In a lighting device, suppose a distance between centers of linear light sources is D and a distance between the linear light sources and a light control member is H and a function representing an outgoing light intensity toward a normal direction at a position coordinate X (light source position shall be X=0) and f(X−D)+f(X)+f(X+D), in a range of −D/2≦X≦D/2, a ratio between g(X)min and g(X)max is 0.6 or more, a minimum value Xmin is in a range of −3.0D≦Xmin≦−0.5D, a maximum value Xmax is in a range of 0.5≦Xmax≦3.0D, and a cross-sectional shape of a given convex portion in X direction is formed of areas with (2N+1) number of different gradients represented by a certain relationship obtained from D, H and X.

Taking a lighting device for an image display devices an example, there is an edge light type in which light from a light source provided to a side edge of a light guide plate is guided toward the front direction and uniformized by a diffusion sheet and a direct type in which a light source is provided to the backside of an illuminated surface and light is uniformized by a light diffusion plate.
The direct type tends to be thicker as the light source is provided to the backside of a device, thus in the fields of requiring thinness such as cellular phone and mobile personal computer, the edge light type has been the mainstream, which is advantageous by having a light source provided to the side edge.
On the other hand, the request has been increasing for larger size and higher luminance of a display centering on the market of television and personal computer monitor etc. Especially along with the larger size of a display, in the abovementioned edge light type, as the rate of the length of a periphery part where a light source can be placed to a display area decreases and the amount of light runs short, sufficient luminance cannot be obtained.
Therefore, there is a method suggested to place a plurality of films for improving luminance over a surface light source to improve light utilization efficiency (see for example Patent Document 1).
However, as the luminance improvement film leads to an increase in cost and the number of films to use, it is not necessarily advantageous in terms of productivity and thinner device. Moreover, in the edge light type, there is also a problem that the weight of the light guide plate increases along with the larger size of a display. As described above, it has become difficult for the edge light type to meet the request in the market of recent years such as larger size and higher luminance of displays.
Thus, the direct type using a plurality of light sources is attracting attention. FIG. 15 shows an example of a lighting device of this style. In this example, a lighting device has a rectangle emission surface formed of X direction and Y direction, which is vertical to the X direction, includes a plurality of linear light sources 1, a light diffusion plate 5 and a reflective plate 4. The linear light sources 1 are placed in one virtual flat surface which is parallel to the X direction and the Y direction and the linear light sources in the longitudinal direction are placed in parallel to the Y direction and also placed at a regular interval along with the X direction. The light diffusion plate 5 is placed to the emission surface side of the arranged linear light sources 1 and the principal surface is parallel to the virtual flat surface where the linear light sources 1 are arranged. The reflective plate 4 is positioned to the opposite side of the light diffusion plate across the arranged linear light sources 1 and the principal surface of the reflective plate 4 is parallel to the virtual flat surface where the linear light sources are arranged. Moreover, usually the light diffusion plate 5 is uniformly dispersed with a light diffusion material and has uniform optical performance in the principal surface.
The rectangular emission surface is the most common in many usages of this lighting device such as an image display device and a lighting signboard. In this direct type, the light utilization efficiency of light emitted from a light source, which is the ratio of luminous flux emitted from a light emitting surface to luminous flux emitted from the light source, is high and also the number of light sources can be increased freely. That is, as the amount of light can be increased freely, requested high luminance is obtained easily and there is no decrease in luminance and luminance uniformity caused by larger size. Furthermore, since the light guide plate for turning light to the front becomes unnecessary, the weight can be reduced.
Moreover, as it is easy to eliminate luminance non-uniformity with linear light source than point light source and it is also easy as the wiring is short, the linear light source is the most common for a light source of these lighting devices. Cold cathode tube etc. is often used as a linear light source. Furthermore, although it is advantageous to use the same type of linear light sources for production and for uniformizing luminance, in this case, it is desirable to arrange the linear light sources in the direction parallel to the long side of the rectangle shape of the emission surface as the number of the linear light sources can be reduced. Moreover, by placing the linear light sources at a regular interval in the same flat surface, the problematic luminance non-uniformity becomes periodical along with the arrangement of the linear light sources and it becomes easy to eliminate luminance non-uniformity in the light diffusion plate having uniform optical performance in the principal surface. Although the reflective plate is not necessary, it is advantageous in terms of improving light utilization efficiency as it has a function to reflect light emitted from the linear light sources and the light diffusion plate in the opposite direction to the emission direction and use it again as emitting light.
Moreover, in this direct type, since the light utilization efficiency emitted from a light source, which is the ratio of luminous flux emitted from an emission surface to the luminous flux emitted from a light source, is high and also the number of light sources can be increased freely, the high luminance requested is obtained easily. Furthermore, since the light guide plate for turning light to the front is unnecessary, the weight can be reduced.
Moreover, in a lighting signboard as an example of other lighting devices, the direct type using a plurality of light sources is the mainstream because the configuration is simple and high luminance can be easily obtained without using the film or the like for improving luminance.
As a typical configuration example of such lighting device of direct type, there is a known configuration in which one direction is made to be the front direction, which is the main outgoing light direction, where the direction is parallel to Z direction vertical to XY flat surface, which is parallel to X direction and Y direction and the Y direction is vertical to the X direction. At least a plurality of light sources, a reflective plate and a light diffusion plate for transmitting light from the light sources and the reflective plate to the outgoing light side are included. The reflective plate, the light sources and the light diffusion plates are placed along the Z direction to the outgoing light side in order of the reflection plate, the light sources and the light diffusion plate. The light sources are arranged regularly in one virtual flat surface which is parallel to the XY flat surface and the periphery of the principal surfaces of the reflective plate and the light diffusion plate are rectangle shapes parallel to the XY flat surface. With this configuration, the diffusion plate has a function to eliminate luminance non-uniformity of the linear light sources and the reflective plate has a function to return light traveling to the opposite direction to the target outgoing light direction back to the reflective plate by the outgoing light side.
As the light sources for this lighting device, linear light sources are often used, which have less luminance non-uniformity, less light source points and are easy to wire as compared to point light sources such as LED. The linear light sources are arranged at a regular interval in parallel and also along the X direction or the Y direction.
However, in the direct type, unique problems such as elimination of a lamp image, thinner shape and energy saving must be solved. Especially for usages to observe an illuminated surface such as an image display device and a lighting signboard, the luminance uniformity in the surface is required, not only the elimination of a lamp image. Furthermore, for usages to observe an illuminated surface mainly from the front direction such as television and personal computer monitor etc., the uniformity of the front luminance in the surface is the most important. Since the lamp image appears as luminance non-uniformity far more remarkable than in the edge light type, it is difficult to eliminate it by the means such as a diffusion film which is coated with a light diffusion material to the film surface used in the edge light type in related arts. Furthermore, reduction in the number of light sources, higher luminance and control of view angle characteristics, etc. are requested and it has been an issue of how to effectively utilize the light of the light sources.
Therefore, a light diffusion plate dispersed with a light diffusion material is widely used to a base material resin and a light diffusion plate is provided to the front surface side of a light source having a reflective plate placed to the backside. An example of the direct style display device using a light diffusion plate is already explained with reference to FIG. 15. In order to achieve favorable diffusibility and light utilization efficiency, to the base material resin such as methacrylate type resin, polycarbonate type resin, styrene type resin and vinyl chloride type resin, there are various light diffusion materials such as inorganic particulates and bridged organic particulates under consideration (for example see Patent Document 2). However, the method to use the light diffusion material is not preferable from the aspect of energy saving due to absorption of light into the light diffusion material and diffusion of light in unnecessary direction. Moreover, although a lamp image can be reduced by placing many light sources closely, there is a problem of power consumption increase.
Therefore, the method of improving front luminance using the luminance improvement films is used as in the edge light type. These films collect outgoing light toward the front direction and increase the front luminance usually requested as a lighting device so as to increase the light utilization efficiency. The front luminance can be further improved by combining a plurality of luminance improvement films and light in each direction of the X direction and the Y direction for example can be collected by placing them with different angles. However as with the edge light type, it is not necessarily advantageous in terms of productivity and thinner shape as it leads to an increase in cost and the number of films to use.
On the other hand, there is a method suggested to give a unique reflective plate shape for eliminating a lamp image (for example see Patent Document 3). However, it is not preferable because it requires to align the shape of the reflective plate with light sources and it may prevent from reducing the thickness due to the shape of the reflective plate.
Furthermore, there are methods suggested such as the method to provide a reflective member opposite to light sources (for example see Patent Document 4) and the method to provide a light beam direction conversion device like a Fresnel lens, for example, to every light source (see for example Patent Document 5). However there is a problem generated such as deterioration in productivity as an accurate alignment between the member and the light sources is required.
Moreover, a light diffusion plate with concave-convex surface is suggested (for example see Patent Document 6). Since these light diffusion plates can achieve desired diffusibility while avoiding to use or reduce light diffusion material, the light utilization efficiency can be improved. However, as there is no detailed investigation for concave-convex shape, precise adjustment of luminance non-uniformity is difficult. Likewise, it is difficult to obtain uniformity of front luminance within the emission surface.
Furthermore, there is a method suggested to give an unique shape to a reflective plate which is parallel to linear light sources so as to eliminate a lamp image (see for example Patent Document 7). However, in this case, an accurate alignment between the shape of the reflective plate and the linear light source is required. This not only causes to reduce production efficiency due to the alignment but requires to change the shape of the reflective plate if the light source arrangement differs due to a design change and a difference in specification. Moreover, the method to increase productivity by cutting out a desired shape from a large-sized shaping sheet is also not preferable as it leads to limit cutting position and a decrease in yield.
Further, a prism sheet with a small loss in the amount of light is suggested (see for example Patent Document 8). A large number of convex portions whose cross-sections are triangular or ridge shapes and continuously extending in one direction are formed to the both sides of the sheet. However, since these prism sheets aim to reduce the loss in the amount of light by turning diffused light to the front, a lamp image generated in the direct type cannot be eliminated.
In a large-sized lighting device, the request for thinner shape is not severe as compared to cellular phones and mobile personal computers etc., thus it is possible deal with it by shortening the distance between light sources and a light diffusion plate and reducing the number of optical films or the like. Moreover, it is necessary to increase the light utilization efficiency in order to realize energy saving. Although in the direct type, it is easy to increase the number of linear light sources as described above to achieve high luminance, reduction in the light utilization efficiency by using a large amount of light diffusion material for eliminating a lamp image must be suppressed in terms of energy saving.
The light diffusion plate in related arts is a simple light diffusion style in which light diffusion material particulates are kneaded in a transparent base material resin by extrusion method or injection molding process, and for the optical performance, luminance non-uniformity (transmitted afterimage of the light source) is practical usage level but there is a problem that it is difficult to control view angle. Moreover, it is necessary to consider the formation condition in order to prevent dispersion failure of the light diffusion material particulates, thus it has been difficult to increase productivity consequently.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2-17
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 54-155244
[Patent Document 3] Japanese Patent No. 2852424
[Patent Document 4] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-338895
[Patent Document 5] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-352611
[Patent Document 6] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-123307
[Patent Document 7] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 1-169482
[Patent Document 8] Japanese Patent No. 3455884

