An apparatus for mounting and moving coating dispensers within the interior of a spray booth, and particularly the coating dispensers located above an object moving through the booth, comprises a dispenser housing having an aerodynamically shaped outer surface formed with a leading edge, a trailing edge and opposed generally curved sides. A pair of support assemblies isolated from the booth interior mount the dispenser housing in the path of a downward flow of air within the booth interior within which oversprayed coating material is entrained for collection such that the leading edge of the dispenser housing faces the top or ceiling of the spray booth and its trailing edge faces the objects moving through the booth. One or more coating dispensers are mounted at the trailing edge of the dispenser housing in a position to discharge powder coating material downwardly onto the object, such as the hood, roof and trunk of a vehicle body. Each support assembly carries one side of the dispenser housing and structure is provided on at least one of the support assemblies for moving the dispenser housing vertically, side-to-side and pivotally with respect to objects moving through the booth.

The application of coating materials to objects has conventionally been accomplished in spray booths having an elongated tunnel-like construction formed with an inlet for the ingress of the object, a coating application area, a curing or drying area in some designs and an outlet for the egress of the object. In some systems, "conditioned" air, i.e., humidified and filtered air, is introduced by a blower or feed fan into a plenum chamber at the top cf the spray booth, and directed downwardly toward the floor of the booth. Alternatively, negative pressure is created within the booth interior which draws ambient air downwardly from the top of the booth to the floor. In either design, oversprayed coating material is entrained within this downward flow of air in the booth interior and delivered to a powder collection and recovery system at the base or sides of the booth where filters capture the oversprayed coating material and exhaust filtered or clean air to the atmosphere or back to the system for reuse.
In coating large objects such as vehicle bodies, both vertically and horizontally oriented surfaces must be coated as the object moves through the booth interior. For example, the fenders and doors of a vehicle body travel vertically through the spray booth, while the hood, roof and trunk areas of the vehicle body are oriented horizontally in the course of movement through the booth. In order to obtain a uniform coating on all of these surfaces, it has been the practice to provide one or more coating dispensers at the side walls of the spray booth to coat the vertically oriented surfaces of the vehicle body, and to mount one or more coating dispensers overhead near the top of the booth to dispense coating material downwardly onto the roof, hood and trunk areas of the vehicle body. Depending upon the size of the vehicle body, the number and location of coating dispensers utilized and a variety of other factors, mounting structure is needed to move both the side and overhead coating dispensers relative to the vehicle body in order to obtain the desired film build-up on all surfaces. In many instances, deposition of the coating material on the object is further enhanced by electrostatically charging the coating material as it is discharged from the dispensers and maintaining the vehicle bodies or other objects to be coated at a different or ground potential so that the charged coating material is electrostatically attracted to the objects.
One problem associated with the structure commonly employed for moving coating dispensers within the interior of spray booths involves the potential for contamination of the coating material as it is applied to the vehicle body or other object within the booth. In the past, the mechanisms for moving the side mounted and overhead mounted coating dispensers have been exposed within the spray booth interior. This can create contamination of the coating material as it contacts the lubricated connections and drive structures associated with the dispenser moving devices. Additionally, the lines which supply coating material to the dispensers, and, in some designs, the lines which carry high voltage electrostatic cables to the dispensers, are also commonly exposed within the interior of the booth. In powder applications, these utility lines can create further contamination of the coating material by abrasion and fall-out of non-atomized powder onto the substrate.
Another problem with devices currently utilized to move coating dispensers involves the creation of air turbulence within the booth interior. Turbulence is of particular concern when powder coating material is utilized as a replacement for high solids, liquid paint material. Powdered resin coating material has a much lower density and is much lighter in weight than atomized liquid paint particles, and is discharged from a dispenser in a cloud-like pattern onto the object to be coated. It has been found that in applying low density, lightweight powder material onto a vehicle body, and particularly its horizontal surfaces such as the hood, roof and trunk, systems for moving the coating dispensers up and down, side-to-side and/or pivotally with respect to such surfaces can result in the creation of turbulence within the booth interior. That is, the downward flow of air within the booth interior which entrains oversprayed coating material becomes turbulent as the overhead coating dispensers are moved with respect to the object to be coated. This turbulence can create an inconsistent film build-up on the object because it disrupts the flow of powder material between the coating dispensers and the object to be coated.

Coating apparatus having a dispenser housing


A method for providing split-brain avoidance for sub-secondary High Availability (HA) systems involves identifying the network segments that are shared by two nodes participating in HA, running the periodic network-path and next hop monitoring protocol over all these network segments, and doing the protocol over-ride to clearly detect and distinguish network and interface faults from node and service faults in HA systems. This ability is used by the Standby node to provide the split-brain avoidance without requiring any hardware bus interconnect between HA nodes or presence of any external quorum server.

Sub-secondary High Availability (HA) refers to a redundancy model where only two devices are employed to provide resilience from service, interface, network, and node failures in any given deployment. This model is often used in WAN-edge network elements to provide network resilience in the event of unforeseen failures in network services running on them or failures in networks serviced by them. Wide Area Network (WAN) refers to an umbrella of technologies that provide network connectivity to world-wide IP back-bone and/or other networks present in geographically different locations. A high availability (HA) cluster is said to be in split-brain state, if more than one participating HA node has taken over Mastership at any given point in time. A split-brain state on a WAN-edge can cause network malfunction, blackholing of traffic, disarming of state sync between network elements, and other network issues depending on the type and scope of deployment. In WAN-edge solutions, including Software Defined-WAN (SD-WAN) where software is the main driver for network elements, there is no hardware bus interconnect between HA nodes to detect peer node presence because the HA nodes could be located in two different places if not geographies. Further, the presence of an external Quorum server is not feasible in all deployments due to security and availability concerns.

Method and apparatus for split-brain avoidance in sub-secondary high availability systems


In a storage system that includes multiple disk drives, the disk drive packaging density is increased, and maintainability and serviceability, as well as cooling performance, are improved. The storage system includes multiple racks, multiple disk drives and multiple cooling devices. The multiple racks are arranged to form a substantially polygonal cylinder-shaped central space used to enable maintenance work to be carried out. Furthermore, an entrance area for a worker to enter the central space is formed between a first rack and a second rack among the multiple racks. The multiple disk drives are detachably mounted to one side of inside and outside of the multiple racks, and are arranged to form a first surface in each of the multiple racks. The multiple cooling devices are arranged to form a second surface in each of the multiple racks. The second surface is substantially parallel to the first surface.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a storage system, and more particularly to a storage system that includes multiple disk drives.
2. Description of the Related Art
Storage systems that include multiple disk drives are known in the art as secondary storage systems connected to one or more computers. In recent years, there has been a trend toward increasing the storage capacities of such storage systems by including a large number of disk drives. For example, one key type of storage system for storing large amounts of data uses so-called MAID (Massive Arrays of Idle Disks) technology. In a storage system that employs MAID technology, there may be approximately 1000 disk drives for each storage system, enabling the storage of extremely large amounts of data. At the same time, when MAID technology is used, power consumption can be reduced and the useful life of the disk drives extended by limiting the number of simultaneously operating disk drives included in the storage system (to ¼ of such drives, for example).
In this type of system, a technology in which a large number of disk drives are housed in the three-dimensional fashion in a chassis is known. In this technology, improvements have been made in both the packaging density of the drives and the ease of maintenance and servicing.
However, in the above prior art technology, the disk drives arranged in a number of vertical tiers are cooled by a common cooling fan disposed at the top of the chassis. As a result, there is a danger that the drives at the lower tiers that are located some distance from the cooling fan cannot be sufficiently cooled.


A method and unit for forming and conveying groups of elongated products, whereby products, fed successively and continuously along a first path, are stacked along a guide by a stacking device to form a group, which is moved along the guide by a lifting device to the input of a second path, and is transferred, along the second path, into a conveying pocket moving along the second path; transfer into the conveying pocket being effected by means of a retaining pocket initially aligned with the guide and moving along the second path.

The present invention relates to a method of forming and conveying groups of products.
In particular, the present invention relates to a method of forming and conveying groups of elongated products, the method comprising the steps of feeding said products successively and continuously along a first path to a stacking device; stacking the products, by means of the stacking device, along guide elements to form a group, the products in the group being maintained in the stacked position by the guide elements; and transferring the, group along a second path into a respective conveying pocket moving along the second path.
Methods of the above type are normally implemented using stacking devices in which the guide elements, besides maintaining the products in the stacked position as they are being stacked, also provide for feeding each group of stacked products to a conveying device, which comprises a conveying surface extending along the second path, and a conveying element for feeding each group along the conveying surface. The group of products is normally unloaded onto the conveying surface by the guide elements and subsequently engaged and fed along the conveying surface by the conveying element.
Such methods have proved relatively effective in stacking and feeding products with at least one flat contact surface. When working with substantially cylindrical products, on the other hand, unloading the groups onto the conveying surface poses problems, due to each group invariably breaking up as it is unloaded. And the same also applies, at times, to products with a flat contact surface, when the group is subsequently engaged by the conveying element.

