Non-contact method and apparatus for Drying, Conditioning, Shaping and Manipulating of sheet fed Media. These functions are performed either on one side, or simultaneously or delayed one from the other on both sides, of the Media. For Drying, the energy applied is minimized to that necessary to supply latent heat of vaporization permitting use in, for example, low cost printers. No friction is introduced in the transport path enabling high speed, reliable Media transport. A region is established between Media and Platen wherein heat, support, and chemical or other processing may occur in a controlled way. Relatively few, inexpensive, and small parts are needed lowering the cost, energy, and space requirements for performing the various functions allowing for new applications in many fields. Media is supported a specific distance from a Platen by a balance of Fluid forces. The Media and the Platen bound a region in which forced convection greatly enhances process rates otherwise be limited by diffusion. The method and apparatus described is particularly suitable for high speed, low cost, inkjet printing.

1. Field of the Art
Manipulating, drying, conditioning or shaping continuous or cut sheet surfaces and surfaces of irregularly shaped objects. Examples include drying, curing, treating, plating, coating, etching, polishing and chemical polishing operations. Though specifically applicable to inkjet printing, the techniques are applicable in almost any surface drying, conditioning, manipulating and shaping situation of various materials that benefits from any of: high efficiency, uniformity, low cost, non-contact manipulation and, or conditioning, and controlled and uniform thicknesses. The techniques are especially useful in increasing the rates of diffusion limited processes at surfaces.
2. Description of the Related Art
Processes today are often limited by the speed at which they condition a surface or medium, which processes often require that the conditioned side not be touched.
In one example application, plating baths currently require close, uniform electrode spacing, high diffusion rates of reactants to the surfaces, and good temperature control. Typical existing plating baths incorporate large tanks which must maintain adequate stirring to maintain uniformity of reactants, but chemicals are wasted because very little of the reactants are actually adjacent the substrates, and energy is wasted due to large electrode spacing and bath heating requirements. In another application, in low cost inkjet printers, the printer mechanism waits for ink to dry or cure sufficiently on a previously printed sheet before adding the next sheet to the output stack to avoid smearing of the ink on the previously printed sheet. Typically low cost printers just wait until the ink dries on the previously printed sheet, even though the print mechanism is capable of printing much faster. Printers which print both sides of the page typically wait even longer for the first printed side to dry before the paper is put through a reverser so the second side can be printed since the reverser mechanism tends to smear the ink on the first side if the ink is not dry. Thus printers that print on both sides of the paper print far slower than printers that only print on one side of the paper. Drying and solidification of inks is limited by the slow diffusion rates of solvents away from the media, and also by slow rate of diffusion of the required heat of vaporization from room temperature air to the evaporatively cooled media.
Higher cost/price printers add various heating mechanisms, including heated platens (sometimes with vacuum hold downs to increase heat transfer rates) and radiant heating means with very little of the radiant heat actually being absorbed by the ink. To date, these methods have been costly, bulky, and inefficient, prohibiting their use in small, low cost applications, such as small office and home printing.
Many prior art drying/fixing/conditioning methods include, individually or in combination, one or more of the following:                1. Drying with a jet of air while the media is suspended between two rollers;        2. Heating the media by means of contact with a hot platen;        3. Heating the media through some form of radiation (typically microwave or infrared); or        4. Introducing, via spray or vapor, fixative materials or catalysts that immobilize or otherwise treat the surface of the media and materials adsorbed thereto.
However, all prior art methods have one or more of the following limitations:                1. The apparatus used to manipulate the media cannot support the media without contacting at least one side of the media;        2. The system requires the use of continuous media;        3. In drying, considerable heat is wasted because the media does not absorb a substantial portion of the heat used;        4. Friction is introduced into the media path which hinders, or renders unreliable, the media transport process, at high speeds;        5. The dryer/conditioner apparatus is inherently complicated and therefore expensive and unreliable;        6. The drying fluid flow disturbs other processes. For example, in inkjet printing, ink droplets are deflected from their intended target on the media;        7. The apparatus encloses the media, and is therefore bulky;        8. Drying/conditioning is a compromise between what is desired, and what is possible, requiring changes in other parts of a system to accommodate such deficiencies. For example, in inkjet printers, generally inks are carefully designed to dry as fast as possible because the drying apparatus is marginal, and therefore the ink composition often includes surfactants which imply a trade-off between the ink composition required to produce fast drying and that required to produce sharp edge acuity and vibrant color of the image;        9. Prior art systems still have to wait for drying/conditioning despite the improvements that have been made;        10. It is not possible, or it is expensive, to recycle used materials or heat; or        11. The apparatus shape cannot be configured to accomplish, simultaneously, other functions in addition to drying/conditioning, such as flattening the media, or transporting and reorienting, or warehousing the media.
Low cost printers are capable of depositing ink completely covering a page at about a 30 page per minute rate. However, they never actually print at that rate because the ink takes at least 10 seconds to dry adequately before a successive page can be stacked upon the previously printed page. Inkjet printer manufacturers have been unable to make inks that do all of the following:                1. Dry more rapidly than about 10 seconds on the printed page without the use of expensive, power intensive, and bulky driers, or volatile solvents;        2. Have sharp edge acuity when printed;        3. Have dark blacks and vibrant colors; and yet        4. Do not dry out, and clog nozzles of the printhead when the printer is not in use.
Typical inks are made with a water carrier, which is environmentally safe, and whose chemistry with respect to pigments and dyes is well understood. The inks further contain surfactants to help the ink penetrate into the paper, humectants to keep the ink moist in the printhead, dyes or pigments for color, and pigments for black. There are often deliberate chemical interactions between the inks to keep one ink from bleeding into another on the paper. A worst case blacked out page at 600 dots per inch of 5 picoliter black dots has about 0.16 cc of ink on the page. The water in the ink sinks into the paper in about 5 seconds, and begins to swell the paper fibers about 1 percent, causing the paper to bow toward the side with ink on it, causing what is known as wet cockle. If the ink is deposited in a swath of a width W, surrounded by dry paper, the paper buckles in a bubble shape about diameter W, and height of about 0.1 W, after, typically, 20 seconds. As the water further penetrates the page, the backside of the paper also begins to swell, tending to flatten, then reverse the direction of the bubbles as the front side dries somewhat, and the back side is being penetrated by water. Eventually the paper is uniformly swelled within the wet swath, and buckles alternating positively and negatively along the swath length, i.e., the width of the paper. As the water in the paper becomes uniformly distributed, and then evaporates, in a minute or more, the fibers tend to return to their former length, but the paper fiber bonds have yielded, and the paper does not return to a completely flat shape leaving residual dry cockle.
Wet cockle can cause a head crash, where the paper buckles enough to hit the scanning printhead, often located about 60 mils above the paper surface. Limiting the size of the swath, and the amount of ink put on the page, can minimize the height of wet cockle, but smaller swaths result in lower print speeds, and less ink results in less dark blacks or less vibrant colors.
Dry cockle is evident in unsightly wrinkled pages and is to be avoided.
Generally the black ink pigment is intended to stay on top of the paper to produce the darkest blacks, with optical densities of 1.3 to 1.4, comparable to offset printed inks. Black pigment inks cannot contain surfactants to the extent that the pigment wicks across fibers, since that would result in jagged edges on letters which is highly undesirable. Thus the black ink pigment is susceptible to smearing, since it is on the paper surface and mechanically in contact with the next sheet of paper which will be stacked on top of it. Though pigments tend to coalesce and solidify when the water carrier is drawn into the paper (after at least 5 seconds), the pigment is often comprised of block copolymers similar to latex paint, thus pigments do not become permanent for days.
Color inks are typically dyes in water solutions with surfactants which help the water penetrate the paper more rapidly. Color inks take less water to cover a region than black inks because the surfactant spread the ink, and because the color inks do not have to be as dense as black is for text. Since the human eye is not as sensitive to color, jagged edges on color droplets are less objectionable. However, color inks would be more vibrant if they were on the surface. One approach would be to use color pigments but pigments typically are ground up solids with particle sizes over 0.1 micron and therefore scatter all colors to some extent making them somewhat duller than dyes that are confined to the surface.
Thus both black pigments and color dyes benefit by being dried rapidly before they can penetrate the surface of the paper. And, problems of paper cockle would also be relieved if paper could be dried substantially in less than 5 seconds (less than 2 seconds for a 30 page per minute printer).
This problem of drying at greater than 30 pages per minute has been continually studied, and to date has not been effectively solved in a way that is suitable for small (less than 1 cubic foot), low cost (less than $100), printers or even printers that are 5 times as large, and 5 times as costly, and ⅕ the speed.
Some ineffective solutions in the prior art include:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,305,796 by Szlucha et al., which discloses an enclosure wherein paper is heated with radiant heat from infra-red bulbs within a reflective enclosure. The enclosure itself is a substantial part of a cubic foot in dimension, the heat required is substantially more than 180 watts due to bulb and absorption inefficiencies, and the paper drying time is longer than the 2 seconds required at a printing rate of 30 pages per minute.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,463,674 by Meyers et al, which discloses an air impingement drying system that also fully encloses the paper, and, because of the large air boundary layer inherent in the geometry, Meyers system is inadequate to meet conditions stated above in the discussion of the Szlucha patent and only slowly dries the paper.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,382,850 by Freund et al., which discloses a large, complex system of heaters and air knives disposed along a 10 inch linear vacuum belt with the paper being held by the back side. In the Freund system the paper is moved at 5 cm per second, therefore drying at only a 12 pages per minute rate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,510,822 by Vincent et al., which discloses a heated platen which physically contacts the backside of the paper, and the paper is held in close contact to the platen by a vacuum which is only released to allow the paper to move. This has a high enough heat transfer rate, but would require, at a 30 pages per minute printing rate, that the vacuum hold down pressure be released and restored at least 4 times per second (for a 1 inch swath print mechanism), and it has no provision for adequate air movement to dry the ink.
None of the above are suited to simultaneous double sided printing since they all hold one side of the paper in the drying process.

