A droplet discharge device is provided in which for a head having a plurality of nozzles, nozzle rows having clogged nozzles are detected in advance and suction is performed on the nozzle rows having clogged nozzles independently, thereby recovering the nozzles, while measures against the thickening of a liquid in nozzles can be carried out. A droplet discharge device includes: a head having a plurality of nozzle rows including a plurality of nozzles on a nozzle surface in order to discharge droplets of a supplied liquid; a non-discharge nozzle detector that detects which nozzle row of the plural nozzle rows has nozzles that are clogged so as to be a non-discharge nozzle; a suction device to seal a nozzle row including detected non-discharge nozzles on the nozzle surface and performing suction to eliminate the clogging of the non-discharging nozzles; and a moisture retaining device to seal the plural nozzle rows on the nozzle surface to retain the moisture of the nozzle surface.

Exemplary aspects of the present invention relate to a droplet discharge device to discharge droplets to a workpiece, a device to maintain the discharge performance of a head, a method to maintain the discharge performance of a head, a method to manufacture an electro-optical device, an electro-optical device and an electronic apparatus.
A droplet discharge device is often used as a drawing system. The drawing system discharges droplets to a workpiece by an ink jet method. The drawing system is sometimes used for manufacturing an electro-optical device, such as a flat panel display.
The droplet discharge device that discharges minute droplets by an ink jet system has a head to discharge droplets. The head is required to discharge minute droplets to a workpiece stably and accurately. Thus, a phenomenon of the clogging of plural nozzles in a head must be prevented to ensure the stable and accurate discharging of minute droplets. There has been proposed a technique (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 10-95126 (p. 5, FIG. 9) in which in order to prevent nozzle clogging, cleaning treatment is carried out for the nozzle surface of a head by discharging droplets from the nozzles and, if necessary, perform suction on the nozzles.

Droplet discharge device, device for maintaining discharge performance of head, method for maintaining discharge performance of head, method for manufacturing electro-optical device, electro-optical device and electronic apparatus


A pet operated ball thrower including a base, a fulcrum post attached at its lower end to the base, a throw arm pivotally attached to the upper end of the fulcrum post, a ball receiving receptacle attached to the throw arm adjacent its outer end, a treadle pivotally attached at its lower end to the base, and an attachment member pivotally attached at its lower end to the treadle and pivotally attached at its upper end to the throw arm. A pet is trained to jump on the treadle to cause the outer end of the throw arm and attached ball receiving receptacle to be rapidly moved upwardly, thereby tossing the ball from the receptacle into the air for retrieval. The pet is trained to replace the retrieved ball into the receptacle, thereby allowing repeated tossing and retrieving of the ball by the pet.

The present invention relates to a ball thrower that is wholly operated by a pet, such as a dog.
There are many ball retrieval games in which a human interacts with a pet. Such games can be very simple, such as a human tossing a ball into the air for a pet to try and catch, and then return the ball to the human for further tosses.
There are also devices similar to catapults in which the pet can cause the device to release a ball into the air which the pet then catches, or attempts to catch, and then returns the ball to a human who reloads the device. One such device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,611,996.
However, it is not believed there is a ball tossing device in which the pet not only can cause a ball to be tossed into the air, but the pet can also reload the device with the ball retrieved by it for repeated ball tosses.


A portable wall assembly and methods of making same include support columns made from thin flexible sheets rolled into free standing cylinders. Wall panels also made from thin flexible sheets may be attached to the support columns. After disassembly of the wall, the sheets can be spiraled into a nested circular bundle for storage and transportation.

This invention relates to wall structures, and more particularly to portable free standing walls used for exhibits, trade shows, and the like, where temporary displays are needed. Numerous types of dismantleable structures have been used to satisfy the need for portable walls. However, the prior wall structures typically require numerous types of loose parts of different sizes that must be fitted together by skilled workers, and such parts can be lost when these prior structures are disassembled and stored or transported to different locations. Also, parts which can be easily bent or otherwise distorted when handled during disassembly and transportation can hinder or delay assembly of the prior wall structures at a new location when time is at a premium. Many prior portable walls also were bulky when disassembled or required special containers for storage and transportation.

Portable wall and methods of making same


A fixing roller 30, which has an internal heating device and is supported to rotate around a cylindrical shaft 40, and a pressure roller 81 whose circumferential face presses against the fixing roller 30, and which is supported to rotate around the pressure roller axle 82, are mounted in a housing 11, so that, by passing paper P to which a toner image has been transferred, a fixing process is performed on this toner image. The fixing roller 30 is mounted in the housing 11 by heat resistant bushings 50, which are fitted on both ends of the cylindrical shaft 40. Annular grooves 41 are arranged on the cylindrical shaft 40 for receiving C-shaped retaining rings 70, for preventing the heat resistant bushings 50 from coming off. The heat resistant bushings 50 and the retaining rings 70 engage with each other to rotate in unison around the cylindrical shaft 40.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fixing device for use in image forming devices such as copiers and facsimile devices, as well as in various types of printers.
2. Background Information
Image forming devices normally have a basic structure comprising a photosensitive drum, on the circumferential face of which an electrostatic latent image is formed based on image information from a document image which is read and/or electronically transmitted thereto, a developing device for forming a toner image on the circumferential face of this photosensitive drum by supplying toner to this circumferential face, a transport device for transporting and transferring the toner image that has been formed on the circumferential face of the photosensitive drum by the developing device to paper, and a fixing device for performing a fixing process on the toner image that has been transferred onto the paper.
The fixing device comprises a fixing roller provided with a heating means for generating heat by passing electric current therethrough, and a pressure roller disposed so that the circumferential face thereof faces and presses against the circumferential face of this fixing roller, the process of fixing the toner image on the paper being performed by heating the paper on which the toner image has been transferred with the fixing roller while causing the paper to pass through a nip formed between the fixing roller and the pressure roller, both of which are rotating.
FIG. 5 is an end-on perspective view showing one example of a conventional fixing roller member 100; as shown in this figure, the conventional fixing roller member 100 comprises a cylindrical shaft (fixing roller axle) 101; a retaining ring 103, in the form of a C-ring, which engages in an annular groove 102 that is practiced on the outer circumferential face of the end of this axle member 101; a heat resistant bushing 104, which is made of synthetic resin and fits rotatably on the cylindrical shaft 101, to the inside of this retaining ring 103; a bearing 105, having an inner ring 105a, which fits on this heat resistant bushing 104; and a fixing roller 106, which is formed integrally with the cylindrical shaft 101 at a position to the inside of the bearing 105 (which is to say at the center of the cylindrical shaft 101, in the lengthwise direction thereof). The outer rings 105b of the bearings 105 are supported by side walls of a fixing device housing, which is not shown in the drawing, whereby this fixing roller member 100 can rotate in unison with the rotation of the cylindrical shaft 101, when driven by a pressure roller, which is not shown in the drawing, within this housing.
Here, in conventional developing devices having a fixing roller member 100 such as described above, there was a problem in that the various parts thereof expand as a result of heating by the heating means provided within the cylindrical shaft 101 and, as the coefficients of expansion and the thermal capacity of the various parts differ from one to the other, it may happen that, depending on circumstances, the internal diameter of the heat resistant bushing 104 becomes larger than the external diameter of the cylindrical shaft 101, and under these circumstances, it is possible that, while the retaining ring 103 rotates in unison with the cylindrical shaft 101, the heat resistant bushing 104 does not rotate.
Then, if the retaining ring 103 rotates while the heat resistant bushing 104 is not rotating, the end of the C-ring shaped retaining ring 103 cuts the surface of the heat resistant bushing 104, which is made from synthetic resin, as a result of which, because of the increased internal diameter of the heat resistant bushing 104, the heat resistant bushing 104 comes off from the cylindrical shaft of 101 (which is to say that the fixing roller 106 falls out of the bearing 105).
In the foregoing, conventional problems were described for a situation in which the heat resistant bushing 104 ceases to rotate readily in unison with the cylindrical shaft 101, but similar problems arise when the retaining ring 103 ceases to rotate readily in unison with the cylindrical shaft 101.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Fixing device for use in an image forming device


A MEMS mixer filter including an array of a multiplicity of resonator elements with conductive outer surfaces in a coplanar rectangularly tiled array, and two sets of DC bias lines in which alternating resonator elements in each row and column are connected to one or the other sets of bias lines so that laterally adjacent resonators may be biased to a DC potential. The resonator elements are uniform in size and shape. Lateral dimensions of the resonator elements are between 5 and 50 microns. The resonator elements are between 100 nanometers and 100 microns thick, and adjacent resonator elements are separated by a gap between 100 and 500 nanometers. A process of forming the MEMS mixer filter.

This relates to the field of integrated circuits and, in particular, to microelectromechanical system (MEMS) resonators in integrated circuits.
Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) resonators are solid elements whose mechanical vibrations are detected by sensor circuits. MEMS resonators may be used in heterodyne receiver architectures as mixer filters. Impedance matching the MEMS resonators with typical transmission lines in radio frequency (RF) circuits has been problematic, due to low values of electrostatic coupling between the MEMS oscillators and the sensor circuits. Attempts to increase the capacitance have reduced linearity and power capacity.