Method and unit for forming and conveying groups of products

Azionaria Costruzioni Macchine Automatiche A.C.M.A. S.p.A.


The present invention provides a battery testing device and a battery testing method which can appropriately verify the behavior of a battery when damage occurs. Appropriately verification of battery behavior in a case of battery damage has not been achieved since a completely crushed state of a battery almost never occurs during the sue of a portable device, such as a portable telephone, and a completely crushed state of a battery is not the worst condition when determining an abnormality induced by an internal short. Therefore a secondary battery set on a test stand is partially crushed using a pressing member, and the quality of the secondary battery is determined by measuring the temperature of the secondary battery, whereby battery behavior when the secondary battery is damaged can be appropriately verified.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a testing device and a testing method for improving performance and safety of a battery such as a lithium ion battery enclosed in a portable telephone and other portable equipment.
2. Related Background Art
A rechargeable secondary battery enclosed in portable telephones and other portable equipment, a lithium ion battery, for example, has a lithium cobalt oxide compound for an anode, graphite for a cathode and organic electrolytes containing lithium salt. This secondary battery is comprised of a separator, which is a thin film that electrically insulates an anode and a cathode, and the anode, cathode and separator are rolled. In the case of a square shaped lithium ion battery, the rolled battery is transformed into a square shape, and is inserted into a square aluminum case, where electrolytes are filled, and is sealed.
The lithium ion battery is compact, light weight and has high energy density, and therefore the battery is constructed by thin anode and cathode films, using a chemically highly active cobalt oxide compound and organic electrolytes. In order to further decrease the size and weight of the battery, the above battery materials are contained in a light aluminum case.
In a lithium ion battery having this type of structure, an internal short of the anode and cathode may be caused by damage to the electrodes inside due to external pressure, resulting in abnormal heating and smoking of the battery. To prevent this, safety tests to insure safety in a damaged state have been performed by intentionally destroying the lithium ion battery (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-327616). For example, in this kind of safety test, a fully charged lithium ion battery is completely crushed (complete crush) by pressing a metal bar (round bar) from the outside, and the behavior of the battery after the complete crush, such as abnormal heating (about 160° C. or higher) or smoking, is checked. And only batteries which do not generate an abnormal state, including abnormal heating and smoking, are determined as non-defective batteries (OK batteries), thereby safety of the batteries is evaluated.
However it is rare that a force to cause a complete crush of a battery is applied from the outside to a general lithium ion battery enclosed in a portable telephone or the like, where a force to partially damage a battery (partial crush) is more likely to be applied. Hence the complete crush test of batteries is an extreme test, and is not appropriate as a test to determine the behavior of a battery when the battery is damaged in a normal use range of a portable telephone.

Battery testing device and battery testing method


Apparatus is disclosed for re-applying dye to a dye donor element of a dye transfer thermal printer. A reservoir contains a supply of dye that is thermally transferred from the reservoir to the dye donor element by diffusion of dye into the dye donor element. The reservoir has a diffusion controlled permeation membrane through which dye is delivered to the dye donor element, while inhibiting diffusion of a binder, whereby the dye diffuses between the reservoir and the dye donor element but the binder does not.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the re-application of dye to a dye donor element of a thermal dye transfer system, and, more particularly, to the delivery of the dye from a reservoir through a membrane into a dye donor element. A variety of polyolefin or polyolefin containing materials were tested as membranes, and, in general, dye is permeable through the membrane. In addition, a variety of polymeric materials were tested as membranes, and, in general, the ability of dye to diffuse through a membrane increases as its Tg decreases.
2. Background Art
Color dye transfer thermal printers use a dye donor member which may be a sheet, but usually is in the form of a web advanced from a supply roll to a take-up roll. The dye donor member passes between a printhead and a dye receiver member. The thermal printhead comprises a linear array of resistive heat elements. In operation, the resistive heat elements of the printhead are selectively energized in accordance with data from a printhead control circuit. As a result, the image defined by the data from the printhead control circuit is placed on the receiver member.
A significant problem in this technology is that the dye donor members used to make the thermal prints are generally intended for single (one time) use. Thus, although the member has at least three times the area of the final print and contains enough dye to make a solid black image, only a small fraction of this dye is ever used.
After printing an image, the dye donor member cannot be easily reused, although this has been the subject of several patents. The primary reason that inhibits reuse of the dye donor members is that the dye transfer process is very sensitive to the concentration of dye in the donor layer. During the first printing operation, dye is selectively removed from the layer thus altering its concentration. In subsequent printings, regions of the donor member which had been previously imaged have a lower transfer efficiency than regions which were not imaged. This results in a ghost image appearing in subsequent prints.
The cost associated with having a single use donor ribbon is large because of the large area of ribbon required, as well as the large excess of dye coated on the donor member. While this technology is able to produce high quality continuous tone color prints, it is desired to provide an approach which has all of the good attributes of thermal dye transfer imaging but without the limitations associated with single use donor members.
Some work has been done by others to accomplish similar goals. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,286,521 discusses a reusable wax transfer ink donor ribbon. This process is intended to provide a dye donor ribbon that may be used to print more than one page before the ribbon is completely consumed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,661,393 describes a reusable ink ribbon, again for wax transfer printing. The ink ribbon contains fine inorganic particles and low melting waxy materials to assist in the repeated use of this ribbon. U.S. Pat. No. 5,137,382 discloses a printer device capable of re-inking a thermal transfer ribbon. However, again the technology is wax transfer rather than dye transfer. In the device, solid wax is melted and transferred using a roller onto the reusable transfer ribbon.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,334,574 describes a reusable dye donor ribbon for thermal dye transfer printing. This reusable ribbon has multiple layers containing dye which limit the diffusion of dye out of the donor sheet. This enables the ribbon to be used to make multiple prints. In addition, the ribbon may be run at a slower speed than the dye receiver sheet, enabling additional utilization. U.S. Pat. No. 5,118,657 describes a multiple use thermal dye transfer ink ribbon. This ribbon has a high concentration dye layer on the bottom and a low concentration dye layer on the top. The low concentration dye layer meters or controls dye transfer out of the ribbon. This enables the ribbon to be used multiple times. U.S. Pat. No. 5,043,318 is another example of a thermal dye transfer ribbon which can be used multiple times.
Accordingly, there is no prior art known to us which directly relates to the concept of the re-application of dye to a dye donor ribbon.

Re-application of dye to a dye donor element of thermal printers


A hanger bar is provided for suspending and securing an electrical box between ceiling joists. The hanger bar is comprised of a main tube section, a box support bracket, a box which attaches to the box support bracket and two end plates which are attached to the main tube section without the use of fasteners or welding.

Hanger bars have been used for many years when securing electrical boxes between ceiling joists. Most hanger bars have square cross sections and are composed of two main tube sections which slide within one another so that the hanger bar can be expanded. Hanger bars have plates at their ends which are welded or screwed to the main tube sections of the hanger bars, and these end plates usually have prongs for piercing the wood of ceiling joists which the hanger bar is installed on to temporarily keep the bar in place while an installer prepares to permanently install the bar onto the ceiling joists with screws or nails. The current method by which hanger bar end plates attach to hanger bars, through welding or using screws, results in expensive manufacturing costs.


A method for a touchscreen mobile device (35) to control a remote display device (31), where the touchscreen comprises a touch sensitive input layer and an internal display for displaying an image of the main screen of the mobile device (35) showing one or more applications that the mobile device (35) is executing. When the mobile device (35) is connected to the display device (31), the mobile device (35) enters a display mode in which the mobile device (35) transmits the image to the display device (31) for display on the display device (31) and does not displace the image on the internal display, but maintains the touch sensitive input layer operational to enable the mobile device (35) to be used as an input/output device with which a user can interact using the touch sensitive input layer, such as a keyboard (34), game controller or other input device, such as a trackpad to sense movement of one or more fingers of a user across the touch sensitive input layer for controlling a cursor.