Apparatus and method for non-contact manipulation, conditioning, shaping and drying of surfaces


A method for calculating the power consumption of a mobile device, particularly of a mobile station of a mobile radio system, in an observation period Δt based on various possible system states sk in which the device can be in the period Δt. A value of a quantity Δk is determined system-state-dependently for the system states sk occurring in the period Δt. The power consumption in the period Δt is calculated in such a manner that the quantities Δk and state-dependent typical currents ik are taken into consideration.

The consumed charge Q referred to a period Δt can be determined to perform a precalculation of the operating time expected in mobile devices, which are generally operated with a battery or an accumulator.
It will be appreciated that there are differences in power consumption during the operation of mobile stations of digital mobile radio systems. This is at least partially attributable to the existence or non-existence of radio transmission links.
There are two possibilities for calculating power consumption.
First, a current measurement and integration of power variation with time can be used to calculate power consumption. Since, as mentioned above, the power consumption is subject to great fluctuations, the current measurement can be quite complex, requiring a high-resolution analog/digital converter.
A second way to calculate power consumption, which can be applied in packet-oriented mobile radio systems such as, for example, Bluetooth, relates to storing mean power consumption for various packet types. Bluetooth has a large number of packet types for different connections (synchronous/asynchronous) and tasks (connection set-up, pollen etc.). By monitoring the packet types emitted and received, the charge consumed in the observation period can be inferred by adding together the packet-related typical power consumptions. However, this method has the several disadvantages that may affect its accuracy. First, calculating an estimated value for the actual power consumption can be very complex because the packet-typical charge consumption is composed of a number of components. For example, constant components, such as a component which is associated with a packet-linked carrier frequency change, and variable components, which depend on the amount of data transmitted per packet, must be taken into consideration. Additionally, incomplete data packets and/or a nonuniform distribution of the data over various time slots may exist when converting the power consumption from a previous data rate to a current data rate. Also, the system may not be periodic despite a constant data rate. The periodic behavior of the system can, for example, be disturbed by complex software processes or also by externally initiated events.

Method and circuit arrangement for determining a charge consumed within a period in mobile devices


Systems, methods, and devices are provided for generating and using text-to-speech (TTS) data for improved speech recognition models. A main model is trained with keyword independent baseline training data. In some instances, acoustic and language model sub-components of the main model are modified with new TTS training data. In some instances, the new TTS training is obtained from a multi-speaker neural TTS system for a keyword that is underrepresented in the baseline training data. In some instances, the new TTS training data is used for pronunciation learning and normalization of keyword dependent confidence scores in keyword spotting (KWS) applications. In some instances, the new TTS training data is used for rapid speaker adaptation in speech recognition models.

A keyword spotting (KWS) task requires detecting a specific word in an audio speech signal, often for use as the "wake word" in speech-enabled devices, such as "Hey Cortana" in Microsoft Invoke, "Alexa" in Amazon Echo, and "Ok Google" in Google Home. With the rising popularity of end-to-end trained models for automatic speech recognition (ASR), such models have also been explored in the context of KWS applications, which are one type of ASR applications. Among these, the recurrent neural network transducer (RNN-T) model has shown promising results in KWS and other ASR applications. RNN-T models incorporate both the acoustic model and language model components into a single, jointly trained model.
RNN-T models often perform better than connectionist temporal classification (CTC) models, which do not have an explicit language model component. Moreover, the streaming property of RNN-T makes it ideal for a KWS task that requires online low-latency detection. Such RNN-T based KWS models are trained with a large amount of keyword independent speech data and can be trained to detect a specific keyword using a keyword specific decoding setup. This speech data is typically natural speech data collected from recording multiple speakers dictating any number of words, phrases, or sentences.
In spite of the overall improvement in RNN-T based KWS models, in practice, the KWS performance varies with different keywords. The model performs reasonably well for keywords appearing frequently in the data set used in the original training of the model. In contrast, performance deteriorates considerably for keywords whose phoneme sequences (or subsequences) appear rarely in the baseline training data. For instance, for a foreign name keyword, whose acoustic realization and phoneme sequence rarely appear in the baseline training data, the RNN-T based KWS model yields low acoustic and language model scores, culminating in a false rejection of the keyword by the KWS system (i.e., the speech-enabled device will not "wake up").
One method to overcome this sparsity of data in the baseline training data is to collect more training data that contains more instances of the keyword. However, it can be expensive in terms of resources, to identify suitable speakers that represent a broad range of acoustic features, create relevant scripts for the speakers to dictate, record the speech, clean the data, deploy into the baseline training data, and then retrain the entire model before deploying the retrained model on a speech-enabled device. Therefore, it is not a scalable solution for a system targeted to support any arbitrary keyword.
Machine learning models have also been used in other ASR applications, such as in speaker adaptation. For example, in a large-vocabulary speech recognition system, modeling heterogeneous acoustic data sources coming from diverse acoustic environments and different speakers with varying speaking styles or accents is a fundamental challenge. Very often, speaker adaptation is performed to move the speaker-independent model to better fit a specific speaker. However, adapting a model to a speaker or several speakers is challenging due to the massive number of model parameters and the limited amount of adaptation data. Where adaptation data corresponding to a speaker is very limited, the training of the model to the specific speaker is generally referred to as rapid speaker adaptation. Rapid speaker adaptation is a practically useful scenario in many speech production deployment scenarios.
Furthermore, in practical speech production deployment, it is hard to obtain human transcription for adaptation data due to online computation modes, security reasons, or cost. Unsupervised adaptation does not need to use human transcription. Instead, it makes use of speech recognition first-pass decoding results as supervision. It is therefore much more practically desirable in most speech production scenario. However, explicit labeling errors occurring during unsupervised adaptation (e.g., errors from a first-pass decoding result of the adaptation data) can lead to catastrophic gradient update in training the main model, especially in an unsupervised adaptation of the main model to a specific speaker or many different speakers.
Thus, there is a persistent and on-going need to overcome data sparsity for training models used for speech recognition, keyword spotting, and speaker adaptation. The subject matter claimed herein is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one exemplary technology area where some embodiments described herein may be practiced.

Generating and using text-to-speech data for speech recognition models


Device for aiding the production of a mesh, includes storing first numerical data defining a surface to be processed, a partitioner calculating three-dimensional work cells given initial points, each work cell associated with a point in space, a tiling tool actuating the partitioner with a first set of initial points, defined with respect to the surface, so as to obtain a first set of work cells, an evaluator calculating a cumulative quantity representing the sum of the moments of the points of the work cells with respect to their associated points, and an optimizer iteratively actuating the tiling tool and the evaluator with a set of initial points drawn from the previous sets, according to a rule calculated to minimize said cumulative quantity. The moments are determined by a chosen nonnative function, of order higher than or equal to two and/or according to an adaptation matrix representing an anisotropy field.