A semiconductor integrated circuit device which substantially reduces drop in a supply voltage generated by a regulator and ensures stable supply of a supply voltage with high efficiency and high accuracy. In the device, a memory power supply includes a plurality of transistors and an error amplifier. In the transistors, source pads and drain pads are alternately arranged in a row along one edge of a semiconductor chip in a peripheral area of the chip. Transistor gates are formed in parallel with the alternately arranged source pads and drain pads (so that the longitudinal direction of the gates is parallel to the direction of the arrangement of the source pads and drain pads). Consequently, the length of wirings coupled to drains and sources is shortened and the sheet resistance is decreased.

The present invention relates to technology for power supply generation by a regulator and more particularly relates to technology for supplying a supply voltage in system-in-packages.
In the semiconductor integrated circuit device field, a system-in-package (SiP) is known in which more than one semiconductor chip are mounted in a single package.
System-in-package type semiconductor integrated circuit devices include those in which a system LSI such as a microcomputer and a large-capacity nonvolatile memory are packaged and it is known that some of such semiconductor integrated circuit devices incorporate an on-chip regulator to drive the nonvolatile memory.
In recent years, as the tendency for electronic systems to consume less power is growing, the operating voltages of semiconductor integrated circuit devices are lower than before. In some semiconductor integrated circuit devices, the supply voltage VCC is very close to the operating voltage of the nonvolatile memory, so it is important to prevent voltage drop in the power which the regulator supplies to the nonvolatile memory.
In this connection, one example of the known techniques for preventing voltage drop is that the regulator wiring is multilayered to reduce the sheet resistance of the wiring.
For semiconductor integrated circuit devices which use this type of regulator, a layout technique is known in which series regulators are mounted diagonally to a switching regulator on a semiconductor chip in order to reduce the influence of high frequency noise (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-193475).


A cell death inducer for mast cells, a preventive/therapeutic agent for diseases in which mast cells are implicated, having a fusion protein including a PTD and an MITF variant as an active ingredient and a fusion protein comprises a His Tag, a PTD, and an MITF variant, wherein the MITF variant being an MITF mi variant, wh variant, HLH fragment, or A-type N-terminal region (1-305) fragment, and the PTD being a TAT-derived peptide; DNA coding for the fusion protein; and a method for preparing the fusion protein using genetic engineering techniques. Actions of the fusion protein of the present invention include inhibiting an activity of endogenous MITF by translocating into mast cells, inhibiting a survival of mast cells derived from precursor cells, and inducing cell death (apoptosis) in mature mast cells.

MITF (an abbreviation for microphthalmia-associated transcription factor) is one of transcription regulators present in organisms; it is a protein capable of modulating an expression of a c-kit gene, which is specific to mast cells.
MITF is a known substance (Cell, vol. 74, 395404, 1993); it was, however, a gene that codes for MITF that was first discovered. That is to say, the gene was isolated as a causal gene for a mi/ml mouse. In the mi/ml mouse, because of a mutation in the MITF gene, that is, a deletion of one amino acid in the transcription activation region of the MITF gene, normal MITF is not expressed. The mi/ml mouse is a mutant mouse having hypoplasia of an eyeball, melanocyte deficiency, mast cell loss, and osteopetrosis of a bone as main symptoms thereof, and presents differentiation anomalies in tissues, such as melanocytes, mast cells, retinal pigment epithelial cells, and osteoclasts. These cell differentiation disorders in the mi/ml mouse are attributed to the fact that normal MITF is not expressed, and gene transcription is not activated by MITF.
Furthermore, in Northern-blot analyses of a tissue distribution of an expression, using tissues or cell lines from a normal mouse, it was found that MITF mRNA was expressed in the heart, in melanocytes, and in mast cells. In recent years, the existence of MITF isoforms has been reported; i.e. a melanocyte type (M type), a heart type (H type), and an A-type, in which the cDNA sequences were different at the 5′ end [Seikagaku (Journal of the Japanese Biochemical Society), vol. 71, no. 1, 61–64, 1999]. The MITF gene comprises 10 (M type) or 11 (A and H types) exons, and all three types are substantially common beyond exon 2. In the M type, two further types are distinguished by an addition, or lack thereof, of exon 5b, which comprises 18 bases coding for 6 amino acids. The A and H types completely match each other beyond exon 1B, exon 1 at the 5′ end being different. The A and H types and the M type are common beyond exon 2; however the M type has no exon 1B upstream of exon 2, which is linked to a specific exon 1. Furthermore, it has been shown that the promoter for each type is different from the genomic sequence.
An MITF protein is assumed to comprise a nuclear localization region, a transcription activation region, a DNA binding region, a dimerization region, and an activation region for MITF itself; the presence of these regions is common to all known types. The MITF protein is a transcription regulator, which has a bHLH-Zip (base-helix-loop-helix/leucine zipper) motif at a center of its structure, it forms a dimer to bind to DNA, and activates transcription of targeted genes. Since major differences have been reported between transcription activation capabilities of the A-type and the H type, there is assumed to be a function that regulates the transcriptional activity at exon 1, which differs in genetic sequence between the two types.
Furthermore, it has been reported that the MITF protein works as a transcription regulator in melanocytes, and that it is involved in the multiplication and differentiation of melanocytes, as well as in the melanin synthesis pathway, and the like.
It has been reported that the MITF protein also acts as a transcription regulator in mast cells, modulating the expression of the c-kit gene (a transcription factor that activates the c-kit promoter) (Blood, vol. 88, no. 4, 1225–33, 1996). The c-kit gene is expressed in hematopoietic precursor cells, mast cells, pigment cells, and germ cells and regulates the multiplication and the differentiation of these cells by the action of the Si factor. It is thought that, in mast cells, MITF protein is involved in mast cell survival maintenance by regulating the expression of c-kit gene expression.
Mast cells have long been reported to be involved in allergic diseases ["IgE, Mast Cells and the Allergic Response" (Ciba Foundation symposium) 147, John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, UK, 1989]. Furthermore, diseases other than allergic diseases in which mast cells are involved include autoimmune diseases, pulmonary fibrosis, carcinomas, mastocytosis, mastocytoma, and the like.
Meanwhile, PTD (an abbreviation for Protein Transduction Domain) is a general term for domains to penetrate the biological membrane and transfer proteins into the cells (uptake). For example, in analysis of HIV antigens by domain units, it is confirmed that a TAT-derived peptide portion serves to transfer the HIV antigen inside normal T-cells, which is one of contributing factors in cell infection (Cell, vol. 55, 1179–88, 1988). Based on such observations, there have been reports of the existence of various PTDs to work in a similar way to TAT, and of techniques whereby these PTDs are fused with various proteins for translocation into cells (Current Opinion in Molecular Therapeutics 2000, vol. 2, no. 2, 162–67, 2000).
However, there have been no reports to date of techniques related to MITF or mast cells to transfer into cells using PTD.


A package for holding abrasive, greasy or oily material, such as dry pet food. The package is formed of a web of flexible material and has an outer surface and an inner surface. The web comprising plural layers adhesively secured to one another. The layers are in sequence from the outer surface of the package to the inner surface thereof. The sequence of layers is a first film layer formed of a heat resistant and temperature resistant material, e.g., polyester film, a second layer formed of a shock-absorbing and heat resistant paper, e.g., Kraft paper, a third film layer formed of a puncture resistant, heat resistant barrier material, e.g., nylon, which also forms a gas and chemical barrier, and a fourth film layer formed of a moisture resistant sealable film material, polyethylene. The outer layer is transparent and indicia is provided between it and the paper layer so that the indicia is visible through the outer layer.

This invention relates generally to flexible packages, and more particularly to flexible packages for particulate products, such as dry pet foods, and which tend to be abrasive.
There are a multitude of laminated materials used to package dry products, such as roasted and ground coffee, active dry yeast, roasted peanuts, etc., under vacuum. The following are some of these laminated materials (where the "/" symbol represents an adhesive interface between the adjacent layers and wherein the materials are listed in sequence from the outside of the package to the inside thereof): polyester film/aluminum foil/nylon film/polyethylene film; polyester film/aluminum foil/polyethylene film; polyester film/polypropylene film/aluminum foil/polyethylene film; polyester film/nylon film/polyethylene film; polyester film/aluminum foil/polyester film/polyethylene film; polypropylene film/aluminum foil/polyethylene film; nylon film/aluminum foil/polyethylene film; and others. Some of the above vacuum package constructions are further protected with a layer of Kraft paper or Kraft paper laminated with another material, such as polyester film or aluminum foil. The paper construction is either wrapped around the finished vacuum package, combined with the vacuum material on the packaging machine prior to filling, vacuumizing and sealing, or produced as a "Double Wall" construction, such as described in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,727,706.
Moreover, various types of flexible packages for holding dry cat, dog, or other pet foods, are commercially available. For example, such packages may be formed of a heavy paper, like Kraft paper, and having an inner lining of a plastic or wax to provide a moisture barrier and to prevent any oil or grease in the pet food from staining the paper.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,491,011 (Pezzoli et al.) there is disclosed a flexible sheet material for forming packages for dry pet foods which have an odoriferous component. The structure of that sheet material from the inside of the package to the outside comprises linear low density polyethylene, high density polyethylene, linear low density polyethylene, a barrier resin such as ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer, and low density polyethylene.
Unfortunately dry pet foods frequently exhibit sharp edges or particles (e.g., in some cases the pet food may include particles of bone), and tend to abrade the flexible material making up the package. Thus, it is necessary that the material forming the packaging for such particulate material pet foods be resistant to abrasion or abuse. Moreover, it is desirable that the material forming the package be capable of holding the contents of the package under vacuum, be moisture and odor impervious, and be resistant to grease or oil.
Heretofore, flexible packaging of various types of plastic films and/or foils which have been commercially available for holding free flowing products under vacuum have not proven to be generally suitable for sharp edged dry pet foods. Thus, a need exists for a flexible package which can hold such materials under vacuum, yet which exhibits substantially reduced package leakage due to abuse as compared to other typical flexible materials.