Lighting device and light control member used therefor and image display device using the lighting device and the light control member


Hollow molded articles prepared from a molding composition comprising:. (A) from 95 to 60 percent by weight, based on the weight of (A) and (B), of an ethylene polymer having a density of 0.955 g/cm.sup.3 or higher, a melt index from 0.3 to 10 g/10 min, a melt index ratio I.sub.21 /I.sub.2 of from 40 to 80, and a polydispersity of from 1.8 to 10, the ethylene polymer being selected from the group consisting of i) high density ethylene homopolymers and ii) high density ethylene copolymers prepared by slurry or gas phase polymerization in the presence of a Ziegler or Phillips catalyst or prepared by polymerization in the presence of a transition metal compound catalyst containing a cyclopentadienyl or cyclopentadienyl derivative moiety; and. (B) from 5 to 40 percent by weight, based on the weight of (A) and (B), of a homogeneous linear or substantially linear ethylene interpolymer having a density from 0.85 to 0.93 g/cm.sup.3, a melt index from 0.5 to 5 g/10 min, and a polydispersity of from 1.8 to 2.5 , the ethylene interpolymer being an interpolymer of at least ethylene and an .alpha.-olefin;. wherein the composition has a density from 0.94 to 0.962 g/cm.sup.3 ;. and a process of manufacturing hollow molded articles by molding such composition are claimed.

It is known to mold polyethylene and polyethylene compositions into variously shaped articles, such as films and bottles, using molding techniques, such as injection molding, blow-molding, and extrusion molding. In packaging industries, there is a desire to use bottles and other containers having a glossy appearance. Apart from a glossy appearance, such a container should also have certain mechanical and chemical properties. For use in a blow-molding technique, often a high density polyethylene is used in view of the desired rigidity of the container. These high density polyethylenes (HDPE), however, have poor gloss properties. Therefore, typically an HDPE is coextruded with a free radical polymerized low density polyethylene (LDPE) as an outer layer to provide a container having both rigidity and good gloss properties. Such coextruded containers, apart from requiring more complicated equipment and production processes, have a poor scratch resistance due to the low density of the outer LDPE layer. Further, the use of specific processing aids with gloss improving characteristics have been proposed, such as processing aids of the fluorocarbon elastomer or organosilicone type. These specific processing aids are, however, relatively expensive and frequently require lengthy pre-conditioning of the processing equipment.
Japanese Published Patent Application 64-87226 (Mar. 31, 1989) describes a method for manufacturing hollow molded articles using a die of which part (including the tip) or all of the inner surface is made from a fluorine resin molding and a composition consisting of 30 to 90 weight percent of high density polyethylene of a density of at least 0.946 g/cm.sup.3 and a melt index of 0.01 to 3.0 g/10 min, and 70 to 10 weight percent of a straight chain low or medium density polyethylene having a density of 0.910 to 0.940 g/cm.sup.3, a melt index of 0.1 to 10.0 g/10 min, and a polydispersity (M.sub.w /M.sub.n) of 6.0 or less. According to the examples and comparative examples of this reference, a blend is used of 70 weight percent high density component of density 0.955 g/cm.sup.3 and melt index 0.3 g/10 min and 30 weight percent of linear low density polyethylene having a density of 0.925 g/cm.sup.3, a melt index of 0.7 g/10 min, and a polydispersity of 5.0. A good surface gloss was only obtained with such a blend when the die was coated with fluorine containing resin.
Japanese Published Patent Application 03-115341 (May 16, 1991) describes a container having an outer surface consisting of 25 to 75 weight percent of LLDPE with a melt index of 1.0 to 3.0 g/10 min and a density of up to 0.935 g/cm.sup.3, with 75 to 25 weight percent of an HDPE with a melt index of 0.1 to 1.5 g/10 min and a density of at least 0.942 g/cm.sup.3. In an example, a composition of 25 weight percent LLDPE having a melt index of 2.1 g/10 min and a density of 0.935 g/cm.sup.3, and 75 weight percent of an HDPE of melt index 0.4 g/10 min and a density of 0.958 g/cm.sup.3 is extrusion blow-molded to obtain a bottle having improved gloss and increased coefficients of static and dynamic friction compared to bottles produced from HDPE alone.
Japanese Published Patent Application 05-310241 (Nov. 22, 1993) describes polyethylene resin hollow molded containers wherein a polyethylene composition with a melt index of 1.0 to 10 g/10 min consisting of 95 to 20 weight percent of an ethylene homopolymer or ethylene/.alpha.-olefin interpolymer with a melt index of 0.1 to 3.0 g/10 min, a density of 0.940 or more, and a polydispersity of 5 to 20, and 5 to 80 weight percent of ethylene/.alpha.-olefin interpolymer with a melt index of 3.0 to 50 g/10 min and a density of 0.935 or less, is used for at least the outer surface layer for the molded container. The preferred compositions have a melt index of 2.0 to 6.0 g/10 min and contain 80 to 30 weight percent of high density component having a melt index of 0.1 to 2.0 g/10 min, a density of 0.945 to 0.970, and a polydispersity of 5.5 to 15, and 20 to 70 weight percent of low density component having a melt index of 3.0 to 30 g/10 min and a density of 0.900 to 0.930. The examples and comparative examples show that a low density component having a melt index less than 3.0 gives a poor gloss value.
The present invention relates to compositions that can be molded into articles having an improved gloss and impact strength while maintaining adequate rigidity levels, when compared to state-of-the-art HDPE molding compositions. The present invention further relates to compositions that can be molded into articles with essentially the same equipment as used for molding state-of-the-art HDPE compositions, without requiring specific coatings on the die and without requiring the use of more expensive processing aids of the fluorocarbon elastomer or organosilicone type.