The meshing consists of dividing the domain into a set of geometric elements, also called cells. Each cell and the set of cells in its entirety must meet predefined validity conditions, for example pertaining to the geometric shape of the cells (square, triangle, tetrahedron, hexahedron, cube, etc.) or apical angle values (compliance with minimum/maximum angle values). These predefined conditions depend in large part on the application for which the mesh is intended.
A number of methods exist for generating a mesh of a domain.
Known in particular are methods based on the optimization of an objective function depending on the coordinates at the apices of the cells. Such methods are sometimes called "variational methods." To define the objective function, these methods use Centroidal Voronoi Tessellation (CVT) and Optimal Delaunay Triangulation (ODT).
Variational methods make it possible to effectively and robustly generate isotropic meshes using what are called simplicial complexes. These methods are particularly effective when an anisotropic mesh is to be generated from triangular elements (meshing a surface) or tetrahedral elements (meshing a volume).
For certain applications, however, it is necessary, or at least preferable, to use meshes generated from hexahedral elements (volume), or quadrilateral-shaped elements (surface). This is for example the case for certain simulations using finite elements or numerical analyses, in particular in the field of fluid dynamics, the design of reservoirs for oil exploration, or mechanics in the plastic or highly elastic domains. In this type of application, using a executable mesh makes it possible to obtain both a more reliable simulation and a reduced number of elements to which the simulation pertains.
"Hexahedral mesh," or more accurately "dominant executable mesh," refers to a mesh primarily having hexahedral elements. A dominant hexahedral mesh may also comprise elements of different shapes, in particular tetrahedral elements, provided that the hexahedral elements are larger in number and/or volume than the elements of a different shape.
Furthermore, certain applications may require the generation of an anisotropic mesh, i.e. a mesh having elements that differ from one another in terms of size and/or orientation, in predefined zones of the domain.
To date, no fully satisfactory method exists for generating meshes from hexahedral or quadrilateral elements. The current methods require a manual intervention during the meshing operation. Furthermore, these methods have a significant calculation time, much higher than the traditional variational methods (by several orders of magnitude), which makes them nearly unusable in practice. Furthermore, they do not make it possible to define an anisotropy in the meshing.
The invention aims to improve the situation.

Device for aiding the production of a mesh of a geometric domain

INRIA INSTITUT NATIONAL DE RECHERCHE EN INFORMATIQUE ET EN AUTOMATIQUE


Provided methods for forming a pattern using electron beam and cell masks for electron beam lithography. The methods may include forming a resist layer on a substrate, the resist layer including a first region, a second region surrounding the first region, and a third region surrounding the second region. The second may be irradiated with electron beam at a first dose, and the third region may be irradiated with an electron beam at a second dose less than the first dose. The cell mask may include a mask substrate and a shielding region disposed on the mask substrate. A transmitting region may extend a distance from the shielding region. A gray pattern region may be disposed around the transmitting region. The gray pattern region may include patterns having a pitch smaller than a resolution limit.

1. Technical Field
Example embodiments of the present invention relate to methods for forming a pattern and masks, and more particularly, to methods for forming a pattern using an electron beam and cell masks used in electron beam lithography.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electron beam lithography may be used to form a material layer on the surface of a substrate and to pattern the material layer. That is, electron beam lithography may include applying electron beam resist on the material layer, irradiating (or writing) the material layer with an electron beam along a pattern, developing the electron beam resist, and etching the material layer by using the electron beam resist pattern as a mask. Electron beam lithography may be used to directly form a material layer for an integrated circuit on the substrate, but typically is used when manufacturing a photo mask for photolithography.
A conventional method of manufacturing a photo mask is described in detail with reference to FIG. 1. The conventional method may include applying electron beam resist 130 on a shielding layer 120 formed on the entire surface of a transparent substrate 110, irradiating a pattern with an electron beam 150, developing the electron beam resist to form a resist pattern by using a solubility difference varying according to the electron beam irradiating, and etching the shielding layer 120 using the formed resist pattern as a mask.
However, the electron beam 150 exposes not only a desired region of the electron beam resist 130, but also an undesired region of the electron beam resist 130. An undesired region of the electron beam resist 130 may be exposed because the electron beam 150 reflects from the surface of the shielding layer 120, collides with atoms of the electron beam resist material and scatters inside the electron beam resist 130. This scattering 170 is referred to herein as forward scattering and backward scattering. Further, re-scattering 160 may occur because the electron beam reflects from the inside or surface of the electron beam resist 130 to the bottom surface of an objective lens 140 of an electron beam irradiator and from the bottom surface of the objective lens back to the electron beam resist 130.
Due to scattering 170 and re-scattering 160, the electron beam resist may be exposed up to a distance of 10 cm away from a portion targeted by the electron beam (i.e., a distance up to 10 cm away from an edge of the pattern). Forward scattering and backward scattering may be responsible for additional exposure up to about 10 μm, which may result in an undesired region of exposed electron beam resist 130. Also, the re-scattering may be responsible for additional exposure up to about 10 mm, which may result in an undesired region of exposed beam resist 130. The additional exposure may deteriorate the accuracy of the shield layer pattern, and may cause a change in critical dimension (CD). A change in the CD resulting from the additional exposure by the forward scattering and backward scattering is defined as a proximity effect, and the change in the CD resulting from the additional exposure by the re-scattering is defined as re-scattering effect, multiple scattering effect or fogging effect of the electron beam. When exposure is performed using the electron beam at a dose of about 8 μC/cm2 and at an accelerating voltage of about 10 keV, the change in the CD of the photo mask because of the re-scattering effect of the electron beam may be about 10˜20 nm, and this may significantly affect the manufacture of integrated circuits for high integration.
In a conventional method of reducing fogging effect, an absorption plate including grooves formed in a honeycomb pattern may be attached onto the lower surface of the objective lens 140 to absorb the re-scattered electron beam. However, because this conventional method cannot absorb all of the re-scattered electrons, this conventional method is limited in reducing the fogging effect.
FIG. 2 illustrates a conventional method for correcting the proximity effect of the backward scattering. FIG. 3 illustrates an intensity log slope at a patterning position in each pattern of FIG. 2.
FIGS. 2 and 3 will be referred to describe a method of artificially controlling a local dose of electrons to remove CD errors, which may result from dose variation between an isolated space pattern, a line and space pattern and an isolated line pattern. If the backward scattering range is sufficiently larger than the pattern size, a dose value may be determined by using the electron beam open ratio U of the pattern. The open ratio U of an isolated space pattern is about 0, and the open ratio U of the line and space pattern is ½ when the line to space ratio is 1:1. The open ratio U of the isolated line pattern is about 1. That is, the isolated line pattern is more exposed to the electron beam than the isolated space pattern and the line and space pattern.
FIG. 2 illustrates theoretical patterns and energy distributions before and after correcting the proximity effect with respect to the patterns. If the patterns are irradiated at the same dose as shown by the energy distribution before correcting the proximity effect, the isolated space pattern, the line and space pattern, and the isolated line pattern have different energy values. The energy values of the patterns are different because the total amount of backward scattering affecting each pattern varies with the open ratio U.
The total amount of the backward scattering equals the backward scattering coefficient η times the open ratio U. Thus, for the isolated space pattern where the open ratio U is about 0, the total amount of the backward scattering is about 0. For the line and space pattern where the open ratio U is about 1/2, the total amount of the backward scattering is about η/2. For the isolated line pattern where the open ratio U is about 1, the total amount of the backward scattering is about η. Consequently, in the isolated space pattern, the line and space pattern and the isolated line pattern are changed into about 1/2, about 1/2+1/2η and about 1/2+η, respectively, by the proximity effect. In order to equalize the dose values for patterning, the isolated space pattern and the line and space pattern may be irradiated at a corrected dose Dp for correcting the proximity effect. The corrected dose Dp may be represented as the following Equation (1):Dp=(1/2+η)/(1/2+ηU)   (1)As described above, irradiating the isolated space pattern and the line and space pattern at the corrected dose Dp may equalize the energy values for patterning. Equalizing the energy values may result in the CD values of the patterns being substantially uniform. However, this conventional method may substantially equalize the CD values but may also decrease a dose margin by the backward scattering.
FIG. 3 illustrates a formula of an intensity log slope (ILS) representing the dose margin by the backward scattering. In a typical electron beam lithography, the backward scattering coefficient η is about 0.5, wherein the ILS of the isolated line pattern having the open ratio U of about 1 decreases by about half relative to the isolated space pattern having the open ratio U of about 0. The ILS of the 1:1 line and space pattern having the open ratio of 1/2 is about 2/3 relative to the isolated space pattern.
That is, because a conventional method of correcting the proximity effect decreases the dose margin by the backward scattering as in the isolated line pattern, the conventional method is limited in equalizing the CD. Thus, it is important to decrease an absolute amount of the backward scattering. Consequently, in the electron beam lithography, it is important to decrease all of the forward scattering, backward scattering and re-scattering.

Methods for forming pattern using electron beam and cell masks used in electron beam lithography


Power conservation for devices is facilitated based on likelihood of power usage level. An example method can comprise determining, by a first device comprising a processor, that a second device is within a defined proximity of a third device, wherein the third device is determined to be operating in a mode according to a first power consumption operation that satisfies a defined condition, and wherein the operating in the mode according to the first power consumption operation is based on the third device being located at a defined location. The method can also comprise facilitating, by the first device, modification of the mode of the third device based on a determination of a likelihood of usage of a second power consumption operation by the third device. In various embodiments, the third device is configured to operate according to the power save mode or the extended discontinuous reception mode.