An interface circuit and method for programming or communicating with an integrated circuit (IC) via a power supply pin is provided herein. In general, the power supply pin may be coupled for receiving a relatively constant voltage signal during a first mode of operation (i.e., a normal mode) and a modulated voltage signal during a second mode of operation (i.e., a programming or communication mode). The interface circuit may be coupled between the power supply pin and other IC components for decoding the modulated voltage signal into data. Various encoding/decoding schemes may be used by the interface circuit and method for communicating data to the IC over the power supply lines. The decoded data may be used for programming or communication purposes.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to integrated circuits and, more particularly, to an interface circuit and method for communicating with an integrated circuit via the power supply pin.
2. Description of the Related Art
The following descriptions and examples are given as background only.
An integrated circuit (IC) may be described as "nonprogrammable" if its configuration is fixed at the time of manufacture. For example, a great number of "standard" ICs are made using fixed mask sets (e.g., masked ROMs or masked gate arrays). These ICs can be purchased from catalogs based on published specifications. "Custom" or "semi-custom" ICs are also considered to be nonprogrammable. A "custom" IC is one that is built for a specific purpose for a specific customer. In order to make a custom IC, a custom mask is made to establish memory contents or logic networks at the time of manufacture. Although the mask is specified by the customer, it is nonetheless fixed, and cannot be altered once the IC is packaged.
In contrast, the configuration of a "programmable" device is not fixed and may be programmed after the device is manufactured. This feature offers many advantages over nonprogrammable devices from the perspective of the circuit board manufacture. One advantage is that memory contents and logic designs need not be finalized until late in the manufacturing process. This reduces lead time and time-to-market by making it possible to begin board manufacturing before logic designs are fully completed.
In some cases, an integrated circuit may be described as "programmable" if the IC contains nonvolatile storage. Nonvolatile storage is used for many purposes in many different kinds of programmable devices. Examples of programmable devices having nonvolatile storage include, but are not limited to, programmable logic devices (PLD), programmable logic and gate arrays (e.g., PAL, GAL and FPGA), microcontrollers, microprocessors, programmable clock chips, and other digital and analog ICs. Among other things, digital ICs may use nonvolatile storage to store CPU instructions, configuration settings, calibration data, log measurement data and other types of information well known to those skilled in the art. On the other hand, analog ICs may use nonvolatile storage to hold potentiometer adjustment settings, to provide lookup tables for analog functions, and to hold trim settings for high-precision clock devices.
Examples of nonvolatile storage include, but are not limited to, Programmable Read-Only Memory (PROM), Electrically Erasable PROM (EEPROM), Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM) and various types of Flash memory. Flash memory is commonly used for storing microprocessor instruction codes. Due to its relatively high density (silicon area/storage unit), Flash memory is also used in many consumer storage applications. Nonvolatile memories are also found within many microcontrollers. For example, some microcontrollers include Flash and/or EEPROM.
In general, programmable devices are differentiated into One-Time Programmable (OTP) devices and reprogrammable devices. OTP and reprogrammable devices are often used for development and prototyping, in addition to lower volume and higher value products. Although these devices may be programmed by the customer, the logistics of programming ICs in large quantities can be troublesome in the product manufacturing environment. For this reason, many customers ask the IC or board manufacturer to program the ICs during manufacture.
Reprogrammable devices offer many advantageous over OTP devices. As noted above, many customers ask the IC or board manufacturer to program OTP devices at the time of manufacture. However, because the customer receives pre-programmed devices, the customer must maintain inventory of each differently programmed device. Reprogrammable devices reduce inventory needs and hardware costs by enabling the customer to program devices as needed.
In addition, OTP devices may only be programmed with very general purpose information (e.g., CPU instruction software or the device serial number). For example, it is not practical to program OTP devices with manufacturing and quality data or individual product-specific data (e.g., configuration and calibration data), as in many cases this data may need to be programmed multiple times. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to "tweak" the device (e.g., by setting calibration data) after the device is manufactured. Since product-specific information may be stored within reprogrammable devices, they enable engineering changes (e.g., bug fixes and firmware upgrades) to be made quickly and at any time, thereby reducing lead time and time-to-market.
"In System Reprogrammability" (ISR) is often described as the ability to program (or reprogram) an integrated circuit after the circuit is embedded onto a circuit board. The advantages of ISR are well recognized in the world of high volume product manufacturing. For example, ISR enables software instructions to be programmed into a device with a CPU after the device has been fully assembled. Most ISR devices use dedicated I/O pins and standard bus protocols for programming integrated circuits "in-system." Examples of standard bus protocols include, but are not limited to, I2C (Inter-IC bus), SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface) and JTAG (Joint Test Action Group). These bus protocols are well known in the art of electronic circuit design and will not be described further herein.
Problems arise with conventional ISR circuits and methods. For example, conventional ISR circuits require at least one dedicated pin to be included on the IC for programming purposes. Because some ICs have very few I/O pins (e.g., as few as 6 I/O pins for some microcontrollers), dedicated pins tend to significantly increase the size and cost of the embedded IC. In addition, ISR is generally not possible once the circuit board has been placed in the final product enclosure, unless a special programming connector is exposed to the customer.
Therefore, a need exists for an improved circuit and method for programming an integrated circuit. More specifically, a need exists for an improved ISR method that enables an embedded integrated circuit to be programmed (or reprogrammed) without using any dedicated programming pins.

Interface circuit and method for programming or communicating with an integrated circuit via a power supply pin


Disclosed is a backside-illuminated charge-coupled device imager, which has: a silicon substrate which includes a light-receiving region which is formed on the frontside of the silicon substrate and includes charge-coupled devices which are arranged one-dimensionally or two-dimensionally and has a thickness equal to or less than a pixel pitch, wherein light is supplied from the backside of the silicon substrate; wherein the light-receiving region of the silicon substrate is provided with a silicon layer with a thickness equal to or less than the pixel pitch and a silicon dioxide (SiO.sub.2) layer thicker than the silicon layer.

A conventional backside-illuminated charge-coupled device imager, which is used in the visible light region and arranged one-dimensionally, is reported by S. R. Shortes et al., "Characteristics of Thinned Backside-Illuminated Charge-Coupled Device Imagers", Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol.24, No.11, pp.565-567, 1974. Also, a conventional backside-illuminated charge-coupled device imager, which is arranged two-dimensionally, is reported by G. A. Antcliffe et al., "A Backside Illuminated 400.times.400 Charge-Coupled Device Imager", IEEE Trans. Electron Devices, Vol.ED-23, pp.1225-1232, 1976.
In the conventional backside-illuminated charge-coupled device imager, a light-receiving region where charge-coupled devices (CCD's) are arranged one-dimensionally or two-dimensionally is formed on the front surface of a Si monocrystalline substrate. Part of the backside of the Si monocrystalline substrate corresponding to the light-receiving region is removed by etching to a thickness equal to or less than the pixel pitch, where isotropic etching with potassium hydroxide (KOH) solution or hydrazine is used.
On the other hand, Japanese patent application laid-open No.4-241414 (1992) discloses a method for forming a semiconductor substrate, where a conventional method for making a frontside-illuminated charge-coupled device imager is used, and by which a backside-illuminated charge-coupled device imager of the invention may be fabricated.
The method for forming a semiconductor substrate disclosed in Japanese patent application laid-open No.4-241414 (1992) is as follows:
First, a p-type or high-concentration n-type Si monocrystalline substrate (bulk Si substrate) is changed into a porous Si substrate by using an anodization method with hydrofluoric acid (HF) solution from the backside. Next, on the porous Si substrate, an epitaxial growth method at a low temperature, such as molecular beam epitaxy, plasma CVD, photo-CVD and bias sputtering, is conducted. In this Si epitaxial growth, the Si monocrystalline layer includes a number of defects and dislocations near the interface to the porous Si substrate (several thousand .ANG. from the interface) since the porous Si substrate is used. Thereafter, by thermal oxidation, the entire porous Si substrate is changed into SiO.sub.2 and the region including the defects and dislocations in the epitaxial Si monocrystalline layer is also changed into SiO.sub.2. As a result, the semiconductor substrate where the monocrystalline Si layer is formed on a base material of light-transmitting insulator.
However, in the conventional backside-illuminated charge-coupled device imager, there are problems that the thinned light-receiving region can be deformed unevenly due to a residual stress by the oxidation film or poly-Si electrode composing CCD and that its mechanical strength is lowered.
On the other hand, in the conventional fabrication method where the backside of the Si substrate is thinned by anisotropic etching, there is a problem that it is very difficult to obtain a thickness equal to or less than the pixel pitch, which is considerably smaller than that to be removed by the anisotropic etching, within a small dispersion.
Furthermore, in the conventional method for forming the semiconductor substrate disclosed in Japanese patent application laid-open No.4-241414(1992), there are problems as mentioned below. This method describes that a good crystallization of the monocrystalline Si layer formed on the base material of light-transmitting insulator can be obtained. However, in this method, the monocrystalline Si layer is epitaxially grown on the porous Si substrate, and then the region in the epitaxial Si monocrystalline layer which includes a number of defects and dislocations near the interface of the epitaxial Si monocrystalline layer and the porous Si substrate is changed into SiO.sub.2 to decrease the defects and dislocations. Therefore, a residual stress must be applied to this region since there occurs a volumetric expansion of 2.2 times when several thousand .ANG. of Si near the interface where a number of defects and dislocations are included is changed into SiO.sub.2. Also, it is impossible to completely accommodate so many defects and dislocations in SiO.sub.2. A part of them moves pushed by the oxidation-proceeding interface and will remain at the final Si/SiO.sub.2 interface.
In backside-illuminated charge-coupled device imagers, though the entire Si substrate with a thickness equal to or less than the pixel pitch of the light-receiving region contributes to opto-electric conversion, especially the contribution of the backside which is an incidence surface of light is important. If there are many defects at the Si/SiO.sub.2 interface which is the incidence surface of light, photoelectrically-produced carriers will be lost and a dark current due to thermal excitation will be increased. Therefore, a high-performance backside-illuminated charge-coupled device imager cannot be produced by the conventional method.