It is known that it is possible to connect a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet computer ("Mobile") to a larger, separate, display ("Display"), such as a television, projector, or monitor which is capable of showing image data provided by the Mobile. This often occurs because users wish to use their Mobiles as home computing devices. Since the internal screen of a Mobile is normally relatively small, a user often wishes to connect it to a larger Display. However, setting up and using the Display is often complex as it involves connecting the Mobile, turning on the Display and possibly configuring the Display so that the Mobile can control it. This is time-consuming, inconvenient and may be difficult for less technical users. Even if the Mobile and Display are already configured to connect to one another, it is still necessary to turn on the Display and activate the connection, which is inconvenient for the user.
The user may also wish to control the Display via a touch-sensitive input and display system ("Touchscreen"), especially for applications where navigation can be handled more intuitively by means of 'gestures' such as moving two fingers on a touchscreen in order to zoom in or out. This is usually not possible on a separate Display as most Displays do not have touchscreen capability. Additionally, especially in a home setting, a Display is unlikely to be close enough to the user for him or her to touch it. A Touchscreen of a mobile device generally consists of a touch sensitive input layer on top of a Display.
Once a Mobile is connected to a Display, the Display typically only mirrors the internal display of the Mobile. The user interacts with the Mobile in the conventional way appropriate to the Mobile and there is no other way to interact with the Mobile that takes account of the fact that the images are on the large Display in front of the user.
For example, most Mobiles are controlled via a Touchscreen and the user interacts with the Mobile by tapping or dragging a finger on the Touchscreen to interact with the Mobile, causing results that can then be mirrored on the Display. The Display does not show a mouse cursor or any other indication of where the interaction is occurring, so the user must look at the Mobile while interacting with it. When the user is attempting to perform an activity that requires a lot of interaction, such as browsing the Internet, he or she must either ignore the Display or continually look up and down between the Mobile and the Display. The former defeats the object of connecting to the Display and the latter is not only inconvenient but also uncomfortable and could have negative health implications for the user.
An example of a known system is the Windows 8.1 operating system, which includes wireless display capabilities, developed using the Wi-Fi Alliance (WFA) Miracast specification. This allows a user to wirelessly project his or her display onto a Display from a Mobile such as a Microsoft Surface tablet. However, the only available settings for interaction between the Mobile and the Display in this situation are "Duplicate", in which the Display mirrors the internal screen of the Mobile; "Extend", in which the Display provides an extended desktop for the Mobile; and "Second Screen Only", in which only the Display is used. These options do not take full advantage of the capabilities of the Mobile as it will either be used to display data—and the user will interact with it in the conventional way as mentioned above—or it will not be used at all except as a source of image data. When the Display provides an extended desktop for the Mobile, it is necessary for the Display to be a Touchscreen and the user interacts with the images on the Display as he or she would if they were still on the Touchscreen of the Mobile: through the Touchscreen of the Display. This requires an expensive Touchscreen Display and also for the Display to be within reach for the user.
The present invention seeks to make more efficient use of the capabilities of the Mobile so as to reduce the above-mentioned problems of the prior art.


Example embodiments relate to nonvolatile memory devices using a 2D material, and methods of manufacturing the nonvolatile memory device. The nonvolatile memory device includes a channel layer formed on a substrate, a gate stack that includes a gate electrode, source and drain electrodes. The channel layer has a threshold voltage greater than that of a graphene layer, and the gate stack includes a 2D material floating gate that is not in contact with the channel layer. The channel layer includes first and second material layers and a first barrier layer disposed between the first and second material layers, and the first and second material layers may contact the first barrier layer.

1. Field
Example embodiments relate to memory devices, to nonvolatile memory devices using a two-dimensional (2D) material, and/or to methods of manufacturing the same
2. Description of the Related Art
A flash memory device is a type of nonvolatile memory device. An operational voltage for writing or erasing data on a flash memory device is, for example, approximately in a range from about 9V to about 12V. The operational voltage of a flash memory device is substantially high when compared to the operational voltage of other memory devices.
When an operational voltage of a flash memory device is lower than the above voltage range, the operational reliability of the flash memory device may be reduced.
Various methods of reducing the operational voltage of a nonvolatile memory device, such as a flash memory device, have been disclosed, and one of the methods includes using graphene. When graphene is used, the operational voltage of a nonvolatile memory device is expected to be lowered than the operational voltage of the related art. However, it may be difficult to maintain data stored in the nonvolatile memory device for a long time and an off-current may be increased as the size of the nonvolatile memory device may be reduced due to high integration.

Nonvolatile memory device using two-dimensional material and method of manufacturing the same


A zoom lens assembly comprises a first optical component, a second optical component, and an actuator. The actuator comprises a shape memory material that changes its shape in response to electrical or thermal fields to change the distance between the first and second optical components.

A zoom lens assembly comprises a collection of optical components that can be moved relative to each other in order to vary the effective focal length and field of view of the assembly. For example, a simple zoom lens assembly may comprise a pair of lenses (or lens groups) that can be moved apart along a common optical axis to increase the assembly's focal length while decreasing its field of view ("zoom in"), and brought closer together along the axis to decrease the assembly's focal length while increasing its field of view ("zoom out").
Zoom lens assemblies can be found in a wide variety of optical instruments, including, for example, cameras, bar-code scanners, binoculars, telescopes, microscopes, and projectors, to name but a few. In addition, the number, type, and spacing of lenses in a zoom lens assembly can vary widely across different applications. For instance, different optical applications may use diverging and/or converging lenses, magnification lenses, focus correction lenses, and so on. Moreover, the lenses in a zoom lens assembly may be combined with a variety of other optical components such as optical filters, mirrors, and so on, depending on the application in which the zoom lens assembly is used.
As an example, FIGS. 1A and 1B show a simple zoom lens assembly used in a camera 100. In camera 100, as a first optic 105 moves relative to a second optic 110, the zoom lens assembly "zooms out" or "zooms in" to shrink or enlarge the projection of an image onto a projection plane 130 such as film or a CCD or CMOS image sensor.
In most conventional zoom lens assemblies, lenses and other optical components are moved under the control of a collection of mechanical components such as motors, switches, solenoids, and/or other actuators (not shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B). Accordingly, the performance and reliability of these assemblies tends to be affected by the performance and reliability of the mechanical components. For instance, the speed and precision with which a zoom lens assembly can zoom in and out is generally determined by the response-time and accuracy of the mechanical components. Similarly, the lifetime of a zoom lens assembly may be tied to the lifetime of the mechanical components.
Unfortunately, conventional mechanical components tend to suffer from a variety of shortcomings that can limit both the performance and reliability of zoom lens assemblies. For instance, motors used to move the lenses may experience some form of gear lash and/or hysteresis, which may affect the accuracy of their movement. In addition, many of the mechanical components may fail much more readily than corresponding optical components, thus limiting the expected lifetime of the zoom lens assemblies according to the failure characteristics of the mechanical components. Further, mechanical components may limit the degree to which the zoom lens assemblies can be miniaturized. For instance, while it may be possible to develop tiny lenses for miniature zoom lens assemblies, it may not be feasible to create commensurately tiny motors and other actuators for moving the lenses. Accordingly, conventional zoom lens assemblies may not be able to fit within small electronic devices such as miniature cell-phone cameras and bar code scanners. Finally, mechanical actuator components such as motors typically consume a relatively large amount of power compared with other components of a zoom lens assembly. Accordingly, the power consumption of the mechanical actuators may not be acceptable for portable devices where power is scarce, such as the cell-phone cameras and portable bar code scanners.
In an attempt to address at least some of the above shortcomings of conventional zoom lens assemblies, researchers have sought new techniques for moving the lenses and other optical components of a zoom lens assembly. One such technique involves the use of a shape memory alloy that expands and contracts when heated and cooled to move one of two lens groups within a zoom lens assembly. An example of a camera using this technique is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0058070 to Chen (hereafter, "Chen").
Like the conventional mechanical components described above, the shape memory alloys used in zoom lens assemblies such as that illustrated in Chen also suffer from a variety of shortcomings. For instance, the amount of displacement provided by these shape memory alloys is relatively small compared to their overall size. In particular, conventional shape memory alloys such as those described in Chen can typically be expanded by around 10% of their original size when heated. Accordingly, in order to achieve even a relatively small amount of lens displacement (e.g., 0.5 cm), Chen requires a zoom lens assembly to include a relatively long unit of shape memory alloy (e.g., 5 cm). Additionally, the heating and cooling of the shape memory alloy can be a relatively slow and power consuming process. Finally, the shape memory alloys in Chen tend to exhibit hysteresis characteristics that may limit the precision with which they may displace the lenses in a zoom lens assembly.
The need exists for techniques and technologies that overcome some or all of the above problems, as well as ones that provide additional benefits. Overall, the examples herein of some prior or related technologies and their associated limitations are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of existing or prior technologies will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading the following Detailed Description.

Zoom lens assembly controlled by shape memory material


A printing apparatus on a print support includes a print head to print on said print support a print material; a feed device to feed the print material to the print head; and a recirculating unit to generate a recirculation of the print material through the print head and having a first container of the print material placed upstream of the print head, a second container of the print material placed downstream of the print head, a first recirculating sub-unit to generate a first flow of the print material from the first container to the print head and the second container, and a second recirculating sub-unit to transfer the print material from the second container to the first container, wherein the first and second containers are both maintained under two distinct negative pressures.