As technological advances continue to grow, Internet of Things (IoT) devices are being targeted for many uses. These devices have wide-ranging operating capability and can perform differently based on consumer demand and/or the current state of the devices. For example, the operating capability and/or consumer demand can vary depending on whether the device is stationary or mobile, attended or unattended, regularly accessible or inaccessible and/or the frequency of use of the device.
Automobile telematics control unit (TCU) devices are IoT devices that typically have a unique combination of one or more of the above states concurrently or within the course of a single day since automobiles can be stationary, mobile, attended or unattended, and the level of use can vary significantly. As such, at a first time, the TCU device may operate in a state having sustained high power levels and high throughput and, at a second time, may operate at reduced power levels. Accordingly, facilitating power conservation for devices based on likelihood of power usage level is desired.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Facilitating power conservation for devices based on likelihood of power usage level


A method for fabricating a semiconductor device with a multi-level insulator formed on a semiconductor substrate is provided, which enables restraint of impurity atoms doped into a material contacted with the insulator from diffusing into the insulator and substrate. A first dielectric film formed on the substrate is made of an oxide of a semiconductor constituting the substrate by thermal treatment of the substrate in an oxygen atmosphere. The second dielectric film is disposed at the interface of the substrate and first dielectric and is made of a nitride or oxynitride of the semiconductor constituting the substrate by thermal treatment of the substrate and first dielectric in a nitride atmosphere. The insulator preferably contains only the first and second dielectric films to have a two-level structure. The insulator may further contain a third dielectric film formed over the multi-level structure, thereby having a three-level insulator structure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device with a multi-level structured insulator formed on a semiconductor substrate and its fabrication method, which enables one to realize a reliable gate insulator of metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) type semiconductor devices.
2. Description of the Prior Art
With an MOS-type ultra-large-scale integrated circuit device (ULSI), it is well known that the property of a gate insulator of an MOS field-effect transistor (MOSFET) seriously affects the performance of the ULSI. Thus, the reliability improvement of the gate insulator has been an important problem and therefore, various formation methods of this insulator have been researched and developed.
Recently, in consideration with the fact that nitrided silicon dioxide (i.e., nitrided SiO.sub.2) enables to avoid both the shift of the flatband voltage and the increase of the interfacial state density, which are caused by the hot carrier injection, the nitrided SiO.sub.2 has been tried to be used for this purpose and has been considered as a promising material.
On the other hand, a p.sup.+ -type polysilicon film heavily doped with a p-type impurity such as boron (B) has been tried to be used as the gate electrode of the p-channel MOSFET (PMOSFET). The nitrided SiO.sub.2 is capable of restraint of the doped impurity into the p.sup.+ -type polysilicon film from diffusing into the silicon substrate with which the nitrided SiO.sub.2 is contacted and as a result, it has been considered as a promising material for this purpose, also.
A conventional fabrication method of a semiconductor device of this sort, which has a two-level structured insulator formed on a semiconductor substrate, was disclosed in the Japanese Non-Examined Patent Publication No. 2-18934 published in January 1990. A conventional semiconductor device fabricated using this conventional method is shown in FIG. 1. This conventional method will be explained below, which includes rapid thermal nitridation and rapid thermal annealing processes.
First, a semiconductor substrate 21 is thermally oxidized to thereby produce an oxide film 22 on a main surface of the substrate 21. The film 22 is made of an oxide of the semiconductor constituting the substrate 21.
Next, the substrate 21 with the oxide film 22 is subjected to a rapid thermal process using radiated heat in a nitriding atmosphere such as an NH.sub.3 atmosphere, thereby nitriding the oxide film 22. Nitrogen (N) is introduced into the oxide film 22 during this process. Although the distribution of the introduced nitrogen in the film 22 varies dependent upon the nitridation temperature and nitridation time, almost all the introduced nitrogen exists in the neighborhood of the interface of the substrate 21 with the oxide film 22. Therefore, a nitrided oxide film 23 of the substrate semiconductor is produced near the substrate-oxide interface, as shown in FIG. 1.
Finally, the substrate 21 with the films 22 and 23 is subjected to a thermal annealing process using radiated heat in an inert atmosphere, thereby removing hydrogen (H) doped into the oxide film 22 during the prior nitridation process.
Thus, the conventional semiconductor device is obtained as shown in FIG. 1, which has a two-level structured insulator 27 made of the nitrided oxide film 23 formed on the substrate 21 and the oxide film 22 formed on the film 23. As shown in FIG. 1, the thickness of the nitrided oxide film 23 is much less than that of the oxide film 22.
Another conventional fabrication method of a semiconductor device of this sort, which has a three-level structured insulator formed on a semiconductor substrate, was disclosed in the article: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 65, No. 2, pp 629-635, Jan. 15, 1989, entitled "compositional Study of Ultrathin reoxidized nitrided oxides". This conventional method includes a thermal reoxidation process performed in an oxygen atmosphere instead of the hydrogen-removing thermal annealing process in the above conventional method of FIG. 1, which is shown in FIGS. 2A to 2D.
First, a semiconductor substrate 31 shown in FIG. 2A is thermally oxidized to thereby produce an oxide film 32 on a main surface of the substrate 31, as shown in FIG. 2B. The film 32 is made of an oxide of the semiconductor constituting the substrate 31.
Next, the substrate 31 with the film 32 is subjected to a thermal nitridation process in an NH.sub.3 atmosphere, thereby nitriding the oxide film 32. Nitrogen is introduced into the oxide film 32 during this process and exists in the surface area of the film 32 and in the neighborhood of the interface of the substrate 31 with the oxide film 32. Therefore, upper and lower nitrided oxide films 33 and 34 of the substrate semiconductor are produced, as shown in FIG. 3C.
Thus, the three-level structure made of the lower nitrided oxide film 33 formed on the substrate 31, the oxide film 32 formed on the film 33, and the upper nitrided oxide film 34 formed on the film 32 is obtained.
The upper and lower nitrided oxide films 33 and 34 are quite different in microscopic structure from each other. The nitrogen atoms introduced into the lower film 33 are strongly bonded to the neighboring silicon (Si) and oxygen (O) atoms. This means that these nitrogen atoms and consequently, the lower film 33 is very stable.
On the other hand, the nitrogen atoms introduced into the upper film 34 tend to exist as interstitial and/or dangling atoms and therefore, they are unstable. This means that the upper film 34 also is unstable.
Finally, the substrate 31 with the three films 32, 33 and 34 is thermally reoxidized in an O.sub.2 atmosphere. Since the nitrogen (N) atoms introduced into the upper nitrided oxide film 34 are unstable, not only the hydrogen (H) atoms but also the nitrogen atoms introduced into the upper film 34 during the prior nitridation process are removed outward. Thus, the upper nitrided oxide film 34 disappears in this process and as a result, the thickness of the oxide film 32 increases by a value equivalent to the thickness of the film 34.
On the other hand, since the nitrogen atoms introduced into the lower nitrided oxide film 33 are stable, only the hydrogen (H) atoms introduced into the lower film 33 are removed. Thus, the thickness of the lower nitrided oxide film 33 remains approximately unchanged through this process.
Further, during the reoxidation process, a thin oxide film 35 is produced at the interface of the substrate 31 with the lower nitrided oxide film 33 due to reoxidation of substrate 31.
Thus, the conventional semiconductor device having a three-level structured insulator 37 is obtained, as shown in FIG. 2D. This insulator 37 is composed of the oxide film 35 formed on the substrate 31, the reoxidized, nitrided oxide film 33 formed on the film 35, and the oxide film 32 formed on the film 33. As shown in FIG. 2D, the thickness of the nitrided oxide film 33 is much less than that of the upper oxide film 32.
In the above document disclosing the conventional semiconductor device shown in FIG. 2D, it was reported that the nitrogen atoms were distributed only in the neighborhood of the interface of the substrate 31 with the oxide film 35. This was due to the fact that the oxide film 35 was very thin and consequently, it could be said that only the lower nitrided oxide film 33 existed near the interface of the substrate 31.
As described earlier, the nitrided oxide film 23 or 33 serves as a diffusion or penetration barrier of the doped impurity atoms into the substrate 21 or 31. To realize this penetration-barrier function, it is not necessary to use a pure, uniform nitride film produced through a deposition process such as a low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD). Any nitrogen-containing oxide film such as the nitrided oxide film 23 described above is capable of the function. It is sufficient for this function that this nitrogen-containing oxide film has a nitrogen concentration of several atomic percents and a thickness of approximately 1 to 2 nm.
This nitrogen-containing oxide film will restrain the doped impurity atoms from diffusing into the underlying semiconductor substrate through the nitrogen-containing film, and will facilitate the control of the threshold voltage of the MOSFET.
With the above conventional semiconductor devices, the nitrided oxide film 23 or 33 exists in the neighborhood of the interface of the substrate 21 or 31, in other words, the much thicker oxide film 22 or 32 than the nitrided oxide film 23 or 33 is located at the top of the insulator 27 or 37. As a result, when a material doped with an impurity (e.g., boron) is contacted with the insulator 27 or 37, a problem that the doped impurity atoms within the material tend to diffuse into the insulator 27 or 37 occurs. These doped impurity atoms will degrade its property and/or electrical performance.
This problem becomes serious when the insulator 27 or 37 is employed as a gate insulator of a MOSFET. Specifically, the degradation of the property and/or electrical performance of the insulator 27 or 37 will badly affect the performance or characteristics of the MOSFET, thereby deteriorating the fabrication yield and reliability of the MOS-type ULSI.