Backside-illuminated charge-coupled device imager and method for making the same


A method of system access from a wireless device to a wireless network, the network having a plurality of base stations includes the steps of: selecting at least one reverse link cost metric from a list of predetermined reverse link cost metrics; determining a reverse link cost according to the selected at least one reverse link cost metric; selecting a candidate base station from the plurality of base stations; sending a probe signal at the reverse link cost to the candidate base station; waiting for a response from the candidate base station within a timeout period; and repeating steps until timeout, or until the condition that a response is received from at least one candidate base station so that at least one candidate base station can be used to provide system access from the wireless device to the wireless network.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a method for system access in wireless networks. More particularly, the invention provides a method that may be practiced at a wireless device for accessing a wireless network in a way that conserves a link cost at the wireless device. The invention is particularly well suited for use in Personal Digital Assistants, mobile communication devices, cellular phones, and wireless two-way communication devices (collectively referred to herein as "wireless devices"). The invention provides utility, however, in any device or system that accesses a wireless network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Techniques for accessing wireless networks are known. One such access technique is used in current CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) networks. In a typical access technique, a wireless device probes a base station at a given power level. If the base station does not respond, subsequent probes are sent to the same base station, typically escalating in power level, until either a response is received from the base station, or the wireless device declares an access failure.

Method of system access to a wireless network


Aspects of the subject technology relate to switching tabs in an application. A system is configured to provide for the display an application interface. The application interface includes a toolbar and content associated with a first tab from a plurality of tabs open in the application. The system is further configured to receive, via an input device, a swipe gesture on the toolbar in the application interface and enter, in response to the receiving of the swipe gesture, a tab switching mode in the application in which a tab switching interface is displayed on the touch screen.

Many applications are configured to be able to load content from different sources to be loaded. A user may then switch between the content within an interface provided by the application. For example, a web browser may allow for multiple web pages or other content to be open at the same time by using browser tabs. The content of one of the tabs (e.g., an active tab) may be displayed in an interface (e.g., a window) provided by the web browser. There may also be a tab toolbar showing open tabs in the web browser. To switch between tabs, a user may select a desired tab which causes the web browser to display the contents of the desired tab.
In some cases, space on a screen or on the application interface may be at a premium and the tab toolbar may take up valuable space. Furthermore, for touch screen devices, using the tab toolbar to switch between tabs may be difficult because the tabs shown in the tab toolbar may be small and hard for a user to select using the user's finger or a stylus.

Drag toolbar to enter tab switching interface


A safety needle is provided. The safety needle includes a substantially hollow body and a needle assembly that includes a needle supported on a needle hub. The needle hub is movable in relation to the hollow body from an advanced position wherein a sharp tip of the needle extends from the hollow body to a retracted position wherein the sharp tip of the needle is positioned within the hollow body. The safety needle also includes a spring biased retraction mechanism that includes a constant force spring operatively connected to the needle hub. The constant force spring is a generally flat strip of prestressed material that is formed into constant coils around itself. The constant force spring is configured to bias the needle hub towards the retracted position wherein the spring provides a substantially constant force to the needle assembly while the needle assembly moves from the advanced position to the retracted position.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to retractable safety needles. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to retractable safety needles incorporating a spring biased retraction mechanism that provides a constant force to an associated needle assembly during retraction of the needle assembly.
2. Background of Related Art
Hypodermic needles are used for venous access in a variety of medical procedures including fluid sampling, percutaneous medication injection, and other fluid delivery or withdrawal procedures. Some of the health risks associated with hazardous needle exposure includes HIV, hepatitis, and other blood-borne pathogens. Medical professionals are in danger of contracting such blood-borne pathogens from infected patients by inadvertent needle sticks from needles contaminated during medical procedures.
Various protective devices including sheaths, have been used to shield sharp tips of needles in order to alleviate danger of needlestick injury to a user. Additionally, many needle devices include the provision of an automatic retraction system to shield the needle within a housing associated with the needle assembly after use.
Commercially available needle devices that include the provision of an automatic retraction system typically rely on the use of compression springs to provide the needed retraction forces. The compression springs utilized by these systems provide high forces at full compression of the spring and little or no force at full extension of the spring. As a result, extreme force changes are present when the needle is moved from an extended position to a retracted position, which, in turn may result in accidental needlestick injuries, blood splattering, or other undesirable outcomes. In addition, compression springs are bulky and, thus, may require an increase in the cross-section of the needle device to accommodate the spring.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a safety needle device which includes a spring mechanism that provides a constant force throughout retraction and/or extension of the needle. It would be further desirable to provide a spring mechanism which is simple, low-cost, and can be easily incorporated into existing safety needle devices.

Safety needle with spring biased retraction mechanism


A lift has a guide, a lift cage which is movable along the guide, lift means for moving the lift cage along the guide, and a fall protection attached to the lift cage provided with coupling pawl (27) which triggers the fall protection device in the event of a downward movement speed of the lift cage, exceeds maximum value. The fall protection has two catches (37a), each of which is provided with a comb (45). These combs are coupled to one another such that when one of the catches comes into action the comb of this catch is activated and thereby activates the comb of the other catch which is the coupling pin (27) of this other capture and will bring this other catch into effect.

Such a fall protection is generally known. The known fall protection has a housing which is fixed to the elevator cage during use and furthermore has a brake drum which is rotatably mounted in the housing and which, during braking, is frictionally in contact with an inside of the housing. An axle is rotatably mounted independently of the brake drum in the brake drum. This shaft protrudes with an end outside the housing. At this end a gear wheel is mounted which, during use, is in engagement with a rack mounted on the guide of the elevator. When moving the elevator cage along the guide, this gear is rotated together with the shaft. On the part of the shaft which is present inside the brake drum, there is a coupling pawl connected to the shaft and forming part of the switch-on means. At high rotational speed of the shaft, the clutch pawl is pivoted by a centrifugal force, the clutch pawl engaging behind a coupling cam on the inside of the brake drum and thereby coupling the brake drum with the shaft. This causes the brake drum to rotate along with the axle and the elevator cage is braked by the frictional contact between the brake drum and the housing. Furthermore, an axle stub is attached to the brake drum which is provided with screw thread. On this shaft stub a nut is present which is fixed in the direction of rotation relative to the housing and there are disc springs between the nut and the housing. As soon as the brake drum starts to rotate, the nut will be moved in the axial direction along the thread and thereby pull the brake drum more tightly against the housing so that the braking force increases until the elevator cage comes to a standstill. If the elevator cage with the load present therein is too heavy for the fall protection, the nut will break the screw thread or break the housing or brake drum, causing the fall protection device to stop working.