Hollow molded articles and process for manufacturing them


A sound monitoring system includes a resonator platform comprised of musician support plate, a base plate, and at least one transducer. The musician support plate acts as a surface upon which the user may stand or sit. In response to high-frequency filtered and amplified electrical signals from a sound source, the transducer of the resonator platform imparts vibrational energy to the musician support plate, which in turn acts as a diaphragm to impart low frequency sounds to the musician by touch without generating appreciable audible energy. The base and musician support plates may have various geometric shapes and sizes, and are composed of materials suitable for transmitting vibrational energy.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for monitoring low frequency sounds, and more specifically to a sound monitoring system for musicians that translates electrical signals corresponding to low-frequency sounds into mechanical energy, allowing the musician to sense the intensity and duration of those sounds by touch.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Much of modern music is performed utilizing electronic amplification, whether out of necessity given the electronic nature of the musical instruments themselves, or in response to the high sound volumes demanded by today's listeners. Unfortunately, under circumstances of high amplification, the volume of performance sound can interfere with and overwhelm the ability of the musicians to monitor their performances.
For example, most live band performances include a drummer. The drummer is traditionally positioned behind the other players, thereby allowing the drummer to hear a blend, or "mix" of the total performance sound in order to maintain consistency. However, under high sound volume conditions, the drummer usually requires a stage monitoring speaker independent from speakers designed to project sound to the audience, to provide a controlled sound reference for himself and for the other performers. The stage monitor speakers generally need to be large in order to reproduce the desired "mix" at very high sound pressure levels. Most often, the bass drum and bass guitar are the loudest components of this "mix", and the stage monitor speakers must reproduce the full sound of the instruments in order to assist the drummer to work along with the other members of the band.
The relatively high amplification required by the stage monitoring speaker creates two serious problems. First, longer sound waves generated by the low frequency component of the stage monitoring speakers permeate, or "bleed", into microphones that are transmitting the performance sound to the listeners. Unwanted mixing of monitoring sound and performance sounds can occur at different times, due to the varying distances between the microphones and the stage monitor speakers.
As a result of the unwanted transmission of low frequency sound waves from the stage monitor speakers into the microphones, the phase coherence of any given sound wave is unpredictably distorted. This distortion occurs because of the additive effect of combining slightly different phases of sound caused by the various distances between the microphones and the stage monitor. This interaction between monitoring and performance sound can compromise both the overall performance mix and the monitor mix.
Bleeding of low frequency sound waves from the stage monitor into the microphones also reduces control over the performance sound mix. The sheer sound pressure level from the stage monitor, in particular the lowest frequency sound waves which produce most of the energy, degrade the quality of sound produced by the individual instruments. For example, as an overhead microphone is brought up in volume to reproduce the cymbals, it will also capture sound of the entire mix of instruments generated by the stage monitor. When this interaction occurs, the individual sound quality of the respective instruments is lost, and the quality of the overall mix declines.
A second problem associated with conventional sound monitoring relates to the range of sound frequencies associated with the various instruments. For example, the low sound frequencies of the bass drum and bass guitar referenced by the drummer are in the frequency range of thirty-to-eighty cycles. At thirty cycles, the corresponding sound wave is almost forty feet long. As the drummer is typically about three feet from the stage monitor, the forty foot wave cannot properly develop to allow the drummer to hear it well.
Unfortunately, many musicians increase the volume of the stage monitor in order to compensate for this disparity between sound wavelength and distance from the stage monitor. Resulting elevated sound volume causes excessive consumption of power and abuse to the speakers, and often prompts the surrounding band members to play louder. The compounded increase in sound volume can damage the drummer's hearing. Hearing loss is today a common and serious problem among musicians.
While problems associated with conventional stage monitoring is described above with reference to the drums, these same problems also affect other instruments. For example, the bass guitar and keyboard often produce low frequency notes during a performance. Again, because performers want to "feel", as well as hear the sounds generated, bass players and keyboard players may seek to amplify their instruments beyond levels optimum for the performance "mix".
There have been a number of attempts to overcome problems associated with unwanted contamination of performance sound by monitoring sound. For example, many musicians now utilize in-ear monitors. While effective, in-ear monitoring systems are quite expensive. Other than the high cost, the biggest drawback associated with in-ear monitors is an ability to accurately reproduce adequate low frequencies due to the limitations in the size of earpiece diaphragms. Thus, performers who utilize in-ear monitors often find that they miss the "feel" of the core rhythm elements--the bass and kick.
Finally, it is important to note that problems associated with the mixture of performance and monitoring sound are not necessarily limited to the concert hall. In the recording studio, many musicians maintain their headphones at sufficiently high volume that enough sound escapes to be detected by open studio microphones. Again, this unwanted mixing of monitoring and performance sound can seriously degrade the quality of the music produced.
Accordingly, it is desirable to utilize a stage monitoring system that permits performers to detect and monitor low frequency sounds without having to resort to large stage monitor speakers.

Low frequency sound monitoring system for musicians


A curved wavelet transform and a related image/video compression system are disclosed. The curved wavelet transform (CWT) is carried out by applying one-dimensional (1-D) wavelet filters along curves, rather than along only horizontal and vertical directions. The image/video compression system includes a curve determination unit, a curved wavelet transform unit, a wavelet coefficient quantization unit, a wavelet coefficient coding unit, and a curve coding unit. The quantization and coding of the wavelet coefficients are related to the curves. In one embodiment, recursive wavelet filters are used for inverse wavelet decomposition. The system provides higher compression capability than conventional wavelet-based image compression systems.

Without compression, the transmission of images and video requires an unacceptable bandwidth in many applications. As a result, methods of compressing images and video have been the subject of numerous research publications. Image and video compression schemes convert an image consisting of an array of pixels into a sequence of bits. Compression involves transforming the image to a form that can be represented in fewer bits without losing the essential features of the original image. The transformed image is then transmitted over a communication link and the inverse transformation is applied at the receiver to recover the image or a reasonable facsimile thereof.
Wavelet transform has become a powerful tool for signal processing and image compression. A number of image and video compression systems based on wavelet transform and zero-tree coding schemes have been developed.
In existing image and video compression systems and standards, including the image coding standard JPEG2000 described for example in D. S. Taubman and M. W. Marcellin, "JPEG2000: Image Compression Fundamentals, Standards and Practice", Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, 2002, page 423 to 430, two-dimensional (2-D) wavelet transform of an image is always carried out by one-dimensional (1-D) wavelet filtering along horizontal and vertical directions, if the filters are separable. This conventional wavelet transform, shown in FIG. 1, was described by J. W. Woods et al., in an article "Subband coding of images," IEEE Trans. Acoustics, Speech, Signal Processing, Vol. ASSP-34, No. 5, pp. 1278-1288, 1986, and by S. G. Mallat in an article "A theory for multiresolution signal decomposition: The wavelet representation," IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Machine Intell., Vol. 11, pp. 674-693, July 1989, which are incorporated herein by reference.
FIG. 1 schematically shows main steps of this prior-art multi-resolution wavelet transform method at a single resolution level, the steps forming a pyramid or a tree-like structure. First, an input image 100 is transformed in horizontal direction by applying a low-pass wavelet filter in step 101 and a high-pass wavelet filter in a parallel step 102 along rows of the image, producing two images filtered in horizontal directions. Next, in steps 111 and 112 the two horizontally filtered images are sub-sampled by discarding, respectively, odd and even columns therefrom, resulting in low-pass (L) and high-pass (H) wavelet coefficients images. In a next set of parallel steps 122-125, the low-pass and high-pass filters are applied in the vertical direction along the columns of each of the L and H wavelet coefficients images producing four filtered images. These four filtered images are down sampled in steps 132-135 in vertical direction by discarding e.g. odd rows in vertically high-pass filtered images, and even rows in vertically low-pass filtered images, producing finally four sub-band images respectively composed of LL, LH, HL and HH coefficients. The process repeats for the LL sub-band image as an input image with wavelet filters at a next resolution level. The method is thus recursive and produces a hierarchical sequence of down-sampled low-pass and high-pass filtered images at successively decreasing resolution levels.
A number of methods have been proposed to code the wavelet coefficients resulting from the multi-level wavelet transform. The most important methods include an embedded zero-tree structure (EZW) method disclosed by Shapiro in U.S. Pat. No. 5,315,670, and a set partitioning in hierarchical trees (SPIHT) disclosed by Pearlman et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,764,807. These zero-tree structures employ a parent-child relationship between a coefficient at one level of the wavelet transform and four coefficients within a 2×2 square at the next lower level.
Prior-art wavelet filters used in the wavelet transform are typically finite impulse response (FIR) filters that are implemented with a non-recursive convolution structure, or with a lifting structure. FIG. 2 shows a prior-art convolution structure of a symmetric FIR filter with a length of 5. When a FIR filter is applied to a row, a column of an image, or along a motion trajectory within a video sequence, the sequence of pixels, i.e. image samples, along the row, the column, or the motion trajectory has to be extended in order to result in an output sequence of the same length. FIG. 3 illustrates a popularly used prior-art method of symmetric extension, which is often considered to be the best approach in the literature to date. If the extension is done by repeating the first and last samples of the sequence, the sequence cannot be perfectly reconstructed from the resulting wavelet coefficients using conventional convolutional FIR filters, as shown for example in an article by H. J. Bamard et al., "Efficient signal extension for subband/wavelet decomposition of arbitrary length signals," SPIE Vol. 2096, Visual Communications and Image Processing, 1993, pp. 966-975.
These prior art methods of wavelet transform and systems of image and video compression have the following shortcomings. When an image is filtered in horizontal and vertical directions, the filter often crosses edges in the image, i.e. elongated geometrical structures in the image across which an image value drastically changes. A sequence of pixels across an edge usually contains a broad frequency spectrum, from low to high frequencies. The wavelet transform decomposes the energy of the pixel sequence to a large number of frequency bands, also referred to as scales. This means that many wavelet coefficients at many resolution levels are required to properly reconstruct the edge. Therefore, the conventional wavelet transform, which is not adapted to an image, does not provide a compact representation of edges. As a result, the prior art wavelet-based image and video compression systems produce "ringing" artifacts around edges, especially at low bit rates.
The main limitation of wavelet filtering schemes currently used for signal representation is that they do not take advantage of the geometrical regularity of many signal structures. Indeed, these wavelet filters are composed of vectors having a support which is not adapted to the elongation of the signal structures such as regular edges. Curvelet bases have recently been introduced in E. Candes and D. Donoho, "Curvelets: A surprisingly effective nonadaptive representation of objects with edges," tech. rep., Stanford Univ., 1999, the contents of which are incorporated in reference herein, to take partial advantage of the geometrical regularity of the signal, by using elongated support zones along different directions. Yet, this strategy has not been able to improve results currently obtained with a wavelet basis on natural images, because it does not incorporate explicitly the geometrical information.
To incorporate this geometrical regularity, edge oriented representations have been developed in image processing. An edge detector computes an edge map with discretized differential operators and computes some coefficients in order to reconstruct an approximation of the image grey level between edges. In S. Carlsson, "Sketch based coding of gray level images," Signal Processing, Vol. 15, pp. 57-83, July 1988, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein, an edge detector computes an edge map with discretized derivative operators. For compression applications, chain algorithms are used to represent the chains of edge points with as few bits as possible. The left and right pixel values along the edges are kept and an image is reconstructed from these left and right values with a diffusion process. If all edges were step edges with no noise, this representation would be appropriate but it is rarely the case, and as a result the reconstructed image is not sufficiently close to the original image. An error image is computed and coded with a Laplacian pyramid, but this requires too many bits to be competitive with a procedure such as JPEG-2000.
A different strategy is used by several other methods, which encode coefficients that represent the image variations in regions between edges as opposed to the image variations across edges. In I. Masaki, U. Desai, A. Chandrakasan, and B. Horn, "Method and apparatus for compressing and decompressing a video image" U.S. Pat. No. 5,790,269, instead of keeping the image grey levels at the left and right of an edge point, the parameters of a linear regression are kept to approximate the image grey levels along horizontal and vertical lines between two edge points. A similar strategy is used in T. Echigo, J. Maeda, J.-K. Hong, and M. Ioka, "System for and method of processing digital images," U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,046, where each region is coded using a polygonal surface approximation. In the two above referenced methods, the coefficients are more global and thus less sensitive to noise but edges are still represented by a discontinuity between two regions.
In A. Mertins, "Image compression via edge-based wavelet transform," Opt. Eng., Vol.38, No. 6, pp. 991-1000, 1999, the grey level image values are decomposed in a one-dimensional discrete wavelet basis along horizontal or vertical lines between two edge points. In L. Bouchard and R. Askenatis, "Region-based texture coding and decoding method and corresponding system." U.S. Pat. No. 5,898,798, the image is segmented into regions, which are coded independently using a quincunx wavelet transform. In the two above referenced wavelet methods, the whole image information is represented but these procedures do not use the geometrical image regularity to decorrelate the coefficients produced by the image variations on each side of the edges.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,836,569 issued to Le Pennec and Mallat, discloses a processing method and system for n-dimensional signals such as images, wherein foveal filtering and bandelet transforms are used to transform an image taking into account geometrical features therein such as edges. First, foveal processing of the image data is performed to compute foveal coefficients along a set of curved trajectories in the image by using foveal filters with a support across trajectories and along coordinates in the image. A second transform is then performed using bandelet filters, or two-dimensional anisotropic wavelets that are warped along a geometric flow in the image. This method takes advantage of image content such as regular elongated geometrical structures therein, or edges, but required rather complicated processing using two-dimensional bandelet filters with additional foveal pre-processing.
Further, the prior-art wavelet transform methods of image processing using non-recursive FIR filters require a large memory. Memory size may be critical for temporal wavelet transform and for certain applications such as digital cameras, see e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 6,343,155. The symmetric extension, although it is often considered heretofore in the literature to be the best extension method, introduces additional distortion into decoded images. As described by C. Christopoulos, A. Skodras, and T. Ebrahimi, in an article "The JPEG2000 still image coding system: An overview," IEEE Trans. Consumer Electronics, Vol. 46, No. 4, pp. 1103-1127, November 2000, when an image is divided into tiles and each tile is compressed independently using JPEG2000, this additional distortion can be observed as block artifacts around the boundary of every tile in the decoded image.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a sufficiently simple method of image transformation based on curved wavelet transform that is adaptive to edges and other regular elongated geometrical structures in the image and yields a compact and accurate representation thereof.
It is another object of the invention to provide an image and video data compression system based on multi-level curved wavelet transform that provides a high compression capability.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of recursive wavelet filtering and an image compression system employing thereof that requires a small memory and that is easy to implement in hardware.