Method for fabricating a semiconductor device with multi-level structured insulator


A control unit 3 estimates a driving target point Pt based on obstacle information which is recognized by a stereoscopic camera 4 and an environment recognition unit 5, and estimates a position of an obstacle based on a current relative position between a vehicle and the obstacle and information of a traveling of the vehicle. Then, the control unit 3 sets the driving target point Pt to a position by adding a driving target point traveling distance ifx0 over which the vehicle 1 travels in a lateral direction based on a steering torque f0 and a preset safety spacing Sx. The control unit 3 controls the steering of the vehicle 1 so as to be directed toward the driving target point.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle driving control unit for avoiding an obstacle which exists ahead of a vehicle.
2. Related Art
In recent years, driving control units for detecting an obstacle existing ahead on a driving path of a subject vehicle and guiding the subject vehicle to dodge the detected obstacle have been developed and used in order to reduce a driving stress of a driver and to improve a safety of the vehicle.
In JP-A-07-160994, for example, a technique is disclosed in which a steering actuator is controlled based on information on a driving lane to thereby steer a vehicle, so as to allow the vehicle to be driven along the driving lane. Then, in the technique, when an obstacle exists ahead on the driving lane of the vehicle, an obstacle avoidance steering control is executed, so that the vehicle is steered based on a programmed steering control which follows a preset steering mode based on a relative distance and relative speed between the vehicle and the obstacle from the vehicle starts an obstacle avoidance operation until the vehicle enters an obstacle avoidance area.
However, in the driving control of JP-A-07-160994, since the obstacle avoidance is executed based on the programmed steering control which follows the preset steering mode, a driver's will may not be reflected to the avoidance of the obstacle, and the driver may have uncomfortable feeling.


A control circuit for a piece of heavy machinery reduces a speed of one actuator, having a lower load, when that actuator and another actuator, having a higher load, are operated simultaneously. The control circuit includes a first control valve for supplying a first actuator with pressurized oil, discharged from a hydraulic pump; a second control valve for supplying a second actuator with pressurized oil, discharged from the hydraulic pump; operating units for actuating the first control valve and the second control valve; and a mode selector for providing a command to the second control valve in order to increase a speed of the first actuator compared with that of the second actuator when the first and second actuators are operated simultaneously. A variable adjustor can be provided to control the open area of a valve for enabling the stroke of the spool of the second control valve to regulated. The control circuit can include a sensor for detecting pilot pressure applied to the first control valve; a sensor for detecting pilot pressure applied to either end of the second control valve; a solenoid valve for passing pilot pressure to pilot ports at both ends of the second control valve; and a controller for actuating said solenoid valve responsive to signals from the two sensors.

A hydraulic shovel 100 will be described with reference to FIG. 5 of the accompanying drawings. A lower caterpillar tractor 21 (called "traveling undercarriage") is movable back and forth by a driving motor 24. An upper revolvable member 23 (called "upper revolvable turret", "upper vehicle", or "main vehicle") is mounted on the caterpillar tractor 21 via a turntable 22, and is turned about the vertical axis of the turntable 22 by a turning motor 25. The upper vehicle 23 comprises an excavating machine 30, a machine cab 26, an operator cabin 27, and a counterweight 28.
The excavating machine 30 includes a boom 31, a digging arm 33, a bucket 35, a boom actuator 32, an arm actuator 34, and a bucket actuator 36. One end of the boom 31 is pivotally attached to a bracket (not shown), fixed to the upper vehicle 23, and is movable vertically in response to the operation of the boom actuator 32. One end of the digging arm 33 is pivotally attached to the distal end of the boom 31 and is movable vertically in response to the operation of the arm actuator 34. The bucket is pivotally attached to the lower (distal) end of the digging arm 33 and is pivoted in response to the operation of the bucket actuator 36.
The motors 24 and 25 and the actuators 32, 34, and 36 are operated independently of each other or in various combinations with each other by a control circuit (not shown) in order to perform excavation. At the present time, there is a strong demand for a control circuit which can more efficiently control the combined operations of the foregoing members.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication 1-250531 exemplifies a device for improving the efficiency of combined operations of an excavating machine. The device will be described referring to FIG. 6. When the pilot valve 50 is operated in the direction U in order to contract the arm actuator 55, a pilot pressure is applied to the pilot conduit 50A. In this state, if the pilot valve 51 has also been operated in the direction U in order to contract the boom actuator 56, a pilot pressure is introduced from the pilot valve 51 to the pilot port 52A of the selector valve 52, so that the selector valve 52 is switched over from its position a to its position b. The pilot pressure from pilot valve 51 is also applied to a control port of control valve 58, which controls the boom actuator 56.
The pilot circuit is formed by the selector valve 52 and the reducing valve 53. The pilot pressure applied via the pilot conduit 50A to the reducing valve 53 is reduced to a predetermined pressure by the reducing valve 53, and the reduced pressure acts on the control valve 57. If both the pilot valves 50 and 51 are operated to an equal extent, the pilot pressure in the pilot conduit 50A downstream of the reducing valve 53 is lower than the pilot pressure in the pilot conduit 51A. Therefore, an open area of the spool of the control valve 57 is smaller than an open area of the control valve 58.
As a result, an increased amount of pressurized oil flows to the control valve 58 via the conduit 54, so that the difference between the amount of pressurized oil applied to the arm actuator 55 and the amount of pressurized oil applied to the boom actuator 56 becomes smaller. Therefore, both the actuators 55 and 56 are contracted at substantially equal speeds, which means that they operate simultaneously at equal speeds.
There is another related art, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 8-93000. This device of that publication will be described with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8. When the driving motor 24 and the arm actuator 34 are operated in combination, e.g., when the shift lever 48 is set to the forward position, the reducing valve 48b of the driving pilot valve 48a is activated. The pilot pressure for switching the driving control valve 42 from its neutral position a over to its position b acts not only on the operation part 42b of the driving control valve 42 but also on the operation part 45b of the arm control valve 45 via the shuttle valve 43 and the branch pilot conduit 41a. Therefore, the piston 47 in the arm control valve 45 is moved to the predetermined extent L in the arrow direction as shown in FIG. 8.
It is assumed here that the reducing valve 49b of the arm pilot valve 49a is operated with the arm operating lever 49 set to the excavation position in order to change the arm control valve 45 over to its position a from its neutral position n, and that the pilot pressure from the reducing valve 49b is applied to the operation part 45a of the arm control valve 45 via the pilot conduit 44a. The spool 46 (FIG. 8) of the arm control valve 45 is controlled so as not to operate with the full stroke, which reduces the open area of the spool 46. This is because the piston 47 has already been shifted by the predetermined extent L in the arrow direction as shown in FIG. 8. Therefore, the amount of pressurized oil applied to the arm actuator 34 is reduced, thereby enabling the operating speed of the traveling motor 24 and that of the arm actuator 34 to be matched.
However, there is a problem in that the operating speeds of the two actuators are not matched when they are operated in combination in order to cause the hydraulic shovel to do various jobs. This is because more pressurized oil tends to flow from a hydraulic pump to the actuator having a lower load. This problem is remarkable when a boom of the hydraulic shovel is moved and the upper vehicle is turned (so-called "hoist and turn") at the same time, a combination which is frequently performed during the operation of the hydraulic shovel. In such a case, the actuator for turning the upper vehicle has a lower load than that of the actuator for vertically moving the boom.
During the combined operation of the boom lifting and the upper vehicle turning, a larger amount of pressurized oil is supplied from the hydraulic pump to the actuator having the lower load, so that the upper vehicle is turned at an increased speed while the boom is moved at a reduced speed, i.e., the operation speed of the boom does not match the operation speed of the turning of the upper vehicle. This is because the two actuators are connected to the control circuit in parallel. In order to overcome this problem, the operator has to adjust an operation stroke of the turning lever in order to reduce the flow of pressurized oil from the hydraulic pump to the turn actuator, and to reduce the open area of the spool of the turn control valve so that the operation speeds of the two actuators can be matched. Thus, the operator is required to adjust the operation extent of the turn lever as well as performing the combined operation of the boom and the upper vehicle, which is complicated and troublesome.
In the pilot operation circuit described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 1-250531, the actuators 55 and 56 are usually operated at substantially the same speed during the combined operation, which is a rather slow speed. Further, there is another problem in that the open area of the spool of the arm control valve 57 is continuously regulated during the combined operation, and this regulation cannot be cancelled.
The pilot operation circuit of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 8-93000 is effective for combined operations of the arm and the upper vehicle on an uphill gradient. However, the open area of the spool of the arm control valve is continuously regulated, and this regulation cannot be cancelled.
Both of the foregoing related arts are rather difficult to apply to the combined operations of the boom and the upper vehicle when excavated soil has to be quickly loaded onto a dump truck by operating the hydraulic shovel and turning the upper vehicle at the same time.