Fall protection for a lift, as well as a lift with fall protection


A method for making a bit-patterned-media magnetic recording disk with discrete magnetic islands includes annealing the data islands after they have been formed by an etching process. A hard mask, such as a layer of silicon nitride or carbon, may be first formed on the recording layer and a patterned resist formed on the hard mask. The resist pattern is then transferred into the hard mask, which is used as the etch mask to etch the recording layer and form the discrete data islands. After the data islands are formed by the etching process, the patterned recording layer is annealed. The annealing may be done in a vacuum, or in an inert gas, like helium or argon, or in a forming gas such as a reducing atmosphere of argon plus hydrogen. The annealing improves the coercivity, the effective saturation magnetization and the thermal stability of the patterned media.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to patterned perpendicular magnetic recording media, such as disks for use in magnetic recording hard disk drives, and more particularly to an improved method for making patterned disks by nanoimprint lithography or similar patterning techniques.
2. Description of the Related Art
Magnetic recording hard disk drives with patterned magnetic recording media have been proposed to increase data density. In conventional continuous magnetic recording media, the magnetic recording layer is a continuous layer over the entire surface of the disk. In patterned media, also called bit-patterned media (BPM), the magnetic recording layer on the disk is patterned into small isolated data islands arranged in concentric data tracks. While BPM disks may be longitudinal magnetic recording disks, wherein the magnetization directions are parallel to or in the plane of the recording layer, perpendicular magnetic recording disks, wherein the magnetization directions are perpendicular to or out-of-the-plane of the recording layer, will likely be the choice for BPM because of the increased data density potential of perpendicular media. To produce the magnetic isolation of the patterned data islands, the magnetic moment of the spaces between the islands are destroyed or substantially reduced to render these spaces essentially nonmagnetic. Alternatively, the media may be fabricated so that there is no magnetic material in the spaces between the islands. The spaces between the disks may then be filled with nonmagnetic material and the disk may then be planarized to provide a smooth surface.
One technique for making BPM is by etching a full film through a lithographically-patterned mask. Nanoimprint lithography (NIL) is one type of lithographic technique that has been proposed. NIL is based on deforming an imprint resist layer by a master template or mold having the desired nano-scale pattern. The master template is made by a high-resolution lithography tool, such as an electron-beam tool. In one technique, the structure to be imprinted is the disk substrate with the magnetic recording layer and any required underlayers formed on it as continuous layers. Then the liquid imprint resist is deposited on the recording layer. In a modified technique, a hard mask layer is formed on the recording layer and the resist is deposited on the hard mask layer. The imprint resist may be a polymer curable by ultraviolet (UV) light, such as MonoMat available from Molecular Imprints, Inc. The transparent master template is pressed onto the liquid resist and then the resist is exposed to UV light to harden the resist. The template is removed from the imprint resist, leaving an inverse nano-scale pattern of recesses and spaces on the imprint resist. In a modified technique, a hard mask layer is formed on the recording layer and the resist is spin-coated on the hard mask layer. As an alternative to a UV-curable imprint resist, a thermoplastic polymer, like poly-methylmethacrylate (PMMA), may be used as the imprint resist. The polymer is heated above its glass transition temperature. At that temperature, the thermoplastic resist becomes viscous and the nano-scale pattern is reproduced on the imprint resist by imprinting from the template at a relatively high pressure. The patterned imprint resist layer is then used as an etch mask to form the desired pattern of islands in the underlying recording layer, or to transfer the desired pattern into the hard mask layer, which is then used as mask for an additional etching step to form the desired pattern of islands in the underlying recording layer.
The islands in BPM need to have sufficient magnetic quality, for example high coercivity (Hc) and saturation magnetization (Ms). The islands in BPM also need to be sufficiently small to support high bit areal densities (e.g., 1 Terabit/in2 and beyond). For example, data islands with diameters approximately 20 nm or less may be required. However, it is important that as the size of the islands decreases, the thermal stability of the islands is maintained. The thermal stability of a magnetic grain is to a large extent determined by KuV, where Ku is the magnetic anisotropy constant of the magnetic recording material and V is the volume of the magnetic grain. Thus it is important that the islands maintain a high KuV for thermal stability. The BPM fabrication process can introduce a variety of defects in the magnetic islands, which suppress thermal stability and add undesirable variation to the island properties.
What is needed is a method for making a BPM disk with nanoimprint lithography that results in small data islands with sufficient magnetic quality and thermal stability.

Method for improving a patterned perpendicular magnetic recording disk with annealing


The invention teaches a multi-step method for shutting down the dry-etch process. The ICP rf power is reduced between each of these consecutive power-down steps of the dry-etch process, the complete power-down sequence consists of six steps. These six steps are executed in sequence and without interruption and form the totality of the dry-etch chamber power-down procedure.

(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of semiconductor manufacturing, and more specifically to a method to reduce the dry-etch chamber particle level during the power-down procedure of the dry-etch cleaning process for lithography masks.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
The trend within the semiconductor manufacturing industry to micro-miniaturization and the ability to produce chips with sub-micron features has resulted in a continuous increase of the performance of semiconductor chips while at the same time the cost of semiconductor chips has continued to decrease.
Micro-miniaturization of semiconductor chips has been achieved by significant advances in specific semiconductor fabrication disciplines such as photolithography and dry-etching. Sub-micron features in photo-resist layers have been routinely achieved by the use of more sophisticated exposure cameras, as well as by the use of more sensitive photo-resist materials. The successful transfer of the sub-micron images have been made possible by the development of dry-etching tools and procedures, from an overlying photo-resist layer, to an underlying material that is used in the fabrication of semiconductors. Single wafer etching can now be performed with the tools and procedures used during Reactive Ion Etching (RIE). This allows for individual etching of each single wafer, with end point detection used for only this single wafer. In this manner wafer to wafer uniformity variations, of the layer being patterned using single layer RIE etching, is not as great a problem as previously encountered during batch RIE etching. Large volumes of wafers can therefore be confidently processed using single wafer RIE procedures, with a decreased risk of under or over-etching due to thickness variations of the material being etched.
During conventional dry-etch, the dry-etch can be applied to a stack of thin layers which can include a photo-resist (for patterning the underlying layer) or an anti-reflective coating (ARC, used for covering the surface of an underlying layer and typically formed over an aluminum layer prior to coating the aluminum layer with photoresist). Such etching, however, results in residues or deposits building up on surfaces inside the plasma treatment chamber. Similar buildup of deposits occurs in plasma treatment chambers wherein deposition is carried out.
A requirement of dry-etching procedures is the ability to maintain a strong end point detection signal at the completion of the dry-etch cycle when dry-etching from wafer to wafer. In using single wafer RIE tools, the wafer being etched is moved to the etch chamber of the single wafer RIE tool. The etch chamber contains a window for the monitoring of the etching sequence. Laser endpoint detection apparatus or optical diodes monitor, through this window, the chemistry of the reactants and their by-products. At the conclusion of the etching cycle the chemistry of the by-products has changed, the end-point detection process monitors this change. If however the window through which the endpoint monitoring takes place becomes layered with adhering RIE products, the endpoint detection signal will decrease in intensity which can at times result in erroneous end-point signals.
Residual reaction products adhere to surfaces in the plasma treatment chamber when a film is dry-etched in a chlorine-based plasma or fluorine-based dry-etches. These residues can contain metals (or silicates, depending on which type of dry-etch is used), chlorine, or organics or their compounds. The surfaces that the residues adhere to include upper and lower electrode surfaces, walls of the plasma treatment chamber, clamping surfaces, and any other item that the plasma or its byproducts come in contact with. A build-up of these residues deteriorates the etch performance of the dry-etch. As such, the presence of such residues is undesirable.
Using current one-step cleaning procedures results in a violent transition of the plasma in going from the operating condition of rf-on to rf-off. This results in uncontrolled particle levels within the dry-etch chamber, a condition that is very detrimental to the proper operation and control of the dry-etch process. The present invention addresses this operational aspect of the dry-etch process and teaches a method of significantly reducing the particle count of residues or deposits of residual reaction products in the dry-etch chamber at the end of the dry-etch process.
FIGS. 1a through 1e show the current Prior Art one-step cleaning process as applied to a (photolithography) mask.
The FIG. 1a and FIG. 1b conditions indicated below refer to the repetition, that is a first (FIG. 1a) and a second (FIG. 1b) execution of the same process of cleaning the dry-etch chamber under identical operating conditions of the cleaning operation. A one step mode of the dry-etch chamber cleaning process indicates that the operational conditions during the cleaning process remain constant, most specifically the rf power applied during the cleaning process is not varied.
After the dry-clean process has been applied the first time (FIG. 1a) the dry-etch cleaning sequence is stopped and the conditions inside the dry-etch plasma chamber are allowed to stabilize. The dry-clean operating conditions are then reapplied (FIG. 1b) for a given duration, turned off and, after the conditions in the dry-clean chamber have been stabilized, the dry-clean process is considered completed. The processing conditions for the FIG. 1a and FIG. 1b procedures are identical (since FIG. 1b is, as far as operational conditions is concerned, the same as FIG. 1a) and are as follows:30 mt/600 w ICP/15 w RIE/30 sccm O2/5 min.
These operating conditions indicate that the dry-etch chamber that is being cleaned is of the Inductive Coupled Plasma (ICP) type where an ICP rf power of 600 watts is applied during plasma formation within the chamber, this same power is applied during the dry-etch chamber cleaning procedure while for the cleaning of the dry-etch chamber a RIE etch is applied to the chamber and its contents using 30 sccm of O2 for a time of 5 minutes. The parameter mt stands for milliTorr and is the operating pressure in the dry-etch chamber during processing.
FIG. 1a shows the dry-clean chamber 10, a wall polymer or other residual reaction products 12 and the mask 12 that is positioned on a table 16. A rf coil 18 is provided around and on the outside of the chamber 10, the rf coil 18 generates plasma that attacks the wall polymer 14. The wall polymer 14 evaporates as a consequence of the energy provided by the coil 18 thereby making the cleaning the inside of the dry-etch chamber 10 possible. The wall polymer or other residual reaction products 14 are removed via the suction pump 20. The dry-etch process in the example shown is a dry-etch for a Phase Shift Mask (PSM) with MoSiON etchant and O2 descum. The term descum refers to the process of removing scum whereby scum is an organic or inorganic residue that has collected on the sidewalls of the chamber 10. Using the indicated process, the particle count of the wall polymer or other residual reaction products 12 within the chamber is difficult to control while the particle level is unstable. It is clear that a low particle count is key for the yield of the mask production.
FIG. 1b shows the wall polymer or other residual reaction product molecules 22 being distributed throughout the chamber 10 after the rf coil 18 has been activated at part of the Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) process and the RIE etch for the cleaning of the chamber and its contents has been initiated. FIG. 1b represents the power-on, FIG. 1a of the ICP chamber cleaning process.
FIG. 1c shows the condition within the dry-etch chamber between the FIG. 1a and FIG. 1b cycle of the dry-etch process. A number of wall polymer or other residual reaction product modules 24 have settled on the surface of mask 12, a number of other wall polymer or residual reaction product molecules 26 and 28 remain attached to the walls of the dry-etch chamber in a pattern that is not equal on both sides of the chamber but that is determined by complex factors of rf power distribution within the chamber, ionization and polarity of the gas molecules, etc.
FIG. 1d shows the repeat of the dry-etch cleaning process forming FIG. 1b of the dry-etch clean process.
FIG. 1e shows the distribution of the wall polymer or other residual reaction product molecules after FIG. 1b of the dry-etch cleaning process has been completed and after the internal conditions of the chamber have stabilized. It is clear from this that a significant number of the wall polymer or other residual reaction product molecules have been deposited on the surface of the mask 12, which has a negative effect on mask yield.
Noteworthy also is a comparison between entries FIG. 1c and FIG. 1e. This comparison will show that no significant difference has been gained in the distribution of impurity particles within the dry-etch chamber in going from FIG. 1e to FIG. 1c, this despite that fact that the dry-etch process was executed one additional time between these two entries. The repeat execution of the dry-etch process did not result in an improvement of the impurity count within the dry-etch chamber.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,215,619 (Chen et al.) shows a plasma reactor with a cleaning operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,786,392 (Kruchowski et al.) shows a fixture for cleaning a plasma etcher.