Printing apparatuses are known that operate according to a so-called ink recirculation system. In this kind of printer, the ink is recirculated between two ink tanks passing through the print head in a channel tangent to the nozzles. The flow of ink along the nozzles generates by a sort of Venturi effect a depression which acts on an ink meniscus which bounds up in the nozzles due to the surface tension of the ink. In its basic configuration, this printer comprises at least a tank for a print material, like a dye, paint, or enhancing materials. In particular, printing apparatuses are known having a plurality of tanks, each dedicated to a distinct color, paint or enhancing material.
The print material, taken from the tank, is channeled to a recirculating unit, which circulates the print material through a print head. In the art, the fact that print material recirculation is necessary is known, primarily for balancing the ink meniscus in order to be maintained inside the nozzle opening and also due to the tendency of sundry print materials to settle and/or sediment, becoming unusable for print, and requiring a downtime for cleaning the printing machine and providing it with new print material.
Application EP2875956A1 by the same applicant describes a printing apparatus comprising a print head for printing a print material on a print support, and a recirculating unit of the print material. The recirculating unit comprises a first container, a second container, a first recirculating device to generate a first stream of said print material from said first container toward said print head and said second container, and a second recirculating device to transfer the print material from the second container to the first container. In particular, the first container of the print material is maintained under atmospheric pressure, while the second container is maintained under negative pressure, i.e. a pressure lower than atmospheric pressure.
Print heads have different requirements in terms of print material flow control; in use, it was shown that not all print heads can be used with the recirculating system described in EP2875956A1. Indeed, particularly for special ink formulations such as ceramic inks or inks comprising heavy particulate components the flow of recirculating ink which passes through the print head needs to be maintained slow in relation to traditional ink recirculation systems. Furthermore, the channel for the ink in the print head has to be maintained negative otherwise the ink will flow out of the nozzles of the print head. As disclosed in EP2875956A1 the recirculation of the ink inside the print head is caused by providing two ink tanks respectively connected to an entrance and to the output of the ink channel in the print head e pressure being applied to the ink in each tank in such a way to generate a pressure difference which drives the ink flow from one tank to the other. In printers in which the print head is displaced at least along one direction in relation to the area to be coated, the speed of the print head is about 1 m/sec, and the ink in the tank is subjected to rapid accelerations and decelerations which causes fluctuations of the pressure in each tank, and thus in the flow rate. This condition further renders the setting of the pressure difference between the two tanks of the recirculation system a particularly critical aspect of the ink recirculation system.
Considering slow recirculation flow ink systems, the need of not applying a positive over pressure in relation to the atmospheric pressure in one of the tanks limits the possibility of setting pressures in the two tanks which allows generating slow flow rates or speeds of ink through the print head. One tank needs indeed not to overcome the atmospheric pressure, so that for setting a pressure difference for obtaining a slow recirculation flow the negative pressure in the other tank will be very close to the atmospheric pressure, rendering the setting more critical. Furthermore, a reduced pressure difference between the two tanks renders the ink pressure and thus the ink flow less stable relatively to the pressure fluctuations introduced by the print head displacement with rapid accelerations and decelerations.
Moreover, it is worthwhile noting that print materials are often emulsions, and a too energetic recirculation can lead to a separation of emulsion phases, in a way conceptually not different from what occurs in the production of butter through cream churning. After using the apparatus described in EP2875956A1 with a plurality of print materials, the applicant noted that in some cases said recirculating unit can lead to an undesired separation of the phases of some print materials.
Documents U.S. Pat. No. 8,408,685, EP1831025 discloses printing apparatus operating according the ink recirculation system. In these documents two tanks or a tank divided into two separate parts is provided which tanks or tank parts are respectively connected to the input and to the output port of an ink flow through channel of the print head. Pressure or depression generating means are provided for applying a depression to one of the tank and a positive pressure to the other tank in order to generate the pressure difference between the two tanks driving the ink to flow from one tank to the other through the print head.