A method for converting an opaque portion of a side-group liquid crystalline polymer body into a transparent portion. The method involves applying sufficient shear force to the polymer body for a sufficient time to convert the opaque portion into a transparent portion. The method provides for erasure of opaque optical pixels from data storage disks without requiring the use of electrical or magnetic fields.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to side-group liquid-crystalline polymers which, among other things are utilized as optical data storage media. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods for aligning the nematic phase of such liquid crystalline polymers in order to provide for erasure of stored optical data.
2. Description of Related Art
The publications and other reference materials referred to herein to describe the background of the invention and to provide additional details regarding its practice are hereby incorporated by reference. For convenience, the reference materials are numerically referenced and identified in the appended bibliography.
Liquid-crystalline polymers (LCPs) offer a wide range of valuable material properties (1). The most familiar example is the outstanding tensile strength of fibers and films manufactured from main-chain liquid-crystalline polymer solutions or melts. Their strength arises from the enhanced molecular orientation that is achieved when extensional deformation is applied to a fluid with local orientational order.
Another type of liquid-crystalline polymer has the mesogenic group pendant to the polymer backbone as a side-group or side-chain. The side-group LCPs have been developed for potential optical applications as holographic information storage media or nonlinear optical materials (2).
For optical data storage, a plate formed from the side-group LCP is annealed in an orienting field to yield a sample that has uniform molecular orientation or alignment. The resulting "monodomain" material provides a transparent, highly birefringent background onto which opaque elements can be written by local heating with laser light. The laser is used to heat a spot as small as 10.mu. in diameter through the nematic to isotropic transition. When the spot cools in the absence of an applied field, it leaves a region (pixel) that is riddled with orientation defects. This island of "polydomain" material strongly scatters light, and is consequently opaque. Both the monodomain and polydomain states can be frozen-in by cooling through the glass transition of the polymer.
The present established method for erasing the opaque pixels once they are written is slow and cumbersome. The method involves producing uniform macroscopic orientation by prolonged annealing in a high electric or magnetic field or by contact with an orienting surface. As a result of the slow erasure procedure, side-group LCP materials have been viewed primarily as long term (write once read many times, or WORM) storage media. In order to expand the use of side-group LCPs into read-write-erase data-storage media, a convenient, quick and simple method must be provided which is capable of providing uniform orientation or alignment of the side-group LCP. In addition, if a convenient method for erasing opaque data regions can be developed, the use of side-group LCPs may also expand into thermal and optical sensors.
Considerable work has been conducted to investigate the rheology of main chain (3) and rigid-rod (4) polymer liquid crystals. However, very few studies have been made that investigate the rheology of side-group liquid crystalline polymers. Accordingly, no methods have been developed to erase the opaque pixels in side-group LCPs using flow. Of the few studies which have been conducted on the flow behavior side-group liquid crystalline polymers, one study concluded that the use of shear or shear flow could not be used to enhance the orientational order or align side-group liquid crystalline polymers (5).
As is apparent from the above, there is a continuing need to investigate and develop new methods for aligning side-group liquid crystalline polymers so that their use in potential optical applications as data storage media and thermal and optical sensors can be expanded.

Method for aligning side-group liquid-crystalline polymers


A steering assist system for a watercraft including a force detection assembly adapted to detect a force further applied to an operator steering control of the watercraft after the steering control is turned to a maximum turning position. The steering assist system also includes a controller configured to increase a steering force produced by the watercraft in response to an output of the force detection assembly. In one arrangement, the steering assist system increases an output of a propulsion system of the watercraft in proportion to an output of the force detection assembly. In another arrangement, the steering assist system moves a steering force producing member, such as a deflector or rudder, for example, in response to an output of the force detection assembly in addition to, or alternative to, increasing an output of the propulsion system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present application generally relates to steering systems for watercraft. More particularly, the present invention relates to a steering assist system for a watercraft.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many types of watercraft are at least partially dependent upon a power output from an associated propulsion system to develop a steering force in order to steer the watercraft. As a result, steering of the watercraft may become difficult in situations where the engine speed, and thus the output of the propulsion unit, is low, such as when performing docking maneuvers for example. Coordinating manual control of a throttle assembly to increase the engine speed while also steering the watercraft is often difficult for an operator.
In one prior arrangement, an output of the propulsion unit of the watercraft is increased when a turning angle of an operator's steering control, such as a handlebar assembly or steering wheel for example, is greater than a predetermined turning angle.


The tracked drive device particularly protected by its frame or hood as well as by protective plates, so as to prevent any accidental insertion of a finger or any other part of the human body between the track elements. The arrangement makes access to the track, for replacement or maintenance, particularly difficult. The invention provides a pivoting construction of the driving device, whereby the driving mechanisms become easily accessible, thus facilitating track change.

A particular case of a drive device as described in general terms above is a tracked drive device provided for driving cables, tubes or other elements with an essentially cylindrical cross-section in a longitudinal translation movement.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,884,384 describes a method of placing, by blowing, one or more empty cables or tubes in a tube laid in the ground. The device used for this purpose comprises two endless chains, each carrying a plurality of drive pieces disposed successively on the chain, and depicted for example in U.S. Pat. No. 2,679,924, each of the said drive pieces being provided with a driving sole plate having a form adapted to the element or elements to be driven. A rectilinear length of each of the chains circulates in parallel, facing the corresponding length of the other chain, the element or elements to be driven being clamped between the driving sole plates of the drive pieces facing each other.
Since the driving sole plates mounted on the chains have a form and dimensions adapted to the element or elements to be driven, it is necessary to change the said sole plates or respectively to change the chain, at each change of form or dimension of the element to be placed.
Moreover, safety standards require that each of the two chains as well as the drive pieces and sole plates be housed in frames, casing or hoods, arranged so that it is impossible to accidentally slide therein a finger or any other part of the human body, so as to prevent any injury.
This latter requirement therefore makes it difficult to gain access to the chains in order to be able to remove them so as to exchange them for chains provided with drive pieces or respectively sole plates having a form and dimensions adapted to the next product to be placed.


By hydrogen-terminating a semiconductor surface using a solution containing HF2− ions and an oxidant, the hydrogen termination can be quickly carried out. In this case, the semiconductor surface is silicon having a (111) surface, a (110) surface, or a (551) surface.

