The present invention relates to a composite material and the method of making same, which comprises a CVD diamond coating applied to a composite substrate of ceramic material and an unreacted carbide-forming material of various configurations and for a variety of applications. One example of the composite material is a composite of SiC and free silicon metal known as Reaction-Bonded Silicon Carbide. Several examples of applications of the invention include: 1) heads or disks for conditioning polishing pads, including pads used in Chemical-Mechanical-Planarization, 2) cutting and dressing tool inserts and tips, 3) heat spreaders for electronic devices, and 4) wear components including mechanical seals and pump seals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a material product comprising a layer of CVD diamond coating applied to a composite substrate of ceramic material and a carbide-forming material of various configurations and for a variety of applications, and methods for manufacturing these products. The products of the invention have utility in a wide variety of applications, which include: heads or disks for the conditioning of polishing pads, including pads used in Chemical-Mechanical-Planarization (CMP), cutting and dressing tool inserts and tips, wear components, such as mechanical seals and pump seals, and heat spreaders for electronic devices.
2. Description of Related Art
CMP is an important process in the fabrication of integrated circuits, disk drive heads, nano-fabricated components, and the like. For example, in patterning semiconductor wafers, advanced small dimension patterning techniques require an absolutely flat surface. After the wafer has been sawn from a crystal ingot, and irregularities and saw damage removed by rough polishing, CMP is used as a final polishing step to remove high points on the wafer surface and provide an absolutely flat surface. During the CMP process, the wafer will be mounted in a rotating holder or chuck, and lowered onto a pad surface rotating in the opposite direction. When a slurry abrasive process is used, the pad is generally a cast and sliced polyurethane material, or a urethane coated felt. A slurry of abrasive particles suspended in a mild etchant is placed on the polishing pad. The process removes material from high points, both by mechanical abrasion and by chemical conversion of material to, e.g., an oxide, which is then removed by mechanical abrasion. The result is an extremely flat surface.
In addition, CMP can be used later in the processing of semiconductor wafers, when deposition of additional layers has resulted in an uneven surface. CMP is desirable in that it provides global planarization across the entire wafer, is applicable to all materials on the wafer surface, can be used with multimaterial surfaces, and avoids use of hazardous gases. As an example, CMP can be used to remove metal overfill in damascene inlay processes.
CMP represents a major portion of the production cost for semiconductor wafers. These CMP costs include those associated with polishing pads, polishing slurries, pad conditioning disks and a variety of CMP parts that become worn during the planarizing and polishing operations. The total cost for the polishing pad, the downtime to replace the pad and the cost of the test wafers to recalibrate the pad for a single wafer polishing run can be quite high. In many complex integrated circuit devices, up to five CMP runs are required for each finished wafer, which further increase the total manufacturing costs for such wafers.
With polishing pads designed for use with abrasive slurries, the greatest amount of wear on the polishing pads is the result of polishing pad conditioning that is necessary to place the pad into a suitable condition for these wafer planarization and polishing operations. A typical polishing pad comprises closed-cell polyurethane foam approximately 1/16 inch thick. During pad conditioning, the pads are subjected to mechanical abrasion to physically cut through the cellular layers of the surface of the pad. The exposed surface of the pad contains open cells, which trap abrasive slurry consisting of the spent polishing slurry and material removed from the wafer. In each subsequent pad-conditioning step, the ideal conditioning head removes only the outer layer of cells containing the embedded materials without removing any of the layers below the outer layer. Such an ideal conditioning head would achieve a 100% removal rate with the lowest possible removal of layers on the polishing pad, i.e., lowest possible pad wear rate. It is apparent that a 100% removal rate can be achieved if there were no concern for its adverse affect on wear of the pad.
However, such over-texturing of the pad results in a shortening of the pad life. On the other hand, under-texturing results in insufficient material removal rate during the CMP step and lack of wafer uniformity. Using the conventional conditioning heads that achieve satisfactory removal rates, numbers of wafer polishing runs as few as 200 to 300 and as many as several thousand (depending on the specific run conditions) can be made before the pad becomes ineffective and must be replaced. Replacement typically occurs after the pad is reduced approximately to half of its original thickness.
As a result, there is a great need for a conditioning head that achieves close to an ideal balance between high wafer removal rates and low pad wear rate so that the effective life of the polishing pad can be significantly increased without sacrificing the quality of the conditioning.
One alternative to the urethane polishing pads described above is a woven or non-woven fiber CMP pad, which may incorporate polyurethane. Like the polyurethane pads, the woven pads are designed for use with an abrasive slurry, but provide an alternative to polyurethane CMP pads that gives finer polishing. While the weave of these pads is quite dense, there is opportunity for slurry particles to become trapped within the weave. These particles must be removed from the weave during conditioning. Efficiency of removal of used slurry components must be balanced against damage to the fibers of the weave caused by contact with the conditioning head surface, which can cause excessive breakage of the fibers.
An alternative to CMP polishing pads designed for use with an abrasive slurry, known as a "fixed abrasive" polishing pad, has been developed in order to avoid the disadvantages associated with using a separate slurry composition. One example of such a polishing pad is the 3M Slurry-Free CMP Pad #M3100. This pad contains a polymer base upon which have been deposited 0.2-micron cerium oxide abrasive in approximately 40 micron tall×200 micron diameter pedestals. These pads also require conditioning, because the CMP polishing rate obtained when using the pads is highly sensitive to the surface properties of the abrasive. Initial "breaking in" periods for these polishing pads, during which consistent quality polishing is difficult to obtain, tend to be long, and the resulting loss of wafers is an added expense. Proper conditioning of these pads can reduce or eliminate this break-in period, and reduce or avoid the loss of production wafers.
Typical diamond-containing conditioning heads have a metal substrate, e.g., a stainless steel plate, with a non-uniform distribution of diamond grit over the surface of the plate and a wet chemical plated over-coat of nickel to cover the plate and the grit. The use of such conventional conditioning heads is limited to the conditioning of polishing pads that have been used during oxide CMP wafer processing, i.e. when the exposed outer layer of the polishing pad is an oxide-containing material as opposed to metal. In processing a semiconductor wafer, there are about the same number of oxide and metal CMP processing steps. However, the conditioning heads described above are ineffective for conditioning polishing pads used in metal CMP processing, because the slurry used to remove metal from the wafer can react with the nickel and degrade and otherwise dissolve the nickel outer layer of the conditioning head. Dissolution of the nickel overcoat can result in a major loss of the diamond grit from the plate, potentially scratching the wafers.
In addition, these typical conditioning heads use relatively large sized diamond grit particles. Similar large particles are disclosed in Zimmer et. al. (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,921,856 and 6,054,183, the entire contents of each of which are incorporated herein by reference). Instead of using a nickel overcoat, Zimmer et al. bond the diamond grit to the substrate with a chemical vapor deposited polycrystalline diamond film ("CVD diamond"). The diamond grit, commercially available from the cutting of natural diamonds and front industrial grade diamonds using high-pressure processes, is incorporated into the structure of the thin CVD diamond film. The size of the grit is chosen so that the peak-to-valley surface distance is grater than the thickness of the CVD diamond film. The diamond grit is uniformly distributed over the surface of the substrate at a density such that the individual grains are separated by no less than ½ the average grain diameter. The average size of the diamond grit is in the range of about 15 microns to about 150 microns, preferably in the range of about 35 microns to about 70 microns. By controlling the size and surface density of the diamond grit, the abrasive characteristics of the resulting surface can be adjusted for various conditioning applications. The grain sizes on a given disk will be relatively consistent in size, to approximately ±20%.
Roughness of a surface can be measured in a number of different ways, including peak-to-valley roughness, average roughness, and RMS roughness. Peak-to-valley roughness (Rt) is a measure of the difference in height between the highest point and lowest point of a surface. Average roughness (Ra) is a measure of the relative degree of coarse, ragged, pointed, or bristle-like projections on a surface, and is defined as the average of the absolute values of the differences between the peaks and their mean line. RMS roughness (Rq) is a root mean square average of the distances between the peaks and valleys. "Rp" is the height of the highest peak above the centerline in the Sample length. "Rpm" is the mean of all of the Rp values over all of the sample lengths. Rpm is the most meaningful measure of roughness for gritless CMP pads, since it provides an average of the peaks that are doing the bulk of the work during conditioning. However, a new generation CMP pads, including fixed abrasive pads and many woven pads, cannot be conditioned by conventional conditioners because conditioning heads having grit particles larger than 15 microns are too rough; the large grit particles tend to damage the pad.
An alternative to using diamond grit is disclosed in U.S. Ser. No. 10/091,105, filed Mar. 4, 2002, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. The application describes the use of CVD diamond coating on a polished silicon substrate, without the use of diamond grit, to create the abrasive surface and to control the conditioning rate. The surface roughness resulting from simply growing CVD diamond on a silicon substrate ranges from about 6 to 12 microns from peak-to-valley on a substrate having a thickness of 25 microns of CVD diamond. In general, the surface roughness for a typical operation ranges from about ¼ to about ½ the thickness of the CVD diamond that is grown on the substrate. This degree of surface roughness can provide the desired abrasive efficiency for CMP conditioning operations for fixed abrasive CMP pads. However, difficulties with this approach are the lack of independent control of the particle size and density of working diamond grains, and the resulting bow of the diamond-coated silicon substrate product.
While silicon has been used successfully as a substrate for CVD diamond in preparation of some CMP pad conditioners, in accordance with the invention of this application, it has been found that a silicon substrate does not provide sufficient rigidity to support diamond coatings of sufficient thickness to provide optimal CMP conditioning in some applications with sensitive pad materials. Because of both internal growth stress in CVD diamond materials, and the mismatch in thermal coefficients of expansion between diamond and silicon, a CVD diamond-coated silicon substrate conditioning head will bow or bend, even when supported by a metal backing plate, resulting in a conditioner that is not completely flat. A bowed conditioning head does not provide as consistent conditioning as a flat conditioning head, and is thus less desirable.
In addition to CMP pad conditioners, CVD diamond materials and coatings are also used in applications such as cutting tools, wear components and heat spreaders. In each of these applications, the selection of the substrate on to which the diamond is deposited is governed by a number of considerations, including not only the mechanical, thermal, chemical, and/or electrical properties necessary for that particular application, but also by the ability of the CVD diamond to adhere to the substrate. The deposition of polycrystalline CVD diamond onto a number of different substrates has been reported. These substrates can include metals, such as tungsten, molybdenum, tantalum, silicon, copper, aluminum, or non-metals, such as carbon, silica glass, alumina, silicon carbide, tungsten carbide, titanium carbide, silicon nitride, and boron nitride.
The most commonly used material for cutting tools is "high speed" steel. However, this material is not well suited as a substrate for growing CVD diamond because the deposition process reduces the hardness and strength of the steel. Cemented tungsten carbide is also used frequently in making cutting tools, but CVD diamond does not adhere well to this material without either etching of the surface to remove cobalt, or application of an intermediate layer of material to increase adhesion. Likewise, silicon nitride, another material used in the cutting tool industry, does not provide the high adhesion necessary for CVD diamond coatings for viable commercial application. Use of molybdenum as a substrate results in a high CVD diamond nucleation density, but again the adhesion of CVD diamond to this substrate is poor. CVD diamond does adhere well to silicon substrates, but silicon is too fragile and has a fracture toughness that is too low, to make it suitable as a substrate for cutting tools, wear parts or other mechanical applications.
The use of CVD diamond as a heat spreader for high power density electronic components such as laser diodes, LED's, RF components, and other passive electronic components such as resistors allows reduced junction temperature and increased mean time between failures, or much higher power densities to be achieved with these components. In many applications, however, the use of freestanding CVD diamond substrates is inhibited either by the size of the die, the thickness of the die needed for retrofit into existing packages, and/or the cost of the diamond material for the given application. Whether the cost-to-benefit ratio justifies a freestanding CVD diamond heat spreader depends at least in part on the power densities generated by a particular device. Thus, there still exists a need for a low-cost heat spreader incorporating CVD diamond as an alternative to freestanding CVD diamond heat spreaders.
CVD diamond coatings have been proposed previously as a method of improving wear resistance of a variety of materials, including silicon carbide. The high shear forces and temperatures that are generated in, for example, a dry-running pump seal application, generally result in adhesion failure of CVD diamond coatings on typical pump seal materials, such as sintered silicon carbide. There is still an unmet need for a process to manufacture CVD diamond-coated pump seals that can withstand dry running conditions.
In summary, there remains a need in the art for polishing pad conditioning materials that do not damage CMP pads, and that provide improved surface roughness characteristics, and that do not suffer from bowing. In addition, there remains a need for a substrate material that provides desirable dimensional stability, thermal characteristics, chemical and abrasion resistance, and adhesion to CVD diamond, suitable for use in preparing polishing pad conditioners, cutting tools, wear parts such as pump seals, and heat spreading substrates for electronics.