Printing apparatus and corresponding method


A well region is provided on a doped semiconductor layer. A resistor element is formed on the well region and a fixed voltage level is applied. A parasitic capacitance is formed between the well region and the resistor and a noise generated at one end of the resistor is compensated for or filtered by the parasitic capacitance.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device including a resistance element as its component, and particularly to circuitry in which erroneous operation due to noise in the resistance element region can be prevented as well as to its layout. More particularly, the present invention relates to a structure for improving noise immunity of an internal power supply voltage generating circuit in a semiconductor memory device.
2. Description of the Background Art
In a semiconductor device, resistance elements are employed in various portions for regulation and/or generation of voltage and current. As an example of circuitry utilizing resistance elements, consideration is made on a voltage down converter in a dynamic random access memory (DRAM). This internal voltage down converter down-converts an external supply voltage internally to produce an internal supply voltage lower than the external supply voltage. By utilizing the supply voltage which has been internally down-converted, compatibility with memories of earlier generations is maintained while commaring breakdown voltage characteristics of the elements which have been miniaturized as storage capacity has been made larger.
FIG. 13 schematically shows an entire structure of a conventional dynamic random access memory. Referring to FIG. 13, a dynamic random access memory 1 includes an internal voltage down converter 3 for receiving and down-converting an external supply voltage extVcc applied externally to terminal 2 so as to produce an internal supply voltage intVcc, a control circuit 4 operating with internal supply voltage intVcc from internal voltage down converter 3 as its one operational supply voltage to perform controls required for selection of a memory cell and writing/reading of data in accordance with externally applied signals, and a memory array 5 including a plurality of dynamic type memory cells arranged in a matrix.
Control circuit 4 receives a row address strobe signal /RAS for instructing the start of memory cell row selecting operation, a column address strobe signal /CAS for instructing the start of memory cell column selecting operation of memory array 5, a write enable signal /WE for designating data writing operation, an output enable signal /OE for instructing data output, and an address signal An.
Memory array 5 also includes various peripheral circuits such as a sense amplifier provided corresponding to each of the memory columns for sensing and amplifying memory cell data on a corresponding column, a decoder for decoding address signals applied from control circuit 4 to select a memory cell row and a memory cell column of memory array 5, a column selecting gate for connecting the selected column to internal data bus (not shown explicitly), and an equalizing/precharging circuit for precharging and equalizing each of the memory cell columns at a prescribed potential. These peripheral circuits of the memory array are also operated with internal supply voltage intVcc from internal voltage down converter 3 as one operational supply voltage.
Dynamic random access memory 1 further includes an input circuit 6 operating with internal supply voltage intVcc from internal voltage down converter 3 as its one operational supply voltage for producing internal write data from external write data DQn applied to data input/output terminal 7 under the control of control circuit 4 for writing into a selected memory cell of memory array 5, and an output circuit 8 operating with internal supply voltage intVcc as one operational supply voltage for converting the data of selected memory cell of memory array 5 into external read out data at the level of external supply voltage extVcc under the control of control circuit 4 and outputting it to data input/output terminal 7.
In this dynamic random access memory 1, when row address strobe signal /RAS is changed to an active state of L level, with address signal An applied currently used as the row address a row selecting operation at memory array 5 is performed and data of the memory cells connected to the selected row are sensed, amplified and latched by sense amplifiers. Then, when column address strobe signal /CAS is driven to L level of active state, column selecting operation is started in memory array 5 according to address signal An applied currently. When write enable signal /WE is at L level in an active state, input circuit 6 is activated, internal write data is produced from data DQn applied to data input/output terminal 7 to be written into the memory cell arranged corresponding to intersection of the selected row and the selected column of memory array 5. Upon activation of output enable signal /OE, output circuit 8 is activated and data of the selected memory cell of memory array 5 is converted to the level of external supply voltage extVcc to be output to data input/output terminal 7.
Internal voltage down converter 3 includes a reference voltage generating circuit 10 for generating a constant reference voltage Vref having no dependency on external supply voltage extVcc from external supply voltage extVcc when this external supply voltage extVcc is at a prescribed voltage level, and an internal voltage generating circuit 12 for producing internal supply voltage intVcc from external supply voltage extVcc in accordance with reference voltage Vref generated from this reference voltage generating circuit 10. Internal voltage generating circuit 12 produces internal supply voltage intVcc having a level substantially equal to the level of this reference voltage Vref on internal power supply line 13.
FIG. 14 shows an example of a specific structure of reference voltage generating circuit 10 and internal voltage generating circuit 12 in internal voltage down converter 3 of FIG. 13. Referring to FIG. 14, reference voltage generating circuit 10 includes a constant current generating circuit 10a coupled between power supply node 2a supplied with external supply voltage extVcc and a ground node for generating a constant current i0 having no dependency on this external supply voltage extVcc, and a constant voltage generating circuit 10b connected between power supply node 2a and the ground node for converting constant current i0 from constant current generating circuit 10a into voltage to generate a constant reference voltage Vref having no dependency on external supply voltage extVcc.
Internal voltage generating circuit 12 compares this reference voltage Vref with internal supply voltage intVcc on internal power supply line 13, supplies current from power supply node 2a to internal power supply line 13 according to the result of comparison, holds internal supply voltage intVcc at the level of reference voltage Vref.
Constant current generating circuit 10a includes a resistance element R0 of high resistance connected between power supply node 2a and node N1; a p channel MOS transistor Q1 having one conduction node (source) connected to power supply node 2a, the other conduction node (drain) connected to node N2 and a control gate connected to node N1; a p channel MOS transistor Q2 having one conduction node connected to node N1, the other conduction node connected to node N3 and a control gate connected to node N2; an n channel MOS transistor Q3 having one conduction node (drain) connected to node N2, the other conduction node connected to the ground node and a control gate connected to power supply node 2a; and an n channel MOS transistor Q4 having its one conduction node and control gate connected to node N3 and the other conduction node connected to the ground node.
The channel length of L of MOS transistor Q3 is made sufficiently longer than that of MOS transistor Q1, and current driving capability of MOS transistor Q3 is made sufficiently smaller than that of MOS transistor Q1. Resistance element R0 has a large resistance value such as several hundred K.OMEGA. to 1M.OMEGA.. Operation of this constant current generating circuit will now be described in the following.
When power supply voltage extVcc is applied externally and its voltage level is made higher to cause current to flow through resistance element R0, voltage drop occurs across this resistance element R0. Node N1 is connected to the control gate of p channel MOS transistor Q1. Accordingly, when the voltage drop across this resistance element R0 exceeds the absolute value of threshold voltage of MOS transistor Q1, this MOS transistor Q1 is rendered conductive, so that current flows from power supply node 2a through MOS transistors Q1 and Q3.
As described above, MOS transistor Q3 has its channel length L sufficiently long and its current driving capability sufficiently smaller than that of MOS transistor Q1. Meanwhile, node N2 is connected to the control gate of p channel MOS transistor Q2 which also supplies current from resistance element R0 to MOS transistor Q4 according to the potential at node N2. Resistance element R0 is a resistor formed of, for example, polycrystalline silicon layer and has a high resistance value. The current flowing to MOS transistors Q2 and Q4 is sufficiently small.
When the potential at node N1 is made higher, the conductance of MOS transistor Q1 is reduced, which leads to reduction in amount of current flowing to node N2. Then, the potential at node N2 is lowered, and the conductance of MOS transistor Q2 is made higher, so that large amount of current is caused to flow and the potential at node N1 is made lower. On the contrary, when the potential at node N1 is made lower, the conductance of MOS transistor Q1 is made higher so that the potential at node N2 is increased and the amount of current flowing through MOS transistor Q2 is reduced. Owing to this feedback operation of MOS transistors Q1 and Q2, the current flowing to MOS transistors Q1 and Q2 is made constant. Since the current driving capability of MOS transistor Q3 is sufficiently small, the voltage between the gate and the source of this MOS transistor Q1 is established at Vth(p). Here, Vth(p) represents the absolute value of the threshold voltage of each of MOS transistors Q1 and Q2. That is, a potential of node N1 would be extVcc-Vth(p). Accordingly, current i0 flowing through resistance element R1 would be expressed as: EQU i0=Vth(p)/R0
where the resistance value of resistance element R0 is indicated by an identical reference character R0. This resistance value R0 is, as has been mentioned before, as high as several hundred K.OMEGA. to 1M.OMEGA.. Also, current i0 is of a sufficiently low value. Source-gate voltage of MOS transistor Q2 would be Vth(p). Thus, potential V(N2) of node N2 would be represented in the following expression: EQU V(N2)=V(N1)-Vth(p)=extVcc-2.multidot.Vth(p)
where V(N1) indicates the voltage of node N1. Accordingly, source-drain voltage of p channel MOS transistor Q1 is a constant voltage 2.multidot.Vth(p) having no dependency on external supply voltage extVcc. Similarly, the gate-source voltages of MOS transistors Q1 and Q2 would also be constant voltage (Vth(p)) having no dependency on external power supply voltage extVcc. Accordingly, the difference between the voltage of node N1 and external supply voltage extVcc of power supply node 2a would also be of a constant value of Vth(p). Current i0=Vth(p)/R0 flowing through this resistance element R0 and MOS transistors Q2 and Q4 would also be constant. Thus, constant current having no dependency on external supply voltage extVcc is obtained.