Method to reduce particle level for dry-etch

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


A method and apparatus for associating user information with conference participants in a conferencing environment generates one or more attendee bars corresponding to the conferencing environment. Each attendee bar includes a plurality of panels corresponding to the conferencing participants, and each of the panels includes information regarding a conferencing participant. The attendee bar is then updated whenever the information regarding one of the plurality of conferencing participants changes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the field of data and video conferencing. More particularly, this invention relates to associating user information with conference participants during a data and/or video conference.
2. Background
Computer technology is continuously advancing, resulting in modern computer systems which provide ever-increasing performance. One result of this improved performance is an increased use of computer systems by individuals in a wide variety of business, academic and personal applications. One such use is that of data and/or video conferencing, where individuals in different locations can communicate with each other via their computer systems. Typically, data conferencing refers to individuals viewing documents, data, or similar information, and video conferencing refers to individuals viewing images (generally of one another). The different locations can span virtually any distance, such as between multiple offices in the same building or between multiple offices in different countries.
The benefits of data and/or video conferencing are numerous. Among these benefits is the ability of multiple individuals to effectively and quickly communicate information and ideas to one another over large distances. The information and ideas can be displayed by each computer system, and frequently verbal discussions can accompany the images. Data and video can both be transmitted in a conferencing environment.
However, one problem which exists in many current conferencing environments is the ability to provide each individual end user with specific information about the other conferencing participants. For example, the names of the other participants, current pages of documents being viewed by other participants, which application tools are being used by other participants, which other conference participants are sharing particular applications, etc. is all valuable information to conferencing participants. Thus, it would be beneficial to have a mechanism for maintaining and providing such valuable information to conferencing participants.
Additionally, in a conference having several conferencing participants, it is desirable to be able to associate specific controls or commands with individual participants. For example, one conferencing participant may want to send a private message to a second conferencing participant without all of the other participants seeing the message. By way of another example, a conferencing participant may want to transfer a file to one or more, but not to all, other conferencing participants. Thus, it would be beneficial to provide a mechanism for associating specific controls and/or commands with individual conferencing participants.
As will be described in more detail below, the present invention provides for a method and apparatus that achieves these and other desired results which will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the description to follow.

System for dynamically updating information in panels within an attendee bar corresponding to a conference session when selected information regarding to conferencing participants changes


Scan exposure in a row or swath scanner is controlled by pulsing light sources with pulses that are separated by dark intervals from each other--and from the detector readout periods. Detector sequencing is thereby made independent of the velocity of the pixel-line advance mechanism. Different pulse widths for different colors provide color correction without calculation, or regularize color-space conversion calculations where needed. In a swath scanner, known technology of printing modes is imported into the scanning context. Order of pixel columns within each swath is reversed for printing--permitting use of novel configurations such as a dual-parallel-flatbed copier in which a single common scan-and-advance mechanism simultaneously transports the scan sensor and printheads. To produce mirror images, this configuration is also used without column reversal. In addition to red, green and blue light sources, an infrared source is used for reading invisible indicia that identify forms or media types. The scan sensor is also used for auxiliary printing functions.