CVD diamond-coated composite substrate containing a carbide-forming material and ceramic phases and method for making same


The present disclosure provides for individuals who may otherwise have trouble lifting themselves from the floor after a fall. Using the teachings of the present disclosure, such individuals may autonomously regain their footing, without the necessity of calling paramedics or others for help. An individual may crawl onto the seat of the device and then, using either a handcrank or an electric motor, lift himself to a sitting/standing position.

It is a known problem that elderly, infirm, injured, handicapped, disabled, seizure-prone, or otherwise mobility-impaired individuals may in some circumstances find themselves on the floor and unable to regain their footing.
This problem requires a technical solution for various reasons. An unassisted individual might or might not be able to pull himself up using furniture or fixtures in the home. A family member or friend might or might not be able to assist, if such a person is even available. Paramedics may be called, if a phone is accessible; but only at great expense and with significant delay.
One known apparatus for lifting a person from the ground comprises a chair seat attached to single vertical shaft as part of a metal frame resting on a pair of small wheels. The chair seat is lifted by a worm gear connected to either a handcrank or a motor at the top of the shaft. Various problems with this design are evident. For example, if the handcrank is to be used, the person sitting in the chair seat will not be able to actuate it on his own. It will require another person already standing. The way the chair seat attaches to only a single vertical shaft also increases the torque exerted on the drive train by the weight of the user. This may increase wear and make it more difficult to turn the handcrank. The chair seat of this apparatus also does not lower all the way to the floor, which makes it more difficult for the user to sit down. The wheeled design of this apparatus allows it to move with relative ease over a hard floor, but the bulky nature may make it difficult for a person of advanced age or other disability to move the device, particularly on carpet.
Another known device is essentially a standard wheelchair with two large rear wheels and two small front wheels, wherein the seat is able to move vertically under the power of a rechargeable battery. One problem with this device is its large size and weight, which may make it cumbersome to move and lift for a person of advanced age or other disability. Another problem is that its seat may not be able to lower all the way to become flush with the floor, increasing the difficulty of mounting the device. Yet another problem is that by relying solely on a rechargeable battery, this device may be inoperable at the time it is most needed. Yet another problem is that this device may not be able to lift its user high enough for an easy transition from a sitting position to a standing position. Yet another problem is that, being on wheels, the device may be prone to movement when a user is trying to climb onto the seat.
These and other problems are present in known prior art designs having to do with the subject matter of the present disclosure.


The invention relates to a capacitive micromechanical sensor structure comprising a stator structure rigidly anchored to a substrate and a rotor structure movably anchored by means of spring structures to the substrate. The stator structure has a plurality of stator finger support beams and the rotor structure has a plurality of rotor finger support beams. Stator fingers along the stator finger support beam of the stator structure extend into rotor gaps along the rotor finger support beam of the rotor structure, and rotor fingers along the rotor finger support beam of the rotor structure extend into stator gaps along the stator finger support beam of the stator structure.