Constant voltage generating circuit 10b includes an n channel MOS transistor Q5 connected between node N4 and a ground node and having its gate connected to node N3, a p channel MOS transistor Q6 connected between power supply node 2a and node N4 and having its control gate connected to node N4, a p channel MOS transistor Q7 connected between power supply node 2a and node N5 and having its gate connected to node N4, and a resistance element R1 connected between node N5 and the ground node. Reference voltage Vref is output from node N5. Operation of this constant voltage generating circuit 10b will now be described in the following.
MOS transistors Q4 and Q5 form a current mirror circuit. If they have the same size (i.e., ratio of channel length to channel width), the current flowing to MOS transistor Q5 would be of the same magnitude as the current i0 flowing through MOS transistor Q4. MOS transistors Q6 and Q7 form a current mirror circuit. If they have the same size, the current flowing through these MOS transistors Q6 and Q7 would be of same magnitude. Current i0 flows to MOS transistor Q5, and then through MOS transistor Q6, and accordingly, to MOS transistor Q7. Assuming that the resistance value of resistance element R1 is expressed as R1, voltage generated at node n5 is i0.multidot.R1. Therefore, reference voltage Vref output from this node N5 is represented by the following expression. EQU Vref=i0.multidot.R1=Vth(p).multidot.R1/R0
As is clearly understood from the above expression, this reference voltage Vref is determined by the resistance value of resistance elements R0 and R1 as well as threshold voltages of MOS transistors Q1 and Q2, and is at a constant voltage level having no dependency on external supply voltage extVcc. The internal voltage generating circuit generates internal supply voltage intVcc according to this reference voltage Vref.
Internal voltage generating circuit 12 includes an n channel MOS transistor Q8 connected between node N6 and node N8 and receiving reference voltage Vref at its gate, an n channel MOS transistor Q9 connected between node N7 and node N8 and having its gate connected to internal power supply line 13, a p channel MOS transistor Q10 connected between power supply node 2a and node N6 and having its gate connected to node N7, a p channel MOS transistor Q11 connected between power supply node 2a and node N7 and having its gate connected to node N7, an n channel MOS transistor Q12 connected between node N8 and the ground node and receiving an activation signal .phi. at its gate, and a p channel MOS transistor Q13 connected between power supply node 2a and internal power supply line 13 and having its gate connected to node N6. Activation signal .phi. is activated when the dynamic random access memory is in an active state, that is, when the memory cell selecting operation is being performed. Operation of this internal voltage generating circuit 12 will now be described in the following.
MOS transistors Q8 and Q9 form a differential comparison stage. When internal supply voltage intVcc on internal power supply line 13 is higher than reference voltage Vref, MOS transistor Q9 would have a conductance higher than that of MOS transistor Q8 and the current flowing through it would be larger than the current flowing through MOS transistor Q8. Current is supplied to this MOS transistor Q9 via MOS transistor Q11. MOS transistors Q11 and Q10 form a current mirror circuit in which the current flowing through MOS transistor Q10 is of the same magnitude as the current flowing through MOS transistor Q11. Accordingly, in this state, MOS transistor Q8 cannot discharge all of the current supplied via MOS transistor Q10, the potential of node N6 is made higher, the gate potential of MOS transistor Q13 is made higher, and MOS transistor Q13 would supply smaller amount of current or would supply no current.
On the contrary, when internal supply voltage intVcc is lower than reference voltage Vref, the conductance of MOS transistor Q8 would be larger than the conductance to MOS transistor Q9. In this case, conversely, MOS transistor Q8 will discharge all of the current supplied via MOS transistor Q10 to lower the potential of node N6, and thus MOS transistor Q13 would have a larger conductance and would supply current from power supply node 2a to internal power supply line 13 so as to raise internal supply voltage intVcc on internal power supply line 13. Therefore, upon operation of internal voltage generating circuit 12, the level of internal supply voltage intVcc is maintained at the level of reference voltage Vref.
During standby, activation signal .phi. is at L level in an inactive state, and MOS transistor Q12 is turned off. This internal voltage generating circuit 12 is inactivated, changes the voltage level of node N6 to the level of external supply voltage extVcc, and turns off MOS transistor Q13.
FIG. 15A schematically shows a two-dimensional layout of resistance element R0 included in constant current circuit 10a. As is shown in FIG. 15, resistance element R0 includes a plurality of first resistance portions Ra extending in the vertical direction in the drawing, and second resistance portions Rb for alternately connecting one-side ends of the adjacent first resistance portions Ra. The opposite ends of resistance element R0 are electrically connected to power supply node and node N1 respectively via contact holes Na and Nb. Resistance element R0 is formed of polycrystalline silicon. In this resistor using polycrystalline silicon, its sheet resistance is relatively low. Accordingly, in order to form a large resistance value ranging from several hundreds of K.OMEGA. to several M.OMEGA. required in the constant current circuit within a limited small area, the plurality of first resistance portions Ra having small line width are arranged in parallel and are electrically connected in an alternating manner to form a zigzag shape so that the entire length of this resistance element R0 would be equivalently increased so as to implement a high resistance value.
FIG. 15B is a schematic diagram of a cross sectional structure taken along line 15A--15A of FIG. 15A. Normally, such resistance element R0 is formed on a semiconductor substrate P-SUB with a field insulating film FD having a large thickness therebetween, in order to reduce the parasitic capacitance between the element and the substrate. Semiconductor substrate P-SUB is a P type semiconductor layer which is normally fixed at the level of bias voltage VBB of negative potential.
In this structure shown in FIG. 15B, parasitic capacitance Cp is formed between each of first resistance portions Ra and semiconductor substrate P-SUB. Although not shown in FIG. 15B, second resistance portion Rb has a parasitic capacitance to semiconductor substrate P-SUB. When the resistance value of this resistance element R0 is high and its entire length is made longer, the value of combined parasitic capacitance Cpara of this parasitic capacitance Cp is increased to an unnegligible value. The following is a description on the influence of this parasitic capacitance Cpara to the operation of the circuitry.
FIG. 16A shows how parasitic capacitance Cpara is connected in constant current generating circuit 10a. Although parasitic capacitance Cpara is arranged dispersedly over resistance element R0, it is shown equivalently as one combined parasitic capacitance Cpara in FIG. 16A.
Now, the operation of constant current generating circuit 10a shown in FIG. 16A during the rise in external supply voltage extVcc is described with reference to the waveforms shown in FIG. 16B.
Until time t0, external supply voltage extVcc is stabilized at the level of voltage V1. Under this state, the potential of node N1 is V1-Vth(p) as has been already described. Accordingly, current i0 flowing through resistance element R0 is expressed as follows. EQU i0=(extVcc-V(N1))/R0=Vth(p)/R0
Reference voltage Vref produced by constant current i0 is also maintained at a prescribed voltage level.
At time t0, external supply voltage extVcc starts rising and attains the level of voltage V2 at time t1. When parasitic capacitance Cpara is not present, the potential of node N1 is increased in accordance with the rise of this external supply voltage extVcc with a constant difference (Vth(p)) as shown by a solid line in FIG. 16B. However, since parasitic capacitance Cpara is present with respect to resistance element R0, increase in potential at node N1 is moderate in accordance with time constant determined by resistance element R0 and the capacitance value of parasitic capacitor Cpara, as shown by broken line in FIG. 16B.
During the period between time t0 to time t1, voltage across resistance element R0 between power supply node 2a and node N1 is made higher than voltage Vth(p). Therefore, in this state, current i0 is increased (since extVcc-V(N1)>Vth(p)), and accordingly, the level of reference voltage Vref is also made higher. Reference voltage Vref is made higher in accordance with this rise of external supply voltage extVcc, and the level of internal supply voltage intVcc is also raised correspondingly.
A transistor of miniaturized internal circuitry is operated according to this internal supply voltage intVcc, and therefore, a problem arises in which the breakdown voltage characteristics of the components of the internal circuitry is degraded. In addition, since the signal amplitude of this internal circuitry changes corresponding to the increased internal power supply voltage, there would be a problem that power dissipation is increased. Moreover, the MOS transistor (insulating gate type field effect transistor) which is a component of the internal circuitry would have its gate potential increased according to increase in this internal power supply voltage intVcc (since the voltage level of the internal signal is made higher) so that operation speed is also changed, changing the timing of defining of the internal signals and leading to a possibility of erroneous operation in the internal circuitry.
When external power supply voltage extVcc is made constant at the level of voltage V2 at time t1, the difference between this external power supply voltage extVcc and the voltage at node N1 is gradually reduced, the current value of constant current i0 is also gradually reduced to finally attain a desired current value (Vth(p))/R0, and accordingly, reference voltage Vref is also recovered to a prescribed voltage level.
Similarly, when the level of external power supply voltage extVcc is lowered, reduction rate in the voltage at node N1 is made moderate. The voltage across resistance element R0 is reduced to be lower than a prescribed voltage level Vth(p), and according to this reduction, the value of constant current i0 is reduced to be lower than a predetermined value. According to this reduction, reference voltage Vref is also lowered, and internal power supply voltage intVcc is also lowered. Accordingly, in this state, there occurs a possibility that the internal circuitry may perform an erroneous operation due to a bump of internal power supply voltage.
When polycrystalline silicon resistor is employed for resistance element R0 as described above, its large parasitic capacitance degrades the response characteristics for variation of external supply voltage extVcc of constant current generating circuit and the internal supply voltage may be varied through this variation in the constant current.
This problem of response characteristics being degraded by the parasitic capacitance accompanying the resistance element occurs not only with the resistance element connected to a source of the constant voltage such as external power supply voltage as described above, but also with a resistance element generally provided in a signal propagating path. In this case, the signal cannot be conducted with high speed, and fast operation is inhibited.
In addition, a low pass filter formed of resistance element and a capacitor is generally used in order to prevent such influence of the noise, but when such a low pass filter is employed, the capacitor requires a relatively large layout area, although it is desirable to reduce the area occupied by this capacitor as much as possible from the aspect of integration.