Curved wavelet transform for image and video compression

Her Majesty the Queen in right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Industry, Through the Communications Research Centre Canada


A topography sensor and method include a probe configured to traverse a surface to determine a topography. A stray magnetic field is disposed in proximity to the probe. A magneto-resistive sensor is configured so that the stray magnetic field passing through it changes in accordance with positional changes of the probe as the probe tip traverses the surface.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to topography mapping of surface forces, and more particularly to a system, device and method for mapping a surface using magneto-resistance.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, the optical detection technique is used for topography sensing at the nanometer scale, because of its high bandwidth and sub-nanometer resolution capability. However, such setups are expensive and bulky. The optical detection concept is not suitable for batch fabrication of large arrays of integrated sensors, which are required for parallel operation to provide high throughput in nano-scale probing systems, with applications in lithography, storage, and nano-fabrication.
Other sensing concepts, e.g., thermo-electric and piezo-resistive, provide a solution to this problem, as they can be fabricated in integrated form. However, all such known concepts suffer from either low bandwidth (thermo-electric) or low resolution (piezo-resistive) or both of the problems. Therefore, a new solution is needed that combines the advantages of optical sensing with the miniaturization and integration capability of the latter techniques.

Magneto-resistance based topography sensing

International Business Machines Corporation


A semiconductor wafer contains a plurality of semiconductor die separated by a saw street. An insulating layer is formed over the semiconductor wafer. A protective layer is formed over the insulating layer including an edge of the semiconductor die along the saw street. The protective layer covers an entire surface of the semiconductor wafer. Alternatively, an opening is formed in the protective layer over the saw street. The insulating layer has a non-planar surface and the protective layer has a planar surface. The semiconductor wafer is singulated through the protective layer and saw street to separate the semiconductor die while protecting the edge of the semiconductor die. Leading with the protective layer, the semiconductor die is mounted to a carrier. An encapsulant is deposited over the semiconductor die and carrier. The carrier and protective layer are removed. A build-up interconnect structure is formed over the semiconductor die and encapsulant.

Semiconductor devices are commonly found in modern electronic products. Semiconductor devices vary in the number and density of electrical components. Discrete semiconductor devices generally contain one type of electrical component, e.g., light emitting diode (LED), small signal transistor, resistor, capacitor, inductor, and power metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET). Integrated semiconductor devices typically contain hundreds to millions of electrical components. Examples of integrated semiconductor devices include microcontrollers, microprocessors, charged-coupled devices (CCDs), solar cells, and digital micro-mirror devices (DMDs).
Semiconductor devices perform a wide range of functions such as signal processing, high-speed calculations, transmitting and receiving electromagnetic signals, controlling electronic devices, transforming sunlight to electricity, and creating visual projections for television displays. Semiconductor devices are found in the fields of entertainment, communications, power conversion, networks, computers, and consumer products. Semiconductor devices are also found in military applications, aviation, automotive, industrial controllers, and office equipment.
Semiconductor devices exploit the electrical properties of semiconductor materials. The atomic structure of semiconductor material allows its electrical conductivity to be manipulated by the application of an electric field or base current or through the process of doping. Doping introduces impurities into the semiconductor material to manipulate and control the conductivity of the semiconductor device.
A semiconductor device contains active and passive electrical structures. Active structures, including bipolar and field effect transistors, control the flow of electrical current. By varying levels of doping and application of an electric field or base current, the transistor either promotes or restricts the flow of electrical current. Passive structures, including resistors, capacitors, and inductors, create a relationship between voltage and current necessary to perform a variety of electrical functions. The passive and active structures are electrically connected to form circuits, which enable the semiconductor device to perform high-speed calculations and other useful functions.
Semiconductor devices are generally manufactured using two complex manufacturing processes, i.e., front-end manufacturing, and back-end manufacturing, each involving potentially hundreds of steps. Front-end manufacturing involves the formation of a plurality of die on the surface of a semiconductor wafer. Each die is typically identical and contains circuits formed by electrically connecting active and passive components. Back-end manufacturing involves singulating individual die from the finished wafer and packaging the die to provide structural support and environmental isolation.
One goal of semiconductor manufacturing is to produce smaller semiconductor devices. Smaller devices typically consume less power, have higher performance, and can be produced more efficiently. In addition, smaller semiconductor devices have a smaller footprint, which is desirable for smaller end products. A smaller die size can be achieved by improvements in the front-end process resulting in die with smaller, higher density active and passive components. Back-end processes may result in semiconductor device packages with a smaller footprint by improvements in electrical interconnection and packaging materials.
A semiconductor wafer contains a plurality of semiconductor die or components separated by a saw street. The semiconductor wafer is singulated through the saw street into individual semiconductor die using a saw blade or laser cutting tool. Once singulated, the semiconductor die can be mounted to a temporary carrier in order to form a build-up interconnect structure for a fan-out wafer level chip scale package (Fo-WLCSP). The semiconductor die are subject to chipping and cracking along the die edge or other damage during the singulation process, more specifically by the impact of the spinning saw blade. Metal burring can occur along the saw street during singulation, which can cause electrical shorting when forming the build-up interconnect structure. In situations where the semiconductor die has an uneven or high topology, the adhesion between the die and carrier can be weak leading to defects during the interconnect build-up process.