Field
The invention relates to a capacitive micromechanical sensor structure. The invention relates also to a micromechanical accelerometer comprising two capacitive micromechanical sensor structures.
Description of the Related Art
In-plane acceleration detection in MEMS accelerometer is usually done with closing gap combs (parallel plate capacitor) or with linear combs (longitudinal capacitor).
In closing gap combs the capacitance behavior of the comb fingers can be approximately modeled by a parallel plate capacitor with varying finger gap and constant area according to equation (1)
                    C        =                  ∈                                    A                              d                -                x                                      +                          C              f                                                          (        1        )            where C is capacitance, ε is permittivity, A finger area, d finger gap, x finger displacement and Cf static stray capacitance. Comb fingers move in measurement mode closer to each other eventually causing the gap between the fingers to close.
In linear combs comb fingers move parallel to each other and capacitance behavior can be modeled by a parallel plate capacitor with varying area and constant finger gap according to equation (2)
                    C        =                  ∈                                                    h                                                  (                                      l                    +                    x                                    )                                            d                        +                          C              f                                                          (        2        )            where l is finger overlap length and h finger height.
Closing gap combs and linear combs have very different advantages and disadvantages. A closing gap comb can produce larger signals but a small gap between fingers makes the signal very nonlinear and it is hard to make an accelerometer that fulfills modern accelerometer requirements with finger side gaps under 2 micrometers. Also a process has to be able to manufacture a stopper gap with significantly smaller gap size than the measurement gap. Small finger side gaps cause reliability issues as electrical forces and mechanical sticking forces become close to returning spring forces. A linear comb, on the other hand, has smaller sensitivity with the same displacement, but the signal is linear. Linear combs also do not have pull-in effect in measurement direction and therefore sticking issues can be minimized.

Capacitive micromechanical sensor structure and micromechanical accelerometer


An edge locator processor having memory and which employs a generalized biased centroid edge locator process to determining the leading edge of an object in a scene moving in a generally horizontal direction across a video screen. The generalized biased centroid edge locator process includes defining a gate and determining the centroid position for that portion of the object within the gate. This occurs for a succession of gates, until predetermined conditions are met. By constructing this series of successively expanding gates, a left gate edge position and centroid position may be determined for each gate to define a series of left edge and centroid positions. These values may be linearly correlated to provide a slope and an intercept, from which the edge may be determined.

The present invention broadly relates to video trackers for tactical system applications, and more particularly, relates to a tracker which quickly resolves the position of the leading edge or trailing of an object using only a single video frame of data.
Centroid and correlation type video tracking processors are well known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,133,044 issued Jan. 2, 1979 to Fitts, assigned to the Assignee of the present invention, and incorporated by reference herein, discloses a video correlation tracker which employs a recursive reference to calculate tracking error computations. The correlation tracker disclosed in the Fitts patent includes a circuit for generating a reference map in pixel format. Reference map pixel information derived from previous video frames is stored in a recursive memory to allow the calculation of azimuth and elevation optimal weighing values for each pixel in the field of view. The difference between the intensity value for each video pixel being received during the current frame and the intensity value of the corresponding reference map pixel is multiplied by an appropriate weighing function. Each resultant product is then combined in an accumulator to form azimuth and elevation correlation over the designated track gate area which can be as large as the entire field of view (FOV), less a one pixel border. The weighing factors for each pixel are also combined and accumulatively added over the entire image plane to form three adaptive scale factors at the end of each frame which are combined with the azimuth and elevation correction error signals to eliminate cross coupling and generate cross-coupling-free correlation error signals. The correlator tracks relative to a reference, but does not explicitly locate an edge feature.
In one particular, earlier application of a tracking system which was required to locate the leading edge or nose of a target drone for a point reference, the tracking system included several Fitts correlations and centroid tracking gates, but did not include edge trackers or image processing capabilities. The mode control required that the operator manually place a track gate cursor on the nose of the target drone and transition into partial body track on the nose using the Fitts correlation and centroid track gates. During this time, the target drone was held in track using full body correlation track in another gate. While this system functioned quite well during ground tests, using this system in airborne tests proved difficult for the operator.
This difficulty resulted in the development of a biased centroid processor. The biased centroid processor uses a tall, narrow (with respect to the image frame) centroid gate having a predetermined bias which was added to the centroid output in the direction of flight projected onto the field of view (FOV). For example, if G represents the gate width, the azimuth bias for conical nose is approximately G/3. The biased centroid processor requires a pitch correction so that the drone progresses horizontally across the field of view.
In the biased centroid processor, by placing the gate anywhere on the target body, the gate races in the direction of the bias until it reaches the edge of the target. When the edge of the target is reached, the gate stops with the target edge approximately centered in the gate and holds this position.
While the biased centroid processor provides satisfactory operation, the error function for this process is non-linear, resulting at times in less than optimum operation of the processor. For example, if the gate is placed so that the edge of the target falls outside the gate, the output, which is the position of the bias added to the position of the centroid, equals the bias. Further, if the gate falls off of the edge of the target, the gate continues to move in that direction and provides no output. Further yet if the bias is too small, a metastable equilibrium state results in which the gate moves in response to noise, but does not locate the edge. Even in the ideal situation where the edge falls within the gate, the output (the bias added to the centroid) equals one half the distance of the centroid plus the bias. That is, the output equals the error with a gain of one-half for a rectangular target. If bias is too large, the gate will not stop at the edge, and the track will be lost. However, a gain of one-half requires more than one frame of data to locate the edge.
Additional particular disadvantages exist using the biased centroid. First, the biased centroid processor requires that the operator select the correct bias in accordance with the predicted shape of the object to be tracked. If the wrong bias is selected, the biased centroid processor may not provide an edge at the center of the gate. Second, the biased centroid processor provides only the location of the edge of the gate at equilibrium, rather than an absolute edge position within the field of view. Finally, in the biased centroid processor, the gates are moved for every frame. Thus, the biased processor requires several frames in order to yield an estimate of the absolute edge position of an object which may not be sufficient in order to meet certain processing requirements.
Though the biased centroid algorithm does suffer from some minor disadvantages, the algorithm has several desirable features as well. First, the processor allows for partial body tracking (correlation algorithms also allow for partial body tracking, but do not give edge locations explicitly). Further, the biased centroid processor is less sensitive to noise than other edge detection processors because the biased centroid processor uses more pixels in determining the position of the centroid than other edge detection processors. These advantages provide good reasons for further improving the biased centroid approach to edge detection.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a generalized biased edge detection processor which can do partial body tracking and provide the absolute biased centroid position within one image frame, thereby minimizing the processing time.

Generalized biased centroid edge locator


Compositions and designs are described for a sectional porous carrier used in processing microelectronics where thin device substrates are affixed by adhesive to the carrier and form an impervious bonded stack that is resistant to thermal and chemical products during processing and is easily handled by a substrate handling vacuum robot, and subsequently allows rapid removal (debonding) in batch operations by directional penetration into sectional porous regions by selective liquids which release the carrier from the device wafer without harm. The invention carrier with porous regions is used for temporary support of thin and fragile device substrates having capabilities of selective penetration of chemical liquids to pass through the porous regions, access and breakdown the bonding adhesive, and allow it to release without damage to the device substrate. The sectional porous nature of the carrier allows passive diffusion of chemical liquids, the manner which in contrast to mechanical, thermal, or radiative methods, is considered to be a higher yield practice and one which enables batch processing in a manufacturing environment utilizing practices of high throughput and low cost. Preferred designs include the use of porous metal forms, including laminates, as well as surface treatment of the porous regions to facilitate exclusion principles and achieve an inert support mechanism during the stages of device manufacture. These benefits allow design flexibility and low-cost batch processing when choosing practices to handle thinned device substrates in the manufacture of semiconductors and other microelectronic devices.