Semiconductor device including resistance element with superior noise immunity


The invention relates to a method for the production of biodiesel and biodiesel precursor.

The invention relates to a method for the production of biodiesel and biodiesel precursor.
Due to their neutral carbon dioxide balance and improved production processes biodiesel attracts increasing attention as an alternative to conventional petrochemical diesel fuel. In some countries, e.g. within the European Union, diesel fuel must contain a defined amount of biodiesel.
Biodiesel is derived from triglycerides by a transesterification or alcoholysis reaction in which one mole of triglyceride reacts with three moles of alcohol to form one mole of glycerol and three moles of the respective fatty acid alkyl ester. The process is a sequence of three reversible reactions, in which the triglyceride in a step by step reaction is transformed into diglyceride, monoglyceride and glycerol. In each step one mole of alcohol is consumed and one mole of the corresponding fatty acid ester is produced. In most processes performed on industrial scale, methanol is used as the alcohol. However, also biodiesel comprising an ethyl or propyl fatty acid ester is commercially available. In order to shift the equilibrium towards the fatty acid alkyl ester side, the alcohol, in particular methanol, is added in an excess over the stoichiometric amount in most commercial biodiesel production plants. A further advantage of the methanolysis of triglycerides is that during the reaction glycerol and fatty acid methyl ester is produced as the main products, which are hardly miscible and thus form separate phases with an upper ester phase and a lower glycerol phase. By removing glycerol from the reaction mixture a high conversion rate may be achieved.
Details to the manufacturing of Biodiesel may be found at M. Mittelbach, C. Remschmidt, "Biodiesel The comprehensive Handbook", Graz, 2004; ISBN 3-200-00249-2.
To achieve a defined combustion of the biodiesel it is necessary to decrease the amount of residual mono-, di-, and triglycerides as well as of soaps and glycerol as far as possible. According to DIN EN 14214, biodiesel may contain up to 0.2 wt.-% monoglycerides, up to 0.8 wt.-% diglycerides and up to 0.2 wt.-% triglycerides. In usual practice therefore a water wash is performed to remove soaps as well as residual methanol, glycerol and mono- and diglycerides.
As biodiesel is produced from natural raw materials the concentrations of impurities as well as their composition are varying within wide ranges. This could lead to difficulties during the production of biodiesel. Often smaller amounts of fine precipitations are built which may lead e.g. to filter plugging when biodiesel is cooled down to ambient temperature after production or when stored over a longer period of time. One kind of substances which lead to precipitations in biodiesel produced by transesterification of vegetable oil are glycosides and especially sterylglycosides. Sterines are steroids deriving from cholesterine which have a hydroxyl group only at the position C-3, but apart from that do not have any functional group. Mostly they show a double binding in the 5/6 position, more seldom also in positions 7/8 or 8/9. Formally they represent alcohols and therefore are often designed as sterols. Naturally occurring sterylglycosides often comprise—beside the glycoside bound sterine—a fatty acid with which the primary hydroxyl group of the sugar is acylated. Therefore they are very well soluble in vegetable and animal oils and fats. These non-acylated sterylglycosides are nearly insoluble in biodiesel. Therefore they are present as very fine floating particles which can for instance act as germs for the crystallisation of other compounds. Consequently, difficulties caused for example by monoglycerides still present in the biodiesel can be reinforced. Non-acylated sterylglycosides in very small concentrations can already lead to precipitation of solid aggregates from the biodiesel. At room temperature concentrations in a two-digit ppm range can already cause the formation of turbidities in the biodiesel. Non-acylated sterylglycosides show a very high melting point of around 240° C. Therefore, turbidities or precipitations caused by non-acylated sterylglycosides cannot be simply solved by heating up the biodiesel to a higher temperature. When there are already deposits on the filter, the filter will be completely plugged within a short time when non-acylated sterylglycosides are present in the biodiesel.
After the production process the biodiesel is finally investigated. When it is stated that the test with respect to the filter plugging is not passed, because the actually final biodiesel still contains small amounts of non-acylated sterylglycoside, this biodiesel cannot be released.
A process, known from the state of the art, for the separation of components as for example sterylglycosides from biodiesel, is based on cooling down the crude biodiesel to low temperatures and subsequent filtration. Alternatively, the precipitation deriving from sterylglycosides can be removed by centrifugation. These processes, however, are very time and work-intensive.
Another critical contamination of the biodiesel is phosphorous in the organically bound form. It is introduced into the biodiesel by phosphatides (phospholipids). The current European legislation (EN 14 214) limits the P content of the final biodiesel to 4 ppm. In addition, it is to be expected that the limit for phosphor and also sterylglycosides will be further decreased.
In the current biodiesel production the phosphatides are removed at the stage of the oil. This means that the producers of biodiesel need either to employ/purchase oil with a low phosphatide content or to pre-treat the oils. The removal of the phosphatides from the edible oil is called degumming. This process as currently practised within the state of the art involves the treatment of the crude oil with water and/or an aqueous acid. This treatment will, however, not sufficiently remove the phosphor-compounds to obtain an oil which is—after a biodiesel production process—already compliant with the current EU norm EN 14214.
Adsorbents for the phosphatide removal and the reduction of metal ions from vegetable oils are already available on the market, as for example a silica gel based adsorbent of the company Grace which is sold under the brand name Trisyl®. Furthermore bleaching earth based adsorbents are available on the market from Süd-Chemie AG, Moosburg.
The patent EP 0185182 B1 (equivalent to U.S. Pat. No. 4,629,588) from Grace describes an amorphous silica gel with pore diameters between 60 and 5000 Å being suitable for the removal of metal traces from triglycerides. Here it is especially pointed to the application in soybean oil.
In a series of further patents Trisyl® is now combined with other adsorbents resp. the amorphous silicium is combined with other patents resp. further surface modified. So, the patent EP 340717 A2 from Grace describes a two-phase (two-step) adsorption resp. treatment of vegetable oil, whereby the oil is contacted with an amorphous silica gel in the first step in order to remove the phospholipids and soaps. In a second step it is conducted through a packed bed of bleaching earth in order to remove the pigments (coloured bodies). Other patents covering the use of silica in degumming are EP 295418 B1 from Grace, EP 507217 A1 from Grace and EP 0507424 A1 from Grace.
The consequences of the sterylglycoside content on the quality of biodiesel and the analytics of sterylglycosides are described e.g. in: Identification and Occurrence of Steryl Glycosides in Palm and Soy Biodiesel, V. van Hoed et al., J. A, Oil Chem. Soc. (2008) 85, 701-709, in: The Identification and Quantification of Steryl Glycosides in Precipitates from Commercial Biodiesel, R. A. Moreau, K. M. Scott, M. J. Haas, J. Am. Oil. Chem. Soc. (2008) 85, 761-770 and in Fuel properties and precipitate formation at low temperature in soy-, cottonseed-, and poultry fat-based biodiesel blends, Tang, H. et al., Fuel 87 (2008) 3006-3017. Additional details can be found in the Patent WO 2010102952 (A1) from Novozymes.
Sterylglycosides are glycosides from a sterol, e.g. sitosterol and a sugar, e.g. glucose. In plant tissues and in vegetable oils, sterylglycosides occur naturally in both free sterylglycosides (FSG) and acylated sterylglycosides (ASG) forms. In the latter, the 6-position of the sugar is esterified with a long chain fatty acid. Under alkaline conditions, this ester bond between the glucose and the fatty acid is broken, and an acylated sterylglycoside is converted into its free form. Such a side reaction occurs during transesterification, resulting in an increased FSG concentration in biodiesel in comparison to their initial amount in the feedstock oil.
Modern engines feature a sophisticated design involving fine openings for fuel injection, protected by dedicated filters. The content of insoluble contaminants in biodiesel is a closely monitored parameter, since an excess of them might cause operational problems in vehicles due to clogging of the engine filters.
Excessive sedimentation may occur in biodiesel well above its cloud point. This phenomenon is frequently detected in soy and palm biodiesel and induces a number of undesired consequences at both the production and quality control stages. In the beginning of crystallization a cloud of tiny particles is dispersed through the entire volume of the biodiesel. It causes a hazy appearance of the product, marked by the loss of transparency and brilliancy. As sedimentation progresses, deposits are formed on the bottom of biodiesel storage tanks. In particular cases the haze manifests itself within a short time delay after biodisel production and at rather high temperatures (60° C.). Then the progress equipment upstream of the tank farm is affected, and frequent maintenance of fouling heat exchangers and centrifuges may be necessary. As a result, the haze impedes the product from meeting the requirements on contamination/filterability according to the biodiesel quality standards, e.g. European norm EN14214 and ASTM D6751 adopted in the US.
Recently, the problem of deposits on plugged vehicles filters was linked to the presence of free sterylglycosides (FSG) in blended fuel systems.
Accordingly, the removal of sterylglycosides from biodiesel is therefore often necessary and a few methods based on filtering or adsorption are indicated in WO 2007/076163 which describes a process for treating biodiesel by contacting it with a compound being capable of removing sterylglycosides from the biodiesel by adsorption; US 2007/0175091 which describes a method for removing impurities from biodiesel comprising: (a) converting a feedstock into biodiesel having a temperature exceeding 98° C.; (b) cooling the biodiesel to a temperature range sufficient to form particulates of impurities; and (c) filtering the cooled biodiesel to remove the particulates; and WO 2008/051984 which describes a method of passing a biodiesel stream through a filter having a molecular weight cut-off of less than 1,000,000 g/mol.
However, these methods of physically removing sterylglycosides are associated with a yield loss of biodiesel. Therefore there is still a need for alternative processes to remove sterylglycosides from biodiesel with low yield-loss, to provide products that are able to meet the biodiesel quality standards on contamination and filterability and which do not suffer from fuel filter plugging problems.
One alternative are enzymatic processes for biodiesel treatment as described e.g. in WO 2009106360 A2, the other is to remove the sterylglycosides already from the vegetable oil together with the degumming.
The publication "Glycolipids of the Recovered Palm Oil from Spent Earth in the Physical Refining Process" by M. Yamaoka, P. Jenvanitpanjakul, A. Tanaka, J. Jpn. Oil Chem. Soc. Vol. 38, No. 7 (1989), pp 572 describes the enrichment of glycolipids in spent bleaching earth.
For the efficiency of the entire production process of biodiesel from edible oil, it is a drawback to remove phosphatides in oil in a first step and—at a later stage and in a second step after the production of biodiesel—to lower the content of sterylglycosides in the biodiesel. Therefore the entire process would be much more efficient if at the stage of the oil the sterylglycosides could be removed together with the phosphatides in one step. Further, in case there would be a possibility to remove non-acylated but also acylated sterylglycosides from the crude oil, no formation of new non-acylated sterylglycosides would take place during the biodiesel production process.

Method for biodiesel and biodiesel precursor production


A method of introducing conjugated caps onto molecular fragments is described. A first molecule may be decomposed or cut into molecular fragments. Molecular caps may then be introduced in the form of conjugated caps onto the molecular fragments at the decomposition points to form molecular portions. The interaction energy between the molecular portion and a second molecule can then be calculated. This scheme, termed molecular fractionation with conjugated caps, makes it possible and practical to carry out full quantum mechanical (ab initio) calculation of intermolecular interaction energies involving molecules, such as proteins or other biological molecules.

A grand challenge in computational chemistry and biology is the accurate quantum mechanical calculation of interaction energies for molecules, especially larger biological molecules such as proteins. Due to a larger number of atoms, standard full quantum mechanical or ab initio calculation of intermolecular interaction energy is beyond computational reach. Currently, most theoretical studies of biological molecules employed classical force fields that are built on pair-wise atomic interaction potentials. Despite the success of classical force field methods in many applications, they still have significant limitations and quantum mechanical calculations of interaction energies are often required, e.g., in studying enzyme reactions.
Recently, a popular approach to applying quantum mechanical calculation to biological molecules is the hybrid quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) approach in which one combines quantum mechanical methods with molecular force fields for large molecules. In this hybrid QM/MM approach, one employs quantum mechanical or ab initio methods such as Hartree-Fock (HF) or density functional theory (DFT) methods to treat a small subsystem while using molecular force fields to treat the larger part of the system such as solvent molecules. However, the QM/MM approach cannot provide a proper description of the interface between the QM and MM regions because QM and MM approach are inherently incompatible with each other.
Currently, there are two basic approaches to solving this problem: the link atom approach or its variants and the local self-consistent field (LSCF) method, both of which use strictly localized bond orbitals for the bonds between QM and MM atoms. Despite the progress in these approaches in solving the interface problem, some artifacts still exists in applications of QM/MM methods.
Another approach for calculation of large systems is the linear scaling approach in which the large system is divided into small subsystems and the calculation of the large system is performed for each subsystem individually. The linear scaling approach is based on the local property of the interaction because the effect of energy perturbation in one area is generally localized within its vicinity and decays rapidly going away from it. In this approach, the divide-and-conquer (DAC) and similar methods are commonly employed in theoretical calculations. Although these methods scale linearly with the size of the 2 system, applications are currently limited to calculations using semi-empirical methods for proteins. Ab initio calculations of biological molecules using HF or DFT methods are not feasible.
There is thus a need for developing a practical and efficient full quantum mechanical method for calculating interaction energies of molecules such as proteins. This invention answers that need.