Manufacturing processes of a field-effect transistor constituting an integrated circuit formed in a semiconductor region will be described with reference to FIG. 1, using an LDD (Lightly Doped Drain)-structure n-type field-effect transistor as an example.
At first, element isolation is carried out, for example, by an STI (Shallow Trench Isolation) method, thereby forming an element region 102 on the surface of a p-type (110) surface silicon 101 serving as a semiconductor substrate (FIG. 1(a)).
Pre-oxidation cleaning such as RCA cleaning is applied to the element region 102 (FIG. 1(b)) to remove organic compounds, particles, and metal impurities and, thereafter, dilute hydrofluoric acid treatment and then rinsing with pure water are performed to hydrogen-terminate 103 the element region 102 (FIG. 1(c)). After drying the wafer (FIG. 1(d)), a gate insulating film (SiO2) 105 is formed (FIG. 1(e)).
Then, boron is ion-implanted over the entire surface of the silicon 101 for controlling the threshold voltage (FIG. 1(f)).
Then, a polycrystalline silicon film is deposited over the entire surface of the silicon 101 and then patterned, thereby forming a gate electrode 106 of polycrystalline silicon on the gate insulating film 105 in the element region 102 (FIG. 1(g)).
Then, phosphorus is ion-implanted at a low concentration, thereby forming n− source and drain regions 107 that serve to relax high electric fields (FIG. 1(h)).
Then, a silicon oxide film (SiO2) is deposited over the entire surface of the silicon 101 by a CVD method or the like so as to cover the gate electrode 106 and then anisotropic etching is performed, thereby forming a side-wall insulating film 108 on the side walls of the gate electrode 106 (FIG. 1(i)).
Thereafter, n-type impurities such as arsenic are ion-implanted at a high concentration, thereby forming n+ source and drain regions 109 (FIG. 1(j)).
In Patent Document 1, the present inventors have previously proposed a semiconductor device manufacturing method that uses H2O added with hydrogen or deuterium and applies high-frequency vibration when cleaning a semiconductor surface, thereby performing hydrogen termination thereof.
Herein, when forming the field-effect transistor as described above on the Si (110) surface or Si (111) surface or further on polycrystalline Si, it takes time to perform the dilute hydrofluoric acid treatment to achieve the hydrogen termination 103 in FIG. 1(d). Speaking of the time required for stripping a chemical SiO2, formed in the RCA cleaning, by the dilute hydrofluoric acid treatment to achieve the hydrogen termination, it can be realized by immersion in a 0.5 wt % dilute hydrofluoric acid solution for 1 minute or so in the case of the Si (100) surface. However, in the case of the Si (110) surface, the Si (111) surface, or further the polycrystalline Si, it is necessary to immerse it in a 0.5 wt % dilute hydrofluoric acid solution for 10 minutes or more. In order to shorten the hydrogen termination time to about 3 minutes, it is necessary to increase the concentration of the dilute hydrofluoric acid by approximately 10 wt %. In this case, a silicon oxide film used in the STI is etched particularly at its embedded central portion, so that a void 104 is formed as shown in FIG. 1(c). In the later gate electrode forming process (FIG. 1(g)), the polycrystalline silicon is embedded in the void 104. When the integrated circuit is completed, this polycrystalline silicon embedded in the void 104 causes deterioration of withstand voltage between the elements and further causes occurrence of wiring shorts.
In three-dimensional transistors such as Fin-FETs, there is a case where one transistor is formed on both Si (100) and (110) surfaces.
FIG. 2 shows states before and after formation of a gate insulating film of a Fin-FET. FIG. 2(a) is a section of an element region as seen in a direction from source to drain. SiO2 202 is formed on a Si substrate 201 and a Fin 203 is formed thereon. The element region comprises a Si (100) surface 204 and Si (110) surfaces 205. After performing acid cleaning (HCI/H2O2 cleaning) in RCA cleaning, a chemical oxide film 206 is formed (FIG. 2(b)). Thereafter, 0.5 wt % dilute hydrofluoric acid treatment is carried out to strip the chemical oxide film 206, but it takes about 10 minutes to hydrogen-terminate the Si (110) surfaces 205. By the treatment for about 10 minutes, etching of an STI silicon oxide film proceeds like in the case of FIG. 1, thus causing deterioration of withstand voltage between elements and wiring shorts. Hydrogen termination of the Si (100) surface 204 is completed in 1 minute or so, but, thereafter, the Si (100) surface 204 is overetched for 9 minutes until the hydrogen termination of the Si (110) surfaces 205 is accomplished. This causes a bad effect that the Si (100) surface is roughened (207 in FIG. 2(c)). As a result, the electric reliability of a gate insulating film 208 formed on the Si (100) surface 204 is inferior to that of a gate insulating film 209 formed on the Si (110) surfaces 205 (FIG. 2(d)).
On the other hand, Patent Document 1 discloses the hydrogen termination in the cleaning process, but gives no explanation about the hydrogen termination when stripping the chemical oxide film by carrying out the dilute hydrofluoric acid treatment.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2005-51141

Semiconductor device manufacturing method and semiconductor manufacturing apparatus


Laser radiation having a selected wavelength and in the form of pulses having a selected pulse duration, repetition rate and energy content per pulse, is employed for performing a variety of dental and medical procedures, including cutting of enamel, dentin, cementum, dental root material, bone and metal. Cavities and openings in teeth and bones can be filled with a mixture containing hydroxyapatite and phosphoric acid, mixed together to form a paste, and the resulting mixture, after being introduced into the opening or cavity, can be cured and hardened by application of pulses of defocused laser radiation.