Electronic devices face continued pressure to design and produce their configurations to a further state of miniaturization, ergonomically pleasing shapes, and a reduced weight. To achieve these goals, substrates must be thinned to 100 um (microns) and less, making them extremely fragile and difficult to handle with existing equipment. To prevent breakage, cracking, or otherwise chipping and stressing these fragile substrates, it becomes necessary to always keep them temporarily supported by an external platform, being a rigid carrier or a membrane. During microelectronic manufacturing, the thinned substrates are temporarily supported by rigid carriers, as these provide the most secure and reliable media to conduct high-resolution processes. These carrier substrates may be composed of sapphire, quartz, certain glasses, or silicon and exist in thicknesses from 0.5-1.5 mm (millimeters=500-1,500 um). The device substrate is commonly affixed to the carrier by an adhesive that offers sufficient adhesive force and quality to withstand the manufacturing process, while also allowing the thinned substrate to be removed at the completion of work without damage to its integrity.
Common tape adhesives exist which offer temporary support to the device substrate either alone or used as an interface to the carrier. These materials are commonly used for dicing operations, including high-volume photodegradative delamination practices (i.e. pick-and-place). However, tape adhesives are reserved only for the end of the process where dicing occurs. Most tape adhesives are not used in upstream microelectronic processes as their properties do not meet the needs for fabrication, including rigidity and uniformity, thermal and chemical resistance, and outgassing (weight loss). These shortcomings in adhesive tapes result in loss of adhesion, gas bubbles lodged in-between the device substrate and carrier, or produce unwanted gaseous by-products of degradation that adversely interact with the processes of vacuum deposition or etching to produce inferior results.
In the example where thinned substrates include semiconductor wafers, the device substrate is commonly removed from a carrier support, cleaned, and mounted to a film frame containing tape adhesive, allowing the dicing process to proceed. Carrier removal is conducted with robotic assisted complex tooling. Tooling is designed according to the type of adhesive chosen. At the time of this invention, there are no less than six (6) adhesive materials on the market. The majority of these adhesives require a single wafer tooling configuration whereby the tool handles one wafer at a time.
In semiconductor operations, single wafer processes that use thermoplastic adhesives may utilize thermo-mechanical demounting as taught by Thallner in U.S. Pat. No. 6,792,991 B2 (2004) and 2007/0155129 (2007). Device wafer separation is achieved by heating the mounted stack to a temperature above the melting point of the thermoplastic adhesive while simultaneously applying a shear force in a manner designed to separate the mounted surfaces. Cleaning with a selected organic solvent typically follows to ensure residual adhesive is cleaned from the substrate.
Another single-wafer tooling practice for removing carrier supports is described in U.S. Patent Application Nos. 2009/0017248 A1 (2009), Larson et al., 2009/0017323 A1 (2009), Webb et al., and in the International Application WO 2008/008931 A1 (2008), Webb et al. The adhesive described is a bilayer system composed of a photothermal conversion layer and a curable acrylate. The applications cite the use of a laser irradiation device which allows rapid demount of the external support carrier and is followed by a mechanical peeling practice of the curable acrylate from the thinned substrate.
Laser ablative carrier demounting practices are demonstrated in microelectronics manufacturing as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,036,809 (2000) Kelly, et. al, U.S. Pat. No. 7,867,876B2 (2011) and U.S. Pat. No. 7,932,614B2 (2011) Codding, et. al. Laser ablative tooling is non-trivial, in that it requires exacting focus of an optical device of a specific wavelength and to do this onto an interface between the work unit and the carrier substrate. The laser's focus does this while it or the substrate is being shifted in continual motion moving rapidly across the substrate. It is well known to those familiar with the art of coatings and planarization efforts that irregularities will exist in materials applied over the surface of the work unit. The adhesives used for these practices vary between rubber, silicone, polyimide, acrylic, and the like. The laser transmits through an optically clear carrier substrate and focuses onto the interfacial region where the adhesive meets the carrier, causing a significant and immediate rise in temperature which burns the material and destroys the adhesive interface to the carrier. The laser continues rastering to the next location in an apparent smooth fashion until the entire surface of the substrate has been exposed and thereupon the carrier release is expected. The impacts of this process is realized later when irregularities are observed as micro-cracks, fissures, and residue that is burnt onto surfaces which cannot be removed. Laser ablative processes, although a common practice for debonding delicate substrates, remains a subject of much discussion when considered for high volume manufacturing.
These and other carrier debonding (removal) practices are discussed in U.S. Patent Application No. 2009/0218560A1 (2009) Flaim, et. al, where the author consolidates the practice of wafer and carrier separation into four approaches, including: 1) chemical, 2) photodecomposition (laser ablation), 3) thermomechanical, and 4) thermal decomposition. Although the author mentions drawbacks in each mechanism, they refrain from classifying them as single-wafer or batch processing according to their respective tooling configuration. Of these four processes, only chemical penetration is considered as a batch mechanism. In such processes, wafers may be populated into a cassette or holder and immersed into a chemical liquid for a designated time to allow penetration into the adhesive, emulsification, and removal to allow carrier debonding. Chemical diffusion-based debonding may require several hours to complete. At the time of this document writing, common throughput for single wafer processes are scheduled for 20-25 wafers per hour (wph). In the case of a conventional chemical debond where perforated (drilled holes) carriers are used, cassettes of between 12-25 wafers are used where debonding may last up to four (4) hours. For a bath size of >100 liters as common for most fabrication facilities in Asia, this volume can accommodate up to 4 cassettes at a time, providing throughputs between 12-25 wph, exceeding that for single wafer processes (i.e. 12-25 wafers per cassette×4 cassettes=48-100 wafers/4 hrs=12-25 wph). Without being bound to variations of the art of batch processing, this option is needed in fabrication to offer lower cost options for debonding carrier substrates. Therefore, it is a desire to consider options that enable batch wafer processing as a viable and cost effective practice for thin substrate debonding from carriers.
Other semiconductor batch debonding processes are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,076,585 (2000) Klingbeil, et. al, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,491,083 B2 (2002) De, et. al, where a fixture holding thinned gallium arsenide (GaAs) wafers are removed from sapphire carriers using an immersion chemical practice. In both of these inventions, the fixture is designed to operate with the wafers held horizontally. The fixture has steps machined within it and requires a perforated carrier substrate that is slightly larger in diameter than the device wafer, such that during the debonding operation, the separation of the two substrates occurs by one item landing upon the fixture step while the wafer separates and falls to a lower level of support. Carrier substrates that are machined to be larger in diameter than the work unit and which have perforations (drilled holes) can be costly. For example, enlarged perforated sapphire substrates are a common choice for GaAs work unit wafers, however, these can cost $1,000 or more per unit. In the case of silicon substrates of diameters at 12″ or the projected 18″ (at the time of this writing, plans are projected), carrier wafers are chosen to be dummy type (i.e. same size, shape, and composition of the work unit without the electronic purity). Oversized perforated carriers are cost prohibitive for large diameter silicon as the cost of machining holes (perforations) can fall between factors of 10-100× the cost of conventional dummy sized wafers. It is a desire to avoid the use of oversized perforated carriers as a means to minimize process costs.
Semiconductor batch demounting processes are also described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,601,592 B1 (2003) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,752,160 (2004) Zhengming Chen, where two fixture cassettes work in conjunction with each other in a manner that allows separation of the device wafer from carrier substrates. The inventions describe the batch process separation between device wafer and carrier as conducted such that the top fixture cassette is populated with the mounted wafers whereby during liquid immersion, the chemistry penetrates the adhesive contact to release the two substrates. The top fixture cassette is constructed in a manner to allow only the device wafer pass downwards to the lower fixture cassette during gravity assisted separation, retaining the carrier substrate. The inventions require the sized of the carrier substrate and device wafer to be different, either the device wafer to exhibit a flat edge (i.e. wafer flat) or the carrier substrate to be oversized as compared to the device wafer. In either case, when the process commences and the fixture cassettes are arranged vertically, the oversize carrier is held back within the above fixture cassette while the device wafer travels from the top to the bottom cassette. Device wafers with a flat location were at one-time popular for reasons of reference location when handling and transferring from one process to another. The wafer flat is less desirable as it eliminates valuable device manufacturing realty on the wafer and reduces the number of devices built upon a substrate. Conversely, oversized carrier wafers are cost prohibitive as described earlier in this document. Further and most important, these inventions describe fixture design that requires the device wafer to be separated and released from the carrier substrate and move freely from one fixture cassette to another during liquid chemical immersion processing. It is commonly understood in the practice of thin wafer handling, that at anytime during this work, the device wafer should always be supported and never left to move freely. Consistent device wafer support would minimize irregular bending, vibration, and edge contact that would generate cracks, chipping, and other flaws within a thin wafer. It is a desire to avoid fixtures that require device wafer flat designs or oversized carriers and to avoid fixtures that promote a batch processing practice which allows the device wafer to move freely and subject itself to cracks, flaws, or other signs of breakage.
A unique semiconductor carrier formation and process for separation from the device wafer is described in the International Publication No. WO 210/107851 A2 (International Application No. PCT/US210/027560), Moore, et al, where a carrier substrate is manufactured (formed) directly onto the device wafer in a manner sufficient to support grinding and backside processing and when complete, the materials used to form the carrier are designed to break down in a liquid chemistry cleaning process. Carrier digestion during a cleans process requires a special fixture to support the device wafer without damage and the simultaneous multiple processing of such items during a batch operation. Once the carrier is digested and removed, the device wafer is anticipated to exhibit some level of mobility within the special fixture. The movement of a thin fragile substrate within a mechanical fixture is anticipated to produce cracks, fissures, and other irregularities due to vibration and movement of the liquid. It is a desire to promote a batch process which mandates support of the device wafer during carrier debonding.
The use of porous carriers in processing a work piece is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,708,854 B2 (2010) Kroninger et al., where the author discusses the affixing (bonding) the carrier to the work piece and grinding or polishing to desired level followed by chemical diffusion through the porous carrier with chemicals to effect release and separation of the work piece. The claims describe the practice yet suffers from several fundamental aspects that are important for mainstream microelectronics processing. The first aspect is the claim by the author to apply liquid adhesive to the carrier. While the lay reader may not find this to be of critical concern, it should be understood that the majority of microelectronic processing where thin handling is required by a carrier support, the adhesive is always applied to the device substrate. Applying liquid adhesive to the device substrate allows coverage and curing over topography. The protection of the topography by planarizing or flattening this zone will reduce the occurrence of bubbles or voids in and around the topography. Second, the use of vacuum assisted adhesive coating and penetration will result in reduced performance during debond and become a source of contamination. Adhesive is applied as a liquid to the porous carrier and begins to penetrate and fill the pores. Vacuum is applied which pulls the adhesive further into the pores deep inside the carrier. This practice effectively forms a solid composite structure comprising the adhesive and porous carrier. This solid structure discourages effect of chemical fluids on the adhesive and stops the passage of fluid through the porous carrier. Chemical action on the adhesive within the porous carrier actually dissolves slower as compared to a pure solid of adhesive (bulk form of same dimensions). This is due to the fundamental model of plastics and polymers when in exposed to solvent liquids. According to the model, there is a series of steps in dissolving adhesive/polymer/plastic. The steps include: exposure, absorption, swelling, saturation, break-up and passage to bulk fluid, and finally, further reduction in the bulk fluid. Adhesive that is present in the porous carrier begins to absorb solvent, it swells, increase its volume, however, the porous structure limits continued volume expansion. Therefore, the adhesive present in the porous carrier is slow to reach saturation and in turn will even be slower to break-up and enter the bulk solvent. Adhesive present in the pores of the carrier will remain much longer as compared to a pure form bulk adhesive specimen. Third, the author describes the porous carrier to be open (porous, permeable) after bonding (i.e. bonded to work piece). The bottom of the porous carrier is open, not sealed. This condition is not satisfactory for microelectronic processing. Open or porous carriers require excessive pump-down times during vacuum assisted plasma processes. Further, open or porous substrates allow chemical intrusion and become impossible to effectively clean prior to the next process step. In this condition, the porous carrier becomes a serious source of contamination in the fabrication area causing yield reduction and high scrap rates. There is a need for a porous carrier whereby adhesive is not applied directly to its structure, is not vacuum assisted to force adhesive into its pores, and is completely closed (impervious to chemicals) such that the bonded stack will support microelectronic fabrication (backside processing).
There exist compelling arguments to encourage batch process designs with specially designed porous carriers that avoid the high cost of perforated carriers, discourage costly and complex fixtures, control protection and safety to device substrates, and ensures continual support of the device substrate throughout the process. For these reasons and others not mentioned, it is a desire to create a carrier that supports a device substrate during fabrication high volume manufacturing using vacuum assisted handling tools and is able to be exposed to thermal and chemicals and that also debonds rapidly without harm to the device substrate and supports multiple unit operations in a batch process for high throughput and low-cost benefits.