In a pixel-based scanner, printer, copier, or FAX machine, a swath consists of a number of pixel rows, modernly on the order of twenty to two hundred. In a swath scanning system the pixel columns within each swath are serially acquired, one pixel column at a time, by an imager and detector array which move together across the document on a carriage.
We call this type of operation "carriage scanning", "swath scanning", or "swath-type scanning"--and the devices "carriage scanners", "swath scanners", or "swath-type scanners". They are also sometimes called "moving scanners".
In this document we use the phrase "full transverse row scanner", or simply "row scanner", to mean a scanner of the earlier type that acquires pixel rows one at a time. We use the phrase "pixel line" as a general term encompassing both (1) a pixel column, most typically of length equal to the swath height, in a swath scanner; and (2) a pixel row, most typically of length equal to the image width, in a row scanner. In short, as permitted by the context a pixel line may be either a pixel column or a pixel row.
(a) Row scanners generally--A scanner of this sort is generally one of three types. One is a paper-transport type, which translates the image medium past a stationary wide, shallow window that covers the receiving optics.
A second is a flatbed type which conversely moves all or part of the optical train under or over the stationary image medium--which is often positioned face-down on, and viewed through, a transparent pane. A third type takes the form of a small handheld appliance, which contains all or most of the apparatus and is moved manually over the image medium.
Most commonly all such row scanners have utilized broadband illumination--i. e., light that is nominally white--and filters or a prism to separate the resulting white-light image from the illuminated image-bearing medium into three separated-color images for either time-shared or spatially-separated detection.
A row scanner illuminates an entire row on the original object or document--entailing relatively high power and, depending on the type of light source in use, high voltages and relatively large amounts of heat. To avoid intensity fluctuation due to voltage ripple in fluorescent sources, excitation is sometimes at high frequencies--in return requiring care to avoid electromagnetic interference with high-frequency, high-impedance signals in the scanner circuits.
In such systems normally the illumination is continuous during scanning. As sensors many of these systems use charge-coupled devices (CCDs), or integrating photodiode arrays--which are periodically read out to data-transfer circuits.
CCDs, and also some integrating photodiode arrays, are sensitive to accumulated light arriving between the periodic readouts. In such systems, with continuous illumination, special provision must be made to manage this sensitivity of the detectors to the accumulation of optical energy between readouts.
(b) Color scanner with source-based color separation and sequenced sources, in a printer--U.S. Pat. No. 4,755,877 of Vollert, assigned to Siemens AG, and also the above mentioned Pat. No. 5,532,825 of Lim and Cloutier, describe use of different-color sources for color separation, and sequencing of the sources between advances from line to line. In this way they capture the full image information with color data interleaved or time-shared line by line.
Vollert in particular relies upon light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as sources. Color LEDs are available for red, green and blue--nominally the same colors as used to define standard industrial color, but not actually emitting the same spectral distributions as standard sources. In general some calculation is required to determine color constituents that would be found if the sources were actually standard.
Technically speaking it is impossible to make such a determination exactly, since sources with different spectral distribution simply do not provide all the necessary information for a full calculation. LEDs emit in relatively narrow spectral bands that peak close to the standard wavebands but can only provide a rough approximation to the standard illumination.
Also, nothing known in the desktop scanner/printer art addresses the related fundamental problem of metameric colors (see, e. g., Judd and Wyszecki, Color in Business, Science, and Industry, Wiley 1952, 1963, at 106 ff.). In particular it is not known in the desktop scanner/printer art how to acquire color data in such a way that a scanned and then directly printed image will have a desired color appearance under incandescent lighting, for example--or under fluorescent lamps having a particular specified phosphor mix--rather than sunlight. Again of course arithmetic adjustments can be applied, but such calculations represent an additional time-consuming step.
Lim and Cloutier introduce a new type of piggyback color row scanner. Three light sources emitting three different colors are appended with receiving optics to the output paper tray of an inkjet printer; thus this is a variant of the paper-transport scanner type mentioned above.
A subsystem is provided for selecting between scanning and printing functions. Since a single image-medium transport system is used for both functions, single-pass copying is at least awkward.
Lim and Cloutier's color row scanner interleaves color data row by row. Source types mentioned include fluorescent lamps and light-emitting diodes (LEDs) For color scanning, instead an entire image for each color could be acquired separately, in sequence. This, however, would require three passes of the image-bearing medium through the apparatus and also would introduce local misregistration arising from the flexibility of most image media.
Vollert, and Lim and Cloutier, introduce a new economy into operation of a color scanner in conjunction with inkjet printing, and teach advantageous use of source-based color separation and sequenced-source color interleaving. They do leave room for refinement as to the timing demands of CCD readout, or the detailed spectra of LED colors--or more generally the metamer problem.
(c) Swath scanners--The scanner described by Vollert is a swath scanner, not a row scanner, and it is integrated into a swath inkjet printer. At the present writing, notwithstanding the early date of the Vollert patent, scanners of this type are relatively new in the marketplace.
Other swath scanners include the Cannon model CJ-10 flatbed color copier, in which an incandescent source is carried with a sensor on a transversely-translating carriage. The source is turned on substantially continuously during operation.
In the Cannon copier the sensor is believed to be a detector-column array, scanned in two dimensions. It is not integrated with the printing mechanisms--i. e., a separate printing subsystem is used for recreating on a fresh image-receiving medium the image thus acquired.
Another swath scanner-printer that does not use inkjet technology is believed to be available commercially in Japan under the Alps brand name as "Micro Dry process" (i. e., thermal-transfer) model MD-4000J. It forms images by marking with a hot wax ribbon, and may correspond to U.S. Pat. No. 4,788,587 of Bitoh, assigned to Casio.
This device carries an incandescent bulb and a sensor on the printhead carriage. The lamp evidently is turned on continuously during operation.
The Bitoh patent describes a plug-in swath scanner that is temporarily substituted for a printhead. The device carries a cyclically indexed filter belt to interleave colors swathwise, each 16-pixel swath being 2.8 mm (1/9 inch) tall.
For color scanning the device must traverse the width of the image medium to read one color of a swath, then index the filters and recross the medium to read the next color for the same swath, and finally index again and traverse the width of the image medium yet a third time to complete the 2.8 mm swath. Thus to complete a standard page the carriage beats back and forth diligently--a total of nearly three hundred passes at the rated swath height.
Even at more modern swath dimensions the total sweep count for such a system would amount some thirty to sixty-five passes. (This accounting makes no allowance for extra passes in mitigation of mechanical inaccuracies in swath abutment--discussed shortly.) Mechanical wear in such a system is a significant consideration.
Bitoh's system requires removal and replacement of pen and sensor to print or scan--and of course to copy. His system is therefore also time-consuming and inconvenient to use, just as is the plug-in system of Carbone, U.S. Pat. No. 4,525,748.
Minor awkwardness is inherent in having to set aside a pen in an office or home desk area when the scanner is installed. Maintaining mutual cleanliness can be clumsy: workspace surfaces may be soiled by ink on the printhead, and printhead nozzles may be contaminated by various debris in the workspace.
Bitoh also mentions another effort to provide some sort of convertible scan-sensor/printhead capability in a single machine. In this regard he cites Japanese Patent Disclosure 59-32833 and Japanese Utility Model Disclosure 54-133733 for a system in which "the thermal head and the image sensor are arranged so as to be offset from a sheet, that is, they are not aligned linearly with respect to the sheet."
It can be inferred that the printhead and sensor are mounted on a carriage together but with only one at a time in operating position--i. e., the printhead/sensor must be flipped in some way as part of selection between printing and sensing. Even so, Bitoh reports that "the overall reading apparatus becomes bulky."
Thus a user of these Japanese systems may face an unsatisfactory choice between Bitoh's own inherently slow plug-in system and the undesirably bulky flip-type systems he mentions.
(d) Swath scanner-printer with read/print configuration at least partially in common, and electronics integration--The Vollert patent, and the above-mentioned application of Dobbs et al., introduce swath-type scanner-printers. The Dobbs system is a plug-in black-and-white swath scanner-printer, in which plural pens and a sensor can be carried together in their respective operating positions and orientations. It also employs a degree of integration between its sensing and printing electronics.
Dobbs et al. describe an elementary form of scanner/printer integration. In scanner operation the controlling computer, or in some operating modes the printer microprocessor itself, sends a signal to (it thinks) the nozzle-firing system of the printer.
More specifically, in scanner operation the printer is instructed to fire a particular pen nozzle. The scanner module, however, receives/intercepts and uses that print instruction to instead initiate a readout sequence for the column sensor, which is a charge-coupled device (CCD) array.
In response to this print instruction, the microprocessor collects from the CCD array the data which the array has been accumulating. Those data are, namely, the optical-brightness information for a particular pixel column--the column where the CCD array has been positioned, on-the-fly within the current swath.
Part of this data-readout process, it should be noted, is reading out a series of so-called "dummy pixels". In at least some CCD hardware the dummy pixels are present and must be read out. In some systems using CCDs, some or all dummy-pixel readout is part of a regime of CCD sequencing that is essential to accommodate the previously mentioned sensitivity of the CCDs to accumulated illumination arriving between readout cycles.
Such sensitivity as noted earlier is a characteristic of some integrating photodiode arrays, as well as CCDs. In the Dobbs and Bitoh swath scanners, and prior row scanners too, as will be recalled the light sources are turned on substantially continuously during operation.
Another even more limiting accommodation of the same interreadout cumulation--considered together with the use of light sources that are on continuously--is the need to maintain constant scanning speed. Effective sensitivity of the array varies in a complicated way with duration of the interreadout interval. Commonly the least onerous way of accounting for sensitivity variation is to stabilize this interval by controlling scan speed.
Dobbs et al. mount their sensor in place of a single pen, an arrangement which--for a multipen printer, as they point out--leaves other pens undisturbed in their carriage. Thus Dobbs teaches mounting a sensor and pens together in their respective operating positions and orientations.
Inherently one of those undisturbed pens could be a pen that prints black. In that event, black-and-white scanning and printing can proceed without unplugging anything.
This is not the case for color scanning and printing. Thus the Dobbs system represents a clear advance over Bitoh and the other Japanese disclosures, for black-and-white scanning, printing, and in particular copying--but for color work there remains the above-discussed residual awkwardness of removal and plug-in.
Vollert's system is free of these drawbacks, as it includes a sensor on the carriage in addition to the full complement of four pens. Further, Vollert reduces the number of sweeps by interleaving colors, column by column, within each swath.
Nevertheless Vollert fails to teach any way of avoiding the CCD sequencing limitations described above. Moreover, neither Vollert nor Lim and Cloutier address the spectral distribution of LED sources.
For finest match to colors determined under standard illumination, LED-acquired data require application of some arithmetic conversion, in a separate processing step. As to printing of images with a desired color appearance under various specified forms of artificial light, as well, the art fails to teach methods for avoiding additional arithmetic adjustments.
Another area that is open to refinement for both the Dobbs and Vollert systems in common, notwithstanding their superiority over prior systems, is inability to copy in a single operation. On one hand, because these systems have only a single image-medium transport system and just one carriage--both of which do double duty for both scanning and printing--these two phases of copying are very economical.
On the other hand, for the selfsame reasons they cannot be simultaneous. In other words, a piece of image medium must be fed through the machine in a first operation of the medium transport to provide an image; and then a piece of image medium must be fed through the machine in a second operation of the transport to receive the image.