The present invention relates to dental and medical procedures employing laser radiation.
In dental procedures, it is frequently desirable to remove portions of tooth enamel, dentin, cementum and root material and in certain cases, portions of gum tissue, in an accurately controlled manner and there has been a growing interest in the use of laser radiation for performing such procedures. In addition, many medical and dental procedures involve removal of bone material. Furthermore, it is desirable to perform all of the above procedures without subjecting the patient to adverse side effects.
The use of laser radiation is attractive because, particularly with the aid of optical fibers, such radiation can be focused to a very small area and is thus compatible with the dimensional scale of dental procedures. Moreover, laser radiation procedures can often be performed without recourse to an anesthetic.
While a number of devices of this type have been proposed, they have not proven to be of practical use notably because even the most effective of those devices already proposed are useful only under limited and very precisely defined conditions.
The enamel and dentin of a tooth include, as one component, hydroxyapatite, which is in amorphous form in the dentin and crystalline form in the enamel. These portions of a tooth additionally include organic tissues and water, but have no vascular system. Healthy dentin is in mineralized form, while dentin which has experienced decay is in demineralized form. Dentin has a relatively high percentage of organic tissue, around 40 percent, and also a high percentage of water. These percentages increase considerably in decayed dentin.
Tooth pulp and the gum surrounding the teeth consist of vascularized organic tissue containing both hemoglobin and water. Each of these components has a different response to laser radiation.
Frequently, when performing medical procedures within the oral cavity, the practitioner encounters metal bodies introduced by previous dental procedures, such bodies being constituted by metal filling material, metal pins, and chrome posts used to secure dental prostheses in place, and it is necessary to cut these bodies, again without producing harmful side effects.
Furthermore, while a number of dental filling materials are presently available, there is a continuing need for material which can fill not only dental cavities, but also cavities existing in, or created in, bone material, and which will have a hardness comparable to that of the natural material which it replaces and form a strong bond with the wall of the cavity or opening.
Application Ser. No. 07/299,472 discloses surgical treatment procedures and instruments for utilizing laser radiation for the removal of tooth and gum tissue.
The inventions disclosed in that application are based on the discovery that laser radiation can be used to cut, by vaporization, both tooth and gum material, as well as other vascularized tissue, with essentially no adverse side effects, if specific parameters and operating conditions are established for the laser radiation.
Specifically various drawbacks associated with earlier proposals could be eliminated, or at least substantially minimized, and an effective cutting action could be achieved, by the use of laser radiation preferably at a wavelength of 1.06.mu.in the form of pulses having an energy content of between 10 and 50 mJ, with a pulse duration of the order of 100-300 microseconds, and a repetition rate of the order of 50 Hz, and with the radiation beam concentrated at a spot, at the treatment location, of the order of 200-600.mu..
A pulse duration of 100-300.mu. sec. has been found to be sufficiently long to avoid subjecting the tissue being treated to thermal shocks but sufficiently short to enable effective control of the heating action to be maintained.
Laser radiation at a wavelength of 1.06.mu., which can be produced by an Nd YAG laser, can be used for cutting, or vaporizing, demineralized, i.e., decayed, enamel and dentin, without endangering gum tissue. Laser radiation at a wavelength of 532.mu., which can also be produced by an Nd YAG laser, can also be used, but this requires great care because it has been found that radiation at this wavelength will also cut gum tissue. Therefore, radiation at this wavelength can be used when it is desired to cut gum tissue.
Further, laser radiation at the wavelength of 1.06.mu. can be made to cut healthy, or mineralized, dentin, and healthy enamel, which was not heretofore considered possible, if a dark colored region is first provided at the spot where cutting is to begin. Specifically, it was found that the absorption of energy at the wavelength of 1.06.mu. by dark materials is sufficient to enable laser radiation having a suitable energy level to create a plasma which causes vaporization of dentin tissue. It was further discovered that once a plasma cloud capable of vaporizing dentin has been established at a dark colored region, the laser beam can be displaced at a controlled speed from the dark colored region so that the plasma cloud will remain intact and vaporization of healthy dentin will continue.
For cutting dentin and enamel, laser radiation at a wavelength of 1.06.mu. should be used. Radiation at a wavelength of 0.532 has been found to be effective only if applied at dangerously high energy levels.
Since radiation at 0.532.mu. can efficiently cut vascularized tissue, it can be used for general surgical procedures. In this case, it was previously disclosed, in application Ser. No. 299,472, that the radiation pulses should have an energy level of not greater than 10 mJ, with a pulse duration of 100-300.mu. sec., and the radiation could be focussed to a spot 200-600.mu. in diameter. A pulse repetition rate of the order of 50 Hz could be employed.
The Figure illustrates a handpiece for supplying laser radiation in a form suitable for performing the operations described above. A housing 2 is provided in the form normally utilized for handpieces, which housing would be configured in a manner known in the art for ease of manipulation. The interior of housing 2 is provided with an optical fiber 4 having an input end coupled to a source 6 of monochromatic light, such as an Nd YAG laser producing radiation at a wavelength of 1.06.mu.. Light source 6 is connected to an operating power source 8 which supplies pulses sufficient to cause light source 6 to produce light pulses having the desired parameters.
The free end of fiber 4, in the vicinity of the free end of housing 2, is supported by a suitable support plate 10 to direct light radiation onto a curved mirror 12 which deflects the radiation onto the receiving end of a further optical fiber 14. Mirror 12 additionally performs a focusing action which can focus the radiation emerging from fiber 4 to a point within fiber 14, preferably in the vicinity of the outlet end thereof. This will help to assure that the light emerging from fiber 14 can be concentrated at a sufficiently small spot on the tooth to be treated. Fiber 14 preferably has a very small diameter, possibly of the order of 250.mu..
Housing 2 additionally contains a hollow tube 16 which is connected to a source 18 of water and/or air and which has an outlet end positioned to direct a stream of the fluid supplied by source 18 into the immediate vicinity of the tooth region to which laser radiation is being applied.
A plate 20 which is capable of influencing the laser radiation so as to double its frequency is slidably mounted on source 6 and is connected to a control handle 22 so as to be slidable, by manipulation of handle 22, between the illustrated position, where plate 20 is interposed in the light path between source 6 and fiber 4, and a retracted position, where plate 20 does not intersect the light path. With this simple arrangement, the handpiece is given the capability of applying either 1.06 .mu. or 0.532.mu. radiation to the area to be treated, so that only a single laser device need be provided for the selective performance of procedures with radiation of either wavelength.
For performing endodontic treatments within a tooth canal, fiber 14 can be given a suitable length and diameter to be introduced into the canal in order to apply the radiation to the canal walls for widening the canal preparatory to filling.
A dark spot can be formed simply by applying a small amount of graphite, such as used in pencils, with the aid of a small amount of glue. In fact, it has been found possible to achieve the desired result by applying a small quantity of glue to the point of a sharpened pencil and then rubbing the pencil point at the desired location.
For removal of decay, the radiation can have a wavelength of 1.06.mu. and be in the pulsed form described above.
To dissipate the heat generated by the radiation, water and/or air should be sprayed onto the tooth in the vicinity of the spot which is being irradiated. The rate of flow of fluid depends on the extent to which the fluid absorbs the radiation. For example, water absorbs radiation at 1.06.mu. at a very low level, but higher than radiation at 0.532.mu.. Therefore, water would be delivered at a higher rate when the latter radiation wavelength is being employed.
When the radiation is applied to demineralized enamel or pathological dentin, a dark spot is not necessary and a plasma forms at the irradiation spot and the affected material is volatilized at and around the spot. The extent of the plasma tends to increase in a short time and this allows for the possibility of reducing the pulse energy to between 10 and 20 mJ.
When cutting normal tissue, the radiation wavelength can be 1.06.mu., which requires application of a dark spot, and will not affect soft tissues, or 0.532.mu., which can cut either hard tissues, i.e., dentin and enamel, or soft, vascularized tissues. Each wavelength will be preferable for certain purposes.
Thus, application Ser. No. 299,472 discloses four operating modes responsive to different needs:
1) For cutting demineralized enamel and pathological dentin, use is made of radiation at a wavelength of 1.06.mu., an energy level of 20-50 mJ, and with the pulse parameters described earlier herein. Labelling with a dark spot is not required. PA1 2) For cutting normal enamel and dentin, the radiation would have the same parameters as for mode 1), but the starting point would be labelled with a dark spot. PA1 3) For cutting any tissue, the same parameters as for mode 1) would be employed, with labelling with a dark spot where possible. PA1 4) For cutting vascularized tissue, including gum and other soft body tissue, laser radiation at a wavelength of 0.532.mu. would be used, composed of pulses having an energy level of no greater than 10 mJ, without requiring labelling with a dark spot. PA1 Liquid: Phosphoric acid 40% PA1 Water 60% PA1 Powder: Ceramic 80% PA1 Hydroxyapatite 20%
For dental treatments, a cooling spray will be used whenever the operation generates a sufficient level of heat.
Application Ser. No. 351,203 discloses further procedures which employ laser radiation for selectively cutting bone, dentin, cementum and dental root material, as well as metal bodies found in the mouth, without exposing the patient to adverse side effects, and particularly burning of tissue adjacent the area being treated. That application additionally discloses procedures for filling cavities or openings in both teeth and bones, using specific filling materials disclosed therein, and to employ laser radiation for promoting hardening of such filling materials.
As disclosed in application Ser. No 351,203, a filling material for teeth is constituted by a mixture formed from a liquid component composed of phosphoric acid and water and a powder component composed of a ceramic and hydroxyapatite, with the ingredients mixed in a proportion to form a paste having a consistency such that the paste is workable and sufficiently self-supporting to be applied to the opening with a spatula and remain in place, and laser radiation having the characteristics to be described below is applied to cure and harden the mixture and bond it to the tooth. The proportions of the mixture are not critical, however, the following are preferred:
If the proportion of hydroxyapatite is increased, more energy is required to harden the mixture; if it is decreased, the strength of the resulting bond is reduced.
The ceramic component may be composed of corderite, silica or silicium oxide, or aluminum oxide, for example. The powder components will have the grain sizes normally used for dental filling materials.
The liquid and powder components should be mixed together just prior to introduction into the opening to be filled.
The radiation applied during this treatment has a wavelength of 1.06.mu. and is composed of pulses preferably having a duration of the order of 0.4ms, a repetition rate of the order of 50 Hz and an energy per pulse in the range of 20-100 mJ. However, in contrast to the various cutting operations to be described in detail below, the beam should here be defocused to be at least approximately coextensive with the exposed surface of the filling material. This can easily be achieved by varying the spacing between the radiation output surface of the handpiece and the tooth surface, the area of illumination being readily visible.
The application of radiation to the filling material will promote the growth of a crystal structure in that material and create a strong bond between the hydroxyapatite and the surrounding tooth material.
The radiation will be applied until a crystal structure appears, this generally requiring application of the radiation for a period of 10-30 seconds.
The above described filling material and radiation can be used for filling breaks or gaps in bone material.
Application Ser. No. 351,203 further discloses that it is possible to cut, without burning, bone, root, dentin and cementum in periods of the order of seconds by applying radiation of the type described above together with irrigation with a water/air mixture to control the thermal laser beam cutting action. In this case, the cited application discloses that the radiation wavelength is 1.06.mu., the pulse duration is of the order of 0.8-1.2 ms, the pulse repetition rate is in the range of 30-50 Hz and the energy content per pulse is 200-400 mj. At energy levels of this magnitude, cutting can be effected without first forming a dark spot where the radiation is first applied. However, even then application of a dark spot will increase energy absorption and thus speed the cutting operation. In addition, a dark spot can be applied when it is desired to preliminarily mark or outline with a low energy beam the place to be cut.
In addition, radiation having the form described above for cutting bone can further serve to cut metal parts in the mouth, such as metal fillings, pins, or chrome tooth prosthesis posts. For this purpose laser radiation will be created and directed to the material to be cut in the manner described above.
In the performance of all of the cutting operations described above, the light output surface of the handpiece is positioned to focus the radiation to a small spot, preferably having a diameter of the order of 200-600.mu..

Dental and medical procedures employing laser radiation


This electronic communication system includes: a mobile terminal; and an in-vehicle unit, wherein the mobile terminal includes: a mobile-side first communication portion; a mobile-side second communication portion; and an application functional portion, and wherein the in-vehicle unit includes: a vehicle-side first communication portion; a vehicle-side second communication portion; and reproduction portions.

In recent years, multifunctional-type mobile phones such as those represented by multifunctional mobile phone terminals (smartphones) have come into widespread use. With various applications installed, multifunctional mobile phone terminals achieve a variety of functions. Among those applications, many have a function such as that of an automotive navigation system, which has been conventionally built into an in-vehicle unit. As a result of this, these days, there has been an increasing desire to utilize such a function, which is mounted in a multifunctional mobile phone terminal, in an in-vehicle unit.
In connection with this, an electronic system is known in which an information terminal and an electronic unit such as an in-vehicle unit are able to communicate with each other through a plurality of communication systems (for example, see Patent Document 1). Furthermore, a vehicular communication system is known in which an application executed in a mobile terminal unit and an application executed in a vehicular communication unit are caused to operate cooperatively with each other, the mobile terminal unit and the vehicular communication unit being able to communicate with each other through a plurality of communication systems (for example, see Patent Document 2). Furthermore, a display system is known in which a mobile communication terminal and a display unit, which are able to communicate with each other through a plurality of communication systems, respectively transmit and receive pieces of information in accordance with their respective communication systems (for example, see Patent Document 3).

Electronic communication system, in-vehicle unit, and control method