Sectional porous carrier forming a temporary impervious support


Iron carbohydrate complex for treatment of fetal metal deficiency Disclosed herein is a pharmaceutical composition comprising an iron carbohydrate complex for use in a method for treatment or prevention of an iron deficiency of a fetus or an infant, wherein the iron carbohydrate complex is administered to the mother of the fetus or infant.

Maternal iron deficiency in the fertile age is a great challenge worldwide; for instance, in the developing countries an estimated 52% of pregnant females are anemic. In industrialised countries the prevalence of iron deficiency in e.g. female teenagers in the UK is 21%. It is therefore crucial to develop delivery strategies for pharmaceutical iron products to ensure sufficient levels of iron in the brain of the fetus.
Recent research has shown that many developing central nervous system (CNS) processes are highly dependent on iron-containing enzymes and proteins in essential functions like neurotransmitter synthesis and formation of myelin. The absence of sufficient supply of iron thus may result in an insufficient development of the brain. In the embryo, iron is furthermore thought to be essential for division of neurons and hence normal development of the CNS.
During pregnancy the demand for iron in both the mother and fetus increases, and iron deficiency anemia is most common late in pregnancy. In a study from USA, the frequency of iron deficiency anemia in the first, second and third trimesters were found to be 2%, 8% and 27%, respectively (Scholl et al., Am J Clin Nutr May 2005, vol. 81 no. 5, 1218S-1222S).
Betsy Lozoff describes in a background paper (Food and Nutrition Bulletin, vol. 28, n. 4, 2007, S560-S571) the effect of iron deficiency anemia on the developing brain. Studies on rodent models show that early iron deficiency directly affects oligodendrocytes, which form myelin, the fatty acid sheath around axons that helps speed neural transmission. Early iron deficiency also alters brain cell metabolism and morphology. Behavioral alterations in iron-deficient rats are consistent with the CNS effects. It was not possible by iron repletion beginning at weaning to reverse changes in the brain in gestation/lactation rodent models, which points to the importance of earlier intervention for iron deficiency.
Chronic iron deficiency in infancy has a long-term effect on the adulthood function, as disclosed in Betsy Lozoff, et al. The journal of Pediatrics, 2013. At 25 years 33 subjects with chronic iron deficiency in infancy were compared to 89 who were iron-sufficient before and after iron therapy. The results show that a high proportion of the group with chronic iron deficiency did not complete secondary school, were not pursuing further education or training, and were single. They reported poorer emotional health and more negative emotions and feelings of dissociation/detachment.
In a subsequent study Betsy Lozoff et al. The Journal of Nutrition 144:838-845, 2014, reports that iron supplementation in infancy contributes to more adaptive behavior at 10 years of age. Infants free of iron deficient anemia at age of 6 months were randomly assigned to iron supplementation or no added iron from age 6 to 12 months. At age 10 years, the group that received iron supplementation was more cooperative, confident, persistent after failure, coordinated, and direct and reality-oriented in speech, and working harder after praise compared with the no-added-iron group.
Iron deficiency also has an effect on the metabolism of other metals, i.e. zinc and copper (Bastian et al., Journal of Endocrinology, vol. 151, issue 8; Monnot et al., Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, Volume 256, Issue 3, 1 Nov. 2011, Pages 249-257; Oladiji 2003, Biokemistri 14 (1): 75-81). Dysfunctional zinc-signaling is associated with serious conditions such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer's disease (Myers et al., Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism Volume 2012 (2012), Article ID 173712, 13 pages). Furthermore, zinc functions as a co-factor for an estimated 3000 human proteins. Copper is also a co-factor for many proteins, among others, dopamine beta monooxygenase and superoxide dismutase—which are essential for the normal function of the CNS. Hence, any interruption in the metabolism of these metals is very serious.
While the importance of receiving iron for the embryo, fetus and the infant is established knowledge fetuses and infants still suffer from the iron deficiency anemia. Part of the problem is that orally administered iron has a low intestinal uptake; only 30-40% iron uptake was observed for 7 tested products in vitro in intestinal Caco-2 cells (Zariwala et al., International Journal of Pharmaceutics, Vol. 456, Issue 2, 18 November 2013, Pages 400-407). When iron reaches the circulation of the pregnant female, it must cross the blood-placenta barrier to reach the circulation of the fetus. To reach the brain, the blood-brain barrier of the fetus is an additional challenge. As opposed to iron uptake in the gut—mainly carried out by the divalent metal transporter 1 (DMT1)—strictly controlled active transport is carried out at both the blood-placenta and the blood-brain barrier mediated by the transferrin receptor.
In vivo, the uptake is furthermore influenced by the composition of the diet, as the uptake of non-hem iron is increased by meat and ascorbic acid, but inhibited by polyphenols, phytates and calcium. Another part of the problem is that orally administered iron compositions not easily penetrate the blood brain barrier.
The present invention has the object of providing a pharmaceutical formulation for treatment of the mother in order to increase the iron content of the embryo, fetus or the infant.

