signals to IF, including broadcast-band AM, FM and television signals; network communication signals as in a cellular telephone or wireless local area network; satellite communications or ranging signals; and radar signals. In such a circuit, the mixer receives the RF signal S10 (for example, as outputted from a RF amplifier) and multiplies it with a signal S20 from a local oscillator 5 to produce an IF signal.
We define the carrier frequency of RF signal S10 to be ωc, the frequency of local oscillator signal S20 to be ωLO, and the desired frequency of the IF signal to be ωIF (all in radians/second). Therefore, we may express RF signal S10 as cos ωct, local oscillator signal S20 as cos ωLOt, and the desired IF signal as ωit (with t in seconds). With reference to the trigonometric identitycos a cos b=(½)[ cos(a+b)+cos(a−b)],we can see that the output of the mixer will include a downconverted signal cos (ωLO−ωc)t and an upconverted signal cos (ωLO+ωc)t. The IF filter is a bandpass filter that receives the output of the mixer and selects either the up-conversion result or the down-conversion result, whichever is chosen by the receiver designer.
FIGS. 2A and 2B are graphical illustrations of heterodyne conversion operations using low-side injection and high-side injection, respectively. In these operations, we assume that downconversion is desired [i.e. ωIF=|(ωLO−ωc)|]. Now consider a case in which RF signal S10 contains not only the desired component at ωc, but also an undesired image component at a frequency ωi=2ωLO−ωc. In both examples, the image component will also downconvert to corrupt the desired IF signal at ωIF. These figures illustrate a major weakness of the basic heterodyne design: its susceptibility to image interference. In order to prevent such a situation, heterodyne designs usually include an image reject filter upstream of the mixer (e.g. as shown in FIG. 3) in order to attenuate any image components before mixing.
Unfortunately, the need for an image reject filter may greatly increase the size and cost of devices such as wireless communication apparatus. Depending on the design requirements of the filter, it may be physically large and very expensive. A need to implement the filter at RF frequencies rather than IF frequencies may compound the difficulty of obtaining a component that is suitable in terms of cost, size, and performance. Additionally, such a filter will typically be supplied as an off-chip component, thereby increasing fabrication costs, necessitating extra pins on the RF/IF chip, and consuming board space. Such requirements are contrary to the increasing need to reduce the size and cost of wireless communications devices, especially in the field of cellular telephony.
FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of a Hartley image reject mixer 100. Such a mixer may be used in a heterodyne conversion circuit (e.g. as shown in FIG. 5) as a smaller and less expensive alternative to an image reject filter. Unfortunately, the rejection performance of this approach is highly dependent on very close matching between the two signal paths in terms of both gain and phase. Moreover, even under careful manufacturing conditions, such an image reject mixer achieves good results only over a limited frequency band. Shortcomings such as these make the configuration of FIG. 5 unsuitable for applications that require high levels of image rejection (e.g. greater than 35–40 dB).

Quadrature generator with image reject mixer


The invention relates to methods and products for characterizing and using polysaccharides. Low molecular weight heparin products and methods of use are described. Methods for characterizing purity and activity of polysaccharide preparations including glycosaminoglycans such as heparin are also described.