(e) Single-pass swath copying--Thus for copying a document or other object, Vollert, Dobbs, Lim and Bitoh rely upon a user to provide two image-medium passes through an image-related device. Of course separate scanner and printer can be provided in a single machine, to eliminate such double-pass operation, but this response nearly doubles the cost of the main working parts and so obviates the salient benefit of sharing modules in a swath scanner/printer.
Some prior artisans have attempted to mitigate this limitation by juxtaposing twin image-medium transports to a common scan mechanism. Thus U.S. Pat. No. 4,636,871 of Takato Oi proposes intermeshed transport mechanisms for the image-bearing medium and printing medium; Oi shows multiple generic "reading/printing elements" ganged to scan together across, for each element, just a portion of the image width.
The Oi system uses multiple units of particularly costly modules--namely, sensors and printheads--but putting this drawback aside, the system also requires two transport mechanisms. This requirement is adverse in terms of cost but more importantly is very demanding of tracking accuracy as between the two mechanisms.
If paper should be only slightly misfed in either half of the medium-advance system, the resulting reproduction will have a gap, or an overprinted folded-image appearance. If the mismatch is laterally asymmetrical--a twisting of either sheet in the advance system--the result may be some combination of tapered gap and overprint.
Of course paper in any system can slip or misfeed very slightly, and in fact this does occur from time to time in every kind of printer and scanner. We are accustomed to accepting such phenomena as an unavoidable occasional incident.
The Oi system, however, essentially doubles the statistical incidence of such occurrences. This development is particularly undesirable since it doubles the likelihood that a valuable original may have to be fed through the transport mechanism more than once.
Risk of damage to a valuable original document is of course an extremely important consideration in any system which moves original documents along a paper-transport path. The Oi system thus exacerbates the handicap which a moving-original copier has inherently, relative to a stationary-flatbed copier.
That handicap includes, among other things, inability to scan or copy magazines, pamphlets, and books--even those which lie relatively flat. Pages from such materials of course can be cut out and passed through a machine, but in many or most cases this amounts to an undesirable defacing or destruction of the full original book etc.
In some ways this handicap is even greater for copying of small or irregular pieces of image medium. Such originals include for example product labels and book jackets, compact-disc faces, envelopes, pieces of shipping packages, credit cards, business cards and Rolodex.RTM. or index cards, cash-register tapes, checks, and notepad sheets--and myriad other items not readily passed through most document-transport-type machines.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,162,916 of Stemmle et al. discloses a very compact, portable scanner/printer/copier--which employs an arrangement similar to that of Oi's system, as to advance of the two image media. Stemmle's two sheets are driven lengthwise above and below common drive rollers, with idlers above and below for maintaining engagement to the common drive rollers.
The same misfeed or slippage problem mentioned above as to Oi's patent remains in any such dual system. Stemmle's, however, is particularly objectionable in that his two image-medium sheets must travel in opposite directions at the same time.
The distinctly unbusinesslike appearance of such operation may be excused in a portable apparatus, and the requirement that Stemmle's apparatus must invert (with respect to the medium-advance direction) each pixel column in preparation for printing is not onerous. Nevertheless several practical drawbacks arise.
First, the two sheets of image media extend in opposite directions from the apparatus, with the original image being read facing down and the image being printed facing up. Thus the trailing edge of the original tends to drag over the leading edge of the new copy, running the risk of not only smearing the copy but also soiling the original.
This result may be disastrous if the original is a valuable document. If this system were applied in a color copying context, where relatively large quantities of liquid inks are deposited in a short time, the likelihood of damaging both documents would be particularly high, but even in black-and-white machines it is a serious concern.
Furthermore the tabletop space required by the apparatus and sheets of image media in use is somewhat longer than twice the length of a sheet of image medium. Most swath-printing machines that employ printing-medium-transport systems are only about one and a half times the length of a sheet, by virtue of curved paths for the printing medium, and this should be considered at least a goal for swath-based copiers too.
In addition the task of the user in feeding two sheets of material into the apparatus, straight, from two different directions is quite awkward. This may be mitigated somewhat by making access to the machine available at both sides of the supporting table etc.
These constraints may be problematic even in some portable-device environments. The configuration is inapposite to office or home contexts, where the economy of the basic machine is offset by floor-space and office-layout demands.
Stemmle attempts to ameliorate these limitations in his U.S. Pat. No. 5,032,922. Here the same basic device, rather than simply resting on a tabletop, is ingeniously mounted slothlike to cling to and crawl along the underside of a transparent rectangular platen. The platen is raised, by legs at its four corners, above the table.
The platen beneficially separates the original from the newly inked copy, and also enables copying of books, odd-sized documents and other objects. Potential for relative misfeed, however, remains as the copy paper is fed through the unit by a partially separate mechanism.
This potential problem is aggravated by retention of the oppositely directed paths of the platen and the printing medium, with respect to the printing apparatus itself. In this context, since the platen is stationary, the copy is ejected ahead of the traveling copier module, but traveling at double speed in the same direction as the absolute motion of the copier module relative to the table.
Due to these unfavorable relationships, it appears that the forward edge of the emerging sheet is vulnerable to being slowed or stopped by any roughness or obstacle on the table or other support. If such obstruction is only slight, it can slightly curl the printing medium in the print zone, within the copier, leading to erratic distortions of the image being formed.
If obstruction is more severe (as for instance on a cloth-covered table, or a table with other articles under the platen), the leading edge of the medium could curl back under the copier module. In this case it would be dragged inked-face-down along the support surface.
Yet another related Stemmle design appears in U.S. Pat. No. 4,920,421. The configurations discussed above may have evolved from that discussed in the '421 patent, which is a desktop model with a stationary transparent platen on a case.
Under the platen the document sensor and printhead ride together in a transversely scanning carriage, which in turn is on a gantry that also steps longitudinally. As in the '922 patent, the printing medium is ejected at double speed forward--but now safely within the case, and deposited into an output tray just at one end of the case.
This configuration too has dual motion in the advance axis: the gantry steps along under the stationary platen, and the printing medium moves through a transport mechanism on the gantry. In other words--within the common, moving inertial frame of the gantry, printhead and scan sensor--the input-document platen translates in one direction and the print medium in an opposite direction.
(f) Auxiliary print functions--The Cobbs and Sievert patent documents mentioned earlier teach use of an optical sensor and associated light source mounted with inkjet pens on a transversely operated carriage. The sensor is for use in calibrating the pens with regard to their mutual alignments in both the transverse ("scan") axis and longitudinal ("medium advance") axis.
A sensor is advantageously used on an inkjet carriage for other auxiliary functions too. These include determining whether ink supply is in need of replenishment, ascertaining the quality of printing, and locating the edge of a piece of printing medium.
As will be seen, all these functions are compatible with the teachings of the present invention. At the same time, however, it is important to clearly distinguish all such sensor uses from the present invention.
For many of these auxiliary functions, optical or spectral constraints--or both--imposed on the sensor and light sources are far less demanding than in a scanner. In most cases these modules operate on a monochrome basis, and with substantially d. c. illumination.
Swath scanners heretofore have not been associated with auxiliary print functions.
(g) The technology of print modes--In swath printing the phrase "print mode" usually refers to a particular pattern of pixels into which inking is divided, as between two or more traverses of the carriage. Print modes and so-called "masks" used in implementing them have been very highly elaborated, to serve a variety of causes.
Some print modes help to control development of excess undried liquid ink, highly localized on a printing medium at any given time. This is particularly useful with media that can absorb relatively little liquid.
Other print modes help to camouflage adverse visual effects of heating (also used to accelerate drying), or the effects of operating very near an end of the printing medium--where the advance mechanism cannot control position as well as elsewhere. Still other print modes are aimed at concealing the edges of swaths--or color shifts between swaths laid down during scanning in opposite directions--to avoid a horizontal banded appearance
To avoid such horizontal banding, and sometimes to minimize generation of moire patterns, a print mode may be constructed so that the paper advances by a fraction of a swath height between each initial-swath scan of the pen and a corresponding fill-swath scan or scans. In fact this can be done in such a way that each pen scan functions in part as an initial-swath scan (for one portion of the printing medium) and in part as a fill-swath scan.
Such techniques tend to distribute--rather than accumulate--print-mechanism error that is impossible or expensive to reduce. The result is to minimize the conspicuousness of, or in simpler terms to hide, the error at minimal cost.
Previously mentioned patent documents of Nicoloff, Hickman and particularly Cleveland survey in greater detail many uses of print modes. The Cleveland document in particular explains concepts such as "space rotation" and "sweep rotation".
These are different ways of changing the print-mode pattern or mask by shifting individual nozzle commands in each pass--or by using different patterns in different portions of the nozzle array. In addition, as Cleveland also explains, operating parameters can be selected in such a way that, in effect, rotation occurs even though the pen pattern is consistent over the whole pen array and is never changed between passes. Figuratively speaking this can be regarded as "automatic" rotation or simply "autorotation".
Heretofore the use of print modes has not been associated with scanners.
(h) Media and form identification--In both printing and scanning work for various reasons it is desirable to be able to verify automatically the character of the image medium. In printing, for example, the medium itself determines ideal inking patterns for best color appearance (saturation, color balance etc.), and also for application of related control regimens such as heating to hasten ink drying, or special end-of-page print modes to accommodate distortion that in turn results from heating.
In scanning, if the medium includes a preprinted form into which data have been typewritten, confirmation that a form is present--and identification of the specific form and its alignment--determine how the data should be interpreted, stored or reprinted. Similarly if data are to be used to fill in a new form, confirmation of the identity and alignment of the form determines how the data should be formatted for entry.
Although such automated identifications of media and forms are of considerable interest, little work along these lines has appeared in the swath-printer marketplace.
(i) Mirror images--For artistic effects and possibly for other reasons it is sometimes desirable to be able to make a mirror image of a given input object. Many graphics programs for use in computers provide for such reversals. Such mirror imaging is easily implemented electronically or in firmware.
Stemmle, for example, as mentioned above must invert each pixel column before reassembling adjacent swaths, to accommodate the oppositely directed movement of his original and copy. His apparatus performs the inversion by reading back pixels within each column in a sequence opposite to that used in the scanning stage. Such inversion is readily accomplished either in terms of firmware or in terms of direct control of a shift register.
Stemmle neglects to mention that if he did not perform this inversion each output swath, considered individually, would be a mirror image of the corresponding input swath. Since Stemmle's image-medium sheets are traveling in opposite directions, however, the overall image would not be as seen in a mirror but rather would be scrambled.
We are not aware of any scanner/printer/copier offering provision of mirror images, without intervention by an associated computer. Where mirror imaging is desired such a feature would be helpful, to save time and resources.
(j) Conclusion--Many above-discussed limitations of the related art have continued to impede achievement of uniformly excellent scanning and/or printing. These include unavailability of single-pass copying in practical form, for the most highly economical systems--and the failure to take advantage of pixel-masking techniques, integrate auxiliary functions or make mirror images.
Even the Vollert, Lim and Dobbs systems continue to contend with the fussy timing (and "dummy pixel") demands of CCD readouts, and for finest results a need for arithmetic adjustments to bring color signals into conformance with industry standards. Thus important aspects of the technology used in the field of the invention remain amenable to useful refinement.

Underpulsed scanner with variable scan speed, P. W. M. color balance, scan modes and column reversal