Iron carbohydrate complex for treatment of iron deficiency of a fetus or an infant


In a scaling control device of an image processing apparatus, original image data stored in a storage section are enlarged n times by a scaling section, data are interpolated to the enlarged image data by an interpolating section, and the resulting image data are compressed to 1/n by a compressing section. The processed image data are stored in a storage section within a storage region where the original image data were stored under the control of a storage control section. An expanding section retrieves the processed image data from the storage section and expands the same to an initially specified enlarged-scaling magnification for an output image. As a result, it has become possible to minimize an increase of a capacity of the storage section in response to an increase in image data, and thus, the resulting apparatus becomes less expensive.

A digital copying machine known as one of the image processing apparatuses is furnished with a scaling function that allows an output of an enlarged or reduced image of the original. A digital copying machine of this type includes, as shown in FIG. 48, an original image memory 101 for storing image data inputted into the digital copying machine, a scaling processing section 102 for carrying out scaling processing, and a scaled image memory 103 for storing scaled image data. To be more specific, when an enlarged copy is made by this digital copying machine, the image data are retrieved from the original image memory 101, enlarged by the scaling processing section 102, and stored in the scaled image memory 103.
However, according to this arrangement, the digital copying machine must have the original memory 101 and scaled image memory 103 separately, thereby increasing the number of memories and hence the cost of the resulting digital copying machine.
To eliminate this problem, Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 3-74549 (1991) proposes an arrangement, wherein a single memory is provided for storing both the original image data and the scaled image data obtained as a result of the enlarged-scaling processing. According to this arrangement, the image data are enlarged in the manner illustrated in FIG. 49. That is to say, when the image data stored in lines Y.sub.1 -Y.sub.n on the image memory 111 are enlarged, the enlarged-scaling processing starts with the line Y.sub.1, the line containing the image data located in the remotest place from the reference point S, so that the scaled image data are steadily produced and written into lines Y.sub.1 '-Y.sub.n ' sequentially in ascending order over the memory region where the original image data were stored.
This arrangement can reduce the number of memories. However, it becomes necessary to match a capacity of the image memory 111 with an increase of the image data volume as a result of the enlarged-scaling processing, in other words, the image memory 111 must increase a capacity in proportion to magnification. This undesirably increases the cost of the image memory 111, and hence makes the resulting digital copying machine more expensive.

Scaling control device in image processing apparatus


Provided is a growth factor anchoring type bone graft material, wherein a bone graft substrate exposing at least a collagen fiber is bound to a collagen-binding-site-containing growth factor which contains a growth factor receptor agonist peptide and a collagen-binding peptide. The same can be produced by mixing a bone graft substrate and a collagen-binding-site-containing growth factor which contains a growth factor receptor agonist peptide and a collagen-binding peptide, and is also superior in osteogenic ability.

When an artificial joint has been implanted for treating articular rheumatism or arthrosis deformans and caused loosening between the artificial joint and bone tissues after long period service, it should be replaced by a new one through artificial joint revision surgery. On an artificial joint revision surgery, bone grafting with an autologous bone derived from the patient, or the like, is carried out in order to supplement a part of lost bone. Bone grafting has a feature that a bone protein contained in grafted bone promotes resorption of the grafted bone and conversion to an autologous tissue, therefore it has an advantage that reconstruction of a joint function becomes possible even though reconstruction with a prosthesis is impossible. Further, bone is a tissue superior in regenerative capacity, it may be regenerated into a nearly original form by proper reintegration and fixation in case of a fracture.
However, autologous bone grafting is a method which own bone is cut out from a certain part of a patient as a block, the obtained bone is transplanted to deficient part as a block, or after crushing to a granular or powder form. The method is an advantage of high safety because own bone is utilized although, pains are severe at the bone collecting part in the case of a large bone defect region, the recovery period after the bone grafting surgery becomes longer, and sometimes it is very difficult to find a donor supplying a bone for bone grafting. To avoid such drawbacks, allogeneic bone grafting using a donor-derived bone instead of an autologous bone is conducted, and further, various bone graft materials have been also developed.
For example, there is a composition used for promoting bone formation in arthrodesis which includes a platelet-derived growth factor solution, a biocompatible matrix containing polysaccharides, and a scaffold material such as calcium phosphate (Patent Literature 1). In the example thereof, 1.0 mg/mL of platelet-derived growth factor is dropped to calcium phosphate in the average diameter of 1000 to 2000 μm for preparing a composition, and the composition is coated on a bone to be fused in a joint. As the result, the composition exhibits bone bridging and joint adhesion equivalent to autologous bone grafting.
Further, there is a bone graft material on which surface a cell adhesion inducing peptide having an RGD amino acid sequence, or a tissue growth factor-derived peptide is fixed (Patent Literature 2). The bone graft material adhering on the surface a tissue growth factor capable of obtaining a tissue regeneration effect and a peptide having active site of an extracellular matrix protein exhibits allegedly a stable and sustainable pharmacological effect, even though the concentration of the peptides is low. In the example thereof surfaces of a bovine bone-derived bone mineral particle are treated with 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane to form an amine residue, the particles are bound with a crosslinking agent of 1,4-bis-maleimidebutane added thereto, then reacted with a cell adhesion inducing peptide to fix the peptide, and prepare a bone graft material. The material exhibits allegedly superior regenerative power compared to a bone graft material without the fixed peptide.
There is also a bone graft fragment composition prepared by drying a fragment of a cell-free tissue substrate together with a fragment of a demineralize bone material (Patent Literature 3). A cell-free tissue substrate such as collagen obtained from an epithelial cell has capability for supporting cell recognition and cell association, as well as cell spreading, cell proliferation, and cell differentiation, a demineralize bone material has physiological characteristics of natural bone important for a success of bone grafting. When the obtained bone graft fragment composition is coated on a transplantation or implantation part after hydration, new bone formation can be allegedly induced in or on a surface of an osseous tissue, or in or on a surface of a non-osseous tissue of a recipient by stimulating a bone formation stem cell.
Meanwhile, there is also a composition containing a fusion protein fused a PTH/PTHrP receptor agonist with a collagen-binding polypeptide fragment drived from a collagenase (Patent Literature 4). A parathyroid hormone (PTH) is used for an anabolic therapy of osteoporosis, an administration once a day is required. The composition can form a stable bind with collagen through a collagen-binding polypeptide fragment, and stay at an administration site for a long time period resisting body fluid circulation to enjoy longer half-life than PTH. Then, it can exert allegedly the same or higher effectiveness compared to PTH administration. In the example, it is administered intraperitoneally and increase of the bone density is observed.
Further, a fusion protein which a basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) instead of a PTH/PTHrP receptor agonist is bound to a collagen-binding polypeptide fragment, has been also known (Non Patent Literature 1).
Further, based on knowledge that it is useful to use a bone promoting factor in a treatment of a fracture, there is a bone formation promoting fusion protein prepared by binding a polypeptide having a collagen-binding domain derived from fibronectin with a bone formation promoting protein (Patent Literature 5). As examples of the bone formation promoting protein are named a growth factor belonging to a BMP (Bone Morphogenetic Proteins) subfamily, bFGF, and a thyroid hormone. In the example the polypeptide is prepared by using mRNA extracted from human kidney cells as a template thereof, bound with BMP2 or BMP7 as the bone formation promoting protein to prepare the bone formation promoting fusion protein. When the fusion protein was suspended with an osteoblast to be a mouse calvarium-derived established cell, administration of the bone formation promoting fusion protein caused allegedly concentration-dependent enhancement of alkali phosphatase activity on an osteoblast compared to administration of the above polypeptide.
Further, there is a composition for a treatment of a bone defect composed of a forming particle having at least 4 curved projections composed of calcium sulfate or the like and a material for a suspension (Patent Literature 6). A plurality of the projection of the forming particle can interlock each other to stabilize filling into a defect site, a binder capable of forming a gel of a collagen derivative or the like, or a bone morphogenic protein (BMP) can use as the suspension.
Further, there is a self-curing porous calcium phosphate composition which contains calcium phosphate, a blowing agent, and a biocompatible flocculant, and is mixed with a physiologically acceptable liquid, can releases a gas component by hydration of the blowing agent in the composition, gives at least 5% of porosity to the composition, and after curing the calcium phosphate composition exhibits a compressive strength of 1 MPa or more (Patent Literature 7). As the biocompatible flocculant collagen is disclosed and it is described that the composition may contain further a collagen exposure-treated substrate. The invention has a feature that a porous calcium phosphate composition is formed by a blowing agent, and in the example thereof a collagen exposure-treated substrate, sodium hydrogen carbonate and calcium phosphate as a blowing agent, and carboxymethyl cellulose as a flocculant were mixed to prepare a self-curing paste. By filling the self-curing paste in a defect formed at a rabbit distal femoral condyle, nearly complete healing was allegedly observed.
Additionally, there is a bone growth composition containing a particulate fibrous collagen component, and a calcium phosphate component, as well as a substance selected from the group consisting of a purified bone growth factor, a recombinant bone growth factor, a bone-marrow component, and demineralized bone and autologous bone (Patent Literature 8). The collagen component is cross-linked collagen or porous granular or other insoluble collagen. In the example, a calcium phosphate gel dispersion is kneaded with complex collagen, and after a cross-linking step by freeze-drying and thermal dewatering shaped into the particulate, pasted by adding blood, then transplanted to scattered bone. A defect site could be allegedly fixed firmly with the paste.