Semiconductor device and method of forming sacrificial protective layer to protect semiconductor die edge during singulation


Ultraviolet curable polymerizable systems having a built-in secondary curing mechanism are disclosed. The polymerizable coating system is a one component system comprising at least one alkoxysilyl-urethaneacrylate or methacrylate, an acrylate or methacrylate or vinyl ether diluent. The coating systems may include a polymerization initiator of the cationic or free radical photoinitiator type, and a metal catalyst. The coating system is UV curable, and also possesses an additional cure mechanism.

Conformal coatings provide a protective covering over automobile, aerospace and military electronic printed circuit boards. These coatings protect sensitive electronic components from corrosion of solder joints, fluids, hydraulic fluids, dirt, dust, moisture, mildew, physical abrasion or damage from handling and short circuits. Coated boards therefore can be protected from environmental, mechanical and electrical interferences.
The conformal coatings of the prior art have utilized chemistries such as acrylic, polyurethane, silicone, polyimide, epoxies, and parylene. These formulations, however, have suffered from several disadvantages. For example, conformal coatings formed from polyurethanes, acrylics, epoxy and silicone are two part systems which must be mixed prior to application and require continuous monitoring and solvent additions to control viscosity. These formulations usually also require long drying/curing times and release large amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOC) during curing.
Conformal coating systems based on acrylics are excellent from a production standpoint or brushing. However, acrylic coatings typically are formed by solvent evaporation which generates large amounts of VOC. Conventional acrylic coatings also are soluble in chlorinated solvents such as tricholorethane or methylene chloride.
Conformal coatings based on polyurethanes are available as either single or two-component systems. Polyurethane coatings offer excellent humidity and chemical resistance and good dielectric properties. Single-component urethanes are relatively easy to apply and exhibit relatively long working pot life. However, single-component polyurethanes typically require a curing time of three to ten days at room temperature to reach optimum physical characteristics. Two-component polyurethanes typically achieve optimum cure at elevated temperatures within one to three hours, but exhibit relatively short working pot life.
Surface preparation of substrates prior to application of polyurethane based coatings is also important, since even minute quantities of moisture on a substrate board could produce blistering under humid conditions. Blisters, in turn, may lead to electrical failures and mandate costly rework. Polyurethane coatings are insoluble in most common solvents, which is a drawback to rework. Thus, replacement of a component on a polyurethane coated board requires a corrosive stripper to remove effectively all traces of the polyurethane film. However, extreme caution must be exercised when such a stripper is used, because the stripper also may corrode metallic surfaces on the board.
Epoxy resin systems also have been employed for conformal coating of printed circuit boards. Epoxy resins are available as two component systems only. Epoxy resin coatings provide good humidity resistance and high abrasive and chemical resistance. However, epoxy resins are virtually impossible to remove chemically for rework because any stripper that will attack the coating also will attack the epoxy-glass of the printed circuit board as well. Thus, the only effective way to repair an epoxy resin coated board is to burn through the epoxy coating with a hot knife or soldering iron. However, burning introduces a cosmetic defect which is unacceptable to many consumers. Moreover, epoxy resins shrink somewhat during cure. Accordingly, a buffer material must be placed around fragile electronic components to prevent fracturing from shrinkage. Curing of epoxy systems can be accomplished in one to three hours at elevated temperature, or four to seven days at room temperature. Epoxy resins exhibit a relatively short working pot life which is an additional disadvantage.
Silicone resins have been employed for conformal coatings. Silicone resin coatings provide high humidity and corrosion resistance along with high temperature resistance which makes silicone resins preferred for coating printed circuit assemblies that contain high heat-dissipating components such as power resistors. However, silicone resins are relatively thick and therefore difficult to apply. Moreover, silicone resins require a relatively long cure time, and repairability is difficult. The only effective way to repair a silicone resin coated circuit board is to mechanically remove the coating.
The prior art has employed polyimides for conformal coating circuit boards. Polyimide coatings provide high-temperature, moisture and chemical resistance over extended periods of time. However, polyimide coatings require high temperature cure (one to three hours at 200.degree. to 250.degree. C. which could damage heat sensitive electronic components. Also, since polyimides are high-temperature, moisture and chemical resistant, the only effective way to repair a polyimide coated board is to mechanically remove the coating.
Several of these disadvantages have been addressed by use of ultraviolet (UV) curable conformal coatings. The UV curable coatings of the art are one part systems which usually are devoid of solvents to thereby reduce or eliminate the (VOC) emission. These systems are cured rapidly by UV to provide tack-free coatings via free-radical or cationic polymerization. This enables immediate handling of the coated articles for further processing, storage or shipping. Moreover, use of UV curable coatings reduces overall processing time and energy costs as compared to thermally cured coatings.
The UV cured systems of the art have been useful for coating flat surfaces. However, printed circuit boards which bear electronic components tend to be oddly configured. These odd configurations cause shadow areas which cannot be reached by uv radiation. The coated portions in these shadow areas therefore remain wet and cannot be handled immediately. Secondary cure mechanisms such as heat have been employed to polymerize these shadowed areas. The drawback of heat induced secondary curing, however, is that temperatures of up to 100.degree. C. are required to cure the shadowed areas. These temperatures can adversely affect sensitive electronic components.
A need therefore exists for conformal coatings which overcomes the above drawbacks. We therefore have developed a novel, dual-curing conformal coating composition that is a solvent-free low viscosity liquid that rapidly cures into a tack-free polymer when exposed to UV light. Those portions of the coatings which are not cured by UV can be cured in less than 24 hours by a moisture cure component provided in the coating formulation.


An imaging device includes: an image acquisition unit configured to receive light fluxes passing through different regions in a single imaging optical system and acquire two images; a ghost detection unit configured to detect a ghost from the two acquired images; a first determination unit configured to determine whether the ghost is detected from any of the two acquired images; and a control unit configured to perform at least one of an automatic focus control, an automatic exposure control and an automatic white balance control based on an image for which it is not determined that the ghost is caused out of the two images in a case where the first determination unit determines that the ghost is detected from any of the two images.

1. Field of the Invention
The presently disclosed subject matter relates to an imaging device and an imaging method. Specifically, the presently disclosed subject matter relates to an imaging device and an imaging method that form object images which pass through different regions of a single imaging optical system on imaging elements and acquire an image for the left eye and an image for the right eye.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a case where a bright optical source such as the sun is included in an object, when the light of the optical source is reflected in an imaging optical system or on the surface of an imaging element and an image of the reflected light is formed on the imaging element, a ghost image may be caused in a taken image.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-228181 discloses a configuration in which imaging is performed twice by mutually different F values by changing the opening size of a diaphragm in an imaging optical system and ghost detection is performed from the difference between two images.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-054206 discloses a configuration in which imaging is performed in a focus position and a defocus position by moving a focus lens and ghost detection is performed from the difference between the focus image and the defocus image.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-091865 discloses a configuration in which an apparatus that acquires an image with an enlarged depth of field by performing image processing on a taken image has a mechanism to rotate a wavefront conversion element in a surface orthogonal to the optical axis of an optical system and ghost elimination is performed by performing addition/subtraction computation processing on two images acquired at the time of rotating the wavefront conversion element at rotation angles of 0 degrees and 180 degrees.


A system, method, and business model by which literary works are posted for review on publicly accessible networks such as the internet where reader input is used to identify the works likely to succeed in the marketplace, Authors/writers submit works for electronic review. Reader demographics (where possible) and reader evaluations of works are recorded and used to rank submitted works. Top ranked works receive additional reviews until a “market significant” level is reached. All authors are provided feedback and ranking statistics on their works. Top ranked authors are allowed to market their works using the branding of the business or publicly accessible network (e.g., internet site branding). Publishers, agents, and other media representatives are provided access to top ranked authors/writers, their works, work-specific statistics and overall market statistics. This invention may be characterized as a reader-based, electronic, editorial marketplace for literary works, providing services across the publishing industry and other media industries.