Coagulation is a physiological pathway involved in maintaining normal blood hemostasis in mammals. Under conditions in which a vascular injury occurs, the coagulation pathway is stimulated to form a blood clot to prevent the loss of blood. Immediately after the vascular injury occurs, blood platelets begin to aggregate at the site of injury forming a physical plug to stop the leakage. In addition, the injured vessel undergoes vasoconstriction to reduce the blood flow to the area and fibrin begins to aggregate forming an insoluble network or clot, which covers the ruptured area. When an imbalance in the coagulation pathway shifts towards excessive coagulation, the result is the development of thrombotic tendencies, which are often manifested as heart attacks, strokes, deep vein thrombosis, and myocardial infarcts. Current therapies for treating disorders associated with imbalances in the coagulation pathway involve many risks and must be carefully controlled.
Heparin, a highly sulphated heparin-like glycosaminoglycan (HLGAG) produced by mast cells, is a widely used clinical anticoagulant, and is one of the first biopolymeric drugs and one of the few carbohydrate drugs. Heparin primarily elicits its effect through two mechanisms, both of which involve binding of antithrombin III (AT-III) to a specific pentasaccharide sequence, HNAc/s,6SGHNS,3S,6SI2SHNS,6S contained within the polymer. First, AT-III binding to the pentasaccharide induces a conformational change in the protein that mediates its inhibition of factor Xa. Second, thrombin (factor IIa) also binds to heparin at a site proximate to the pentasaccharide AT-III binding site. Formation of a ternary complex between AT-III, thrombin and heparin results in inactivation of thrombin. Unlike its anti-Xa activity that requires only the AT-III pentasaccharide-binding site, heparin's anti-IIa activity is size-dependant, requiring at least 18 saccharide units for the efficient formation of an AT-III, thrombin, and heparin ternary complex.
In addition to heparin's anticoagulant properties, its complexity and wide distribution in mammals have lead to the suggestion that it may also be involved in a wide range of additional biological activities. Heparin-like glycosaminoglycans (HLGAGs), present both at the cell surface and in the extracellular matrix, are a group of complex polysaccharides that are variable in length, consisting of a disaccharide repeat unit composed of glucosamine and an uronic acid (either iduronic or glucuronic acid). The high degree of complexity for HLGAGs arises not only from their polydispersity and the possibility of two different uronic acid components, but also from differential modification at four positions of the disaccharide unit. Three positions, viz., C2 of the uronic acid and the C3, C6 positions of the glucosamine can be O-sulfated. In addition, C2 of the glucosamine can be N-acetylated or N-sulfated. Together, these modifications could theoretically lead to 32 possible disaccharide units, making HLGAGs potentially more information dense than either DNA (4 bases) or proteins (20 amino acids). This enormity of possible structural variants allows HLGAGs to be involved in a large number of diverse biological processes, including angiogenesis (Sasisekharan, R., Moses, M. A., Nugent, M. A., Cooney, C. L. & Langer, R. (1994) Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 91, 1524-8.), embryogenesis (Binari, R. C., Staveley, B. E., Johnson, W. A., Godavarti, R., Sasisekharan, R. & Manoukian, A. S. (1997) Development 124, 2623-32; Tsuda, M., Kamimura, K., Nakato, H., Archer, M., Staatz, W., Fox, B., Humphrey, M., Olson, S., Futch, T., Kaluza, V., Siegfried, E., Stam, L. & Selleck, S. B. (1999) Nature 400, 276-80; and Lin, X., Buff, E. M., Perrimon, N. & Michelson, A. M. (1999) Development 126, 3715-23.) and the formation of β-fibrils in Alzheimer's disease (McLaurin, J., Franklin, T., Zhang, X., Deng, J. & Fraser, P. E. (1999) Eur J Biochem 266, 1101-10. And Lindahl, B., Westling, C., Gimenez-Gallego, G., Lindahl, U. & Salmivirta, M. (1999) J Biol Chem 274, 30631-5).
Although heparin is highly efficacious in a variety of clinical situations and has the potential to be used in many others, the side effects associated with heparin therapy are many and varied. Side effects such as heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) are primarily associated with the long chain of un-fractionated heparin (UFH), which provides binding domains for various proteins. This has lead to the explosion in the generation and utilisation of low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) as an efficacious alternative to UFH. Although attention has been focused on LMWH as heparin substitutes due to their more predictable pharmacological action, reduced side effects, sustained antithrombotic activity, and better bioavailability, there is at present limited ability to standardize the LMWH manufacturing process. Because the LMWH are derived from heparins and hence are polydisperse and microheterogenous, with undefined structure, they possess inherent variability, which currently prevents an efficient process for their manufacture. It would be of value both medically and scientifically to have a consistent, quality controlled, time efficient, concentration independent, and highly reproducible method for producing heparin and other glycosaminoglycans.
In an attempt to characterize the molecular, structural, and activity variations of heparin, several techniques have been investigated for the analysis of heparin preparations. Gradient polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE) and strong ion exchange HPLC (SAX) have been used for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of heparin preparations. Although the gradient PAGE method can be useful in determining molecular weight, it suffers from the lack of resolution, particularly the lack of resolution of different oligosaccharides having identical size. SAX-HPLC, which relies on detection by ultraviolet absorbance, is often insufficiently sensitive for detecting small amounts of structurally important heparin-derived oligosaccharides. The current technologies for purifying and analyzing heparins and other glycosaminoglycans are insufficient. There is a great clinical and scientific need for improved isolation and analysis methods.