Growth factor anchoring type bone graft material, method for producing growth factor anchoring type bone graft material, kit for producing growth factor anchoring type bone graft material, and method for forming bone

SCHOOL JURIDICAL PERSON KITASATO INSTITUTE

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY CORPORATION KAGAWA UNIVERSITY


A communication access control system includes a messaging service facility and a computing system. The computing system has a permanent memory and hosts a plurality of access control cells (each having an input and an output address); a messaging service to send messages between at least some of the access control cells; and a control service to define a link. The link is selected from a C-link, an F-link, and a Q-link. The C-link connects the output address of a first read-write cell of the access control cells to the input address of a second read-write cell of the access control cells. The F-link connects a forwarder address to the input address of at least one of the access control cells. The Q-link connects the output address of at least one of the access control cells to a queue address.

The present disclosure relates generally to a communication access control system.
Distributive computing is a method of computing in which tasks are divided into relatively smaller sub-tasks, which are then distributed across a network of computing devices for simultaneous processing of each sub-task. Distributive computing has been found in a myriad of applications and systems such as, for example, social networking, online digital mapping, video-sharing websites, and advanced collaboration software. However, there is generally a lack of built-in security mechanisms that are implemented when operating these applications.
Access Control Lists (ACL) have been used to provide group security management. An access control list provides a list of authorized entities as well as every object in the system. An access control monitor may look to the list and determine what entities can or cannot access, share or destroy any certain object. Use of this type of group security management requires a reasonable level of expertise, and thus does not offer a simple method to realize messaging control. Furthermore, before consulting the Access Control List (ACL), the access control monitor may need to verify the claimed identity of the entity that sent the access request. This may add additional complexity to the tasks performed by the access control monitor and may increase the amount of effort that needs to be set forth by the access control monitor.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


An adjustable support structure for supporting food items above melt water which accumulates in the bottom of an insulated portable ice chest. A horizontal deck supports food and ice within the ice chest above the ice chest bottom so that a volume for melt water is defined between the ice chest bottom and the horizontal deck. In some embodiments, to facilitate draining the ice chest in situ, a drain water suction pick up tube is provided having a lower portion extending downwardly from the horizontal deck into the volume. In some embodiments, the horizontal deck includes a generally rectangular main portion and a pair of adjustable wings, with supports under the main portion for positioning the horizontal deck a distance above the ice chest bottom.

The invention relates generally to platforms for use in combination with insulated portable ice chests, for the purpose of supporting food items above melt water which accumulates in the bottom of the ice chest.
Thus, in the absence of a platform, as ice melts and water pools at the bottom of the ice chest, food items become submerged in cold water. Food can become wet and soggy. Water seeps into loosely-capped bottles and jars. Reaching into icy water to retrieve food items is not pleasant. Additional packaging to waterproof food is wasteful and time-consuming. Moreover, ice chest drains can be rendered useless due to obstruction by plastic bags or food.
Accordingly, a variety of platforms, also termed ice racks, trays, or inserts, have been proposed, for supporting food and ice within the ice chest above the ice chest bottom.

Adjustable support structure and drainage system for portable ice chest


Generating a robot control policy that regulates both motion control and interaction with an environment and/or includes a learned potential function and/or dissipative field. Some implementations relate to resampling temporally distributed data points to generate spatially distributed data points, and generating the control policy using the spatially distributed data points. Some implementations additionally or alternatively relate to automatically determining a potential gradient for data points, and generating the control policy using the automatically determined potential gradient. Some implementations additionally or alternatively relate to determining and assigning a prior weight to each of the data points of multiple groups, and generating the control policy using the weights. Some implementations additionally or alternatively relate to defining and using non-uniform smoothness parameters at each data point, defining and using d parameters for stiffness and/or damping at each data point, and/or obviating the need to utilize virtual data points in generating the control policy.

Various techniques have been proposed to enable robots to perform various tasks. For example, some techniques enable a user to kinesthetically teach the robot to follow a particular trajectory. For instance, the user may physically manipulate a robot arm to cause a reference point of an end effector of the robot arm to traverse the particular trajectory—and that particular traversed trajectory may thereafter be repeatable by the robot arm. However, those and other techniques may suffer from one or more drawbacks, such as those described herein.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Generating a robot control policy from demonstrations collected via kinesthetic teaching of a robot


A method for forming a lead body includes contacting a proximal section of the lead body having a lumen and a first lead body characteristic to a distal section of the lead body having a lumen and a second lead body characteristic. The proximal and distal sections are contacted such that their lumens are axially aligned. A lap band is disposed about a portion of the proximal section and a portion of the distal section, and is thermally formed to the proximal and distal sections. Axially compressive pressure is applied to the lap band as the lead body is being thermally formed. The pressure applied is sufficient to result in the lead body having an outer diameter in regions proximally and distally adjacent to the lap band that are substantially the same to an outer diameter in a region formed by the lap band.

Electrical stimulation technology is expanding in scope, resulting in therapies that place leads in more and more areas of the body and in leads that have increasing levels of complexity. The stiffness of a lead body can be important for its function in many ways. For example, a very flexible lead body may be desirable for implantation in tissues that experience a lot of movement. A stiffer lead body may be important for guiding through tissue or for insertion into a device, such as an electrical signal generator. For example, if the portion of a lead to be inserted into a device is not sufficiently stiff, pushing the lead into a receptacle of the device may be difficult.
In transitioning from a stiff to a more flexible segment along the length of a lead, it is desirable for the transition to be smooth to spread any stresses out evenly over the length of the transition. Many ways of transitioning between segments of differing lead flexibilities have been devised. However, some are impractical from a manufacturing perspective or result in undesired characteristics. For example, lap bonding of two sections of differing stiffnesses can result in a reliable bond that spreads stresses out over the length of the lap bonded section; however, such lap bonding also results in increased thickness of the lead body. Such leads have a bulge in their outer diameter, which may be undesirable.