For centuries, publishers have struggled to identify authors/writers and literary works which were of high enough quality or desirability to be accepted widely in the marketplace. The profitability of traditional publishers is largely due to established books with consistent yearly demand, "the backlist" (e.g., the bible).
Publishers and agents do attempt to publish works that are not already widely read. This category of books is known as the "frontlist." A great deal of manual effort and expense goes into identifying, editing, and marketing these frontlist works and the success of individual works is highly variable. This success rate is so variable that publishers often lose money on marketing and manufacturing of frontlist books that do not sell at the forecasted levels. A very low percentage of works submitted by unknown authors to publishers and agents are actually deemed worthy of publication and the process for identifying these works is entirely manual and of further unrecoverable cost to publishers and agents. In fact, the work is often rejected by the publishers and agents based only on a letter describing the work which may not be appropriately representative of the work.
An established practice for unknown authors is to submit the same work to multiple publishers and agents in spite of rejections. Repeated rejections are a further inefficiency as authors/writers must spend years and significant effort resubmitting the same work to several publishers and agents who must at least spend expend enough effort to reject the work. In addition, rejections do not often provide constructive criticism to aid authors/writers in improving their works, continuing the likelihood of wasted effort in further attempts to resubmit for publication.
To minimize losses, publishers regularly market and print frontlist books by established authors with widely recognized names as they are more likely to be purchased by readers (e.g., Stephen King). This understandable preference makes it even more difficult for unknown author/writers to achieve publication.
In addition, authors and works who are later successful are often ones which were rejected repeatedly by publishers and agents. As a result of these inefficiencies, several alternative industries have been created. These industries include vanity publishing and self-publishing houses who receive payment from authors to publish the authors work. More recent alternatives include (1) on-demand publishers who store an electronic copy of the work and print upon demand; (2) electronic publishing on public networks where the edited or unedited works are posted for electronic purchase at discounted prices; and (3) organizations which contract with publishing houses to electronically publish unsolicited submissions which have not been reviewed by the publishers.
Marketing is another area of uncertainty, inefficiency and risk for publishers and authors who chose alternative publishing. As the success of an individual work is forecast based on opinion, so is the marketing effort and capital. Incorrect opinions have resulted in wasted capital and effort and are evidenced by the creation of discounted book warehouses where unsuccessful, overproduced books are sold at a loss in the attempt to recover some fraction of the cost of production and marketing.
Publishers often ask focus groups of readers to provide manual feedback on the likelihood of success of a particular work after it has been selected as a candidate for publication. This method of soliciting and accepting feedback varies between publishers and is limited in efficiency because it is largely manual process and used only for selected works prior to publication, and limited in the number of readers who provide feedback on a particular work.
In attempts to market books, authors and publishers have posted sections of books on internet sites allowing readers the option of reading portions of the work prior to purchasing either electronic or paper formats. In one case, a publisher recently posted sections of a widely accepted author's unpublished book on the internet and successfully invited criticism by readers in order to improve the book and to act as a marketing tool prior to publication. These postings were for published or widely accepted authors, however, and did not address the inefficiencies associated with the current, manual, inefficient, slow, expensive, and error prone processes for unknown author publication.
It can, therefore, be appreciated that there are many problems associated with the process of identifying and marketing authors/writers and works which are likely to be widely accepted in the marketplace. It can be further appreciated that these processes are disliked by all parties involved including authors/writers, agents and publishers.
Other drawbacks and problems also exist with current systems.

System and method for decision of publishing literary work based on reviewer's satisfaction demographic factors


A vehicle control apparatus comprises: a computer operable to execute a control program, a first memory storing the control program, and a second memory storing the produced data. The control program includes: a platform program for inputting data from a hardware device and storing inputted data as first data in a first section of the second memory, an application program for processing for a vehicle control in accordance with an AP interface, and a coupling processing program. The coupling processing program performs mediation in the processing using the application program by converting the first data provided from the processing using the platform program to second data in accordance with the PF interface so that the second data is adapted to the AP interface. The application program executes vehicle control by using the second data. The platform program performs an operation at different predetermined intervals than the coupling program.

A control apparatus for a vehicle for controlling the operation of each portion of the vehicle such as an automobile, etc. uses a computer such as a microcomputer, etc. In such a control apparatus for a vehicle, various kinds of controls are realized by executing a control program stored in a memory device such as a ROM, etc. by the computer.
The control program for a vehicle is generally constructed by dividing this control program into a platform program (PF) as a program depending on hardware, and an application program (AP) as a program depending on the control for the vehicle.
The platform program is for making the computer execute processing for inputting data from a hardware device and providing data based on these inputted data with respect to processing using the application program through an interface (PF interface) such as API (Application Program Interface), and outputting data acquired through this PF interface from the processing using the application program to the hardware device.
On the other hand, the application program is for making the computer execute processing using data inputted through this PF interface, and processing for generating data outputted through the PF interface. For example, the application program makes the computer execute processing for generating the data outputted through the PF interface on the basis of the data inputted through the PF interface.
Thus, the platform program includes a program for getting access to the hardware device. In contrast to this, the application program does not include a program for directly getting access to the hardware device. In the application program, input and output operations with respect to the hardware device are performed in the processing using the platform program through the PF interface. Thus, a developer of the application program can make the application program without being conscious of the detailed construction and the control method of hardware.
Further, for example, as disclosed in JP-A-07-040794, a control unit for an automobile has interface software for connecting an operating system and application software. An arithmetic calculation of signals required in the application software is made by the interface software. Thus, even when the hardware is changed, the "application software" can be permanently used only by rewriting the interface software.
However, in a maker of the control apparatus for a vehicle, there are many cases in which the development of plural control apparatus for vehicles having different required specifications is requested from a vehicle maker as a customer. It is necessary to newly make the application program in accordance with each of the required specifications. Accordingly, a technique for reducing development cost by diverting the platform program as much as possible and constructing the control program for a vehicle is adopted instead of the technique of diverting the "application program software" and making the control program for a vehicle.
To divert the platform program, for example, a common item is extracted between the different required specifications, and the platform program is constructed so as to provide the PF interface standardized by this common item. For example, the PF interface specification as the specification of the PF interface is standardized so as to provide data to the processing using the application program in a data format, data provision timing, etc. conformed to the most strict required specification among the respective required specifications.
For example, in an engine control apparatus, when processing based on a voltage value from a water temperature sensor for detecting the temperature of cooling water of the engine is performed, the required specification is V/256 as resolution of this voltage value in the engine control apparatus A of a certain vehicle kind. In contrast to this, the required specification is set to v/128 as resolution in the engine control apparatus B of another vehicle kind. In such a case, the PF interface specification for providing the PF interface for the processing using the application program is planned and determined by resolution V/256 conformed to the engine control apparatus A of fine resolution so as to satisfy the required specifications of the engine control apparatus of both the vehicle kinds in the processing using the platform program. The platform program is constructed so as to provide the PF interface along this PF interface specification. Thus, the same platform program can be diverted in the engine control apparatus having the different required specifications.
However, when the application program of the engine control apparatus B is made, the resolution of the required specification is V/128. In contrast to this, the resolution provided by the PF interface using the platform program is V/256. Therefore, it is necessary for a developer of the application program to build into the application program a resolution conversion processing program for compensating for the gap between the resolution of the PF interface specification using the platform program and the resolution of the required specification of the control apparatus for a vehicle of a developing object.
As such a required specification, there are various elements such as the kind of data, the type of data, fetch timing of data, etc. in addition to the resolution. When the application program utilizing the standardized platform program in the control apparatus for vehicles having the different required specifications is made, it is necessary for the developer of the application program to consider a method for realizing the required specification by always thinking of the PF interface specification provided by the platform program. Therefore, the burden of the developer of the application program is large.

Control apparatus and program for vehicles, and method for developing the program


A semiconductor device is formed without using a leadframe. A semiconductor device is formed in one area of a semiconductor chip and a second area includes conductors to which lead wires are bonded. The lead wires are used for mounting the semiconductor device.

Semiconductor devices and integrated circuit devices in particularly usually have a semiconductor chip mounted on a lead frame. After attaching the semiconductor chip to the lead frame the device is encapsulated. A large portion of the lead frame is then removed leaving individual leadframe leads attached to the contact areas of the chip.
Various techniques have been used in attaching leads to a semiconductor device. In one process, a small bond pad is utilized to attach the semiconductor chip to a larger lead frame which subsequently get trimmed leving only the leads. Tape Automated Bonding (TAB) uses a carrier ring to permit mass bonding of devices, and then each the device is excised from the carrier ring and the leads trimmed and formed. In the Flip chip process, the semiconductor device or chip is bonded to another substrate using bump contacts grown or plated on the device and then reflowed to attach the device to the other substrate.
Lead frames add to the expense of packaging in that most of the lead frame is removed and the devices require encapsulating to keep the leads in place. In the TAB process there is the expense of growing bump contacts on the surface of the device and the cost of the tape to bond to the bumps. Most of the tape is cut away and is not used.