Method for introducing conjugated caps onto molecular fragments and systems and methods for using the same to determine inter-molecular interaction energies


A sheath apparatus includes, a plurality of node rings configured to be tilted with respect to each other, each node ring defining a substantially cylindrical wall and having at least one hole passing through said cylindrical wall, the plurality of node rings being arranged next to each other along a linear axis such that consecutive node rings contact each other at a contact plane; a manipulating wire going through the holes in said stacked node rings; and a position restoring component configured to restore said stacked node rings from a tilted position to an original position, wherein said position restoring component is located inside or outside of the stacked node rings.

1. Field
The disclosure of this application relates generally to medical devices and in particular to an articulated sheath applicable to remote robotic manipulation of surgical tools and instruments, such as endoscopes.
2. Related Art
Endoscopic surgical instruments and tools are well known and continue to gain acceptance in the medical field. An endoscopic instrument or tool generally includes a rigid or flexible tube commonly referred to as a sleeve or sheath. One or more channels extend along (typically inside) the sheath to allow access to end effectors located at a distal end of the sheath. Control mechanisms located at a proximal end of the sheath are configured to enable remote manipulation of the end effectors via the one or more channels. Accordingly, the mechanical structure of the sheath plays a key role in ensuring flexible access to end effectors, while protecting delicate organs and tissues of a patient. As used herein and elsewhere in the art of endoscopic medical devices, the term "end effector" refers to the actual working part of a surgical instrument or tool.
Endoscopic surgical tools may include clamps, graspers, scissors, staplers, needle holders, and other like tools, which serve to manipulate body parts (organs or tissue) during examination or surgery. Endoscopic instruments primarily include a light delivery system which serves to illuminate a body part under inspection, and an imaging system which serves to observe the body part under inspection. In a typical endoscopic light delivery system, the light source is located outside the patient's body and the light is delivered via an optical fiber system. In an endoscopic imaging system, an objective lens located at the distal end of the sheath transmits the image, formed by collected light, via a bundle of optical fibers to a viewing device or sensor located at the proximal end of the sheath. An example of a surgical endoscopic instrument includes a laparoscope, but many more exist.
Current endoscopic technology endeavors to reduce the amount of negative side effects and increase patient comfort, by providing minimally invasive surgery (MIS). However, one of the major shortcomings in the current state of the art of endoscopic tools is the lack of dexterity and sensitivity offered to health professionals (endoscopists and surgeons) who perform endoscopic procedures.
In particular, many conventional endoscopic instruments with rigid or flexible sheaths prevent the surgeon or endoscopist from easily maneuvering endoscopic tools and instruments due to the rigidity of the mechanical structure of the sheath. More importantly, rigid or flexible sheaths prevent the surgeon from obtaining an accurate feeling (feedback feeling) of the amount of pressure or force exerted by an end effector on the organ or tissue under inspection or operation.
For example, patent application publication US 2008/0287741 disclosed by Ostrovsky et al., describes an articulating mechanism for use in an endoscope or a catheter. The mechanism includes a series of stacked links disposed adjacent to one another and movable with respect to each other. Pull-wires provide tension and hold the staked links together while also allowing for controlled bending of the distal portion by movement of one or more of the pull-wires. Notably, the stacked links have no restoring force at the joint. The pulling of the wire will not distribute the bending forces evenly among the multiple links. The bending angles at each joint will be uneven at different joints. Thus, this sheath will not be controlled to a uniform curvature.
Another example, set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 7,785,252 to Danitz et al., discloses an articulating sheath for flexible instruments. The sheath having an elongated shaft with proximal and distal sections includes multiple pairs of links. The sheath also includes one or more sets of cables connecting the links of at least one discrete pair to another, such that movement of one link of the connected pair causes corresponding relative movement of the other link of the pair. Movement of the proximal section results in corresponding movement of the distal section. In this patent, flexible hinges receive compressive force by wire (cable) tension. To withstand the compressive force flexible hinges must be rigid in the axial direction, and the stiffness is designed to be large. This stiffness requires the wires tension to be large, which makes it difficult for the endoscopist or surgeon to obtain an appropriate feel of the amount of force being exerted by an end effector on the organ or tissue of a patient. In addition, when the mechanical structure of the sheath is controlled by a motor, it requires the motor to be large. For surgeries at the medical site, a large motor is a cause to hinder the precise and accurate maneuvers of surgeons, or becomes a cause of fatigue for the operator.
As used herein, the term "stiffness" refers to the rigidity of an object or material. Stiffness can be determined by the extent or amount to which an object or material resists deformation (e.g., bending, stretching or compression) in response to an applied force or tension. Stiffness may be considered as complementary or opposite to flexibility or pliability. That is, the more flexible an object or material is, the less stiff it is. In mathematical terms, the stiffness K of an object or material is a measure of its resistance to deformation in response to an applied force F. For an object having a single degree of freedom (e.g., one direction of bending) the stiffness is defined as K=F/δ, where δ is the displacement produced by the applied force. In the International System of Units, stiffness is measured in newtons per meter, while in English Units stiffness is measured in pounds (lbs) per inch. Although an object may be submitted to more than one deformation at a time (e.g., bending and stretching simultaneously), for the sake of simplicity, the discussions in the present application consider deformation of an object and its stiffness thereof in only one degree of freedom at a time.
Patent application publication US 2012/0078053 disclosed by Phee et al., discloses a Robotic system for Flexible Endoscopy. According to Phee et al., it is possible to implement a sheath having a fixed bending radius or a sheath having different bending radius each with the different length, so that an endoscope can be easily manipulated a gastrointestinal (GI) track to diagnose GI diseases.
In highly delicate surgical operations, such as neurosurgery, it is necessary to avoid the contact of endoscope or any other surgical tools with the critical brain tissues and nerves in the periphery of the lesion. To that end, it is necessary to maneuver with precisely controlled shape of the sheath and to know with a high degree of certainty how much force or tension is being applied to an end effector. It is also necessary to view in detail the lesion from various directions, often even from an opposite direction from which the endoscope is inserted. In this manner, the operation can be performed without damaging delicate structures located nearby the organ or tissue being operated. To that end, it is necessary to be able to easily bend the sheath to a controlled shape in all directions and in any location, without exerting excessive force.

Mechanical structure of articulated sheath


A cable connector for connecting a cable having an inner conductor includes an insulating housing having an assembling portion and a mating portion protruding from one side of the assembling portion, the mating portion including a mating cavity, the assembling portion including a receiving room communicating with the mating cavity; a contact having a connecting portion received in the receiving room for connecting the inner conductor of the cable and a contacting portion extending into the mating cavity; and a shell having a back portion assembled upon the assembling portion of the insulating housing. The insulating housing includes an elastic arm extending into the receiving room and located beside the connecting portion of the contact. The back portion of the shell includes a pushing portion pushing the elastic arm to press the connecting portion of the contact.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a cable connector, and more particularly to an L-shaped coaxial cable connector.
2. Description of Related Art
Coaxial cable connectors are widely used in notebook, mobile phone and other electronic devices for connecting a coaxial cable with a printed circuit board. U.S. Pat. No. 7,025,631 issued to Yamane on Apr. 11, 2006 discloses a coaxial cable connector. The coaxial cable connector comprises an insulating housing, a contact retained in the insulating housing, a shell surrounding the insulating housing and a coaxial cable connecting the contact and extending out of the insulating housing. The insulating housing comprises a tubular portion and a lid extending upwardly from the tubular portion. The contact comprises a flat soldering portion for soldering the coaxial cable thereon. The shell comprises a cover extending upwardly for covering the insulating housing and retaining the coaxial cable. When the cover is bent towards the insulating housing, the cover pushes the lid and presses the coaxial cable on the soldering portion. However, as the coaxial cable is sandwiched by the lid and the soldering portion of the contact, the height of the coaxial cable connector is high and can not meet the miniaturization tendency. Another aspect, as the coaxial cable is put on the flat soldering portion and capable of moving freely before fixing, the connection quality between the coaxial cable and the contact can not be ensured.
In view of the above, an improved cable connector is desired to overcome the problems mentioned above.