Methods and products related to evaluating the quality of a polysaccharide


A thin film transistor array panel according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: a substrate; a gate line disposed on the substrate and extending in a first direction; a capacitive electrode separated from the gate line and elongated in a second direction, a data line intersecting the gate line; a thin film transistor connected to the gate line and the data line and including a drain electrode; a coupling electrode overlapping the capacitive electrode and connected to the drain electrode; and a pixel electrode including at least one first subpixel electrode connected to the drain electrode and a second subpixel electrode connected to the capacitive electrode and spaced apart from the at least first subpixel electrode by a gap that overlaps the capacitive electrode or the coupling electrode.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thin film transistor array panel and a liquid crystal display including the panel.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (LCD) is one of the most widely used flat panel displays. An LCD includes two panels provided with field-generating electrodes such as pixel electrodes and a common electrode and a liquid crystal (LC) layer interposed therebetween. The LCD displays images by applying voltages to the field-generating electrodes to generate an electric field in the LC layer, which determines orientations of LC molecules in the LC layer to adjust polarization of incident light.
Among the LCDs, a vertical alignment (VA) mode LCD, which aligns LC molecules such that the long axes of the LC molecules are perpendicular to the panels in the absence of electric field, is popular because of its high contrast ratio and wide reference viewing angle.
The wide viewing angle of the VA mode LCD can be realized by cutouts in the field-generating electrodes and protrusions on the field-generating electrodes. Since the cutouts and the protrusions can determine the tilt directions of the LC molecules, the tilt directions can be distributed into several directions by using the cutouts and the protrusions such that the reference viewing angle is widened.
However, the VA mode LCD has poor lateral visibility as compared with front visibility.
In addition, it is required to realize a pixel structure that has a maximum aperture ratio and a good resistance against pixel defects that can be generated during the manufacturing process.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Thin film transistor array panel and liquid crystal display including the panel


A method for evaluating gate dielectrics (100) includes providing a test structure (101). The test structure includes a gate stack that includes a gate electrode on a gate dielectric on a substrate, and at least one diffusion region diffused in the substrate including a portion below the gate stack and a portion beyond the gate stack. Pre-stress off-state I-V testing (102) is performed on the test structure to obtain pre-stress I-V test data, wherein the pre-stress off-state I-V testing includes a first measurement involving the gate electrode, the substrate and the diffusion region, a second measurement involving the gate electrode and the substrate with the diffusion region floating, and a third measurement involving the gate electrode and the diffusion region with the substrate floating. The test structure is then stressed (103) including electrically stressing for a time (t). Following the stressing, post-stress I-V testing is performed (104) wherein the first, second and third measurements are repeated to obtain post-stress I-V test data. The gate dielectric is evaluated (105) from the pre-stress and post-stress I-V test data.

Thin gate dielectric reliability and integrity comprise one of the major challenges for the development and manufacturing of VLSI (very large scale integration) and ULSI (ultra large scale integration) semiconductor products. The development of reliable and high quality thin gate dielectrics requires research and time-intensive efforts to meet demands for smaller device geometries and better performance and reliability. As the thickness of the gate dielectric continues to be reduced to meet industry demands, continuous process improvements are necessary to meet yield and reliability criteria.
It is currently known to collect life stress data using a stress to measure the effects of lifetime-accelerated voltage and temperature conditions on thin gate dielectric layers. After the application of accelerated life stress conditions, the chips are tested again, and a significant increase in gate leakage from its initial value signifies degradation, such as dielectric breakdown.
A common problem with incorporating dielectrics, in particular high-k dielectrics, into integrated circuit devices is the presence of dielectric interface traps. Dielectric Interface traps are electrically active defects located at the dielectric interface with the semiconductor and gate electrode materials, that are capable of trapping and de-trapping charge carriers. For example, ultraviolet light may induce an increased density of electronic states or traps at semiconductor-insulator interfaces, or—in general—at all interfaces of two facing materials that possess different electronic properties. This locally enhanced density of states may cause generation/recombination currents via a combination of tunneling and field emission. Since integrated electronic entities become more and more sensitive upon miniaturization as far as signal accuracy is concerned, such effects are very undesirable. Above all, an uncontrolled increase of the density of interface traps may interfere with capacitors and transistors causing the destruction of memory content or severely limiting the reliable operation of the electronic entities of a memory device. In particular, the so-called data retention time of an electronic memory device may be drastically reduced, the retention time being defined as the time span a memory cell may reliably store a respective logical state.
A conventional approach for obtaining some limited dielectric interface trap data is the Capacitance-Voltage (CV) method. Unfortunately, the C-V method only senses interface traps at the dielectric/semiconductor interface. Moreover, the C-V method is difficult to apply to thin dielectric films (e.g. <4 nm equivalent oxide thickness (EOT)) particularly when high gate dielectric leakage is present. Another known approach is referred to as the Charge-Pumping (CP) method. Like the C-V method, the CP method is difficult to apply to thin dielectric films when high gate leakage is present.
Although the above described methods can generally be used to resolve interface traps at the dielectric/semiconductor interface when the gate leakage is relatively low, these methods are not capable of resolving traps at the gate electrode/dielectric interface. Without the ability to resolve the interface traps at the dielectric/semiconductor interface traps, gate dielectrics cannot be fully characterized, and as process development activities related to enhancing the reliability of dielectrics including gate dielectrics may be retarded. Accordingly, there is a need to provide a new approach to the measurement of interface traps for thin gate dielectrics that permits resolving the build up of interface traps at the gate dielectric/semiconductor interface from the build up of traps at the gate electrode/gate dielectric interface.

Current-voltage-based method for evaluating thin dielectrics based on interface traps