Leads for semiconductor chip assembly and method


A water-tight structure of a single sliding door capable of ensuring sufficient watertightness without increasing the measurement of a rise provided on a sill so as to apply an entrance. The single sliding door is composed to provide a movable door on a window frame to be able to move in the opening direction of the door and a stationary door and attachments. A pressure-equalized clearance area is formed between the sill of the window frame of the single sliding door and the stationary door and the attachments provided on the sill, and further an air-tight member is provided to divide the pressure-equalized clearance area and an inside clearance area of the single sliding door. By forming the pressure-equalized clearance area between the inside clearance area and the outside clearance area of the single sliding door in the sill portion, a difference in the pressure between the sill portion and the outside is not produced, so that rain water is exhausted by its dead load, with the result that the watertightness can be certain although a rise is formed to a smaller measurement.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a water-tight structure of a single sliding door and, more particularly, to the water-tight structure capable of effectively preventing rain water from entering the bottom end of the single sliding door.
2. Description of the Related Art
A single sliding door is composed of a door frame, a movable door provided to move in the horizontal direction of the door frame, a stationary door fixed in the door frame, and attachments provided next to the stationary door on a lintel and a sill of the frame to cover the frame.
In the single sliding door, a rise is provided for the sill in order that rain water does not enter the inside of the room.
As a matter of fact, if rain water overflows the level of the sill by increasing the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the room by adding wind pressure and so on with rain water thus forming in the sill, an overflow state causing leaking water from rain water or the like in the sill will result.
Therefore, in order to improve watertightness of the sill portion, the rise of the sill portion may be increased so that rain water does not reach an overflow state following the increase of the pressure difference. Conventionally, the required watertightness has been responded to by adjusting the measurement of the rise of the sill.
However, increasing the rise of the sill, a gap between the inside and outside of the single sliding door is increased when the single sliding door is especially used as an entrance, consequently, producing a disadvantage whereby it is difficult to enter.
On the other hand, by decreasing the rise of the sill, watertightness becomes insufficient, consequently, producing a disadvantage in which leaking water results, especially, in strong winds and rainy days, such as a typhoon.
It is an object of the present invention to provide the water-tight structure of the single sliding door capable of being certain that there is sufficient watertightness without increasing the measurement of the rise of the sill and further applied for the entrance.


Fabrication of TFTs utilizing self-aligned techniques. Although gate electrodes are made of aluminum, source/drain regions can be activated by a heat treatment. Spacers are formed, using dummy gate electrodes. Gate electrodes are defined, using the spacers. Impurity ions are implanted before the gate electrodes are formed. Thus, the source/drain regions, channel formation regions, and offset regions are formed in a self-alignment manner, using the dummy gate electrodes and the spacers as masks. Since the heat treatment is made before the formation of the gate electrodes, the gate electrodes can be formed from aluminum having a low melting point.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thin-film transistor (TFT) structure used in solid-state image sensors and liquid crystal displays and also to a method of fabricating such TFTs. Furthermore, the invention relates to MOS transistors used in an LSI and to a method of fabricating such MOS transistors.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, commercial products whose performance has been improved by packing TFTs into large-sized devices have been put into the market. Also, commercial products which have been miniaturized by simplification of peripheral circuits have appeared on the market. Especially, small-sized personal computers which have started to be widespread since around 1990 and are known as notebook computers and laptop computers have large-sized liquid crystal displays. Of these large-sized liquid crystal displays, active matrix liquid crystal displays in which a TFT is disposed at each pixel have very excellent display performance. There is an urgent demand for reductions in costs of these active matrix liquid crystal displays.
Today, almost all manufactured TFTs used in these large-sized liquid crystal displays use amorphous silicon. However, amorphous TFTs exhibit lower performance compared with other transistors. For example, with respect to electron mobility, the electron mobility of an amorphous TFT is 10.sup.-4 to 10.sup.-3 times as high as the electron mobility of a single-crystal silicon transistor. Therefore, an IC forming a peripheral driver circuit for driving TFTs disposed at pixels is required to be disposed outside, the IC being made from single-crystal silicon.
Furthermore, in order to obtain a sufficiently high operating speed by supplying a sufficiently large current into TFTs disposed at pixels, it is necessary to set the channel width to a large value. This reduces the pixel aperture ratio which is one of factors capable of enhancing the display quality. In this way, these two parameters conflict with each other. Moreover, with respect to reliability, amorphous silicon film and amorphous silicon nitride film are electrically unstable intrinsically. Consequently, their long-term performance is not ensured.
A method of fabricating TFTs from polysilicon is expected to act as means for solving all of these disadvantages. In this method, ON currents which are higher than the ON currents of amorphous silicon TFTs by two or three orders of magnitude are obtained. Additionally, instability as encountered in amorphous silicon TFTs does not take place but rather excellent reliability is obtained. Moreover, both N-type and N-type transistors can be fabricated. Consequently, CMOS circuits can be built. It is easy to satisfy the present demand for lower electric power consumption.
Where TFTs are formed from this polysilicon, the peripheral driver circuit for driving TFTs disposed at pixels of an active matrix liquid crystal display can be made up of TFTs similar to the TFTs disposed at the pixels, because TFTs using a polysilicon thin film can have electrical characteristics and mobilities sufficient to construct the peripheral driver circuit.
Although the polysilicon TFTs have excellent properties in this way, their OFF current is high. Also, when a gate voltage is applied to the reverse bias side (in the case of an N-type TFT, the voltage is applied to the negative side; in the case of a P-type TFT, the voltage is applied to the positive side), the current is increased. In this manner, there remain numerous drawbacks to be solved. The OFF current referred to herein is the electrical current flowing between the source and drain at the point at which the TFT is driven into cutoff. For example, in the case of the N-channel type, this point is normally set to 0 V or more.
It is known that these problems (i.e., high OFF currents and increased current on the reverse bias side) can be circumvented by forming an offset structure or LDD (lightly doped drain) structure on the side of the drain electrode.
The offset structure is described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 360580/1992 (hereinafter referred to as Reference 1). The LDD structure is described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 38755/1991 (hereinafter referred to as Reference 2), in "Submicron Device II", Electronic Material Series, 3rd print, published by Maruzen Publishing Company, Japan, Sep. 5, 1993, p. 187 (hereinafter referred to as Reference 3), and in "Ultrahigh-Speed MOS Devices", Ultrahigh-Speed Digital Device Series, Published by Baifukan Publishing Company, Japan, 1st print, Feb. 10, 1986, p. 151 (hereinafter referred to as Reference 4).
In these offset structure and LDD structure, the concentration of electric field between the drain region and the channel formation region is mitigated to lower the OFF current. Also, increase of current on the reverse side is suppressed.
Known methods of forming the LDD structure are described in References 3 and 4. In particular, after patterning gate electrodes, a silicon oxide film is formed by a film formation method which provides good step coverage. An etch-back step is performed by a highly anisotropic method. Side walls or spacers are formed beside the side surfaces of the gate electrodes. These side walls will act as a mask during doping.
In these methods, those portions which are located under the side walls or spacers are lightly doped with impurity ions to change these regions into field mitigation regions. In these methods, materials capable of withstanding high temperatures such as n.sup.+ polysilicon (n-type silicon having crystallites) and silicides are used to form gate electrodes, for the following reason. After completion of implantation of impurity ions for forming source/drain regions, a heat treatment is conducted above 500.degree. C. to anneal out damage to the active layer induced during the impurity ion implantation (generally, regions implanted with ions are made amorphous) and to activate the implanted impurity ions.
However, the polysilicon has a large internal stress and so where gate electrodes are formed from the polysilicon, the stress inside the gate electrodes is transmitted to the gate-insulating film and also to the channel formation region. Consequently, the electrical characteristics of the TFTs are affected. This causes the individual TFTs to have characteristics different from each other and induces instability, thus producing undesirable results.
On the other hand, gate electrodes are preferably made from a material having a low resistivity. Ever finer gate electrodes have been developed. Where miniaturization and larger scales of integration are taken into, consideration, it is required to use a material having the lowest sheet resistivity achievable. Gold, silver, copper, aluminum, and other materials are available as low-resistivity materials. However, gold and silver are expensive. Copper has the disadvantage that it diffuses during a heating step. Therefore, these metals are inappropriate. On the other hand, aluminum is cheap and has a small internal stress. Therefore, aluminum is a quite desirable material for forming gate electrodes.

Semiconductor device and a method of manufacturing the same

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


A feeder system comprising a hopper for holding dry chemical. A feed tube extends from the hopper and is for delivering dry chemical to a mixing tank. A first solenoid actuator is provided for controlling the opening and closing of a first solenoid actuated gate that is disposed in the feed tube. A second solenoid actuator is provided for controlling the opening and closing of a downstream second solenoid actuated gate disposed in the feed tube. A central controller is provided that is in communication with and controls the system components including the introduction of the dry chemical and process water into the mixing tank. The central controller controls a metering pump that pumps chemical mixed solution out of the mixing tank.

Feeder systems may be employed to ensure smooth flow of solid particles into a process environment. Feeder systems may be used in bulk solids handling, for example in the paper and pulp industries. Another use of feeder systems is to dispense desired amounts of dry chemicals. The terminology "dry chemical" may be used to refer to a chemical that is stored and handled in a solid state and in any shape. The dry chemical can have the shape of a sphere or cylinder, or may be in a powder form. In addition, some chemicals are unstable when in a liquid state and therefore need to be stored and handled in solid state. Hopper systems may lack consistency in delivering the precise quantity of dry chemical into a "wet" system, because clogging may occur in the hopper spout where the dry chemical meets the wet system.
Thus, it would be desirable if there was an economical hopper system to convert dry chemicals in a solid state into a liquid solution, while maintaining precision and consistency.