Method for making smooth transitions between differing lead segments


Each time a player character performs a boom triggering act, “1” is added to the corresponding act number counter provided for each non-player character. The value of each act number counter is periodically added to a boom value provided for each non-player character. When a boom value reaches an upper limit, the corresponding non-player character performs an act related to the boom triggering act performed by the player character. Thus, the act of each non-player character is changed in accordance with the act performed by the player character in the game world, which provides the player with a fresh feeling that the act performed by the player character set a trend in the game world.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a game program and a game apparatus, and in particular to a game program and a game apparatus for providing a video game in which, for example, a player character operable by a player and a plurality of non-player characters operable by a computer appear.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, there are video games in which a parameter of a non-player character (NPC) is changeable based on an input operation performed by a player (for example, patent document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No 2001-46734).
Patent document 1 discloses a technology for changing a parameter representing a personality of a player character in accordance with an input operation performed by the player, and also changing a parameter representing a personality of a non-player character in accordance with the parameter representing the personality of the player character. This technology simulates, in the game world, an event that a person's personality influences the personality of another person mingling with that person as in the real world.
In patent document 1, the personality of only one non-player character can be changed at a time in accordance with a change in the personality of the player character. However, in the real world, people do not always influence one to one. One person may influence a plurality of people at the same time, and how much these people are influenced depends on each individual. How the people are influenced also depends on whether each individual is close to or far from the influencing person.


The present disclosure describes a new pushbutton incorporated into new circuit configurations of an improved intelligent electronic device (“IED”), for use in power substation control systems. The new pushbutton is non-mechanical and configured to control a breaker, or other type of substation equipment, after an IED associated with the circuit breaker, or other type of substation equipment, fails to operate. In an embodiment, the new pushbutton may be a low-energy, membrane-type pushbutton. During normal operation, a microprocessor within the IED operates a solid-state device to control the operation of substation equipment. When the IED fails, manually depressing the new pushbutton bypasses the IED microprocessor and manually controls the substation equipment associated with the failed IED.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to power substations generally, and more particularly, to a new pushbutton incorporated into new circuit configurations of an improved intelligent electronic device ("IED") for use in power substation control systems.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Power substations include primary equipment, such as transformers, capacitor banks, and generators; and secondary equipment, such as cables, switches, relays, protective equipment, and control equipment. Primary equipment is located in the substation yard and controlled via (fiber-optic and/or metallic) cables. Providing all weather protection and security for the control equipment, a substation control house contains switchboard panels, batteries, battery chargers, supervisory control equipment, power-line carriers, meters, and relays. Located within the control house, the switchboard control panels contain meters, control switches, and recorders used to control the substation equipment, to send power from one circuit to another, or to open or close circuits when needed.
In the past, hundreds of discrete electromechanical and/or solid-state control devices were needed to monitor and manage the operation of a single substation's primary equipment. Recently, microprocessor-based devices, called intelligent electronic devices ("IEDs"), have become popular, not only because a single IED can be programmed and configured to monitor and manage a variety of substation equipment, but also because new substations constructed using IEDs cost less to construct than substations constructed using electromechanical and/or solid-state control devices. Properly positioned and configured, an IED can receive and relay status signals from primary equipment to a master computer located in the control house. Additionally, an IED can receive and relay command signals from the master computer to the primary equipment. The large majority of substation functions have been merged into the IED. However, local control of substation equipment remains problematic. This is due to the fact that the IED is necessarily more complex and therefore has a lower reliability that the simple mechanical pushbutton it replaces.
Problems arise when an IED fails, since transmission of status signals from its associated primary equipment and transmission of control signals from the master computer to the associated primary equipment stop. Manufactured to interrupt heavy power loads, mechanical pushbuttons tend to be heavy and bulky. A mechanical pushbutton is known to have been directly and externally connected to the input/output terminals of an IED. Such a configuration is problematic on several levels. Not only is the mechanical pushbutton a significant proportion of the size of the IED itself, but also the mechanical pushbutton is capable of interrupting thirty or more amps of current. Such a pushbutton is too large and cumbersome to be easily incorporated into an IED.
What is needed is a new, non-mechanical, pushbutton that easily integrates within an IED, handles only a small amount of current (e.g., less than one amp), and is configured to control substation equipment if the IED fails.

Intelligent electronic device with integrated pushbutton for use in power substation


An improved load configuration is provided for differential circuits which increases circuit bandwidth without increasing power dissipation. A differential circuit generally includes a differential pair of transistors having emitters coupled together. The improved load configuration is comprised of a load resistor coupled to the collector of each transistor and an inductor coupled in series with each of the load resistors, such that the inductors are coupled to each other by mutual inductance.

Differential linear amplifier and switching circuits are commonly used in electronic systems. FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary differential circuit. The differential circuit includes a pair of transistors having the emitters connected to a common current source and the collectors connected to load resistors which are in turn tied to a voltage supply. In operation, a differential signal of opposite polarity may be applied to the bases of the transistors, thereby resulting in an amplified signal appearing at the collectors of the transistors. The bandwidth of the circuit is commonly defined as the frequency where the output amplitude drops by −3 dB. However, bandwidth is affected by a number of parameters, including the forward transit time of the transistors, junction and parasitic capacitances associated with the transistors, load resistance, inductance in the metal interconnect, etc.
For high speed applications, the collector time constant is a significant limitation on bandwidth. Collector capacitance acts as a shunt in parallel to the load resistor, thereby gradually reducing the output amplitude with increasing frequency. The pole set by the collector node can be moved out in frequency by reducing the collector load resistance and increasing the operating current. However, there are limits to these measures. Temperature rise causes transistor parameters to deteriorate as well as higher power dissipation.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide an improved load configuration for differential circuits which increases circuit bandwidth without increasing power dissipation.


A training apparatus for guiding and independently teaching a user to quickly play a guitar by interpreting stored encoded MIDI music data to guide the user's hands by illuminating sequences of desired finger positions on the frets of a guitar to play the music.

As a substitute for reading musical staff notation, it is known for a beginner student to learn the guitar by following a printed chord diagram, known as tablature, to determine positions to place the fingers on specific strings and frets corresponding to desired chords or melodic lines to be played.
A limitation of this method of learning to play the guitar (Tabs) is that the use of a chord diagram is highly visual, awkward and time consuming as the user must repeatedly move the visual attention from sheet music to the chord diagram to the guitar fret board and back to properly position the fingers and play the sequence of chords.
Another method of learning to play the guitar is with the guided help of a guitar instructor. The instructor may attempt to teach the student by demonstrating the placement of the fingers on the strings and frets and guiding the students hand for proper placement. A limitation of the use of a hired instructor is that instruction can be expensive, can not be performed independently and is only available at certain scheduled times (when the instructor is available to teach).
Method books and instructional videos are available but can be very difficult to comprehend, especially if the person is musically illiterate. Most instructional books and videos require a basic understanding of music notation. For a person that simply wishes to learn to play the guitar and not interested in becoming a professional musician, method books and instructional videos can be difficult to understand, follow and frustrating to learn from independently.
Therefore, apparatus for training a user to play a guitar that permits the student to learn and practice according to their own schedule, a guitar training apparatus that is equipped to accept, play and interpret encoded MIDI music files using the MIDI data to visually illustrate sequences of correct finger placement on strings and frets to play the MIDI music, a guitar training apparatus that can teach a user to play music and songs on the guitar without resorting to printed musical scores, a guitar training apparatus that is less awkward and more time efficient than traditional guitar learning methods thereby allowing the student to progress quickly, such a guitar training apparatus would be useful and novel.

Training apparatus for learning to play the guitar