Dry chemical feeder for a chemical mixing system


Disclosed herein is an energy absorber having excellent impact resistance and excellent impact energy absorbability. The energy absorber includes an olefin-based resin composition obtained by mixing an olefin resin, a polyamide resin, and an elastomer having a reactive group that reacts with the polyamide resin, wherein the olefin-based resin composition has a continuous phase containing the olefin resin and a polyamide resin-based dispersed phase dispersed in the continuous phase, and the polyamide resin-based dispersed phase has a structure in which the elastomer is contained in a matrix phase containing the polyamide resin.

In order to absorb collision energy at the time of collision, vehicles such as automobiles are conventionally provided with members called EA (Energy Absorption) materials. For example, EA materials provided in door trims of automobiles are known which are intended to absorb collision energy at the time of broadside collision. More specifically, hollow EA materials produced by blow molding or EA materials having ribs and produced by injection molding are disclosed (see Patent Literature 1 and Patent Literature 2).


Generally disclosed is a method of a device comprising forming a polysilicon stack including a first and a second polysilicon layer with an intervening etch stop layer, wherein the first polysilicon layer height is at least one third a height of the polysilicon stack height, removing the second polysilicon layer and the etch stop layer, and reacting the first polysilicon layer with a metal to fully silicide the first polysilicon layer. Fully silicided (FUSI) gates can hence be formed with uniform gate height. The thin first polysilicon layer allows for siliciding with a lower thermal budge and with better uniformity of the silicide concentration throughout the layer.

As integrated circuit device geometries continue to shrink deep into the sub-micron realm, new technologies must be employed to maintain desirable device performance. Gate engineering for MOSFET devices is an area of intense interest and research. One such area is in the employment of fully silicided gate electrodes, or so-called FUSI gate electrodes.
While FUSI gate electrodes allow for greater flexibility in, e.g., tuning work function performance, they introduce manufacturing and design difficulties that must be overcome. What is needed, therefore, is an improved FUSI structure and method of making same that overcomes shortcomings in the prior art.

Method of making FUSI gate and resulting structure

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


A broadband signal junction with sum signal absorption for transmitted signals includes a common hollow conductor with a first predefined cross-section and four laterally-disposed side arm hollow conductors with a predefined cross-section. The cross-sections of the side arm hollow conductors can also be selected to be different. Two first opposing side arm hollow conductors of the four side arm hollow conductors extend along a first axis. Two second opposing side arm hollow conductors of the four side arm hollow conductors extend along a second axis. The first and the second axes are disposed orthogonal to one another and lie in the common plane. The broadband signal junction with sum signal absorption is characterized in that the two first side arm hollow conductors end with a hollow conductor absorber.

Exemplary embodiments of the invention relate to a broadband signal junction with sum signal absorption (BSmS) for transmitting signals over a predefined bandwidth corresponding to the maximum bandwidth of a conventional T junction.
Such a broadband signal junction with sum signal absorption (BSmS) comprises a common hollow conductor with a first predefined cross-section and four side arm hollow conductors with a predefined second cross-section. Two first opposing side arm hollow conductors extend along a first axis. Two second opposing side arm hollow conductors extend along a second axis, wherein the first and second axes are disposed orthogonal to one another. The common plane runs orthogonal to a main axis of the common hollow conductor.
An orthomode coupler (orthomode transducer, OMT) is a passive component in microwave technology. It is used to split or combine orthogonally polarized electromagnetic waves. Current communications systems at this time consist of a satellite receiver and satellite transmitter with antennae for satellite supported communications. In such systems, the orthomode coupler assumes the function of a diplexer or circulator when received signals and transmitted signals are orthogonally polarized, and routes both signals together through an antenna.
Minor asymmetrical discontinuities can occur here due to manufacturing imprecision. This results in phase differences in the different electromagnetic waves, and ultimately leads to undesirable interference signals when the individual waves are combined. When the signals are combined, the relative phase shift in the individual propagation paths of the electromagnetic waves deviates slightly from a target value of 180°. If two signals are now subtracted from one another a substantial fraction of the sum remains, the amplitude of which depends on the deviation of the phase from the target value.
Such sum signals arise when conventional T junctions are used as a signal junction, as shown in FIG. 4, due to manufacturing tolerances. Because of the high quality of the orthomode coupler inside an antenna feed network, the sum signals resonate and cannot be absorbed for lack of a sum signal hollow conductor (port). This gives rise to undesired resonance peaks in the scatter parameters.
An advantage to the conventional T junction, as is shown in FIG. 4, is that it covers the maximum hollow conductor bandwidth of transmittable frequencies. If a signal is fed in at the so-called delta port of the symmetrical T junction, identified with 1, it splits to the two collinear side arms 2, 3 into −3 dB each of the output with a phase shift of ideally 180°, wherein the phase shift as described above can unfavorably deviate from 180° depending on manufacturing tolerances.
To dampen the resonance peaks, it is common to use a so-called magic T junction as a signal junction for coupling a signal instead of the conventional T junction. The sum signals that arise due to a relative phase shift are absorbed into the material of the hollow conductor absorber in this orthomode coupler.
In high-frequency technology, a hybrid or 3 dB coupler is called a magic T junction or hybrid tee. This component is used in microwave components in practice. It is a fixed power alternative to a rat race coupler used in microstrip line technology. The magic tee is a combination of an E-plane and an H-plane T junction. To guarantee correct functionality, a so-called matching structure is provided inside the magic T junction. The magic T junction only operates within a specific frequency range and the transmission behavior varies very significantly with the geometry of the matching structure.
The name magic T junction is derived from the electrical power flow inside the junction. An example of a magic T junction is shown in FIG. 5. A signal fed in at sum gate 8 splits to collinear side arms 6, 7 with identical amplitudes and phase positions.
In contrast, a signal fed in at difference gate 5 of the magic T junction splits to side arms 6, 7 with the same amplitude but a phase shift of 180°. The electrical field of the dominant field wave type in each gate is perpendicular to the broad side of the hollow conductor. This causes the signals 5S, 8S in the E-plane gate (difference gate 5) and in the H-plane gate (sum gate 8) to be polarized orthogonal to one another. As described, this variant is limited to about 40% of the bandwidth of conventional T junctions, which is a disadvantage.
Therefore, exemplary embodiments of the present invention are directed to a waveguide signal junction that suppresses undesirable resonance peaks in the scatter parameters at large bandwidths, in particular at a bandwidth corresponding to the bandwidth of a conventional T junction.
In accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention a waveguide signal junction for transmitting signals comprises a common hollow conductor with a first predefined cross-section and four side arm hollow conductors with a predefined cross-section. The cross-sections of the side arm hollow conductors can also vary. Two first opposing side arm hollow conductors of the four side arm hollow conductors extend along a first axis. Two second opposing side arm hollow conductors extend along a second axis. The first and second axes are disposed orthogonal to one another. In the broadband signal junction with sum signal absorption (BSmS) the two first side arm hollow conductors end at a hollow conductor absorber.
The broadband signal junction with sum signal absorption (BSmS) allows for the design of orthomode couplers that make it possible to increase the bandwidth and to significantly dampen the resonance peaks in the scatter parameters arising due to manufacturing tolerances. In particular, the broadband signal junction with sum signal absorption (BSmS) according to the invention is capable of being operated at a bandwidth corresponding to the bandwidth of a conventional T junction as is shown in FIG. 4, for example. The energy of the sum signals is decoupled to the side arm hollow conductors ending with the hollow conductor absorber and absorbed in the hollow conductor absorbers.
The first predefined cross-section of the common hollow conductor can be rectangular. The first predefined cross-section of the common hollow conductor can be square. The first predefined cross-section of the common hollow conductor can be elliptical. The first predefined cross-section of the common hollow conductor can be round. The first predefined cross-section of the common hollow conductor can basically have any arbitrary cross-section.
The second predefined cross-section of the four side arm hollow conductors can be rectangular. The second predefined cross-section of the four side arm hollow conductors can be square. The second predefined cross-section of the four side arm hollow conductors can be elliptical. The second predefined cross-section of the four side arm hollow conductors can be round. The second predefined cross-section of the four side arm hollow conductors can basically have any arbitrary cross-section.
According to another embodiment, the two second side arm hollow conductors can be disposed and/or designed in collinear fashion.
In another embodiment, the four side arm hollow conductors can be disposed or designed as displaced out of the common plane so that sets of two side arm hollow conductors are disposed in a common plane, respectively, for example, wherein the two planes are different planes. These two planes can be disposed parallel to one another or not parallel.
Furthermore, a matching structure can be provided inside the broadband signal junction with sum signal absorption (BSmS), in particular inside the common hollow conductor, the geometry of the structure being matched to a desired transmission behavior. For example, the matching structure is designed analogous to a magic T junction.
In another embodiment, the broadband signal junction with sum signal absorption (BSmS) according to the invention distributes or couples signals over an overall bandwidth with a phase shift of 180°.

Broadband signal junction with sum signal absorption